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The 
 
 History of Springfield 
 
 in Massachusetts 
 
 FOR THE YOUNG ' 
 
 BEING ALSO IN SOME PART THE HISTORY OF 
 
 OTHER TOWNS AND CITIES IN THE 
 
 COUNTY OF HAMPDEN 
 
 CHARLES H. BARROWS 
 
 i|^ipj^::^;73<S'*A" 
 
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 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 The Connecticut Valley Historical Society 
 
 Springfield, Massachusetts 
 
 1921 
 
F74- 
 
 Copyright IQ2I 
 
 By 
 
 Connecticut Valley Historical Society 
 
 / 
 
 ©aA617437^ 
 
TO 
 
 THE CHILDREN AND YOUTH 
 
 OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 AND THE Neighboring Towns and Cities 
 
 THIS BOOK 
 
 written that they may know what is 
 interesting, good and true in the lives 
 of those who have gone before them 
 in this part of the connecticut valley 
 
 IS 
 DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR 
 
Pilgrim Edition 
 
 1620-1920 
 
 The Springfield celebration of the tercentenary of the 
 landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1620, 
 was held in January, 1921, under the auspices of the Con- 
 necticut Valley Historical Society. 
 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I.— Pages 1-20 
 
 Geological History of Springfield and Its Neighborhood. The Lay 
 
 OF the Land and the Run of the Water. 
 
 Poem: To the Connecticut River. 
 
 . CHAPTER n.— Pages 21-40 
 
 The Settlement. The Smithy. The Meeting-House. 
 
 Poem: The Works of God. 
 
 CHAPTER HL— Pages 41-58 
 The Early Government. The Pynchon Family. Witchcraft 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— Pages 59-70 
 
 King Philip's War and Its Causes. Battles and Burnings in the 
 
 Connecticut Valley. 
 
 Poem: The Statue of the Puritan in Merrick Park. 
 
 CHAPTER v.— Pages 71-86 
 King Philip's War Concluded. The Burning of Springfield. 
 Captain Holyoke and the Falls Fight. Close of the War. 
 
 CHAPTER VI.— Pages 87-102 
 Settlement of Chicopee and Other Towns. The Revolution. 
 
 CHAPTER VII.— Pages 103-112 
 Shays' Rebellion. The Constitution. 1783-1789. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII.— Pages 113-130 
 
 Old Times a,\d New. The Change to Modern Ways. The First 
 
 Steamboat. The Armory. Distinguished Visitors. 
 
 Poem: The Arsenal at Springfield. 
 
 CHAPTER IX.— Pages 131-144 
 The New City. Anti-Slavery. The Civil War. 
 
 CHAPTER X.— Pages 145-166 
 
 A Look Backwards. The Spanish War. The Twentieth Century. 
 
 Anniversary Hymn. 
 
 APPENDIX PAGES 
 
 INDEX PAGES 
 
Chakles Henry Barrows 
 
CHARLES HENRY BARROWS 
 
 "/ think a better man could ?wt be found in 
 Springfield. Sincere, single-minded, gentle of 
 nature, pure and honorable in life.'' C. G. W. 
 
 DESCENDED from the same Puritan stock that he 
 admired and from Wilham Pynchon himself, whose 
 character he has so carefully portrayed in the following 
 pages, Charles Henry Barrows was born in Springfield in Massa- 
 chusetts on August 4, 1853. His father, Charles Barrows, was 
 for many years the beloved Head Master of the school now 
 bearing his name, while his mother, Lydia Smith, was of West 
 Springfield heritage, having been born in the old farmhouse in 
 Tatham in which the Hessian soldiers were billeted during the 
 Revolutionary War. 
 
 Mr. Barrows was educated in the Springfield Public Schools 
 and at Harvard College and Law School from which he was 
 graduated "with honor" and whose Phi Beta Kappa Key he 
 always wore with pride and loyalty. His literary ability won 
 him distinction at Harvard and he was one of the early editors 
 of the "Advocate." Having been admitted to the Massachu- 
 setts Bar, he spent two years in Boston as Assistant Attorney 
 General of the Commonwealth. Returning to Springfield with 
 great joy after his public service, Mr. Barrows made it his 
 home for the rest of his life. It was the scene of the practise of 
 his profession in which he won great confidence and respect. 
 
 While devoted to the Law he had many other interests. 
 His love of the best in literature won for him the friendship of 
 many noted men of letters. His travels in Europe, often far 
 
from the wayfarer's beaten track, Mr. Barrows shared with his 
 fellow-citizens in long letters to the Springfield Republican, of 
 which he had been a Contributing Editor since leaving Harvard 
 College. 
 
 His battles with unsightly bill-boards and against the smoke 
 nuisance caused Springfield to be known throughout the 
 country as "Spotless Town" and letters so addressed were 
 delivered at our local Post Office. As Trustee and for some 
 years President of the Young Men's Christian Association Col- 
 lege of Springfield, Mr. Barrows was especially interested in the 
 foreign students and was doing Americanization work in his 
 own way long before the need of such service was generally 
 realized. He gave much time and interest to the wise distribu- 
 tion of the Horace Smith Fund and made many friends among 
 the boys and girls alike who were seeking a college education 
 without sufficient means of their own. 
 
 Mr. Barrows was a lover of children, of animals, of birds 
 whose songs and habits he knew, of trees whose lives he sought 
 always to protect and prolong. 
 
 Though longing for the time when all war should cease, he 
 was patriotically concerned in the World War and was a keen 
 observer of its course and psychology. Showing his patriotism 
 by serving as War Historian of the city by appointment of the 
 Mayor, Mr. Barrows collected much valuable material which 
 had to do with Springfield's share in the Great Conflict. On 
 the 18th of October, 1918, just as the bells were ringing and the 
 guns were firing in the prospect of a returning peace, his earthly 
 life ended and he was laid to rest in the Peabody Cemetery 
 which he knew so well and which he loved so much. 
 
 J. R. B. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD AND ITS 
 
 NEIGHBORHOOD.— THE LAY OF THE LAND 
 
 AND THE RUN OF THE WATER. 
 
 w- 
 
 The Site oh Spkim 
 
 SPRINGFIELD is located on the bank of a fine river. It 
 is true that the river is not deep enough for any but the 
 smaller craft, but in the summer many pleasure boats 
 skim over its surface. The city itself, as seen on the approach 
 from the west or south, with the !)road river in the foreground. 
 
NATURAL FEATURES 3 
 
 and its buildings rising on gradually retreating terraces, all 
 embowered in foliage, is, indeed, as was said of an ancient 
 city, "beautiful for situation." 
 
 Before the days of railroads, or even of good wagon roads, 
 the river was of great consequence to Springfield in the way 
 of commerce. It was by the river that the early settlers got 
 their beaver skins and other goods to market, floating them 
 down the stream and thence by sea to Boston. In the summer 
 the river helps to cool the heated air. From the city to its 
 source, near the Canadian border, it is about three hundred 
 and seventy miles and from the railroad bridge in Springfield 
 to the lighthouse at the river's mouth seventy-one and a half 
 miles more. The Agawam, which beyond Mittineague is 
 called the Westfield, is one of its principal tributaries. While 
 its name divides into three English words, this is a mere acci- 
 dent, yet it does cut in two New Hampshire and Vermont and 
 the eastern and western portions of Massachusetts and Con- 
 necticut. The Indians named the stream and in their language 
 Connecticut means "the long river." 
 
 This is but one of many Indian names that belong to the 
 locality of Springfield, some of which are in use today, like 
 Pecowsic, Nayasset, Chicopee and Agawam. Mittineague was 
 in Indian Menedgonuk, but has been worn by usage into the 
 smoother form. The Indian place-names which are left to us 
 in New England, like Wallamanumps, Massacksick, (Long- 
 meadow) and Massachusetts are not so musical as those in the 
 language of the western tribes, like Cayuga, Shiawassee and 
 Minnehaha; but they all have a meaning which is worth 
 finding out. 
 
 Besides her share in "the great river," as the English set- 
 tlers called it, Springfield has also a river almost all her own, 
 a little one, indeed, but just big enough to be called by that 
 
HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 name. Its sources are at the foot of the Wilbraham moun- 
 tains whence it flows by its north branch and south branch 
 till these meet at the Watershops pond. After tumbling over 
 two dams below the point of union the river loses itself in the 
 Connecticut, near York street. It was so useful in the earliest 
 times of the white settlers in grinding all the grain and sawing 
 all the lumber that they thought ' ' Mill River ' ' a good and 
 
 honorable name, 
 and if those 
 who come after 
 us are sensible, 
 by that name it 
 will always be 
 known. It still 
 turns the great 
 wheel at the 
 Watershops and 
 thus has a hand 
 in making the ri- 
 fles of the United 
 States army. 
 
 Next to Mill 
 river, the stream 
 that has been 
 most important 
 in the town's history, except the Chicopee, or rivers that 
 are no longer in the limits of Springfield, was the "Town 
 brook." The Town brook, called in its upper part "Garden 
 brook," rises to the east of St. James avenue bridge and flow- 
 ing down the valley, formerly divided near the corner of Spring 
 and Worthington streets, one branch going north and circling 
 to the north of Round Hill on its way to the river, while the 
 
 Mill River at the Watershops. 
 
 From " Marco Paul at the Springfield Armory," by Jacob 
 
 Abbott, 1853. 
 
NATURAL FEATURES 5 
 
 other branch reached Main street, near Worthington, and 
 flowed along the easterly side of the street, which it crossed 
 near York street and thence entered the river. But the waters 
 of the once famous "Town brook" are now diverted into 
 sewers, where they do a very useful, if very dirty work. The 
 brook as it flowed by Main street was once a clear, good stream 
 in which to fish. Such has been also the doom of other pretty 
 rural brooks that once flowed among grassy banks from the 
 slopes of the higher lands in now thickly settled parts of the 
 city. Some of them, before the days of steam, were ponded 
 by dams in order to create power for small factories. 
 
 One of these ponds covered the region of Avon Place. 
 There is a little brook which even today rises not far from the 
 corner of State and Walnut streets and flows, for its whole 
 course, unseen to the river, passing on its way just in front of 
 the High School. It once formed the "Card Factory" pond 
 and turned the wheels of a factory east of the Wesson Hospi- 
 tal. But in dry times the little brook was not able to do all 
 the work required of it; so it was helped by a huge mastiff, 
 who was made to walk in a treadmill and thus by the brook 
 and the mastiff together, was the machinery kept going, a 
 singular example of manufacture by dog power. Springfield 
 has even yet some share in the Chicopee river, which touches 
 its northeastern border, and to it Indian Orchard owes its 
 importance. 
 
 There are a number of natural ponds, mostly fed by unseen 
 springs. They either have an outlet under ground, or else the 
 water flowing in is so nicely balanced by the water passing 
 into the air by evaporation that they need no outlet. Where 
 this balance is destroyed by the lessening of the supply of 
 water, as by the cutting of trees, the pond diminishes in size 
 and incidentally peat is formed. An example may be seen 
 
HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 on the Wilbraham road beyond the North Branch. Goose 
 pond, at first called Swan pond, because of the swans that 
 stopped there on their spring and autumn journeys, was the 
 very largest pond, and stretched northward from Winchester 
 square. It was built over not many years ago. Two Mile 
 
 pond seems likely 
 • ••■..••■ to meet the same 
 
 ^ -'■'.' fate. Five Mile 
 
 • - pond, named from 
 -^"its distance from 
 
 ^^r^Ji^r^l ^ai^lBMMl M Mam street, is 
 w. \ ^'^^»^r^^^sm^^m^m9^mmmA\M'0 divided by' the rail- 
 road. Island pond, 
 so called from its 
 single island, a 
 floating bog, is nearer, but little known. Loon pond is a pretty 
 sheet of water and Venturer's pond is a pleasing feature of 
 Sixteen Acres. The Sixteen Acres mill pond is perhaps a 
 natural pond caused by a rock dam. In all there are ten 
 natural ponds. The map accompanying this chapter shows 
 the natural features and localities as they were in the days of 
 the original settlers of Springfield. 
 
 Before describing the lay of the land it is necessary to know 
 something of its history; how in the story of the earth's 
 making it came to be just what it is, its rocks and soil, its hills 
 and valleys. To do this takes us back, perhaps, millions of 
 years; for man's history is as nothing compared with that of 
 the rocks. Deep down below the earth's surface lies the real 
 floor on which all things above may be said to rest. It is com- 
 posed of the strongest and oldest of the rocks, called crystalline. 
 It was by the action of earth's great heat, melting and fusing 
 together the original raw materials of the world, that the 
 
NATURAL FEATURES 7 
 
 crystalline rocks were made. Look at a block of granite and 
 you will find it made up of several things that could only have 
 been got together by heat. 
 
 Although crystalline rocks lie at the bottom, they have 
 sometimes got pushed up by the mighty forces of nature and 
 so have made mountains. If you climb mountains even no 
 higher than those surrounding Springfield, and find an exposed 
 surface, you will come upon the hard rocks out of which they 
 are built. In the valley they are not seen because of the over- 
 lay of later rock and soil. Underneath Hampden county lies 
 a bed of gneiss, a rock resembling granite. It is quarried in 
 Monson and out of its blocks the Court House and Hall of 
 Records have been constructed. 
 
 After this solid old floor of gneiss was laid down, some 
 very interesting things happened in this part of the Connecticut 
 Valley, the story of which only the student of geology can 
 fully appreciate ; but something of it may be told here. There 
 was, first, the rising of the mountains; the easterly range 
 running between Wilbraham and Monson and the westerly, 
 through Blandford and other towns. This rising made the 
 Connecticut Valley. Then the whole valley between these 
 mountains, extending as far north as Greenfield, sank below 
 the level of the ocean and of course the salt water flowed in. 
 On the heights of the present Wilbraham, Blandford and other 
 towns where the highlands penned the waters in, the tide rose 
 and fell and the sea fishes, perhaps sharks, could swim from 
 East Longmeadow to Holyoke and beyond, so some geologists 
 think. Others believe that the Valley sank slowly and was 
 occupied at times by shallow lakes. In those times sand and 
 mud were being carried down by the Connecticut river from 
 the northern mountains in a way which will be described 
 further on, and dropped on the shores of this valley. Many 
 
8 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 reptiles and amphibian, large and small, walked on the soft 
 sand and mud. In the end this sand hardened and became a 
 rock called sandstone, having sometimes imprinted in it the 
 footsteps of these living beings. Sometimes too, raindrops 
 left their marks in the sand and the raindrops and tracks have 
 remained to tell a very old story in after ages. Specimens 
 like that on this page may be seen in the Science Museum; 
 but the best collection is in the museum of Amherst College. 
 
 Footprints and Rainprints in the Triassic Sandstone 
 
 OF THE CoNNECTICDT RiVER. 
 
 It is this ancient sandstone, called by geologists, triassic, which 
 is taken from the quarries of East Longmeadow. 
 
 It was while the water extended from the Wilbraham 
 mountains to the Blandford range that a great event happened 
 a few miles from S]:^ringfield, caused by the action of sub- 
 terranean heat. A great crack opened in the earth and up 
 rushed a mass of melted matter which finally cooled into the 
 hardest kind of rock, a rock called trap. After this, for a long 
 time, more sand and mud were brought down from the moun- 
 
NATURAL FEATURES 
 
 PTON 
 
 EASTHAMPTQ 
 
 tains. Again a crack opened in the earth, and another, thinner 
 layer of melted rock oozed out over the sandstone. At the end 
 of this outflow, pieces of the trap were thrown out with great 
 force and dropped into the mud near by. More sand and mud 
 were cemented into sand- 
 stone and shales over the top 
 of all this. The reptiles were 
 very numerous in these re- 
 gions, for one can find many 
 tracks or prints in these lay- 
 ers of sandstone. 
 
 Some movement of the 
 earth made the mountains, 
 east and west, rise higher and 
 the east side of the valley 
 dropped a little, as the tilted 
 rocks show. The Connecti- 
 cut river flowed faster, so 
 that it wore down the sand- 
 stone and carried nearly half 
 of it away. But the trap was 
 so much harder and tougher 
 that it was left standing as 
 two ridges of hills, Mount 
 Holyoke and Mount Tom, 
 
 and the long ridge to the volcano work: map by william our. 
 
 south, between West Springfield and Westfield, and the lower, 
 parallel ridge, Little Tom, with the ridge between Tatham 
 and Paucatuck, as well as Provin Mountain on which is our 
 equalizing reservoir. The trap rock also forms Titan's Pier and 
 Titan's Piazza. The volcanic rock can be seen exposed to 
 view in the trap rock quarries; also in the railroad cut between 
 
10 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 
 M- 
 
 Tatham and Paucatuck in West Springfield. Out of it is made 
 the macadam for the streets. The remains of the crater of 
 this long extinct volcano can still be seen, not far from Titan's 
 pier at the foot of Mount Holyoke. 
 
 It was after this that, in an era not so very far from 
 
 our own, perhaps, 
 another one of 
 Nature's great 
 forces, not directly 
 fire or water, but 
 connected with 
 "^ both in its origin, 
 <(^ set itself in opera- 
 ^tion to make 
 changes in the sur- 
 face of the earth 
 in this neighbor- 
 hood, and indeed, 
 over a large part 
 of North America. 
 This was the Great Glacier, a sheet of ice that, starting in the 
 Arctic regions, probably Labrador, extended, in some places, 
 half a mile thick all down the continent to a line drawn a good 
 deal south of Springfield. A mile measures the distance from 
 Court Square up State street to Pleasant street or from Court 
 Square down Main street to Mill River. The glacier was, as 
 all glaciers are, really a great ice river; for it flowed slowly 
 southward, bending itself to go over the mountains in its course 
 and bearing the fragments along with it. These fragments, 
 when the glacier finally melted, were dropped in places far 
 away from their starting point and are now called boulders. 
 In some places they are thickly strewn, but are not so common 
 
 Boulders Dropped by a Glacier and Water-Worn 
 Cobblestones. 
 
NATURAL FEATURES 11 
 
 in the immediate valley, for reasons that we shall see. One of 
 them, however, now making a memorial stone on Benton Park, 
 was found on the highlands near Brush Hill in West Springfield. 
 
 The mountains, composed of the hard crystalline rocks, 
 like the White mountains, and of trap, like Mount Tom, stood 
 firm against the grinding power of the glacier, but many of 
 the hardened deposits of sandstone were worn down. We 
 cannot always tell just what damage was done to the sand- 
 stone by the glacier and just what by the wearing away of it 
 by the waters; but if you notice how high Mount Sugarloaf 
 stands above the meadows of South Deerfield and Sunderland, 
 and even how the sandstone hill at the south end of Main 
 street is higher than the land around it, you will see how much 
 bed-rock has been carried off to Connecticut which was once 
 alongside. This bed-rock, broken up fine, as it would be by 
 gradual water wear, makes the red earth so common in parts 
 of Springfield, East Longmeadow, Suffield, Hartford and other 
 Connecticut towns. At Locust street the sandstone is close 
 to the surface and the sewer is cut in the solid rock which ex- 
 tends southerly from a corner of the South Main street school. 
 The long narrow rounded hill at Pasco Road, Indian Orchard, 
 was made by the glacier and is a typical drumstick. 
 
 When the great glacier melted away it left a big pond 
 bottom stretching from Middletown in Connecticut on the 
 south to Holyoke on the north, easterly to the Wilbraham 
 and west as far as the range of hills that separates West Spring- 
 field from Westfield. This big bottom became filled with water 
 and is known to geologists as the vSpringfield lake. For a long 
 time this lake remained, the deepest part being gradually filled 
 with layers of clay. When you leave Court Square for Holyoke 
 in the street cars your course is along the old lake bottom, the 
 banks on either side being in plain view, until you reach the 
 
12 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 top of the bank itself at the Holyoke City Hall. The powerful 
 current of the Connecticut, entering the lake at the gap between 
 Mount Holyoke and Mount Tom, as also Chicopee river com- 
 ing down from the northeast, made important changes in the 
 lake bottom. What were they? 
 
 Away to the north were the mountains of crystalline rocks, 
 the White mountains and the Green mountains. Heat, cold 
 and frost were slowly wearing them away. Pebbles and sand 
 came from them and fell into the little streams that ran among 
 the hills. These pebbles and sand were carried downward by 
 the streams into the great river. The river carried them into 
 the great Springfield lake. The deepest part was in the western 
 section, the part east from about Winchester Square being 
 nearly or quite filled up. If the current was powerful it carried 
 the pebbles further; if it lacked, then not so far: the sand, 
 being lighter, would always go further than the pebbles. We 
 have called the large pieces of rock, pebbles; but when they 
 started on the southern journey they were rough edged. By 
 tumbling over each other in their downward course they 
 became rounded into pebbles. It was because this process 
 was kept up for ages that the crystalline rocks underneath 
 Springfield are covered deep with something quite different. 
 Where the pebbles fell in masses they made gravel beds, the 
 like of which can be seen on the line of the railroad, not far 
 from Oak Grove cemetery. 
 
 But the history of the sand dropping is the more interest- 
 ing. Remember that, when the flow of water was swift and 
 strong, the lighter grains went on and only the heavier ones 
 were dropped. When the current slackened, the heavier grains 
 stopped further up stream and the lighter ones in the spot 
 where the larger ones were at first. So we expect to find layers 
 
NATURAL FEATURES 
 
 13 
 
 of sand of varying thicknesses, one or the other, according as 
 the current was swift or slow. 
 
 Sometimes the sand varies in color, as underneath Maple 
 avenue in the Peabody cemetery. The children who discov- 
 ered this by digging holes to China called one layer of it 
 "fireman's sand," for its red color. In fact Armory Hill, 
 extending for miles east, is covered with sand of varying sized 
 grains. On the brow of the hill at Union street the grains 
 exposed in building are coarse and good for mortar; a little 
 distance east, on Walnut street, they are finer and not so good 
 for this purpose. After you have noticed these different kinds 
 of sand, look at one of the great stone posts at the gates of the 
 Armory and you will find that it is composed of just such 
 sand, only the mass of grains is compacted into stone, the 
 color of which is a brown red. This post was taken out of the 
 quarries of Longmeadow, where the sand droppings of a time 
 long before the period of the great glacier had been pressed 
 into stone by the great weight above them, and cemented by 
 the iron making a stone or rock called sandstone. Some sand- 
 stone is red, some is brown and some is grey, and it is called 
 sedimentary, because made out of the sediment, or settlings, 
 of water. 
 
 Sometimes the mixture of sand and mud (the mud was 
 only a wet mass of grains so fine as to be almost unnoticeable) 
 was not coarse enough to make sandstone but only got pressed 
 into a shelly state. This 
 substance is called shale 
 and may be seen in a bank 
 at the foot of Walnut 
 street. When the masses 
 of grains are so fine as to be 
 nothing more, when in the a pikcb of shale. 
 
14 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 water, than mud mixed with a certain sticky substance, the 
 deposit, or droppings, is called clay, such as can be seen at any 
 brickyard. Clay banks mean, of course, that the water out of 
 w^hich the fine particles were laid down, was moving very slowly, 
 perhaps scarcely at all. Remembering, then, that deep down 
 are the crystalline or fire-created rocks, we can read in the sand- 
 stone, the shale, the gravel and the sand that hes above them, the 
 various movings of the waters in this part of the sea, or, later, 
 
 the Springfield lake. 
 / ^Nf**^ -' 3^b==, Nay, more; for at the 
 
 ' ' •»»«'- --flfc-^ Science Museum may be 
 
 seen a specimen of stone 
 all rippled over with 
 the wave marks of the 
 water that flowed back 
 and forth over the muddy 
 shore. Such deposits of 
 sand, mud, clay, etc., as 
 have been described, give 
 to the earth, when a section of it is laid open, a kind of layer- 
 cake effect, called stratification. 
 
 There is another thing about the geological history of 
 Springfield that ought to be noted. The lay of the land is 
 very far from level; what is the cause of it? The reason is in 
 the fact that the great body of water which once flowed through 
 the valley, being some of the time more of a lake than a river, 
 had, at different periods, different levels and made for itself 
 more than one set of banks. 
 
 If you will go down to the river, at the foot of State street, 
 you v;ill find the bank somewhat high and rather steep. The 
 stream is well shut in ana mav rise and fall in spring and 
 summer without much eff'^ct except in the lower sewers. 
 
 Stratified Rocks. 
 
NATURAL FEATURES 
 
 15 
 
 Look across and you will see that the western bank is not so 
 high; in a freshet the water will be covering the Agawam 
 meadows. If it were not for the artificial bank or dyke, Mer- 
 rick would then be overflowed. Nevertheless, by continual 
 deposits of mud the river is building for itself a higher western 
 bank. How long this process of filling the river bottom and 
 building the river banks has gone on is unknown; but cer- 
 tain it is that twenty feet down in the side of a well, near 
 
 A Bank of the Ancient Lake. 
 
 the western end of the Chicopee bridge in West Springfield, 
 there lies on its side a great tree two feet in diameter. 
 
 It is the action of water, building up land in some places 
 and wearing it away in others, that makes Springfield, in its 
 most populous part, so uneven, yet picturesque. Imagine 
 yourself standing at the foot of State street: turn about and 
 go up the street to Dwight and you will then begin to ascend 
 an incline, until, when you reach the statute of the Puritan, 
 or better, stand in front of Christ church, you arc on another 
 bank of the river, as it once was. Pursue your walk up State 
 
16 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 street, and entering the Armory gate, go to the brow of the 
 hill and you can see in your imagination, a still larger river or 
 rather, lake, stretching at your feet. Then you have passed 
 over two levels and are on the third. It would be well if these 
 levels were called terraces, as they are in geology. The lower 
 one extends through the whole length of the city; the next 
 appears near Brightwood and with Chestnut and Maple streets 
 at its western border, loses itself under Crescent Hill; the 
 highest is continuous throughout the city and extends to the 
 eastern limits. We may call the three the lower, the middle 
 and the upper terrace. They are indicated on the map on a 
 preceding page. 
 
 The lay of the land in Springfield is not only affected by 
 the motion of the great body of water from north to south 
 but in a lesser degree by smaller currents flowing westward. 
 If one should start at Cornell street for a walk, along the very 
 brow of the hill, keeping as close to it as he could, except for 
 the houses and private grounds that would prevent it being 
 exactly close, and end his walk at Long Hill, he would find it 
 
 
 'f/S^;^ia^. 
 
 r 
 
 
 (.;" 
 
 S 
 
 
 Flagg'8 Hillock and Summerhouse. 
 
NATURAL FEATURES 17 
 
 a long walk indeed, much longer because of the windings and 
 turnings of the different small valleys and ravines that cut 
 into the general line of the bank. These are the work of water 
 either surface water or water bursting from springs in the 
 higher lands and cutting channels in the earth by carrying 
 the earth itself away. In Springfield this process is pretty 
 much stopped now, but it can still be seen going with striking 
 efifect, at a place on the old Smith farm (now Fitch farm) in 
 Tatham in West Springfield, a place that has for years been 
 known as the "Cave Hole." The great ravines in Forest Park 
 were produced in this way. 
 
 Just how all the separate hills and hillocks of Springfield 
 were made would be an interesting study and a few of them 
 may be mentioned. Round Hill, for example, provokes a 
 natural inquiry as to how it was made. There it is sand, rest- 
 ing on stratified clay, standing right up between its three 
 enclosing streets. How did it come there? One explanation 
 is that while the sand lay that much deep in the valley, 
 strong currents flowing in the old lake washed out the sand all 
 around and for some reason left this mass of sand standing 
 alone. It would be interesting to guess, likewise, on the 
 geological history of Flagg's hillock, at the bend of the Bay road 
 beyond Oak Grove cemetery. This is the highest hill entirely 
 within the limits of the city, being 260 feet above sea level; 
 but the slope of Necessity Hill, at the point where the Hampden 
 road crosses the boundary line into East Longmeadow is about 
 sixty feet higher. 
 
 Such then were the forces, — fire, water, ice, gravitation, 
 and heat and cold, — that make the lay of the land and the run 
 of the water what it is in Springfield today. They were power- 
 ful forces that did a deal of rough building work, sometimes 
 in a very rough way. But when plant life began and the sand 
 
18 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 and clay were covered with a life-giving soil, all over the plain 
 of the upper terrace came the evergreen pine, and down on 
 the middle terrace were chestnuts and maples and on the lower 
 terrace, there took root those grand elms, which have not yet 
 ceased to be the pride of the Valley. In the Science Museum 
 may be seen a section of one that stood on Elm street, near 
 the Hall of Records, and rose to the height of one hundred and 
 fifteen feet. Thus a scene of geological interest became at 
 last a scene of sylvan beauty. 
 
 Fully to appreciate these changes, climb the stairs of the 
 Arsenal at the Armory, on a summer day, and come out on 
 the open platform. To the east and west are the mountains 
 that once confined the sea; to the north are Mount Tom and 
 Mount Holyoke that remain to tell the story of volcanic 
 outburst. Beneath is the river, the mere relic of its ancient 
 self, but still majestic. All about is a mass of green leafage, 
 in which more than in almost any other city, Springfield is 
 embowered.. The crash of mountains, lifting their heads for 
 the first time to the sky, the flash and smoking of volcanic 
 fires, the rush of molten lava to the surface, the awful approach 
 of the great glacier, carrying destruction on every hand, the 
 strange huge reptiles that trod the shores of the inland sea, — 
 are forever gone. To the chaos and disorder of the old earth's 
 making has succeeded peace. The time is ripe for man; for 
 human happiness and love. It was into this scene of quiet 
 beauty that the forefathers came to establish their homes. 
 
NATURAL FEATURES 19 
 
 TO THE CONNECTICUT RIVER. 
 
 From that lone lake, the sweetest of the chain 
 
 That links the mountain to the mighty main, 
 
 Fresh from the rock and swelling by the tree, 
 
 Rushing to meet and dare and breast the sea — 
 
 Fair, noble, glorious river! in the wave 
 
 The sunniest slopes and sweetest pastures lave; 
 
 The mountain torrent, with its wintry roar 
 
 Springs from its home and leaps upon thy shore : — 
 
 The promontories love thee— and for this 
 
 Turn their rough cheeks and stay thee for thy kiss. 
 
 The young oak greets thee at the water's edge, 
 Wet by the wave, though anchored in the ledge. 
 — 'Tis there, the otter dives, the beaver feeds. 
 Where pensive oziers dip their willowy weeds. 
 And there the wild cat purrs amid her brood. 
 And trains them in the sylvan solitude, 
 To watch the squirrel's leap, or mark the mink 
 Paddling the water by the quiet brink ; — 
 Or to out-gaze the gray owl in the dark, 
 Or hear the young fox practising to bark. 
 
 Thou dost not stay, when Winter's coldest breath 
 
 Howls throtigh the woods and sweeps along the heath — 
 
 One mighty sigh relieves thy icy breast. 
 
 And wakes thee from the calmness of thy rest. 
 
 Down sweeps the torrent ice— it may not stay 
 
 By rock or bridge, in narrow or in bay — 
 
 Swift, swifter to the heaving sea it goes, 
 
 And leaves £hee dimpling in thy sweet repose. 
 
 Yet as the unharmed swallow skims his way, 
 
 And lightly drops his pinion in thy spray, 
 
 So the swift sail shall seek thy inland seas, 
 
 And swell and whiten in thy purer breeze, 
 
 New paddles dip thy waters, and strange oars 
 
 Feather thy waves and touch thy noble shores. 
 
 —Brainard, 1797-1828. 
 
FiKST Setti.i;i 
 
 Wav to the Ci)NNEc:nciiT Valley 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE SETTLEMENT— THE SMITHY— THE MEETING-HOUSE. 
 
 I 
 
 two. 
 
 T WAS in mid-May of the 
 year 1636 that the settlers 
 of Springfield left Roxbury 
 to find themselves a home in 
 the valley of the Connecticut. 
 There were not many, perhaps 
 twenty, perhaps forty, who 
 came at first. How many chil- 
 dren there were we do not 
 know ; but there were at least 
 Their names were John and Mary Pynchon. John and 
 
 LYCH-GATE -ALL- SAINTS • CHURCH 
 SPRINGFIELD • ENGLAND 
 
 Mary were both under twelve years old, but old enough to 
 walk some part of the way and some of the time they probably 
 rode on one of their father's horses. In fact, their father, 
 William Pynchon, was the leader of the expedition and the 
 founder of the new plantation. There could have been no 
 better man for the purpose. He was alike good and true, 
 brave and kind, and understood how to deal with white men 
 and Indians. John and Mary grew up to be like him in many 
 respects. 
 
 The travelers were, of course, some days, perhaps a week, 
 on the journey; for they had only the forest path to follow, 
 good enough for Indians, but not so good for people incum- 
 bered with luggage and traveling with horses or cattle. At 
 night they made a camp around a blazing fire and someone 
 
22 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 probably stayed awake to keep a lookout for Indians, while 
 the others slept. When the morning broke, they read the 
 Bible together and sang psalms before again starting on their 
 way. As John and Mary Pynchon were born in England they 
 were doubtless interested in the flowers that marked the spring- 
 time in the new world and amused themselves every day, 
 gathering columbine, lady's slipper, wake-robin and the novel 
 kinds of violets. Now and then they would see Jack-in-the- 
 pulpit sticking up his head under a green canopy, and curious 
 pitcher plant meadow-cup, not yet in bloom. In the dry woods 
 they would pick partridge berries. As for dandelions and 
 buttercups, that now make such a bright show in the spring, 
 Mary and John were to reach this region quite ahead of them ; 
 for these are English plants that in after years were to spread 
 over the country from seeds brought by the colonists. 
 
 At last the settlers arrived on the banks of the wide-rolhng 
 Connecticut. The shade of the forest was behind them and 
 here were pleasant open spaces and rippling waters and the. 
 bright sun shining over all. To the north was a mountain, 
 outlined against the sky somewhat like a couched lion, but 
 later to be known by the simple name of Mount Tom. In this 
 new home they were, perhaps, sometimes lonely, thinking of 
 the homes over in England, but they were not exactly alone. 
 Older inhabitants of the land were about them, the friendly 
 Indians who lived on the banks of the Agawam and on the 
 heights of Long Hill and who were glad that the settlers had 
 come, and sold them land on which to build and to plant. 
 
 To John and Mary Pynchon the Indian children must have 
 been both queer and interesting as they rolled down the banks 
 in play or shot toy arrows at imaginary game. On the plains 
 east of the river, and in fact, all about, their fathers and 
 grandfathers, time out of memory, had chased the deer and 
 
THE SETTLEMENT 23 
 
 the rabbit and for many years to come the arrow heads that 
 they lost in the chase will be turned out of the soil by those 
 who never saw an Indian. A Springfield boy found one of 
 these in the garden, years after another in a hen yard, and 
 a third at the foot of a telegraph pole where workmen had been 
 upturning the soil. The Indians could neither read nor write; 
 they have gone, leaving their history untold as men write 
 history; but the stone implements they made and the names 
 they gave to rivers, ponds and hills, remain to tell how they 
 lived and what they thought. 
 
 The Indians planted some corn and peas; they taught 
 the newcomers how to make the savory succotash, and the 
 dish and the name, just as they gave it, are likely to last. But 
 they lived mainly by hunting and fishing and did not use much 
 planting ground. So they were willing to sell to William 
 Pynchon and his companions a long stretch of excellent land 
 on both sides of the river. Their own planting grounds were 
 at the mouth of the Agawam river, near which they cured 
 their fish for winter use and they sold to the settlers Massack- 
 sick, (Longmeadow), Usquaiok, which is the land in the neigh- 
 borhood of Mill river, and Nayasset, the meadow land stretch- 
 ing north from Round Hill. All these lands were good for 
 planting and pasture. That extending up the hills back from 
 the river on both sides had no value to the Indians but for 
 hunting, and they seem to have been willing that the whites 
 should use it in common with them for that or any other pur- 
 pose, like the cutting of firewood. The land was made over 
 to the settlers by a written deed, the meaning of which was 
 carefully explained to the Indians, and their chief men signed 
 it by making, each, a picture at the bottom. Their pictures 
 included an arrow, a canoe, a bow and a feather, things of 
 everyday Indian use. The price ])aid was eighteen fathom of 
 
24 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 wampum, eighteen coats, eighteen hoes, eighteen hatchets 
 and eighteen knives. 
 
 Why did the settlers choose this place right here in the 
 valley, close by a tribe of savages, instead of establishing 
 themselves on the highlands or remote from the river? First, 
 because the land, all Massacksick, Usquaiok and Nayasset, 
 was excellent land for cultivation; and, again, because being 
 near the river was like being today on the line of a railroad. 
 The Indians were continually going up and down the stream 
 in their canoes and, by the river, beaver and other skins could 
 be sent away to market and other goods brought from Boston 
 or England. Mr. Pynchon was a shrewd trader and made much 
 money by buying skins of the Indians to send away. The 
 beaver, almost humanly wise in building its curious dams, 
 has been, of course, long since gone, and is not now found 
 nearer than northern Maine; but in those days, the region 
 about and above Westfield was the heart of the beaver country, 
 for the valley trade. The otter, (page 18) a fish-eating animal, 
 was once common, but is now very rare hereabouts. 
 
 A Settlement with Wellsweep and \'irginia Hail Fence. 
 
THE SETTLEMENT 25 
 
 Just where the houses of the settlers should be on this 
 great tract of land which they bought was, of course, an im- 
 portant question. At first they expected to settle on the 
 Agawam meadows, and, in fact, had put up one house there; 
 but the Indians told them that the meadows were flooded in 
 high water; so they decided in favor of the east side of the 
 "Great River," as they began to call the Connecticut, and 
 they did, in fact, call it by no other name for a hundred years. 
 From Round Hill and above, down to Mill river lay a good 
 stretch of plough land, good for corn and wheat, and right 
 across the stream was ample pasture. This meadow land was 
 bounded on the east by a long narrow marsh, so full of hum- 
 mocks that they began to call it "hassocky marsh." It 
 occupied land between the present Main street and the line 
 of Chestnut and Maple streets. Its west boundry was the 
 brook mentioned in the previous chapter. It must have been 
 somewhat troublesome and of course was filled long since; 
 but by jumping from one hummock to another, the high and 
 dry land could be reached, where there was a heavy growth 
 of trees, some of them probably maple and chestnut; so that 
 Maple and Chestnut streets are properly named. 
 
 From these trees could be cut wood for the fire or timbers 
 for canoes; but good, large canoe timber was so scarce that 
 after a man, with much labor had got a canoe made, he was 
 not allowed to sell it out of the town without consent of the 
 inhabitants. It having been decided where the street should 
 be, the houses all on the west side, each settler's land extended 
 in a rectangular form eastward from his house across the 
 marsh to the upper terrace and westward across the river for 
 some distance into the meadows there. A century and a half 
 were to pass before there would be a bridge over the stream. 
 Connecting the street with the rive* was a narrow lane in the 
 
26 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 line of the present Elm street and another which is the present 
 Cypress street. At the foot of the first lane, close to the river, 
 were the training field, the burying ground and the pound. 
 Another lane was opened to the "lower landing" at York 
 street. 
 
 Nothing has been told us about the early house building, 
 but many settlements resembling that in the picture have 
 
 been made in New 
 England and other 
 parts of the country. 
 It was warm weather 
 and at first there were 
 probably rude camps, 
 made of the boughs 
 of trees. The first 
 house was presumably 
 of logs, the cracks 
 filled with clay or mor- 
 
 Thatching the Shed. tar tO kcCp OUt the 
 
 cold. For a roof there would be a thatch of straw or grass. 
 When the long snowy winter began, so unlike the short open 
 winters in England, where fiowers sometimes bloom in Febru- 
 ary, they perhaps felt very comfortably settled. It may be 
 that some of the first houses were not of logs. The falls in 
 Mill river were set to work as soon as the machinery of a saw 
 mill could be got from Boston; and the result was boards 
 and shingles and clapboards, for those who could afford them. 
 When the first crop of grain had been raised and threshed 
 out with the flail, the same little stream was set to the grind- 
 ing. No wonder that they called it Mill river, regardless of 
 the Indian name. Its mills were all in all to them, for now, 
 thanks to it, they had good housing and wholesome living. 
 
THE SETTLEMENT 
 
 27 
 
 In some respects, indeed, they lived better than in the old 
 country. They had to get used to much colder winters; and 
 many conveniences which they had enjoyed before, they could 
 not have here. But the land easily gave them enough to eat 
 in greater plenty than England could have done; partly 
 because of their cultivated fields, partly because of the wild 
 game, such as quail, partridge, ducks and pigeons. In fall 
 and spring the pigeons passed over, sometimes in such num- 
 bers as almost to darken the sky. These they caught in nets. 
 Game birds were shot with a fowling piece for scattering the 
 shot among a number of birds at once, like that on the shoulder 
 of Miles Morgan in the Court Square statue. If woodchucks 
 or moles became troublesome to the crops, there was a simple 
 way of catching them by bending down a slender staddle 
 
 fitted with a slipnoose and slightly fastening the end by a peg. 
 When the offender nibbled the bait and was caught, he was 
 jerked into the air and hung suspended. 
 
 Established at last in the wilderness, all alone except for 
 a few Indians, how was it that the forefathers, grown-ups and 
 children, employed themselves? What did they do for work 
 and play? There was plenty of work: cutting down trees for 
 
28 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 firewood; hollowing great logs for canoes; planting corn in 
 spring, hoeing it in summer and husking and threshing it in 
 the autumn; boxing pine trees on the plains and making the 
 oozing pitch into tar and rosin; cutting grass for hay and 
 getting it into stacks for winter use. In these things the 
 young folks, and even children, must have had an important 
 share. The many mechanical helps to labor in these days were 
 lacking and it was a time when "many hands make light 
 work," even little hands. 
 
 In that day and, indeed, well along into the nineteenth 
 century, boys and girls had to invent and make many more 
 of their playthings than they do now, when so much is done 
 by machinery. Girls could make rude dolls and boys make 
 traps and snares and little water wheels and pin boxes out of 
 
 the stems of elderwood. Here is an 
 English boy of five hundred years ago 
 who probably made the windmill he is 
 whirling, just such a one as boys make 
 now; and below is "Mary Bump," 
 an aged Springfield doll. Her body is 
 a corn-cob. There was not much art 
 but there was invention and imagina- 
 tion, and it is from these, in the end, 
 that art comes. 
 
 Some of the comforts of the old 
 country were wanting, but they were 
 more than made up in the spirit of 
 freedom and independence in a land 
 where some great lord could not turn 
 the people off the soil if he chose, and 
 where they could worship God in the way they pleased. It 
 was not so in England. Only Mr. Pynchon had been a land- 
 
THE SETTLEMENT 
 
 29 
 
 holder there and not many years after the settlement of 
 Springfield the fierce struggle going on in England for politi- 
 cal and religious liberty ended in a civil war, which cost King 
 Charles his crown and life. The fact that the settlers here 
 had land for the using of it made them all farmers, whatever 
 calling they had followed in the old country. To cultivate 
 the soil was the most natural and easy thing to do. At first 
 there was no minister (we are speaking of all the early times) 
 
 Old-Time English Children Playing Horse. 
 
 who was not also something of a farmer, as many ministers 
 were, even down to Dr. Osgood in the nineteenth century. 
 
 But there is one trade which is very necessary even to a 
 small community of farmers; there are horses and oxen to 
 be shod, plows mended and all sorts of farming and domestic 
 implements to be repaired, and in a place so far away from 
 the rest of the world as Springfield, these would sometimes 
 need to be made on the spot. For all this there was need of 
 a blacksmith. After ten years had passed no one had come 
 to the settlement who could do this work or do it well. There 
 are many kinds of smiths, like whitesmiths and locksmiths, 
 and how many people gave especial attention to smithery is 
 
30 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 plain when one stops to consider how common is the name 
 of Smith. But the blacksmith is, in a young settlement like 
 Springfield, the most important of all. The townspeople felt 
 that they must have a blacksmith, and just as one puts up a 
 bird box expecting the birds to come and nest in it, they 
 actually paid Francis Ball in wheat for building a blacksmith 
 shop when there was no smith in sight. It had a chimney 
 and forge, and one door and a window. There were rings in 
 the chimney. 
 
 ,j^T!f,V*r^J 
 
 &et tbe sparhs; botu thc^i fl?! 
 
 Hct the anliil rino! 
 Cianiiiiticb hard, UJClDfO tichJ, 
 
 3 roil to iron shall clmg. 
 
 The building done, Mr. Pynchon, through his agent in 
 London, bought a blacksmith ; a strange thing to do, but this 
 is the way it came about. There was war between England 
 and Scotland and in the battle of Dunbar the Scotch were 
 defeated and many of them brought as prisoners to England. 
 Not knowing what to do with them, the English, following 
 the custom of those days, sold them into slavery, but not a 
 slavery for life. In the end they were to be free. Such was 
 the lot of John Stewart, who was sent to Mr. Pynchon in this 
 plantation and at once established in the new smithy. This 
 was a great blessing to the village and, one can well imagine, 
 
THE SETTLEMENT 31 
 
 a source of never ending interest to its children. There is a 
 charming mystery in the union of two pieces of red hot metal, 
 whose explanation, if there be one other than the power and 
 mystery of God Himself, lies far back in the secret laws and 
 workings of nature. 
 
 All that Longfellow has written of the Village Blacksmith, 
 
 ' ' A mighty man is he 
 With large and sinewy hands," 
 
 was doubtless true of John vStewart, as all the children be- 
 lieved, when they looked in at the open door. When the 
 blacksmith had paid by his work for his passage over the sea 
 and the other expenses Mr. Pynchon had incurred for him, 
 he was given his freedom by Pynchon and the town presented 
 him with the smithy. 
 
 About the time that the smithy was built it was decided 
 to build a meeting-house. Before this, when the townsmen 
 met to make rules for the plantation, or all the people met for 
 worship, they had gathered in a private house, or in summer, 
 perhaps, under some wide-spreading 
 tree. Everything was as yet very simple 
 as compared with the old country, 
 where they had churches of stone, 
 some of them quite beautiful with 
 tower and colored windows, and curious 
 carvings without and within. Notice 
 the contrast between the churches repre- 
 sented on these pages. In the sim- 
 
 ^ " Gargoyle or Eavespoxjt, 
 
 plicity of the new world one building Stoney Stratford, Eno. 
 
 must serve for all public gatherings, be it public worship or 
 town meeting. So they spoke not of the church, but called 
 the building the "meeting-house." In the language of the 
 
32 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 law, in Massachusetts, this is the word still used. Town and 
 church were pretty much the same in the early days of New 
 ■England and the whole village supported the one and only 
 minister. 
 
 It was planned that the meeting-house should be forty 
 feet long and twenty-five feet wide; that it should have two 
 floors or stories, the lower one to be nine feet high. For a 
 time the upper one was used for storing grain, until, at last, 
 the people began to be afraid that the heavy weight would 
 come down upon them and they took away the floor and 
 built galleries round about the sides. But this was not for 
 several years. The building having been planned, it was de- 
 cided that it should be placed on the spot which is now the 
 southeast corner of Court Square. Thomas Cooper was em- 
 ployed as the contractor who should construct it. He agreed 
 to take his pay in wheat, peas, pork, wampum, debts and 
 labor. It is easy to see from this what, in those days, was 
 most common in passing from hand to hand. Not a penny 
 of English money was to be paid for building the meeting- 
 house; it was too scarce. Wampum was the money of the 
 Indians and made of shells. Upon the meeting-house there 
 were built two turrets or little towers. One was for the bell; 
 in the other a watchman could stay during service or at other 
 times, should the Indians be hostile, and watch lest some 
 Indian thief steal into the village or even a whole war party 
 make a sudden dash into the street. 
 
 In order that we may see all the townspeople gathered 
 together, in these early days, let us make in imagination our 
 attendance at the meeting-house at the hour of public worship 
 on some Sunday. The sacred day had begun at sundown of 
 Saturday and will end when the Sunday's sun has set behind 
 the Berkshire hills. It is, we will say, the year 1663. Passing 
 
THE SETTLEMENT 33 
 
 along the main street and turning down the lane that has 
 since been widened and called Elm street, we enter, as all 
 the people do, by the side door on the south. There seems to 
 have been no door opposite the pulpit. We find ourselves 
 directly under one of the galleries. Some of the people are 
 already seated and others are coming in. They know it is the 
 
 Church of 
 
 time of service, not because they have any clocks or watches 
 (most of them), but because John Mathews has been beating 
 the drum up and down the street and because the bell in the 
 turret is now ringing. 
 
 The people are seating themselves just where it has been 
 voted that they shall sit. Anyone who should sit elsewhere 
 would be liable to a fine of three shillings and four pence. 
 
34 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 We are taken up the alley, as they called it, on the south side 
 and are shown into a seat not far from the pulpit. Just before 
 us, in the front seat, are some of the selectmen, among them 
 Thomas Cooper, the builder of the house. Back of us is 
 Thomas Day, who had married his daughter, Sarah, but 
 neither Sarah Day nor her mother is sitting with the husband. 
 In those days it was not thought proper that the women should 
 sit with the men, and the women all found seats together. 
 Up in the gallery we notice Miles Morgan in the place where 
 the selectmen have appointed him to be in order to check 
 any disorder among the boys or young men. Most of them 
 are sitting there. Next the pulpit, in the deacon's seat, dis- 
 tinguished in some way from the other seats, is Deacon Chapin. 
 Just how he looked or how Miles Morgan looked, if one gazed 
 directly into their faces, nobody knows; but the statues in 
 their honor show us what kind of men they were, what sort 
 of garments they wore and how they appeared as they went 
 about the town. The sculptor has represented Deacon Chapin 
 on his way to "meeting" and Miles Morgan going afield with 
 his hoe and fowling piece. 
 
 Most of the people whom we see in the audience are of 
 English birth or descent, but Reice Bedortha probably came 
 from Wales and John Riley was from Ireland. Peter Swink, 
 who sits under the gallery, is a black man in the family of 
 Mr. Pynchon and in the seventh seat is John Stewart, the 
 Scotchman. Longfellow writes of the village blacksmith that 
 
 " He goes on Sunday to the church 
 And sits among his boys," 
 
 but our blacksmith seems not to have been blessed with any 
 family except his wife. We may suppose, though, that when 
 
THE SETTLEMENT 35 
 
 at his smithy be made friends with the children who 
 
 ' ' coming from school, 
 Looked in at the open door," 
 
 if, indeed, there was a school in those days. 
 
 We notice an especial seat, which we are afterwards told 
 was made for a guard of soldiers, and therefore called "the 
 guard's seat." No guard now occupies it, for the Indian war, 
 that raged in the Connecticut colony about the time when 
 the town was settled, is long since over and the Springfield 
 Indians have always been peaceable; so the guard's seat is 
 occupied by boys, who like to get together in it or to sit on 
 the pulpit stairs. Anthony Dorchester sits with them to keep 
 order, for even old time boys were mischievous. Sometimes 
 on week days they broke the meeting-house windows in their 
 games, and this meant a fine of twelve pence apiece. 
 
 In some of the New England churches wealth and rank 
 determined where people should be seated. This was at times, 
 and perhaps always, to a certain extent, regarded in Spring- 
 field; but not so much as in some other places. Age was also 
 regarded. As much as the forefathers loved freedom and as 
 much as they, in their sturdy principles, have done to promote 
 equal rights for all, they were not yet free from many old 
 world notions about rank and the importance of property in 
 giving a standing in society. Outside the church these things 
 are very liable to be wrongly estimated, but inside it might 
 be supposed that those who studied the Bible would remember 
 what is there said: "The rich and the poor meet together; 
 the Lord is the maker of them all." Yet even as late as the 
 early part of the last century, in the old white church of West 
 Springfield, an all-compelling custom did not admit of a young 
 
HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 woman taking a front seat in the gallery where the unmarried 
 women sat, unless she wore a silk gown, and of course some 
 could never afford it. Thus sometimes do men forget that 
 God is no respecter of persons and only a pure heart counts 
 in his sight. 
 
 First Meeting-House in West Sprimgfield. 
 
 Soon the minister enters. He wears a black gown and white 
 neck band. As he approaches the pulpit stairs, the boys who 
 are sitting there give way and he mounts to his high seat. 
 He prays and reads from the big Bible and then begins his 
 sermon. There is no clock ; but by him stands the hour glass, 
 and, if the sermon is very long, he has to turn the glass and 
 
THE SETTLEMENT 
 
 37 
 
 start the sand running again. Sermons were long in those 
 days. Paper, too, was scarce and costly, and for this reason 
 they were written so fine that they had to be read slowly. 
 When the minister has finished, the people pass reverently 
 out, pursuing their several ways up and down the village road, 
 which is indeed the Main street, but almost the only one. 
 
 Some of the boys have 
 stopped on the edge 
 of the hassocky marsh 
 and are looking into 
 the brook. They are 
 -■^ planning to drop a fish 
 V.-- line in there tomorrow. 
 Perhaps, if they cross 
 the marsh, they will flush a crane. 
 
 A smithy had been built and a meeting-house, but as yet, 
 after the lapse of forty years, there had been no schoolhouse. 
 We read in the town records of no teacher paid by the town. 
 Perhaps there were, irregularly, dame schools, taught by some 
 woman, who like Goody Two 
 Shoes, received her pay di- 
 rectly from the parents. 
 The most that the children 
 learned was probably reading 
 and writing, and it was not 
 common for girls to write. 
 Even some of the men, as a dame school. 
 
 Miles Morgan, could not Our fathers learned the horn-book and thcTuks^^ 
 
 . y ^^ — _ , . ^ They toed the line or topped the dunce's stool; 
 
 write. In 1d70 there arrived An ancient dame presided as they road, 
 
 . And If they erred, her thimble rapped each head; 
 m the town one Daniel ^^^^ li^tle glrl a sampler niade, in time, 
 
 And wrought thereon her simple faith, in rhyme. 
 
 Denton, who was qualified Edhcr w. Bates. 
 
 to teach. He was at once employed for this ])ur])Ose. He 
 
diaiir~i:).£jdi)/i 
 
 38 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 wrote a fair hand and was chosen to write the records of the 
 town business. For a time he taught in a private house. 
 Then a schoolhouse was built. It may seem strange that it 
 was placed on the upper Ferry lane, now Cypress street; but 
 the land was well taken up at the center of the village and 
 
 then, again, the children would be 
 coming from not only as far south as 
 Long Hill or Longmeadow, but as far 
 
 Autograph of the First ^ ^^, . 
 
 Schoolmaster. nOrth aS ChlCOpeC. 
 
 After a while a rule was made that for every child in attend- 
 ance the parent must furnish a load of wood for the school- 
 house fires. It was a simple school, not of much value for 
 older boys and girls, perhaps. There was reading, writing 
 and spelling, and perhaps some arithmetic; and if Daniel 
 Denton came from England, as perhaps he did, he had some- 
 thing to tell the children of the Old World, which they would' 
 never see, and of w^hich there were no newspapers and very 
 few books to tell them. There were no Sunday schools in 
 those days and perhaps the best teaching in the school was 
 concerning the great things of God such as those set forth in 
 the following verses, which were taught to some of the Spring- 
 field children in the nineteenth century by Dr. Peabody, of 
 whom we shall read later on. 
 
THE SETTLEMENT 
 
 THE WORKS OF GOD. 
 
 To be Spoken by Children. 
 
 The God in whom I ever trust 
 Hath made my body from the dust; 
 He gave me life, He gave me breath, 
 And He preserves me still from death. 
 
 He made the sun, and gave him light; 
 He made the moon to shine by night ; 
 He placed the brilliant stars on high. 
 And leads them through the midnight sky. 
 
 He made the earth in order stand ; 
 He made the ocean and the land ; 
 He made the hills their places know, 
 And gentle rivers round them flow. 
 
 He made the forest, and sustains 
 The grass that clothes the fields and plains; 
 He sends from heaven the summer showers, 
 And makes the meadows bright with flowers. 
 
 He made the living things; with care 
 He feeds the wanderers of the air; 
 He gave the beasts their dens and caves; 
 And fish their dwelling in the waves. 
 
 He called all beings into birth 
 That crowd the ocean, air, and earth; 
 And all in heaven and earth proclaim 
 The glory of His holy name. 
 
 —Peabody, 1799-1847. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE EARLY GOVERNMENT.— THE PYNCHON 
 FAMILY.— WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 WE HAVE already seen that the meeting-house was the 
 town house as well as the church; here the men of 
 the plantation met to arrange all its business. One 
 who did not come or who was late had a fine to pay. Even 
 Deacon Chapin was fined for an absence, such was the impor- 
 tance which the forefathers placed upon a careful attention 
 to public affairs. In our own day the President of the United 
 States has often set the example for others by leaving his 
 
42 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 pressing duties at Washington and traveling many hundred 
 miles, in order to cast his vote, a vote that counted among 
 the thousands no more than any other. 
 
 After eight years the plantation decided to place its affairs 
 in the hands of a committee, a committee which should be 
 chosen once a year; so they selected Henry Smith, Thomas 
 Cooper, Samuel Chapin, Richard Sikes and Henry Burt, to serve 
 for the first year. They were called "select townsmen" or 
 "selectmen" and were given power "to order anything that 
 they shall judge best for the good of the town." After that 
 the voters generally met only once or twice a year. Some of 
 the declared duties of the selectmen were to lay out public 
 highways, make bridges, repair highways, see to the scouring 
 of ditches, to the killing of wolves, and to the training of 
 children in some good calling. Some of these duties, like the 
 laying out of streets, still belong to the city council and some 
 have become obsolete. 
 
 It seems odd to read about the scouring of ditches, for 
 ditches are more used in the old countries, especially in Hol- 
 land, for the dividing of lots, than here; but it was necessary 
 to keep the town brook clean, for in it the villagers washed 
 their fresh-killed beef and pork, and from it, to some extent, 
 they probably got water for domestic purposes. For two 
 centuries the town brook was a very useful institution and 
 deserves to be remembered. 
 
 The selectmen were especially charged with the killing of 
 wolves, for these were a great trouble, howling and hungry 
 when their food was scarce and picking up cattle and stray 
 pigs that happened to be in the outlands. The town owned 
 a wolf trap. Its stout jaws, hidden by a screen of leaves, 
 when stepped on by the unwary animal, would come together 
 with a powerful snap and hold him by the leg. He could be 
 
THE SETTLEMENT 
 
 43 
 
 baited by a bleating lamb as in the picture. Another scheme 
 was to so adjust a gun that it would go off when the wolf 
 stepped on a certain spot, to get the bait of meat; but occa- 
 sionally an innocent cow got killed instead of the wolf. A 
 large reward, equal in money of today to about ten dollars, 
 was paid by the town for every wolf killed and the slayer had 
 to bring the ears, or the head or the tail of the beast to the 
 selectmen for proof. 
 
 In those days children were more disturbed with stories 
 about wolves than bears, but when in later years, the wolves 
 had been killed off, bears began to be troublesome, for they 
 liked pig pork, butchered by themselves, too well; so a re- 
 ward was offered for bears and also for catamounts or pan- 
 thers. It was not only the wild animals that the select- 
 men had to look after. Everybody 
 kept pigs and the porkers were always 
 watching for a chance to roam about 
 and root up pastures and break 
 through fences with their strong 
 snouts. In the fall they were looking 
 for acorns, just as they do now in 
 the southern states. So the town 
 ordered that they should wear a yoke 
 and have a ring in the nose. 
 
 It must have been difficult to 
 make a yoke stay on a pig and many 
 were careless about it; so John 
 Stewart, the blacksmith, was given 
 power to catch every stray pig that 
 was not yoked and rung, and then 
 having put a yoke on his neck and 
 a ring in his nose, to collect pay of 
 
44 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 the owner. A man who looked after swine in this way was 
 called a hogreeve and for a long period hogreeves were an- 
 nually chosen. There were also officers called field drivers, 
 who were to take to the town pound any horse or cow found 
 straying, especially if doing damage. The pound was on 
 the northwestern part of what is now Court Square and was 
 in charge of a pound-keeper. In after years it was on the 
 spot where now Pleasant street is located. 
 
 Another duty of the selectmen was that of perambulation. 
 Perambulation is a very long word for a very long walk which 
 is sometimes necessary in order to set right the boundary 
 lines of a town. In our time, upon every road leading out 
 of Springfield, except where the boundar}^ is a river, may be 
 found a substantial stone, marking the division between the 
 city and the next town; but in earl}^ times the lines were 
 marked in a very rude way and on the occasion of one perambu- 
 lation the book of the town records reads that "we first marked 
 a little white oak by a pine stump, then next the bottom of 
 the hill we marked a pine staddle and laid stones upon a rock 
 and just over the brook we marked an ash staddle and then 
 next a pine tree standing on the, south side of the county 
 road and laid a heap of stones on a flat rock in the road." 
 
 This custom, known as "beating the bounds," the settlers 
 brought from the old country where perambulation from very 
 ancient days had been attended with great ceremony. The 
 lord of the manor, with a large banner borne before him, 
 priests in white gowns and with crosses carried aloft and 
 others with bells and banners, followed by many people, 
 walked in procession around the bounds of the entire parish, 
 singing and stopping to take refreshments and having a gala 
 time generally. The procession kept to the exact bounds 
 through fields and even directly through a dooryard, or 
 
THE SETTLEMENT 
 
 45 
 
 even a house, if it stood on the Hne. If a river formed the 
 boundary, the procession walked along the shore, while some 
 of the party stripped off their clothes and swam alongside, 
 or, if the stream was navigable, some persons rowed along in 
 boats. Sometimes boys were thrown into it at certain places. 
 When a wall, or tree, or post was near the line, boys were 
 swung against it and bumped. These were called "bumping 
 places" and when the boys became old men their testimony, 
 as to the location of the line, was considered especially valuable 
 as to any point where they had been bumped. Perambulfe-tion 
 of town boundaries is still the law in Massachusetts; but the 
 towns were too large and the people too full of serious work 
 for ceremony and the woods and swamps too numerous to 
 make perambulation anything more than an occasional attempt 
 to see that the bounds were all right. 
 
 In the beginning of the previous chapter it was said that 
 William Pynchon was the founder of Springfield and that 
 he was good, and wise and kind. We must now return to him. 
 While John and Mary Pynchon are growing up to manhood 
 and womanhood, he has remained the chief man of the planta- 
 tion. He was the richest man in it, in fact, the only man 
 who had any considerable wealth. He 
 had the most land and the most cattle. 
 Of the cattle, Mrs. Pynchon took the 
 immediate charge, and if she was like 
 many farmers' wives of the early times, 
 she had a good many cows to milk with 
 her own hands and some of the churn- 
 ing to do. Her husband, though a 
 planter, was more prominently a mer- 
 chant and had to spend much time in ^^ 
 fur trade with the Indians and seeing 
 
46 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 to the importation from Boston or Europe of things that the 
 settlers needed and could not make. Besides, he owned 
 the mills which ground the corn and sawed the logs on Mill 
 river. 
 
 And then, again, he was obliged to spend much time in the 
 public service, because he was the man best fitted to do it, 
 as everybody acknowledged. He was the judge before whom 
 all the people brought their disputes for trial at law. He was 
 a member of the General Court, which met at Boston and 
 made laws for the whole colony. He was the commissioner 
 of the colony to treat with the various Tribes of Indians 
 between the Boston settlements and those on the Hudson 
 River. 
 
 It is a very important fact that the Indians, who, if they 
 had been wrongfully treated might have caused much trouble, 
 found in him one who would do exact justice between them 
 and the whites. For fear of him as a judge, an Indian feared 
 to wrong a white man and because of him and his just ways 
 in trade they liked to deal with the white man. Pynchon 
 feared no man; but he feared God and was a man of good will 
 toward men. When the people met for town business it was 
 he who was always chosen to preside. He lived in a wooden 
 house on the spot which would now be the corner of Main and 
 Fort streets and next north was the house of his trusted 
 friend, Thomas Cooper. Posterity is fortunate in the existence 
 of a portrait of him, painted from life. It is now in the Essex 
 Institute, at Salem. He is the only citizen of Springfield, in 
 its first century, the likeness of whose face is known. 
 
 Like many good men who are called upon, by their high 
 position, to do difficult things and sometimes to oppose the 
 wishes of other people in doing them, there were those who 
 did not understand and admire William Pynchon. But they 
 
THE PYNCHON FAMILY 47 
 
 did not live in Springfield. Some of them lived in Hartford. 
 At a certain time, when grain was very scarce, it was necessary 
 for the people of Hartford, Windsor and this plantation to 
 buy corn of the Indians. Mr. Pynchon was given power, by 
 all the towns of the valley below, to buy corn for them all at 
 a certain price and if he could not buy it at the price, to ofTer 
 more. The Indians held off and would not sell at a price that 
 was reasonable. Mr. Pynchon did not buy; he thought it 
 not best that the Indians should know of the weakness of the 
 colonists; and he did not wish to disturb the market price 
 for corn, feeling that this would be bad, not only for his own 
 trade with them in the future, but for all the colonists. He 
 believed in suffering some present loss, in order to keep a 
 lasting gain. The people of Springfield believed with him, 
 but those of Hartford did not. 
 
 Both towns were suffering for lack of grain, and the cattle 
 were getting poor, — Mr. Pynchon's, like those of everybody 
 else. Still Pynchon stood firm. He felt that the white man 
 must be firm and self-sufficient in presence of the savage; and 
 there were Indians up and down the valley who had done 
 much injury to the whites in the Pequot war and might, and 
 in fact did, later, do more. Connecticut had conquered the 
 Indians with the sword, but Pynchon believed in the arts of 
 peace. He believed in suffering for the sake of peace; in 
 getting people to do the things they ought to or the things 
 that one wants them to do, of their own free will and not by 
 force. S})ringfield was more exposed to dangers of the Indians 
 and to the evil results of disturbing the regular course of trade 
 with them than Hartford. 
 
 So Springfield and Hartford differed about this matter and 
 Hartford sent up Captain Mason, a famous Indian fighter, 
 with money in one hand and sword in the other, as it were. 
 
48 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 He was ready to give a higher price for the corn or to fight the 
 Indians if they would not sell. They felt obliged to yield. 
 Mr. Pynchon suffered many hard words from Hartford and 
 Windsor about the matter, but Massachusetts stood by him, 
 as especially did his own town, and in his honor the name of 
 the plantation was changed from Agawam to Springfield, 
 which was the name of his old home in England. In the parish 
 church of old Springfield may be seen an ancient tablet bear- 
 ing his name as one of the church wardens. 
 
 After this Mr. Pynchon again found himself in difficulties 
 with the neighboring colony. That colony had a fort at the 
 mouth of the river, kept for protection against the Indians 
 and Dutch, and insisted that Pynchon's boats should pay 
 toll when they passed it. The tolls were to go towards its 
 maintenance. This Mr. Pynchon would have been willing to 
 do if both Massachusetts and Connecticut could have had 
 control of the fort; but he did not relish the idea of taxation 
 without representation, an idea which all the colonies after- 
 wards revolted and thus brought on the Revolution. So 
 he refused to pay toll. Massachusetts stood by him and re- 
 quired a toll on Connecticut ships sailing into Boston harbor. 
 Then Connecticut gave way. 
 
 But now came real trouble for William Pynchon; for even 
 Massachusetts, except Springfield, turned against him. Wil- 
 liam Pynchon was not only a man of wisdom and peace but 
 of godliness. For this reason he thought and studied much 
 on the goodness of God to his children and the duty that they 
 owed to Him. He loved and studied the Bible and had his 
 own thoughts about it. Here in his house on Main street he 
 wrote a book which he had printed in London and which gave 
 his thoughts on these things. It was called "The Meritorious 
 Price of Our Redemption." 
 
THE PYNCHON FAMILY 
 
 49 
 
 Some copies of this book came to America and three copies 
 are still in existence, one of them in the Congregational Li- 
 brary, Boston. Because this book was, in some respects, con- 
 trary to the opinions then held, it caused much excitement, 
 particularly in Boston and the neighboring towns. The 
 General Court condemned it. By order of this court the book 
 was publicly burned in Boston and its author removed from his 
 position of judge at Springfield. 
 
 Burning of Pynchon Hook. 
 
 All these unhappy results of Mr. Pynchon's desire to set 
 before the world what he believed to be the truth, were a 
 serious blow to him. He had the best intentions and, perhaps, 
 supposed that his efforts to do good would be met with a 
 spirit of kindliness. On the other hand he found himself 
 
50 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 punished and in the way of continued persecution. For 
 himself he might have endured this. Already there had been 
 thorns as well as roses in his path. Founding a settlement 
 in the wilderness and being mainly responsible for its safety 
 and happiness had not been easy. Yet he was not a man 
 who would sacrifice the public's interests for his own. He 
 apparently thought that though the settlement would suffer 
 somewhat if he left it, yet, under all the circumstances, the 
 responsibility had better be thrown on younger men, after 
 his own leadership had become so much interfered with as, 
 perhaps, to be an embarrassment to his fellow townsmen. 
 Looking back from the long future and in view of the after 
 career of his eldest son, who was early thrown upon his own 
 resources, it really does seem that William Pynchon chose, for 
 Springfield, what was the wisest course, in deciding to return 
 to England, which he did in the year 1652. With him went 
 his friend and minister, Mr. Moxon, and his own daughter 
 Sarah, with her husband, Henry Smith. Thus ended the public 
 career of one of the truly great colonial leaders, to whose 
 character and the character of those whom he naturally drew 
 about him, much of the stability and purity of the public and 
 private life of Springfield has always been, and let us hope, for 
 a long time to come, will be due. When Springfield learns 
 what she owes to him, his statue will be seen in one of her 
 public places. 
 
 It was a dark day for Springfield when William Pynchon, 
 Mr. Moxon and Henry Smith set out to spend the rest of their 
 lives in England. It was the loss of the leaders. Other and 
 younger men must now be called u]:)on and it remains to be 
 seen how well they would fulfill their duties. As it turned 
 out, there were good men and true to do what the lost leaders 
 had done, namely, to work together for the good of the town. 
 
THE PYNCHON FAMILY 
 
 51 
 
 As we look back we see that of these men, the four most 
 prominent were John Pynchon, Samuel Chapin, Elizur Hol- 
 yoke and Thomas Cooper. Others there were who worked 
 loyally with them. Deacon Chapin and Thomas Cooper we 
 know already as selectmen. Who was Elizur Holyoke? In 
 answering this last question we will take our last glimpse of 
 Mary Pynchon. Hers is the first girl's name of any we know 
 among the very first settlers and we could wish that more 
 
 was known about her. When 
 she came from England she was 
 about the age of the girl in this 
 picture. Soon after she had crossed 
 the ocean to the New World her 
 own mother died and it was after 
 her father had married again that 
 she came to Springfield. As she 
 grew into girlhood so attractive 
 was she, that when she was but 
 fifteen years of age Elizur Hol- 
 yoke of Hartford asked for her to 
 be his wife. Her father giving his consent, young Holyoke 
 removed to Springfield and they lived happily together for 
 seventeen years until her death. 
 
 In Holland's story "The Bay Path," there is much that 
 is imaginary about Mary Pynchon, but aside from what is here 
 told, scarcely anything more is known than is contained on 
 the stone at her grave in the cemetery: 
 
 "She that lies here was, while she stood, 
 A very glory of womanhood." 
 
 '^^^-:irr-: 
 
 ^-^±,ii 
 
 Upon a bank of violets sweet. 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 It was for either her husl)and or her son. Captain Holyoke, 
 that the mountain was named. 
 
52 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 But the hopes of the town might well have been placed on 
 John Pynchon, who had many of his father's qualities of 
 character and some others that were equally useful. Though 
 born in England, he was but a boy when, after the long ocean 
 voyage, he first saw the New World, and he grew up truly an 
 American. Perhaps he could not, like his father, read the 
 Bible in the original Hebrew ; and he may have known nothing 
 of Latin and Greek, all of 
 which William Pynchon 
 had learned at the Uni- 
 versity of Oxford. It 
 may be, too, that his 
 father had taught him 
 something of these things. 
 There is good reason for 
 supposing that he was 
 studious as a boy and 
 when he became a young 
 man he was so much of a 
 scholar that he was some- 
 times expected to preach 
 a sermon of his own writ- 
 ing, in the years when 
 the people met for wor- 
 ship, without any min- 
 ister. On other occa- 
 sions. Deacon Chapin, or another, would read a printed ser- 
 mon of some clergyman. 
 
 But John Pynchon had other training which was, perhaps, 
 more useful to Springfield. He had grown up alongside the 
 Indian boys who lived on Long Hill and the Agawam side 
 and well knew the Indian character. This, in the trying times 
 
THE PYNCHON FAMILY 53 
 
 that afterwards arose with the Indians, was of much conse- 
 quence. Sometimes he was called upon to settle differences 
 between the Indians and other settlements, even as far west 
 as Albany. The Indians called him "brother Pynchon." No 
 likeness of him remains, as boy or man. In those days of 
 hard struggle for a livelihood, probably none was ever made, 
 but the picture on the previous page shows how he might have 
 looked, in his earlier years, studious boy as he was. 
 
 As the successor of his father, John Pynchon became the 
 great merchant and trader of the valley. His vessels went 
 down the river with merchandise to be landed at his own 
 wharf in Boston. As an incident of his extensive operations 
 with the Indians and others he furnished a good deal of work 
 to the women and children of Springfield by giving them 
 shells to string into wampum at a given price per fathom. 
 These shells were either white or blue-black and were gathered 
 by Indians on the shores of Long Island. Having been duly 
 shaped they were sent to Springfield to Pynchon and sold to 
 him by the bushel. On being strung they became wampum, 
 the money of the Indians, and also to a large extent, of the 
 settlers. Their value arose from the fact that they were so 
 much used by the Indians for ornaments, just as the value 
 of gold arises from the fact that, worthless as it is in the most 
 useful arts, it is universally in demand for jewelry, and like 
 the peculiar wampum shells, very scarce as compared with 
 other metals. From a study of John Pynchon's account books, 
 the historian, Judd, has stated that over 20,000 fathoms of 
 wampum were strung by the women and children of this 
 vicinity. As six feet make one fathom we have a string of 
 beads which would reach from Court Square in Springfield 
 through West Springfield to the Holyoke City Hall and back 
 again through Chicopee. 
 
54 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 Besides being merchant and preacher, John Pynchon was 
 also the recorder or register of deeds, the presiding officer in 
 town meeting and the captain of the train band. He was 
 also the judge before whom suits at law were tried and by 
 whom law breakers were sentenced. There were some laws 
 that he had to execute and some punishments that he had to 
 inflict that seem strange to us. An 
 ordinary punishment was standing 
 in the stocks, an instrument of 
 discomfort so put together that 
 the feet, arms and neck of the cul- 
 prit were pinned to a fixed position 
 and his face exposed to public 
 ridicule. The whipping post, even 
 down to a late period, was a promi- stocks. 
 
 nent object on the street and to it some of the wrong-doers 
 were tied and whipped on the bare back. One of the rules of 
 the army of Massachusetts was that, if any soldier should 
 blaspheme, his tongue should be bored with a hot iron; but 
 probably this punishment was not inflicted. Men were fined 
 for wearing long hair and women were fined for wearing better 
 clothes than they could afford. 
 
 One of the most interesting trials that ever took place in 
 Springfield occurred in the last years in which Judge William 
 Pynchon held Court. It was the trial of Hugh Parsons for 
 witchcraft. In England many thousand people had been 
 hanged because they were thought to be witches in league with 
 the evil one to injure others. In Springfield this suspicion fell 
 on Hugh Parsons, whose house was at the south end of the 
 street, near Mill river. 
 
 Witches were always supposed to be ugly in appearance. 
 Parsons was not a very agreeable man and probably not good 
 
WITCHCRAFT 55 
 
 looking. He was a brick mason and used to wear a red coat. 
 Having, for some reason, got provoked with Blanche Bedortha, 
 he said to her, "Gammer, I shall remember you when you little 
 think on it." Parsons probably forgot all about it, but not so 
 Blanche Bedortha. She kept thinking of him and wondering 
 if he was casting the evil eye upon her. Everything strange 
 
 Witches. 
 
 that happened she laid to Hugh Parsons aided by the devil. 
 She looked out on the marsh, where Mill river entered the 
 Connecticut and saw strange lights. No doubt it was innocent 
 "Will-o-the-Wisp." One night, when she went to bed in the 
 dark, some sparks came from her flannel waistcoat, such 
 little sparks as electricity brings in cold weather. But she 
 knew nothing of phosphorescence and electricity; neither did 
 her neighbors; so they began to think that Hugh Parsons 
 was really a witch. The belief spread up the street, encouraged 
 by every trifling coincidence. Parsons called at Mr. Edwards' 
 house for milk and soon after the cow dried up. George 
 Lancton took a bag pudding out of the pot and, laying it on 
 

 
 
 
 "Ah, Witch! Ah, Witch!' 
 
WITCHCRAFT 57 
 
 the table, it separated right in the middle. Jonathan Taylor 
 dreamed that he saw snakes on the floor and that one of them 
 with a black and yellow stripe hit him on the forehead, when 
 a voice like that of Parsons seemed to cry "Death." 
 
 By this time the excitement was great and Parsons was 
 arrested. As the constable was taking him past the house 
 of Goody Stebbins (where is now the southeast corner of 
 Court Square), on the way to Judge Pynchon's, she cried out, 
 "Ah, witch! Ah, witch!" and fell in a fit. At the hearing 
 before the Court it was decided that, on account of the im- 
 portance of the case. Parsons must be sent to Boston where 
 he would be tried on the charge of having "had familiar and 
 wicked converse w4th the devil." His trial was accordingly 
 held there and he was convicted by the jury, but he was 
 finally acquitted by the General Court. Naturally he never 
 returned to Springfield. In the picture the course of the 
 town brook is seen and, in the distance, the wooded heights 
 of the upper terrace from Crescent Hill to Fort Pleasant avenue. 
 
 John Pynchon, the first judge, the fair recorder, the honest 
 dealer, the able manager with the Indians, the godly teacher 
 in a pulpit that had no minister, lived through all the events 
 narrated in the next two chapters. In these he appears as the 
 brave captain, major and colonel. "Major" was the title by 
 which he came to be generally known. As he grew old such 
 was the respect in which he was held and the gratitude that 
 in the dark days when his father and mother had left the 
 plantation, he had remained to be its protector, leader and 
 friend, that he is described in the old records as "the worship- 
 ful Major," "the worshipful Colonel" and as "the worshipful 
 Major Pynchon, Esquire." His residence was in a house which 
 stood on Main street, near the corner of the present Fort street, 
 a house of brick, built l)y him and designed partly for defence 
 
58 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 in war, so that it came at 
 last to be known as "the 
 old fort." Attached to the 
 rear of it was a part of the 
 old wooden building in 
 which his father lived. 
 
 The old fort stood until 
 1831, but nothing remains 
 of these relics of the past, 
 except a box made from 
 the wood of the wooden 
 house and a hinge from one 
 of its doors. These are 
 the property of the Con- 
 necticut Valley Historical 
 Society. Major Pynchon, 
 honored and loved, lived to 
 a good old age and died in 
 1703. A good picture of his 
 house is given on this page 
 in the book plate of the 
 Historical Society. The view 
 
 behind the house as in old times takes in the river and the 
 West Springfield meadows. Besides the Indian and the Puritan, 
 the steeple of the First church is seen from another point of 
 view, with Mount Tom in the distance. The plate was designed 
 by Clare Gardner, once a pupil of the Springfield schools. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 KING PHILIP'S WAR AND ITS CAUSES.— BATTLES AND 
 BURNINGS IN THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 
 
 UP TO the time at which we have now arrived there had 
 been peace between the colonies of Massachusetts Bay 
 and Plymouth on the one hand and the various Indian 
 tribes on the other. In the Connecticut colony there had been 
 a war so bitterly waged by the whites, aided by their allies, 
 the Mohegan Indians, that it had resulted in the utter destruc- 
 tion of the Pequot tribe. The 
 Pequot war happened about 
 the time of the settlement of 
 Springfield and though it 
 made the settlers in this part 
 of the valley very cautious 
 in dealing with the Indians, 
 and taught them that they 
 lived in the midst of danger, 
 yet nothing hostile occurred. 
 Massasoit, the famous chief 
 of the Wampanoags, was a 
 neighbor of the Plymouth 
 colonists and had always been 
 their friend. The Narragan- 
 setts, who lived in Rhode 
 Island, influenced by the good 
 of Roger Williams for 
 had kept the peace 
 the Pequot war. 
 
 Kino Philip. 
 From "Indian History for Young Folks" by Will 
 Francis S. Drake. Copyright 1884 by Harper , 
 and Bros. thCm, 
 
 after the close of 
 
60 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 The tribes of the interior, — those hving in what is now 
 Worcester county and in that part of the valley extending 
 from Hartford to Northampton, — were known by the general 
 name of Nipmucks or "fresh water" Indians. They were 
 small tribes, apparently independent of each other, and having 
 each a chief, or sachem, who was advised by a few others of 
 the most knowing of the tribe called Sagamores. The Indians 
 who lived at the mouth of the Agawam, and had their fort, 
 where, perhaps, they spent the winter, on Long Hill, were 
 called the Agawams. They were about two hundred in number 
 and their sachem was Wequogan. 
 
 It was only natural that when the whites of these colonies 
 were so few in number they should make every effort to make 
 friends with the Indians. Possessed as they were with fire- 
 arms and the arts of civilization they were but weak, living 
 in a wilderness among so many savages. Besides, they were 
 taught by their religion that the Indian was a brother man 
 to whom it was their duty to bring the blessings of the white 
 man's religion. 
 
 There were men like John Eliot and David Brainerd, who 
 suffered great hardships and underwent much toil in order to 
 get the Indians to accept Christianity. In fact they were 
 reasonably successful, for in fifty years after the Pilgrims 
 had landed on Plymouth rock, there were as many as two 
 thousand "praying Indians." Some of these were sincerely 
 religious but all were called "praying Indians" who had begun 
 to desert savage life and attached themselves in friendship 
 and service to the whites, showing a willingness to learn the 
 civilized way of living. They afterwards showed their good 
 will by taking English names. There was, for example, in 
 the Plymouth colony an Indian named Toto, who went by 
 the name of Sam Barrow, probably because of his friendly 
 
KING PHILIP'S WAR 61 
 
 connection with a family of that name. Massasoit took his 
 two boys, Wamsutta and Metacomet, to the governor, re- 
 questing that they be given Enghsh names. They were 
 therefore named respectively, Alexander and Philip. It was 
 this Philip who figures so largely in this and the succeeding 
 chapter. 
 
 But, sad to relate, not all the whites were good to the 
 Indians. Many bad men came to America and settled in the 
 colonies. William Pynchon and his companions realized what 
 might be the evil results of this in various ways and for many 
 years no one was allowed to settle in Springfield who was not 
 acceptable to the town. For a new settler someone had to 
 become responsible that he would behave himself. In the 
 seacoast towns this was not so easy. Consequently troubles 
 arose and the whites sometimes bore themselves proudly 
 towards the Indians. This, of course, irritated the Indians, 
 for they felt that they had courteously allowed the whites to 
 settle in their country and were entitled to respectful treat- 
 ment. Here is an example of what happened. 
 
 There was a sachem named Squando, chief of the Soko- 
 nokis and a man of nobility and character. One day his wife 
 was paddling down the river Saco in a canoe with her infant 
 child. Some English sailors, coming along in a boat, said that 
 they had heard that Indian children could swim like young 
 ducks, and proceeded to upset the canoe. The child sank, 
 at once, to the bottom of the river; the mother, by diving, 
 brought it up, but although alive, it died shortly after. This, 
 of course, was an extreme case, but it illustrates the wicked 
 way in which the more ignorant or grosser members of a 
 superior race sometimes look down upon and annoy those of 
 a weaker race. 
 
62 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 There were also, on the part of the Indians, those things 
 that annoyed the whites. The Indians were incHned to thiev- 
 ing; neither did they feel the importance of telling the truth. 
 A long training in civilized life had taught the whites that 
 truth telling is not only right but that without it business 
 cannot well go on. The mind of a savage does not understand 
 this; so that, as was said by Mr. Moxon, the first minister 
 of this town, "An Indian's promise is like taking a pig by the 
 tail." 
 
 But without regard to the right and the wrong in the 
 character of the white man or the red man, there was another 
 cause, perhaps enough in itself, to lead at some time to a 
 union of Indians against the whites, provided any leader 
 should appear great enough to unite them. The whites came 
 more and more to possess the land. It is true that they bought 
 it of the Indians and at a price that seemed fair to both parties ; 
 but, all the same, the Indians saw their hunting grounds dis- 
 appearing and the game growing more scarce. They were 
 trained to hunt and not to dig; all the corn was raised by the 
 women. Besides, if the praying Indians kept on increasing, 
 the true glory, as they understood it, of the Indian character, 
 would be gone. No more war; no more scalping; no more 
 of that wild life which they so thoroughly enjoyed. Instead 
 of Indian braves there would only be peaceable Indian farmers. 
 Today there are, on the Indian reservations, farmers, pros- 
 perous and happy, having pianos and sewing machines in 
 their comfortable homes; but an Indian, of colonial days, 
 if he could have foreseen this as possible, would not have had 
 it so, simply because he was born a wild Indian in a wigwam. 
 A tame fox may be petted and well fed, but a wild fox, half 
 starved, as he generally is, would never choose to become a 
 tame one. 
 
KING PHILIP'S WAR 63 
 
 So, after fifty years had passed since the settlement of 
 Plymouth, the Indians were reasoning among themselves in 
 this way: "Now is our time. If we do not at once unite our 
 scattered tribes and destroy the English, they will, in the end 
 starve us out. They will soon grow so powerful that resist- 
 ance would be hopeless. It is true that we cannot fight as 
 they do. They have plenty of firearms and we must depend 
 partly on our bows and arrows, but then we need not meet 
 them in open battle. We can worry them out, we can shoot 
 and poison their cattle, burn their houses and barns, and lie 
 in wait for them in their fields and in the forest paths. When 
 the men are away from home we can tomahawk the women 
 and children. They may be more numerous than we are, but, 
 in this way, we can in time destroy them all or drive them back 
 whence they came." 
 
 Some of the old sagamores gave different counsel, but this 
 was the spirit that possessed the younger men of the tribes 
 in Massachusetts. The disastrous Pequot war in Connecticut 
 had taught the Mohegans that such reasonings were in vain 
 and, under the leadership of the wily Uncas, they had been 
 for a long time the allies of the English and were prepared 
 to join with them even in war against their own race. 
 
 To bring all this unfriendly feeling against the whites to 
 a head, there was needed a warrior, who by his personal 
 qualities, could unite under him the various tribes. Such a 
 man was Metacomet, Massasoit's son, called Philip by the 
 English. He had now become chief of the Wampanoags and 
 was thoroughly convinced of the importance of making a 
 stand against the whites. He is known in history as King 
 Philip, and indeed, he had many kingly qualities. He was 
 large in stature, of commanding appearance, agile and swift- 
 footed as any Indian brave, and of superb muscular training. 
 
64 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 As a leader he was quick to see and to do; and what he did 
 not think safe or wise for himself to do he knew how to set 
 others on doing. 
 
 After war was once begun he would appear, now in south- 
 eastern Massachusetts, now in Rhode Island and all at once 
 in the Connecticut valley, like an angel of death, unseen in his 
 coming or going, but his presence always recognized by the 
 sign of burning villages and slaughtered English. He was, 
 like other Indians, treacherous; yet, toward those who had 
 befriended him personally, he proved, in the war, to be kind 
 and magnanimous. Before an attack on a certain town, he 
 directed that two small children of an old friend, should be 
 spared; and he would not let Scituate be destroyed because 
 in that town lived a family of Leonards who had befriended 
 him. 
 
 Perhaps nothing could make Philip more impressive than 
 he was by nature; nevertheless on state occasions, it was his 
 habit to assume a certain splendor of decoration. One of his 
 decorations was a belt about ten feet long which went over 
 his shoulders and being brought forward, hung down before 
 him, nearly to his feet. It was embroidered with black and 
 white wampum in figures of beasts, birds and flowers. Still 
 another belt embroidered was placed on the head and hung 
 down behind, and a third, ornamented with the figure of a 
 star, was worn on the breast. These belts were edged with 
 the red fur of some animal. 
 
 The war began in June, 1675, within Plymouth colony, 
 not far from Mount Hope, Philip's residence. Several villages 
 were laid waste and some soldiers killed; but on the whole, 
 thanks to the vigilance of Captain Church, a skillful Indian 
 fighter, Philip was not very successful; so that he and his 
 warriors were fortunate in escaping to the region of the Con- 
 
KING PHILIP'S WAR 
 
 65 
 
 -''■^t?'" 
 
 necticut valley, where the settlements, being more separated, 
 could be easier attacked. 
 
 It was in early August that a horseman came riding in hot 
 haste into the Main street of Springfield, announcing to the 
 excited inhabitants that their neighbors of Brookfield, thirty 
 
 miles away, were in great dis- 
 tress. The horseman was 
 Judah Trumbull. He had 
 left Springfield but a few 
 hours before. Arriving at 
 Brookfield he had found the 
 village in flames and the vil- 
 lagers penned up in a single 
 house, fighting 
 for their lives 
 ' against a horde 
 of savages who 
 were besieging 
 it. Concealing 
 
 himself, Trumbull crept up near enough to take in the situa- 
 tion, then rushed to Springfield, as fast as his horse could 
 carry him. 
 
 Lieutenant Cooper immediately raised a troop of horse- 
 men and hurried to Brookfield. On arriving he found that 
 help had just come from another source. The Brookfield 
 people were saved; but sad was their story. They had all, 
 eighty-three in number, including women and children, gath- 
 ered in a fortified house. To this the Indians tried to set fire 
 in the hope of killing the inmates as they rushed out. To 
 this end hay and fagots were piled against the side of the 
 house and fired; but the blaze was put out from within. 
 Blazing arrows were then shot upon the roof; but holes were 
 
 Judah Trumbull's Ride. 
 
66 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 cut in the roof and the fire put out. More water being wanted, 
 a man who went to the well after it was shot. A woman, 
 too, was killed by a bullet that entered through a loophole 
 made for firing a musket from within. In a last effort to fire 
 the house the Indians got a cart, lengthened the tongue or 
 pole by splicing on other poles and, loading it with combus- 
 tibles, set it on fire. Then they tried to push it against the 
 house, but one wheel getting caught in a rut, the cart turned 
 round and exposed those who pushed it to shots from the 
 
 The Attack on Brookfield. 
 
 house. A shower, just then coming up, extinguished the fire. 
 Brookfield having been destroyed, it was naturally to be 
 expected that Philip would now give his attention to the 
 settlements up and down the valley. None knew whose turn 
 would come next. Springfield was no longer the northern 
 settlement. Above were Hadley and Northampton, Hatfield 
 
KING PHILIP'S WAR 67 
 
 and Deerfield, and still further north, Northfield, the most 
 exposed of all. The only settlement to the west, in the valley, 
 was Westfield. Of all the forces in the valley Major Pynchon 
 had command, and in each town of course there was a militarv 
 company. In his plans Major Pynchon showed more wisdom 
 than the commissioners of the united colonies, who had gen- 
 eral charge of the war. He proposed to disarm the peaceful 
 Indians, like the Agawams, before they had a chance to do 
 mischief. 
 
 It was decided first to disarm the Nonotucks who lived 
 near Northampton. For this purpose, two companies, under 
 Captain Lathrop and Captain Beers, after relieving Brookfield, 
 were marching thence northwards when they overtook the 
 enemy near Mount Sugarloaf . The Indians suddenly stopped, 
 plunged into a swamp, and poured a volley of bullets into 
 the English. Into the swamp rushed the troops and, shelter- 
 ing themselves behind trees, they and the savages fought for 
 three hours. In this, the battle of Hopewell Swamp, a number 
 were killed on both sides. 
 
 Then followed an attack on Deerfield and next on North- 
 field, under the command of Sagamore Sam and Onc-Eyed 
 John. Some of the inhabitants of Northfield were killed and 
 eventually the settlement was abandoned for the rest of the 
 war. While Captain Beers and his company were marching 
 to the relief of Northfield they fell into an ambush. An 
 ambush was a favorite mode of warfare with Indians. They 
 would carefully pick out some narrow passage, through which 
 they believed their enemy would go, where, concealing them- 
 selves behind rocks and trees, and waiting until the enemy 
 were so far in the pass as to make retreat' difficult, they would 
 make a sudden and deadly onslaught. Captain Beers and his 
 force were thus caught while they were crossing a brook. 
 
6S 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 Thrown at first into confusion, they finally rallied and fought 
 their way out of the ravine. Then on a slope of a hill, now 
 known as Beers mountain, they made a last desperate resist- 
 ance; but the Captain and most of his company were killed. 
 A few days afterwards, when Major Treat came along, he saw 
 the heads of the slain stuck on poles by the travelled path, 
 the sign and threat of Indian vengeance. 
 
 About the middle of September Captain Lathrop with his 
 
 company were 
 
 mil^^BJE SBMESSESniSm m marching from 
 
 '^;.3 Deerfield to 
 i| Hadlcy. In the 
 '^'1 neighborhood of 
 ^^ Mount Sugar- 
 51 loaf they stop- 
 ^ ■;^; ped by a brook 
 t^ to pick the wild 
 fi; grapes that hung 
 •;'.f temptingly on 
 5^ the vines about 
 '"-" them. It was 
 an excellent 
 place for an am- 
 bush and the 
 Indians well 
 knew it. No sooner were the troops scattered and their 
 arms laid aside than the very bushes seemed on fire from 
 the guns of, perhaps, hundreds of Indians, Pocumtucks, 
 Nonotucks, Nashaways, Squakheags, led by Sagamore Sam, 
 One-Eyed John, Muttaump, and, quite likely, Philip himself. 
 The slaughter was well nigh complete. Almost the only person 
 who escaped had thrown himself into the bed of the brook 
 
 This cut is from "The Little Reader's Assistant," by 
 Noah Webster, author of the Dictionary. It shows the clever 
 escape of an Indian ally of the whites who, being pursued 
 by one of King Philip's men, hid behind a rock and, raising his 
 headgear on the barrel of his gun, drew the fire of his enemy. 
 To reload the gun, a fiint lock, took so much time that the first 
 Indian escaped. 
 
KING PHILIP'S WAR 69 
 
 and pulled the bushes over him. Although stepped on by 
 more than one Indian, he lay quiet until all was over. This 
 conflict is known as the battle of Bloody Brook. A monument 
 near by now marks the burial place of the slain. 
 
 Cradle of the Pynchon Family, Now in the Old Day House. 
 
70 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 THE STATUE OF THE PURITAN IN MERRICK PARK. 
 
 With sober foot unswerving, lip severe, 
 
 And lid that droops to shield the inner sight ; 
 Dark-browed, stem-willed, a shadow in the light 
 
 Of alien times, and yet no alien here ; 
 
 Revered and dreaded, loved, but yet with fear; 
 He moves, the somber shade of that old night 
 Whence grew our mom, the ghost of that grim might 
 
 That nursed to strength the Nation's youth austere. 
 
 Mark the grave thought that lines the hollow cheek, 
 
 The hardy hand that guards the sacred book, 
 
 The sinewy limb, and what the thin lips speak 
 
 Of iron will to mould the era — look 
 
 In reverence, and as ye mutely scan 
 
 The heroic figure, see, rough-limned, a man ! 
 
 — Whitmore, 1852. 
 

 ■' -.\^-" ■* "■■/ ,i.n -^ 
 
 The Indian Stockade on Long Hill, as it Probably Appeared, Looking S. E. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 KING PHILIPS WAR CONTINUED.— THE BURNING OF 
 
 SPRINGFIELD.— CAPT. HOLYOKE AND THE FALLS 
 
 FIGHT.— CLOSE OF THE WAR. 
 
 THE war was by this time well begun throughout the two 
 colonies. The upper settlements of the Connecticut 
 seemed to be at the mercy of the savages. They were 
 now gathering in the neighborhood of Hadley, which appar- 
 ently was to be the next point of attack. It was to Hadley 
 therefore that the English soldiers were sent. Major Pynchon 
 beUeved that some troops should nevertheless be left in the 
 other settlements for fear of a surprise ; but the commissioners 
 
72 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 of the colonies made the mistake of not taking his advice 
 Tn another respect he was overruled. With his usual fore 
 sight and knowledge of Indian character he had suggested 
 that the Agawams should be deprived of their firearms and a 
 permanent guard placed in their fort. They were as yet 
 peaceable and, being few in number, it could have been 
 easily done. But he was obliged to content himself with taking 
 a few hostages, who were then sent by him to Hartford for 
 safer keeping. 
 
 The gathering of troops at Hadley of course required 
 Major Pynchon's presence there as commander of the army 
 in the valley, and in accordance with orders he felt obliged to 
 take with him nearly all the able-bodied men. Scarcely any 
 men were left in the town, except a few old men, like Deacon 
 Chapin, who was then in his last sickness, and boys under 
 eighteen. 
 
 Springfield's defenceless condition and importance gave 
 Philip his opportunity. Through spies he knew what was 
 going on. The blow was not to fall on Hadley, after all. To 
 join forces with the Agawams, in the Long Hill stockade, 
 was easy. He had only to hurry his light-footed braves down 
 the line of the desolate Wilbraham hills and no one would be 
 the wiser until it was too late. The farm houses of the open 
 country were few and scattered and the occupants had fled 
 into the villages for protection. 
 
 By what defences had Springfield been made ready for an 
 Indian onslaught? Major Pynchon and his fellow townsmen 
 had their own way in this respect and they were fairly prepared. 
 The Pynchon house, by its construction, being of brick with 
 walls two feet in thickness, was in itself a good defence. 
 There were two other houses in the lower part of the street, 
 which, although built of wood, were especially protected 
 
KING PHILIPS WAR 73 
 
 against assault. Into these the inhabitants could flee. The 
 ordinary means of garrisoning houses was by palisades. 
 
 A palisade was made in this way. Trees of convenient size 
 were cut to such a length that when 
 placed firmly in the ground they would 
 rise above it to the length of ten or 
 twelve feet. Having been roughly hewn 
 to a post-like form, or, if the work was 
 hurried, perhaps not hewn at all, they palisaded houses. 
 
 were then set close together around the house to be protected. 
 They were also fastened together by a rude rail, held, it may be, 
 by nails or withes. Sometimes several houses, or as at North- 
 ampton, a whole hamlet, were thus enclosed. Loopholes were 
 made here and there through which those from within could 
 fire at an approaching enemy without much danger that a 
 bullet or arrow would enter the loophole itself. At the entrance 
 of the stockade or palisaded place, one line of posts was made 
 to overlap the line from the other direction at a distance just 
 wide enough for a man to pass. The narrow passage could 
 thus be easily defended. Of course, if the enemy could get 
 upon a rock or tree in the near neighborhood, they could fire 
 upon the house, so that occasionally some one was shot when 
 opposite a window. Feather beds, as was the case in Brook- 
 field, could be hung against the inside wall to deaden the 
 bullets that might penetrate the wall itself. It was with 
 palisades that the Long Hill fort was constructed and the 
 settlers wisely adopted the Indian mode of defence. The 
 Indian fort or stockade was situated on the spot where now 
 stands the house of the Vincentian Fathers. When exca- 
 vations for this building were made the ashes of the 
 ancient fires were uncovered and discolorations of the soil 
 showed where the posts had been. 
 
74 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 It was into this fort on Long Hill that some of Philip's 
 warriors secretly entered on a night in early October, 1675. 
 There were among our local Indians only about forty fighting 
 men. They were probably so peaceably disposed, by reason 
 of their weakness, their familiar intercourse in the village, and 
 the fair treatment which they had always had, that had it 
 not been for the incitements of Philip, they might have taken 
 no part in the war. They were nearer to Connecticut than 
 the Indians of the upper valley and in the Pequot war the 
 Connecticut Indians had been taught a severe lesson. But to 
 destroy Springfield was part of Philip's plan; he needed the 
 help of our Indians and his clever arts prevailed. 
 
 On Monday, October 4th, Major Pynchon set out for 
 Hadley with his men. His object was to locate the Indians 
 harboring around there and bring on a decisive battle at once. 
 Meantime, Indian braves who had fired Brookfield and other 
 places, were secretly got into the Long Hill fort. The terrible 
 disaster and slaughter of women and children that impended 
 was only saved from making a bloody page of history by a 
 single circumstance. The Agawam hostages were still in 
 Hartford and their relatives probably insisted on their relief 
 from certain death by getting them out of the hands of the 
 whites before the expected attack. Had this not been done 
 some Indian would have betrayed the whole plot. Accordingly 
 some messengers were sent to Hartford, who in some way 
 effected the escape of the hostages. In passing through Wind- 
 sor, either going or coming, the messengers or the hostages 
 happened to come across Toto, an Indian who lived in a 
 white family. Toto became aware of the plot and as he 
 showed great excitement about something, he revealed it, 
 on being questioned. 
 
 No time was to be lost. The fate of Springfield now hung 
 
KING PHILIP'S WAR 75 
 
 on a family in Windsor, whose name we would be glad to know. 
 A swift messenger was dispatched to the doomed town. Leav- 
 ing his horse, probably, in West Springfield, and rousing the 
 citizens there, he crossed on" the ferry, with some of them, 
 at dead of night. The alarm was given all down the street. 
 The people fled at once to the fortified houses and a messenger 
 was sent to Hadley after Major Pynchon. 
 
 It is probable that the Indians intended to make the attack 
 at night. The betrayal of their plot and the sudden rush of 
 the people for safety may have disconcerted their plans. At 
 all events the morning broke with no sign of danger and some 
 of the people went back to their homes. It was hard for them 
 to believe that the Agawams had become their enemies. 
 
 At this time the town was in command of Thomas Cooper, 
 then known as Lieutenant Cooper. He no longer lived in his 
 old place on Main street, but fifteen years before had removed 
 to that part of the town now known as Agawam, and had a 
 sawmill on Three Mile brook. He was an old man, but yet 
 hale and hearty. He was not only a carpenter and farmer; 
 he was something of a surgeon and in the absence of regular 
 physicians, went far and near to set a broken bone. This he 
 did in kindness and with no charge. In the absence of lawyers 
 he also practiced before the courts. He was so often called 
 to serve as selectman that he sought to avoid the office. He 
 was particularly successful in dealing with the Indians and 
 was probably personally acquainted with each one. Green, 
 in his history, says that his descendants, of whom some still 
 remain, may well place him beside Deacon Chapin as one 
 of the pillars of the town. 
 
 Another man besides Cooper, Chapin and the minister, 
 who remained when the militia went to Hadley, was Thomas 
 Miller. He was the constable and perhaps for that reason 
 
76 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 was left behind. Unlike Lieutenant Cooper, he was probably 
 not on particularly good terms with the Indians. In his 
 younger days he had, for some reason, struck old Reippum- 
 sick with the butt of his gun and the old man brought the 
 younger one before Judge William Pynchon. As the matter 
 was liable to lead to difficulties with the Indians, the judge 
 called in several men. including the minister and Thomas 
 Cooper, to sit with him as advisers. The result was that Miller 
 was sentenced to be whipped at the public whipping post 
 fifteen lashes, which, rather than undergo, he finally made 
 his peace with the Indians by the payment of four fathoms of 
 wampum. Perhaps unpleasant feelings remained on both 
 sides, for ten years afterwards Miller complained to the court of 
 Kollabaugamitt, Mallamaug and other Indians for striking his 
 wife and throwing sticks at his children; whereupon ten men 
 riding hard on five horses were sent in pursuit of the fleeing 
 Kollabaugamitt, Mallamaug and other assailants into the 
 country of the Nipmucks. Kollabaugamitt and Mallamaug 
 were caught and fined by the Court in fourteen fathoms of 
 wampum. Although the Indians did not like Thomas Miller 
 yet, as he was constable and had been fence viewer, pound- 
 keeper and committee on the allotment of new lands, he was 
 evidently reckoned a worthy citizen. 
 
 It is true that with the coming of the morning of the event- 
 ful day the people had returned to their homes. Most of 
 them, of course, were women and children and the distress 
 and, anxiety must have been great. The defenders of the 
 town had gone, and, although sent for, they might be unable 
 to return. There may have been reports of strange Indians 
 seen about the fort, and with another night death and destruc- 
 tion might be upon the village. At some hazard Lieutenant 
 Cooper determined to resolve these doubts. Taking Thomas 
 
KING PHILIP'S WAR 
 
 77 
 
 Miller with him, both mounted, they rode down the street in 
 the direction of the fort. Arrived at some point not far from 
 the bridge at Mill river, north of the stream and where the 
 road passes alongside the natural bank at the foot of Long 
 Hill, a shot was heard and then another. Miller was in- 
 stantly killed. Cooper fell from his horse, but remounting, 
 started up the street. Another shot made a mortal wound. 
 
 
 The Ambush of Lieutenant Cooper and C instable Mii.leh. 
 
 He reached the nearest garrisoned house and gave the alarm, 
 but immediately died. 
 
 Much as Thomas Cooper had done for the town in his life, 
 in his death he really saved it from a great slaughter, for the 
 alarm was none too soon. The ])cople had no sooner got into 
 
78 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 the fortified houses than the Indians, whooping and yelling, 
 broke from the fort and were upon the town. 
 
 "Alas, that direful yell 
 So loud, so wild, so shrill, so clear, 
 As if the very fiends of hell. 
 Burst from the wildwood depths, were here." 
 
 As compared with an Indian warhoop, the howling of a wolf 
 or the cry of a panther had no terrors to the forefathers. At 
 the head of the savage band were Philip's chosen braves, 
 closely followed by the more timid Agawams, armed with fire- 
 arms and bows and arrows. Some carried blazing pine knots, 
 prepared to burn the houses, barns and haystacks. Thanks 
 to the Windsor Indian, Lieutenant Cooper and the palisades, 
 no one was killed in the mad rush up the street except Pente- 
 cost Matthews, wife of the old town drummer, and Edmund 
 Pringrydays, who was wounded and died a few days after. 
 Some thirty houses were burned as were about twenty-five 
 barns stored with fodder for the winter. Crossing the marsh, 
 the enemy burned the house of correction near the present 
 comer of State and Maple streets. In a short time the whole 
 town, from the mills on Mill river to upper Ferry lane (Cypress 
 street) was a burning, smoking ruin. Nothing escaped but 
 the garrisoned houses, the meeting-house and one or two 
 houses near it. Before being fired the houses were plundered 
 of their valuables. One Indian got a pewter platter, which 
 holding up before his person, either in defence or defiance, an 
 enraged townsman sent a bullet through both platter and 
 Indian. The platter remained in the town for nearly two 
 centuries. 
 
 While the Indians were still in the village plundering and 
 burning and looking for an opportunity to kill the besieged, 
 
KING PHILIPS WAR 79 
 
 Major Treat of Connecticut arrived on the West Springfield 
 side of the river with a company of soldiers. Could they have 
 got across, the Indians would have fled, but the latter kept 
 them back. Major Pynchon, however, having got the message 
 sent the night before, had set out in great haste with the Spring- 
 field men, whose wives and children, mothers and sisters, 
 were in the "sacked and burning village." Perspiring with 
 exertion and anxiety, they at last arrived on the scene. Their 
 approach was the signal for the retreat of the Indians. These 
 hurried eastward across the plain and encamped for the night 
 about six miles away, tradition says at Indian Orchard. The 
 next day they plunged into the forest to the north. The 
 Agawams, afterwards uniting themselves with other tribes to 
 the west of the Hudson, became, as a separate tribe, forever 
 lost to sight. Although now and then a wanderer appeared 
 about the home of his childhood, never again did Springfield 
 have a tribe of Indian neighbors. 
 
 One old squaw was left in the hasty flight. Perhaps she 
 tried to follow the tribe and fell behind because of her age. 
 Captain Moseley of Boston, who was engaged in the army of 
 the valley, but not in Springfield, declared that she was torn 
 in pieces by dogs. If true, this heinous act requires explana- 
 tion and apology. Perhaps only a few were responsible. The 
 shocking barbarities of the Indians were beginning to arouse 
 the colonists to a fearful revenge. Captive Indians, including 
 Philip's wife and little son, were sold into slavery in the West 
 Indies, and even in Plymouth the heads of slain Indians were 
 exposed on poles. There is nothing, however, on the part of 
 the whites as barbarous as an act of the Indians in roasting a 
 captive and eating slices of his flesh while yet alive. 
 
 The saintly Eliot, who had been a successful missionary 
 to the Indians, tried, with others, to lessen the brutalities of 
 
80 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 war, so far as the whites were concerned, but without success. 
 The Indians, however, had not so much feehng about this 
 matter, even as concerned their own people, as one might 
 expect. They looked upon death with a sort of indifference 
 and probably felt that scalping and being scalped, burning 
 alive and being burnt alive were a part of the glory of war. 
 When Toto, mentioned in the fourth chapter (page 60), having 
 himself killed nineteen whites, at last fell into the hands of 
 
 Indians Killing a White Captive. 
 From Noah Webster's "Little Reader's Assistant." 
 
 Captain Church, he was told to prepare to die. He admitted 
 that the sentence was just and said he was ashamed to live. 
 He asked only the favor of being allowed to smoke a few whiffs 
 of tobacco, which having done, he said he was ready. Then 
 one of Captain Church's Indians sank a hatchet in his brains. 
 At last winter began to set in, a time when even the Indians 
 could not accomplish much in the way of active warfare. 
 Philip and his Wampanoags retired from this region and 
 entrenched themselves in a swamp in the eastern part of the 
 
KING PHILIPS WAR 81 
 
 State, where they were attacked with great slaughter. But it 
 was a sad state of things here in the valley, with Deerfield, 
 Northfield and Springfield destroyed and only Hadley and 
 Northampton remaining. Springfield was in great straits. 
 The people huddled together in the few houses and barns that 
 were left and some probably found shelter on the west side 
 where there were some houses. Major Pynchon was much 
 inconvenienced by the crowding of his own house and dis- 
 tressed by his great loss of property, — his grist mills and saw 
 mills destroyed and the people who owed him unable to pay. 
 It seemed like the ruin of his fortune, yet this is the way he 
 wrote to one of his children, then in London: 
 
 "Dear Son: I would not have you troubled at these sad 
 losses which I have met with. There is no reason for a child 
 to be troubled when his father calls in that which he lent him. 
 It was the Lord that lent it to me, and He that gave it hath 
 taken it away, and blessed be the name of the Lord. He hath 
 done very well for me, and I acknowledge His goodness, and 
 desire to trust in Him and to submit to Him forever. And do 
 you, with me, acknowledge and justify Him." 
 
 There was some talk of abandoning Springfield. Major 
 Pynchon himself thought he would be better off to remove 
 to Boston, where he had some property left. But, strong in 
 the sense of duty, which was a family trait, he wrote to Gov- 
 ernor Leverett in language of 
 
 manliness and fortitude: //,/ ^j) / 
 
 "I resolve to attend what ^--iy^^^^K. J-y'nx^h(nt^ 
 God calls me to do and to V_— -^ -^^^^---'^'^''^ i 
 
 stick to it as long as I can, ' 
 
 AUTOOHAPH OF .loHN PyNCHON. 
 
 and, though I have such great 
 
 loss of the creature comforts, yet to do what I can in defending 
 
 this place." Thus he furni'^hed a good motto for all the sons and 
 
82 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 daughters of Springfield in times of stress and dijfficulty: 
 ''STICK TO IT!'' 
 
 At last the dreadful winter passed into an early spring, 
 so that the crops were got early into the ground. The hopes 
 of the people began to revive. They had not much more to 
 lose and if the war might only be successfully ended in the 
 campaign of the advancing year, all might yet be well. But 
 the Indians had been greatly encouraged by the successes of 
 1675, and their dreams of sweeping the white men out of New 
 England seemed nearer to becoming true. They started early 
 on the war path. 
 
 On a day in March a small party of Longmeadow people, 
 who, out of fear, had been deprived of all church services 
 since the memorable fifth of October, were on their way to 
 the meeting-house at the center. They were protected by a 
 few mounted soldiers, men from the eastern part of the state, 
 who had been garrisoned in Springfield since the disaster. The 
 company had got as far as the brook at Pecowsic, just where 
 it comes out from Forest Park, when they were set upon by 
 Indians. John Keep of Longmeadow was killed, his wife 
 captured and his children either killed or captured. The 
 Indians escaped into the region of the park and made for the 
 north. As soon as Major Pynchon was notified he set off with 
 others in pursuit, and overtaking the band, rescued a woman. 
 It was learned from her that some, at least, of the attacking 
 party were our own Agawams. 
 
 Still bolder moves than this were made. Connecticut, 
 after the Pequot war, seemed to be reasonably safe, but now 
 an invasion into that colony was made; and Simsbury, only 
 a few miles from Hartford, was attacked. Town after town 
 in the eastern part of the colony was attacked or destroyed 
 and the colonists were almost in despair. It seemed as if 
 
KING PHILIP'S WAR 
 
 83 
 
 savagery were indeed winning the day against civilization; as 
 if a great continent were to have no better use than as a hunt- 
 ing ground for wild Indians. 
 
 But when it seemed darkest, it was really just before a 
 decisive blow that shattered the Indians' hopes in a day. 
 To show how this came about it is necessary to go back a 
 little. Early in March the Indians, in one of their marauding 
 expeditions down the valley, had captured a Springfield boy, 
 
 Mrs. Uowi.andson and John (jIi-bekt at Tuunehs Falls. 
 
 John Gilbert by name, whose father had lived in Longmeadow, 
 but was now dead. John, who perhaps had wandered too far 
 east of the village in order to snare partridges or something 
 of that sort, was taken as far north as the present town of 
 Hinsdale in New Hampshire. Here he fell very sick and 
 was finally cast out into the cold along with a little Indian 
 child who had lost both of its parents and was thrown out to 
 die. They were found by Mrs. Rowlandson, the captive wife 
 
84 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 of a minister. With great difficulty she got the youth to a 
 fire and he grew better. He watched his chance to escape 
 and on his eighteenth birthday he succeeded. On reaching 
 the settlements he was able to give very important information. 
 It had not been known where the Indians of Western Massa- 
 chusetts were located, whether they had gone over into the 
 Hudson valley or had remained nearer at hand. Could their 
 rendezvous be discovered, and the whole body be surprised by 
 a sudden onslaught their power for evil might be broken. 
 
 When John Gilbert reached the settlements he made it 
 clear just where the Indians could be found. It was at some 
 falls on the Connecticut river, near the entrance of a river, 
 now called Miller's river. It was a good place for fishing and 
 here the Indians, by drying fish, were making themselves 
 ready for the summer campaign. 
 
 As soon as this information became known to Captain 
 Turner, after whom the falls. were eventually named, he de- 
 cided to attack at once. He was now in command in the 
 valley, Major Pynchon having been allowed to resign at his 
 own request. Pynchon, though a wise counsellor in the war, 
 did not consider himself especially fitted for active military 
 operations. Although he did not go to Turners Falls, Spring- 
 field was well represented there by Captain Samuel Holyoke, 
 the son of Mary Pynchon, a young man of brave and ardent 
 temperament. He was second in command. The Indians 
 were encamped directly on the bank of the river. With a 
 sudden and terrible onslaught Captain Turner was among 
 them without warning. Those who were not slain in their 
 wigwams, plunged madly into the river and were carried down 
 the falls to certain death. Such was the pitch of despera- 
 tion to which the English had come in their fight against 
 extinction by the savage, that Captain Holyoke slew five old 
 
KING PHILIP'S WAR 85 
 
 men, women and children with his own hand, as they were 
 hiding under a bank. This is horrible to relate, like as it is 
 to the stories of an older time; but when the life of a people 
 is at stake means are not nicely measured. At best, war is 
 terrible. 
 
 The noise of the attack had aroused another band of 
 Indians who were not far off and they at once attacked the 
 invaders. It was said that Philip was approaching with a 
 thousand warriors. The victory of the English was now 
 turned into a retreat, and, owing to certain circumstances, a 
 retreat which it was very difficult successfully to manage. 
 To make it worse. Captain Turner was shot and the command 
 devolved on Holyoke. Already he had nearly lost his life 
 with the vanguard. His horse had been shot under him. As 
 several warriors rushed upon him he killed one and his men 
 drove back the rest. It was, nevertheless, his self-possession 
 and courage that saved the day, and he marched into Hadley 
 the surviving victor of the famous "Falls Fight." 
 
 But the strain of those hours was too much. He returned to 
 Springfield and in a few short months died from the effects 
 of the exertion, a sacrifice to the cause of civilization in the 
 Connecticut valley, and, indeed, the whole state. It is, per- 
 haps for him, more likely for his father, Elizur Holyoke, that 
 the mountain is named which looks down on the scenes of 
 his life and victory. 
 
 The Falls Fight, notwithstanding the rout of the English 
 at the end of it, was really a great disaster for the Indians. 
 It broke up the fisheries, on which Philip depended for his 
 supplies during the summer campaign. Many sachems, saga- 
 mores and braves were killed, and Philip, almost in despair, 
 left the valley of the great river for his own country. As it 
 turned out, the Falls Fight, in which John Gilbert and Captain 
 
86 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 Holyoke of Springfield had borne so important a part, was the 
 last great event of the war, except the death of Philip himself. 
 The Indian cause seemed all at once to collapse. Bereft of 
 his family, his supporters killed in the Swamp Fight of the 
 preceding winter and the Falls Fight of May 18th, Philip 
 himself was at last corralled by Captain Church in a swamp. 
 Swamps were a favorite place of refuge with Indians. As 
 Philip was jumping from hummock to hummock in his flight, 
 he was shot by sin Indian, an ally of the English. Thus ended 
 King Philip's war, so far as he was concerned, in August 1676. 
 It was continued for a time by sachems on the Maine and New 
 Hampshire coast, and then peace was arranged. 
 
 Henceforth the Indians of New England were a doomed 
 race; doomed to weakness, disease, intemperance and decay. 
 It had been the glory of Massasoit to win by kindness the friend- 
 ship and good will of a new continental power. It was the fate 
 of his son to destroy that good will and make his people, as a 
 race in New England, first, to be feared and then to be ignored 
 and forgotten. Two centuries were to pass before savage 
 warfare was to cease beyond the Hudson and on the slopes of 
 of the Rockies, and the last Indian warrior engaged in con- 
 flict with the American People, Geronimo, of the dreadful 
 tribe of Apaches, has died the week that this work goes to press ;* 
 but for New England its Indians were soon to be as if they 
 had never been. 
 
 "Alas for them! — their day is o'er, 
 
 Their fires are out from hill and shore; 
 
 No more for them the wild deer bounds; 
 
 The plough is on their hunting-grounds; 
 
 The pale man's axe rings through their woods; 
 
 The pale man's sail skims o'er their floods; 
 Their pleasant springs are dry; 
 
 Their children, — look! by power oppressed, 
 
 Beyond the mountains of the west 
 
 Their children go — to die!"— Sprague. 
 
 ♦"Edition of 1911" 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SETTLEMENT OF CHICOPEE AND OTHER TOWNS. 
 THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 Chicopee Falls in 1838. 
 
 SPRINGFIELD had as yet but a very small population; 
 all told there could not have been more than a few- 
 hundred people. But the Springfield of that time, the 
 time of King Philip's war, and for many years afterwards, 
 occupies a large place on the map. The Indians having gone, 
 there were none to dispute the English ownership, except the 
 settlements made independent of Springfield and there were 
 none of these in Massachusetts, except Westfield, nearer than 
 Hadley and Northampton. Enfield and Suffield had once been 
 practically a part of Springfield but it was finally decided that 
 
88 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 they lay beyond the Massachusetts Hne. Although some went 
 from Springfield to help settle Westfield, this town wanted 
 Westfield to be independent. Some went over the river to 
 establish their homes even before the war, like Lieutenant 
 Cooper. 
 
 Notwithstanding this scattering and the fact that the cen- 
 tral village might be weakened by it, there was a friendly 
 feeling all around and the dwellers on the west side are spoken 
 of in old records as "our neighbors." Longmeadow was 
 early granted a separate school and although there was a 
 locality named Longmeadow Gate, it did not divide the in- 
 habitants except in the matter of place. John Riley went as 
 far away as the southern part of the present Holyoke and 
 may be considered as the first settler of that city. Riley's 
 brook perpetuates his name. In fact, when we consider the 
 territory included and the settlers who branched out in one 
 direction or another, for the sake of getting good, large farms 
 all to themselves, yet were really inhabitants of Springfield 
 and voted in its town meeting, we would find old Springfield 
 to embrace the present towns or cities of Holyoke, West 
 Springfield, Agawam, Chicopee, Ludlow, Wilbraham, Hamp- 
 den, Longmeadow and East Longmeadow. The early settle- 
 ment of Longmeadow was of the great meadow itself, down 
 by the river, Chicopee was settled largely by Chapins and 
 there were so many boys in the Chapin families that the name 
 is unusually common hereabouts. So for many years was 
 the name of Bliss; and no wonder, for Luke Bliss had sixteen 
 children and Jedediah Bliss had as many and one over. For 
 the sake of the good land and the river travel, the early settlers 
 kept pretty near the water, but in 1721 Nathaniel Hitchcock 
 decided to go to "the mountains," as they were called, and 
 built for himself and his wife a house within the present limits 
 
NEIGHBORING TOWNS 89 
 
 of Wilbraham. Others soon followed him. These Manchonis 
 mountains were the Indian hunting grounds. 
 
 When the settlement of Wilbraham commenced there was 
 one squaw remaining nearly half a century after her tribe had 
 been gone. Her wigwam was on a little brook near the hill 
 since called "Wigwam Hill." "Alone," says Stebbins in his 
 history of Wilbraham, "the last of that tnysterious race, 
 who had chased the deer over these fields, trapped the beaver 
 in these streams, speared the salmon in these rivers, enjoyed 
 the freedom of these hills, kindled their evening fires by these 
 springs, and, as they smoked their pipes, beheld the western 
 sky lighting up, as the sun went down, as if with the smile of 
 the Great Spirit and of the braves, who had fallen in battle, 
 and buried their kindred under these trees, she lived solitary, 
 the curiosity of the early settlers, harmless, quiet, meditative, 
 seldom entering any dwelling and providing for her own 
 wants. At last she disappeared; of the manner of her death, 
 or of her burial place, no man knoweth. She passed away, 
 as a shadow of the vanished race and joined the company of 
 her fathers." In 1750 Captain Miller went out and settled 
 Ludlow. It thus happened that there were, before the Revo- 
 lution, dwellers within the limits of all the cities and towns 
 which have been made out of the old Springfield. 
 
 When different localities came to be settled or used it is 
 interesting to see what old Indian names they kept and what 
 new ones they got. Take, for example, the Mill river valley. 
 The land where the lesser river joins the greater one was known 
 to the Indians as Usquaiok, which was, perhaps, the name 
 of the stream. Mill river meant more to the settlers than 
 Usquaiok, yet, just across the Connecticut they kept for the 
 stream and the town, the word Agawam, the fish curing place 
 of the Indians, where there were salmon and shad in plenty. 
 
90 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 Following up the Mill river valley, we pass the Water 
 Shops, an odd name, indicating the use of water power. Fol- 
 lowing the south branch w^e come to the neighborhood of 
 Wachogue, formerly called Wachuet, an Indian word mean- 
 ing "land near the hill." There were once "great Wachuet" 
 and "little Wachuet," good meadow lands near hills on or 
 near the Hampden road. Further on, along the stream, there 
 was a good lot of land which measured about sixteen acres 
 
 Chicopee from Springfield Street, 1838. 
 
 in extent. This was allotted to early settlers and "The 
 Sixteen Acres" grew into the name of a locality. Still further 
 up was a tract called "World's End," because beyond this, 
 for a time, nobody wanted to go. 
 
 The dingles or old ravines which cut into the terraces of 
 the thickly settled parts of the city all had their names. At 
 the beginning of St. James avenue was, and is. Squaw tree 
 dingle and, near the Chicopee line. Hogpen dingle. The 
 dingle below the Wesson Hospital was Skunk's Misery and the 
 
NEIGHBORING TOWNS 91 
 
 one beginning at Avon Place was Thompson's dingle. To 
 the south are Long dingle in Forest Park, and Entry dingle, 
 which last is in Longmeadow. These localities are shown 
 on the map in the first chapter. 
 
 Suppose, now, we follow up the Chicopee river for a time, 
 beginning at its mouth, at the place which the Indians called 
 Chicopee. Passing Crowfoot brook, named for an early 
 settler on its banks, and through the center, we arrive at the 
 ancient Schonunganuck, now Chicopee Falls. Not far beyond 
 is Skipmaug or Skipmuck. Noticing the outlets, as we pass, 
 of Skipmuck brook. Poor brook and Higher brook, and the 
 curve at Bircham's Bend we come to Indian Orchard, a 
 name of which the origin is lost; the original locality of 
 that name was on the north side of the river within the present 
 town of Ludlow. 
 
 We will return by way of the old Bay road. Crossing 
 Poor brook again and coming into State street, near Squaw, 
 tree dingle, and where "the log path," now upper State street, 
 formerly left the Bay road, and crossing the Connecticut, 
 let us follow the course of the Agawam. We would pass 
 through Ramapogue at the West Springfield common and, 
 reaching the stream just beyond, pass under the high bluffs 
 which were once the banks of the old lake. We cross the little 
 "Silver stream" flowing out from the hill in Mittineague or 
 Menedgonuck and, passing through the village and a mile or 
 more beyond, we come to a great bend called "the neck." 
 The Indians, however, called this place Ashconunsuck. Just 
 above is Tatham or Tattum, the meaning of which nobody 
 knows. Pursuing our way west we cross Block brook and, 
 rounding the course of the stream where it runs between the 
 ridges of trap, we arrive at the fertile interval known to the 
 Indians, and still known, as Paucatuck. This hamlet is the 
 
92 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 last before we reach the Westfield hne. Paucatuck brook 
 rises some miles to the north, beyond Bear Hole. Thus we 
 see how English and Indian words of description are mingled 
 in our names of places. 
 
 Although, as we have seen, the Indians, as tribes, were 
 no longer left in this part of New England, yet they continued 
 to wander back from time to time and were occasionally 
 employed on the farms. The danger from Indians was not 
 yet over, but it was now the red men of Canada who kept the 
 settlements in alarm. They had never been heard of before 
 in these parts, but about ten years after King Philip's war 
 ended and for more than half a century afterwards there were 
 at times wars between England and France, which affected us. 
 The French had settled Canada and, allying themselves with 
 the Indians there, they made invasions of New England, 
 particularly down the valley of the Connecticut. Northfield, 
 Deerfield and Brookfield were most exposed. Men were killed 
 and women carried captive to Canada. 
 
 In Major Pynchon's day he was the military governor of 
 the whole valley, and once when Brookfield had been attacked, 
 he sent a force in pursuit of the Indians who were making fast 
 for Canada. Among the pursuers was the same John 
 Gilbert, who had once escaped from Indian captivity. The 
 Indians were overtaken while at breakfast. Six of them were 
 killed, and nine guns, twenty hatchets and about twenty 
 horns of powder taken. It was just like John Pynchon, 
 writing an account of the affair, to say, '"Tis God, not our 
 twenty men that hath done it." Although the French were, 
 from time to time, raising such dark war clouds to the north, 
 yet in 1711, there arrived in Springfield a Frenchman who 
 followed the ways of peace. He was a peddler, Samuel Malle- 
 field by name, and appeared riding an iron gray horse. He 
 
NEIGHBORING TOWNS 
 
 93 
 
 brought more goods than one horse would carry, so, doubtless, 
 the goods came by water from Hartford. There is in existence 
 a list of all his wares, from which it appears that he brought 
 something for everybody, — handkerchiefs, penknives and ink 
 horns for the men, silks, fans and laces for the women and 
 jewsharps and little books for the children. Among a multi- 
 tude of other things were over 11,000 pins. All this we know 
 because no sooner had the peddler arrived than he fell sick and 
 died, and a complete inventory of his goods was made for the 
 Probate Court. 
 
 But the peddler, Samuel Mallefield, especially interests 
 us, not so much because he came on an iron gray horse and 
 brought 11,000 pins, but because on his deathbed he directed 
 that all his property, after paying his expenses, should make 
 a fund for the relief of the poor. The town accepted the 
 bequest and erected a stone of table form to the memory of 
 the French peddler, which may be seen among the ancient 
 stones on the Pine street side of the 
 cemetery. Very many years were to 
 pass before his example would be fol- 
 lowed; but in 1863 James W. Hale, 
 a benevolent grocer, left most of his 
 fortune to supply the worthy poor 
 with coal, fuel and flour, from what 
 is now called "The Hale Fund." 
 These two men were the forerunners 
 of many kind people who have made 
 gifts and bequests for the use of the 
 city. 
 
 We are now come to the great days of the Revolution. 
 Its battles were waged far away from Springfield; but, besides 
 sending her men to join the armies of freedom, she had little 
 
 James W. Hale. 
 
94 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 glimpses and side-lights of events as they passed and made 
 history for the now United States. It was on a day in June 
 of the year 1775 when one, standing on Main street, near the 
 Court House, and looking up street, might have seen a caval- 
 cade of horsemen approaching from the north. They had just 
 crossed the river and had turned into the Main street from 
 
 
 
 PARsuNb Ta\l.i;.n, Main and Elm Streets. 
 
 the upper Ferry Lane, now Cypress street. They advance 
 down the street and halt in front of the tavern at (the present) 
 Court Square. The central figure is a tall and really fine- 
 looking man of dignified yet pleasing countenance. It is the 
 new General, George Washington, on his way to Cambridge 
 to take command of the Continental army. With him is 
 General Lee. "He was," says Irving, in his "Life of Wash- 
 
THE REVOLUTION 
 
 95 
 
 ington," "in the vigor of his days, forty-three years of age, 
 stately in person, noble in demeanor, calm and dignified in 
 his deportment. As he sat on his horse with manly grace, his 
 military presence delighted every eye." After dinner at the 
 tavern, the afternoon saw the party again on their way up 
 State street and along the 
 old Bay road. We may 
 believe that General Wash- 
 ington, who was an ob- 
 servant traveler, drew rein 
 for a moment at the Wait 
 monument, then rather 
 new^ and read the inscrip- 
 tion carved for the benefit 
 of wayfarers. 
 
 The battles of Lexing- 
 ton and Bunker Hill had 
 already been fought. The 
 minute-men of Springfield 
 were already stationed at 
 the fortifications around 
 Boston. Here is a letter, with misspelling corrected, which 
 one of the young soldiers from Springfield wrote to his father. 
 It was written about the day of Washington's arrival, written 
 from the very town whence the settlers had started, as told 
 in the second chapter. 
 
 Roxbury, June 29, 1775. 
 Honored Father: 
 
 After my regards to you I take this opportunity to let you 
 know that I am well, as I hope these lines will find you and all my 
 brothers and sisters. I have some news to write. In the first place 
 there was a skirmish between Charlestown and Cambridge and the 
 
 Wait Monument. 
 
96 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 King's troops drove our men out of our intrenchment because they 
 had no powder and they have intrenched on Bunker's Hill and our 
 men have intrenched on Winter Hill where the regulars retreated 
 
 to when the first battle 
 was at Concord which was 
 June 16. They fired the 
 same day at Roxbury and 
 threw bombs and car- 
 casses in order to set the 
 street on fire, but by the 
 goodness of God they 
 did not, for our men, as 
 soon as they had set 
 it afire, would go up and 
 put it out and the}^ fired 
 no more until last Satur- 
 day. Then they fired again and tried to set it on fire but they 
 would go and put it out. One of our men took one of the car- 
 casses and brought it up to the General before it went out. 
 And they set two or three houses afire. But they were as fierce 
 as a bloodhound to put them out. Then the Rhode Islanders 
 went down on the Neck with two or three field pieces and 
 fired at them and made their sentries run to the breast-work 
 And then they fired upon our sentries and killed two of 
 them. We are building a fort in Roxbury and digging a 
 trench across the Neck. No more at present, so I remain your 
 obedient son, 
 
 JuDUTHAN Sanderson. 
 
 It is plain that this young fellow was heart and soul with. 
 the cause of the Revolution. So were the citizens of Spring- 
 field generally, prominent among them being William Pyn- 
 chon, grandson of the "worshipful Major." There were those, 
 however, who stood by the King. "Adamses, where are you 
 
THE REVOLUTION 
 
 97 
 
 going?" said Colonel Worthington to the great patriots, 
 Samuel and John Adams, when they appeared in this town 
 
 DiscussiNQ The Revolution. 
 
 in 1776, on their way to the Continental Congress. "To 
 Philadelphia, to declare these colonies free," was the quick 
 response. "Look out for your heads," replied Worthington. 
 
98 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 The sound of battle was far away; but occasional travelers 
 and soldiers returning from Ticonderoga and other posts kept 
 the people fully interested and informed. It was this remote- 
 ness of Springfield from the seat of war that, with other 
 reasons, induced General Washington to designate the town 
 as the place for the government manufacture of arms. He 
 chose the plateau on which the Armory is now located, on 
 
 the western edge of what he 
 calls in his diary, describing the 
 country between the Hill and 
 Indian Orchard, "an almost un- 
 inhabited pine plain much mixed 
 with sand." The location cho- 
 sen was then the town's training 
 field, but it was readily yielded 
 to the new enterprise. 
 
 One of the great events in the 
 early years of the Revolution, 
 which is in a way connected with 
 this and neighboring towns, was 
 the surrender of the British 
 General Burgoyne at Saratoga. 
 Indeed, some of the soldiers of this vicinity were there and 
 remembered the event as taking place on a clear and beautiful 
 day in September. Standing in military array they saw the 
 British general and six thousand of his troops pass by to the 
 place where the latter laid down their arms. The soldiers of 
 freedom were poor and wore no uniforms, but "they stood 
 well arranged and with a military air." "The men," wrote 
 the Hessian General Riedesel, then serving in the British 
 army, "stood so still that we were filled with wonder. Not 
 one of them made a single motion, as if he would speak with 
 
 Costume of the Eighteenth Century. 
 
THE REVOLUTION 99 
 
 his neighbor. Nay, more, the lads that stood there in rank 
 and file, kind nature had formed so trim, so slender, so full of 
 nerve that it was a pleasure to look at them and we were all 
 surprised at the sight of such a handsome, well formed race. 
 Not a man was to be found, who as we marched by, made 
 even a sign of taunting, insulting, exultation, hatred or any 
 other evil feeling. On the contrary they seemed as if they 
 would do us an honor." 
 
 General Riedesel commanded some German troops from 
 Hesse-Cassel who had been hired by the king to serve in 
 America. In fact the great mass of the English people had 
 not much sympathy with George the Third in his attempt to 
 crush the liberty of the colonies. They were not eager to join 
 the army and go to America for this purpose, so that the king 
 bargained with the Grand Duke of Hesse-Cassel for 22,000 
 soldiers to fill up his army. It is not to be supposed that these 
 mercenary troops had any heart in the war; but there was no 
 German freedom in those days and they were compelled to go. 
 Once here, both the English and German soldiers realized that 
 the cause of liberty was the same everywhere and that what 
 the Americans were fighting for was just what they themselves 
 needed in their own country. It is not surprising that many 
 of them deserted and made their homes in the United States, 
 
 In the army that surrendered at Saratoga was a large 
 body of Hessians, with their general. All these were ordered 
 sent as prisoners of war to Boston. As there would not be 
 enough to feed them if all went by the same route, three de- 
 tachments were formed and one of these was sent over the 
 mountains into and down the valley of the Westfield or Aga- 
 wam river, by way of Springfield. It was at the close of 
 a wet day in October when this large body of retired soldiers 
 emerged from between the ridges of hills that divide Westfield 
 
100 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 from West Springfield and encamped on the West Springfield 
 common. More comfortable quarters, however, were found 
 by many at the farmsteads. 
 
 In a large farmhouse in Paucatuck lived a little boy, Seth 
 by name, whose father had but recently, gun on shoulder, 
 come back from the scene of the surrender. He was intensely 
 interested in stories of Ticonderoga and the doings about there 
 
 Revolutionary Officers in a Farmhouse at Paucatuck, West Springfield. 
 
 and one can imagine his excitement when a party of fifteen 
 or sixteen officers from the two armies arrived at his father's 
 house with the purpose of spending the night. The officers 
 made themselves comfortable in the house and hung their 
 swords and trappings above the blazing hearth-fire to dry. 
 To the end of his life the boy remembered the glistening 
 
THE REVOLUTION 101 
 
 steel and brass of the swords and scabbards as they flashed 
 in the firelight. As for the common soldiers they staid out 
 in the sheds at the cost of a good pile of cider apples that were 
 waiting for the press. In the morning camp was struck on 
 the Common, the farmhouses emptied of their visitors and 
 the whole host crossed the river to Springfield, whence they 
 proceeded towards Brookfield. 
 
 But not all went. An Englishman named Worthy thought 
 that this part of the country was good enough for him and 
 contrived to drop out, as did a German named Wagoner. 
 Worthy used to say that when the British common soldiers 
 got over here they found that the Americans had the right of 
 the cause. One other deserter there was, a horse, too lame, 
 perhaps, to go further. He, too, found friends in West Spring- 
 field and to the end of his days went by the name of "Old 
 Burgoyne." 
 
^^tii*-: 
 
 ¥ 
 
 f'_ 
 
 
 ff 
 
 \ ■ 
 
 t^ 
 
 4 ^-.' 
 
 J- 
 
 
 Ndktheast Coknek of Coukt SyuAKE, 1J530. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SHAYS' REBELLION.— THE CONSTITUTION— 1783-1789. 
 
 SHAYS' Rebellion was one of the unfortunate incidents 
 in the history of Massachusetts. It is interesting because 
 it shows a people, almost a majority, in opposition to 
 the regular action of a government which they had just set 
 up; and it is important in a history of Springfield because 
 it was here that some of the most stirring scenes occurred. 
 Sometimes it has been called an insurrection, sometimes a 
 rebellion. An insurrection is a rising to prevent the operation 
 of the laws by force of arms. A rebellion is such an opposition 
 widely extended. In this case the movement, by spreading 
 through the state, passed from an insurrection to a rebellion, 
 although not a bloody one. It is included in the years 1783- 
 1877. What was its cause? 
 
 During the Revolution the colonies had been too poor to 
 pay the soldiers properly, too poor indeed, properly to feed 
 and uniform the men; men who had, perhaps, left wife and 
 children at home to get a very poor living on the farm while 
 the husband and father served the cause. Money often had 
 to be borrowed for them to live on. But the soldiers were 
 paid in paper money, good so long as it would pass for the 
 value stamped on its face, but it would so pass only so long 
 as it could be exchanged for that which had a value in itself, 
 gold or silver. In the colonies there was not enough gold or 
 silver to go around and be exchanged for all this paper money ; 
 so it began to get worthless, and the more that it was printed 
 and given out the more worthless it got. 
 
104 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 But the soldiers needed real money. When they got home 
 to their farms they found, perhaps, that the oxen, which had 
 not been needed for work during their absence, had been 
 killed for beef. Now that the farmer himself was exchanging 
 the gun for the plough, new oxen must be bought, or a new 
 horse. Perhaps the farmer who had served in one or two 
 campaigns was drafted for another and had to borrow money 
 to pay for some one to go to the war in his place. The money 
 was borrowed in coin and now the returning soldier found 
 nothing in his hands with which to pay, except the now almost 
 
 worthless paper. The former price 
 of a yoke of oxen would scarce buy 
 three mugs of cider; and if a man 
 had borrowed a hundred dollars, he 
 must now get four thousand dollars, 
 in paper money to make it good. This 
 farmer, pictured in an old broadside, 
 "The Looking glass for 1787," has 
 filled a bag with paper money and 
 even then has scarcely enough to 
 pay his taxes. 
 
 When things came to this pass 
 everybody was alarmed for the future. 
 Business, of course, came very much 
 to a standstill and it was hard to sell anything with which 
 to pay anybody. People to whom debts were due began to 
 collect them. If the debtor could not pay he was brought 
 before the court and his farm or personal property was ordered 
 to be sold to raise the money, and when nobody wanted to 
 buy nothing would bring its real value. The debtor was 
 ruined and under the old law of imprisonment for debt might 
 have to go to jail. Thus it came to pass that a sense of distress, 
 
SHAYS' REBELLION 105 
 
 suffering and alarm overspread Massachusetts and involved 
 a considerable portion of the population. The large portion 
 of the people who were not so greatly troubled might have 
 done more to make thing^ better. They might have passed 
 certain laws which would have tided over the difficulties for 
 a time till the cause was removed; but they were not wise 
 enough to do so. 
 
 The result was that here and there people began to consult 
 together to see what they could do. All the danger was com- 
 ing through the courts by the ordering of the collection of 
 debts, so the malcontents decided to prevent the sitting of 
 the courts. This was, of course, a high-handed proceeding. 
 The courts had been established by the people of Massachu- 
 setts for the purpose of doing justice between man and man 
 and they tried hard to do so. The judges were not responsible 
 for the laws but it was their duty to enforce them. The 
 people had made the laws and it is pretty hard to justify the 
 resistance of a free people to laws of their own making, even 
 though some may unjustly suffer by it. In this case historians 
 do not justify; they have done no more than to excuse on 
 the ground of great provocation. 
 
 Early in the history of the insurrection an important 
 court was to be held in Springfield. The Court House stood 
 on the east side of Main street, south of Sanford and, being 
 just across the town brook, was reached by a small bridge. 
 It was the sitting of the court here at this time that the insur- 
 gents wished to prevent. Not wishing to proceed to blood- 
 shed they left their guns of the Revolution at home and came 
 armed with clubs. They gathered before the door of the 
 Court House in so solid a mass that the judges as they arrived 
 found their way obstructed. Before the judges walked the 
 high sheriff, General Mattoon of Amherst. "Make way for 
 
106 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 the court," said the sheriff. Nobody moved. "Make way 
 for the court, I say," he repeated; and struck David Smith, 
 Jr., of West Springfield, a painful blow with the flat of his 
 sword. It is said that one man was thrown into the brook. 
 However that may be, the crowd then gave way and the court 
 was duly held. 
 
 There soon got to be a feeling among the towns, particularly 
 towns in Hampshire, Berkshire and Worcester counties, that 
 something was wrong that might be righted; so that from 
 Springfield and elsewhere delegates were sent to a convention 
 to talk about these matters and see what could be done. But 
 nothing was effectively done and the opposition to the sitting 
 of the courts kept growing. Sometimes it succeeded; but 
 not so in Taunton, where Judge Cobb, a former general of 
 the Revolution, was holding court. When the insurgents 
 arrived, he urged them to yield to the laws, concluding with 
 these words: "Sirs! I shall sit here as a judge or die here 
 as a general." The mob dispersed. At last there appeared 
 military leaders and the forms of military organization and 
 there was no longer an insurrection but a rebellion. 
 
 The rebellion took its name from one of these leaders, 
 Daniel Shays of Pelham, a hill town not far from Ludlow. 
 Shays had no great ability but he had served with credit as 
 a captain in the Revolution, he was a good talker and, in 
 concert with Luke Day of West Springfield, Eli Parsons of 
 Berkshire and an ex-minister named Ely, was very successful 
 in rallying the malcontents about him. Luke Day is reported 
 to have said that liberty is liberty to do as you like and make 
 everybody else do as you would have them. Perhaps, if he 
 ever said it, he did not say it seriously; for true liberty is 
 freedom subject to laws made for the good of all, as Day 
 
SHAYS' REBELLION 
 
 107 
 
 and every other soldier of the Revolution well knew. Day is 
 thought to have been abler than Shays, but Shays was acknowl- 
 edged as the leader and even in adjoining states where the 
 same troubles prevailed "Hurrah for Shays!" became a 
 popular cry. 
 
 As between the cause of Shays and that of law the people 
 of Springfield were 
 divided. Springfield 
 because of the Court 
 House and the Ar- 
 mory, became at 
 once a great center of 
 interest, as to which 
 side should prevail, 
 so that September 
 
 Defending the Court House in Shays Rebellk 
 
 26, 1786, is memorable in our history. On that day the highest 
 Court of the Commonwealth was to sit here, composed of the 
 chief justice and three other judges and Shays meant to 
 prevent it. His camp was near the corner of Main and Ferry 
 streets. His men had no uniforms but could be told from the 
 rest by a sprig of evergreen worn in the hat. The other side 
 wore a piece of white paper in the same way. General Shep- 
 
108 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 ard of Westfield, a brave and magnanimous officer, was in the 
 town with a force ready to protect the court. 
 
 Then there were seen three thousand armed men marching 
 up and down Main street, ready to fight each other on sufficient 
 provocation. Almost all of them were from outside towns; 
 but among the citizens themselves, neighbor was set against 
 neighbor and the next moment men might be firing from one 
 house to the next. The excitement was great, women and 
 children trembling with fear; and we are not told whether 
 school kept or not. Men were continually coming in from 
 other towns and joining one camp or the other. More than 
 one company of the state militia which arrived to support 
 General Shepard, carried away by the "hurrah boys'' of the 
 other side, deserted in a body to Captain Shays. 
 
 But there were staunch men left to the government side. 
 Dr. Chauncey Brewer, going one night to see a sick person, 
 had to pass through Shays' lines and was arrested by the 
 sentries on Main street and brought into camp. Captain 
 Shays ordered him to take the white paper from his hat. 
 "No, Sir," said, the doctor, "I shall not do it! Just give me 
 a place to sleep." Twice he was ordered to doff the badge 
 and twice refused. At last he was allowed to go home with 
 his badge on. When the judges arrived they got safely to 
 the Court House but as the grand jury did not dare to come 
 nothing could be done. So the Shays party, having really 
 accomplished its object, went home. 
 
 By this time the governor was thoroughly aroused. More 
 and more he saw steady government going to pieces before his 
 eyes and felt that something must be done. Loyal troops 
 must be got and the state had no money to pay for them. 
 He had to borrow money of Boston citizens to raise an army. 
 This he did and was able to place General Lincoln at the head 
 
SHAYS' REBELLION 109 
 
 of 4,500 men. Of the troops raised here in the valley, General 
 Shepard was in command. He at once proceeded to make 
 himself strong at the Federal barracks, now called the Armory. 
 None of the present buildings were there then; but there was 
 a building containing arms and in the woods a powder maga- 
 zine, of which Magazine street is still a reminder. 
 
 Captain Day was, meanwhile, drilling his men on West 
 Springfield Common and making occasional raids. He cap- 
 tured General Parks and Doctor Whitney in their sleighs 
 and making a dash into Longmeadow, pulled one man out of 
 bed and took him to West Springfield. Eli Parsons with his, 
 men of Berkshire was posted in Chicopee, so that, with Shays 
 at Pelham, able quickly to descend upon the towns to the 
 east, Springfield was in this way so surrounded that it was 
 hoped to prevent General Shepard from being reinforced until 
 Shays had captured the guns and ammunition at the arsenal, 
 "of which he was much in need. In fact, Day did capture, at 
 Chicopee bridge, a supply of provisions sent to Shepard from 
 Northampton, and Shepard began to be desperately afraid 
 that he could not keep his force together until Lincoln's army 
 should come up. 
 
 By this time Lincoln's army was on the move to relieve 
 Shepard and Shays saw that he must attack the arsenal at 
 once or lose his cause. So he came off the heights of Pelham 
 and appeared in Wilbraham with 1,100 men. The women 
 and children of Wilbraham fled to Somers, but Shays kept 
 on his way to Springfield. It was in the dead of winter and 
 slow marching ; so that vShepard was warned of their approach 
 by a swift horseman from Wilbraham. He arranged his forces 
 in two divisions; one on Main street, to keep Day from 
 crossing over on the ice to join Shays, and the rest he drew up 
 before the arsenal and planted a howitzer in a good position 
 
110 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 with several cannon to the rear. Several times he sent his 
 aids on horseback to meet Shays on the Sixteen Acres road 
 and demand what he wanted. Shays' reply was that "he 
 wanted barracks; barracks he would have and stores." He 
 was told that he must purchase them dear if he had them. 
 
 It was about four o'clock when Captain Shays with his 
 more than a thousand men was seen moving down the present 
 State street by Benton Park from off the Bay road. Reaching 
 the vicinity of the present memorial boulder, they halted. 
 General Shepard sent an aid to inform Shays that if he came 
 nearer he would be fired upon, whereupon Shays started his 
 men. Two shots were then fired by Shepard, not aimed directly 
 at the rebels but only intended to frighten them. This having 
 no effect, a howitzer full of grape shot was discharged into the 
 center of their column. This caused a disturbance and the 
 second or third shot put the whole army to rout. They turned 
 and fled in confusion without firing a gun, leaving several 
 of their comrades dead on the field. 
 
 With such a ridiculous ending to the dreaded march of 
 Shays, one cannot speak of the field of battle, and in all the 
 rebellion there was nothing that came any nearer to a battle. 
 Had Shays been more of a leader he would have done either 
 less or much more. As it was, he proved very like that king 
 of France, who, with 20,000 men marched up a hill and then 
 marched down again. Henceforth there was no fear for the 
 safety of the Armory until the days of the Civil war. 
 
 If we may still use military language of such a fiasco, we 
 would say that Shays, after the rout, fell back on Five Mile 
 pond, where, making a stand, he next day joined Parsons in 
 Chicopee with such of his men as had not deserted. General 
 Lincoln meanwhile arrived on the scene, emerging from the 
 Bay road and joining Shepard at the Armory. Being the 
 
SHAYS' REBELLION 
 
 111 
 
 superior officer, he was from this time in charge and proceeded 
 at once to break up what was left of the rebellion. A part of 
 his force pursued Shays to Amherst whence he retreated to 
 the fastnesses of Pelham where he, perhaps, thought that 
 nothing but death and taxes could get him. He afterwards 
 went for safety into the State of New York where he died in 
 poverty. His life and exploits, real and imaginary, were made 
 the subject of a ballad which became a popular song, even 
 beyond the limits of Massachusetts. The entire ballad of 
 nineteen verses may be found in the "Poets and Poetry of 
 Springfield." The ancient music is here given. 
 
 My name was Shays in for-mer days, In Pel-ham I did dwell, Sir, 
 
 ^^ 
 
 4=3t 
 
 itzt 
 
 w=w=w=w 
 
 x~\=--~ 
 
 :EE 
 
 
 But now I'm forced to leave that place,Be-cause I did re - bel, Sir. 
 
 '^' 
 
 t: 
 
 £3.: 
 
 t^ 
 
 :j: 
 
 F- 
 
 t:=t^z=t'" 
 
 General Lincoln ordered another part of his force to cross 
 the river to encounter Day, who was still posted on West 
 Springfield common ; while the light horse meanwhile went up 
 the river on the ice to cut off any union of Day with Shays. 
 Day's men precipitately fled to some point beneath the terrace 
 of the ancient river bank, perhaps not far from the site of/ 
 the old white church where they made a stand and prepared 
 themselves to receive an attack. Another flight and they 
 
112 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 were on the heights where they were met by the Hght horse. 
 Then began another rout. Some fled to Northampton and 
 some fell out by the way. Among the latter was one Cooley 
 . who hid under a con- 
 
 venient haystack and 
 thereafter went by the 
 '^ name of "the haystack 
 Colonel." 
 
 The backbone of 
 the rebellion was now 
 broken. General Lin- 
 coln was kept busy 
 for some months in the counties of Worcester, Berkshire and 
 northern Hampshire in suppressing small outbreaks; but, 
 finally, a general pardon was granted to those engaged in the 
 rebellion who would take the oath of allegiance, which they 
 all did, and "lived happily forever after." 
 
 Shays' Rebellion, though local, had results affecting the 
 whole country. The news of it reached Washington, in the 
 quiet of his Mount Vernon home, and he was greatly stirred. 
 That such a glorious peace as ended the Revolution should 
 be succeeded by such disorder he thought a disgrace. It was 
 not a resistance to tyrants but free men resisting a govern- 
 ment which they had themselves set up, — a government of 
 law replaced by anarchy. He seemed to see the great work 
 of his life undone. It was partly for this reason that he began 
 to give the great influence of his character and wisdom to the 
 creation of a strong central government which might help 
 the states to maintain order. He again became the leader 
 of the people, and, in part, out of such apparently unfruitful 
 soil as Shays' Rebellion grew the final union of the states and 
 the adoption of the Constitution. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 OLD TIMES AND NEW.— THE CHANGE TO MODERN WAYS — 
 
 THE FIRST STEAMBOAT— THE ARMORY.— 
 
 DISTINGUISHED VISITORS.— 
 
 1789-185'2. 
 
 (ELL me about old 
 fashioned times," a 
 small boy used to say 
 to his mother, mean- 
 ing the times when 
 she was a girl. What 
 really are the "old- 
 fashioned times?" 
 What is the old world 
 and what the new? 
 We use these words in different senses. We say that modern 
 times began with the invention of printing and the discovery 
 of America and, again, we say that ancient history is the his- 
 tory of the world before Christ, which we call B.C. But when 
 we are thinking of old and new in Springfield we might prop- 
 erly say that the old-fashioned times gave place to the new in 
 the period between the birth of the nation by the adoption 
 of the Constitution in 1789 and the incorporation of Spring- 
 field as a city in 1852. During this period the ways of life 
 had greatly changed and causes began to be which later re- 
 sulted in still further changes. 
 
 In the earlier days, men and women, boys and girls, lived 
 in a different way. Their work, their amusements, their 
 
114 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 studies, their mode of traveling and even of eating and drink- 
 ing were different. The change in so simple a matter as get- 
 ting a drink of water is typical of everything else. Once a 
 well sweep (page 24) stood by every door, except where there 
 was a convenient spring. "The old oaken bucket, the moss 
 covered bucket" is no more; there is not now a well sweep 
 within the limits of Springfield. One of the first ancient 
 customs to pass away was that of slavery. From the day of 
 John Stewart there had been slaves in Springfield, all, with 
 
 Map of Hampden County. 
 
 that exception, black. Finally people all felt that slavery 
 was neither profitable nor right, and although the slaves had 
 always been kindly treated as members of the family, yet the 
 custom vanished of itself without the passing of any law 
 against it. 
 
 In this period, by the separation of Chicopee, Springfield 
 came into the geographical form in which she has since re- 
 mained, except for a slight change in the south line, and was 
 henceforth the largest in population of the towns in the 
 
OLD TIMES AND NEW 
 
 115 
 
 valley. For a time this was not so. West Springfield, at one 
 time, grew so rapidly as to be ahead of the mother town, and 
 in the Revolution was called on to furnish more soldiers than 
 Springfield; but the census of 1810 showed Springfield the 
 more populous. Springfield, too, became the shire town of a 
 new county. In the old county of Hampshire, which ex- 
 tended from Connecticut to New Hampshire and Vermont 
 and was flanked east by Worcester and west by Berkshire, 
 Northampton had been a county town. When the old county 
 was divided, the middle section 
 retained the old name, taken from 
 one of the old counties of Eng- 
 land. The northern section was 
 named for Benjamin Franklin and 
 the southern for John Hampden, 
 a famous English patriot, who, 
 believing that "Resistance to 
 tyrants is obedience to God," went 
 of his free will to jail rather than 
 pay the unjust ship money tax 
 imposed by King Charles. He 
 received his death wound fight- 
 ing for the cause of liberty on one 
 of the battlefields of the English 
 revolution. 
 
 Returning now to the ancient 
 ways of life, we remember, as 
 said in the second chapter, that in the very earliest times 
 the people lived in houses made of logs and thatched with 
 straw or grass. For windows they often had only oiled paper 
 instead of glass. But things had gradually improved; so that 
 many of the boys and girls whose fathers went as soldiers in 
 
 John Hampden. 
 
116 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 the Revolution lived in much larger and more convenient 
 houses. Nevertheless, the best of those houses were rather 
 cold in winter. Neither furnaces nor stoves were known. 
 The only fire was in the great kitchen fireplace, with some- 
 times another fireplace in the parlor. The great fire, built 
 from huge sticks, crackled and roared and looked very warm, 
 as indeed it was, if one was near enough to it. It boiled the 
 kettle, hanging on the crane, and baked the buckwheat cakes; 
 but while it gave out heat it was sucking in a deal of cold 
 from all parts of the house, so that one would be warm in 
 front and cold on the back, unless he sat on a settle. A settle 
 was a seat with a high back extending to the floor. Sometimes 
 the chimney place was so large that the settle was inside and 
 one could look up and see the stars. 
 
 When bedtime came the great fire was useless. It con- 
 sumed a vast quantity of wood, the preparation of which made 
 the sound of "chop, chop, chop," a very familiar one at every 
 house, and, as there would be no one to feed it during the 
 night, it was carefully covered with ashes, in order to keep the 
 
 coals alive until the next morning. 
 Should it go out in those days when 
 matches were unknown, somebody 
 would go to the neighbors for live 
 coals. The bedrooms were, of course, 
 pretty cold, but, thanks to the great 
 feather beds, the sleepers got warm 
 after awhile and were able to keep 
 so, sometimes by the aid of close 
 curtains, all around and above the bed. Just before getting 
 in it, the bed would be heated by the warming pan, a brass 
 pan containing live coals and moved about between the 
 sheets. 
 
OLD TIMES AND NEW 
 
 117 
 
 In the meeting-house there were no fireplaces; but the 
 women tried to keep warm by the aid of a httle footstove, 
 filled with hot coals. The children, too, were often very cold 
 in school. In the school house at Tatham little Lydia would 
 find the pie frozen in the dinner basket under her seat, but 
 she lived through it all to a healthy old age. It is not so much 
 what we endure as how well we learn to endure, that 
 counts. 
 
 People made 
 their own but- 
 ter and cheese 
 and the boys 
 milked cows and 
 churned butter, 
 while the girls 
 
 early learned to Footstove and wakminl, pan, 
 
 spin ; for the 
 
 cloth generally worn was made in the family and for 
 this reason called "homespun." It took continual spin- 
 ning to make the clothes for a large family. The flax for 
 linen was raised on the farm, then dressed and carded; the 
 wool, too, was raised at home. For the colors, if brown was 
 wanted, the children had to gather butternut leaves for the 
 ^^^^^^^_ dye. With all this, milking and 
 churning, spinning and weaving, 
 plantmg and hoeing, haying and husking, thresh- 
 ing and gathering apples for cider, all going on 
 in the family, there was not much time for young 
 folks to go to school. 
 
 One of the most useful farming tools was the 
 flail. With it all the grain that made bread for the family 
 was pounded out by hand on the barn floor. The thumping 
 
118 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 of the flail was as 
 familar as the 
 chopping of the 
 axe as it cut the 
 cords of wood for 
 winter use. An 
 old-time farmer 
 used to say that 
 he could always 
 tell whether the 
 man doing the 
 threshing was working by the day or by the job. If the former, 
 
 the flail seemed to say, "By the day, by the 
 
 day, by the day;' ' if by the job, the flail sang merrily, 
 
 "By-the-job, by-the-job, by the job, job, job." Such is hu- 
 man nature that one is apt to accomplish more when he works 
 for himself. When the right to do this is entirely cut off the 
 result is slavery. 
 
 Notice the farming operations, pictured on these two pages. 
 Late in March or early in April comes maple sugar making 
 and when the weather gets warm enough to put the sheep 
 into the water, their wool is first washed and then sheared; 
 
 during the slack 
 time of summer, 
 when planting 
 and hoeing are 
 over, rails can be 
 split for mending 
 the fences, and in 
 the fall the boys 
 can catch rabbits. 
 All these were 
 
OLD TIMES AND NEW 
 
 119 
 
 familiar scenes 
 hereabouts in 
 olden times and 
 are now in some 
 parts of the 
 country. One 
 who wishes to 
 recall in imagi- 
 nation the way of 
 living in the old 
 days may visit the Day house in West Springfield and see the 
 ancient relics. 
 
 But about the beginning of the nineteenth century several 
 events happened, which in the end changed all this and made 
 Springfield, first, a large town, and then a city. The chief 
 of these was the discovery of the useful power of steam; this 
 meant steamboats and railroads. Others were the invention 
 of the power loom and the spinning jenny, moved at first by 
 water power; this meant the gathering of people into mills 
 and the disappearance of cloth manufacture from the family. 
 Modern machinery, in which Thomas Blanchard, of this town, 
 won much fame as an inventor, began to take the place of 
 human hands, the family life was all changed. There was 
 less to be done 
 
 and the bigger 
 boys could go 
 to school in 
 summer, when 
 before they 
 could only be 
 spared in the 
 winter. With 
 
120 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 all these changes there was more demand for work and more 
 people began to come from other countries. 
 
 As the population increased the wild animals gave way before 
 it. The panther retired to forests more remote; the beaver 
 left the streams and the deer went further north and were not 
 seen after 1820. The last bear known at Bear Hole came out 
 of that dark lair about 1790 when Seth Smith was hoeing corn. 
 Wild turkeys lingered but the last survivors were those on 
 Mount Nonotuck about 1850. The beautiful salmon that 
 once leaped and danced in the rapids of Schonunganunk en- 
 tirely disappeared, soon to be followed by the sturgeon and 
 the shad. 
 
 A century and a half had passed after the settlement and 
 as yet all the crossing of the river had been by canoes, skiffs 
 and scow ferry boats, when one day the minister of the old 
 church foretold a bridge in coming time. "Parson Howard 
 talks like a fool," said Colonel Worthington. But Parson 
 Howard was right and in 1805 the first bridge was completed. 
 Not being strong enough it went down stream; but in 1816 
 another was ready that was to outlast the century. Its great 
 timbered arches were an object of admiration. When the 
 large droves of cattle that once passed through the country 
 were going over the bridge, running, pushing and throwing 
 their horns about, it was up these arches that the foot traveler 
 could run for safety. Both the bridges were built with money 
 raised by a public lottery, for it was not until later that the 
 evils resulting from getting money by chance were so clearly 
 seen as to make games of chance to be forbidden by law. 
 
 How Springfield looked from the river, below the town, 
 in 1796, was described by President Dwight of Yale College. 
 who was taking a horseback journey up the valley. "We 
 took," says he, in his "Travels in New England and New 
 
OLD TIMES AND NEW 
 
 121 
 
 York," "a road along the bank of a river from Sufifield through 
 an almost absolute wilderness and crossed a ferry, one mile 
 below Springfield. On the river we were presented with a very 
 romantic prospect. The river itself, for several miles, both 
 above and below, one-fourth of a mile wide, was in full view. 
 Agawam, a considerable tributary on the west, with a large 
 and handsome interval on the tongue between the two streams. 
 
 Agawam Ferry. 
 
 joined the Connecticut at a small distance above. The peak 
 of Mount Tom rose nobly in the northwest, at a distance of 
 twelve miles. A little eastward of the Connecticut the white 
 spire of a Springfield church, embosomed in trees, animated 
 the scene in a manner remarkably picturesque. On the side, 
 immediately below the ferry, rose several rude hills, crossed 
 by a sprightly mill stream. At their foot commenced an 
 extensive intervale called Longmeadow; above which, in 
 
122 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 the midst of groves and orchards, ascended the spire of Long- 
 meadow church. The evening was just so far advanced, as, 
 without obscuring materially the distinctness of our view, 
 to give an inimitable softening to the landscape. 
 
 "We arrived at sundown. The town is built chiefly on 
 a single street, lying parallel with the river nearly two miles. 
 
 1 nii (til) Toll Bridge. 
 
 The houses are chiefly on the western side. On the eastern 
 a brook runs almost the whole length; a fact which is, I be- 
 lieve, singular. From the street a marsh extends about forty 
 or fifty rods to the brow of an elevated pine plain. The waters 
 of this marsh are a collection of living springs, too cold and 
 too active to admit of putrefaction on their surface; and 
 for this reason, probably, the town is not unhealthy. 
 Part of this marsh has been converted into a meadow. When 
 
OLD TLMES AND NEW 123 
 
 the rest has undergone the same process, the beauty of the 
 situation will be not a little improved. The houses of Spring- 
 field are more uniformly well built than those of any other 
 inland town in the state, except Worcester. An uncommon 
 appearance of neatness prevails almost everywhere, refreshing 
 the eye of the traveler." 
 
 On a Monday, the 27th of November, 1824, a crowd of 
 people was gathered at the foot of Elm street and at other 
 places on the bank of the river. They were watching the com- 
 ing of the first steamboat seen in Springfield. The Barnett 
 must have been an object of great interest as she rounded the 
 bend of the stream and steamed towards the town. On this 
 occasion the following are supposed to have been the words of 
 
 THE STURGEON TO THE STEAMBOAT. 
 ^^ Jf 
 
 ■.■7?■^ 
 
 "What for yc'rc makin' such a dashin' 
 
 And through the water such a splashin'? 
 I'll tell ye what it's no the fashion 
 
 In these 'ere ])arts, 
 To make such a confounded buzzin' ; 
 Take care or yc'll disturb our dozin' ! 
 What are ye? first or second cousin 
 To the Sea Sarpent?" 
 
 Thus did a local rhymer express hinself in one of the news- 
 papers. It was in this period that river steamboats were 
 displacing stages, afterwards themselves to be displaced by 
 railroads. The sturgeon, a fish about as big and long as a 
 man's body, has not, it is believed, been seen in this part of 
 the river for the past twenty-five years. 
 
124 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 A line of small steamboats was established between Spring- 
 field and Hartford. On one of these Charles Dickens embarked 
 when he came to this town in 1842. "It certainly was not 
 called," he wrote, "a small steamboat without reason. I 
 should think it must have been about half a pony power. 
 Mr. Paap, the celebrated dwarf, might have lived and died 
 happily in the cabin, which was fitted with common sash 
 
 windows, like an ordinary dwell- 
 ing house. These windows had 
 bright red curtains too, hung on 
 slack strings across the lower 
 panes, so that it looked like the 
 parlor of a Lilliputian public house, 
 which had got afloat in a flood 
 or some other water accident, and 
 was drifting nobody knew where. 
 But even in this chamber there 
 was a rocking chair. It would be 
 impossible to get on anywhere, in 
 America, without a rocking chair." 
 It was just before this visit of 
 the great novelist that the railroad 
 had been built from Boston to 
 Springfield. The people of the 
 town had been eager to bring this 
 to pass. They knew that great things would come of it and 
 Justice Willard declared in a public meeting that one would be 
 able to go from Springfield to Boston "between sun and sun." 
 But when he added and "back again," there were those who 
 thought it a wild prophecy. Pictures of the early engines and 
 cars look queer to our eyes. The passengers had to endure some 
 bumping over rough track but they welcomed something faster 
 
 Connecticut River Steamboat 
 IN A Flood. 
 
 From " Marco Paul at the Spring- 
 fiold Armory" l.S.'>3. 
 
OLD TIMES AND NEW 
 
 125 
 
 than the old yellow stages, with four horses and a bugle, that 
 connected Springfield with Boston, Albany, Hartford and 
 other towns. The chief engineer of the new railroad was 
 • Major Whistler, whose portrait hangs in the City Library. He 
 brought his boy, James, with him when he came to reside here. 
 James used to amuse his schoolmates with his clever draw- 
 ings and afterwards went abroad, where he became one of the 
 famous artists of the world. His paintings and etchings hang 
 in the great galleries of Europe. 
 
 When the rail- 
 road was built 
 from Springfield 
 to Hartford it 
 made necessary 
 the removal of 
 the ancient ceme- 
 tery at the foot of Elm street. The training ground and the 
 pound had long since gone and for the cemetery there was now 
 provided a beautiful tract of hill and dell which, for a cemetery, 
 is exceptionally near the heart of the city, yet so full of birds 
 and squirrels, old oaks and tall pines, as to be interesting to a 
 naturalist. To this place was removed the dust of Mary 
 Pynchon, of her brother, the Major, of the brave Captain 
 Holyoke and the good French peddler. The selection of this 
 spot was made by William B. O. Peabody, clergyman, poet, 
 naturalist and a man of pure and refined character, whose life, 
 most of it spent here, was a blessing to the town. By reason 
 of his knowledge of birds the celebrated Audubon once came 
 here to visit him. Verses by him are given on page 39. 
 
 Two notable men visited Springfield at about the close of 
 this period. One was Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, 
 a champion of freedom, an exile from his country, and a 
 
126 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 master of thirteen languages. He made here an address in 
 
 English. The other was Father Mathew, the great apostle 
 
 of total abstinence, whose wonderful work in Ireland had filled 
 
 the world with his fame and' 
 made the temperance reform 
 respected and popular. By 
 his own efforts for temperance 
 he had remarkably reduced the 
 amount of crime committed 
 in his own country. Coming to 
 Springfield in 1849 and stand- 
 ing in the church of his own 
 faith, then located on the cor- 
 ner of Union and Willow 
 streets, he administered the 
 pledge to people of all faiths. 
 Many societies that are 
 today organized for total 
 
 abstinence bear his honored name. 
 
 The Armory has been a great help to the prosperity of 
 
 Springfield. We 
 
 have seen that 
 
 Washington ap- 
 proved of the 
 
 location here. 
 
 When president, 
 
 he passed through 
 
 the town and his 
 
 diary describes his 
 
 careful inspec- -^^mmar j^gi,a«r' -^i/- 
 
 tion. Little had ^'^^^^^^^^i*^^^^^ " 
 
 as yet been done; but later such buildings were erected as 
 
 Theobald Mathew. 
 
OLD TIMES AND NEW 
 
 127 
 
 A°or 
 
 allowed a large manufacture. As the words are used in the 
 United States, an armory is a place for the manufacture of 
 arms and an arsenal a place where they are stored. It was 
 
 decided that the 
 heavy work of 
 forging the bar- 
 rels should be 
 done at the Water- 
 shops, where the 
 trip hammer 
 by water power, 
 'Armory Hill," 
 
 ^<r to (;eilir)^, 
 
 Lik? a I^L'je or'^an,i'i5e the bur- 
 
 4i * SI.' L^nijfeHow. 
 
 could be run 
 and on the hill, 
 
 should be done the lighter work 
 of filing, milling and assembling. 
 Walnut street was then run 
 straight through the woods and 
 over the plain to connect the two 
 parts of the Armory, and on the 
 hill there began to be, as it were, 
 almost a village by itself, com- 
 posed largely of armorers, with 
 even lawyers' offices, and a bank. 
 So distinct were these commun- 
 ities that there was rivalry be- 
 tween the boys of the "Hill" 
 and the "Street," and snowball 
 and other fights were common 
 between "Hillers" and "Streeters." When a boy of either 
 set passed the line of School and Spring streets he was sub- 
 ject to attack by the boys of the other side. 
 
 The Armory has long been noted for its excellent guns 
 and the old "S])ringfield musket" did good service in the 
 
128 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 Civil war; but, good as it was, the present Springfield rifle 
 shows what may be accomplished by continual improvement. 
 The tower of the Arsenal is eighty-eight and one-half feet 
 high and among those who have ascended it for the fine view 
 of this valley was the poet Longfellow. In his day a floor 
 was nearly filled with guns, stacked in frames. His attention 
 was called by Mrs. Longfellow to the fact that these stacked 
 arms resembled the pipes of an organ ; and to this circumstance 
 is due one of the finest poems ever written in the cause of 
 universal peace. The prophecy in the second stanza was fully 
 realized a few years later in the Civil war. 
 
OLD TIMES AND NEW 129 
 
 THE ARSENAL AT SPRINGFIELD. 
 
 This is the Arsenal. From floor to ceiling, 
 Like a huge organ, rise the burnished arms; 
 
 But from their silent pipes no anthem pealing 
 Startles the villages with strange alarms. 
 
 Ah ! what a sound will rise, how wild and dreary, 
 When the death-angel touches those swift keys ! 
 
 What loud lament and dismal Miserere 
 Will mingle with their awful symphonies ! 
 
 I hear even now the infinite fierce chorus. 
 
 The cries of agony, the endless groan. 
 Which through the ages that have gone before us, 
 
 In long reverberations reach our own. 
 
 On helm and harness rings the Saxon hammer, 
 
 Through Cimbric forest roars the Norseman's song. 
 
 And loud, amid the universal clamor, 
 
 O'er distant deserts sounds the Tartar gong. 
 
 I hear the Florentine, who from his palace 
 Wheels out his battle-bell with dreadful din, 
 
 And Aztec priests upon their teocallis 
 
 Beat the wild war-drums made of serpent's skin; 
 
 The tumult of each sacked and burning village; 
 
 The shout that every prayer for mercy drowns ; 
 The soldiers' revels in the midst of pillage; 
 
 The wail of famine in beleaguered towns; 
 
130 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 The bursting shell, the gateway wrenched asunder, 
 The rattling musketry, the clashing blade ; 
 
 And ever and anon, in tones of thunder. 
 The diapason of the cannonade. 
 
 Is it, O man, with such discordant noises. 
 With such accursed instruments as these. 
 
 Thou drownest Nature's sweet and kindly voices. 
 And jarrest the celestial harmonies? 
 
 Were half the power, that fills the world with terror, 
 Were half the wealth, bestowed on camps and courts, 
 
 Given to redeem the human mind from error, 
 There were no need of arsenals nor forts ; 
 
 The warrior's name would be a name abhorred ! 
 
 And every nation, that should lift again 
 Its hand against a brother, on its forehead 
 
 Would wear forevermore the curse of Cain ! 
 
 Down the dark future, through long generations. 
 The echoing sounds grow fainter and then cease; 
 
 And like a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations, 
 I hear once more the voice of Christ say, 
 "Peace!" 
 
 Peace ! and no longer from its brazen portals 
 The blast of War's great organ shakes the skies ! 
 
 But beautiful as songs of the immortals 
 The holy melodies of love arise. 
 
 —Longfellow, 1807-1882 
 
^rf^fwv'ir^A?^ 
 
 Entrance to Springfield over the Old Toll Bkidoe. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE NEW CITY— ANTI-SLAVERY— THE CIVIL WAR. 
 
 WE have now come to the year 1852. As the new world 
 reckons youth and age, Springfield was no longer 
 young. With age had come numbers; the population 
 had reached 12,000 and the town was already not only a 
 mother of towns, but a grandmother. The size of the popula- 
 tion made necessary a change in the method of government. 
 For over two hundred years the voters had all met together 
 for the town business, gathering first under some tree, then 
 in some private house, next in the meeting-house and last in 
 the town hall on State street. At first the settlement was 
 called a plantation, for this is all it was, a tract of planted 
 ground in a wilderness and surrounded by wild beasts and 
 Indians. This word had long been replaced by the word 
 
132 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 "town," meaning a community whose affairs are governed by 
 selectmen chosen bv all the voters meeting together in one 
 place. 
 
 This plan now becoming impracticable because of the 
 increasing number, the General Court of Massachusetts granted 
 a charter or body of laws for the regulation of affairs by 
 which the government was to be, by a city council and mayor 
 chosen by the voters meeting in wards, then first created. 
 Upon the acceptance of this charter April 21, 1852, the old 
 town became a young city, the first in western Massachusetts. 
 From this time there has been no essential change in the 
 territorial limits, but each census has shown continued growth 
 of population. 
 
 Every town which has been incorporated into a city has 
 its corporate seal. A seal is an engraved stamp which, being 
 impressed upon paper or wax, shows that what is written or 
 printed on the paper is genuine and has such authority as the 
 owner of the seal can give it. The effect of the seal on the 
 paper is, of course, to make a raised impression, but some- 
 times a likeness of the seal is printed from a platelike type. 
 By such a printing a book or document is not really or legally 
 sealed, but for many purposes this is sufficient. The real 
 seal is in the custody of the city clerk. 
 
 The seal of the city of Springfield, as adopted, was de- 
 scriptive of what the town had been and 
 then was. In the lower left-hand quarter 
 is a view of the river with boats and with 
 houses on the bank. In the right-hand 
 quarter is the house built by John Pynchon, 
 or "old fort." Above, nearly the whole 
 field is occupied by a view of a railroad 
 train passmg out of the station, as the station was then, and 
 
THE NEW CITY 133 
 
 crossing the river. In the upper part of the seal is the United 
 States Arsenal. Thus here are represented commerce by rail 
 and river, manufactures and history. There is not, as in the 
 seals of Connecticut and Vermont, any suggestion of agricul- 
 ture. This only shows how the old "plantation" was becoming 
 lost in the modern city. 
 
 When the charter was accepted the first thing to be done 
 was to elect a mayor and the members of the city council. 
 The latter was composed of a board of nine aldermen and a 
 common council. There were two candidates for mayor and 
 both eventually held the office; but for the first time Caleb 
 Rice was chosen. He was then the high sheriff of the county 
 and had removed to Springfield from West Springfield. He 
 had a daughter Elizabeth, who, when she grew to womanhood, 
 went to Italy for study and married a citizen of that country. 
 She wrote verses and, under her married name of Bianciardi, 
 published a book called "At Home in Italy." 
 
 Soon after the incorporation of the city there was built a 
 City Hall, a large and towered building, holding all the city 
 offices and also having a big audience room for public meetings. 
 There was a bell in the tower that took up the work of the 
 church bell, in announcing to the people, in the ancient fashion, 
 that the hour of nine o'clock at night had come. It was also 
 the bell of the clock, striking the hours. The nine o'clock bell 
 was at last discontinued and in later years replaced by the 
 so-called curfew or bell at half -past nine. For half a century 
 the City Hall was a favorite for large political meetings, fairs 
 and concerts, but in 1905 it was destroyed by fire and the 
 great bell fell to the ground. 
 
 An exhibition was being held in the large hall. At the 
 noon hour this hall was nearly deserted. A kerosene lamp 
 was burning and a monkey got loose. Whether the monkey 
 
134 
 
 HISTORY OP" SPRINGFIELD 
 
 overturned the lamp and caused the fire is not certainly 
 known. The fire was the occasion of a fine example of devotion 
 to duty by two assistants in the ofiice of the city clerk. Their 
 names were Edith M. Ware and Bertha B. Fuller. They had 
 both been pupils in Springfield schools. For the protection 
 of the priceless records of the city there was a great fire-proof 
 valut. It was necessary to take out the records during the 
 day *!or use, but at its close they were replaced in the vault. 
 
 Plllll'lilJi 
 
 
 liiiiill 
 
 City Hall, 1854-1905. 
 
 At the beginning of the fire the city clerk was absent. When 
 the knowledge of the fire reached his office it had made much 
 headway and danger was near. The first impulse, of course, 
 would be to fiee, and, indeed, everyone was fleeing from the 
 building; but there were the heavy books of priceless records 
 lying about. The two clerks gathered them all up, placed 
 them all in the vault and then shut and locked the ponderous 
 door. This took time and courage. Meanwhile the fire was 
 upon them and they were but just able to escape; in fact, 
 
ANTI-SLAVERY 135 
 
 Miss Fuller, arriving at the door of the building, was so over- 
 come by the smoke that she had to be rescued by others. 
 
 Thus the lesson of doing one's duty, having been early 
 learned, received its magnificent illustration in the face of 
 danger and death and becomes a part of the history of the city. 
 We recall the motto of John Pynchon, when, self-interest 
 tempting him to remove from Springfield and leave the town 
 
 to its fate, he wrote that he should <v / j , /fx- 
 
 While Springfield was yet a town, there began to be a great 
 deal said about slavery, as it existed in the South, and its 
 spread into the new states. Among the people of Springfield, 
 some of them were deeply interested. Most of them believed 
 that slavery was wrong and a curse to the country and some 
 wanted to do what they could to help the slaves. The laws 
 were against them and forbade aiding a runaway slave, but 
 they believed there was, in this case, a higher law, above the 
 laws of men. Accordingly they arranged with the others of the 
 same opinions, who lived in other states, to aid the slaves 
 who tried to escape from their masters. 
 
 When a slave, traveling through the woods by night and 
 successful in eluding the bloodhounds on his track, at last 
 got into a free state north of Maryland, he would go to the 
 house of one of the friends of freedom of whom he had heard 
 in some secret way. Here he would be kept through the day 
 and at night he would start for the house of some other friend, 
 further north. Thus he would keep on until he reached Canada, 
 and, that being a British province, as soon as he touched her 
 soil he became lawfully free. The line of escape from Mary- 
 land to Canada, by reason of the secrecy and night traveling, 
 was called "the underground railroad," and the houses of 
 the friends of freedom made the different stations. 
 
136 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 The house of Doctor Osgood, minister of the old church' 
 no longer the only church, was one of the stations. It was 
 on Main street, just below Howard street. When the runaway 
 arrived, before light in the morning, he was given a break- 
 fast and put to bed in a little back 
 room which the Doctor called "the 
 prophet's chamber." At night he 
 started again on his journey. In 
 one of these years as many as fifty 
 slaves were sheltered by the min- 
 ister. It is evident that Doctor 
 Osgood was a man of sympathy 
 and kindness and had the courage 
 to stand by what he believed. He 
 was interesting in other ways, blunt 
 and witty in his speech, as illus- 
 trated in the stories still current 
 about him. All his life in the minis- 
 try was spent in Springfield and he died an aged and honored 
 man. When he was visiting a school, as a member of the 
 committee, the teacher wrote a figure "9" on the blackboard, 
 without closing the loop at the top. "What's that," said the 
 doctor, "a hook?" This amused the scholars and probably 
 made the teacher more careful about figures. 
 
 Among the citizens of Springfield who took an active 
 interest in anti-slavery, there is none more famous than John 
 Brown, but he .was not then famous; he was only known as 
 a wool merchant with his warehouse near the railroad and 
 his house at one time was on the north side of Franklin street, 
 about one hundred feet from Main street and is yet standing. 
 He was more concerned about slavery than wool. His soul 
 was on fire with indignation, that man should hold property 
 
 Samuel Osgood. 
 
ANTI-SLAVERY 
 
 137 
 
 in man. He prayed much about it; but what could he, a 
 wool merchant, do except to help the slaves along on the under- 
 ground railroad, as others 
 
 
 did? There was no sacri- 
 fice that he would not 
 make. His family felt 
 as strongly about slavery 
 as he did and on one occa- 
 sion father, mother and 
 children agreed that some 
 money which was needed 
 for furnishing the parlor 
 of the Franklin street 
 house should be used 
 for the runawa\ slaves. 
 
138 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 One evening there was an address by the eminent Charles 
 Sumner, who, as senator from Massachusetts afterwards was 
 almost killed on account of his speeches against slavery. 
 After the address Sumner and Brown went into the back 
 store of Rufus Elmer, a Main street shoe dealer and ardent 
 abolitionist. They were talking of the slavery question, when 
 Sumner said, "Mr. Brown, slavery is doomed; but not in 
 your day or in mine." Brown, raising high his hand, brought 
 it down with decision, saying devoutly, "I hope to God to 
 die in the cause." 
 
 Not long after he went to Kansas and engaged in the 
 struggle to make the new state a free state. He and his family 
 risked their lives there and one of his sons was killed. He 
 became widely known as "Ossawatomie Brown." He then 
 went to Virginia and attempted to set in execution his plan to 
 free the slaves, by arming them with pikes. It failed and he 
 was hanged for treason against the commonwealth of Vir- 
 ginia. But the country was stirred and this event was one of 
 those that brought on the Civil war. It was not long before 
 the soldiers of the National army were going to battle with 
 the song of 
 
 "John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave 
 But his soul goes marching on." 
 
 Its strains were wafted back to his old home in Springfield 
 and the children in the public schools were singing it. Brown 
 made a mistake as to how slavery could be ended, but his was 
 a great heart true to God and his fellow men, and really helped 
 in the overthrow of slavery in a way that he did not think. 
 
 John Brown of Ossawatomic spake on his dying day; 
 
 "I will not have to shrive my soul a priest in Slavery's pay. 
 
 But let some poor slave-mother whom I have striven to free, 
 
 With her children, from the gallows-stair put up a prayer for me!" 
 
ANTI-SLAVERY 
 
 139 
 
 John BrowTi of Ossawatomie, they led him out to die; 
 
 And lo ! a poor slave-mother with her little child pressed nigh. 
 
 Then the bold, blue eye grew tender, and the old harsh face grew 
 
 mild. 
 As he stooped between the jeering ranks and kissed the negro's 
 
 child! 
 
 The shadows of his stormy life that moment fell apart ; 
 And they who blamed the bloody hand forgave the loving heart. 
 That kiss from all its guilty means redeemed the good intent. 
 And round the grizzly fighter's hair the martyr's aureole bent!" 
 
 — Whittier. 
 
 On April 5, 1857, died Springfield's last survivor of the 
 Revolution, familiarly known to the children as "Grandpa 
 Edwards." He had long been a 
 feature in the processions on the 
 Fourth of July, riding in a carriage 
 and returning the salutations of the 
 bystanders. His funeral was the 
 occasion of military display, with 
 martial music. 
 
 There used to be much gay color 
 and decoration in the militia, all of which was laid aside for 
 serious business when the Civil war came on in 1861. The City 
 Guards, who were out at Grandpa Edwards' funeral, wore blue 
 frock coats, light trousers and looked very formidable in their 
 towering bear skin hats. The Horse Guards used to wear red 
 coats, white trousers and chapeaux, like those of the Knights 
 Templar, carrying a black or white plume. They carried sabres 
 and had pistol holders each side of the saddle. The Light 
 Infantry, who had flourished before 1844, wore red swallow- 
 tailed coats, white trousers, and on their conical hats wore 
 fountain plumes, that is, several plumes drooping. By their 
 sides they carried canteens. The parade ground was the plain 
 
140 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
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 jjfegSffri'wiw JrtBC mH 
 
 The Spirit cf Training Day. 
 
 around the lately accepted Gerrish Park. Training Day was 
 one of the great days of the year to old and young. 
 
 As the last of the soldiers of the Revolution were dropping 
 
 into their graves, 
 events began to 
 happen which in 
 the end brought 
 forth a mightier 
 army than was 
 ever marshalled 
 in this country 
 before or since. One of these, as we have seen, was John 
 Brown's raid in Virginia, voicing the feelings, though not the 
 policy, of a large part of the north; but the culminating one 
 was the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. Brown 
 ineffectually struck at slavery, but it was for the great president 
 in the midst of a war that shook the very foundations of the 
 nation, to strike slavery down and give freedom to millions 
 of people. 
 
 It was at Chicago, in 1860, that Lincoln was nominated, 
 and the president of the convention was George Ashmun of 
 this city, a distinguished and able man. He had been in Con- 
 gress and was an intimate friend of the great Daniel Webster, 
 whose famous speeches had already taught the people that 
 the Union could not legally be broken by the secession of any 
 one or more of the states. Webster used often to be in Spring- 
 field, visiting Ashmun, and together they fished in the brooks 
 of Granby or hunted woodcock within the present limits of 
 Forest Park. 
 
 A memorial of Ashmun remains on the lawn, where was 
 once his residence, at the corner of School and Mulberry streets. 
 Standing there with his little daughter and looking at a small 
 
THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 141 
 
 ffi^^L\ 
 
 sapling, he remarked, "As the twig is bent, the tree's indined," 
 and twisted the two stems of the saphng. The great elm 
 still stands to teach its lesson that it is in childhood and youth 
 that character is formed. 
 
 After the Chicago Convention 
 had nominated Lincoln, Mr. Ash- 
 mun, as chairman of the com- 
 mittee, went to Mr. Lincoln's home 
 to inform him of the fact. Some 
 friends had sent in a hamper of 
 wine that the committee and others 
 might drink his health. But Mr. 
 Lincoln, having early in life seen 
 the evil of intemperance, never 
 touched strong drink or offered it 
 in his home. On this occasion, 
 also, he showed the courage of his 
 opinions and cold water took the 
 place of wine. 
 
 The inauguration of Lincoln 
 was quickly followed by the loss 
 
 of Fort Sumter at the hands of the rising South. From Spring- 
 field, of course, went forth brave men who should fight the 
 dreadful battles of a four-years' war, to save the Union. Where 
 are now Wilbraham avenue and others streets east of it was 
 a regimental camp, drilling and awaiting orders to move. 
 
 The children had a share in the great events. The girls 
 made "comfort bags" which held needles, thread and other 
 little needful things for homeless soldiers who had no sisters 
 to sew on buttons or mend a rent, and the boys collected money 
 to pay for those things. There were men needed in the Armory 
 as well as on the field and the works were run night and day. 
 
 ''^"^'^i/fUr/l,, 
 
 
 ASHMUN MeMOKIAL. 
 
142 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 For four years the war went on, with alternating successes 
 and defeats for the north until at last the victories won by 
 General Grant indicated that he would, in the end, bring all 
 out right. Guiding all was the wise Lincoln, criticised, reviled, 
 
 Making Comfort Bags. 
 
 weighed down with responsibility, but looking always to a 
 Higher Power for help for himself and the nation. 
 
 One day the bells of Springfield rang out with joy; the 
 President had made a proclamation freeing the slaves. It was 
 very different from the time when the bell of the old Methodist 
 church on the corner of Union and Mulberry streets was 
 tolled, the day when John Brown was hanged. Only a few years 
 had passed and what, at first, seemed an idle dream of an 
 
THE CIVIL WAR 143 
 
 enthusiast was now an accomplished fact. Thus "Man pro- 
 poses and God disposes." With great wisdom Lincoln had 
 chosen the day and made the proclamation in which may be 
 read this sentence, "Upon this act, sincerely believed to be 
 an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military 
 necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and 
 the gracious favor of Almighty God." 
 
 In the spring of 1865 came the close of the war,, quickly 
 followed by the martyrdom of the President and the linking 
 of his name as saviour of the country with that of Washington, 
 its father. The regiments from Springfield and vicinity were 
 mustered out of service and, returning to the city, made their 
 last march through Main street, their ranks thinned by death 
 and themselves looking worn and tired. But they had done 
 their share in proving the truth of Webster's words, "Liberty 
 and Union, one and inseparable, now and forever." Upon 
 the results of the Revolution and the Civil War the nation 
 rests in security. 
 
 It was not many weeks after the end of this war that 
 General Grant made a brief visit to this city. He had fought 
 many battles in which his soldiers were armed with the Spring- 
 field musket, and of course, he was interested in the place 
 of its manufacture. He inspected the Armory on the Hill 
 and also the Watershops. He was greeted by a great crowd 
 of citizens near the railroad station and taken upon a high 
 platform whence he was introduced by the mayor, but he 
 made no speech. His deeds were mighty, but on public occa- 
 sions his words were few. There seemed to be nothing military 
 in his appearance, except a narrow cord of yellow braid around 
 his hat and the single star on his shoulder. 
 
 Among those who came to this city and spoke in the cause 
 of freedom in the days of anti-slavery and the Civil war were 
 
144 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 Carl Schurz, the exiled German patriot, who, after becoming 
 a citizen of the United States, became a general in the army 
 in the Civil war and afterwards a famous statesman; and 
 Frederick Douglas, once a slave and afterwards an eloquent 
 orator, who held high positions in the gift of the nation. An 
 interesting woman w^ho resided here was Eliza Farrer. a writer 
 for children. She had had many experiences in various parts 
 of the world and wrote about them in a book, which she called 
 "Recollection of Seventy Years." 
 
 Two men who had a very wide reputation were the editors, 
 Samuel Bowles and Josiah Gilbert Holland. Doctor Holland 
 wrote many books, of which his "Letters to Young People" 
 were practical and popular. He wrote "Bay Path," an his- 
 torical novel about Mary Pynchon, and started the Century 
 magazine. There is a fine profile of his face on his monument 
 in the old cemetery, made by St. Gaudens, the famous sculptor 
 of the statue in honor of Deacon Chapin on Merrick Park. 
 Samuel Bowles, the second in the line of four journalists "of 
 that name, was one of the founders of modern journalism. 
 He was once unjustly imprisoned in another state for telling 
 the truth about a man who did much evil; for he believed 
 that his journal should be outspoken when the public interests 
 were at stake. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 A LOOK BACKWARDS.— THE SPANISH WAR. 
 TWENTIETH CENTURY. 
 
 -THE 
 
 N THE year 1886, Springfield celebrated the two 
 hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement. 
 A quarter of a millennium had gone by and people 
 looked back and compared the then present with 
 the past. There was an oration and a great pro- 
 cession, including an historical pageant in which 
 many boys and girls took part. The times of William 
 Pynchon were illustrated in costume by those in 
 the procession. The chief marshal was William 
 Pynchon, seventh in descent from the founder. 
 
 It is when looking back from one of these view 
 points that we realize how great has been the 
 progress of the city in this long period. In this last chapter 
 it will be well to select two examples and see how the modern 
 times differ from the old. One of these examples shall be the 
 means of putting out fires and the other the education cf 
 children. 
 
 In early days houses were, some of them, shingled, but 
 many thatched with straw. Of course great care had to be 
 taken lest a spark should get into the straw, as it might do 
 from a burning chimney or from some one carrying coals 
 through the street. So the town voted that no one should 
 carry uncovered fire along the street and that every man 
 should sweep out his chimney every month in winter and 
 every two months in summer. He was obliged also to keep 
 
146 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 a ladder of sixteen rungs for better getting at the roof. One 
 man was fined for smoking on a haycock. In order that 
 water might be always at hand the ditch or brook in front 
 of the houses was to be kept well scoured and a good stream 
 running. So when fire came and the roof caught some went 
 up the ladder and others passed up water from the brook. 
 Until after the Revolution this was the only way of putting 
 out a fire. 
 
 At last some of the citizens bought a little fire engine and 
 
 gave it to the 
 church for the use 
 of the town. Of 
 course there was 
 no steam about 
 it; the power of 
 steam was not 
 yet known. The 
 engine was merely 
 a pump on wheels. 
 There was a small 
 
 reservoir for water, called a tub, and the pump handles were 
 long wooden rods at each side called brakes. In order to 
 see it in action let us suppose that it is the year 1810, a year 
 in which a fire occurred in a house on the corner of Dwight 
 and State streets. Whoever has discovered the fire has shouted 
 the alarm. Everybody who hears it shouts "Fire! Fire! 
 Fire!" at the top of his voice. The cry is taken up until 
 probably from Mill river to Round Hill people are shouting 
 "fire!" The bell on the old church is ringing. Every man is 
 obliged to keep a fire bucket and some have bags in which to 
 carry out articles to a place of safety. When a man leaves 
 his house he catches up his bucket, or if he is not at home, 
 
thp: old fire department 
 
 147 
 
 his wife tosses it out to some one who is hurrying by and will 
 give it to the owner when he meets him at the fire. 
 
 Meanwhile the engine men have opened the door of the 
 engine house, then standing at a place which is now in the 
 roadway of State street, near Market. The machine is pulled 
 out and run up the street to the burning building. Men are 
 
 Wk ,i^^- 
 
 . -..-■- -y*v^*->l fit «i* .en/!' O, 
 
 t 
 
 :^-|. 
 
 now running to the scene from all directions. No sooner are 
 they arrived than they take their places in a double line 
 which runs from the house to the town brook. Up one line 
 the buckets full of water are passed only to go rapidly back 
 again when they have been emptied into the tub. Everybody 
 works lively and the tub is kept full. A man standing on the 
 engine directs the stream u]X)n the fire through a short hose. 
 
148 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 The hose is so short, only five feet in length, that the engine 
 must be got very close to the building, and even then it is 
 not very effective to reach the roof. The men at the brake are 
 working with might and main, and between their efforts and 
 those who have got upon the roof and poured on water, the 
 fire is put out. Some of the boarding is burned but the huge 
 beams are only charred, even yet to stand for three-quarters 
 of a century before the old house was to give way to a modern 
 building. 
 
 It was some years after this that a longer hose came into 
 
 use and also a 
 suction hose, so 
 that the engine 
 standing by the 
 brook could suck 
 up its own water 
 and the firemen 
 could reach with the long hose the Main street houses. As 
 building on Main street increased in height this was very im- 
 portant. One night the Hampden house at the northeast corner 
 of Court Square took fire. As the hose was being taken up the 
 stairs the firemen met a colored songstress, who had given a 
 concert that evening. She was known as "the Black Swan." 
 Frantic with excitement, she exclaimed, "Save me, I'm the 
 Black Swan." "Look out, then," said a fireman, "or you'll 
 get your feathers scorched." Of course the town brook was 
 of no use except in the old part of the town, so, as the city 
 increased, large reservoirs kept full by rains were constructed 
 under the streets. Several of these remain, as, for example, 
 one on Union street near Mulberry. The old engine was in 
 time replaced by another and then others were added, the 
 "Lion," the "Tiger," the "Niagara" and the "Cataract;" 
 
THE OLD FIRE DEPARTMENT 149 
 
 then the "Eagle" and the "Ocean;" and there was a hook 
 and ladder company manned by Germans. 
 
 It was in those days of several hand engines that "Fire- 
 men's Muster" was a favorite holiday. The procession was 
 gay with the red coats, shining black hats and blue trousers 
 of the men as they pulled at the ropes attached to their engines 
 and hose carts. After the procession the "Lions" and the 
 "Tigers," the "Niagaras" and the "Cataracts," the "Eagles" 
 and the "Oceans" would have a grand trial of strength to 
 see whose engine was best and who could pump the hardest 
 and reach the highest point on a tall flagstaff, or, it might be, 
 the steeple of the First church. The best engine, if well 
 manned, could wet the rooster. To the 
 comb of the rooster the distance is 169 
 feet. The bird himself is five feet high. 
 He came over from London about the year 
 1750 and has looked down on generations 
 of firemen and upon soldiers going out to 
 several wars. A likely tradition has it that 
 an eagle once alighted upon him and was 
 shot from below. In 1902 one of these birds was seen hovering 
 over St. Michael's cathedral. 
 
 They are almost all gone who tried to reach the rooster in 
 friendly rivalry with the old hand engines, and in these days 
 the firemen have so much serious business that there is not 
 much opportunity for sport. The great steam fire engines, 
 the chemical engines, the hose tower, the extension ladders, 
 the electric alarm and other devices for coping with big fires, 
 aided by a water service that makes the town brook and rain 
 water cisterns seem ridiculous, form a marked contrast be- 
 tween old and new times. If a man's house burned down he 
 lost all and his neighbors helped him to erect another. Now 
 
150 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 he collects the insurance from some company that he has paid 
 to guarantee him against loss. The fine building of the Spring- 
 field Fire and Marine Insurance Company probably had in 
 itself a cost of construction equal to the value of all the build- 
 ings in the town when the Indians gave it to the torch. 
 
 We have already seen how simple the schools were in olden 
 times and what sort of things the boys and girls used to do 
 when out of school. The schools did not change much until the 
 
 Ancient Schoolhouse of West Springfield. 
 
 nineteenth century. There were but few things taught and 
 those not particularly well. Nevertheless hard work counted, 
 as it always does when applied to something useful. As in the 
 second chapter we made an imaginary visit to the meeting- 
 house, so we will now look into one of the schools of a hundred 
 years ago, say, the school on Armory Hill, or in the Water- 
 shops district or at Putts Bridge or some other school of the 
 outer districts. In the summer the school has been taught by 
 a woman, but now the farm work is over and the big boys, 
 no longer needed for work, are coming in for their winter 
 schooling. 
 
OLD TIME SCHOOLS 
 
 151 
 
 A man is needed for the winter term and a strong one, 
 for the big boys hke to show their strength and will measure 
 it with the teacher the very first day. Some years they suc- 
 ceeded in putting a school- 
 master out of doors ; they have 
 even been known to rub him 
 in the snow. If he could not 
 handle them his usefulness was 
 over. The teacher of this year 
 was a good wrestler. He de- 
 termined to meet the boys in a 
 friendly spirit and challenged the 
 strongest for a wrestling match. 
 He won and was henceforth the 
 master, and thus he was always 
 called; a title that meant a 
 good deal, when the spirit of 
 insubordination was liable to 
 break forth, as often it did, in 
 an old time school. This was 
 not so strange, considering the 
 fact that the teacher was supposed to rule with a rod. If it 
 was not a rod, it might be a birch stick and many a boy has 
 been sent out to 
 cut one for his 
 own back. This 
 old master wished 
 only to cause tem- 
 porary pain in his 
 punishments, so 
 he generally used 
 a strap, which 
 only stung for a. moment 
 
 The boys called it "the tug." 
 
152 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 NEW ENGLAND PRIMER. 
 
 As we enter the schoolroom we see the master at a rude 
 desk in a corner. He is engaged in mending pens. They are 
 
 11 of goose quills and to be 
 able to put a neat point on 
 them is one of his valuable 
 accomplishments. On the 
 desk is a sand box. Blot- 
 ting paper is unknown, and 
 to dry the ink some black 
 sand is poured upon it out 
 of pin holes in the sand 
 box. The older children 
 who have need to write 
 have long desks in front 
 of them, while the younger 
 are seated on benches with 
 backs. Perhaps the 
 
 As runs the Glass, 
 Man's life doth pass. 
 
 My book and Heart 
 Shall never part. 
 
 Job feels the Rod, 
 Yet blesses God. 
 
 Proud Korah's troop 
 Was swallow'd up. 
 
 The Lion bold 
 The lamb doth hold. 
 
 TheMoon gives light 
 In time of night. 
 
 no 
 
 G H IJ K L M 
 
 writing lesson comes first, 
 in which case the master 
 produces some slips of paper 
 neatly written with such 
 sentences as, "Command 
 the mind and then the pen;" and these the scholars copy. 
 These copies the teacher would take with him if he went to 
 another school. The reading lesson may 
 be from the "English Reader," or from 
 "Webster's Spelling Book," or, perhaps, 
 from the "New England Primer," in which 
 last the younger scholars learned to re- 
 member the alphabet by such verses and 
 pictures as those on this page. Notice that I and J were con- 
 sidered as equivalent in old printing. 
 
OLD TIME SCHOOLS 
 
 153 
 
 Peculiar punishments were more common in olden times 
 than now. The dunce cap belongs to a forgotten past but the 
 writer remembers a so-called dunce-block, — the end of a 
 huge beam painted red, in one of the lower grades of the 
 Springfield schools, upon which silly boys were made to sit. 
 
 There are now 
 scarcely any coun- 
 try schools left in 
 vSpringfield and the 
 country work and 
 sports have largely 
 passed away. Few 
 boys know how to milk and no 
 girl can spin. The husking bees 
 that made good times in the 
 great barns on Main street are 
 no more. Thanks to pond and 
 hill, skating and coasting are yet 
 in vogue, although for the safety 
 of all, including children, restric- 
 tions have to be imposed upon 
 coasting on the more traveled 
 streets. Sometimes the young 
 
 To The 
 Central Street Coasters 
 
 Shout, boys and girls, 
 
 The victory's won! 
 The cranky folks 
 
 Can't spoil your fun. 
 Bring out your sleds 
 
 An' let 'em speed ; 
 The aldermen 
 
 Have all agreed 
 To let you have 
 
 The jolly treat 
 Of coasting still 
 
 On Central street. 
 
 1887 
 
 people have successfully opposed 
 the placing of these restrictions, as appears from some con- 
 temporary verses in the Homestead. A spirit of independence, 
 if in obedience to the laws, is admirable, as in the case of the 
 Boston boys who remonstrated with General Gage when the 
 British soldiers spoiled their coasting. 
 
 Notwithstanding the more meager results and rougher 
 ways, yet, so far as we can judge from what old scholars have 
 left on record about it. the school life of other days contributed 
 
154 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 to that happy joyousness which belongs to childhood and 
 youth. Take, for example, from the High School Portfolio, 
 published by the boys and girls in the fifties, these verses 
 from which the fun bubbles up above all the mishaps. 
 
 WADING THROUGH THE SNOW 
 
 When the winds are blowing 
 
 Hard, with all their might, 
 And the snowdrifts measure 
 
 More than half your height, 
 Friends and schoolmates, have you — 
 
 Now I want to know — 
 Ever had the pleasure 
 
 Of wading through the snow? 
 
 TheTTWeathervane of 
 THE Old High School, 
 Court Square, Show- 
 ing Bullet Holes. 
 Height, Three Feet. 
 
 Dozen books to carry, 
 
 Dinner basket full, 
 And a great umbrella. 
 
 On our way to school. 
 Sixty miles an hour 
 
 Railroad cars do go; 
 Mercy ! don't we beat 'em 
 
 Wading through the snow? 
 
 Falling into snowdrifts. 
 
 Dropping every book, 
 Losing all the cookies 
 
 And the pie we took ; 
 Feet and fingers frozen. 
 
 Patience nearly so ; 
 Ain't it awful funny 
 
 Wading through the snow ? 
 
 Opposite the arsenal 
 
 Half-past eight we see; 
 Goodness ! we must hurry, 
 
 Else, tardy we shall be. 
 So we set to running 
 
 Fast as we can go, 
 Take two steps and tumble 
 
 Headlong in the snow. 
 
 Finally we halted 
 
 At the schoolhouse door. 
 With our journey ended, 
 
 And our danger o'er; 
 So with joyful faces 
 
 Up the stairs we go; 
 Think again you'll catch us 
 
 Wading through the .snow'' 
 
OLD TIME SCHOOLS 
 
 155 
 
 It was years after that the same girl described her hfe in 
 one of the grammar schools in some verses, from which the 
 following are taken, called 
 
 
 A TRIBUTE TO AN OLD TEACHER 
 
 Our memory wakes, and we recall 
 The little, dreary, sandy yard. 
 
 The schoolroom with its dingy wall, 
 
 The straight-backed benches, stiff and 
 hard; 
 
 The songs, long since, gone out of date. 
 With which the schoolroom used to ring ; 
 
 And the old-fashioned book and slate. 
 Yes, we remember everything. > 
 
 But over all has come a change : 
 This is an unfamiliar place; 
 
 The only thing that is not strange 
 Is our beloved teacher's face. 
 
 Oh, could we take our dusty books, 
 And once more trudge away to 
 school. 
 And sit beneath those gracious looks 
 That softened e'en the strictest 
 rule. 
 
 "This is an Unfamiliar Place." 
 
 And could we hear his words of praise. 
 That were so precious to our ears. 
 
 And feel the patience of his ways. 
 
 That never failed through all those years, 
 
 We should not tease and vex him now 
 With whispering, carelessness, and noise; 
 
 Of course, we should have sport somehow, 
 But we should be good girls and boys. 
 
156 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 Sprirxgfield schools rank high among those of the country: 
 in what respects do they excel those of the olden time? In 
 many ways. In the matter of buildings the}^ are better housed 
 and equipped. They excel in teaching children to put their 
 thoughts into writing; in bringing them near to nature by the 
 study of birds and flowers; in giving them the usefulness and 
 joy that come from knowledge of drawing and painting; in 
 
 connecting their 
 studies with the 
 many good books of 
 a large city library 
 and the collections 
 in the Art Museum. 
 The kindergarten 
 and manual training 
 work are new. In 
 general, the methods 
 ^ of teaching have so 
 improved that more 
 can be done in the 
 same time, and the 
 principles laid down 
 by the great philoso- 
 pher, Francis Bacon, 
 and by modern ed- 
 ucators have been most successfully applied. 
 
 There was, in the schools of Springfield, a boy who, as he 
 grew up, became a lover of good books, good pictures and 
 good deeds. When he graduated from the high school his 
 spoken essay, composed by himself, was on the subject, "The 
 Measure of Life." It is remembered that in it he tried to make 
 his schoolmates feel the truth of the saying "Man shall not 
 
 "Man Shall Not Live by Bread Alone." 
 
OLD TIME SCHOOLS 157 
 
 live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out 
 of the mouth of God." Thus early did he come to know that 
 the best things were to be chosen. He passed through college 
 w4th credit but not long after that his earthly life closed. 
 Nevertheless through him several things were made possible 
 for Springfield. His name was Eugene Aston. He had a 
 refined taste in art and for him is named the ' ' Aston Collection 
 of Wood Engravings," in the City Library. 
 
 The art of engraving on wood is an interesting one but 
 now, unfortunately, becoming obsolete. It is one of the ob- 
 jects of this history to show by its illustrations what work 
 can be done by drawing or engraving with lines as compared 
 with the work of photography. In the Aston Collection may 
 be found some of the best examples of wood engravings that 
 this country has produced. The effect is obtained with a 
 sharp tool making lines on the surface of a block usually of 
 the wood of the Box tree. As the block sometimes splits, the 
 printing is generally done from an electrotype which ingeni- 
 ously duplicates in the metal the raised and depressed surfaces 
 of the block. 
 
 Springfield has had good engravers on copper and steel, 
 like Goldthwaite and Chubbuck, and on wood, like Cleaves 
 and Howard. The cuts on pages 68 and 80, from a school 
 book of early days are rude indeed, as compared with the 
 highly finished work of Cleaves on page 121, or the piece of 
 commercial work over-leaf. In this book photography has 
 been used in reproducing engravings from old books, as on 
 pages 26, 41, 45; but where the lines of the original are deli- 
 cate, as on page 134, they cannot be equalled in the copy. 
 The cuts on pages 31 and 54 are printed from electrotypes 
 of blocks loaned by the publishers of Webster's dictionary, 
 a book which has carried the name of Springfield all over 
 
158 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 the world. Illustrations like those on pages 77 and 115 are 
 photographic reductions of pen drawings. The engravings 
 on pages 118-119 are reproductions from 
 Anderson, the pioneer wood engraver of 
 America. 
 
 This cut of a gun by Howard is electro- 
 typed from wood. It would be well to take 
 a magnifying glass and see by what delicate 
 lines the engraver got the mottled effect of 
 the French walnut knot of which the butt 
 is made. Notice also how the surface of the 
 iron parts is made to suggest the original. 
 Results of a very different kind and yet 
 equally artistic though often less difficult 
 can be produced by the use of a very few 
 lines, as in the cut of a woman churning, on 
 page 45. In both cases careful drawing is 
 of the very first importance. Good coloring 
 cannot make up for bad drawing. 
 
 It was in the nineteenth century that 
 people began to be especially interested in 
 the early history of the town. George Bliss, 
 Oliver B. Morris, and his son, Henry Morris, 
 gave much attention to this subject and the 
 latter was the first President of the Con- 
 necticut Valley Historical Society. This 
 society was organized in 1876, the Centen- 
 nial year, when the people of this country 
 really began to look back on the nation's 
 past. Its volumes of published proceedings 
 contain interesting reading about old 
 Springfield. 
 
THE STUDY OF LOCAL HISTORY 159 
 
 The city is also known outside by the historical publica- 
 tions of the house of Gurdon Bill, who was the donor of the 
 Soldiers' Monument on Court Square, and its successor, the 
 C. A. Nichols Company. The publications of this house include 
 Holland's "Life of Lincoln," Abbott's "History of the Civil 
 War," "Our First Century," "History for Ready Reference," 
 a book much used in school and college, and "Rise and Fall 
 of Nations." Green's "History of Springfield," published at 
 the time of the quarter millennial of the city, largely as a 
 personal contribution of Mr. Nichols to the occasion, is a 
 monumental work reflecting credit on author and publisher. 
 To it this book is indebted for fourteen plates, like those on 
 pages 20, 33, 12L Other books dealing with local history, 
 to which the reader is referred for further study, are Morris' 
 "Early History of Springfield," Holland's "History of Western 
 Massachusetts," Copeland's "History of Hampden County," 
 Everts' "History of the Connecticut Valley," Ellis and Morris' 
 "History of King Philip's War," Burt's "First Century of 
 the History of Springfield," King's "Handbook of Springfield," 
 Wright's "Indian Deeds of Hampden County," Ward's 
 "Springfield in the Spanish- American War," Stebbins' "Wil- 
 braham," Bagg's "West Springfield," Chapin's "Inhabitants 
 of Old Springfield" and "Old High School," Storrs' "Long- 
 meadow," Palmer's "Chicopee Street," and Barrows' "Poets 
 and Poetry of Springfield." 
 
 "I have but one lamp," said Patrick Henry, "by which 
 my feet are guided and that is the lamp of experience." The 
 experience of the past, embodied in history, as it becomes 
 better known, helps us better to understand our own time 
 and thus to make better the coming times. Interest in histor- 
 ical study is sometimes promoted by the drama, as with 
 Shakespeare's Henry VIII and Richard III. How this can be 
 
160 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 done locally was shown by the historical pageant presented 
 by the Central High School in 1909, in which costume, music 
 and action united in presenting to the imagination a striking 
 picture of Colonial days. 
 
 In 1892 occurred the four hundredth anniversary of the 
 discovery of America by Columbus. In Springfield the event 
 was celebrated by the Hebrews. Rejoicing in this free republic, 
 they gathered for religious services; and also listened to an 
 address by one of the sons of Springfield, descended from the 
 two townsmen who met their death at the foot of Long Hill, 
 as described in the fifth chapter. 
 
 As may be inferred from designs of the city seal, manu- 
 facturers and trade have long since replaced agriculture as 
 the basis of Springfield's prosperity. William Pynchon himself 
 was a trader, an honest and successful one, and there have 
 been others like him in these respects, some born here and 
 others coming from elsewhere. Our mechanics and manu- 
 facturers alone would make an interesting study. They are 
 the direct representatives of William Pynchon, who dealt 
 in native furs and foreign goods and made boards and shingles. 
 If they know the history of the town they have before them 
 his illustrious example of honorable dealing. 
 
 It was just before the Civil war that Horace Smith and 
 Daniel B. Wesson became partners in the manufacture of 
 pistols. When the war came on there was great demand for 
 pistols and these two men acquired fortunes, for they were 
 good mechanics and understood business. They trusted each 
 other and others trusted them and wanted their good work. 
 They did not keep all their wealth to themselves and their 
 families. One of Mr. Smith's ways of doing good was by 
 helping young men and women to an education. He enjoyed 
 this; and, dying without immediate heirs, gave most of his 
 
SOME FORMS OF PUBLIC SERVICE 161 
 
 property to charity. The Horace Smith Fund perpetuates 
 one of his own favorite ways of doing good. His hfe may be 
 taken as an iUustrious example of Benevolence, a quality 
 of character which is not denied to any, whether rich or poor. 
 
 Daniel B. Wesson was also benevolent, for, although he left 
 a numerous posterity, he devoted an important part of his 
 estate to the building of two hospitals. For our purposes, 
 however, w^e may take his life as illustrating another moral 
 quality. Whatever he made or had made, he determined 
 should be made the best it could be, whether it was a pistol 
 or a great hospital or the fence about the hospital. On one 
 occasion, reading that a pistol of his manufacture had fallen 
 from a shelf and, being fired by the fall, killed a woman, he 
 lay awake nearly all night studying a device for preventing 
 such an accident in the future, and before morning broke he 
 had the invention in his mind. He thought whatever was 
 worth doing at all was worth doing well and his life may be 
 taken as an illustrious example of Perfection of Workmanship, 
 a quality of highest import and almost universal application, 
 if only in something so humble as the putting a point on a 
 pencil or making a loaf of bread. 
 
 A second man, Primus P. Mason, may be mentioned here, 
 of the race of Peter Swink of the third chapter, who by industry 
 and thrift acquired property and, dying without issue, exe- 
 cuted a cherished plan by giving his estate to found a Home 
 for Aged Men. 
 
 In early times it was the men who did most of the things 
 of which history has to tell; but in later times the women 
 have taken a useful part in the public life of the city. Among 
 them was Clara T. Leonard, who gave herself, heart and soul, 
 to prison reform in the interest of women. Deeply interested 
 in the welfare of the young, she founded the Hampden County 
 
162 
 
 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 Children's Aid Society, whose work is still going on. A second 
 organization working for the same purpose is the Society of 
 St. Vincent de Paul, named for the famous French Philanthro- 
 pist. Both exist for the care of homeless and suffering children. 
 Another devoted woman was Adelaide A. Calkins, who, with 
 Ellen B. Merriam, a graduate of the Springfield High School, 
 was the first among the women of the city to fill one of its 
 public offices by becoming a member of the school committee. 
 She gave twelve years of fruitful service to the cause of educa- 
 tion and other years sis an official of the Commonwealth towards 
 improving the almshouses of the State of Massachusetts. 
 United in friendship, Mrs. Leonard and Mrs. Calkins spent 
 many years in work for the common good. 
 
 Adelaide A. Calkins. 
 
 Clara T. Leonard. 
 
 In 1898 there was war between the United States and 
 Spain, growing out of inhumanities practiced by the Spanish 
 authorities on the Cubans. The seat of war was the island of 
 Cuba. One morning in May the Springfield companies of 
 the Second Regiment, composed almost entirely of young 
 men, some of them scarcely out of their boyhood, marched 
 from the State Arsenal through Main street to the railroad 
 station. How much the composition of the citizens had 
 changed since the early days when they were almost all of 
 
THE SPANISH WAR 
 
 163 
 
 English or Scotch stock is shown by the fact that among the 
 list of officers and privates occur names that are Irish, Ger- 
 man, Scandinavian, French, Italian and Hebrew. 
 
 The regiment camped in Framingham and soon was on its 
 way to Florida, whence it was to embark. Merrily did the 
 soldiers sing 
 
 "Tramp, tramp, tramp the boys are marching; 
 Cheer up, Cuba, we will come," 
 
 but once on Cuban soil they 
 were face to face with the 
 horrors of war. Young 
 Arthur Packard, who first 
 enlisted at fifteen, was killed 
 at the battle of El Caney. 
 Thomas Boon, having been 
 transferred to the signal 
 corps, was sent up in a 
 war balloon for observa- 
 tions on the enemy at the 
 siege of Santiago. The 
 balloon, having been struck at a great height by fragments 
 of a shell, fell, and young Boon was caught in a tree and 
 entangled with its anchor and was afterwards dropped in 
 the water of a creek. He received severe injuries which proved 
 fatal after his return to Springfield. 
 
 There were others in these companies who met their deaths 
 on the battlefield or at the hands of exposure and disease, 
 including Henry Macdonald, chief of the city's police. They 
 died for the freedom of Cuba and their names are on the monu- 
 ment at the foot of Round Hill. There was an old saying of 
 
 ^^BA U©^^ 
 
 Arthur H. Packard. 
 
164 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 the Romans, "Didce et decorum est pro patria mori,'' — "It is 
 sweet and fitting to die for one's country." These went at the 
 call of their country to die for the people of another land and 
 their names and deeds are cherished, together with the names 
 and deeds of those who fell in the making and the saving of 
 this nation. Equally honored, however, although not mourned, 
 are those who returned to live honorable lives under the 
 banner of peace. 
 
 In the year 1800 the population of Springfield was 2250; 
 in 1900 it was 62,059. A large part of the latter increase had, 
 of course, been due to immigration from abroad. The large 
 families of the older stock had become the exception and now 
 came people from Sweden, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Greece, 
 Armenia and China. There had been an increasing Irish and 
 German element from earlier times. There were people of 
 French descent from Canada but not in any number from 
 France itself; nor from Spain, Portugal or Japan; but there 
 were Hebrews from many countries. These all have come, 
 giving up their old allegiance, to take the name American, 
 to defend the Constitution and to love and honor the Stars 
 and Stripes. Like the ancient settlers of Pynchon's day, they 
 have had to give up many old ways and to learn what, for 
 this country, are better ones. Like the earlier settlers it is 
 for them gradually to lose sight of old customs, the old lan- 
 guage and the old nationality in the fusion of peoples in the 
 new land. "Americanism," as President Roosevelt has said, 
 "is a question of principle, of purpose, of idealism, of character; 
 and not a matter of birthplace, or creed, or line of descent." 
 
 The one hundredth anniversary of the settlement was the 
 occasion of a "Century Sermon," by Rev. Robert Breck and 
 the two hundredth anniversary of an historical address by 
 Judge Oliver B. Morris. A feature of the two hundred and 
 
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 165 
 
 fiftieth anniversary was a procession illustrating the historical 
 events and the industries of the city. The address was by 
 Judge Henry Morris. In 1911 much attention was given to 
 local history in the schools and the day commemorating the 
 two hundred and seventy-fifth anniversary was ushered in 
 with a proclamation by criers and the public exercises included 
 addresses, a poem, the singing of songs of the Civil War, and 
 in the schools, of the anniversary hymn. A loan exhibition 
 brought together many things ancient and interesting. 
 
 The change to a new century was observed. The last 
 century of the present era was the second millenium about 
 to begin, called the twentieth century. The people of Spring- 
 field felt the importance of the event. As the hour drew on 
 to midnight, some gathered in their places of worship, others 
 were upon the streets or awaiting in their homes the next 
 stroke of the clock. The bells of the city rang out all together, 
 tolling in slow and measured strokes the death of the old 
 century. When the public clocks began to strike the hour of 
 twelve, the bells changed to joyful notes of greeting for the 
 century just beginning, and the great guns on Armory Square 
 began to thunder their salute. This was in the two hundred 
 and sixty-fifth year of the history of Springfield and the one 
 hundred and twenty-fifth year of the independence of the 
 United States. 
 
166 r HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 ANNIVERSARY HYMN 
 
 Sung May 25, 1886 
 At the 250th Anniversary of the City of Springfield 
 
 Tune: "Portuguese Hymn." 
 
 O God of our fathers ! Their Guide and their Shield, 
 Who marked out Thy pathway through forest and field, 
 We stand where they stood, and with anthems of praise 
 Acknowledge Thy goodness, O Ancient of Days ! 
 
 Thou leddest Thy people of old like a flock ; 
 They trusted in Thee as their Sheltering Rock; 
 The centuries pass, — Thou art ever the same. 
 And children of children still trust in Thy name. 
 
 'Twas here in the wilderness, silent, untamed. 
 The gospel of freedom and grace they proclaimed, — 
 The gospel of home, of the school, of the plow, — 
 And this City of Homes is their monument now. 
 
 O God of our fathers! By river and wood 
 Where Pynchon and Holyoke and Chapin abode, 
 Our heritage blossoms with glory and praise, 
 To Thee, our Defender, O Ancient of Days! 
 
 — £>ver, 1839-1896 
 
APPENDIX 
 
168 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
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 /V 
 
 ^7 
 
 
 
 "tf^f^l^ -^v 
 
 
 
 ■>",.. f^-' 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 ^»*«t:- 
 
 
 ^cf^y-Ti 
 
 S^ ..^^^^.^iSkJ 
 
 Signatures to the agreement of the Indians with the eight original settlers of Springfield 
 
FACSIMILE OF DEED 
 
 BETWEEN 
 
 WILLIAM PYNCHON AND THE INDIANS 
 
 A 
 
 ('■ 
 
 
 
 
 M~\je of Cjra- 
 
 Ixhc^e.x C^<~--f^ Q^,r>^ 'f ^■'<^^*><'^i^<^entpa,^^'^j^^^. 
 
 "»^ ^i t-^ &//• ^„:^ /r/^ 
 
 '/'^^"^'ly^r*^ 
 
 M*.T 
 
 
 Oi.i) Indian Deki 
 
OUR FIRST NEWS OF THE BATTLE OF 
 LEXINGTON 
 
 Watertown 
 
 Wednesday morning 10 o'clock. 
 
 "To all the friends of American Liberty be it known that 
 this morning before break of day a Brigade consisting of about 
 1000 or 1200 men landed at Phips' Farm at Cambridge and 
 marched to Lexington where they found a company of our 
 Colony Militia in arms upon whom they fired without any 
 provocation and killed six and wounded four others by an ex- 
 press this moment from Boston we find another Brigade are 
 now on their march from Boston supposed to be about 1000. 
 The bearer Mr. Isaac Bissell charged to alarm the country 
 quite to Connecticut and all persons are desired to furnish him 
 with such horses as they may be needed. 
 
 I have spoke with several persons who have seen the dead 
 and wounded. Pray let the Delegates from this Colony to 
 Connecticut see this 
 
 they know 
 
 J. Palmer 
 
 one of the Com. of S — y 
 
 Col. Foster is one of the Delegates." 
 
"Spirit of 1917" 
 
 THE AMERICAN CREED 
 
 (National Society Sons of American Revolution) 
 
 "I believe in the United States of America as a Kovernment of the people, by the people, 
 for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in 
 a republic; sovereign nation of many sovereign States; a perfect Union, one and inseparable, 
 established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American 
 patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. 
 
 "I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it; to support its Constitution; to 
 obey its laws; to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies." 
 
 Note — The original of the above illustration, by Norman Rockwell, hangs in the Banking Room 
 of the Third National Bank as a tribute to the young men who .served in the World War. 
 
SPRINGFIELD IN THE WORLD WAR 
 
 The world war began August 2, 1914, and the armistice 
 was signed November 11, 1918. Springfield contributed its 
 part by furnishing men, money and materials necessary to 
 conduct the plans of our government to a successful end. 
 
 The city, during this period, raised thousands of dollars 
 by successful drives known as the Red Cross drive, the Triangle 
 drive, the Knights of Columbus drive, Hospital drive. War 
 Chest drive. Liberty Bond drive, Victory drive and Library 
 drive. (Citizens contributed 40,000 books.) During these 
 several drives, soldiers who had been wounded in the war, 
 came from England, France, Italy, Canada and Belgium, to 
 Springfield and other cities to relate their experiences in battle 
 and to urge people to make every sacrifice to bring the war to 
 a close. 
 
 Women and girls contributed their quota by working in- 
 defatigably crocheting, knitting and sewing, at home, in halls, 
 on street cars, and in places of amusement. 
 
 The 104th regiment, which was known before the war as 
 the 2nd Massachusetts regiment, under command of Col. 
 William C. Hayes, left Springfield September 13, 1917, with 
 about 1,200 men. On reaching France at a time when the 
 crisis was near, this regiment was placed in the thickest of the 
 fight and experienced some of the worst fighting which ever 
 fell to the lot of soldiers of any period in history. Springfield 
 gave its farewell to these men, and on their return, April 28, 
 1919, received and did them honor. The regiment lost during 
 this sad experience about 800 men. France honored this regi- 
 ment by decorating it oa the field of battle, and it was the only 
 
174 APPENDIX 
 
 regiment from the United States so decorated. The ancestors 
 of Gen. Clarence R. Edwards, the commander of the 26th 
 division, from New England, known as the "Yankee Division" 
 lived in Springfield on Chestnut street, — Edwards street being 
 part of the Edwards home lot. 
 
 During the war the United States armory and the Water- 
 shops, where rifles were made for our army, were strictly 
 guarded, as were the buildings of the Eastern States Exposi- 
 tion in West Springfield, which were used by the government 
 for the storing and shipping of war material, and our Technical 
 High School building on Elhot street which was used during 
 the summer for instructing soldiers in technical work and drill. 
 
 Cardinal Mercier, the primate of Belgium, a war hero, 
 visited Springfield October 5 and 6, 1919. 
 
 The French government sent thirty-three young girls to 
 this city, at the close of the war, to be instructed in our Com- 
 mercial High School. Many of them had practical experience 
 in our local business offices before returning to France. 
 
 WORLD WAR ROLL OF HONOR WAS REPRESENTED IN 
 THE HIGH SCHOOLS OF SPRINGFIELD AS FOLLOWS: 
 
 Central 505 Commercial 192 
 
 Technical 625 Parochial 145 
 
HISTORICAL AND LITERARY 
 LANDMARKS OF SPRINGFIELD 
 
 Early settlers of Springfield lived on or near the present |^^'"^\y^g 
 Main street. Henry Smith, one of the three first selectmen 
 and a son-in-law of William Pynchon, had his home at the 
 corner of Main and Bridge streets. Miles Morgan, a tithing 
 master in the First church, lived on the south side of Ferry 
 lane, the present Cypress street. (A statue of Mr. Morgan by 
 J. S. Hartley stands on Court Square). The son of WiUiam 
 Pynchon, John Pynchon, the strong business man of pioneer 
 days, lived at the corner of Main and Fort streets. His house 
 was used as a fort during the Indian attack on Springfield in 
 1675. It remained standing until 1831. A reproduction of it 
 appears on the city seal. 
 
 The first burying ground, "God's acre," was back of the The First 
 
 J & & ' Burying 
 
 First church at the foot of Elm street. The stones marking Ground 
 the resting places of early settlers were removed when the 
 tracks of the new New York, New Haven, and Hartford Rail- 
 road were laid in 1848. They are now arranged in three rows 
 near the Pine street entrance of the Peabody Cemetery. 
 
 The Bay Path, a name which Holland has immortalized The Bay 
 . . . . . I'lt^ 
 
 by making it the title of an historical novel whose scene is laid 
 
 in Springfield, is supposed to represent the route, at first a 
 mere trail, by which the early settlers travelled to and from 
 Boston. 
 
 All Saints' Church, an Episcopal house of worship on ciJ^^plf**' 
 Oakland street, is modeled after a church of the same name in 
 Springfield, England, where William Pynchon worshipped. 
 
 The First Church on Court Square was completed in 1819 chur^'h"' 
 
176 APPENDIX 
 
 and is the fourth building in its history. The architect was 
 Isaac Damon who also built the toll bridge. The "rooster" 
 weathervane was brought over from England about 1750. 
 The first church building was finished in 1645. 
 
 Lan7 Ferry lane, the present Cypress street, was the northern 
 
 one of the three lanes leading from the "town street" (Main 
 street) to the river. Here travelers took the ferry across the 
 river to Woronoco. At the middle, or "Meeting house lane" 
 (Elm street) and at the southern one (York street) ferries took 
 townspeople to the opposite meadows. Washington landed 
 at the foot of Ferry lane on his visit to Springfield. 
 
 The 
 
 Town 
 
 Brook 
 
 The Town Brook or Garden Brook is a stream made by 
 the springs with which Armory hill abounds. It formerly ran 
 on the surface and spread out over the plain, making a marshy 
 tract between Dwight and Main streets known as the "Has- 
 socky marsh". In order to affect a passage across this marsh 
 a "causeway" or corduroy road, resting on logs and two rods 
 wide, was built. The brook divided at Worthington street, 
 part flowing north and the other south into the Connecticut 
 River. 
 
 the^stock- ^ marker on the grounds of the St. Vincent Home on Long 
 
 village Hill Street, opposite Spruceland Avenue, indicates the site of 
 
 the stockaded village of the Agawam Indians and their fort, 
 
 both of which were vacated when they burned Springfield in 
 
 1675. 
 
 CoTife^ A marker at the corner of Mill and South Main streets, 
 
 and^south is near the spot where the Indians, during King Philip's war, 
 
 streets on the 5th of October, 1675, killed Lieut. Thomas Cooper, the 
 
 contractor under whose direction the first building of the First 
 
 Church organization was built, and Constable Thomas Miller. 
 
APPENDIX 177 
 
 These two men had started out together to meet and treat with 
 the Indians who were coming to attack the town. 
 
 The "Boston stone" on Benton Park near Federal Street The "Boston 
 was erected in 1763 "for the benefit of travellers" by Joseph 
 Wait, a Brookfield merchant who had lost his way in a snow- 
 storm. Masonic symbols are carved upon it and it bears the 
 marks of the bullets fired during Shays' rebellion. 
 
 The boulder on Benton park is a memento to the following The Bouider 
 
 on Benton 
 
 event as inscribed on the stone : ' * This tablet marks the battle Park 
 place of Shays' rebellion, January 25, 1787." Shays' rebellion 
 was an uprising due to discontent with existing conditions 
 following the Revolutionary war. It was led by Daniel Shays 
 of Pelham who raised a force of 2,000 men. 
 
 Court Square, opened in 1819, is the central common of court 
 
 ._ , . i-TTiA'i Square 
 
 the city. It was made over to the county oi Hampden, April 
 14, 1821, by five well known citizens "In order", as they said, 
 ' ' that there may be an open square or yard for the use of the 
 inhabitants of the county near the courthouse, divers persons 
 have, at a great expense, purchased this land." The site was 
 once occupied by Parsons tavern, the old inn where Washington 
 stayed on his way to Cambridge. 
 
 The toll bridge was built in 1816 by Capt. Isaac Damon xheToii 
 
 Hridgc 
 
 who was the architect of the First Church. Tolls were taken 
 until 1872. 
 
 The first town hall was hiuilt in 1828 on the corner of State ^he First 
 
 Town Hall 
 
 and Market streets. It is now in use as a business block. A 
 city hall on west Court Street succeeded this and the present 
 municipal group is its successor. 
 
 John Brown, famous in connection with the Civil War, ■^"'"' '^■""^■" 
 conducted a business in Springfield as a wool merchant from 
 1846 to 1849. His warehouse was on the northwest corner of 
 
178 APPENDIX 
 
 Main and Lyman streets. He lived at 26 and 43 Franklin 
 Street and on Gray's Avenue. The house, No. 43 Franklin 
 Street, was later moved to Greenwood Street and is still stand- 
 ing. He is said to have maintained a station of the "Under- 
 ground railroad" here. 
 £^®j^ Mrs. C. C. Chaffee, owner of Dred Scott, who figured in 
 
 the Missouri Compromise, once lived at 154 Chestnut Street. 
 
 Hous^''^ T^^ ^^y house in West Springfield, a quaint brick structure 
 
 at the right of the Common, was built in 1754 by Joseph Day 
 and occupied by Days for nearly 150 years. The front door 
 shows marks said to have been made by the tomahawks of 
 the Indians. Daniel Shays took formal possession of the house 
 in 1787. The Hessians from Burgoyne's army encamped in 
 front of the house on the Common in 1777. Many unauthentic 
 legends center about the place. It is now in the possession of 
 the Ramapogue Historical Society and is used as a museum of 
 New England antiquities. 
 
 First Roman jj^ 1835 thc Catholics assembled for their first mass, which 
 
 Catholics 
 
 in Springfield ^g^g }iq\(^ {^ a privatc housc near the corner of Mill and Dickin- 
 son streets. A large Catholic population now worships in 
 numerous churches, and Springfield is the home of the Bishop. 
 
 Hon^George Hou. Gcorge Ashmun, a friend of Daniel Webster's, pre- 
 sided at the Republican Convention which nominated Abraham 
 Lincoln, 1860. His home was at the northeast corner of Mul- 
 berry and School streets. 
 
 J.G.Holland j_ G. Hollaud, author of "The Bay Path", spent the years 
 of his literary career in Springfield. A part of the time he was 
 on the editorial staff of the Springfield Republican. He wrote 
 "Kathrina" at Brightwood, a name he gave his home in the 
 north end of the city, which was afterwards applied to the 
 whole section. When living at 115 High street, he wrote 
 
APPENDIX 179 
 
 "Bittersweet". The monument which marks his grave in 
 the Peabody cemetery bears a bronze portrait rehef by 
 St. Gaudens. 
 
 George Bancroft, the historian, once hved at 49 Chestnut George 
 
 ° Bancroft 
 
 Street. It was later the home of a consul general of Paris and 
 of Lieut. Governor W. H. Haile. Still later it became the 
 residence of George Walter Vincent Smith, the donor of the 
 collection in the Art Museum. 
 
 Tames McNeill Whistler, an artist of world wide fame, james 
 
 McNeill 
 
 when a boy of five lived on Chestnut Street, just south of whistier 
 Mattoon Street. While he was still a small boy his father, 
 Major Whistler, was called to Russia by the Czar to assist in 
 building railroads. His portrait of his mother is one of the 
 famous paintings of the world. 
 
 Jenny Lind, the "Swedish nightingale," gave a concert inJenny 
 
 Lind 
 
 the First Church, July 1, 1851. Tickets were $4.00, $5.00, 
 and $6.00, and the church was crowded to the doors. She 
 remained in the city nearly a week at the home of Jeremy 
 Warriner, 43 Howard Street, in rooms newly furnished for her 
 use. On July 4th, between five and six hundred children, some 
 of whom were from nearby towns, headed by a band marched 
 to the front of the Warriner home. Jenny Lind "dressed in a 
 morning robe of heavy pink and white stripe took her seat 
 upon the balcony of the house, receiving graciously the 
 bouquets which the children threw her, and greeting with 
 smiles of delight the songs which they sang to her." 
 
 The Springfield Republican is the oldest newsijapcr now Ti.e 
 
 . . SprinRfield 
 
 published m the city. It had its beginning as a weekly paper Republican 
 in 1824 with 250 subscribers, and owed its existence to Samuel 
 Bowles. His son, grandson, and great grand nephew succeeded 
 him as editors. The daily edition was established in 1844. 
 
180 APPENDIX 
 
 Dictfonary Wcbster's Dictionary is a Connecticut Valley product. 
 The first edition, which appeared in 1828, was edited by Noah 
 Webster, who spent twenty years in its preparation while 
 living in Hartford, New Haven, and Amherst. This edition 
 consisted of 2,500 copies and was published in Hartford. At 
 Noah Webster's death in 1843, G. and C. Merriam, of Spring- 
 field, purchased the work, and the numerous editions, cul- 
 minating in "The New International," which have since 
 appeared, have been published by their successors, the G. 
 and C. Merriam Co. 
 
A FEW IMPORTANT INSTITUTIONS IN 
 SPRINGFIELD 
 
 The City Library opened the doors of its present building city 
 
 . Library 
 
 (the second in its history) in January, 1912, with a collection 
 of 170,000 books. The number of books is rapidly doubling, 
 and doubtless in the not distant future will reach the capacity 
 of the building, 500,000 volumes. The cost was $355,000 of 
 which $155,000 was given by citizens, the remainder by Andrew 
 Carnegie. The architect was Edward L. Tilton. The Hbrary 
 is governed by a corporation of which the Mayor, the President 
 of the Common Council, and the Superintendent of Schools 
 are members ex-officio. The city appropriates a sum annually 
 for its use and large endowments have been made by citizens. 
 It ranks very high among libraries in the country for its use- 
 fulness. It has three branch libraries — at Indian Orchard, at 
 Forest Park, and at Memorial Square, and has over 400 dis- 
 tributing stations in such places as schools, fire stations, in- 
 dustrial plants, etc. 
 
 The City Library Association was organized in 1857. 
 Previous to that the Young Men's Institute had purchased books 
 and lent them to their friends. These they presented to the 
 Association as the nucleus of the new library. In 1859 a room 
 was secured in the City Hall, and in 1861 a librarian was 
 appointed, Dr. William Rice, who held the position thirty-six 
 years. Under his administration the first building was erected 
 in 1871 at a cost of $100,000 contributed by citizens. In 1885 
 the library was made free — up to that time there was a fee of 
 $1.00 a year. 
 
182 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 The Art Museum contains a very unusual collection of 
 works of art including paintings, sculpture, arms and armor, 
 antique furniture, keramics, glass, cloisonne enamels, carved 
 jade, ivories and wood, bronzes, silver, gold lacquers, illumi- 
 nated missals, oriental rugs, laces, embroideries, textiles, etc., 
 the gift of George Walter Vincent Smith who has spent a life- 
 time in gathering the collection. In the same building is a 
 collection of sculpture, purchased from funds left by Horace 
 Smith of the firm Smith & Wesson. The building was completed 
 in 1895 and the architects were Renwick, Aspinwall and Ren- 
 wick and Walter T. Owen. The money was raised by private 
 subscription. 
 
 The Museum of Natural History, which began its existence 
 in the library rooms in 1859, entered its present building 
 October 16, 1899. Gardner, Pyne and Gardner, were the archi- 
 tects, and it represents a cost of $30,000. The collections, which 
 cover a wide range, were gifts, most of them from citizens. 
 The museum not only serves as a place for exhibit, but is 
 active in conducting clubs, classes, and lecture courses. It 
 also has a collection of books on natural science, contributed 
 and constantly added to by the alumnae of the Howard School. 
 It is called the Catharine L. Howard Library in memory of the 
 founder of the school. 
 
 The Central High School was completed in 1898. At that 
 time its seating capacity of 800 was sufficient to house the 
 entire high school. The architects were Hartwell and Rich- 
 ardson. The first high school was held at 43 to 47 School 
 Street, the second one was built on Elm Street on the site of 
 the court house in 1841, the third, in 1849, on the site of the 
 Administration building. A fourth one, west of the present 
 one, was erected in 1874. The enrollment in 1852 when 
 
APPF.NDIX 183 
 
 Springfield was made a city was 2,270. In 1920 it had about 
 25,000 inhabitants. 
 
 The High School of Commerce was organized in 1898 in High school 
 
 . .of Commerce 
 
 the Central High School with two instructors. In 1906 it was 
 transferred to the Technical High School, and in 1916 to the 
 present building with an enrollment that year of 1058 pupils. 
 The cost of the building was SI, 000, 000, and the architects 
 were Kirkham and Parlett. Its seating capacity is 1,400. 
 
 The Technical High School entered its present building H^g^"'''*' 
 on Elliot Street in 1906. The beginnings of the school were in ^°'*°°' 
 1898, with 18 pupils in a building known as the Mechanic Arts 
 School, on the site of the Hendee Manufacturing Co. 
 
 The Vocational School on Spring Street was completed in vocational 
 
 School 
 
 1921 with a capacity of 350 pupils. It has class and drawing 
 rooms, and the appliances for teaching such trades as machin- 
 ists, wood working, electricity, automobile repairing, sheet 
 metal working, printing, etc. 
 
 The American International College at 963 State Street, American 
 
 " International 
 
 founded in Lowell in 1885, began its life in Springfield in 1889 College 
 as the French Protestant College. In 1894 the name was 
 changed to the French American College, and in 1905 it took 
 the present name. Its students are chiefly young men and 
 women from other lands. Its teaching emphasizes citizenship 
 and service. 
 
 The International Young Men's Christian Association international 
 
 <^ Young Men 8 
 
 College was founded in 1885. The present site on the shore of Asaociltron 
 Massasoit Lake was secured in 1891. In addition to the 
 academic course, stress is laid on athletics. Graduates of the 
 college conduct Young Men's Christian Associations, and are 
 physical directors all over the world. 
 
 The Springfield Boys' Club building, corner Chestnut and Boy"*cfib 
 
184 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Ferry streets, was dedicated December 14, 1910. The work 
 of the club is chiefly social and educational in its character. 
 
 The Young Men's Christian Association was established 
 in Springfield in 1852, the third of its kind in the United States. 
 Its present building was occupied in 1916. 
 
 The Young Women's Christian Association was organized 
 in 1870. The present building was completed in 1910. 
 
 The United States Armory which, more than by any other 
 feature within her boundaries, makes Springfield known to the 
 outside world, was established by an act of Congress in April, 
 1794. It includes not only the enclosures on Armory hill but 
 the shops on Mill River, known as the " Watershops." There 
 is at all times a steady manufacture of firearms and during the 
 successive wars in which the United States has been engaged, 
 the shops have run day and night. The Arsenal has been 
 immortalized through Longfellow's poem "The Arsenal". It 
 was built in 1846 and is modeled after the East India house 
 in London. 
 
 Little River water system, comprising a watershed of 48 
 square miles of hills and valleys, with its farthest point about 
 30 miles from the city, furnishes the water supply for Spring- 
 field. Six different storage units furnish a capacity of almost 
 three billion gallons sufficient for a population of nearly 
 300,000 people. The system was installed in 1910. The Ludlow 
 reservoir supplied the water from 1875 to this date. Earlier 
 than this the supply was furnished through the enterprise of 
 private individuals, one of whom, Charles Stearns, the donor 
 of Stearns Park, laid eight miles of log pipes through various 
 streets. 
 
 Forest Park had its beginning in 1884 when a tract of 65 
 acres was presented to the city by O. H. Greenlcaf. Numerous 
 
APPENDIX 185 
 
 small gifts with 178 acres from E. H. Barney, 21 acres from 
 R. C. Born and 103 acres from Jas. B. Burbank together with 
 a few purchases have augmented the park until it now (1920) 
 contains 729 acres. In the park Porter Lake of about 40 acres 
 has been constructed, utilizing a bequest from Sherman D. 
 Porter. Springfield's park system also includes Van Horn 
 park of 83 acres, ten other parks of from one to seven acres 
 and 46 other plots of less than one acre each. Connected with 
 the park administration are three large playgrounds embracing 
 17 acres, the gift of Nathan D. Bill, 14 others (school grounds) 
 used as summer playgrounds, two swimming pools and six 
 social centers during the winter. 
 
 NOTED WORKS OF ART IN SPRINGFIELD 
 
 Linden Hall, 284 State Street, is a fine example of past pj^cT""^^' 
 colonial architecture. It was built in 1811 by Asher Benjamin, 
 a noted architect of the time, for Col. James Byers for whom 
 Byers Street was named. It was for a short time the residence 
 of Chester Harding, a portrait painter of national reputation 
 whose work is represented in this city by portraits on the walls 
 of the City Library. Linden Hall, named from the linden 
 trees near it, is often called the "Alexander place", from a 
 prominent Springfield family which has occupied it for many 
 years. 
 
 The Church of Unitv on State Street, opposite the library, hh. mch- 
 
 ' ' -^ ardson 
 
 is a fine example of the work of H. H. Richardson. Other }'J^parge 
 buildings in this city designed by him are the North Church, '^'^*°^' 
 and the Hami:)den County court house. The Church of the 
 Unity contains stained glass windows by Low, LaFarge, 
 Tiffany and others. 
 
 The municiiKil group is i)r()l)ably S])ringfield's most dis- K.-oup'"''*' 
 
186 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 tinctive feature. Leading architects competed for the design 
 and Pell and Corbett were chosen. It was completed in 1913 
 at a cost of nearly two millions of dollars. The auditorium 
 seats 4,000 people, and because of its remarkable acoustic 
 properties attracts the best musical talent in the country. 
 The administration building contains the chambers of the 
 city government and its various offices. The campanile is 
 300 feet high, and houses an electrically illuminated clock 
 which can be read two miles away, and a chime of twelve bells. 
 The bronze doors, commemorating historical events, were 
 modeled by Gail Sherman Corbett. 
 
 The pulpit at Christ Church and the rood screen at Church 
 of the Holy Family were carved by Kirchmayer, a famous 
 wood carver from Oberammergau. In Christ Church chapel 
 is a stained glass window designed by LaFarge. 
 
 The Puritan, a bronze statue on Merrick Park, was modeled 
 by St. Gaudens in memory of Deacon Samuel Chapin. one of 
 the early settlers of Springfield. 
 
 The McKinley monument on the north side of the municipal 
 building is the work of PhiHp Martiny. 
 
 Daniel Thc bronzc tablet bearing a portrait relief of Samuel 
 
 Chester o i <• t • 
 
 French Bowlcs, on the Republican building at the corner of Mam 
 
 Street and Harrison Avenue, is the work of Daniel Chester 
 
 French. 
 Pauiconoyer j^ Trinity Church is a mural painting "Beside the Still 
 
 Waters" by Paul Conoyer. 
 
 The mural painting "Light of Education" in the Central 
 
 High School was the work of Robert Reid. 
 
 Robert Reid 
 
INDEX 
 
 A 
 
 Adams, John 97 
 
 Administration Building 182 
 
 Agawam 9, 48, 52, 88, 89, 
 
 Agawam Meadows 15, 25 
 
 Agawam River. . .3, 22, 23, 91, 99, 121 
 Agawams.67, 72, 74, 75, 77, 79, 82, 176 
 
 Albany 53, 125 
 
 Alexander 61 
 
 Alexander Place 185 
 
 All Saints' Church 175 
 
 American Creed 172 
 
 American International College . . .183 
 
 Amherst 105, 110, 180 
 
 Amherst College 8 
 
 Anderson A 158 
 
 Anniversary Hymn 166 
 
 Apaches 86 
 
 Arctic Regions 9 
 
 Armenia 164 
 
 Armory 12, 13, 15, 18, 98, 109 
 
 110, 126, 127, 141, 143, 150, 174, 184 
 
 Armory Hill 13, 127, 176, 184 
 
 Arsenal 18, 128 
 
 Aft Museum 156, 179, 182 
 
 Ashconunsuck 91 
 
 Aslimun, George 14, 141, 178 
 
 Aston, Eugene 157 
 
 Aaton collection of Wood Engravings 
 
 157 
 
 "At Home in Italy" 133 
 
 Audubon John J 125 
 
 Avon Place 5, 91 
 
 B 
 
 Ball, Francis 30 
 
 Bancroft George 179 
 
 "Bamett, The" 123 
 
 Barney. E. H 185 
 
 Barrow, Sam 60 
 
 "Bav Path, The". . . .51, 144, 175, 178 
 
 Bav'Road 17, 91, 95, 110 
 
 Bear Hole 92, 120 
 
 Bedcrtha, Blanche 55 
 
 Bedortha, Reice 34 
 
 Beers, Captain 67, 68 
 
 Beers Mountain 68 
 
 Belgium 173, 174 
 
 Benton Park 11, 110, 177 
 
 Berkshire County . .106, 109, 112, 115 
 
 Berkshire Hills 32 
 
 "Beside the Still Waters" 186 
 
 Bianciardi, Elizabeth 133 
 
 Bible 22 
 
 Bill, Gurdon 159 
 
 Bill, Nathan D 185 
 
 Bircham's Bend 91 
 
 Bissell, Isaac 171 
 
 "Bittersweet" 179 
 
 "Black Swan" 148 
 
 Blanchard, Thomas 119 
 
 Blandford 7,8 
 
 Bliss, George 158 
 
 Bliss, Jedediah 88 
 
 Bliss Family 88 
 
 Block Brook 91 
 
 Bloody Brook 69 
 
 Boon, Thomas 163 
 
 Bom, R. C 185 
 
 Boston 3, 24, 26, 
 
 46, 79, 81, 95, 99, 124, 125, 153, 171, 175 
 
 Boston harbor 48 
 
 "Boston stone" 177 
 
 Bowles, Samuel 144, 179, 186 
 
 Brainerd, David 60 
 
 Brewer, Dr. Chauncey 108 
 
 Bridge St 175 
 
 Brightwood 16, 178 
 
 British army 98 
 
 British Province 135 
 
 Brookfield 65, 67, 74, 92, 101 
 
 Brown, John . . . 136, 138, 140, 142, 177 
 
 Brush Hill 11 
 
 Bunker Hill 95, 96 
 
 Burbank, las. B 185 
 
 Burgoync, General 98, 101, 178 
 
 Burt, Henry 42 
 
 Byers, Col. James 185 
 
 Byers St 185 
 
188 
 
 INDEX 
 
 C 
 
 Calkins, Adelaide A 162 
 
 Cambridge 94, 95, 177 
 
 Canada 92, 135, 164, 173 
 
 Card Factory Pond 5 
 
 Carnegie, Andrew 181 
 
 "Cataract, The" 148 
 
 Catholics 178 
 
 "Causeway" 176 
 
 Cave Hole 17 
 
 Cayuga 3 
 
 Central High School, 160, 182, 183, 186 
 
 Century Magazine 144 
 
 Chaffee, Mrs. C. C 178 
 
 Chapin, Samuel 
 
 34, 41, 42, 51, 52, 72, 75, 144, 186 
 
 Chapin Family 88 
 
 Charles, King 29, 115 
 
 Charlestown 95 
 
 Chestnut St. . 16, 25, 174, 178, 179, 183 
 
 Chicago Convention 141 
 
 Chicopce 
 
 3, 38, 53, 88, 90, 91, 109, 110, 114 
 
 Chicopee Bridge 15, 109 
 
 Chicopee Falls 91 
 
 Chicopee River 12, 91 
 
 China 13, 164 
 
 Christ Church 15, 186 
 
 Chubbuck, Thomas 157 
 
 Church, Capt. Benjaman 64, 80, 86 
 
 Citv Guards 139 
 
 City Hall 133 
 
 City Library 125, 157, 181, 185 
 
 Civil War 
 110, 128, 138, 139, 143, 144, 160, 177 
 
 Cleaves 157 
 
 Cobb, Judge David 106 
 
 Colony Militia 171 
 
 Columbus, Christopher 160 
 
 Concord 96 
 
 Congregational Library, Boston .... 49 
 7, 18, 21, 64, 85, 180 
 Connecticut 
 
 3, 22, 35, 47, 48, 55, 59, 63, 64, 71, 
 74, 79, 82, 89, 91, 92, 115, 121, 171 
 
 Connecticut Indians 74 
 
 Connecticut River 7, 9, 12, 25, 84, 176 
 
 Connecticut Valley 
 
 Conn. Valley Historical Society, 
 
 58, 180 
 Connecticut, Seal of 133 
 
 Conoyer, Paul 186 
 
 Constitution 112, 113, 143 
 
 Continental Army 94 
 
 Continental Congress 97 
 
 Cooley "Haystack Colonel" 112 
 
 Cooper, Thomas 
 
 32, 34, 42, 46, 51, 65, 66, 75, 76, 78, 176 
 
 Corbett, Gail Sherman 186 
 
 Cornell St 16 
 
 Court house 7, 94, 105, 107, 108 
 
 Court Square 
 
 10, 32, 44, 53, 57, 148, 175, 177 
 
 Court St 177 
 
 Crescent Hill 16, 57 
 
 Crowfoot Brook 91 
 
 Cuba 163 
 
 Cypress St 26, 38, 78, 94, 175, 176 
 
 D 
 
 Damon, Isaac 176, 177 
 
 Day, Joseph 178 
 
 Day, Capt. Luke. . . 106, 107, 109, 111 
 
 Day, Sarah 34 
 
 Day, Thomas 34 
 
 Dav House 119, 178 
 
 Deeriield 66, 68, 81, 92 
 
 Denton, Daniel 37, 38 
 
 Dickens, Charles 124 
 
 Dickinson 178 
 
 Dorchester, Anthony 35 
 
 Douglas, Frederick 144 
 
 Dunbar, Battle of 30 
 
 Dutch 48 
 
 Dwight, President Timothy 120 
 
 Dwight St 15, 146, 167 
 
 "Eagle, the" 149 
 
 East India House 184 
 
 East Longmeadow 7, 17, 88 
 
 Eastern States Exposition 174 
 
 Edwards, Mr 55 
 
 Edwards, Gen. Clarence R 174 
 
 "Edwards, Grandpa" 139 
 
 El Canev 163 
 
 Eliot, John 60. 79 
 
 Elliot St 174, 183 
 
 Elm St 25, 33, 123, 175 
 
 Elmer, Rufus 138 
 
 Elv 106 
 
 Enfield 87 
 
INDEX 
 
 189 
 
 England 22, 24, 
 
 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 52, 92, 173, 175, 176 
 
 English 3, 22, 
 
 67, 71, 84, 86, 87, 92, 99, 115, 126, 163 
 
 English money 32 
 
 Entry Dingle 91 
 
 Essex Institute 46 
 
 Falls fight 86 
 
 Farrar, Eliza 144 
 
 Federal Barracks 109 
 
 Federal St 177 
 
 Ferry Lane 38, 78, 94, 175, 176 
 
 Ferry St 107, 184 
 
 Firemen's muster 149 
 
 First Church 58, 149, 175, 176, 177, 179 
 
 Fitch Farm 17 
 
 Five Mile Pond 6, 110 
 
 Flagg's Hillock 17 
 
 Forest Park . .17, 82, 91, 140, 181, 184 
 
 Fort Pleasant Ave 57 
 
 Fort St 46, 175 
 
 Foster, Col .- 171 
 
 Fourth of July 139 
 
 Framingham 163 
 
 France 110, 173 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin 115 
 
 FrankHn St 136, 137, 178 
 
 French, Daniel Chester 186 
 
 French 164, 174 
 
 French American College 183 
 
 French peddler 93, 125 
 
 French Protestant College 183 
 
 Fuller, Bertha B 134. 135 
 
 Gage, Gen 135 
 
 Garden Brook 4, 176 
 
 Gardner, Clare 58 
 
 Gardner, Pyne & Gardner 182 
 
 General Court 46, 49, 57, 132 
 
 George the Third 99 
 
 Germans 149, 163, 164 
 
 Geronimo 86 
 
 Gerrish Park 140 
 
 Gilbert, John 83, 84, 85, 92 
 
 "God's Acre" 175 
 
 Goldthwaite, J. H 157 
 
 Goose Pond 6 
 
 Granby 140 
 
 Grant, Gen. U. S 142, 143 
 
 Gray's Avenue 178 
 
 Great Glacier 9, 10 
 
 Great River 25 
 
 Great Spirit 89 
 
 Greece 164 
 
 Green, Mason A 75 
 
 Green Mountains 12 
 
 Greenfield 7 
 
 Greenleaf, O. H 184 
 
 Greenwood St 178 
 
 H 
 
 Hadley 66. 71, 72, 74, 75, 81, 87 
 
 Haile, W. H 179 
 
 Hale, James W 93 
 
 "Hale Fund " 93 
 
 Hall of Records 7, 18 
 
 Hampden, John 115 
 
 Hampden 88 
 
 Hampden County 7, 177 
 
 Hampden County Children's Aid 
 
 Society 162 
 
 Hampden County Court House. . . 185 
 
 Hampden House 148 
 
 Hampden Road 90 
 
 Hampshire County 100, 112, 115 
 
 Harding, Chester 185 
 
 Harrison Ave 186 
 
 Hartford H, 47, 
 
 48, 51, 60, 72, 74, 82, 93, 124, 125, 180 
 
 Hartley, J. S 175 
 
 Hartwell & Richardson 182 
 
 Hatfield 66 
 
 Hayes, Col. Wm. C 173 
 
 "Havstack Colonel, The" 112 
 
 Hebrews 160, 163 
 
 Hendee Mfg. Co 183 
 
 Hesse Cassel 99 
 
 Hessians 99, 178 
 
 High School 5, 162, 182 
 
 " 2d 182 
 
 " 3d 182 
 
 " 4th 182 
 
 High School of Commerce 185 
 
 High School Portfolio 154 
 
 High St 178 
 
 Higher Brook 91 
 
 "Hillcrs" 127 
 
 Hinsdale. .■ 83 
 
 Hitchcock, Nathaniel 88 
 
190 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Hogpen Dingle 90 
 
 Holland, Josiah Gilbert 51, 144, 175, 178 
 
 Holy Family, Church of the 186 
 
 Holyoke, Elizur 51, 85 
 
 Holvoke, Capt. Samuel. 51, 84, 86, 125 
 
 Holyoke 7, 85, 88 
 
 Holyoke City Hall 12, 53 
 
 Holyoke, Mt 9, 18 
 
 Homestead, The 153 
 
 Hope, Mt 64 
 
 Horse Guards 139 
 
 Hospital Drive 173 
 
 Howard 158 
 
 Howard, Bezaleel "Parson" 120 
 
 Howard, Catherine L 182 
 
 Howard School 182 
 
 Howard St 136, 179 
 
 Hudson River 46, 79, 86 
 
 Hudson Valley 84 
 
 Hungary 164 
 
 I 
 
 Indian Orchard .... 11, 79, 91, 98, 181 
 Indians. .3, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 32, 
 46, 47, 48, 67, 75, 76, 78, 79, 82, 83, 84, 
 85, 86, 87, 89, 91, 92, 131, 150, 175, 
 
 177, 178 
 International Y.M.C.A. College. . .183 
 
 Irish 163, 164 
 
 Irving, Washington 94 
 
 Island Pond 6 
 
 Italian 163 
 
 Italy 133, 164, 173 
 
 "Italy, At Home in" 133 
 
 J 
 Judd, Sylvester 53 
 
 K 
 
 Kansas 138 
 
 "Kathrina" 178 
 
 Keep, John 82 
 
 Kirchmayer 186 
 
 Kirkham & Parlett 183 
 
 Knights of Columbus Drive 173 
 
 Knights Templar 139 
 
 KoUabaugamitt 76 
 
 Kossuth, Louis 125 
 
 L 
 Labrador 10 
 
 LaFarge 185, 186 
 
 Lancton, George 55 
 
 Lathrop, Captain 67, 68 
 
 Lee, General 94 
 
 Leonard, Clara T 161, 162 
 
 Leonards 64 
 
 "Letters to Young People" 144 
 
 Leverett, Governor John 81 
 
 Lexington 95, 171 
 
 "Liberty Bond Drive" 173 
 
 "Library Drive" 173 
 
 Light Infantry 139 
 
 "Light of Education" 186 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham 
 
 140, 141, 142, 143, 172 
 Lincoln, Gen. . . 108, 109, 110, 111, 118 
 
 Lind, Jennv 179 
 
 Linden Hall 185 
 
 "Lion, The" 148 
 
 Little River Water System 184 
 
 Locust St 11 
 
 "Log Path, The" 91 
 
 Long Dingle 91 
 
 Long Hill, 16, 38, 52, 60, 72, 74, 77, 160 
 
 Long Hill Fort 73, 74 
 
 Long Hill St 22, 176 
 
 Long Island 53 
 
 Longfellow, Henry W 31, 34, 184 
 
 Longmeadow 
 
 3, 13. 15, 23, 38, 82, 88, 91, 109, 121 
 
 Longmeadow Gate 88 
 
 "Looking Glass, The" for 1787. ... 104 
 
 Loon Pond 6 
 
 Low, Will H 185 
 
 Ludlow 88, 89, 91, 106 
 
 Ludlow Reserv^oir 184 
 
 Lyman St 178 
 
 M 
 
 MacDonald, Henry 163 
 
 McKinlcy monument 186 
 
 Magazine St 109 
 
 Miiin vSt 4, 25, 37, 46, 
 
 48, 65, 94, 105, 107, 108, 109, 136, 138, 
 143, 148, 153, 162, 175, 176, 178, 186 
 
 Maine 86 
 
 Mallamaug 76 
 
 Mallefield, John 92, 93 
 
 Manchonis Mountains 89 
 
 Mai)le Ave 13 
 
 Maple St 16, 25, 78 
 
INDEX 
 
 191 
 
 Market St 147, 177 
 
 Martiny, Philip 186 
 
 "Mary Bump" 28 
 
 Maryland 135 
 
 Mason, Captain John 47 
 
 Mason, Primus P 161 
 
 Masonic 177 
 
 Massachusetts 3, 32, 45, 48, 
 
 54, 63, 64, 87, 88, 103, 105, 132, 138, 162 
 
 Massachusetts Bay 59 
 
 Alassacksick 3, 23, 24 
 
 Massasoit 59, 61, 63, 86 
 
 Massasoit Lake 183 
 
 Matthew, Father Theobold 126 
 
 Matthews, John 33 
 
 Matthews, Pentecost 78 
 
 Mattoon, General 105 
 
 Mattoon St 179 
 
 Mechanics Arts School 183 
 
 Meetinghouse Lane (Elm St.) 176 
 
 Memorial Square 181 
 
 Menedgonuk 3, 91 
 
 Mercier, Cardinal 174 
 
 "Meritorious Price of Our Redemption, 
 
 The" 48 
 
 Merriam, Ellen B 162 
 
 Merriam, G. & C 180 
 
 Merrick 15 
 
 Merrick Park 144, 186 
 
 Metacomet 61, 63 
 
 Middletown . . •. 11 
 
 Mill River. . .4, 10, 23, 25, 26, 38, 45, 
 48, 51, 54, 55, 77, 78, 89, 90, 146, 184 
 
 Mill St 176, 178 
 
 Miller, Capt 89 
 
 Miller, Constable Thomas 75, 76,77, 176 
 
 Miller's River 84 
 
 Missouri Compromise 178 
 
 Mitrincague 3, 91 
 
 Mohegan Indians 59, 63 
 
 Monson 7 
 
 Morgan, Miles 27, 34, 37, 175 
 
 Morris, Henry 158, 165 
 
 Morris, Oliver B 158, 164 
 
 Moseley, Capt 79 
 
 Mount Vernon 112 
 
 Moxon, Rev. George 50, ()2 
 
 Mulberry St 140, 142, 148, 17S 
 
 Municipal Group 185 
 
 Museum of Natural History 182 
 
 Museum of N. E. Antiquities 17S 
 
 Muttaump 68 
 
 N 
 
 Narragansetts 59 
 
 Nashaways 68 
 
 National Army 138 
 
 Nayasset 3, 23, 24 
 
 Necessity Hill 17 
 
 Neck, The 96 
 
 New England 
 
 3, 26, 32, 35, 82, 86, 92, 120, 174 
 
 New Hampshire 3, 83, 86, 115 
 
 New Haven 180 
 
 "New International Dictionary The" 
 
 180 
 
 N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R 175 
 
 "Niagara, The" 148 
 
 Nichols, C. A. Co 159 
 
 Nipmucks 60, 76 
 
 Nonotuck, Mount 120 
 
 Nonotucks 67, 68 
 
 North America 10 
 
 North Branch 6 
 
 North Church 185 
 
 Northampton 
 
 60, 66, 67, 73, 81, 87, 109, 112, 115 
 Northfield 66, 81, 92 
 
 O 
 
 Oak Grove Cemetery 12, 17 
 
 Oakland St 175 
 
 Oberammcrgau 186 
 
 "Ocean," 149 
 
 One-Eyed-John 67, 68 
 
 Osgood, Rev. Samuel 29, 136 
 
 Owen, Walter T 182 
 
 Oxford University 52 
 
 P 
 
 Packard, Arthur 163 
 
 Palmer, J 171 
 
 Paris 179 
 
 Parks, Gen 109 
 
 Parsons, Eli 106, 109, 110 
 
 Parsons, Hugh 54, 55, 57 
 
 Parsons Tavern 177 
 
 Pasc(j Road 11 
 
 T'aucatuck 9, 91, 100 
 
 Paucatuck Brook 92 
 
 Peabody, Rev. Wm. B. 3S, 125 
 
 Peabody Cemetery 13, 17."), 179 
 
192 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Pecowsic 3, 82 
 
 Pelham 106, 109, 111, 177 
 
 Pell and Corbett 185 
 
 Pequot Tribe 59 
 
 Pequot War 47, 63, 74, 82 
 
 Philadelphia 97 
 
 Philip, King 
 
 61, 63, 66, 68, 72, 74, 77, 79, 80, 85, 86 
 87, 92, 176 
 
 Phips' Farm 171 
 
 Pilgrims 60 
 
 Pine St ..93, 175 
 
 Pleasant St 10, 44 
 
 Plymouth 59,63, 79 
 
 Plymouth Colony 60, 64 
 
 Plymouth Rock 60 
 
 Pocumtucks 68 
 
 "Poets and Poetry of Springfield", 111 
 
 Poland 164 
 
 Poor Brook , 91 
 
 Porter, Sherman D 185 
 
 Porter Lake 185 
 
 Praying Indians 60 
 
 Pringridays, Edmund 78 
 
 Probate Court 93 
 
 Prophet's Chamber 136 
 
 Provin Mountain 9 
 
 "Puritan, The" 186 
 
 Putts Bridge 150 
 
 Pynchon, John 21, 22, 45, 51, 52, 
 
 53, 54, 57, 58, 67, 71, 72, 74, 75, 79, 81, 
 82, 84, 92, 96, 125, 132, 135, 175 
 Pynchon, Mary 
 
 21, 22, 45, 51, 84, 125, 144 
 Pynchon, William 
 
 21, 23, 24, 28, 30, 31, 34, 45, 46, 47, 48, 
 49, 50, 52, 54, 61, 76, 96, 145, 160, 175 
 
 R 
 
 Ramapogue 91 
 
 Ramapogue Hist. Soc 178 
 
 Red Cross Drive 173 
 
 Reid, Robert 186 
 
 Reippumsick 76 
 
 Renwick, Aspinwall & Renwick . . . 182 
 
 Republican Convention 178 
 
 Revolution 
 
 89, 93, 96, 98, 103, 105, 106, 107, 
 112, 115, 116, 139, 140, 143, 146, 177 
 
 Rhode Island 59, 64 
 
 Rhode Islanders 96 
 
 Rice, Caleb 133 
 
 Rice, Elizabeth 133 
 
 Rice, Wm 18 
 
 Richardson, H. H 185 
 
 Riedesel, General 98, 99 
 
 Riley, John 34, 88 
 
 Round Hill 4, 17, 23, 25, 146, 163 
 
 Rowlandson, Mrs. Mary 83 
 
 Roxbury 21, 96 
 
 Russia 179 
 
 Saco River 61 
 
 Sagamore Sam 67, 68 
 
 Sagamores 60 
 
 St. Gaudens, Augustus. . .144, 179, 186 
 
 St. James Ave 90 
 
 St. James Ave. Bridge 4 
 
 St. Michael's Cathedral 149 
 
 St. Vincent de Paul, Society of . . . . 162 
 
 St. Vincent's Home 176 
 
 Salem 46 
 
 Sanderson, Juduthan 96 
 
 Sanford St 105 
 
 Santiago 163 
 
 Saratoga 98 
 
 Schonunganuck 91, 120 
 
 School St 127, 140, 178 
 
 Schurz, Carl 144 
 
 Science Museum 182 
 
 Scituate 61 
 
 Scot, Dred 178 
 
 Second Regiment 162 
 
 Seth 100 
 
 Shays' Rebellion 103, 107, 108, 
 
 109, 110, 111, 112, 177, 178 
 Shepard, Gen. Wm.. 107, 108, 109, 110 
 
 Shiawassee 3 
 
 Sikes, Richard 42 
 
 "Silver Stream" 91 
 
 Simsljurv 82 
 
 vSixteen Acres 6, 90, 110 
 
 vSixteen Acres Mill Pond 6 
 
 Skipmaug 91 
 
 Skipmuck 91 
 
 Skunk's Miserv 90 
 
 Smith, David jr 106 
 
 Smith, George W. V 179, 182 
 
 Smith, Henry 42. 50, 175 
 
 Smith, Horace 160, 182 
 
 Smith &- Wesson 182 
 
INDEX 
 
 193 
 
 Smith Farm 17 
 
 Sokonokis 61 
 
 Soldiers' Monument 159 
 
 Somers 109 
 
 South Deerfield 11 
 
 South Main St 11, 176 
 
 Span-shWar 162 
 
 Spring St 4, 127, 183 
 
 Springfield Bovs' Club 183 
 
 Spfld. Fire & Marine Ins. Co 150 
 
 Springfield Lake 11 
 
 "Springfield Musket" 127 
 
 Springfield RepubUcan . . . 178, 179, 186 
 
 Springfield Rifle 128 
 
 Spruceland Ave 176 
 
 Squakheags 68 
 
 Squando 61 
 
 Squaw Tree 90 
 
 Squaw Tree Dingle 91 
 
 State Arsenal 162 
 
 State St 5, 78, 
 
 91, 95, 110, 131, 146, 147, 177, 183, 185 
 
 Stearns, Charles 184 
 
 Stearns Park 184 
 
 Stebbins, Goodv 57 
 
 Stewart, John. ' 30, 31, 34, 43, 114 
 
 "Street" 127 
 
 "Streeters" 127 
 
 Suffield 11, 87, 121 
 
 Sugarloaf, Mt 11, 68 
 
 Sumner, Charles 138 
 
 Sumner, Fort 141 
 
 Sunderland 11 
 
 Swamp Fight 86 
 
 Swan Pond 6 
 
 Sweden 1 64 
 
 Swink, Peter 34, 161 
 
 Tatham (Tattum) 9, 91 
 
 Taylor, Jonathan 57 
 
 Taunton 106 
 
 Technieal High School 174, 183 
 
 Thompson's Dingle 91 
 
 Three Mile Brook 75 
 
 Ticonderoga 98, 100 
 
 Tiffany Co 185 
 
 "Tiger, The" 148 
 
 Tilton, Edw. 1 181 
 
 Titan's Piazza 9 
 
 Titan's Pier 9 
 
 Toll Bridge 177 
 
 Tom, Little 9 
 
 Tom, Mt 9, 18, 22, 58, 121 
 
 Toto 60. 74, 79 
 
 Town Brook 4, 176 
 
 Training Day 140 
 
 Treat, Major Robert 68, 79 
 
 Triangle Drive 173 
 
 Trinity Church 186 
 
 Trumbull, Judah 65 
 
 Turner, Capt 84, 85 
 
 Turner's Falls 84 
 
 Two Mile Pond 6 
 
 U 
 
 Uncas 63 
 
 "Underground Railroad" 135, 178 
 
 Union, Springfield 140, 141 
 
 Union St 13, 126, 142, 148 
 
 United States Army 4 
 
 United States Arsenal 133, 184 
 
 Unitv, Church of the 185 
 
 Usc}uaiok 23, 24, 89 
 
 Y 
 
 Van Horn Park 185 
 
 Venturer's Pond 6 
 
 Vermont .■ ■ ■ 3, 115 
 
 Vermont, Seal of 133 
 
 Victory Drive 173 
 
 Village Blacksmith 31 
 
 Vincentian Fathers 73 
 
 Virginia 138, 140 
 
 Vocational School 183 
 
 W 
 
 Wachogue 90 
 
 Wachuet 90 
 
 Wachuet, Great 90 
 
 Wachuet, Little 90 
 
 Wait, Joseph 177 
 
 Wales 34 
 
 Wallamanumps 3 
 
 Walnut vSt 13, 127 
 
 Wampanoags 5i), 63, SO 
 
 Wamsutta 61 
 
 War Chest Drive 173 
 
 Ware, Edith M 133 
 
 Warrincr, Jeremy 179 
 
194 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Washington, George 
 
 94, 95, 98 112, 126, 143 
 Watershops 
 
 4, 90, 127. 143, 150, 174, 184 
 
 Watershops Pond 4 
 
 Webster, Daniel 140, 143, 17S 
 
 Webster, Noah 180 
 
 Webster's Dictionary 157, 180 
 
 Wequogan *)0 
 
 Wesson, Daniel B 160, 161 
 
 Wesson Hospital 5, 91 
 
 West Indies 79 
 
 West Springfield 9, 35, 53, 58, 
 
 75. 79, 88, 101, 106, 115, 133. 174, 178 
 West Springfield Common 
 
 91, 101, 109, 178 
 Westfield 
 
 3, 9, 24, 67, 87, 88, 92, 99, 108 
 Whistler, James, (Major) .... 125, 179 
 
 Whistler, Jas. McNeil 179 
 
 White Mountains 11, 12 
 
 Whitnev, Dr 109 
 
 Wigwam Hill 89 
 
 Wilbraham 88, 89, 109 
 
 Wilbraham Hill 72 
 
 Wilbraham Mountains 4 
 
 Will)raham Road 6 
 
 Williams, Roger 59 
 
 Willard, Justice 124 
 
 Willow St 126 
 
 Winchester Square 6, 12 
 
 Windsor 47, 48, 75 
 
 Windsor Indian 78 
 
 Winter Hill 96 
 
 Worcester 115, 123 
 
 Worcester County 60, 106, 112 
 
 World War Roll of Honor 174 
 
 World's End 90 
 
 Woronoco 176 
 
 Worthington, Colonel John. . . .97, 120 
 
 Worthington St 4, 176 
 
 Worthy 101 
 
 Y 
 
 Yale College 120 
 
 Yankee Division 174 
 
 York St 4, 26, 176 
 
 Y. M. C. A 183, 184 
 
 Young Men's Institute 181 
 
 Y. W. C. A .184 
 
A\i 
 
 L 
 
 A^a^