HISTORY OF MONTAGUE Q ^^ (*, at Ex] W Q t t a h a v a j GILL E R V I N G G VI ,, HISTORY of MONTAGUE A TYPICAL PURITAN TOWN [Illustrated] By Edward Pearson Pressey INTRODUCTORY By Robert P. Clapp. i Including SHORT HAND NOTES of CONVERSATIONS with the OLDEST INHABITANTS, AD. 1895 By Mr. Clapp eacon Newton, Eliphalet Allis, Samuel Bardwell, Daniel iallard, and Simeon King to give out future warrants. They voted to hire preaching; and directed Deacon New- ton to get a man; to raise two hundred pounds old tenor; and chose Josiah Alvord, Eliphalet Allis and Samuel 106 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE Smead to assess the same; Enoch Bard well and Ephraim Marsh to collect it. Two things are to be noticed here. The first is that this meeting was dated in "the 25th year of his Majesty's reign." In other words, this was part of a royal province and the business was the king's business. The second is that this meeting, while having all the essential form of a New England town meeting, and was the original form of a town meeting, was a purely ecclesiastical affair con- ducted on the basis of lay freeholders constituting the church. The Congregational church, the established church of the Province, was the one local body through which the king kept law and order and built up and pre- served the state. November 22, 175%, the Rev. Judah Nash was ordained and settled and the town church organized at the house of Joseph Root, which was then the tavern, on Thayer's hill to the south, overlooking the present village. No other precinct meetings are recorded. It looks as though the strenuous times that followed were either without formal business meetings or that the records were loosely kept and were so lost. There is an imperfect record of a meeting December 1, 1755. It was then voted to build a bridge from Ensign King's to Moses Taylor's over the Sawmill river at the Great Swamp, east of the meetinghouse. The meetinghouse had been begun in 1753, but it was far from done. It was now in 1755 voted to have six windows on the back side, two on the back side of the pulpit; to plane the boards that cover the back side of the meetinghouse; to allow each man to build his own pew; and to have a shell " bio wed " on the Sabbath day as a signal. It was also decided to have four months of winter BOOK VI. WINNING DEMOCRACY 107 school; and Samuel Harvey, David Ballard, and Ebenezer Marsh were directed to hire a teacher and to provide a place for the school. Here we see our little republic exercising more fully the regular public duties of freeholders, as they legally were, with slight changes up to 1830: caring for the public prop- erty and the king's highways and providing for elementary education. These, in addition to hiring preaching (which was their first duty), were the public charge of church members, or freeholders; and the expense was rated upon the whole community. The first regular March meeting was held in 1756, the eighth day. A full record is extant and of all meetings of the town from that day to this. Joseph Root, the first parish clerk, was now made clerk and treasurer of the dis- trict. The board of selectmen and assessors had five members, now usually fixed at three. At first there was no fixed number. There might be as many as seven or nine. Note also that this first board of "selectmen" and assessors are the same men as those who constituted the purely ecclesiastical officials of 1751. They were Joseph Root, Samuel Bard well, Ensign Simeon King, Josiah Alvord, and Samuel Smead. There was a full line of town officers chosen, including hogreeves, deerreeves, seal- ers of weights and measures, measurers of wood bark and lumber, pound keepers, fence viewers, constables, tything- men, turnkey, highway surveyors, school committee. There was no provision for the poor. There were no poor to provide for. A special town meeting was called December 13, 1756, at which church and school and bridges again got equal attention. Two bridges over Sawmill river needed repair. The winter school was looking for a place and a teacher. 108 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE Samuel Harvey, Deacon Root and Rueben Scott were directed to see to that. The Rev. Judah Nash was voted seventy loads of wood "at the lawful money per load." The next town meeting was held March 7, 1757, in the new "meeting house" or "town house," as it was called — never, church. But the meeting was adjourned to the house of Ensign King. It was voted to build a schoolhouse 16x18 feet "of hewed or sawed logs" and "to set the said house south of the road near Ensign King's barn and near the Mile Swamp." Benjamin Barrett, Reuben Scott, and Samuel Harvey were chosen building committee. The house they built was soon afterward burned; and another built or bought of John Scott; and that burned in 1762. Then "The Little Brown School House" was built where the brick church now stands. And this remained until it was old and outgrown. I will describe it in detail in another book. In 1757 a bridge was built "near the meeting house." The meetinghouse stood north of the common and the bridge was over the river where the road used to dip under the hill back of George Stratton's house. October 3d, it was voted to finish the body of the meetinghouse all with pews except two or three short seats in the body near against the end doors. Lieutenant Clapp, Deacon Keet, and Ebenezer Sprague were a committee "to determine the manner, place, and bigness of said pews and seats and to plan out the same." The "manner" of the whole architecture will appear in the book on Religion. November 15, 1757, it was voted: "that we seat the meeting house and that we will choose nine suitable and meet persons to do the same, who are to consist of three sets of men and that each set of seaters are to seat the meeting house by themselves in the first place; and after BOOK VI. WINNING DEMOCRACY 109 they have done that, the whole of said nine men are to meet and to perfect such a plan as they can best agree on." The sets of seaters chosen were these: Ebenezer Sprague, Joseph Root, and Rueben Scott; Clark Alvord, Samuel Smead, and Jonathan Currier; Ebenezer Marsh, Zebediah Allis, and Nathan Smith — the freeholders' best men. The seating of the meetinghouse was almost an annual cere- mony. By this record we are reminded again that it was in "the 27th year of his Majesty's reign." The seating of the meetinghouse was a relic of aristocratic and feudal society, soon to be sloughed off in the democratizing proc- ess. Be it remembered that valuing a man by his prop- erty has been the great heresy of civilization. Chal- lenged and combatted by rising democracy, the heresy changes from form to form, like Proteus, the old man of the sea. The Puritan aristocrats of the eighteenth century insisted upon deference to their titles, and their distinctions of wealth. Nothing better shows that modern democracy is no theory, but a life that even its projectors had no consistent theory about. But they accepted its divine principles and rose blindly with its star whithersoever it should lead them. Certain titles stood first and took the front seats. The Minister's family was first or equal to the Colonel's. Then came the Captain, and next the Deacon, the Lieutenant and the Ensign, followed by the different ranks of wealth. The titles themselves were bestowed' upon the most well-to-do. A man's tax rate determined his seat in the meetinghouse from year to year. Propertyless persons, non-church members and boys over ten were assigned the galleries, which were " not seated," that is, not graded. There were men among the Puritans, as the old records show, as jealous of their neigh- bors' seats as the ancient Pharisees, who "loved the chief 110 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE seats in the synagogues." Which goes to show that mod- ern democracy is a growth and that we may find that it is not yet full blown. Yet the root of it was in them, a sense of personal and public responsibility for everything from "tongs and a great shovel" for the school to the "burning question" of the Rev. Judah Nash's seventy loads of wood at fifteen shillings a load; and from keeping oneself with- out reproach to solving the greatest theological questions. The legislation, in short, of early town meetings, has two interesting things about it in addition to its democracy : its care for small particulars and its prescription of a way of thinking. We have been gradually finding out that there is more democracy in letting a committee or repre- sentative tend to details than in making everybody's busi- ness nobody's business; and more religion in a multitude of live opinions about God and the Scriptures than there is in one dead creed. How quaint it seems to-day to read for instance the Montague "shell" votes, from 1751 to 1802, often both at the March and December town meet- ings, "voted to blow the shell;" "voted to pay Lieutenant Clapp for blowing the shell; " " voted to blow the shell until December;" and in December, "voted to blow the shell the rest of the year; " and then after twenty or thirty years of this, it comes up like a brand new subject, " voted that a cunk shell be blowed." "Mar. 5, 1759: voted that Joseph Root be allowed twenty shillings for blowing the shell on Sabbath day;" "voted that we buy the shell of Lieutenant Clapp for one pound ten shillings." "Mar. 7, 1763: voted that Deacon Gunn be hired to blow the shell as a signal for going to meeting until De- cember." "December 5: voted that Asahel Gunn be paid two BOOK VI. WINNING DEMOCRACY 111 shillings to turn the key;" "that Moses Taylor be paid twelve shillings to sweep the meeting house;" "that Jona- than Gunn be hired to blow the shell." "December 21; 1778: voted that the shell be blown." "December 6, 1779: voted to pay Samuel Church for blowing the shell." Not even the Revolutionary war could compel them to leave it to a committee. I pick the votes at random. "May 6, 1785: voted that the cunk shell be bloed." "1787: voted to hire sum man to blow the shell." " 1790: voted that we blow the shell." "1792: voted to hier the shell bload." "1801: voted to build a belfrey to the meeting house." This vote caused a transference of the semiannual legis- lation from the shell to the bell, for the next thirty years. And over the bell the debates were long and ardent, as to how much bell ringing there should be in a day, in a week, on Sunday, about curfew, about midday, about the bell ringer's salary, about excusing the Baptists from the bell tax. There were many other small matters that required all the machinery of town legislation running at high pres- sure. "Mar. 6, 1765: voted to provide wands for the wardens and staves for the tything men." "Dec. 3, 1770: voted that no child under 10 go up galery, and that tyth- ing men bring down such boys out of galery as are dis- orderly and set them before the deacon seat." "1794: voted that the meeting house be painted the same as Sunderland." "Dec. 6, 1802: voted that the bell be rung ten minutes at a time on week days." " 1819: vote that gentlemen may sit with their hats on, except when they address the moderator." But this fussy side of the crude democracy was disappearing in 1820 when it was voted 112 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE to choose a committee of three from the Baptists and three from the Rev. Aaron Gates' society to settle the dispute between them about repairing the belfry. But there was a serious element of tyranny in the ec- clesiastical town democracy. "May 31, 1758: Raised by the hand of Doctor Thomas Williams Esq., of Deerfield, one of his Majesty's justices of the peace for the County of Hampshire, one pound lawful money, the same being a fine as by law laid on Stephen Corbin for his neglect of attending the public worship on the Lord's day, which money is by the selectmen of this district to be disposed of to the poor of the same. (Signed) " Joseph Root." Yet let no one say the Puritans made "blue laws." This is blue enough; but it is nothing compared with the thing they fled from, the rank Episcopalianism of tyrants like Laud in England. One thing is clear, that there was a growing spirit amongst the people here. As fast as their eyes opened to the light a majority swung towards it. It became harder to collect church fines. In 1763, Judah Wright had been fined for neglect of worship and compelled to give a note in payment of the fine. He fought his case and, on December 6, had his note returned to him. He proved, "a sore leg." And afterwards avenged himself by turning Baptist minister. There was, however, no organized resistance to the ec- clesiastical tyranny of the town until about 1768, when the district of Montague, which was of course the Congrega- tional church, brought suit against a group of Anabaptists for neglecting worship and other delinquencies. These people had organized a church of their own the year before. BOOK VI. WINNING DEMOCRACY 113 But it was looked upon by the authorities as a criminal as- sociation. Moses Severance and Captain Root were on the prosecuting committee. The Baptists lost their case; but September 13, 1769, appealed to the Superior Court. The court conceded the Baptists certain independent rights upon their procuring certificates individually as to the sincerity of their religious professions. The town had to call off the constables. But the majority of the voters were not yet satisfied. A committee was immediately chosen to join with Sun- derland in a petition to the General Court for permission to further prosecute the Anabaptists. And what was an Anabaptist? The word means one re-baptized. We call it Baptist for short. The early Bap- tists no doubt had very annoying manners; and were as intolerant in their attacks, as the established order was against them. This is nothing peculiar. New ideas, in getting attention, usually involve the bringer in trouble. The Baptists spared no coarse ridicule of the custom of infant baptism, well-written sermons, and even all orderly thinking. They were supposed to foster ignorance and even immorality. But of course all denominational argu- ment like this is merely an expression of dislike to pay at- tention to something different from our old habits. In Vir- ginia the established church (Episcopal) fined them 2000 pounds for neglecting to have their children baptized "by a lawful minister." But they were made equal as a sect there in 1785. In Massachusetts the fight was kept up longer, for a reason that did not exist in Virginia. The Congregation- alists were themselves heretics in the eyes of the govern- ment. Virginia was regular in her religion. Massachu- setts had sacrificed much to establish her church. To 114 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE admit another heresy would seem to leave their very con- stitution at the mercy of all their old enemies in England. Consequently many looked upon the Anabaptists as fatu- ous rebels. Bewilderment turned into bitterness against them. It does not appear that Baptists were one bit treacherous to the common good during the Revolution. Of course the fears, like all the well-known fears that anarchy will result if the people call their souls their own, were grounded in fancy, in the tyranny that lurks in us all. Sentiments softened towards the Baptists. December 7, 1807, the Baptists were regretfully excused from paying for singing and expense of ordination of the new minister, Aaron Gates. But the Baptists, with a cer- tain amount of controversial meanness, turned about and dubbed the established church, "The Rev. Aaron Gates' Society." They seldom failed after this to obstruct all town business that related to the meetinghouse and the church, originally the first and chief business. By 1820 there was a strong third party to the trouble, the suffering public, who, weary of contention, took the attitude of "let them fight it out between them." Even the ancient right of the Congregational minister to pray before the town meeting was in dispute and had to be put annually to vote. The Congregationalists of course usually won and a committee was sent out to bring in the Rev. Aaron Gates. " March 1820: voted that Rev. Aaron Gates be invited to come and open the meeting with prayer." At another time it was voted that Rev. Aaron Gates be sent for "to come and pray with the meeting." But in 1822 it was "voted that the annual meeting in the future be opened with prayer." As the sectarian point of the Congregational minister's right was given up, this seems to have settled that matter. BOOK VI. WINNING DEMOCRACY 115 Now there were more serious divisions. As early as 1815 there was a strong reaction towards the mother church of England, in which the son and namesake of the long time sainted pastor, Judah Nash, took a leading part. Amongst the prominent names of families uniting to form Trinity Church were Wrisley, Taft, Kinsley, Taylor, Esta- brook, Shepard, Rowe, Marsh, and Williams. In 1825 a still more serious rupture occurred. A strong body of citizens, including Colonel Benjamin Stout Wells, three Root families, Medad Montague and Samuel Bard- well, withdrew from the first church and later organized the 2d Congregational Society (Unitarian). And then fol- lowed a contest, unique almost for its determined spirit on both sides. It was now no longer a conservative old church persecuting the errant heretic. It was a battle of equals. It was a prime rift through the very heart of the community. Victory wavered between the two main camps for some years. At the first outset Mr. Gates' official and financial standing, which had stood the Anabaptist guerrilla war- fare, now slipped from under him. He became the minis- ter of a waning sect. And it was " voted to allow the Rev. Aaron Gates his salary, less the tax of persons who have left the society." At the March meeting, in 1826, there was a drawn battle on the question of possession of the meetinghouse. It was "voted to let each religious society occupy the meeting house their equal portion of time, ac- cording to their proportion in assessment of the state tax ; " and then the vote was rescinded. Nobody was satisfied. The "Unitarians" wanted a place in the meetinghouse. The "Orthodox" wanted it alone. The established church had in substance disap- peared. A large circle of outsiders egged on the Uni- 116 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE tarians. They had full meetings. There were many who had smarted under church fines and petty cuffings from tythingmen, worried by religious lawsuits and the baying of constables, set upon them by the church, and they were pleased, with wicked glee, to see power taken completely from the church. Three meetings were held in May, 1826, and the battle was renewed for possession of the meeting- house. Three times it was "voted not to divide the meet- ing house." The "Orthodox" faction was having its innings. Then Mr. Gates called for his dismissal in De- cember, 1828, one month after the organization of the Unitarian church, with twelve members. Mr. Gates had been here twenty-three years following the fifty-two years of Judah Nash. It is safe to say that the whole idea of the ministry by this time had undergone a revolution. Lib- erty had been gained; and a large unchurched element, together with three new Protestant churches, four in all, for a population of 1000 souls. And never again were the clans of Montague "to walk together to the kirk." Mr. Warren Bardwell, a number of years ago, told me with something, I imagine, of the fervor of the old controversy, that " the Unitarian church has kept the whipping post off of Montague common for seventy-five years." There was a year in the First church without a pastor. Then the Rev. Moses Bradford served three years with- out settlement and was dismissed. The church then re- mained two years pastorless; during which time, it saw its darkest hours. During this interval, in 1833, the great blow fell, disestablishment. After this there was no more taxation for the church. Democracy had gained, a vote for every man regard- less of his creed. The Baptists had first won their own citizenship through their certificates. The act of 1833 BOOK VI. WINNING DEMOCRACY 117 was general. Citizenship was conferred upon every self- supporting male of proper age. But it was not without a kick that the old order died. Riots followed the act of disestablishment. The late Dea- con Richard Clapp was eyewitness to a riot in Montague the latter part of January, 1834. January 16, a warrant had been posted calling for a meeting, to see if the town would tear down the meetinghouse — What a strange propo- sition ! The First church was sore and without a minister, while the Unitarian and Episcopalian factions had united in sitting under the preaching of the Rev. Rodolphus Dick- inson. There were fears on the other side that they would get the house at last as they had in several of the sur- rounding towns. Before town meeting day there was a general turn-out of the Orthodox faction, impatient to do something. "I remember," says Deacon Clapp, "among them was Elijah Root (Deacon Root, his brother, was on the other side). I remember seeing Joshua Marsh and others undermining the church. Joshua took a crowbar and striking it into the side of the building said : ' Let in the light.' The whole building was razed to the ground." When the citizens met on the spot, the 30th, they passed the following vote: "voted, the meeting house having been pulled down, and the weather being rather cold, to adjourn to Thomas C. Lord's hall." That was in the Tavern, now known as Montague Hotel. A vote of censure succeeded in passing upon the mob. B. S. Wells, Col. Aretas Ferry and John Brooks were chosen a committee to report on the question of the town's claims against the members of the mob. On February 17, the report was h eard , accepted . and the committee was dischar ged . Then it seems to have been evident that the mob was too many and determined, to punish, without civil war. It is hard 118 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE for one-half of a people to collect damages from the other half, particularly where the division comes in one's own family. The meeting silently adjourned. The following year, 1835, the Unitarians with the aid of Episcopalians, built the "White Church," west of the common. The Orthodox, consisting of Henry Gunn and sixteen others built the brick church from clay dug "on Deacon Bardwell's lot," "the Thaxter Shaw place," now owned by the Rev. G. W. Solley. Book VII '+ Causes and Conduct of the Revolution HOW democracy within the town community was hatched out of Congregationalism, Anabaptism first cracking the long incubated shell, and Unitarianism scoop- ing out at last the peeping, struggling chick and letting him run free in the sunshine, I have told in the last book. The growth was so gradual that it took them a hundred years in England to discover our "sea change." But when they found it, there was trouble. What was nature in the democratic independency of our people, they took for impudence and presumption. It was not the burden of a few pennies more or less tax on tea and " W. I." goods that caused the Revolution. It was the custom of Monta- gue's building bridges, schoolhouses, townhalls, highways, and all internal improvements, of salarying their minis- ters and schoolmasters and political representatives in the General Court and taxing themselves, all without any as- sistance or advice from the king's government, and by a system of town leagues and intercolonial cooperation wag- ing war against their enemies alone for a century. These habits were against imperial pretensions. By the end of the French wars the last link of national union of the thir- teen colonies was being forged. W T ith Canada suppressed, King George saw here a source of wealth. He also became suddenly conscious of the wonderful political institutions that had silently grown up from English seed in the fresh soil — conscious, that is, as blockheads become conscious. If he lacked any knowledge, William Pitt and Edmund 120 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE Burke supplied him with information. They had made a thorough and profound study of America. In 1765, the English Parliament passed the "Stamp Act," putting a tax upon American imports to be adminis- tered by English officials, a portion of it spent on the colonies and the rest taken over to England like booty or tribute from a conquered country. Every valley and hill- top of New England instantly flamed up with hot resent- ment. They were almost free amongst themselves. And now they suddenly awoke to realize that "in his Majesty's reign" had become in their documents and records but a slender phrase, with no reality in it for them. And now the last tie was severed. Independence of foreign lords and foreign armies was now all the cry. The Declaration of Independence speaks of the right to institute "new governments." Nothing of the kind, how- ever, was done in New England. New Englanders began the Revolution not to institute reforms and changes in the order of things, but to save the institutions and cus- toms that already had become old and venerable with them; and were new only to a few stupid Englishmen a hundred and fifty years behind the times, who got the king's ear; and found him like themselves. We did not change our government, by rebellion; we saved what we had, before this, won. Six general crimes against our democratic customs on the part of the king are mentioned in the Declaration : he had tampered with our laws; interfered with our process of legislation; interrupted our courts in their work; insti- tuted arbitrary and expensive provincial government; then to punish us for protest, left us without any; and ended by quartering an army upon us to eat us up and tread us down. The point is that it was too late for the BOOK VII. CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 121 king to change anything here. Our habits and our hearts were set, during those generations of poverty and struggle, when England little cared whether we lived or died; and loyalty to the crown was just a sentiment of home-turning English hearts. Our customs and laws were the habit of life triumphing over the wilderness and lurking death. The king could cut off our heads, but he could not change these. We could not change them if we would. What- ever doubtful theories may be embodied in the Declara- tion, the closing sentence was the statement of a scientific, historical fact and not of a theory or a dream: " These are and ought to be free and independent states." The Townshend Act followed the "Stamp Act" in 1767. This contained the famous tea tax. It was another at- tempt to collect tribute. A part of the proceeds was to hire for us imported governors and judges responsible to the king and not under our laws; also crown attorneys and a royal army; and to pension the king's colonial minions. The people of Montague and sister commonwealths, the two hundred republics of Massachusetts and the hundreds more in the rest of New England, so rooted and grounded in minding their own business, from selecting the color of paint on the village schoolhouse to the conquest of Canada, were expected to look on at the expensive royal show, pay the bills and be thankful. What fatuity! The king lit- tle guessed the thoughts and the grit of men who held their heads up through the direst poverty and destitution and took moments between times, in ten years, to build a wooden meetinghouse; and "built it workmanlike." Fush ! on your royal show, King George and Lord North ! Our colonels and deacons were getting a little forehanded now; and they knew just what they were going to do with their money. They were going to build schools and col- 122 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE leges, canals and water mills; they were going to dam the wild streams and build intercolonial post roads and turn- pikes; and send ships trading round the world. The cry went up instantly from Virginia to Massachusetts: "No taxation without representation." Two English regiments in the fall of 1768 were sent to Boston to enforce the Townshend act. Boston braced herself for resistance. All the towns of Massachusetts were invited to meet her at Fanueil Hall. On Wednesday, September 21, 1768, the people of Montague promptly assembled at their meetinghouse and chose Doctor Moses Gunn to represent the town at this proposed convention. Dr. Gunn was our Samuel Adams, our spokesman through- out the Revolution, a man with eloquent command of the English language and tireless self-sacrificing zeal for demo- cratic administration of our institutions. In August, 1772, a severe blow was struck at Massa- chusetts in a more direct way. There came an imperial order that henceforth all judges should be paid by the crown. Samuel Adams came forward with a scheme to meet this new device of oppression, a plan of agitation by letter, a sort of round robin parliament to reach every intelligent man in the Province, and constitute the whole population a perpetual Provincial Congress. April 6, 1773, there was a town meeting in Montague to hear about the plan. It was "voted to choose as a Committee of Cor- respondence, Moses Gunn, Moses Harvey, Elisha Allis, Stephen Tuttle, Peter Bishop, Judah Wright and Na- thaniel Gunn, Jr. The meeting adjourned to April 20 at one o'clock to receive the report of the committee, in reply to the efforts of the town of Boston. The following letter, the composition of Doctor Moses Gunn, was read "in very full meeting." And when the doctor laid down the BOOK VII. CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 123 paper on the table, the citizens called enthusiastically to hear it read through again. It is a remarkable docu- ment, in the main, clear cut in its language and decisive in tone; and it has imbedded within it the principles of self- government underlying the New England town meeting and the constitution of the United States as afterwards defined: " To the Committee of Correspondence of the Town of Boston, Gentlemen: — Having carefully perused your pam- phlet of the 20 of November last, containing a statement of the rights of the colonists, with the infringement on those rights (which came to us about three months after publication), we are of the opinion that you have, in gen- eral, justly stated our rights as men, as Christians, and as subjects. As Christians, we have a right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience owing all religious obedience to Him who hath declared that his kingdom is not of this world. As men, and as subjects, we have a right to life, liberty and property. These we have as our natural birthright, being descended from those re- nowned ancestors, who crossed the Atlantic at their own expense; purchased the soil of the natives, and who with their successors have ever defended it with treasure and blood; confirmed in the right ample manner by the royal charters whereby the people of the Province have the sole and absolute property of the soil, in fee simple, with all the appurtenances — waters, rivers, mines, etc., except only of the part of gold and silver ore reserved to the crown. As to infringement on our rights, we do not pretend fully to understand the power of vice nominalty courts, but that there is so great a difference made between subjects entitled to the same liberties and immunities within the colonies as in the Realm [of England herself] as there 124 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE appears to be, affords matter of conviction that [a repre- sentative government with local legislative bodies inter- spersed] is their only security against impartiality and injustice; and that a Parliament at three thousand miles distance can never have an equitable right to bind colonies in all cases whatever. That the commissioners of the customs, or any set of men known or unknown, in our charter, should have general warrants to search houses, shops, chests, etc., is illegal, and hath been publicly de- clared to be so within the Realm [of England herself] in the great case between John Wilkes, Esq., and the Earl of Halifax. . . . "We thank the town of Boston for their patriotic zeal in the common cause, particularly as their Pamphlets hath paved the way for a full discussion of our natural and char- ter rights, in the general assembly at their late session, whereby much light hath been cast on the subject. We reflect with gratitude and pleasure on their learned labor, in defence of our just rights, in which they have discovered a thorough knowledge of our constitution, and great firm- ness in defense of it. "Gentlemen, we look upon the particular occasion of your letter to be very alarming to every sensible lover of his country. We acknowledge the activity and vigilance of the town of Boston. Trusting that salutary and im- portant ends to the public good have been and still may be answered thereby, we consider the infringments on our rights stated in the Pamphlets as being what in reason and justice ought to give deep concern to every friend of his country, and excite his endeavors, in all suitable lawful methods, to obtain redress. We hope that the knowledge of our natural and constitutional rights may be still further propagated among people of all ranks. That the BOOK VII. CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 125 natural principle of self preservation may be timely and thoroughly awakened and unerringly directed. That a criminal and scandalous inattention of indifference to our rights may be an infamy never justly charged upon us, esteeming a tame submission to slavery more infamous than slavery itself." After these acts, King George Ill's government deliber- ately dared Boston to resist it in defense of the Provincial constitution. Three decoy ships of tea were sent into Boston harbor. Samuel Adams' men accepted the chal- lenge and almost instantly fed the tea out to the fishes of the Bay. The king was also ready and closed Boston port. Boston appealed to the Province; and received solid backing for her prompt acts. A "non-consumption covenant" was put before the Montague people, June 27, 1774. This was in response to a recommendation of the House of Representatives sitting at Salem June 17, as a means further to baffle the English attempts to collect tribute. Dr. Gunn, Stephen Tuttle, Eliphalet Allis, John Gunn, and Samuel Bardwell were chosen a committee to give the matter mature considera- tion and report July 7. The committee presented a docu- ment going more fully into the condition of the provinces than was done in the document of the previous year. The important points of this report may be summed up in six resolutions: 1. We approve of the plan for a Continental Congress September 1, at Philadelphia. 2. We urge the disuse of India teas and British goods. 3. We will act for the suppression of pedlers and petty chapmen (supposably vendors of dutiable wares) . 4. And work to promote American manufacturing. 5. We ought to relieve Boston. 126 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 6. We appoint the 14th day of July, a day of humilia- tion and prayer. Just one week after the solemn fast, the citizens signed quite generally the following non-consumption agreement : "That, from henceforth, we will suspend all commerical intercourse with the island of Great Britain until this act of blocking up the harbor of Boston be repealed, and a restoration of our charter rights be obtained. "That there may be the less temptation to others to engage in the said dangerous commerce, we do in like manner solemnly covenant that we will not knowingly purchase or consume in any manner whatever any goods, wares or merchandise which shall arrive in America from Great Britain, from and after the first day of August next ensuing." In the preamble of this agreement it was asserted: "There is no alternative between the horrors of slavery and the carnage of civil war." On September 20, the district "voted to procure, as a town stock, 56 pounds of powder, 112 pounds of lead, and a sufficient number of flints, to be paid for out of sale of commons." On November 8, it was voted to raise and appropriate the "Province rate," concurring with the advice of the Provincial Congress, which met October 11, at Concord; and adjourned to Cambridge October 17. December 5, it was voted to pay Doctor Gunn four pounds nine shillings and sixpence for services and ex- penses at the Congress at Cambridge; and three pounds ten shillings and eightpence as representative this year at the General Court. It was voted also to choose a com- mittee to execute the agreement of the Continental Con- gress, which had duly met in September, and adopted BOOK VII. CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 127 and forwarded to the king a "Declaration of Rights," which the delegates agreed in behalf of their respective provinces to defend. Moses Gunn was again returned to the Provincial Congress to meet at Cambridge February 5, 1775. Six pounds was raised and appropriated to organize minutemen at sixpence a half day for training. The following company of minutemen was then organ- ized. This was the same company that responded to the alarm of April 19 in connection with the battle of Lexing- ton. They marched in the regiment of Colonel Samuel Williams of Warwick. Captain, Thomas Grover; Lieu- tenants, John Adams and Josiah Adams; Sergeants, Philip Ballard, Simeon King, Asa Fuller and Josiah Burnham; Drummer, Elisha Phillips; Privates, Elisha Wright, David Sprague, Til Borthrick, Henry Ewers, Elias Sawyer, Wm. Allis, Asa Smith, Joel Perkins, Jonathan Harvey, Moses Brooks, Uriah Weaks, John Brooks, Samuel Smith, Samuel Bardwell, Thomas Whiting, David Burnham, Nathaniel Nichols, Reuben Granby, Joshua Combs, Joseph Combs, Elisha Trizel, Joshua Searls, Zedodiah Allis, John Ewers, Moses Harvey. Three days later, April 22, a second company was mustered for the same regiment, and consisted of Conway and Montague men. The following were from Mon- tague: Asahel Gunn, David Patteson, Ezra Smead, Rufus Smith, Elijah Smith, Ebenezer Grover, Samuel Gunn, Samuel Taylor, Ebenezer Marsh, Caleb Benjamin, Elisha Clap, Ira Scott, Nathaniel Taylor, Joshua Gawse (Goss), Joel Adams, Samuel Larence, Salvenus Sartel, Daniel Baker, Simeon Cox. The day this company was mustered, it was voted to send an ox wagon loaded with flour, pork, peas, tobacco and oats. Deacon John Gunn, Lieutenant Nathaniel 128 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE Gunn, and Medad Bardwell were in charge of this; and Elisha Wright was paid one pound sixteen shillings for carrying the stuff down to Cambridge. I may have given the impression that the inhabitants of this district (on August 23 of this year 1775 it became an incorporated town), were solidly in favor of resistance. As a matter of fact there were twenty -three families loyal to the imperial government. Before the soldiers marched, these Tories were intimidated and confined to their own estates; and directed not to leave them without permis- sion of the authorities; or be dealt with as traitors. On May 26, 1775, it was voted "that all persons called to account as inimical to their country shall be notified of the allegations brought against them before the time of trial and a reasonable time be allowed them to make their defence." On the same day, Doctor Moses Gunn was chosen as a member of the Provincial Congress to meet at Watertown the 31st of May. The battle of Bunker Hill was fought on June 17. Washington arrived the 2d of July ; and during that sum- mer and following winter organized sufficient force and means to drive the English from Boston in the early spring. The Declaration of Independence followed in July, 1776. Then came Washington's successful man- euvers against Howe in New York and the wonderful winter campaign in New Jersey; and then the summer campaign of 1777, crushing Burgoyne on the Hudson; and Valley Forge, misery and victory, stars and stripes flying, money all gone. Congress recommended war taxes, but had no power as yet to assess them. December 30, 1777, Montague " voted to choose a committee to provide for the continental soldiers agreeable to a late act of Congress." BOOK VII. CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 129 On January 27, 1778, the Articles of Confederation, recently adopted by Congress, were debated here. It was "voted to approve of the Articles, except the first clause," giving Congress the power to declare peace and war. This it was resolved, "belongs to the people." There is food for reflection in this resolution. The Revolutionary war would never have been fought if it had been put to the vote of England and the thirteen colonies ; for as John Fiske says: "In that struggle the people of England were not our enemies." Most wars, just like the war of the Revolution, result from the schemes of some powerful group of parasites like King George and his minions. A committee of correspondence had been chosen March 10, 1777, consisting of Deacon John Gunn, Dr. Moses Gunn and Sargeant Nathaniel Smith. A commit- tee of inspection and safety consisted of Captain Asahel Gunn, Lieutenants Benjamin and Keet and Stephen Tut- tle. Treachery was feared, perhaps from the Tories; for it was resolved "That the governor ought not to allow town dwellers to remain drinking in their houses after nine o'clock without some special business." April 9, it was voted that all inhabitants but soldiers "should take the small pox in the natural way." We have heard even in our day the phrase, " not worth a continental." April 24, 1778, it took twenty shillings continental money, or nearly $3.50 to buy a pair of stock- ings. On that date, at that price, Montague provided for her 23 soldiers then in the field; also shoes at $6.00; and shirting at $1.50 a yard. May 18, 1778, five new soldiers had to be fitted out at a cost of $7.00 for a shirt and $11.00 for a pair of shoes. Serious efforts were made by the people here and elsewhere to regulate prices. A convention was held for this purpose at Concord in 1777; 130 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE but Montague voted not to send a delegate. Another was held at Northampton and a list of prices was recom- mended to the Hampshire towns; but Montague again voted not to concur with the recommendations. It tran- spired, however, that there was great inequality of prices. And so finally, March 7, 1777, "to prevent monopoly and oppression," it was voted to establish the prices of twenty- three necessary commodities, including labor wages for mowing and harvesting. But judging from the soaring of prices the following year, as noted above, it does not appear that this regulation of prices had much effect. December 21, 1778, the five selectmen, besides being assessors and overseers of the poor, were also made a committee of correspondence, safety and inspection. February 9, 1779, two soldiers were added to the home guard, each receiving thirty pounds bounty. Four more were raised for the front; were assigned one hundred and twenty pounds bounty; and reported at Springfield. The money was subscribed and loaned by the citizens of the town. October, 1779, there is a record of eight soldiers re- ceiving forty pounds each from the town: Noah Barnes, Joel Benjamin, Asa Fuller, James Winston, Ephraim Whitney, Simeon King, John Clapp, Jonathan Marsh. June 20, 1780, the town offered two hundred pounds bounty for six months' volunteers. No one volunteered, and a committee had to be appointed to hire the soldiers. But none could be found. June 27 the town raised the bounty to three hundred pounds, and three pounds a month pay, in silver or grain. These terms brought forward nine men, who were mustered into the continental army. One hundred and fifty pounds, and three pounds a month, was offered men for the militia service. Two more men BOOK VII. CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 131 presented themselves for the continental service. It was voted, "that, as there is necessity for the two men to march on Friday next, the selectmen and clerk shall pay the bounties at Lieutenant Gunn's, on that day at ten o'clock, and that Sergeant Josiah Burnham attend them to South Hadley to see them mustered and take receipts of them from the superintendent." October 18, 1780, one hundred and eight pounds was paid for 3600 pounds of beef for the soldiers. On the same date seven volunteers were called for. None could be had. The recruiting committee was increased. Still soldiers were not found. This was the gloomiest period of the war. It took now $150 in continentals to buy a bushel of corn and $2000 for a suit of clothes. Volunteers were not tempted by the offer of any amount of it. The fighting spirit of '76 had all oozed out. To complete the misery, even Benedict Arnold, who had done so much to destroy Burgoyne's army, now sold out to the enemy. January 10, 1781, it was directed, "that the committee invite men to meet them next Monday night and state their own terms of service." This was just one week before the tide of the Revolution suddenly turned. It was the darkest hour before dawn. On the 17th, General Morgan won the battle of Cowpens, which started Corn- wallis on his last retreat to Yorktown. January 24, it was voted to offer three years' men twenty yearling heifers or steers, if they remain one year in service; twenty neat cattle two years old, if they remain two years; twenty, three years old, for three years. It does not appear that there was any response. The war was being pushed in the South, and Southerners were now doing the fighting. In July, three months' men were still called for; but I do not know with what result. But early 132 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE in September, Benedict Arnold was sent to burn New London, Connecticut, in order if possible to cause Wash- ington to waver from his swift drawing in upon Yorktown. But Washington staked all upon gathering in Cornwallis' army. And New England felt a revival of '76, to rush to the defense of Connecticut. September 17, 1781, " voted that soldiers detached to the defense of Connecti- cut be paid twenty shillings extra in case of marching." Arnold's feat, however, proved a mere feint. Cornwallis surrendered the 19th of October. Samuel D. Bard well recollected in 1895 that some time in the 40's he took a Justice of the Peace Commission so that he might make out pension papers for the then sur- viving Revolutionary soldiers of Montague. These were his grandfather, Samuel Bardwell, Moses Andrews, Elisha Tilden, Joel Shepard, Salmon Gunn, and Ebenezer Whit- ney. Mrs. Lyman Gunn remembers the curiosity she had "to see the silver dollars the pension man brought the widow of Eli Gunn (brother of Captain Asahel) who made her home with us." Other lists of Revolutionary soldiers of Montague doubtless can be found by searching. But here is enough to make the old times reality to us; the men, flesh and blood. No man can ponder this record of citizen and soldier, and say that our liberties happened. Our demo- cratic constitution was in fact a long slow growth, not a sudden erratic thought. Its preservation from the dan- gers that threatened it in the 60 's and 70's of the eight- eenth century, was an all but impossible task. I have traced with you in the case of a single town, five or six miles square in the wilderness, how it was done; how the men there gave their means, their lives and their sacred honor. Book VIII + The Kings Highway THE pioneers used for bridle roads those sinuous paths that followed the dry edge of every valley. Accord- ing to Deacon Richard Clapp, "the first road from Sun- derland (unquestionably following the Indian path) came by the 'Back street' along the slopes at the foot of Toby. Reaching a point due east from the Whitmores it struck a little northwest where there is now an abandoned road, and came out on the present North Sunderland road at the top of the hill south of the Deacon Marsh place. Thence it ran up past Hamilton Smith's, past Day's, across Taylor hill, past Taylor's, straight past the Eli Gunn (Liberty Wright) place, and across the present easterly and westerly road, down a lane where I drove cows ; thence past the Daniel Rowe place (F. Lyman's) forded the Sawmill river; thence northeasterly and past the present railroad station, but considerably south of it. South of the Deacon Armstrong place there is a run westerly of the new graveyard; thence it ran along the present road easterly from Warren Bardwell's across Pond brook; thence it turned northeasterly near Ben Tilden's old house and ran on high ground to the top of Goddard's hill; ran north of his house. The road went across the Plain to the mouth of Miller's river, where there was at an early day a tavern, afterwards occupied by Durkee." Deacon Clapp also says, "Contemporary with this line of road from Sunderland by way of Taylor hill was a road from the Back street, leaving it where the road ran to Deacon Marsh's, northeasterly of the Gunn tavern (now E. P. 134 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE Gunn's); thence it continued easterly across the present Leverett road to the Billings mill. This was a terminus for persons going to the sawmill and grist mills (provided here as soon as Sunderland was inhabited in 1714). It stretched north across the Sawmill river at the southeast corner of Gunn's sugar orchard not far westerly from the Billings mill; thence bearing more to the right it ran just north on high ground and entered Federal street by the 'Jew place '; thence it ran along the present Federal street to the top of Goddard's hill, there joining the other road at the end of Harvey's path." Harvey's path was named for Moses Harvey, one of Montague's most romantic characters, who lived on the site of the George Gilbert place. It reached from the turning in place, north of the Swamp road and between Pond brook and Ben Tilden's, to the top of Goddard's hill. Federal street was first called Country road, but must have received its present name soon after the Revolution- ary war, and is a noble memorial of its inhabitants who were in favor of the Constitution of the United States, which established us a nation, on September 17, 1787. Of the interesting habitations on these old roads I may speak in a second volume of Montague history, entitled Mon- tague Homesteads. Deacon Clapp said of the locality : " In the early days, Federal street, (or Country road) was really a center. The place between Federal street and the village, however, was a great swamp — nothing but a morass. And there was much difficulty in getting over to 'Scotland' and back. I remember my grandfather telling how he sometimes used to jump from log to log in making his way across the swamp." Hartford was the market for the farmers in the summer BOOK VIII. THE KINGS HIGHWAY 135 by way of the river from "Taylor's landing"; and Boston in the winter. The practice of teaming to Boston for the sale of produce and bringing back rum and foreign goods, continued through a hundred years, until the completion of the railroad. One of the early thoroughfares accord- ingly was the old County road over Dry* hill. This was our "Bay path," to borrow a name from another distin- guished Boston road, to the valley. This was the only route for more than fifty years, until the road was opened by way of Grout's corner and Miller's river. At the Country road junction of the County road stood the old tavern near the site of George D. Payne's buildings. There were once sixteen inhabited farms between that place and Dry hill schoolhouse. It was a thickly settled mountain road. Now crumbling chimney stacks or mere depressions in the turf mark more than half the places of dwellings. The names of thirteen householders on this road remained on a county map of 1858. Beginning above Severance's tavern, there were: J. Tuttle. S. B. Bardwell, J. S. Ward, B. Gage, L. Allen, D. A. and A. Benjamin, A. Thornton, X. Grover. E. Scott. E. Pike. H. Heard, E. Steadman, and 0. Payne. And Josiah Prescott in 1811 lived next the Wendell line. The first settlements on this road were made in 1738. One month of school was provided for the community in 1757. And in 1792 the Rev. Judah Nash's salary was divided in proportion be- tween the center and this settlement to maintain local preaching. It was the most thickly settled road leading out of Montague. Some of the houses must have been quite fine. Not a few of the good old families lived and prospered there. A few of the old chimneys and hearth- stones, still in place, are eloquent of good old times and substantial personalities. One house, till recently stand- 136 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE ing on the hill crest, north of the school, was a model of workmanship, such as our earlier builders delighted in; and it was a gem of architectural proportions. It sat there gracefully ten years ago, like a castle in the air, above the romantic scenery of the Pequoig valley, the last tattered figment of a passing dream. In the reign of the Georges, when the presence of human homes, the lively traffic of the road and the surpassing glories of scenery united there, our Bay path was a truly royal road. Spring- ing from Federal street at Severance's tavern into the hills, it soon winds along the banks of Goddard's brook, high above it, a pure brook, which when in flood, resounds amongst the pines like the voice of an organ. A laby- rinth of wooded hills and crags seem to lift one into a sanctuary as one climbs. The tiny intervales in cups of the hills and the hillside farms are miracles of verdure; and, in June, of color of wild flowers. The air is heaven's own. After an hour's climb amongst these sweet in- timacies of nature, a distant world of mountains and val- leys sprinkled with farmhouses bursts from the blue rift between the tree tops and the sky. It is a beautiful road, every foot of it — and the cream is on top. The brow of the hill, northwest from the traveled road by the school- house, is sublime, nearly a thousand feet above the waters of the Miller's river. The main county road north and south, ran from the Center, west of Great pond and Grassy pond, to the mouth of Miller's river, and on to Northfield. This was a dis- tinguished thoroughfare, " much used by people who travel up and down the river," as we learn from an old petition for the annexation of land north of the old Sunderland line to the Miller's river, known as Irving's land, in 1768. The county built a bridge over Miller's river at a very BOOK VIII. THE KING'S HIGHWAY 137 early date, to accommodate the travel and traffic between Hadley and the lower river towns and Northfield, and the regions beyond. On the 6th of March, 1774, a bridge which had been maintained for some years by the county at the mouth of Miller's river was carried away by a sudden rise of the river. The towns of Montague and Northfield petitioned the state to grant one hundred pounds to help rebuild it. It was stated that this was "in one of the greatest roads of the Province;" and further, "that it is in the great carrying place on Connecticut river, which if passed on the west side is twelve miles in length and Deer- field river to be crossed, but on the east side about six miles and the road vastly better; and every article that goes up the river, must be carried here; the river, by reason of the falls and rapids, being impassable with any vessel." From this and other information we learn that a vast traffic went overland through Montague from Taylor's landing, near the present Boston and Maine railroad, and from Bardwell's landing on the R. N. Oakman place, across Miller's plain to the French King rapids, above Miller's river. When Montague annexed the Irving lands in 1770, there were already families settled along the great road and in its locality. The rest of the land was to be sold at auction and settled within three years. Ten addi- tional houses had to be built, each at least 18 feet either dimension, seven foot stud. And each family must agree to cultivate five acres of land. There was undoubtedly a tavern of long time standing, at the mouth of the river and probably the sawmill. There are hints of there hav- ing some time been a ford before the bridge. But fording the Miller's river at this point, even in low water, must have been next to Indian fighting, difficult and dangerous. The second road going east was the Road Town (Shutes- 138 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE bury) road. Direct access to Federal street having been won by a bridge at the Mile swamp in 1756, a road was laid around Harvey hill to Gunn's brook, in the North Leverett gorge, in 1762. The next concern was to improve the passage to Deer- field. In 1766, a road was sought out down the bank at "David Ballard's ferry place." Later this was "Cobb's," then " Clesson's ferry " and is now known as " Rice's ferry." A number of prominent families lived in this vicinity, amongst whom were the Wellses and the Shepards. On a map of 1794, surveyed by Elisha Root, there is a county road running from the center (the present Turners Falls road) to " Bissel's ferry," near the upper suspension bridge. This was the road to Factory village and Ber- nardston. At the same period, "Tinney's ferry" at Bard- well's landing gave another short line between Northfield and Deerfield via the Montague plain route. The Turnpike, running from Greenfield to Athol, crossed the Plain from Montague City, north of Willis hill and along the present state road, which before 1799 was known as "the new county road," to distinguish from the Dry hill route east. "The Fifth Massachusetts Turnpike Cor- poration" was chartered March 1, 1799, to open this new route to Boston. This company built the first bridge at Montague City; and opened it with great ceremony and speechmaking November 2, 1802. This bridge was swept away by a flood in 1824. It was replaced in 1826, and the new one partially destroyed by flood in July, 1828; and in August before it could be repaired, it was totally wrecked by another flood. In 1842, the bridge was again badly damaged. In 1810 the mail coach was leaving Greenfield over this route at 1 p. m. every Saturday and arriving in Boston Monday forenoon. The fare was $3.00. BOOK VIII. THE KING'S HIGHWAY 139 In 1810, there were two stages a week and doing better time, starting at 3 a. m. and arriving the evening of the same day. In 1824, there were three stages a week. Martin Grout kept tavern at Miller's river for many years, on the turnpike line. Here were the first drinks out of Greenfield, going east ; and on the return trip travelers, at one time, spent the night here, getting into Greenfield in the morning. A Worcester man, traveling this way in 1833, describes (in a letter which has been preserved) a night spent at this old tavern. He was impressed with the cleanliness and order of the house, plainly not expect- ing to find either; and spent most of his time reading an elegantly bound and printed translation of the Scriptures by the Rev. Rodolphus Dickinson, Rector of Trinity Church, Montague, " one of the most obscure towns in the Connecticut valley," adds the reader. He was humor- ously affected by the great flourish of scholarship and learned notes of this version. The diction appealed to him as deliciously pedantic. He quotes a sample from the story of St. Paul and his accusers. "Much learning hath made thee mad," is rendered, "The multiplicity of thy engagements hath demented thee." The merit the trans- lator claims for his edition is that he has tried to put the Scriptures into modern phrase that may be most readily understood. The traveler says he started several times to steal the book. Warren Bardwell showed me a copy of the book a number of years ago. The incident serves chiefly to show how times have changed on the king's highway. Then Millers Falls was a Johnsonesque trans- lation of the New Testament's length from Greenfield; and now is a short twenty minutes' ride. In December, 1815, Montague voted to join with other towns for a mail route from Hartford to Walpole, New 140 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE Hampshire. Captain Spencer Root, Elijah Root and Colo- nel Wells were the Montague agents in this matter. Traveling by stagecoach had its drawbacks and its beau- ties not associated with modern methods of travel. The exposure to climate in a huddled coach with all sorts and conditions of people is realized when you think of add- ing a case of smallpox amongst the passengers, as once occurred near here. Coming out of Greenfield the trav- eler was confronted first by the turbulent river with its record of capsized ferryboats and broken bridges and drownings. This safely passed, there were nine miles of desert stretching away before him with its sad looking tufts of sand grass and thorny areas of scrub oak inter- spersed with yellow pine. If it were August the open vistas, of course, were covered with golden-rod, which burned under the midday sun like a firmament of brass. Or if in June, one could half close one's eyes while thorough- braces rocked one up and down over the wastes, and imagine an occasional clump of blossoming locusts, the enchanted islands wafting down incense and drowsy music, the vibration of thousands of insect wings. In early May one could just rest on the Sabbath whiteness of the shad blossoms that filled every thicket. If, however, one journeyed in winter as I did the first time I struck Miller's plain, twenty-two years ago, an Arctic solitude with biting winds, one might with Dr. Coy, who had crossed this "no-man's-land" hundreds of times in an open sleigh, thank God at the Plain's end that one was alive. But if it were in the full flood of spring, and acres here and there were turned up fresh for corn, and the blackbirds chit- tered by thousands on the dwarf oak thicket, just opening a million pink lips to the sun, and Kunckwadchu stood up to the south like a sapphire palace of the new spirit of BOOK VIII. THE KINGS HIGHWAY 141 the earth — then one would be certain to visit the place again in a dream. The King's highway in Montague was liberally pro- vided with taverns. Besides the "tavern in the town," kept at a very early date by Joseph Root, there was Gunn's tavern of 1726 on the Sunderland and Hartford road below the mill. There was Severance's tavern on the old Wen- dell and Boston road, and Gunn's, afterwards Grout's on the new Boston turnpike. There were Durkee's for boat- men on the river road and Taft's further south for the traveler north. There was another boatmen's tavern at Turners Falls to be spoken of in the next book as well as at Montague City and at Bardwell's landing. Kinsley kept tavern on the west side of Main street after the passing of Root's on Thayer hill, and before the coming of Colonel Ferry, Lord, and their numerous successors at the historic "Montague Tavern," still the one quaint ornament of our village street. These taverns, could we but recall them, were like noth- ing we have to-day. They were a quaint foreign institu- tion, with their vices and their savor of poetry and ro- mance. The tavern was a social center, a men's club. There was no conscience anywhere in the community against drinking; so every man, from the parson and the colonel down to the tinker dropped in to take a glass. It was where the domestic and foreign news was received and digested. It was the one place where prosy people broke into merriment and song and spun yarns of human delight as they had from immemorial time in Merry Eng- land. The elements of drink were New England rum, gin and beer, which were manufactured by the barkeeper's art, with sugar, water and hot irons, into the old-fashioned 142 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE tavern drinks, "grog," "toddy," "sling," and "flip." Grog was a strong mixture of gin or rum and water. Toddy was not so strong a mixture, and was sweetened and served hot. Sling was sweetened grog. Flip was a mixture of either rum, cider or beer and molasses with nutmeg and ginger, stirred with a hot iron. Round the tavern fire, his imagination a bit heated by grog, the boaster gloated over sawing twelve cords of wood and the traveler was quizzed about the gossip in New Haven and Boston or told the adventures of the road to which the old stager added ancient incidents. On Sabbath day, in place of furnace heat in the church, the men took grog at Deacon Root's or Kinsley's, before, between, and after prayers. At election times, the rural Brut uses and Catos manufactured their political epigrams and doggerels and orated there. The tavern ballad singer was the "yellow" newsmonger of that day. "Daniel Shays" and "Springfield Mountain" were recited by hun- dreds of tavern fires, the one scurrilous, the other maud- lin, but full of sound and of quaint conceit. Practical jokes were part of tavern life. Thompson, in the History of Greenfield, tells of a traveler who halted the postrider (who was journeying with him) in the dead of night while he went up and roused the inmates of a house. A night-capped head showed at a chamber window: "Have you lost a knife?" asked the traveler. "No, have you found one?" "No, but didn't know but I should." (Exit all.) Fish stories were popular. A noted fisherman lost his boat in shad season. But getting Indian snowshoes he safely walked on the backs of the fishes out to his fishing rock. Everything wonderful or weird had its place. There was a famous witch and fortune.teller by the name of BOOK VIII. THE KING'S HIGHWAY 143 Thacher who lived in the glen, that wonderful glen of Fall river, beyond Peskeomskut, who furnished tavern talk. Journeying along the king's highway was enlivened by contact with wolves, bears and wildcats. Elk, deer and moose still roamed in abundance. The town was paying $2.00 bounty oh a good many wildcats, in 1811. There were wolves here in 1806, and the bounty was $20.00. " In the year 1805, two wolves," as related in Judd's History of Hadley, "ranged sometime from the northern part of Hadley and Amherst to the northern part of Montague, and killed many sheep. Men from three or four towns turned out after a light snow, and surrounded and killed them. One of my informants often heard these wolves howl in the woods of North Hadley, and he was in Monta- gue when one of them was brought in on a pole by two men. The hunters had a merry time," at Kinsley's tavern. Welsie Gunn Haskins, born in 1788, in Montague, living in Springfield in 1873 told of sitting in the "little brown school house" in the village and listening to the wolves on Montague plain. Highway robbery was not a fine art in New England, except in tavern tales. According to these, "Lightfoot and Thunderbolt" early in last century had their den somewhere in the cavernous mystery of the old Dike's mill. And during the Revolutionary period Montague had several bands of real counterfeiters. One of these harbored in the Dike's mill where traces of their work in coin have been found. Often they had their laboratories, like the stills of the moonshiners in the South, in the fast- nesses of the woods, where the constables tracked them by their "smoaks." May 18, 1778, the town voted to make good to Elijah Smith certain counterfeit money. Oc- tober 18, 1780 counterfeit bills were redeemed of Samuel 144 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE Bard well. May 26, 1781, counterfeit money was re- deemed of Jonathan Harvey. Captain Kidd was said to have visited the river. And in recent years a copy of The Pirates Own Book was dug from an old attic. When bridges were down and ways were storm bound, then men gathered with the travelers at the taverns, and sat out the afternoons and evenings, mug in hand, blink- ing in the fire and telling yarns. Some wooden-legged survivor of "the old French wars," would be recounting every detail, for the hundredth time, of the " bloody morn- ing scout;" or some "redeemed captive" rehearsed the burning of Deerfield and of the flight of the Indians down Champlain, of powwows he had seen in Canada. Per- haps one of Rogers' Rangers, Major Richard Montague, for instance, dropped in from Long Plain, and told of the destruction of St. Francis and his winter flight over the White mountains. Scurrility and vulgarity there was in plenty. But this was hushed when the parson came in for his toddy; or a deacon for his flip. Perhaps the deacon grinned over his mug at what he heard of the unfinished funny yarn, and proceeded, between his leisurely sips and smacks at his nutmeg and ginger, to tell some moral tale of Yankee thrift and enterprise. I think it was a deacon's tavern tale, about the Connecticut man who made nutmegs of wood and earned an honest fortune selling them to provin- cial housewives. The tale was told half humorously, half admiring the wit of the man. For in some such way our fathers laid a firm foundation for our modern "captains of industry" and horse traders. The deacon loved also to tell of the "old fashioned New England boy" whom Emerson has thus described: "A sturdy lad from New Hampshire or Vermont, who in turn tries all the profes- BOOK VIII. THE KING'S HIGHWAY 145 sions, who teams it, farms it, peddles, keeps school, preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to Congress, buys a township, in successive years, and always like a cat falls on his feet, is worth a hundred of these city dolls. He has not one chance; he has a hundred chances." This is almost a literal biography of J. G. Holland who grew up in this county many years ago, and of many another. The deacon went out thriftily at the end of an hour, smacking his lips from the second or third "bowl of flip," advising the boys not to drink over long and to save their money. The parson also had his type of tavern tale. The most popular was one about George Washington, his little hatchet and the cherry tree. This was originated by the Virginia Parson Weems; but it was told in New England until it was worn out. The parson also made Fox's Book of Martyrs a popular book of tales by his portrayal of the sufferings of John Rogers and his narrative of the " Massa-cree of St. Bartholomew." The Spanish Inquisi- tion came in also for a share of attention and the delight of all English blood, the story of the " Invincible Armada." Dropping into local history the story of The Angel of Had- ley grew and grew in the parson's telling, how the regicide General Goffe (the people supposing he were an angel from heaven), came out from his hiding to lead the wor- shipers at Hadley meetinghouse to victory against the "bloodthirsty and devilish salvages," and then disappeared from history. Of course much in these old yarns is pious fiction, worth preserving rather than disproving. For everything pointed a moral or adorned a tale. Soon after January 1, 1344, the tales of the traveler, and of the ballad-monger, and the voice of the town crier ceased in Montague. The following vote explains the 146 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE matter: "Resolved that we hail with joy the prospect of a speedy consummation of a Great Thoroughfare (Fitch- burg Railroad) from the Capital of the Commonwealth to the Connecticut river valley through Fitchburg by way of the Miller's river, Erving, and Northfield to the line of the state of Vermont." The original "Fitchburg" was from Fitchburg to Boston. From Fitchburg to Brattlebor- ough by way of Millers Falls, it was the "Massachusetts and Vermont" railroad. This section reached Grout's corner (Millers Falls) in 1848; and next year, Montague center; and in 1850, Greenfield. So, for two years, Mon- tague and Boston were the two most distinguished com- mercial points in the state. Samuel D. Bardwell built stores at Grout's and Montague on the line and did a large business handling merchandise for this section in- cluding towns beyond the river. One of his advertise- ments in the Lyceum manuscript paper of the time is preserved : Eighteen hundred and forty nine — Just off the railroad line, Old Colony nails, if sold by the cask, $4.00 a hundred is all that we ask. In 1866, the Amherst and Belchertown railroad was extended to Grout's corner, giving us a north and south thoroughfare this side the river from tide water to Brattle- borough. By this time the last vestige of ancient ways of travel, hereabouts, by land and water, had disappeared. So silent now are the king's highways and the river, we can hardly realize the poetry and life of them that is gone. We see the good old times pass on and go From less to less and vanish into light. And the new sun rise, bringing the new year. Book IX > The River THE river was first noted for its fisheries. Then the Indian corn fleet of 1637 was a prophecy of mightier commerce that was to come to the river, and make music out of industry for about a century. In 1732 began the first traffic in ship timber and building lumber down the river, which has never ceased. Lumber was brought down from Montague and Bernardston in 1772 to build Deacon Ebenezer Hunt's house in Northampton. The river be- came the greatest highway of commerce in New England. In Montague was a section of the first boat canal system in the United States. It was on the Connecticut the first steamboat was launched (several years before Fulton's " Clermont " on the Hudson) by Captain Samuel Morey of Orford, New Hampshire, in 1792 or '93. From him and his model Fulton directly derived the essential ideas of steam navigation. I shall first tell of fishing days. For the best account we depend upon Josiah D. Canning, the late "Peasant Bard" of Turners Falls (Gill side). The old fishermen used to say the shad came up from the southern seas in the month of May when the shad tree was in bloom; and coursing along, they sensed the spring freshets pouring down from the land; and were seized of fishy desire to climb the falls, and tumble in the sweet and sunny waters. Old timers all agree on astonishing tales of the vast number of fishes seen and caught along our Montague and neighboring shores. Many said, "one could walk on their backs across the river" when the shad pressed up the U8 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE stream. The salmon were not quite as numerous, but were often of immense size. A fisherman slung one by the gills on a stick over his shoulder; and as he walked off the fish's tail dragged on the ground. When the seines were drawn, sometimes as many as two thousand shad were taken at one haul, and often a giant salmon or two floundering in their midst. As many as five thousand fishes have been caught in a day by a solitary scoop net fisher. The prize fishing place was Burnham's rock, now under water above the Turners Falls dam. The usual places of fishing were where the water was most shallow or made a descent over rocks. Along the shores of the meadows, the day's catch, of different fishermen, was stacked like haycocks. And the meadows would be full of them, shad at one, two and three pennies to all comers. It was a cheap and abundant diet, and got the name of "Gill pork," reminding one of the historic codfish known as "Cape Cod turkey." Following the shad came the "lamprey" eels, clinging with their suckers to the rocks, and only less abundant in their season than the shad. The fishing season brought a motley crowd, like a county fair or a muster, from a wide region, to get a year's supply of fish to salt. There "came the gentlemen, the bully, and the idler," says Mr. Canning, and engaged in all the old time games, trials of strength, leaping, wres- tling and the like. But these scenes, interrupted by the dams of the Locks and Canal Company, from 1795 on, and compromised for a time by building fishways, came to an end by the building of the present Holyoke dam in 1849. The salmon had not been seen much after 1800. A lawsuit was brought; the fishermen got "fair damages," but no more fish. The whole story is told again by Mr. Canning in not unpleasing rhymes: BOOK IX. THE RIVER 149 All in the merry month of May, When snowy shad-trees blossomed gay To tell the fisherman the time When fish were plentiful and prime; — All in the merry month of May, Where Turner's pouring waters play, And lash and dash, and roar and bray, Were wont to gather there and then, Fishers of shad and not of men. All in the merry month of May, Back many years on time's highway, Upon old-time "election day," I've heard gray-bearded worthies say, Not only fishermen, so wet, With sweeping seine and scooping net, But other folk would muster there, As now they gather at a fair. From all the region round about They came, the gentleman and lout; The yeoman, whose spring work was done, Resolved to have one day of fun; The peddler, with his gewgaws fine, And ballads dog'rel, not divine; The bully of the country-side, In all the swell of hero pride; The gamester who was skilled to know The science of a lucky throw; The loafer, whose "chief end of man" Was "Go it, cripples, while you can; " The verdant youth from hillside green, Come down to see what might be seen And treat the dolce whom he led To penny-cake and ginger-bread; — A motley crowd of beings, wishing To see each other and the fishing. 150 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE Now ye who read these truthful rhymes And live in these noise-making times, When dams and mills and paddle boats And other craft the water floats, With all their din and cliek-ma-claver, Scare off the red-fins of the river, — Can scarce conceive what schools of shad Made our old fisher fathers glad. Their numbers did exceed almost The rapt one's countless heavenly host; Upon the bottom of the river Their fins like leaves were seen to quiver; And leaping salmon, though less plenty, Were grand as royal one and twenty. A single haul would bring ashore Some forty, fifty, sixty score; The fisher, who the scoop would duck, Would get St. Peter's sacred luck; A few hours toil, and you might heed Shad piled like hay-cocks in a mead. The fisher's fire is out ashore; The belleying seine is drawn no more; No more appears, when hauled to land, The silver winrow on the sand; No more the merry May days bring The jolly old time gathering, For all is changed; old scenes are past And fading from man's memory fast. Since art and commerce rule our river, Gone are our finny stores forever. Untrammeled nature brings no more This bounty to our storied shore. In vain ye look, ye watchful wishers! Gone and for aye, are fish and fishers. The river was in early times, as now, used for floating BOOK IX. THE RIVER 151 down vast quantities of loose logs from the New Hampshire forests. The tall pines of New Hampshire were, in special, sought by the king for masts for his navy. But the logs lodged on the shoals, and the farmers were sued for stop- ping them. The farmers in turn sued the lumbermen for damaging their meadows. And it has been suggested that it was like the famous case of Bullum vs. Boatum in which the bull had sunk the neighbor's boat and the boat had drowned the farmer's bull. July 11, 1785, and differ- ent years afterwards, there appears on the Montague records an "inventory of masts and mill logs" lodged on "Captain Gunn's island" and other Montague property. The mark of each log is given: H, BN, XOX, AX, etc. These records were used as evidence in lawsuits. The lumbermen eventually found it advisable to "box" and "raft" their logs and lumber. A raft was an aggregation of logs 40x60 feet. This was made up of six smaller sections 13x30, called boxes. At the canals and narrows the boxes were "drawn" sepa- rately. And the "drawing" was a science, especially over the rapids. Shanties were built on the rafts, just as is done to-day on some Canadian rivers. Sometimes a cargo of smaller lumber was carried on top. Boys, men, women and girls flocked to the shore to see the grand procession (when the rafts came down in the spring) and listen to the jolly singing of the men. With the box sections of boards and logs, the rivermen navigated all the lesser falls and rapids, taking all sorts of chances with a skill that was equal to most occasions. T. M. Dewey, formerly of Montague, an old riverman, in 1872 published in the Springfield Republican a series of personal recollections of river life and of the men. Before I have done I shall quote much of it. It is almost as 152 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE fresh as Homer in its keen sense of nature and love of men and the old time glory of the river. "Steve Morse was a queer compound of music, mirth and metaphysics, of logic, labor, language and loquacity, intermixed with a goodly proportion of the social as well as the vocal element which is sure to fix itself permanently in one's memory. Those who have heard him ring out the old song: 'The sea, the sea, the open sea,' on the soft evening air, as they floated by, while every man sat upon his oar, and not a ripple on the stream, while the gentle moon looked down . . . will never for- get how it echoed and reechoed among the mountains and through the groves." One time this Steve Morse had a lot of rafts waiting to go through the locks at Turners Falls. It would cost $800. He thought it too much and gave out word that inside the next twenty-four hours he would run the whole batch of logs loose over the falls. The agent fearing to lose the toll went to see him; and softened down to four hundred dollars. "Mr. Thayer," said Morse, "I'll give you just two hun- dred dollars to put that lumber through. Not one cent more." Then without further parley Steve, spying a great family Bible on a shelf in the tavern, shouldered it and started for the schoolhouse, the crowd following to see what he would do. His love of talk this time brought out a good Baptist sermon. He took up a large collection from the admiring followers. But Steve would not keep a cent of the money. He ordered it given to the poor. Mr. Henry, the tavern keeper, not to be outdone, opened his books and scratched out the accounts against Mr. Morse and all BOOK IX. THE RIVER 153 his men. The lumber all went through the canal that Sunday evening at Steve's price. "And the next night was flip night." Uncle Bill Russell was another long time toll gatherer after the locks were first built, "rough, honest, eccentric, faithful." Captain Spencer one time tried to beat him down on the toll. Spencer was a good man but had one oath, used on every important occasion. "By h — 1, Uncle Bill," said he, "that's too bad; that's altogether too high." Russell did not listen to him. Spencer followed him all over the canal yard. Finally, Uncle Bill turned and took the Captain's receipt and disappeared into his count- ing room. Soon he reappeared and handed the altered receipt to Captain Spencer (he had added another hundred dollars to the bill), saying, "There, by h — 1, see if you are satisfied now." Uncle Bill was worsted once by a Wells River raftsman, who sold him a couple of owls for talking parrots. "Dic- tionaries were no account when he discovered the cheat." The greatest glory and poetry of the river was in the boating. This began as we have seen long before the Revolution. It was merely improved, not created, by the locks and canals of 1795 and after. The Connecticut was originally navigable for vessels of twelve feet draft, thirty miles to Middletown; and for smaller sea-going craft, fifty miles, to Hartford. For flat boating it was early navigated three hundred miles to Wells River, Ver- mont, and even further. This is of course barring the carrying places, the longest one of which was the Great Carrying Place across Montague plain. Later when the locks and canals were built, then boats of twenty-five tons burden made the entire trip, while boats of forty tons 154 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE ascended to Montague City and Cheapside. Originally the boats were drawn up inclined planes on carriages from level to level of water, until the regular principles of a water lock were better understood and applied. The building of the canals was in itself a tremendous under- taking in its day. There was not money enough in the state to do it. Dutch capital was secured. The engineer- ing was also crude, as persons who had studied mechanics and even the general principles of physics, were few in the land. Extreme ingenuity, however, marked all that was done. And this led even to some valuable discoveries in the realm of mechanics as we shall see. Rum was a heavy cargo in the commerce of those days. Captain Flower of Feeding hills, for many years sailed between Boston and Hartford with rum and mackerel every spring, for the up river trade. When the cargo of rum came aboard the river boats, the boatmen had an interesting way of taking toll. Filling a bottle with water, they inverted it, with the open neck plunged into the bunghole of the rum barrel. The water, being heavier than the rum, sank; and the rum rose into the vacuum of the bottle. Of this they drank their fill. The act incorporating the "Proprietors of the Upper Locks and Canals" at Turners Falls was passed in 1792. The following summer, the engineer, Captain Elisha Mack of Montague, made some unavailing attempts to build a dam at Smead's island, but was foiled by the depth of the water. He hired a clever Scotchman, a professed diver, to work for many weeks on the invention of a diving suit, a water-tight bag or case for the body and with windows for eyes. But on the evening of the completion of the suit, the Scotchman proposed to celebrate by visiting a lady who lived up in the country. The grateful Captain BOOK IX. THE RIVER 155 Mack loaned the fellow his best gray horse. But neither horse nor rider were ever seen again. In 1793 Captain Mack completed a dam on the site of the present dam of the Turners Falls Company; and then began digging the canal. This was (minus recent enlargements) the same as the Turners Falls Company's canal to the Griswold mill. Thence it turned an angle slightly toward the hills and crossed the Montague City road near the present New Haven station, and followed close to the city road to a point west of the Fishing Rod Factory, and thence at a slight angle due south to the river along the bed of the little brook, Papacomtuckquash. Hophin King of North- field built the locks, several years later, to take boats and rafts 13x70. The boats were made of pine for the upper reaches of the river. They had no deck; and the boatmen lived on shore. But on the lower reaches they were of oak and fitted with living cabins. The usual method of propulsion was by main and top sails when the wind was up stream. At other times they went by the "white ash breeze," as the boatmen termed it, that is with poles twenty feet long having heads against which they pushed with their shoul- ders, two to six men on a side, according to the " hardness of the water." Up the swift places the green men strained till their shoulders bled, "the hardest work known to man." After 1826 steam began to be applied. The first steamer above Hartford was the Barnet, named for the town in Vermont intended to be the head of steam navi- gation. The new boat made five miles an hour up stream. "The farmer left his team, the merchant his store, the hired man shouldered his hoe and took to his heels, and even the girls and some of the mothers left their spinning 156 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE wheels and dish-pans and cut for the river to see the first steam-boat. A resident of Haverhill, N. H., celebrated the event in some rhymes, all but these two verses of which are lost: This is the day that Captain Nutt Sailed up the fair Connecticut. The second steamboat on the river was the Blanchard in 1828, followed by the Vermont and the Massachusetts. The Vermont plied sometimes as far north as Windsor, Vt. Then the John Led/yard was built in 1831 and went as far as Wells River. Another steamer plied between Bellows Falls and Mclndoes. The Connecticut Steamboat Com- pany had, in 1831, six steamers assigned to the different reaches. Among their fleet were the Adam Duncan, Wil- liam Holmes, and William Hall, costing $4800 each, and able to tow six luggers each. The luggers, once loaded, went through to the destination of the goods, between Wells River and Hartford. But this company made no money, and failed. After that, there were no steamers above the Montague canal. The Phoenix, Hampden, and Agaicam continued to ply below. The Ariel Cooley, afterwards named the Green- field, ran for years between So. Hadley and Montague canals and to Cheapside, for the Greenfield Boating Com- pany. She was a stern wheeler, ninety feet long, eighteen feet beam and had two twenty horse power engines. On the 18th of May 1840, when just above Smith's ferry, she burst both boilers, killing Mr. Wood, the engineer and Captain John D. Crawford, blowing him high in the air and landing him on one of the boats in tow. The fireman was blown into the river and escaped. Mr. Lancy the machinist was killed. One of the boats in tow was sunk, BOOK IX. THE RIVER 157 and several men on the other boats hurt. A new boat, also named Greenfield, took her place and was in service until the opening of the railroad to Springfield in 1846. Freight from Hartford to Montague canal was $7 a ton, and the luggers carried forty tons each. From this point I let Mr. Dewey tell his personal tale: "The 'Connecticut River Valley Steamboat Company' was in full operation in 1833, when I first became ac- quainted with the freighting business on the river. They owned a line of boats called 'luggers,' running from Hart- ford to the head of navigation at Wells River, Vt., and also several stern wheel steamboats, used for towing the same. As the steamers were too large to pass through the locks and canals, the first steamer would take them, sometimes four and even six at a time, as far as Williman- sett. They were then drawn over Willimansett by a strong team of oxen led by a span of horses, operated through the South Hadley locks and canal, and were taken by the next steamer above to Montague canal ; then by the next from Miller's River to the foot of Swift Water at Hinsdale, N. H., and, I believe, in a good pitch of water, as far as Bellows Falls; and so on. Other boating com- panies were engaged at the same time, and carrying large amounts of goods of almost every description used in country stores from Hartford to all the principal towns in the valley, freighting down with wood, brooms, hops, stoves, shingles, wooden ware and sometimes fine lumber. These companies used more convenient and serviceable boats, well rigged with main and top sails, running-boards and cabin, with rudder and helm instead of the steering oar. " On the Greenfield Montague reach were Stockbridge, Culver and Company, — David Stockbridge, David Culver, 158 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE J. D. Crawford, and T. M. Dewey (of Montague). They owned the steamer 'Ariel Cooley,' which took their boats from the head of South Hadley canal, and winding around the Smiling Hockanum and Old Hadley bends, and through the sinuosities of School-meadoiv flats, landed them at the foot of Montague canal. This run (forty miles) was gen- erally made in twelve hours, with four boats in tow, and through the night as well as daytime, unless it was very cloudy. "Above Turners Falls, after the collapse of the Connec- ticut River Valley Steamboat Company, all steamboating was given up, — freight-boats, smaller than those at the lower sections of the river relying on the south wind and the 'white ash breeze.' J. G. Capron and Alexander ran one or two boats in connection with their store at Win- chester, New Hampshire; Hall and Towns by way of Brat- tleborough ran two more, and supplied the merchants of that place and vicinity; and Wentworth and Bingham those of Bellows Falls. Other individuals and companies whose names I cannot recall, were engaged in this enter- prise; and the merry boatmen's song was heard far up the valley. "No department of the business of this country offered so wide scope of incident, and called into action so great a number of jolly, hard-working, determined and unself- ish men, as that of the Connecticut river in its palmiest days. They were the stoutest, heartiest, and merriest in all the valley, and there were few towns from Hartford, Connecticut, to Northumberland, New Hampshire, un- represented. If there arose any disturbance in city or town, it was a common thing to send for a few Connecticut river boatmen, and it was soon quelled. . . . These river-men might indeed be called 'sons of Anak,' as they BOOK IX. THE RIVER 159 were of prodigious strength. The names of Sam Granger, Tim Richardson, Charles Thomas, Bart Douglas, Mart Coy, Sol Caswell, Cole Smith, and last and stoutest of them all, Bill Cummins, would strike terror to all loafers, beats or bruisers in the city of Hartford, or wherever they were known. Cummins would lift a barrel of salt with one hand by putting two fingers in the bung-hole, and set it from the bottom timbers on top of the mast-board — I have seen him do it. "One Sabbath morning, in the spring of 1837 or '38, the boat of one of our oldest river-men, whose destination was Old Hadley, lay at the foot of Ferry street, Hartford, loaded and ready for starting. The men were variously employed. Some were smoking, some washing their cloth- ing, and some reading; but all of them were trying to 'woo the southern breeze,' which gave signs of immediate action. At this point the old captain came down to the river, eyeing the mare-tails in the southern sky, and told his men not to start if the wind did blow, as he was opposed to Sabbath work entirely. But as he was leaving he called ' Moses ' aside and handed him fifty dollars, saying, 'You may want it for toll and other expenses.' Probably Moses knew what that meant when translated into Con- necticut river English. The captain then returned to Bartlett's Hotel, took a glass of 'pep'mint,' called for his horse and carriage, and drove twelve miles to Windsor locks, where he found his boat and men trying to persuade Mr. Wood, the toll-gatherer, to let them through. The men were not dismissed for disobeying orders, for they had 'a glorious south wind.' "Now go with me from Hartford up the river on one of our best cabin boats, in a good south wind or by steam. First get under Hartford bridge; then up mast, hoist sail, 160 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE and we leave Pumpkin Harbor gushingly. On Windsor flats and Scantic we stir up the sand, but the wind in- creases and away we go. Steady there! Windsor locks ! Let off that brace; round with 'em; down sail. 'Jo, run along and get a horse ready while we operate through the locks.' And so we pass through Enfield canal, six miles by horse power; operate through the guard lock; up sail again, and leaving behind the roar of the falls, and the still louder roar of 'Old Country' Allen, our boat goes through ' Longmeadows Reach ' kiting with a ' bone in her mouth.' We pass Springfield on a close-haul, and soon reach the foot of Willimansett. Here Captain Ingraham hitches on a big team of six oxen and two horses, with a chain one hundred feet long, and draws us through the swift canal, called 'drawing over Willimansett.' We then cross over to the foot of South Hadley canal, operate through the locks, after paying toll to 'Uncle Si,' then through the canal, two miles, and if the wind is strong enough, sail out at the head, and on up the winding river." At this point Mr. Dewey gives an elaborate description of the difficulties of getting out through the swift waters at the canal's head, and of an ingenious machine invented by Harry Robinson, one of the pilots, by which the de- scending current turned a mill wheel aboard the boat and so kedging the boat automatically up stream. The boat- men called this machine a fandango. "Our boat has sailed on around Hockanum, and with a little aid from 'white ash,' around 'Old Hadley turn,' and now, after running the guantlet of School-meadow flats, which would puzzle an eel to do, has made the foot of Montague canal. And so on through the canal and through Miller's upper locks, and thence plain sailing to the 'foot of swift water' at Hinsdale. Here if the wind is North-nest view of Montague, (central part.) BOOK IX. THE RIVER 161 not very strong, we take in a few ' swift- water-men ' for twelve miles, then on to Bellows Falls, and the same over and over to Queechee and White River locks, up to Wells River. This is a good week's work, but it has been done in less time. A day's work with the poles, however, would be from Hartford to Windsor locks, — with a good south wind, from Hartford to Montague canal. Between the last-named places but little poling has been done in the lat- ter years of boating, as steam or wind was more available. "The down trips of these boats were a different thing. A boat loaded with wood, brooms, wooden-ware, hops, and other bulky articles was not an easy thing to handle in a wind. Pilots were necessary over the falls at Enfield and Willimansett. At the latter place Harrv Robinson held this responsible position many years, and Joseph Ely was his successor. At Enfield the signal strain of 'Pilot ahoy ! ' was heard at short intervals through each boating season, either for boats or rafts. This call brought out Jack Burbank, Alv Allen, 'Old Country' Allen, and Cap- tain Burbank, Sr., who would come aboard and draw cuts for the chance. The boat was then put into trim for 'going over,' oars and poles all handy, rigging properly coiled, and every man ready for any emergency. The channel is as difficult to run as that in the St. Lawrence from Montreal to Laprairie ; but the afore- mentioned pilots seldom touched a rock. This run of six miles was quickly made, when the pilot would sometimes get a chance to ride, but generally walked or ran back for the next boat. His fee was one dollar and a half each trip, and his was a laborious life. But they have all gone 'over the river' for the last time, except Adna Allen, formerly for twenty- one years pilot of the passenger-boats running between this city and Hartford, and who now resides in this city. 162 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE "It was a custom to 'break in' the raw hand on the passage of the freight-boats over Enfield falls, by showing him the silver mine at 'Mad Tom.' The initiate must get down close on the bow-piece to look for the silver, and when the boat pitched into 'Mad Tom,' and the water rushed over him a foot deep, he would generally retire aft and say he'd 'seen enough,' and it would require quite a number of gin-cocktails at Hartford to dry him ! "Some of the pleasantest days of my life were spent at the helm of the old steamer 'Ariel Cooley' in passing up and down between South Hadley and Greenfield, — some- times with four or six boats in tow, sometimes with only two, the down trip being usually made without any, — as we wound around the placid Hockanum of former days, before the impatient river, like many a would-be reformer of the present day, concludes to straighten things, and so cut a channel through its narrow neck, — that is, cut its throat, — with Mt. Holyoke on our right, looking majesti- cally down upon our boys, who were quietly enjoying the scene, as if saying to them, 'Come up higher,' while the carpeted meadows of Northampton seemed as urgently to invite their attention to their own realm of beauty. "This towing process was of great benefit to the men, as it gave them the leisure they so much needed to wash, to mend, and to refresh themselves and prepare for the hard work to come, when the steamer had taken them through. In this, as in other vocations, some will be remembered by their eccentricities, some by their reticence and others by their loquacity. I have listened till ' beyont the twal' to the anecdotes of Edmund Palmer and Bob Abbe. I have known John Sanborn to go the whole round trip from White River, Vermont, without speaking, and Dick Thorpe would talk enough to make it up ! Other BOOK IX. THE RIVER 163 notables were Captain Peek, who presided with so much dignity over the passenger-steamers from this city to Hartford, and who was said to have been arrested for smuggling! This was a line of small steamers first put on by James Blanchard, then of this city. The 'Massa- chusetts ' only could come up over Enfield falls, and many of this day can remember the sturdy form of the faithful pilot, Ad Allen, who so long guided these boats through storm and shine. Captain Increase Mosely, too, com- manded one of these boats awhile, — the best singer of Connecticut river; Captain David Hoyt another, — the complete story-teller. "Captain Jonathan Kentfield was also one of the early workers on this river, and ran a line of boats on his own account for a number of years. His distinguishing char- acteristic was pomposity, but he was considered a trusty and competent boatman. While he was in his best days, the body of a deceased member of Congress from Vermont was sent forward from Washington and came from New York to Hartford by steamboat, directed to his friends in Vermont, to go by first boat up the Connecticut river. None of the up-river companies were willing to take it. Finally one who knew the captain's weak spot (he was called 'Captain Don't') told him that the remains of a Vermont member of Congress had been forwarded to his special care to go up by his boat. 'Very well,' said Cap- tain Don't, 'Boys, do you hear that? Drop down the boat to the steamboat, and take the body aboard! How the people of the city of Washington knew that I was an old and experienced boatman, God only knows. I don't.' The boatmen took it aboard, taking a frequent sniff of something warm the while, and when fairly under way by the side of the up-river steamboat, Captain Don't called 164 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE his men and said to them, ' Come aft men, come aft, and take something to drink; dead bodies aboard, — ten or fifteen, p'haps, one sartain, — and who knows but what they died of some d — n spontaneous disease? Drink be- hind that hogshead, and don't, for God's sake, let General Culver see you!' "I should also speak of Abbe and Ensign, who boated so many years to Warehouse point; King Hiram Smith of South Hadley; Captain Sam Nutt, of White River; Tom Dunham, of Bellow Falls; and Rufus Robinson the most consummate waterman of the Connecticut river valley, who performed the feat of sailing a boat loaded with a valuable cargo through to Wells River, Vermont, the first time he ever went up river beyond Turners Falls. He also ran the 'Adam Duncan' minus her machinery, over South Hadley falls, and came safe ashore below. Yet with all his skill, his life was closed by his being carried over Holyoke dam, a few years since. Captain Granger, who had no superior on the river, recently died at the age of sixty-five. His old comrades hold him in affectionate remembrance. We have now left amongst us, of the men who formerly took part in the scenes I have described, Roderick Ashley, Stoddard Parker, Albert Gowdy, Adna Allen, and Sylvester Day, who with others I have named are and were good and substantial men." Greenfield, a good deal of the time, depended upon the landing at Montague City, on account of low water in the Deerfield river. A ferry ran over from the Greenfield shore long after the bridge was built. In 1828 David Wait of Greenfield was driving onto the ferry boat at Montague City, near the locks, when the boat parted its cable and sunk about six rods from the shore. Four horses were drowned and seven hundred pounds of cheese, BOOK IX. THE RIVER 165 ninety-one firkins of butter and eight hundred pounds of tallow were spilled in the river. Near the foot of the canal was a large store built partly over it so that goods from the boats were delivered directly into the back room. This was owned by Amos Adams and Elihu P. Thayer, the Thayer who succeeded 'Uncle Billy' Russell as toll gatherer for the canal. Ptolemy P. Severance of Green- field followed Thayer and continued as long as the canal was in use. About 1806 a dam and lock were built just below the mouth of Miller's river to make slack water at the French King rapids. The second dam at Turners Falls was built by Lieutenant Hale after the great flood of February 10, 1824, which carried away the South Hadley dam, the Montague City bridge and the dams at Turners Falls and at the French King rapids. Sol Caswell, a native of Montague, was foreman in replac- ing the dams here, as he had been in building the first dam at the French King. He was one of three persons known to have gone over Turners Falls and lived. The first was an Indian squaw; the second was the ferryman, in the days of Elisha Mack, the builder of the first dam; and the third Sol Caswell, while building the dam in 1824. He landed on the little island at the mouth of Fall river. Amongst the rivermen whom Captain Luey of Green- field remembers as having originated in Montague are the following: Captain T. M. Dewey (whom I have quoted, and who was a partner in the Greenfield Boating Com- pany), Rufus Ware, Jo Day, Chauncey and Henry Loveland, George, James, Charles, and Julius Martin, Sol, Almon and Bill Caswell, Harlow Humes, Chauncey Lincoln and William Hunter. Book X+ Drum Taps, 1786-1865 ALL the military interests of this town not already k. recounted will be dealt with here, up to 1865. Shays' Rebellion followed about five years after the Revolution. It was confined to the western counties of Massachusetts, although there were similar disturbances in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. The sole cause was the poverty of the people and their senseless efforts to collect of each other by process of court. Almost annihilated by the French and Indian wars, as we have seen, our valley had scarcely a dozen years of respite when we were plunged into the desperate war with the mother country. No section had suffered so much before; no section gave more now to the cause of the Revolution or gave more heartily. Many a thrifty man was wrecked by the Continental currency, repudiated by the bankrupt nation. People here went in- sane over suits at law whether in collecting debts or in defense where there was nothing but one's means of liveli- hood with which to pay. Debts simply could not be paid. Lawyers and courts as debt collectors were inopportune. The people were incensed against them. One man, for instance (one, however, who had too good sense to rebel), who owned several thousand acres of land in a Hampshire town and before the Revolution had spent strenuous years establishing and organizing a settlement and improving his property, was obliged to sell out to a Boston land com- pany, some time after he and his two sons went into the war. When he came home at the end of the war, almost a wreck, having left one or both sons on the battlefield, he BOOK X. DRUM TAPS, 1786-1865 167 found the money he had received was absolutely value- less. Nevertheless the courts maintained the validity of the sale. There was I believe an appeal made to the legis- lature for redress, there certainly was one made to Con- gress but without results. One of the finest and most energetic souls that ever lived died in miserable pov- erty, while others fattened on his life's labors. This was the Rev. Cornelius Jones of Myrifield (Rowe). There were thousands of tragedies like this in these counties. The lawyers and courts acted without sympathy towards the debtors, strangely unconscious of their numbers or the depth of their distress. They were debonaire and contented, as a man with a full stomach and without the grace of God, is sure to be, when others perish. They even argued, which of course was insolent. There were no arguments acceptable to a man fighting with back to the wall, except relief. The people decided to shut up the courts and hang the lawyers. At Colrain there were only two men dissenting from this program; and those barely escaped lynching. In Greenfield the people were pretty well divided. Some towns sympathized more and some less with the plan of shutting up the courts. Demagogues were active, of course. Sam Ely of Conway seems to have been a dema- gogue; and many foolish things were done by his advice. He seems to have been the chief spokesman of the rebel- lion. But he had no organizing ability or ideas like a Samuel Adams, whom no doubt he tried to imitate on a small scale, and no sense of the remedy appropriate. And yet there was reason in the cause, which enlisted many good men. Captain "Grip" Wells of Greenfield was one of them; and Captain Thomas Grover of Montague was another. He was Montague's first Captain of minutemen 168 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE in the Revolution. An even greater worthy than Grover, who threw his soul into the rebellion, was Moses Harvey. Harvey was also a minuteman who was in Grover's com- pany that responded to the first Lexington alarm. He was one of the first representatives of this district in the General Court and had been a member of the first com- mittee of correspondence. The name of Harvey was one of the very first established in our Montague geography which has never changed, the hill of that name honoring Moses Harvey's father. And Moses Harvey left his name to a section of one of the first highways, now abandoned, "Harvey's path." When Shays failed at Springfield and his men were scattered over the hills of Petersham, Moses Harvey came home and faced the music;. and his fellow citizens, who had so many times delighted to honor him, were now regaled with the sight of him sitting on the gallows one hour with a rope around his neck. He also paid a fine of fifty pounds. Captain Grover escaped to Worcester and from there issued an address stating the reforms he had expected to see put in force. In his pre- amble he modestly disclaims any purpose of calling atten- tion to himself, but feels that it is his duty to speak in defense of the insurgent cause, "because it has fallen to my lot to be employed in a more conspicuous manner than some of my fellow citizens in stepping forth in defense of the rights and privileges of the people, more especially of the County of Hampshire." And here is a resume of the reforms which he proposed : 1 . Revision of the consti- tution. 2. Total abolition of the Courts of Common Pleas and General Sessions of the Peace. 3. Location of the capital outside of Boston. 4. Dispensing with the office of deputy sheriff. 5. Dispensing with certain state of- ficers connected with finance. — A sufficiently radical pro- BOOK X. DRUM TAPS, 1786-1865 169 gram, such as a man contemplates when he orders the doctor to saw off a gangrened leg. Of course the rebellion was a pitiful affair from start to finish. It was the chills and fever of a people worn out by cruel labors and sufferings. The bad logic of it was, as Dr. Holland intimates, it was the people fighting them- selves for their own mistakes and failures. They must have patience with themselves. Justice, in matter of property and finance, cannot be settled by the talk of Sam Ely and a handful of ill-organized soldiers. It is a big subject, the biggest subject before the world still. None of the leaders of Shays' rebellion, however, seem to have received one ray of inspiration or uttered a single principle as a contribution to emancipation of the poor. Almost as pitiful as Shays' rebellion was our second war with England in 1812. The causes were very much the same, the waspish, worn-out nerves of suffering and ex- haustion. The country was a long time in recovering from the old wars. The wounds of the Revolution bled afresh with every latest slight of the big mother nation. And we had become just prosperous enough to feel bump- tious. There were undoubted acts of meanness, particu- larly upon the lonely ocean then ten times broader than now and more lawless where pirate law still ruled between civilized nations, and so when the baffled king's men met ours Alone on a wide, wide sea; So lonely 'twas, that God himself Scarce seemed there to be. And so we read, that in May 1811, the British sloop Little Belt fired upon the American frigate President, probably at the name. But immediately afterwards the Little Belt was probably sorry, being nearly cut in pieces 170 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE by the hot resentment of the President folk. Meanwhile Napoleon carrying out the fine law of nations in those days had gathered in several million dollars worth of American shipping, and we liked it. England on the whole was really trying to be good; and there was no excuse for American insistence upon war. When she saw that hot blood was up, she revoked some offensive "orders in council" and swore she would not search our ships, if we didn't want her to. But it was no use. Henry Clay and a group of bumptious Americans were afflicted with Anglo-phobia. On June 12, 1812, war was declared. On August 13, Captain Porter ran down the British ship Alert, unawares, and in eight minutes made her apologize to the stars and stripes. Six days later Captain Isaac Hull, of the Constitution, suddenly came upon the little Guerriere off St. Lawrence and, in a tower- ing passion of patriotism tore into her with his whole forty-four guns and sent her to the bottom with one hundred English heroes. It all happened inside of thirty minutes. On the 13th of October, the Wasp (named for the American war party) tackled the British Frolic (which was doubtless out only for fun) and carried it off bodily. Then the Hornet did some remarkable work. Finally John Bull thought he was being personally attacked and got angry and sent a lot of fellows over here to burn Washington, the main nest of the wasp and hornet fellows. Montague was disgusted at the whole thing from start to finish. Promptly upon receiving news of the declara- tion of war, a town meeting was warned July 13, 1812, Major Benjamin S. Wells presiding. Hearty disapproba- tion of the war was voted. A memorial to the President and Congress was adopted and generously subscribed to, BOOK X. DRUM TAPS, 1786-1865 171 praying that war might cease. Also Doctor Henry Wells was sent as a delegate to a Convention at Northampton "to consider the state of the country." That convention representing our three valley counties, also condemned the war. Never but one Montague man, Chester Taylor, volunteered service in that war. Fifteen others were drafted, however, as members of the state militia. The town took no note of their names, offererd no bounties, made no provision of any kind for the alleged cause. That was a last recrudescence of the old Revolution fever, that came from a bitter grudge against England. It was as illogical and unnecessary as Shays' rebellion. Its main, if not its only accomplishment, was to furnish a lot of exciting incidents for a long line of boys' story books, highly flattering to juvenile pride in bumptious victory for victory's sake. The land then had rest for thirty years, during which we grew rich and powerful. The per capita wealth of New England in the '40's (and there were no great for- tunes whatever) was said to have been the greatest of any community of equal size in the history of the world. The average intelligence and mental activity was correspond- ingly great, perhaps the greatest since Athens in the days of Pericles. Population swelled immensely; and we had begun to settle the great spaces west of the Alleghanies, and to establish there our successful democracy; when another foolish war came upon us, the Mexican war of 1845. Philosophically speaking, one would judge that war as a deliberate case of national wickedness, the crimi- nal outcome of coveteousness, of course chargeable directly to the slave power. But Massachusetts had formerly been a slave state and had never done anything constitu- tionally to stop the iniquity of buying and selling human 172 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE beings. In fact in Indian times Massachusetts had been a cruel example in trading off Indian families to West India planters, generally for some slight offense against arbitrary Christian laws. A few personal servants were held as slaves by the wealthy; but local slavery died out, not on moral or constitutional grounds, but from economic desuetude. That is, because slave labor being the least skilled of all labor, had no large areas of land, ready fer- tilized and prepared by nature for cropping, in New Eng- land, to furnish any economic basis for its use. That is why slavery ceased here and in England and other Euro- pean countries. Slavery was on the point of dying out in the south until cotton was introduced, a crop that could profitably employ a large amount of least skilled labor, on virgin soil. Cli- mate, soil, and wide uncultivated areas combined for a few years to give slavery a vigorous lease of life. But the southern lands were soon worn out; and the masters were compelled to seek "fresh fields and pastures new." By this time, however, the economic and moral evils of slavery had become so apparent to people living outside its wast- ing, demoralizing grip, that there sprung up a determined opposition to its extension to new territory, beginning with the "Missouri Compromise" of 1820, on. Hence the bloody struggle in Kansas and Nebraska, and the en- croachment upon foreign territory in Texas. In 1836 Sam Houston had fought the Mexican troops in Texas and set up an independent republic. In 1844 the cotton planters wanted it for a slave state. But when it was annexed in 1845, they found it would never be enough. A boundary dispute arose and more land was taken from Mexico. James K. Polk who had been the "dark horse," pledged to assist the slave power, and BOOK X. DRUM TAPS, 1786-1856 173 elected President, promptly sent the United States regu- lars into Texas to back up all claims. Then another pretense was soon trumped up. Polk's troops were attacked by the Mexicans, who were defending their bor- der. This was made an excuse for taking the rest of Mexico. Most of the fighting of this war was like repelling the attacks of a swarm of mosquitoes. The Mexicans at that time did not seem to have the serious abilities of pro- fessional or natural fighters. The country was soon over- run ; and the capital taken. And when peace was solemnly declared our government at Washington arranged to take over a territory, (in addition to everything claimed before the war) as large as Germany, France, and Spain com- bined. The slave power was indulging happy dreams. And Mexican humorous cartoonists have ever since been pleased to represent Uncle Samuel in the figure of a fat hog. The north could not prevent the annexation of New Mexico, Arizona and California; but fought to exclude slavery from the conquered dominion. The "Wilmot proviso," and other measures following, worked to this end, and put the South at bay, fighting for its life. The attitude of New England towards the war of 1845 was well voiced in the Bigelow Papers, by James Russell Lowell : Jest go home an' ask our Nancy Wether I'd be sech a goose Ez to jine ye, — guess ycu'd fancy The etarnal bung wuz loose. She wants me fer heme consumption, Let alone the hay's to mow: Ef you're arter folks o' gumption, You've a darned long row to hoe. 174 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE Montague has no public record of connection with events of the Mexican war. But this much has been necessary to recount, to lead up to the feeling that was growing here against the institution of slavery. The war was generally condemned and democrats (more and more that party absorbed the pro-slavery elements) were hard to find. Anti-slavery feeling was running high in 1840, when "Uncle" Avery Clapp drew on the front yard fence at his house a picture of some negro slaves and a man with a cat-o-nine-tails lashing them. Underneath he put the word Protection. This was the rallying cry of the other political party, the Whigs. And the cartoon was intended as a satire upon that whiffling party, without any real issue but the "get elected" one, sometime called "practical politics." The Whigs had become so practical, in the election of 1840, that they did not dare risk their success even to ambiguous and lying promises as is usual with practical politics. They issued no platform. The same year, the Rev. Rodolphus Dickinson, a man who had lived long in the South and sympathized with the democrats, made a political speech in Montague. The late Samuel D. Bardwell remembered a single scrap, describing this staggering attitude of the Whigs: "Here's to the Demo- cratic party, tauntingly termed by their enemies, 'loco focos,' which being literally translated signifies 'light in high places.' But any light in any place is enough to des- pel the utterances of the whole Whig junto." In 1844 the Whig party stood out against the policy that made for war with Mexico. This emptied the party of pro-slavery men. Montague went almost solidly Whig, but cast three out-and-out anti-slavery votes, those of Samuel D. Bardwell, Joshua Marsh, Jr., and Elijah Gunn. Before another election, it became apparent to many BOOK X. DRUM TAPS, 1786-1865 175 that the Whig party, as organized, could never be trusted to lead the country in any straightforward way on the issue of slavery, as it was coming to be clearly defined. So the Free Soil party was started. This seemed to satisfy the anti-slavery sentiments in all parties. Montague was the first town in the region to win an election on this issue. In 1848 the Free Soilers sent Joseph Clapp to the legis- lature. Afterwards they elected Alpheus Moore for two successive terms. In 1852, the national election year, the Whigs proved so hopelessly few, they never seriously entered the field again. The Democrats availed themselves of their complete control to break down the old "Missouri compromise," which had prohibited slavery from the territories. In 1854 Kansas and Nebraska were so reorganized that min- ions of the South could camp in them long enough to set up slavery and retire. This was called "squatter sover- eignty." Montague had a very earnest word to say on this matter, while the Kansas-Nebraska bill was pending in Congress. March 6, 1854, it was "resolved that the 'Missouri compromise' is a solemn compact between the North and South and that the 'Kansas and Nebraska bill' (which had passed its third reading in the senate) is frought with evil tendencies." It was further the belief of our citizens that "the Missouri compromise broken down, we are at the mercy of a Caligula or a Nero." It was also voted to instruct our representative at the Gen- eral Court, to introduce an order requesting Edward Ever- ett (who had shuffled the issue) to resign his seat in the United States Senate. This same year the Republican party was organized. And when in 1860 the vote for president was counted, it was found that Montague had given, of her 234 votes, 211 for Abraham Lincoln. 176 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE The following years were scenes of mustering troops and shattered stragglers home returning. Of all sad wars we cannot help feeling, this one was the worst. Brother's blood was steeped in brother's on a vaster scale than the world had ever known. Hell reigned for four years. And when great victories came to the North, they came with sobs and crying; for had we not been embrued to our horses' bridles in kindred blood? And underneath all, a deep moral sense of relief, of a titanic quarrel of a genera- tion ended. The North was right; and all honor to her men who stood up to the guns of "Union and freedom," when the South had lost all moral stamina and principle. But after all is done and said, the chief result of the Civil war was in bringing itself and the quarrel of thirty years to an end. The honor of this is due to the just, humane man Abraham Lincoln and every human being who sup- ported, him and when it was over shared his "charity to- wards all." As a part of that charity we must recognize that the South was fighting for life and home as circumstances had developed them. None of us are so fond of throwing off the habits and circumstances in which we and our fathers for generations may have been comfortable and even happy and suffered and loved much. And so for me, though a northerner of pure Republican and Puritan tra- ditions I cannot help dropping a tear also on the graves of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson and their men, praying God that such great loving hearts may stand al- ways like a wall of fire around the homes we love. But for North, South, East and West together I pray that we may learn to leave to Him who has made life, to settle all matters of its taking away; and that we may henceforth bend our energies and self sacrifice to developing the hardly BOOK X. DRUM TAPS, 1786-1865 177 touched resources of the earth, rather than contending for the few scraps of property now above ground; and for securing each man in what he actually earns. I will now outline the chief things in Montague Civil war record. May 2, 1861 : voted uniforms for the soldiers, at the expense of the town; to give soldiers leaving a wife, $10 a month, $3 a month for each child, and $3 for a dependent aged mother; to give the use of the town hall for drill; to raise and appropriate $1000 to carry out these purposes. May 11, 1861 : voted to rescind the vote of May 2 relat- ing to the pay of soldiers; and voted to pay $1.00 a half day for men drilling, and to borrow $500 for this purpose. November 4, 1861: voted to appropriate $500 to aid families of volunteers; to open the town hall free of ex- pense for all war matters, including the work of the ladies for the soldiers. July 24, 1862: voted to give $100 bounty for each of the seventeen volunteers enlisted to fill the towns' quota under the President's call for 300,000 men; to borrow $1700 for this purpose. A subscription was opened and $1875 was subscribed. September 8, 1862: voted to give $100 to all men in service under the last call for nine months men; to pay $100 to each of the three surplus men who volunteered. March 2, 1863: voted to raise $4000 for state aid to families of volunteers. Here is the list of men in service May 1, 1863: Guy Bardwell, Dennis Boswell (died), David Burnham, Chas. K. Burnham, Truman Bowman, J. D. Boutwell, J. A. Bascom, Erastus Burnham, Lewis A. Drury, Henry J. Day, James W. Horton, G. C. Kaulback, James M Mat- thews, C. A Murdock, James W. Potter, Alfred Pierce, 178 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE H. W. Payne, George D. Payne, Charles W. Peeler, J. S. Pierce. G. S. Pond, Henry Taylor, Jr., Albert Smith, Lucian H. Stone, W. Cheney Stone, John P. Sawin, Par- ley H. Smith. Frederick Sanderson, Manley Stowell, A. Monroe Webster, Charles B. Wait, George Wait, G. N. Watson, Charles P. White, W. II . Spear. Levi Brizzee, C. Holden. S. D Phillips, E. L. Goddard (died), John Mealy, Douglas Stevens, S. O. Amsden (died), Patrick Britt, Christopher Arnold (died) S. S. Shaw (died). May 6 1864: voted to raise $8000 state aid for families of the volunteers ; to give $125 bounty to each of ten men who shall volunteer or be drafted to fill our quota. The men seem to have been drafted and $1250 was raised. June 4, 1864: voted to borrow $3000; to call for twenty- four volunteers and three more to make out our last draft for our quota for this year: to raise $2200. July 1, 1804: a list of men in service, with their ages and regiment numbers; Jedediah Bout well 33-52d (injured) David Burnham 25-10th, C. K. Burnham 23-34th, Levi Brizzee 20-2?th, Patrick Britt 36-10th, Oscar Britt 25- 27th, Moses H. Bardwell 18-«d Heavy Artillery. Joseph Burns 28-30 Battery. W. G. Boutwell 22-8d Battery. William E. Bardwell 19-2d Heavy Artillery, Otis E. Cas- well 35-32d, Andrew L. Cooley 18-2d Heavy Artillery, Henry Dickinson 27-10th, Henry Dewey 42-10th, Lewis A. Drury 39-2?th, E. S. Dewey 23 57th, James S. Day 18- 2d Heavy Artillery, E. Payson Gunn-drafted, Charles D. Gunn 34-25th, E. L. Goddard 27-31st (sick), J. W. Hor- ton 34-34th, Dwight D. Holden 22-27th, George C. Kaulbaek 20-10th, H. W. Loveland 25- (in war). Fred- erick A. Loveland 23- (in war), Emerson Newton 18-34th, Truman Newton 27-34th, Marcus Newton 26-34th, J. P. O'Meeley 24-31 st, Joseph Potter 38-10th, Walter HOOK X. DRUM TAPS, 1786-1805 179 Pierce 20- (in war), Meander Patriek 25 (in war), Brigham S. Ripley 21- (in war), Elihu Rockwood 22- (in war), Frederick Spaulding 28 31st, Stephen F. Spauld- ing 22-3d, William II. Spear 24- (regular), Albert Smith 34 10th, Charles I). White 29-27th, George Wright 24 10th, Fredereiek E. Wright 18-2d Heavy Artillery. This list serves to illustrate how young the men are who usually go to war. April, 1805: voted to raise $1500 for families of volun- teers. There were in all about 3500 men from Franklin County serving in the "Civil war," of which Montague sent 120 out of a population of fifteen hundred or about half its able bodied men. Following is the list: E. S. Dewey, 10th, (). E. Caswell 32d, Guy Bardwell 10th, I). A. Boswell 10th, Patrick Britl 10th, S. S. Waterman 34th, Philip Atwood 10th, (). II. Littlejohn 10th, J. W. Potter 10th, David Burnham 10th, Walter Pierce 34th, Albert Smith 10th, C. K. Burnham 10th, Alfred Pierce 27th, Cyrus Marsh 34th, Brigham Ripley 27th, J. W. llorton 37th, J. W. Matthews 1st, L. H. Stone 52d, C. W. Stone 52d, H. W. Payne 52d, George D. Payne 52d, A. M. Webster 52d, L. I). Could 53d, Henry Taylor 52d, Chas. B. Wait 52d, George F. Wait 52d, John P. Sawin 52d, Truman Bowman 52d, Charles A. Murdoek 52d, G. N. Watson 52d, Charles P. Peeler 52d, S. S. Shaw 52d, J. D. Boutwell 52d, Chris- topher Arnold 52d, Henry J. Day 52d, A. H. Sawin 52d, J. S. Pierce 52d, George F. Adams 52d, J. L. Andrews 52d, E. N. Marsh 52d, John A. Bascom 52d, Erastus Burnham 52d, George S. Pond 52d, Parley H. Smith 52d, Frederick Sanderson 52d, Henry W. Sandford— P. H. Goddard 26th, E. L. Goddard 26th, Otis Spencer 27th, Julius Clapp 27th, Truman Ward 27th, Frederick A. Spaulding 26th, Stephen 180 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE Spaulding 26th, Joseph Burns 22d, Charles D. Gunn 25th, William H. Adams 10th, E. F. Hartwell 10th, Dwight Armstrong 10th, George Reynolds 10th, David Pratt 10th, Frank Ripley 10th, John Brizzee 34th, Dwight Stewart 27th, A. E. Stevens 27th, Meander Patrick 26th, Edward Mawley 10th, Marcus Newton 34th, Tyler Williams 10th, Ethan A. Taft 37th, Morton E. Taft 27th, Levi Brizzee 27th, E. D. Burnham 10th, C. A. Clapp 10th, O. E. Cas- well — L. A. Drury 27th, Henry Dickinson 10th, George P. Holden 27th, D. D. Holden 27th, H. W. Loveland 27th, Frederick Loveland 27th, L. D. Phillips 23d, E. R. Rock- wood 10th, Manley Stowell 52d, William H. Spear 21st, T. O. Ansden 27th, Joseph F. Webster 10th, Charles P. White 27th, Charles C. Brewer 52d, Charles B. Gunn 52d, A. L. Cooley 27th, E. N. Stevens 27th, D. A. Stevens 27th, Oscar Britt 27th, James K. Knowlton — , Moses C. French 10th, George C. Kaulback 10th, John P. O'Meley 31st, Munroe Wright 10th, Gaines T. Wright 10th, E. W. Whitney 34th, Geo. A. Wright 10th, Otis S. Munsell 22d, E. P. Gunn—, W. E. Bardwell 2d Heavy Artillery, M. H. Bardwell 2d Heavy Artillery, F. E. Wright 2d Heavy Ar- tillery, James S. Day 2d Heavy Artillery, Truman Newton 34th, Emerson Newton 34th, William G. Boutwell 3d Battery, Henry B. Graves 3d Light Artillery, W. J. Potter 34th, Edward L. Loveland 1st Heavy Artillery, D. L. Warner 12th, Charles Webster— C. N. Lawson 27th, R. N. Clapp 52d, Laureston Barnes — . The following lost their lives in the service: Guy Bard- well, D. A. Boswell, O. H. Littlejohn, Cyrus Marsh, Brig- ham Ripley, J. M. Matthews, S. S. Shaw, Christopher Arnold, John A. Bascom, P. M. Goddard, F. A. Spaulding, Dwight Armstrong, Frank Ripley, A. E. Stevens, Tyler Williams, E. A. Taft, M. E. Taft, T. O. Amsden, D. A. BOOK X. DRUM TAPS, 1786-1865 181 Stevens, Gaines T. Wright, E. P. Gunn, William G. Bout- well, Warren J. Potter, Levi Brizzee. Here follow brief chronicles of the three Massachusetts regiments in which the Montague boys were most numer- ously enlisted. The Tenth Massachusetts Infantry was made up largely of the 10th Mass. Militia. It responded to the call of May 15, 1861 for three years men. It rendezvoused at Springfield the 14th of June. Colonel Henry S. Briggs was put in command. It left for the seat of war July 16, and sailed from Boston to Washington which was reached July 28. A few of the men were taken into the gunboat service of the West on the 5th of Feb- ruary, 1862. March 26, the 10th entered ship and was taken South against Richmond; and it was initiated May 31 at the battle of Fair Oaks. General Keys, who "had led a hundred regiments in battle," said, "their conduct was unparalleled in the whole war." July 1 they were in the front lines at Malvern Hill. Jan. 5, 1863 Colonel Henry L. Eustis was in command. In the spring of 1863 G. C. Kaulback of Montague, Lieutenant in Co. B., had charge of a balloon corps on the Rappahannock. May 3 the regiment was in the battles of Salem Heights and Chancellorsville. About the middle of January the Rev. Perkins of Montague became chaplain. He built a log chapel for religious services and organized a lyceum. May 5, 1864, they were in the battle of the Wilderness where they lost one third their number. May 12 they were at Spottsylvania, and June 3 at Cold Harbor. Then they came back to Springfield to be mustered out July 1, 1764, what was left of them — 220 men. The Twenty Seventh Regiment was organized at Spring- field September 20, 1861, under Colonel Horace C. Lee. It reached Annapolis Md. the 5th of November 1861. It 182 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE saw battle at Roanoke Island February 7. It was in the battle of Newbern N. C. March 11, 1862; Gum Swamp May 20, 1863; Arrowfield Church (Va.) May 9, 1864; and on May 15, Drury's Bluff, where a quarter of its number were captured and taken to Libby prison. One hundred men of the twenty seventh died in southern prisons. After Drury's Bluff the regiment was reorganized under Major William Wa'lker. June 3 it was in the battle of Cold Harbor, where Major Walker was killed. The com- mand devolved upon Captain Caswell and on June 13 was transferred to Captain Moore. June 18 the regi- ment was at Petersburg, one of the hottest battles of the war. In that vicinity it was continually under fire until August 27. On September 27, 1864, 179 men were mus- tered out at Springfield. March 8, 1865 the remainder of the regiment was captured at Goldsboro. In all, 430 men had been prisoners. The Fifty Second Regiment was organized in 1862 at Camp Miller in Greenfield under Colonel H. S. Greenleaf. The men were enlisted for nine months. They reached New Orleans November 19. They were employed in the investment of Port Hudson and on strenuous marches scouring the surrounding country for many leagues up and down the river. They were, at one stretch, twenty- five days in the siege lines before Port Hudson. And this was the first regiment after Grant's taking Vicksburg, to ascend the Mississippi. Probably no regiment has been as well written up as the 52d Massachusetts, in Colonel Greenleaf's history, and in James K. Hosmer's The Color Guard written on the field in a most stirring literary style from personal experiences. Of the closing scene at Port Hudson he wrote: "The clash of the hostile forces here had been tremendous. It BOOK X. DRUM TAPS, 1786-1865 183 was impossible to think of the Northern power except as a terrible fiery tide, which, responding to some tempest breathing of God, had hurled itself upon this outpost. I came when the storm was gone, and could see the mark of the sublime impact. The sea had torn its rugged zig- zag way through the bosom of the hill and plain, dashed against battlement and cliff, and reared at the bases until it had hollowed out for itself deep, penetrating channels. Everywhere it had scattered its fiery spume. Within the citidel lay siege-guns and field-pieces broken and dented by blows mightier than those of trip-hammers; wheels torn to bits; solid oaken beams riven as by light- ning; stubborn parapets dashed through almost as a loco- motive plow dashes through a snow-drift, — these and the bloody garments of men." Book XI -+- Old Town Memories Transcript of Notes made by R. P. C. of a Conversa- tion had with Samuel D. Bard well of Shelburne Falls in August, 1895. SAMUEL D. BARD WELL born in 1819 on the Chaun- cey Loveland place. Left Montague in 1856. In 1834 the old church bell, which had been bought by subscription, was taken down in the night lest some of the people who had subscribed to it should make an objection. Henry Taylor was employed to do it. It was cracked in the process of lowering. It was afterwards hung in the new church. In the spring of 1833 I went into Carlos Allen's store. This was in what had been a hotel kept by Col. Spencer Root, who afterwards moved to Greenfield. He married an aunt of mine. Allen ran it two or three years. I collected for him one year. The store was in the south end of the building in a wing. No country store then could live without a good stock of liquor. There ^vere three stores then in the village. The other two were Ferris & Ward in the basement of the present hotel, and Delano at the upper end of the street. Used to work until eleven o'clock in the evening. Was awakened frequently in the morning by calls for rum. My father lived then in the north part of the house. My father moved from the Chauncey Loveland place in 1833. First after moving lived in this building; next we lived on the Chenery farm — I I Brick Cburch Town Hall (one story building) a Avery Clapf , bouie built about 1838 The Hunter pla state senator. 16. Sanford Goddard 17. J. H. Root 18. Joseph F. Bartlett 19. Clapp Wells \ 20. Isaac Chenery hi S h sheriff of Franklin County. Latest Indian Finds SINCE this volume went to press two significant discoveries have become known to the writer. Rufus Thornton in the early summer unearthed an Indian "kitchen heap" in the lot between Domer's Lane and the Central Ver- mont railroad near the Harvey hill road. The heap contained an arrow point, pieces of war paint or cosmetic, a broken stone knife blade and numerous scraps of highly ornamented pottery. William Marsh has shown me two Indian sacred symbol stones, figur- ing seemingly the spread wings of the "thunder bird," the war god, one very rare with eye pierced for standard, the other slightly carved to sug- gest feathers, both beautiful. These relics were found at different times within the same circle of ground which seems to have been made softer and clearer of stones than the surrounding gravel, one hundred rods east of Willis hill, west of Lake Pleasant, in the middle of Montague Plain, at the point where Kunckwadchu, the sacred mountain most im- pressively punctuates a wide horizon of hills when the August sun or the February moon is highest in the heavens. We guess that this was an important ceremonial place. The dreamy King Philip may have been consulting his dusky oracles on this very spot the night of Captain Tur- ner's descent upon Peskeomskut. For it is recorded that the Indians were celebrating a period of festival in their old haunts. APPENDIX 249 Conventicles {A Footnote to Book VI) 1HAVE just heard a story of the Rev. Aaron Gates, commonly called "Priest Gates," which illustrates the difference between the estab- lished church, whether Catholic, Episcopalian, or Congregational, and the mild appeal to character and feeling of to-day. Some people were holding a meeting by night, possibly a Baptist prayer meeting or a Unitaiian study club or yet perchance an Episcopalian vestry, in some outlying schoolhouse. The quivering form, like a wraith, of Priest Gates suddenly glided from the shadows of the doorway. With right hand uplifted he advanced, with all eyes upon him, to the center of the open floor and in the name of God, the Son, and the Holy Ghost and by the authority vested in him by the Commonwealth of Massachu- setts dissolved the assembly. His uplifted arm and his whole body scarcely moved until the last sullen file, too rebellious for protest had dissolved into the outside shadows, and he turned to meet the muttered indignation of the leader of the "conventicle" with biting words of scrip- ture, unanswerable — unless at the polls of free men. And then Priest Gates mounted his horse and rode away through the woods. The con- venticle as by instinct promptly leassembled in the long kitchen of Ju- dah Wright or the coopei 's shop of Thomas Bagg. Priest Gates left for his monument the Solley place now occupied by the Montague Agri- cultural School and commonly known by the name of Thaxter Shaw. The material was dug from the clay bank a few rods west in the ravine to make the most lordly place in Montague town. A few years later the "Red Church" was dug from the same bank. Route of Hatfield Captives ON the morning of September 19, 1777, the Indians, who had been scattered after Philip's war, descended upon Hatfield taking cap- tive seventeen persons, mostly women and children. On their route north through the ruins of Deerfield they captured Quentin Stock- well, discovered rebuilding his house. During the night the Indians crossed the Deerfield mountain, making "strange noises as of wolves and owls and other wild beasts, to the end that they might not lose one another; and if followed they might not be discovered by the English," 250 APPENDIX says Stockwell. At daybreak they took their captives over the river to a point just below Montague City. There they made on the trees a record of their exploit, quarreled over ownership of the captives, and waited some time for a foraging band to come up with food and horses. From there they followed a trail to Peskeomskut Falls and there in the afternoon crossed the river again to the Gill shore. During this march through Montague Stockwell fainted from old wounds received in the Indian war and expected to be killed when he suddenly revived and marched away with the band into the northern woods. The Indians were a remnant of the Hadley tribe which once occupied a part of Mon- tague. They sold their English captives to the French. Lake Pleasant FOR forty years there has been growing up, in the center of the town but not of it, a summer camp of seveial hundred cottages. The New England Spiritualist Campmeeting Association has been the chief agent in building up this summer city. In a large airy hall in the grove it carries out an annual month's program. The first attention given to the Lake however was in 1870, when George W. Potter of Greenfield acquired land near the present railroad station on the lake shore, established a rude picnic outfit in the grove and started off with an old folks' outing from Greenfield. For four years the charming resort grew in favor for political and temperance conven- tions and holiday outings. Amongst the distinguished speakers imported in that period were General Benjamin Butler and Senator Henry Wilson. In 1872 Mr. Potter sold to the railroad company, who put up a dancing pavillion and railroad station with other accomodations and generally made the grounds serviceable and attractive to pleasure seekers, in- cluding the driving of "Jacob's Well." Throngs then resorted to the place from every quarter all over the county and adjoining country. In 1874 H. A. Buddington and Dr. Joseph Beals at the suggestion of J. J. Richardson, a caterer — all of Greenfield, became active in organ- izing a Spiritualist campmeeting to be held annually at the Lake. Con- sequently 75 tents, including a large bell tent for meetings, were soon pitched on the "Bluff" and "Montague street," in August that year. Im 1879 the campers, after five years of lively and very picturesque success, incorporated their organization with the present name. APPENDIX 251 In 1880 a laige three story botel was built under the sanction of the Association by H. L. Barnard of Greenfield. The Association also ac- quired by lease the property in the grove belonging to the Fitchburg railroad. By this time 90 substantial cottages had been built and the whole of fifty acres divided into campers' lots and occupied. There were two thousand residents that year. The place became, in short, a Mecca for those of the Spiritualist cult. Id 1887 The Lake Pleasant Association, a new organization of the nature of an improvement society, bought the campmeeting grove for $15,000. Then having completed its work of providing many modern conveniences, including water works and an electric light plant, sold out to the Campmeeting Association and dissolved. On April 25, 1907, one of the sensations of this town was the burning of the hotel and pavillion at Lake Pleasant and about half of the cottages, in all 112 buildings. There remains, however, a good deal of vitality in the camp as well as power of fascinating beauty in this sacred lake of the Indians. For the past three years have seen a considerable rising from the ashes; and contracts have just been let for rebuilding the hotel. The attractions of the season just closed at the temple included many entertainments, musical, literary and dramatic. The spirit of the management has been liberal towards culture and live thinking of every brand. One cannot help thinking, if town and camp should some day think of pulling together, what an unusual chance for an ideal rural playground with a distinctive rural stage for literary and historic pag- eants and native drama. INDEX Note. — In cases of a lower page number following a higher, as 125, 28 28, understand 126, 128, etc. Abandoned farms, 102 Abbott, Kendall, 37 Abenaki, 51, 66 Abercrombie, D. P., 200 Abolition, 37 Adams, Amos, 165 George F., 179 Joel, 127 Lieut. John, 127 Lieut. Josiah, 127 W. H., 180 landing, 42 Alexander, 104 Allen Brothers, 203 L., 135 Myron B., 203 Alliance, Women's, 213 Ailing, Edward, Jr., 81 Allinnackcooke, 57 Allis, Eliphalet, 20, 86, 105, 109, 125, 215 Elisha, 27, 122 William, 17, 20, 84, 86, 127 Zebediah, 86, 109, 127, 217 Alvord, Josiah Clark, 86, 105, 107, Amidon, Charles, 220 Amherst & Belchertown R. R. General, 95 Amsden, T. O., 178, 180 Anabaptists, 112-115, 119 Anarchy, absurd fears of, 114 Andrews, Hon. Chas. B., 36 E. Benjamin, 39 Elder Erastus, 35, 38 Emery P., 35 J. L., 179 146 Andrews, Jesse, 190 John, 220 Moses, 132 Angel of Hadley, 145 Anti-slavery, 36, 174, 175 Aristocracy, 109 Arithmetic, Pike's, 216 Armada, 145 Arms, William, 83 Armstrong, Deacon, 133 Kate, 193 D wight, 180 Arnold, Christopher, 178-180 Articles of Confederation, 129 Arts & Crafts, 213 Atwood, Philip, 179 Aupaumut, 74 B Babbitt, N. E., 220 Bagnall, Cecil T., 200 Bailey, Miss, 38, 223 Baker, 84 Daniel, 127 Ballard, Daniel, 105 David, 107 Philip, 127 Ball, Emery, 16 Bancroft, Melvin, 207 Bangs, Cephas, 190 Banks, 200 Bard well Ancestry, 189 Bardwell, Arza, 188, 190 Enoch, 20, 85, 89, 106 Gideon, 19, 85, 89, 96 Grant, 18, 19 Guy, 177, 179, 180 254 INDEX Bardwell, Luther, 195 Medad, 128 Moses, 178, 180 Robert, 19, 89 Rodolphus, 118, 190 Samuel, 19, 20, 85, 96, 105, 107, 115, 125, 127, 132, 144, 190 S. B., 135 S. D., 35, 132, 140, 174, 194 Warren, 19, 35, 116, 133, 139, 188 William E., 178, 186 Barnes, Noah, 130 Laureston, 180 Barrett, Benjamin, 83, 86, 108 Isaac, 86 Jonathan, 86 Bartlett, Edgar L., 36, 186 Gideon, 217 Joseph F., 38 Bascom, John A., 177, 179, 180 Battles, 181, 182 Beeman, Daniel, 81 Bell, 111 Benjamin, Abel, 135, 190 Caleb, 127 D. A., 135 Joel, 130 Lieut., 129 Bible, 152, 229 Billings, Capt. Ebenezer 1st, 84, 86 Ebenezer, Jr., 83, 86 Fellows, 86 John, 86 Billings, Jonathan, 86 Mill, 28, 57, 82 Samuel, the smith, 83 Samuel 2d, 86 Bishop, Peter, 122 Bissell, Gustavus, 35 Blockhouse, 89 Bloody morning, 144 Blue laws, 112 Bly's Debating Society, 36 Boating, 153-158 Bodman, Manoah, 84, 86 Book of Martyrs, 145 Borthrick, Til, 127 Boston Store, 203 Boswell, Dennis A., 177, 179, 180 Boundary, 18, 110 Bounty, animal, 143 scalp, 89 volunteer, 130, 131 Boutwell, J. D., 177-179 W. G., 178, 180, 181 "Box," 151 Bradford, Rev. Moses, 116, 231 Brewer, Chas. C., 180 Bricks, 188, 213 Brick church, 108, 191, 195 Bridges, 106-108, 119, 136-138, 140 Bridgman, James, 84 Jonathan, 86 Briggs, Col. Henry S., 181 Brigham, Cephas, 35 John, 86 British goods, 125 Britt, Oscar, 178, 180 Patrick, 178, 179 Brizzee, John, 180 Levi, 178, 180, 181 Brooks, 84 John, 117, 127 Moses, 127 Brown schoolhouse, 143 Bryce, historian, 104 Bulkley, Jonathan, 200 Moses, 200 Bullum vs. Boatum, 151 Burnham, 84 Chas. K., 177, 178 David, 127, 177-179 E. D., 180 Erastus, 177, 179 Josiah, 127, 131 rock, 148 Burns, Joseph, 178, 180 Bushnell, 84 Caesars, 104 Calumet, 71 Cambridge, 126, 127, 128 Canal, 41, 100, 147-165 INDEX 255 Candy, 212 Canning, Josiah D., 147, 148 Canonchet, 81 Captivity, 90, 197 Carnegie building, 61, 224 Carrying place, 136, 153 Carver, Mrs. Abigail, 217 Caswell, Sol, 165 Otis E., 178, 180 Center, 31 Chapman, Matthew, 201 Chapmen, 125 Charter rights, 126 Chauncey, Chas., 86 Chenery, Hollis, 31 Isaac, 38, 220, 224 Nathan, 188 Christian religion, 73 Church, Samuel, 111 Churches, 231 Citizenship, 117 Civil war, 39 Clapp, 84 Avery, 36, 174, 212 C. A., 180 Cyrus, 193 Elihu, 193 Eliphaz, 16, 190 Elisha, 127 Erastus, 194, 212 Geo. A., 208 Joseph, 31, 37, 194, 195, 217, 226 Lieut. John, 16, 26, 95, 108, 110, 130, 217, 226 Julius, 179 Deacon Richard, 16, 25, 117, 133, 190, 194 R. N., 180 R. P., 180 Clark, Lieut. William, 58 Clark & Chapman, 202 Clary, Carver, 38 Joseph, 84 Lieut., 86 Samuel, 86 Clerk, 107 Cobb, Anson, 61, 208 Cold brook, 100, 191 Colle, F., 203 Color Guard, The, 182 Combs, Joseph, 127 Joshua, 127 Committee of Correspondence, 122, 23, 29, 30 Safety, 129, 30 First school, 215 Common, 31, 116, 191, 217 lands, 102, 26, 90 Conant, Edward, 220 Concord, 126, 29 Congregational church, 104-106, 112, 113 " Conk " shell, 25, 106, 110, 111 Connecticut, defense of, 132 troops, 59 Conscience, 228 Continental Congress, 125, 26, 28, 29 Conversation w. Deacon Clapp, 190 Joseph Clapp, 194 L. Rowe, 191 S. D. Bardweil, 184 Cooley, Abner, 87 Andrew L., 178, 180 Ensign, 86 Simon, 83 Corbin, Stephen, 112 Corn fleet, 147 house, Root's, 215 Corroheagan, 18, 53, 54, 56, 57 Counterfeit, 143, 44, 209 Country stores, 184, 85, 86, 87 Country Time & Tide, 214 Cowdry, Nathaniel, 86 Covenant, half-way, 228 Cox, Simeon, 127 Coy, Dr., 140 Cranberry brook, 101 Creamery, cooperative, 213 Crocker, C. T., 199, 200 J. A., 198 W. P., 199, 200 Cronyn, Rev. David, 220, 24 Cross, F. C, 212, 14 Crowfoot, Stephen, 83 Currier Jonathan, 109 256 INDEX Cutlery, 202 D Dam, 148, 155, 164, 165, 207 Dame schools, 215 Dancing, 193, 231 Davis, W. T., 198 Day, Henry J., 177, 179 James S., 178, 180 Sarah, 196 Joseph, 42 Deacon seat, 111 Deane, Dr. E. A., 220, 224 Decadence, 102 Debates, 111 Declaration of Independence, 120, 28 Rights, 127 Democracy, 102-104, 109, 110, 112, 16, 19, 32 Democrats, 174, 175 Desmond, Frank, 36 Dewey, E. S., 178, 179 Henry, 195 T. M., 151, 157, 158 Dickinson, Henry, 178, 180 Joseph, 84, 86 Moses, 86 Nathaniel, 83 Rev. Rodolphus, 117, 39, 74 Thomas, 55 Dike, Augustus, 209 J. & Sons, 209 Dinosaur, 46, 47 Disestablishment, 116, 231 District schools, 218 Division of land, 84, 86 Domer's Lane, 193 "Don't," Capt., 163 Douglas, Joshua, 87 Downes, Samuel, 86 Drake, 195 Drinks, 141 Drury, Lewis A., 177, 78, 80 Dugan, Rev. W., 31 Durfee, 31, 191 Dustin, W. P., 200, 201 Dyke Mill, 208, 210, 214 E Education, 107 Edwards, Jonathan, 230, 231 Eliot, John, 52, 60, 75 Election, 142 Ellis, 84 Elmer, Edward, 86 English tongue, 222 institutions, 104 Episcopalian faction, 117, 18, 90 Esleeck Paper Co., 202 Established church, 115 Estabrooke, Aaron, 31, 217 Eustis, Col. Henry L., 181 Ewers, Henry, 127 John, 127 Falls fight, 60, 93, 98 Families in Montague, 103, 15, 38 Fanueil hall, 122 Farren, B. N., 199 Fast day, 91 Fay, Benjamin, 224 G. F., 200 Federal street, 16, 26, 29, 32, 83, 84, 92, 134, 36, 38, 85, 88, 91 Ferries, 138, 40, 56, 64, 65, 200 Ferry, Col. Aretas, 30, 117, 207 Feudal, 109 Field, Alfred, 186 Jonathan, 86 Joseph, 86 Joseph, Jr., 84 Deacon Phineas, 63 Deacon Samuel, 88 Fine, church, 116 province, 215 Fire, 31, 215 First church, 116 Fisheries, 147-150 Fishing Rod Factory, 155 Fitchburg R. R., 146 Fletcher, Alice, 67 Floodwoods, 37, 188 Footprints, 44, 47 INDEX 257 Foreign goods, 135 Fort Allis, 16, 92 Forts, 17, 88-98 Franklin Guards, 37, 188 Frary, Nathaniel, 81, 85 Freeholders, 105-109 Free Soilers, 37 French King rapids, 137, 165 French & Indians, 14, 88, 89, 119, 144 Fuller, Asa, 127, 130 Fulling mills, 29 Funeral sermon, 229 of Washington, 192 G Gage, B., 135 Gates, Rev. Aaron, 112, 14, 15, 16, 230, 31 General Court, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23, 30, 87, 100, 101, 118, 126, 75, 215 Gilbert, George, 134, 192 Gill, 60 Gilmore N., 220 Glooskap, 51, 53, 66, 67 Goddard, E. L., 178, 179 P. H., 179, 180 Sanford, 37, 38 Goddard's brook, 101, 136 Gookin, Daniel, 75 Goss, Joshua, 127 R. L., 220 Gould, L. D., 179, 180 Granby, Reuben, 127 Grassy pond, 136 Graves, Benjamin, 83, 86 Ebenezer, 86 Henry B., 180 Isaac, 83, 86 Jonathan, 84, 86 Noah, 86 Great Pond, 100, 136 River, 16, 56, 57 Spirit, 73 Green, historian, 102 Greenleaf, Col., H. S. 185 Green River Works, 220 Griesback, Wm., 218 Griswold, Joseph, 201 mill, 155 Grout, A. W., 220 Martin, 139 Grout's corner, 138, 146 Grover, 84 Ebenezer, 127 N., 135 Capt. Thomas, 100, 136/ / £ 7 Guard, harvest, 88 Gunn, 103, 195, 197 Apollos, 187 Mrs. Apollos, 31 Asahel, 31, 110, 127, 129, 132 Chas. D., 178, 180, 194 Eli, 132, 133 Elihu, 20, 35, 185 Elijah, 20, 174 E. P., 20, 83, 134 E. Payson, 178, 180, 181, 185 Erastus P., 35, 185, 193 Henry, 118, 193 Israel, 31 Deacon John, 31, 86, 110, 125, 27,29 Mrs. Lyman O., 132 Dr. Moses, 27, 122, 25, 26, 27. 28, 29, 215 Moses, Jr., 31 Nathaniel, 20, 84, 86 Lieut. Nathaniel, 23, 27, 122, 28, 31 Otis B., 186 Phelps, 20 Salmon, 132, 193 Samuel, 84, 86, 127 Widow, 86 H Hadley founders, 99 Hale, Lieut., 165 Hampshire towns, 130 soldiers, 95 Handicraft, 214 Handicrafts, 213, 214 Hartwell, E. F., 180 258 INDEX Hartwell, Jonathan, 38 Harrington, Thomas F., 211 Harvey, Jonathan, 127, 144 Moses, 23, 27, 122, 27, 34 Samuel, 20, 83, 86, 107, 108, 215 Samuel, Jr., 86 Widow, 86 Harvey's path, 134 Haskins, Mrs. Welsie Gunn, 143, 216, 226 Hazelton, C. W., 199, 200 Henchman, Capt., 60 Hennepin, Father, 73, 79 Herschel, Clemens, 200 Hewed logs, 108 High school, 220 Highway robbery, 144, 209 Highways, 107 Hills, 83, 84, 87, 101, 102, 133, 134, 135, 138, 141, 191, 194, 215 History, 52d Regt., 182 Greenfield, 142 Hadley, 143 Hobmock, 64, 65 Holden, C, 178 D. D., 178, 180 Geo. P., 180 Holton, Merritt, 36 Homer, our, 152 Horton, J. W., 177, 178, 179 Hosmer, James K., 182 Nathan, 15 Hotel, Montague, 117 Hotels 193 House,' 185, 86, 87, 89, 91, 92, 93, 94, 215 Householders, Dry hill, 135 Hovey, Thomas, 83 Hubbard, Daniel, 86 Deacon, 84, 87 Isaac, 84 Isaac, Jr., 86 John, 55 Hunt, Deacon Ebenezer, 147 Hunter, Calvin, 38 Hunting hill, 20, 58, 83 brook, 84 Hunting Hills, 15, 16, 18, 81 90 et seq Ichnographs, 45, 46 Imperial, 119, 128 Independence, 130 Indian, 87 et seq. craftsmen, 78, 79 deeds, 55, 77 government, 77-79 lore, 66-74 relics, 61, 62 titles, 17, 52 tribes in Conn. Valley, 80 Irving, John, 101 Irving's land, 136, 137 Island, Captain Gunn's, 151 Smead's, 54, 59, 60, 61, 154 Jillson, C. H., 203 John Russell Factory, 201 Johnson, Jonathan, 16 Judd, Sylvester, 51, 76 Junto, Whig, 174 Kangaroo rat, 48 Kaulback, Geo. C, 177, 178, 180, 181 Keet, Deacon, 108 Lieutenant, 129 Thomas, 86 Keith Paper Co., 201 Kellogg, Bela, 194 Charles, 194 Ebenezer, 84 Joseph, 55 Kidd, Capt., 144 Kilburn, Joseph R., 208, 229 Kimball, Chas. F., 210 King, Hophin, 155 Ensign Simeon, 20, 30, 84, 105, 106, 107, 108, 127, 130 King Philip, 14, 17, 50, 59, 72, 81 Kinsley, 84 INDEX 259 Kings, Tudor, 104 Knowlton, James K., 180 Kunckwadchu, 53, 54, 57, 64, 90, 100, 140 Lafayette district, 84 Lake Pleasant, 17, 18, 57, 61 Lancy, Mr., 156 Landings, 135, 137, 138 Lands, 22, 23, 101 Larence, Samuel, 127 Lathrop, Rev. Dr., 23 Lawrence, Charles, 211 Col. Cephas, 211 Henry, 211 John, 212 Lawson, C. N., 180 Lawsuits, 148, 151 religious, 116 Leach, Deacon, 186 Lee, Col. Horace C, 181 Legislation, town, 110, 111 Leonard, Aaron, 86 Lexington, 127 Libby prison, 182 Library, 38, 223, 224 "Lightfoot," 143 Lincoln, Abraham, 175, 176 Littlejohn, O. H., 179, 180 Locks, 153, 54, 55, 57, 60, 64, 98 Log chapel, 181 Logs, 151 Lord, Capt., 188 Thomas C, 37, 117 Lord's day, 112 Loveland, Chauncey, 19, 184 Edward, 180 Frederick A., 178, 180 H. W., 178, 180 Luey, Capt., 164 Luggers, 156, 157 Lumber, 147, 151, 153 Lyceum, 35, 181, 223 paper, 146 Lyman, Fred, 133 M Machinery, 213 Mack, Capt. Elisha, 154, 155, 165 Mail coach, 138, 139 Main street, 29, 31, 141 Majesty's justice, 112 reign, 106, 109, 120 Manley, Ebenezer, 180 Mann, Benjamin, 29, 81 Mantahelant, 53, 56, 57 Manufactures, American, 125 March meeting, 107, 115 Market, Boston, 134 Hartford, 134 Marsh, Cyrus, 179, 180 Deacon Lucius, 190 Dpvtpr 44 45 Ebenezer, 15, 20, 61, 84, 86, 106, 107, 109, 127, 133, 217 Ebenezer, Jr., 86 E. N., 179 John, 86 Jonathan, 130 Joshua, 37, 117 Joshua, Jr., 174, 190 Mashabisk, 50, 53, 57, 100 Mass. & Vt. R. R., 146 Mattamooash, 55 Mattampash, 50, 52-57 Matthews, James M., 177, 179, 180 Maypoles, 231 Meadow fight, 96 Montague, 21, 52, 72, 83 Meetinghouse, 24, 25, 26, 96, 106, 108, 109, 15, 16, 17, 21, 91, 217, 26, 27 Melvin, Capt., 98 Merchants, T. Falls. 202 Mermaid, The, 98 Merrill, Rev., 31 Mettawompe, 56, 100 Militia, 130, 181 Millers Falls, 139, 146, 220 Mills, 134, 43, 92, 202, 207, 208, 10,11 Minister, Congregational, 230 Minutemen, 27, 28, 127 260 INDEX Missouri Compromise, 175 Mitchell, Joseph, 86 Mob, 117 Moderator, 107, 111 Montague, Capt. William, 98 Center, 136 City, 42, 57, 138, 154, 164 District, 100 family, 100 John, 98 Major Richard, 98, 144 Martha, 98 Medad, 84 Paper Co., 200, 201 Peter, 98 Richard, 98 Samuel, 84, 98 Monteacuto, Drogo de, 98 Moody, Mrs. Eli, 193 Mooney house, 84 Moore, Alpheus, 37, 175, 194, 220 Capt., 182 Monroe, "Daddy," 193 Morse, Steve, 152 Morse's shop, 212 Munsell, Otis E., 180 Music, 147, 152 Muster, 188 N Name, town, 103 Montague, 98 Nash, Judah, 115, 190 Rev. Judah, 24, 26, 106, 108, 110,35,27,30 Nepesoneag, 18, 55 New Clairvaux, 213 Education, 214 Eng. towns, 102 Newton, Deacon, 105 Emerson, 178, 180 Marcus, 178, 180 Truman, 178, 180 Nichols, Nathaniel, 127 Non-consumption, 125, 126 North, 176 Northampton, 130 Norton, Rev. Edward, 224 Norwottuck, 56, 57 Oakman, R. N., 39, 200, 220, 224 R. N., Jr., 201 Odin, 104 Officers, town, 107 Old schoolhouse, 191 O'Meely, John, 178, 180 Opera house, 203 Orthodox, 115, 16, 17, 18 Otozoum, 48 Owls, 153 Palisades, 16, 89, 92 Pamphlets, 123, 124 Papacomtuckquash, 17, 50, 56, 100, 155 Paris Exposition, 213 Parish, 20, 228 Parker, Capt., 188 Parties, 175 Partridge, Lemuel, 82 Pastures, 100 Patterson, David, 127 Patrick, Meander, 179, 180 Payne, George D., 135, 178, 179 H. H., 178, 179 Peace of Paris, 88 Pedlers, 125 Peeler, Chas. W., 178, 179 Moses, 208 Pepperell, Sir Wm., 94 Peskeomskut, 50, 61, 63 Pequoig, 50, 53 Perkins, Joel, 127 Rev., 181 Phillips, Elisha, 127 S. D., 178, 180 Philip's War, 81, 100 Pierce, Alfred, 177, 179 J. S., 19, 178, 179 Walter, 179 INDEX 261 Pilots, river, 160, 161 Pirates' Own Book, 144 Plain, Millers, 137, 140 Montague, 83, 86, 89, 106, 38, 43, 53, 93 Pocketbooks, 212 Pocumtuck Confederacy, 80 Pocumtucks, 50, 52-57 Political speech, 174 Pond brook, 133, 134 Pond, G. S, 178, 179 Poor farm, 191 Pound the Ring, 217 Postrider, 142 Potter, James W., 177, 179, 180 Joseph, 178 Warren J., 181 Pratt, David, 180 Prayer, day of, 126 Preaching, 96, 105, 107 Precinct meeting, 95, 105, 106 Pressey, E. P., 210, 213, 214 Mrs. Grace H., 210, 213 Prices, 129, 130 Priest, 230 Primer, New England, 216 Printing, 210 Proprietors, 21, 22, 23, 81, 84, 100, 154 Pro-slavery, 174 Province, 88, 106, 125, 126 land, 18 Provincial Congress, 126, 127, 128 Pryson, Widow, 26 Pupils at Center, 192 South, 194 Puritans, 23, 40, 52, 63, 76, 109, 12, 76, 228, 229, 31 Pynchon, Major John, 55, 57, 82 William, 77 Q Quinetuk, 50, 52 R Rafts, 151, 152, 155 Railroad, 130, 137 Rand, William, 86 Records, Montague, 95, 100, 151 Red shop, 207 Reed, Thomas, 59 Regiments, 181, 182 Register of Deeds, 187 Religions, 181, 227, 230 Reporter, Turners Falls, 200 Republican, Springfield, 151, 208 Revival, 230, 231 Reynolds, Geo., 180 Rice, C. H. & Co., 203 Oscar, 92 Richardson, Chas. A., 35 Israel, 86 J. Dike, 209 Ripley, Brigham, 179, 180 Frank, 180 Rist & Conant, 202 G. L., 202, 220 River, Deerfield, 165 Fall, 165 Miller's, 101, 133, 35, 36, 37, 76, 57, 65 Pequoig, 90, 91 Sawmill, 106, 107, 33, 34 trade, 154 Rivermen, 151, 58, 59, 60, 62, 63, 64, 65 Roads, 133 et seq. Rockwell, John, 35 Seymour, 34, 35, 186, 220 Rockwood, Elihu R., 179, 180 Rogers' Rangers, 140 Root, Capt. Spencer, 140 Deacon, 117 Elihu, 190, 208 Elijah, 117, 140 Elisha, 29, 138, 187 Harry, 190 J. H., 38, 187, 190, 224 Jonathan, 86, 105 Joseph, 19, 20, 29, 30, 31, 32, 83, 86, 95, 96, 100, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 12, 13, 141 Moses, 35, 185 Oliver, 217 Salmon, 185, 190 Selah, 190 262 INDEX Root, Solomon, 101 Rose, Widow, 26 Round ball, 38 Rowe, 84 Daniel, 133, 190, 192 George, 194 John, 192 Richard, 192 Rugg, Amos, 30, 212 Frank, 36 Russell, Daniel, 84 Jonathan, 86 "Uncle Billy," 153 Sabbath, 76, 106, 10, 42, 226 Salary, minister's, 115 Sanderson, Frederick, 178, 179 Sandford, H. W., 179 Sartel, Salvenus, 127 Sawin, A. H., 179 John P., 178, 179 Sawmill river ford, 92 Sawwatapskechuwas, 55, 56 Sawyer, Charles, 127 Ephraim, 86 Jedediah, 86 Saxon heart, 103 Sayings, 103, 186 School districts, 218, 221-223 Schoolhouse, 108 brown, 216, 217 in village, 194 meadow flats, 158, 160 new, 213 "Scotland," 21, 134, 190 Scott, Absolom, 86 Everett, 31, 217 Ira, 127 John, 30, 86, 108 Jonathan, 86 Reuben, 108, 109, 226 Richard, 84, 86 Samuel, 86 William, 84, 86 William, Jr., 86 Scouts, 88, 89, 91, 96 Scripture, 139, 229 Sea change, 104, 119 Searles, Joshua, 127 T. E, 212 Seaters, 108 Selectmen, 105, 107, 12, 30, 31 Self government, 123, 124 Severance, E. W., 194 Joseph, 96 Moses, 113 Ptolomy P., 165 Shaw, Roland, 88 S. S., 178, 179, 180 Thaxter, 39, 118, 88, 20, 24 Shays' rebellion, 166-169 Sheldon, George, historian, 51, 60, 62, 63, 75, 77, 208 Shepard, Frank, 28 Henry, 16, 28, 37, 92, 190 Joel, 28, 132 Shoe shop, 194 Simblin, Sieur, 90, 91, 92 Singing, 151, 152, 158, 163 Slavery, 174, 175 Smead, Ezra, 127 John, 90, 91 Samuel, 20, 105, 107, 109 Smith, Albert, 178, 179 Asa, 127 Daniel, 84, 86 Elijah, 127, 143 Ezekiel, 86 Hamilton, 133 Joseph, 84 Luke, 84, 86 Nathan, 109 ' Nathaniel, 84, 86, 129 Parley H., 178, 179 Rufus, 127 Samuel, 83, 86, 127 Samuel Billings, 86 Stephen, 86 Zebediah, 86 Soldiers, Revolutionary, 132 Solley, Mrs. G. W., 210 Rev. G. W., 218 Spaulding, Frederick A., 179, 180 Stephen F., 179, 180 Spear, N. H., 178, 179, 180 INDEX 263 Spencer, Capt., 153 Otis, 179 Spirit of '76, 132 Sprague, David, 83, 127 Ebenezer, 108, 109, 226 Stages, 139 Stamp Act, 120 Steamboats, 147, 55, 56, 57, 58, 62, 63, 64 Companies, 158 Stevens, A. E., 180 Chas. A., 199, 200 Douglas A., 178, 180, 181 E. N., 180 Stewart, Dwight, 180 St. Francis village, 144 Stone, Lucien H., 38, 178, 179, 194 W. Cheney, 178, 179 Stowell, Manley, 178, 179 Sunderland, 81, 88, 91, 92. 98, 100, 111, 134 line, old, 136 Sunkamachue, 56 Sun worship, 62, 63 Swampfield, 17, 18, 29, 82, 100 Tacitus, historian, 102 Taft, 84 Ethan A., 180 Merrill, 199 Morton E., 180 Taukkanackoss, 59 Taylor, Chester, 171 Henry, 184, 192 Ira, 192 Moses, 106, 111, 215 Nathaniel, 129 Obed, 190 Samuel, 20, 83, 86, 127 Zebina, 190 Taverns, 29, 117, 133 et seq. Tavern tales, 143, 144 Taxation, 116, 119, 122 Teachers, 194 Thacher, witch, 143 Thayer, Elihu P., 152, 165 W. W., 224 & Dodge, 212 Theology, 229 Thornton, A., 53 Rufus, 54, 57, 61, 83 Thread the Needle, 217 Three mile addition, 18 R's, 222 "Thunderbolt," 209 Tilden, Ben, 133, 134 Elisha, 132 Titles, 109 Toby, Mt., 100, 133 Toll, 152, 153, 154, 165 Toomer, George, 84 Tories, 128, 129 Town meeting, 96, 106, 107, 108, 14, 23 Transporting children, 220 Townshend Act, 121, 122 Trinity Church, 115, 139 Trizel, Elisha, 127 Turners Falls, 13, 15, 28, 59, 61, 147 et seq. Turners Falls Co., 198 Turners Falls Machine Co., 202 Tuttle, 84 Ebenezer, 84 Nathan, 86 Stephen, 27 Two mile addition, 18, 23, 101 Tyranny, 112, 113 Tythingmen, 26, 110, 116 U Unchurched, 116 Unincorporated land, 18 Unitarian church, 115, 116, 118, 119, 213 Village, Montague, 21, 58, 83, 84, 134, 188, 189 Shop, 212, 213 264 INDEX Virgin, E. H., 209 Vision, King Philip's, 233 Montague City, 235 Millers river scheme, 235-238 Old town, 239 Volunteers, 131 W Wadanumin, 56 Wages, 130 Walker, Major W., 182 Wait, Chas. B., 178, 179 David, 164 George F., 178, 179 War, Civil, 177 et seq. of "1812," 169-171 Mexican, 171-174 Ward & Lanois, 212 Elisha, 194 J. S., 207, 212 Squire Henry, 185, 186 Truman, 179 "Uncle Jock," 194 Warner, Daniel, 83 D. L., 180 Eleazar, 83, 86 Waterman, S. S., 179 Wattowolunksin, 50, 52-57 Weaks, Uriah, 12. Webster, A. D., 200 A. Monroe, 178, 179 Charles, 180 F. I., 202 Joseph F., 180 Weisbrod, Emil, 212, 218, 220 Wells, Col. B. S., 115, 190, 193 Clapp, 30, 190, 193 Dr. Henry, 38, 171, 193 Wennaquabin, 60 Whigs, 36, 173, 174 Whippingpost, 116 White, Chas. P., 178, 179, 180 Whiting, Thomas, 127 Whitmore's brook, 18 Whitney, Ebenezer, 132 Ephraim, 130 E. W., 180 Wild animals, 143 Willard, William, 84 Williams, Col. Samuel, 127 William, 105 Tyler, 180 Wilson, 84 Winslow, James, 130 Wise, C. P., 202 Witch, 143 Wood, Mr., 156 minister's, 108, 110 schoolhouse, 32, 191 Worship, neglect of, 112 Wright, 84 Carl, 212 Elisha, 127, 128 Dr., 61 Frederick L., 179, 180 Gaines T., 180, 181 George G., 61, 179, 180 Judah, 26, 27, 86, 122 Liberty, 133 Monroe, 180 THE END. ANOTHER WORK by the writer of The History of Montague The Vision of New Clair vaux, a reasonable dream of a life that partly is and partly is not in Montague. Handsomely printed, 8vo, 218 pp., $1.25 net. FORTHCOMING POETIC DRAMA, by the same writer The Tragedy of King Philip, events, historic and fancied, attending the "Falls fight" are shown in an atmosphere of conflicting Indian and Puritan ideals. Adapted for village pageants. Effective historic costuming described. By subscription only, $2.00. 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