LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 GujujriQy "f 0. 
 
 Shelf .v.il.&.H 7 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
THE 
 
 Handbook of Amherst, 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 PREPARED AND PUBLISHED 
 
 BY / 
 
 FREDERICK H. HITCHCOCK. 
 
 n, 
 REVISED EDITION. 
 
 Sfbrntu illustrations 
 
 ^6 
 
 AMHERST, MASSACHUSETTS, 
 EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY-FOUR. 
 
 -Z 
 
THE ILLUSTRATIONS IN THIS BOOK WERE M'.DE BY 
 
 THE BOSTON ENGRAVING COMPANY, 
 
 ■ 227 TREMONT STREET. 
 
 
 Copyright 1891, 1894, by 
 FREDERICK H. HITCHCOCK. 
 
 Prinled and bound at the Appleton Press. 
 
iNTRODUCTION. 
 
 D>«^C 
 
 The Handbook of Amherst has been prepared in the hope of 
 affording its readers a comprehensive view of one of the most 
 attractive Httle towns of Western Massachusetts ; and it is beheved 
 to be the first attempt at combining in one vokime the matters of 
 permanent interest to residents, strangers, and college students alike. 
 
 While the information, covering this broad field, is greatly con- 
 densed in order to produce a book of convenient size, no effort has 
 been spared to make it accurate, as well as complete in every 
 detail. 
 
 Other than that of being a " handbook," the volume has no pre- 
 tensions. \Vith it as a guide, the visitor to Amherst can see every- 
 thing of any importance in the town and the surrounding country ; 
 and to both residents and students it should prove a valuable 
 companion. 
 
 Without the assistance of many of the friends of the town and its 
 colleges, the publication of the book in its present form would not 
 have been possible. The names of all those who have aided in 
 gathering material, and in correcting the manuscript and proofs, can- 
 not be mentioned, but among them were : Dr. \\'illiam S. Tyler, 
 President M. E. Gates, President H. H. Ooodell, Dr. Edward 
 Hitchcock, ^Villiam A. Dickinson, Es(i., Professor Charles Wellington, 
 Professor W. P. Brooks. Charles O. Parmenter. and Rev. D. W. 
 
iv IXTRODUCTIOX. 
 
 Marsh. To these and many others, whose suggestions have been 
 most valuable, cordial acknowledgments of their kindnesses are due. 
 The photographs, from which the large majority of the illustrations 
 were made, were the work of Mr. J. L. Lovell, of Amherst. .\ few 
 were furnished by Mr. H. N. Potter, of the class of 1891 in .Am- 
 herst College, and by the Notman Photographic Company of Boston. 
 A number of the illustrations of scenes outside of Amherst, that 
 otherwise would not have been presented here, are loaned by Wade, 
 Warner & Co., of Northampton, from " Picturesque Hampshire." .\ 
 picture from the "92 Olio" is also used. 
 
 Amherst, Massachisf.tts, 
 June, eighteen liiindrcd and ninety-one. 
 
 There have been so man\- changes at Amherst and the two Col- 
 leges since the first edition of The H.\ndbook. of Amherst was 
 published that it has been found necessary to make many additions 
 and corrections to the letter-press in order to retain the original 
 value of the book. With the new matter in the text and the new 
 rover it is hoped that the Handbook will still be popular with the 
 increasing number of peojile who admire Amherst and its vicinit)-. 
 
 Amherst, Massachusetts, 
 June, eighteen hundred and ninety-four. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 c«j>«>4(>o 
 
 PAGE 
 
 AMHERST OF THE PAST i 
 
 The Hartford Revolt — Settlement of Hadley— A Glimpse at 
 Early Amherst — A Town at last — Wars and Rumors of Wars. 
 
 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY i6 
 
 The Beauty of an August Day — Characteristic Flowers and Birds 
 
 — Literature of the Valley — Lrs Geology — A Few Historical 
 Glimpsf:s. 
 
 A FEW DELIGHTFUL DRIVES 33 
 
 Views from Holyoke — Charming Hadley — The " Meadow City" — 
 Blood-Stained Deerfield — Other Attractive Places. 
 
 AMHERST OF THE PRESENT 48 
 
 Its Situation — Material Condition — Glimpses along the Streets 
 OF THE Village — North Amherst — The "City" — East Street — 
 South Amherst. 
 
 AMHERST COLLEGE 87 
 
 A Glance at its History — The College of the Present — The 
 Summer School of Languages — A Tour of the College Buildings 
 
 — The Greek Letter Fraternities — Their Houses. 
 
 THE AGRICULTURAL COLLFCiE 161 
 
 Historical Notes — Present Conditions — The Experiment Stations 
 
 — A Glance at the Buildings. 
 
 NOTEWORTHY BUSINESS FIRMS 189 
 
y- ^lll AMHERST OF THE 
 PAST. 
 
 :\ THE HARTFORD REVOLT— SETTLEMENT OF HADLEY 
 ,^/^^ j' —A GLIMPSE AT EARLY AMHERST— A TOWN AT 
 LAST— WARS AND RUMORS OF WARS. 
 
 AMHERST was settled from the west. It lies among 
 the lower foot-hills of the Green Mountains, east 
 of old Hadley, of which it long formed a part. It 
 took one hmidred years for the tide of English immigra- 
 tion to get less than one hundred miles inland from the 
 shores of Massachusetts Bay to Amherst. The movement, 
 like that of the Pilgrims through Holland to Plymouth 
 Rock, was roundabout, — first southeastward, into the 
 State of Connecticut ; thence northward, along the river 
 to Hadley ; and finally eastward, involving the entrance 
 to Amherst from the west. 
 
 The original settlers, coming mainly from Hadley and 
 from Hatfield, then a part of Hadley, were nearly all the 
 descendants of the earliest Hadley settlers. Their ancestors, with few 
 exceptions, had come from England to Massachusetts Bay between 1631 
 and 1635, and finding near the shore less land and less freedom than 
 they wished, sent explorers, in 1633, by land and water to the Con- 
 necticut River. In 1635 and 1636 they moved through the wilderness 
 to the fertile valley, settling at W'ethersfield and Hartford. There they 
 remained for almost a generation, until religious disputes in 1659 and 
 1660 led a part of the body to move to Hadley. 
 
2 rilE IIAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 It is interesting to look back upon the principles which caused the 
 division of the Connecticut settlements. The differences at Hartford 
 occasioning the up-river movement sprang largely from divergent theo- 
 ries of government. The friends of Rev. John Hooker, known in England 
 as the light of the western churches, sought to obtain a larger personal 
 liberty denied them at Hartford. The first lecture of this good man at 
 Hartford sounded a note that should never be forgotten in the history 
 of liberty in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and it foreshadowed in a 
 wonderful manner the truths which lay at the basis of the Federal 
 government founded more than a century later. 
 
 On a Thursday, the ist of May, 1638, his text was, "Take you wise 
 men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make 
 them rulers over you " (Deut. i. 13). He laid down " Doctrine i. That 
 the choice of the public magistrates belongs unto the people by God's 
 own allowance. 2. The privilege of election which belongs to the 
 people, therefore, must be exercised not according to their humors, but 
 according to the blessed will and law of (rod. 3. They who have power 
 to appoint officers and magistrates, it is their power also to set bounds 
 and limitations of the power and place to which they call them." And 
 he gave as reasons: " i. Because the foundation of authority is laid 
 firstly in the free consent of the people. 2. Because, by a free choice, 
 the hearts of the people will be more inclined to the laws of the persons, 
 and more ready to yield." 
 
 On such broad principles were the early inhabitants of the Connecticut 
 Valley nurtured, and such principles were especially cherished by the 
 parents and grandparents of the first settlers of Amherst. 
 
 Sixty-eight years intervened between the occupation of Hadley in 
 1659 and the settlement of Amherst, although the lands of the latter 
 place were more elevated, lay but four miles away, and were within the 
 boundaries of the town. 
 
 The history of Hadley's own " Middle Street " makes this fact not at 
 all surprising. It was not occupied for fifty-three years after the " West 
 Street," and in 1720 it had only twenty families. The lots were first 
 laid out by vote of the town in 1684. In 1687 most of them were given 
 to inhabitants of the town on condition that they build within three 
 years. An Indian war breaking out the following year, no one dared 
 live outside of the fortifications ; and the grants had to be renewed in 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 3 
 
 1690 and 1692, only to be further delayed in their settlement by the 
 French and Indian War until 17 13. 
 
 In addition to the motive of personal safety, the wish to be near the 
 common meeting-house, and to perpetuate the home and village life of 
 England, did much to influence the people to move, when they did 
 move, in large rather than in small bodies. The flow of population 
 from England was checked about that time, thus retarding the growth 
 of the colonies away from the seacoast. 
 
 It is very clear that the Hadley settlers did not realize the value of 
 the land lying at a distance from the river. They complained in 1673 
 that most of their woodland was a '• barren pine-plain, capable of very 
 little improvement," and accordingly their boundaries were widened by 
 the General Court so as to " run five mfles up the river and five miles 
 down the river and six miles from their meeting-house eastward." This 
 grant gave them all the land now included in the town of Amherst, but 
 ten years after they begged for more, saying that " the inhabitants are 
 shut up on the east and north by a desolate and barren desert," and 
 '•' the young people are straightened for want of enlargement and remove 
 to remote places " rather than live in Amherst. This petition brought 
 them in May, 1683, an addition four miles square between Hadley and 
 Springfield, extending eastward from the Connecticut River. It proved 
 useless to them during the Indian wars, and was not even surveyed 
 until 1 7 15. 
 
 The following vote, passed by the town of Hadley on the 4th of 
 March, 1 700, may still be deciphered in the old record-book, and it 
 shaped for all time the positions of the main streets and the lots of 
 Amherst, then known as East Hadley : — 
 
 " Voted by the town, that three miles and one-quarter eastward from the meeting- 
 house, and so from the north side of Mount Holyoke unto Mill River, shall lye as 
 common lands forever, supposing that the line will take in the new swamp. 
 
 " Voted, that the rest of the commons, eastward, shall be laid out in three divisions, 
 that is to say, between the road leading to Brookfield. and the Mill River, notwith- 
 standing there is liberty for the cutting of wood and timber so long as it lieth 
 unfenced ; there is likewise to be left between every division forty rods for highways, 
 and what will be necessary to be left for highways eastward and West through every 
 division, is to be left to the discretion of the measurers ; and every one to have a 
 proportion in the third division, and every householder to have a £^0 allotment and 
 all others who are now the proper inhabitants of Hadley, 16 years old and upward, 
 to have a ^^25 allotment in said commons." 
 
4 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 Rendered into language that is more intelligible at the present day, 
 this vote meant to reserve forever as common property the tract of land 
 lying between Mount Holyoke on the south, and Mill River on the 
 north, and extending from the " West Street " of Hadley eastward to a 
 north and south line three and a cjuarter miles from the meeting-house, 
 then standing in the midtlle of the street. The land east of this " Inner 
 Commons," the present Amherst, was to be divided into three sections 
 separated by highways running north and south, which are now repre- 
 sented by Pleasant and P^ast streets, and these to be intersected by 
 cross-streets, running east and west. 
 
 Things moved slowly in those days, and it was three years later — 
 May, 1703 — when the town measurers announced that the instructions 
 of the vote had been carried out. Portions of East Hadley were allotted 
 to individuals, whether they became settlers or remained in the old 
 street, and the same names occur in the record of this division of 
 land as may be found in the later division of South Hadley. The allot- 
 ments were not made so much for immediate settlement as to allow 
 the separate ownership of wood, pasture, and swamp lands, and most 
 of those who were given lots never intended to reside upon them. So 
 it was not until 1727 or 172S that the new territory began to be occu- 
 pied, although tradition relates that a hardy woodsman named Foote 
 attemjited unsuccessfully to live by fishing and trapping near what is 
 known as " Ivist Street." For years that portion of the town lying just 
 north of the Second Congregational meeting-house had the name of 
 " Foote's Folly Swamp." 
 
 The three divisions of East Hadley are ])lainly indicated to-day by 
 the two north and south roads, of whi( h the village common and the 
 East Street common are parts. Both of these highways, originally forty 
 rods wide, have been narrowed from time to time as the roadways 
 became improved, and there was less need of making detours to avoid 
 the hummocks and treacherous mud-holes whidi first rendered trav- 
 elling sinuous. Recent measurements made for The Handbook of 
 Amherst locate this west highway as lying between the stone carriage 
 block in front of the Amherst House on Amity Street and the residence 
 of H. B. I'xlwartls on Lessey Street. The present position of Amitv 
 Street is nearly that of the middle one of the three cross-highways laid 
 out in the same widlli. lu 1754, Iladlcy reduced tlie west street to 
 twenty rods' width, and the east street to twelve, and a large \y.\\\. of the 
 
THE HAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 5 
 
 business of the precinct meetings for fifteen years — from 1767 to 17S2 
 — was to discontinue parts of these broad highways. 
 
 The first of the three divisions was bounded by the fine, '• three miles 
 and one-quarter from the Meeting-house," at Hadley and the west 
 street, now Pleasant Street ; the second division lay between the west 
 and east streets, and the third extended a mile from the east street to 
 the Pelham hills. The first two were two hundred and forty rods wide, 
 and all stretched from the Bay road on the south to the Mill River on 
 the north. Ninety-seven persons received lots in either the first or the 
 second divisions, and all were given sections in the third for pasture 
 land. 
 
 The first authentic record that the grants of land in East Hadley had 
 been occupied is in the vote of Hadley, January 5, 1730, to lay out an 
 acre of land for a cemetery for the " east inhabitants," who are known to 
 hav^e numbered at that time eighteen families. The names of these 
 early settlers are John Ingram, Sr., John Ingram, Jr., Ebenezer Kellogg, 
 John Cowls, Jonathan Cowls, Samuel Boltwood, Samuel Hawley, Na- 
 thaniel Church, John Wells, Aaron Smith, Nathaniel Smith, Richard 
 Chauncey, Stephen Smith, John Nash, Jr., Joseph Wells, Ebenezer 
 Scovil, Ebenezer Ingram, Ebenezer Dickinson. Twelve of these men 
 came from Hadley, and the others from Hatfield. 
 
 The first step toward the separation of the two settlements was taken 
 in 1733, when Hadley voted that the "east inhabitants have a part of 
 their taxes abated upon their hiring a minister of their own," previous to 
 this every one being obliged to make the journey to the meeting-house 
 at old Hadley for Sabbath worship. The parishes were finally divided 
 by an act of the General Court, December 31, 1734, making East Had- 
 lev the " Third Precinct " of Hadley on the condition of its settling a 
 " learned orthodox minister," and erecting a meeting-house. The 
 decree of the General Court bounded the new precinct, it " Being of 
 the contents of two miles and three-quarters in breadth, and seven 
 miles in length, bounded Westerly on a tract of land reserved by the 
 town of Hadley, to lye as common forever. Southerly on Boston road, 
 Easterly on Equivalent lands, and Northerly on the town of Sunderland." 
 
 While the church affairs of the precinct thus became distinct from 
 those of the parent village, town business was still transacted in the 
 original settlement, and the town officers were almost entirely from that 
 place. 
 
6 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 The first minister of the Third Precinct, the Rev. David Parsons, who 
 was born at Maiden, began his labors in November, 1735, settling per- 
 manently four years later, when he was given money and land for 
 building a liouse, and was promised ^100 salary, with an increase in 
 proportion to the growth of the population. The meeting-house begun 
 in 1738 was located upon the site of the present college Observatory, 
 and, although not completed until 1753, was occupied some time prior 
 to 1742. The history of this First Congregational Church is traced at 
 some length in another portion of this book. It suffices to say here 
 that its development and growth were parallel with the development and 
 growth of the town, the paths diverging only when later religious differ- 
 ences resulted in the establishment of the Second Parish, and the town, 
 as a political body, discontinued its support of public worship. 
 
 In 1739 Oliver Partridge resurveyed the town of Hadley, determining 
 what still remains the eastern boundary of Amherst. He followed the 
 provisions of the grant to Hadley in 1673, finding the point exactly six 
 miles east of the old meeting-house, and running by compass a north 
 and south line through it. The first surveyors had done their work 
 without a compass, but they were in reality more accurate than Partridge, 
 for the magnetic variation changed the line so that the lots in the 
 southern part of the third division were widened considerably, while 
 those at the north were narrowed. To offset this loss of territory, the 
 town allowed about six hundred acres on the Flat Hills to those who 
 had suffered by the relocation of the line. 
 
 The Thinl Precinct of Hadley sent its share of men to the Indian wars 
 that raged intermittently up and down tlie beautiful valley of the Con- 
 necticut between tlie years of 1744 and 1763. Many brave men were 
 sacrificed, but among those surviving, several gained the prominence and 
 abilitv that placed them at the front at the opening of the Revolutionary 
 War. 
 
 Tlie year 1 749 finds the first indication tliat the settlement is alive to 
 the necessity of providing the rising generation with opportunities for 
 gaining some education. Appropriations, lilieral tor the times, were 
 made "to Hire three School I )ainrs for three or four Months in the 
 Summer seson to l.arne children to read." The i)ui)ils met at the 
 teachers' homes, for there were no sciiool-houses until after i 764, when 
 f(jur were ordered to be built, a " North, a South, a West Middle, and a 
 South Fast Middle." josiah Pierce began to teach October 27, 1765. 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 7 
 
 He was the first school-master, ami spent part of the year at each of the 
 " Middle " school-houses. A graduate of Harvard College, he was paid 
 $5.33 a month, adding to this by keeping an evening school, and preach- 
 ing at the churches of the surrounding places for twenty shillings a Sun- 
 day. It is not at all surprising that " he dismissed his school in disgust 
 March 29, 1769," as the records have it. The school-house of this 
 hard-working pedagogue stood upon the village common near the spot 
 now marked by the watering-trough. In i 784 Amherst voted " to set 
 up six schools." It is interesting to notice that before Amherst College 
 had graduated a single student, thirty-nine Amherst boys had obtained 
 degrees, thirteen from AVilliams, ten from Dartmouth, seven from Yale, 
 and three from Harvard. 
 
 Owing to the incorporation of South Hadley as a district in 1753, the 
 name ''East Hadley" was changed to the "Second Precinct of Had- 
 ley," and six years later, just a century after the founding of Hadley, the 
 " Second Precinct " was made a district. Governor Pownell, in signing 
 the act of incorporation, February 13, 1 759, gave it the name of Amherst, 
 in honor of General Jeffrey .Amherst, prominent at that time as the com- 
 mander of the memorable expedition against Louisburg, and still later 
 as commander-in-chief and field marshal of the English armies. In 
 1776 General Amherst was created a baron. 
 
 The new district held its first legal meeting March 19, 1759. From 
 that time on, the spirit of independence and thrift seemed to take a 
 firmer hold upon the people. They toiled diligently for the betterment 
 of their estates, laying aside the generous store of English money 
 that was to prove so useful during the hard times of the approach- 
 ing war. 
 
 Much of the public business previously centering exclusively in the 
 mother settlement was transferred to Amherst, with the beneficial results 
 always attending an interest in home affairs. In 1758 the white popu- 
 lation actually outnumbered that of Hadley, and in 1776 had become 
 some two hundred greater than in any of the surrounding villages. 
 Nearly all the material conditions of the district surpassed those of the 
 three villages which originally belonged to Hadley. 
 
 Regular communication was opened with Boston in 1767 by the enter- 
 prise of Simeon Smith, an Amherst citizen. Previous to that time all 
 travelling had been done on horseback ; but Smith possessed a wagon 
 that is recorded as being strong enough to bear a ton of f: eight. He 
 
8 TIIR HANDBOOK' OF AMHERST. 
 
 made a trip, by way of the old Bay road, in about a week, and found 
 sufficient trade to bring him a good profit, the most remunerative i)art 
 of his business being the importation of great quantities of New England 
 rum. 
 
 Youthful Amherst was not without its " ordinaries," or taverns, even 
 in the davs of its smallest population. Ebenezer Kellogg was licensed 
 in 1734, as the first ordinary-keeper. He kept his place for only three 
 years, but within the next few years his successors were so numerous 
 that a record of them would be wearisome. At the time he opened his 
 tavern, the men of the town numbered twenty-nine, and only three 
 hundred and fifty acres of land had been cleared and improved. One 
 groggery for every sixty persons, the records say, was the proportion in 
 1783, when there were seven hundred inhabitants. 
 
 All this time the residents on the outskirts of the district hatl been 
 journeying several miles each Sabbath day to attend church services in 
 the village. In 1772 they united in advocating a division of the origi- 
 nal parish so that the north and south sections of the district should 
 each have a church, the one in the centre to be discontinued. The 
 same instincts that influence men to-day were no less active then, and 
 the prospect of having their place of worship removed to an inconven- 
 ient distance so alarmed the villagers that they begged the General 
 Court to interfere in the matter. Their jietition was an able document. 
 The records show that a committee from the august body of legislators 
 visited .\mherst in March, 1774, but their report and the entire question 
 was soon forgotten in the excitement of the war immediately following. 
 Church matters did not become prominent again until 1781. A jxart of 
 the parish withdrew in accordance with a vote passed October 15, 1782, 
 and constituted themselves the Second Congregational l\arish. They 
 had o])p()sed the selection of Rev. l)a\-id Parsons, Jr., to succeed his 
 father as pastor, but were overruled by the majority. The incorporation 
 of this new parish marked the end of the control of religious affairs by 
 the district. 
 
 Amherst assumed the inivileges of a town about this time by electing 
 Nathaniel Dickinson, Jr., a representative to the Provincial Congress, 
 which met successively at Salem, Concord, and Cambridge. The name 
 of "town," used without authority in the records after 1776, was legal- 
 ized bv a general law of the State in 1S76. 
 
 ,\mhcrst must have i)roved a warm phue for the Tories of the Revo- 
 
JEFFREY; FIRST LORD AMHERST 
 
rilE IIAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. II 
 
 lutionary times. The character of the American ancestry of the early 
 settlers of Hadley and Amherst, especially of that from Hartford, would 
 lead one to expect to find men ready to stand up for freedom and 
 human rights at the risk of life and property. With most of the men 
 of Amherst this was true, but, as in not a few cases elsewhere, the highly 
 educated classes were more loyal to the king of England and opposed 
 to the popular idea of freedom, than the body of the people. The 
 names of these opponents of the war included many of the leading 
 citizens, at the head of whom was no less a personage than the 
 Rev. David Parsons, Sr. Besides censuring and even imprisoning 
 several of these obnoxious persons for being " notoriously inimical to 
 American liberty," the town voted to support whatever action the 
 Continental Congress might take for the safety of the colonies, and 
 in January, 1776, actually deprived those "not owning independence 
 of the crown of Great Britain " of the right of voting upon town 
 matters. 
 
 Even if former leaders be lukewarm and hostile at the time of a 
 revolution in thought or action, the people find new men to go before 
 them in the paths they are determined to tread. It was so at Amherst. 
 Men less polished than collegians, some of them diamonds in the rough, 
 some profane, came to the front in place of the more accomplished 
 Royalist scholars and gentlemen. 
 
 These men entered into correspondence with the Committee of Cor- 
 respondence at Boston. Having " Red and Considered " the letter 
 from Boston, they voted, March 14, 1774, to send a reply. Their letter 
 was not a triumph of spelling or oratory, but it was a mine of sturdy 
 sense. They had no more respect for capitals than for kings. One 
 may not forget that Noah Webster and his spelling-book had not yet 
 appeared, and often in the antique dress of the letters of the time there 
 is something so grotesque as to cause a smile ; but one feels, when 
 reading the quaint spelling, much as did Dr. Holmes at the sight of the 
 ol I man, in '' The Last Leaf" : — 
 
 " I know it is a sin 
 For me to sit and grin 
 
 At him here; 
 But the old three-cornered hat, 
 And the breeches, — and all that, — 
 
 Are so queer." 
 
12 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 But, after all, our own spelling is unreasonable, and the letter of the 
 patriots is too earnest for more than momentary merriment. This is 
 what they wrote : — 
 
 " To the Kcspectable Com mi /tee of Correspondence in the toivn of Boston. 
 
 " Gentn. : We think it needless to Recapitulate all those grievancses Which we 
 sufter in Common with our opprest Brethren and Neighbors. Sufficient to Say that 
 tho we have been Long silent we are not insensible of the oppressions we sufter and 
 the ruin which threatens us or regardlis of the Diabolical Designs of our Mercenary 
 and Manevolent Enemies Foreign and Domestic and are ready not onley to risque 
 but even to Sacrifice our Lives and Properties in Defence of our just rights & liberties 
 at Present we are only Galled not subdued and think ourselves heapy in having such 
 vigilant and faithfull gardians of our rights in the Metropolis on hoom we Can Depend 
 to Call on us in Season to unite with our suffering Countrymen in the Common Cause 
 of America we hope and beg that you will Still Persevere in that most Honorrble & 
 importent Imployment of watching over us with the Same Care and Fidelity which 
 has hitherto Distinguish.d & grately Dignified your Characters in the Estimation of 
 all who have a just sence of that best of Blessings Liberty & an Equal abhorence of 
 that tame submition which tends to Entail on our Posterrity that worst of Curses 
 Slavery. 
 
 " Every Avenue to the Royal Ear seems to be blocked uji by the gross falsities & 
 Designd Misrepresentations of those from sum of whom at Least \\e might have 
 Expected better things but there is a King who Cannot be Deceived & who will not 
 be mocked who has pointed out a never failing resource when Petitions & Remon- 
 stances, Truth & justice are unsuccessfully opposed to Tironey and Oppression fals-- 
 hood & Corruption & when you feel that impulse which will not brook longer Delay, 
 the wisdum of the People will naturally write in mode of the best Appeal, to which 
 you most Distant Brethren Expect to be summoned unless prevent,d by a sudding 
 unexpected & very favourable Chandge of affears. their are whom Justice forbids to 
 live but whom we would spare to Convince the wt)rl(l we Despise their utmost hate 
 & malicious Cunning, the Colonies united are inviiicialily free & we dout not you 
 are Convinc,d that the Preservation of that union outuciglis every other Considera- 
 tion and is at Present our most Important Concern, while that is secure we have 
 nothing to fear but may Laugh at all attempts to Enslave us we know of no punish- 
 ment which Can be Inflicted on those vilens in Exalted Stations adequate to their 
 own reflections & remorse accompanyd with our Neglect, Contempt & Detestation 
 but at the same time should think ourselves happier if Everey banefull Noxious weed 
 Could by aney means be Eradicated from this our fair garden of Liberty, we Entirely 
 approve & Concurr with you in every measure hitherto adopted & Conducted & return 
 our gratefull thanks to the People of Boston & the Neighboring towns in a Perticuler 
 manner for the seasonable Indeavours & mandley opposition to prevent the Landing 
 of the East India Companys teas which plan we are Convinc,d was artefully Projected 
 to open the gate for the admition of Tyrany & oppression with all their Rapacious 
 followers to Stalk at Large & uncontrol.d to Ravage our fare & Dear bought Posses- 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 1 3 
 
 sions. Everey measure which shall appear Conducive to the Publick good we are 
 warranted to assure you will always be approved & support, d by a Large Majorrity in 
 this District and [y?]our Continual Correspondence as Long as you shall think occa- 
 tion requires meet with Due respect & attention we are in behalf of the District very 
 Respectfully 
 " Gent'm 
 " your oblig'd cS; most hble, servts 
 
 Moses Dickinson 
 
 Reuben Dickinson 
 
 Jacob McDaniel \ Committee " 
 
 Nath'll Dickinson 
 
 Joseph Williams 
 
 Their actions fully sustained their words. The usual committees of 
 "Correspondence," "Safety," and "Inspection" were chosen, and 
 among the members were many who figured prominently in the affairs 
 of the colonies. A representative was sent to the Provincial Congress, 
 and in June, 1776, it was voted "That, should the Honorable Congress 
 for the safety of the United Colonies in America ; Declare them Inde- 
 pendant of the Kingdom of Great Britain ; we the inhabitants of the 
 town of Amherst solemnly engage with our lives and fortunes to support 
 them in the measure." 
 
 Following April 19, 1775, Captain Reuben Dickinson gathered a com- 
 pany of minute-men, who were under his call between two and four 
 weeks, and at their disbanding he enlisted an eight-months company, of 
 which the noted Daniel Shays of Shutesbury, the leader of the " Shays' 
 Rebellion," was a non-commissioned officer. Amherst men joined other 
 companies in varying numbers. A company under the command of 
 Captain James Hendrick of Amherst obtained a good many. Captain 
 Dickinson's command, and several of the others having men from the 
 town, were at the battle of Bunker Hill. 
 
 Later companies gathered by Captain Dickinson, Captain Harvey, 
 and Captain Cook, from Amherst and the vicinity, were in General 
 Gates' army, fought in the battles of September ig and October 7, 1777, 
 and saw the surrender of General Burgoyne. Half of the English army 
 and the defeated general himself, passed through Hadley and along the 
 Bay road, then the southern boundary line of the town, on their way to 
 Boston. To this day one of the old families of Hadley are in possession 
 of a sword presented by General Burgoyne to one of the citizens of the 
 town. 
 
14 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 During the campaigns of 1777 until 1781, Amherst furnished its due 
 proportion of men, distributed through several companies, and in many 
 instances brave and efficient officers. Liberal bounties, formally offered 
 by the town to the enlisting men, rapidly drained the store of hard 
 money that had been laid up by the thrifty farm folk. The Continental 
 bills depreciated in value until in 1780 a dollar in silver would buy a 
 hundred of them, and a year after two hundred. Old soldiers boasted 
 after the hard times were over, that $50 had often been paid for a single 
 meal. 
 
 The first of the rewards of the courage, with which each new depriva- 
 tion of the war had been met, came, when the inhabitants of the town 
 assembled on the 4th day of September, 1 780, bringing in their votes 
 for a governor of the new commonwealth, as follows : " The Hon'ble 
 John Hancock Esq'r, Forty three ; The Hon'ble James Bowdoin Esq'r 
 eight." 
 
 In the State convention which ratified the Federal Constitution, the 
 Amherst representative, Daniel Cooley, probably reflected the wishes of 
 his constituents when he voted against ratification. There were several 
 years about this time when the town failed to send its representatives to 
 the General Court, and at least twice it was fined for this neglect. 
 
 An interesting description of the town in 1800 has been given in Dr. 
 Tyler's able " History' of Amherst College." At that time the only store 
 in the village stood at the corner of what afterward became Phoenix 
 Row and North" Pleasant Street. At the opposite end of the row was 
 the house later occupied by Noah Webster. A vigorous distillery stood 
 within the square bounded by the Common and Spring and College 
 streets, entirely at variance, happily be it said, with the present ideas' of 
 sobriety. The situation of the home of Levi Cowles. on North Pleasant 
 Street, and of Mrs. l*]merson, the Judge Strong estate, mark the former 
 width of the two highways, for these buildings are among the few then 
 standing. 
 
 In 1 8 14 eight hundred acres of Hadley were added at tlie northwest 
 corner of the town, and in 1815 the southern boundary was changed 
 from the Bay road to the top of the Holyoke range. At this time there 
 were not more than twentv-five houses in the village. Until several 
 years after the college was founded the centre of trade and enterjirise 
 was at East Amherst, and there the town-meetings were held. 
 
 Amherst became ])rominent in 1787 through Shays' Rebellion. whi( h 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 15 
 
 took place almost within her own borders. The deluded soldiery, under 
 Daniel Shays, encamped and drilled upon the Pelham hills, and return- 
 ing from their rash attempts to defy the Federal authority at Springfield 
 and Northampton, were followed by the regular troops across the south- 
 ern part of the town to the Pelham hills again, whence they dispersed 
 northward. 
 
 To the War of 1812 the inhabitants of Amherst were bitterly opposed. 
 Three citizens were sent to a convention of delegates from the towns of 
 Hampshire County, and the memorial then adopted strongly solicited 
 the Federal government to come to some terms of peace with Great 
 Britain. Notwithstanding this, the demand for troops that came later 
 was promptly met by Amherst, as well as the other towns of the 
 Connecticut Valley. 
 
 The War of the Rebellion sacrificed the lives of fifty-eight of the 
 three hundred and seventy-four volunteers from Amherst ; and the 
 expenses, public and private, amounted to more than $46,000. 
 
l6 THE HANDBOOK OF AMI/ERST. 
 
 THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 
 
 By Mabel Loomis Tudd. 
 
 THK BEAUTY OF AX AUOi/ST DAY — CHARACTERISTIC FLOWERS 
 A\D BIRDS— LITERATURE OF THE VALLEY— ITS GEOLOGY — 
 A FEW HISTORICAL GLIMPSES. 
 
 THE mellow light of a warm August afternoon lay shimmering over 
 a grassy meadow road. No fences divided the rich farm lands on 
 either side from the road, or from one another. The hum and 
 buzz of innumerable insects filled the fragrant air, while distant sounds 
 of mowing could be heard at intervals, as the rowan was being here 
 and there gathered in by thrifty farmers. 
 
 Nearer at hand fields of tropical-leaved tobacco sent out a slightly 
 ])ungent odor, while an occasional tall stalk, crowned with its delicate 
 pink blossoms, was allowed to ripen antl go to seed in the summer 
 sunshine. 
 
 In the eyes of two travellers, driving leisurely along this lovely way, 
 the whole scene was richly, sensuously delightful. As they passed the 
 fields of tobacco and of corn, a dull but continuous murmur became 
 apparent, growing louder, until a large barn came into view, from which 
 the sound emerged. Here a curious, and in this day somewhat unusual, 
 sight appeared. Heavy machinery was cutting into small pieces and 
 packing into great compressed masses the succulent cornstalks, — future 
 food for cattle when this verdant meadow should be filled with snow 
 and ice. In other words, ensilage was in process of manufacture. 
 Farther on, fields of broom-corn, with airily wa\ing tassels, bordered the 
 highway. And everywhere were farmhouses with generous barns, large 
 orchards in which early apples began to show sun-warmed cheeks, and 
 old chns full of dignity and grace. Toward the west flowed a noble 
 river, not less than eight hundred feet wide, reflecting the sky on its 
 placid surface. Still fiirther west, ranges of misty blue hills filled the 
 distance, while nearer rose Mount Warner, the pioneer of all that ancient 
 mountain brotherhood. 
 
THE HA XD ROOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 17 
 
 In the south lay the rugged and picturesque Holyoke range, and the 
 steep sides of Mount Tom beyond the opening where the river has 
 scooped its passage. Northward, Mount Toby showed itself in a lumi- 
 nous, purple atmosphere, a rich tone modified in Sugarloaf, across the 
 river, by its more scarred sides of red sandstone. The gentle slope 
 of the Pelham and Shutesbury hills eastward was densely green, and 
 but little colored by distance. 
 
 Over all this homelike scene the caressing August sky and sunshine 
 brooded tenderlv. Where, indeed, could they find a fairer tarrying-])lace? 
 
 
 
 .-d^^^^^H^^^, .'. .„#ttw»w^ 
 
 r^ 
 
 
 Looking toward Mount Warner. 
 
 This lovely Connecticut Valley — originally the Quon-eh-ti-cut. promi- 
 nent in four States, no less than twenty miles wide in Massachusetts, the 
 garden-spot of New England, rich, fertile, and beautiful — is full of 
 interest to the geologist, the naturalist, and the historian, as well as 
 to him who merely appreciates the rare beauty of its scenery, or the 
 promise of its luxuriant crops. 
 
 Pre-eminently a ftirming region, the valley has also many manufac- 
 turing interests, as Holyoke, Springfield, and its other cities amply testify. 
 But its pastoral character remains, and the beauty of its sweet meadows 
 is as yet untouched. 
 
1 8 THE IIAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 Many types of old New England houses abound. Hadley, Deerfield, 
 and some of the earlier villages still preserve the colonial shapes and 
 ornaments, the fan-lights above the doors, and the old hip and gambrel 
 roofs. Somewhat later, a far less beautiful style came into vogue. The 
 hall, instead of running straight-forwardly through the centre of the house, 
 giving ample room for stairways, became contracted to a mere entrance 
 lobby, barely large enough to contain a door into the rooms on either 
 side, while a steep and narrow stairway was forced to contort itself cruelly 
 in order to rise at all. These houses, however, have large, though low- 
 ceiled rooms, and frequently, parlor cupboards in the wainscoted wall, 
 large fireplaces, and elaborately carved window and door ornaments. 
 Still later, came the first " modern " white, green-blinded country house 
 with a side wing. A single path generally leads to the rarely used front 
 door, diverging just before reaching its chilling hospitality into a branch 
 walk to the more homelike side door, where all is cheerful and merry, 
 where family life surges in and out over the stone doorstep, and hens 
 peck contentedly about the short grass. Yet another style of farm- 
 house appears, whose long row of sheds and out-buildings reaches to an 
 astonishing distance, terminating in an immense barn by which the 
 modest and insignificant dwelling is completely overshadowed. 
 
 Sturdy and pious as the earlier inhabitants were, steadfast of purpose, 
 and of noble lives, their aesthetic sense must have been very much in 
 abeyance. Too sadly common is the fashion in this fair region, where 
 Nature spreads her most tempting glories, of setting an uncompromising 
 barn directly between the house and a wonderful view, of mountain and 
 vale which any summer tourist would go miles to see for an hour. 
 
 The inoffensive little house is perhaps perched close to the highway, 
 and directly across the road, in its face and eyes, rises the dignified 
 shelter of cattle and hay, shutting off all possible outlook. 
 
 The age of the mansard roof infiiction is still apparent ; but later 
 taste has displaced its ugliness, and smooth, well-kei)t lawns now often 
 lead to charming houses of our own day, which, while preserving the 
 best features of early colonial architecture, have added without and 
 within the beautv of a more cultured and many-sided life. 
 
 Very rich in flowers, ferns, and mosses is this favored valley. In late 
 spring the shady roads are lighted by the pale pink of the laurel, set in 
 its chark green leaves; and earlier, arbutus, hepaticas, anemones, antl all 
 the brave company of early blosscjms fill the woods. Columbine and 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 21 
 
 cowslips, wild azalia, scarlet " painted-cup " and pimpernel, loose strife, 
 meadow-lilies, yellow and scarlet, give place to hosts of wild roses and 
 clematis, while yet later come cardinal flowers and closed gentians, the 
 tiny five-leaved gentian and its royal fringed brother, brilliant black- 
 alder berries glowing in the sun ; and last of all the weird witch-hazel holds 
 sway in the bare November woods, companioned by airy ghosts from the 
 milkweed pots, and spectral maiden-hair, white in its secluded recesses. 
 And when 
 
 "The murmuring of bees has ceased, 
 But murmuring of some 
 Posterior, prophetic, 
 
 Has simultaneous come," 
 then, 
 
 " Besides the autumn poets sing, 
 A few prosaic days 
 A Httle this side of the snow, 
 And that side of the haze. 
 
 " Still is the bustle in the brook, 
 Sealed are the spicy valves. 
 Mesmeric fingers softly touch 
 The eyes of many elves." 
 
 — Emily Dickinson. 
 
 A merely technical list of all the floral beauties of the region would 
 fill a goodly volume. Professor Tuckerman's catalogue of the lichens 
 shows their rare variety and number, and the ferns are no less noteworthy. 
 
 Partridges drum undisturbed in their leafy homes, the rarer quail is 
 still a resident, and the meadows and mountain-sides echo to the songs 
 of numberless wild birds. 
 
 Song-sparrows and bluebirds greet with throbbing music the early 
 spring, after the longest and coldest winter has failed to drive the ener- 
 getic bluejay from his covert in pine or hemlock, whence comes his 
 "brigadier" note, with all its harshness full of cheer and hopefulness. 
 The rose-breasted grosbeak, the pewees, the flaming orioles, the bobo- 
 link and meadow-lark, the humming-bird and linnet, the cat-bird with 
 its lovely song, the various swallows with their startlingly swift flight, the 
 sweet-voiced vireos and warblers, — all, and a numerous brotherhood 
 beside, fill the crevices of every fragrant spring and summer day with 
 their flashing wings and tender songs, voicing the winds and the woods 
 and the waters in sweetest melody. The rare red-necked grebe, the 
 
22 
 
 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 snowy heron, and the night heron have been seen in the region, as well 
 as the yellow-rail, the blue golden-winged warbler, and the yellow- 
 breasted chat. 
 
 About one hundred and thirty years ago a few elms were set out here 
 and there. Some of these pioneers still survive ; but in general, atten- 
 tion to ornamental trees has been given within the present century. 
 The old-time Lombardy poplar, with its stiffly sentinel aspect, and its 
 
 Bryant's Homo at Cunimington. 
 
 shimmering, silvery leaves, was introduced at one time, but its repre- 
 sentatives were generally cut down after a few years, and few now 
 remain to give their stately dignity to any old liomcstead. Tlie dis- 
 tinctive trees of this grassy, sunny Connecticut Valley are undoubtedly 
 its elms. Their graceful branches appear in nearly all of the paintings 
 of the region, and wave across the ])ages of the valley literature. And 
 it has been prominent in literature since the early days, from Jonathan 
 Edwards in his Northampton home, to the gentler if less profound 
 philosophy of IJryaiit. whose " Story of the I'ountain " might well have 
 been told of the for-away spring of our noble river. 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 23 
 
 Bryant's home in Cummington was one of his two favorite spots for 
 writing his poems. His journaHstic labors in New York were ever kept 
 distinct from his deeply loved country life, where alone he would express 
 himself in verse. The names of George Bancroft, Henry AA'ard Beecher, 
 and George William Curtis belong to the valley ; and Dr. J. G. Holland, 
 born in Belchertown, wrote of the region in " Kathrina," and "The Bay 
 Path." Charles Dudley Warner remembers it in some of his daintiest 
 sketches ; and here, too, linger memories of Jenny Lind, whose com- 
 pelling voice comes floating down the years in the traditions of a previous 
 generation. More lately, George W. Cable's increasing fiime adorns 
 
 the Connecticut ; while to Amherst 
 belongs the world-wide reputation 
 
 Birthplace of Charles Dudley Warner at Plainfield. 
 
 of " H. H.," and the posthumous fame of Emily Dickinson and her 
 strange, strong poems. 
 
 To the geologist, ten thousand years seem but a step. From evidences 
 about Amherst and Northampton he assigns this length of time, " one of 
 the shortest estimates," as the probable interval since the glacial period. 
 In that age, misty and remote enough to the layman, the ice, covering 
 all this region, furrowed deeply into the sandstone, particularly north of 
 the Holyoke range, largely forming its bold and rugged outline ; it 
 piled together other masses into rough hills, leaving in its path bowlders 
 and clay and the stony soil so characteristic of New England. 
 
 When this mass of ice, beginning to yield to the oncoming of a more 
 genial age, melted in the sun, a great lake was formed, whose height 
 was three hundred feet above the sea, and two hundred feet above pres- 
 ent low water in the Connecticut River. Its shores were the present 
 
24 
 
 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 boundaries of the valley. The surface of the ground over which we 
 drive in the mellow August weather, listening to the peaceful farming 
 sounds on every hand, was the actual bottom of this great prehistoric 
 lake, in whose clays an abundant glacial flora has been found. 
 
 There is evidence that the lake speedily shrunk to almost the present 
 size of the river. This " Nile of New England " has gradually deposited 
 the rich alluvial meadows, its chief wealth and beauty. 
 
 Swinging through past centuries in other curves than now, it has 
 
 formed seven great " ox-bows," cut- 
 ting off subsequently all but the 
 famous one, so distinctly seen from 
 
 Three of the seven 
 
 The Ox-Bow in 1840 and 1890, from Mount Ho 
 
 the summit of Mount Holyoke. 
 
 of the others are found to have dis- 
 
 ap])eared only since the settlement of the valley. 
 
 were in Hatfield, and four in Northampton. 
 
 Ages before even the oncoming of the ice period, earthquakes and 
 volcanic explosions carved our valley into a semblance of its present 
 shape. Filled with waters from the sea, a narrow inlet or fjord to a 
 height aboN'c the level uf Mount Holyoke, it endured through triassic 
 times. 
 
 Streams sweeping into the basin deposited sand and gravel flats. In 
 these mud shores, animals long extinct and unimaginable made a huge 
 procession of footprints since hardened into stone. These have been 
 discovered, preserved, and described by the late President Hitchcock of 
 Amherst College. Traces of reptiles, insects, fishes, and colossal frogs 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 25 
 
 are here found, and also the enormous prints of birds whose size, to 
 correspond with their tracks, must have been at least five times that of 
 the ostrich. These bird-tracks occur in thirty places through the Con- 
 necticut Valley, between the upper strata. Into the late discussions of 
 whether these great creatures with feet eighteen or twenty inches long 
 were birds or not rather some unknown, three-toed animal we cannot 
 enter. It is for us enough to know that the stupendous procession has 
 been made to live again by the untiring genius of an enthusiast to whom 
 we owe the resurrection of a long-vanished past ; and bird or animal, 
 " strange indeed, is this menagerie of remote sandstone days." 
 
 From this weird occupancy of antediluvian monsters to the days when 
 the Agawams and other Indian tribes lived their nomadic and warlike 
 lives in the fair vale, is a long step for a tense imagination. 
 
 Here, however, they were found ; for how many years they had been 
 here, or whence their pioneers may have come, cannot be certainly 
 proven. But in 1631 the Connecticut first became known to our own 
 forefathers. Early in the autumn of 1633 four men from Dorchester 
 first visited its banks. Later, William Pynchon and his little band of 
 followers, chiefly planters from Roxbury, came by the famous " Bay 
 Path " through a hundred miles of forest to what is now the city of 
 Springfield. 
 
 An absorbing piety characterized these early settlements, as it had the 
 original ones on the coast ; and a " meeting-house " was an earliest care. 
 The first framed house was erected by Mr. Pynchon ; and deeds for the 
 various allotments of land, the first ever executed in Western Massachu- 
 setts, were drawn up whereby a formal purchase was secured from the 
 Indians, who held from Nature herself a dateless and unwritten title. 
 
 In all the early settlements it is a pleasant reflection that these legiti- 
 mate purchases were always made with the wild but original owners. 
 
 Northampton was subsequently settled, its rich meadow land proving 
 very attractive. In 1654 measures were taken here also to build and 
 establish a meeting-house. What means of calling the settlers together 
 for worship may have been employed is not certainly known. \\'hile in 
 Springfield this important instrument was a drum, it is believed that a 
 large and sonorous cow-bell was first used in Northampton. Later, a 
 salary is recorded as being paid for services in " blowing the trumpet," 
 presumably for the same purpose. 
 
 In 1659 about fifty settlers established the town of Hadley, its mag- 
 
26 THE HAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 nificent street twenty rods wide still bearing evidence to the good taste 
 and forethought of those who planned the village. The name of Hadley 
 was not given until two years later. Here, as in the first two settle- 
 ments, measures were not only promptly taken for establishing churches, 
 but schools were equally early in the thought of its founders. 
 
 That this api)reciation of education was inherent and vital is shown 
 by the noble array of famous educational institutions along the Con- 
 necticut to-day. Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, Amherst Col- 
 lege, the State Agricultural College, the schools at Northfield, summer 
 schools in every direction, and a host of lesser institutions, are the blos- 
 soms of that early aspiration and endeavor. 
 
 So far, the terms of agreement with the Indians had been carefully 
 kept ; any complaints from them had received immediate attention and 
 adjustment, and everything was peaceable and friendly. Notwithstand- 
 ing this pleasant state of affairs, military companies were maintained 
 against any possibility of danger, as well as fortified houses in every 
 town. 
 
 In 1662 Hampshire County was established, chiefly unsettled terri- 
 tory. It was then much larger than now, for the entire counties of 
 Worcester and Berkshire have since been taken from its original boun- 
 daries. Deerfield and Hatfield were settled in 1670, and Northfield in 
 1673. I'"* these early days Amherst was a part of Hadley, and it was 
 not laiil out until i 703. 
 
 The early peacefulness of the relations between Indians and settlers 
 in the valley seems to have been largely due to the just and considerate 
 policy of William Pynchon. The outbreak of " King Philip's War," in 
 1675, put an end to this quiet comfort. With a plan which appeared to 
 embrace the sweeping away of every settlement from the north down 
 the river, Northfield was completely burned bv Intlians, Deerfield had 
 fallen with the terrible massacre at Bloody l.rook. and Hatfield, Hadley, 
 and Northampton came next. In the meantime, however, the natives 
 about Springfield, spurred to emulation by the ghastly deeds in the 
 north, had gathered there, and burned nearly everything except the 
 fortified houses where the inhabitants had fled for safety. 
 
 In the first attack on Hatfield the skill of the English more than 
 matched the numbers of their assailants. 
 
 In Northampton, also, they were repulsed, but only after severe loss 
 and destruction. 
 
THE IIAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 29 
 
 Old Hadley is still full of the traditions of those early days. On the 
 1 2th of June, 1676, at least seven hundred Indians attacked Hadley. 
 It was then and there that the famous stranger, noble in dress and 
 manner, dignified and venerable, unable longer to remain an idle spec- 
 tator of so terrible events, issued forth and assumed command of the 
 English forces, directing them in the most skilfully military manner. 
 Encouraging and rallying, now at one point, now at another, his is per- 
 haps the most picturesque and impressive figure in all our early history. 
 
 By his aid the Indians were repulsed with slight loss to the English ; 
 and, this accomplished, the mysterious stranger disappeared as silently 
 and suddenly as he came. With the superstition of the times, it is not 
 surprising that he was devoutly believed to be an angel from heaven, 
 sent to save the colony in a disastrous crisis. 
 
 It was afterward ascertained that this opportunely guardian angel was 
 no other than Goffe, the regicide, who with his father-in-law, Whalley, 
 and twenty-eight other judges, had been condemned in England for 
 passing sentence of death upon Charles I., and had escaped in 1660. 
 Both Goffe and Whalley had been officers of high rank in Cromwell's 
 army. Escaping after their sentence, they had found refuge in 1664 at 
 Hadley, unknown to all its inhabitants sa\e the family who sheltered 
 them. 
 
 In 1678 a peace was concluded, and King Philip finally conquered. 
 
 Beauty in dress and the love of fine clothes did not perish entirelv, 
 even with a background of bloodshed and slaughter. We learn that in 
 165 1 a law was passed in Massachusetts, restraining excess in dress. In 
 1673 twenty-five wives and five maids were tried before a jury for being 
 persons of small estate, yet wearing silk against the law. 
 
 A year later the wife of a Hadley man was again presented for wearing 
 silk. She was found guilty, and fined ten shillings. 
 
 At the March court in 1676 sixty-eight persons were presented by the 
 jury, among them thirty young men, " some for wearing silk, and that in 
 a flaunting manner, and others for long hair and other extravagances." 
 
 Witchcraft seems not to have flourished in this rich and verdant 
 valley, particularly in Hampshire County, to the extent which prevailed 
 in the earlier settlements on the rocky coast. In 1645 the first cases 
 of witchcraft in New England occurred at Springfield. During King 
 Philip's War it lay dormant, naturally, under the more exciting events 
 about. 
 
30 THE IIA.VDBOOK' OF AMHERST. 
 
 But at the close of the war it revived ; and a remarkable instance 
 occurred at Hadley, when a Mr. Philip Smith was believed to be beset 
 by the spells of a wretched old woman, who caused all sorts of myste- 
 rious evils to assail him, finally causing his death. The old woman, 
 however, was allowed to live on ; and there is no evidence of her ever 
 having been brought to trial. About the time that Amherst was being 
 laid out as one of the " precincts " of Hadley, fresh disasters awaited 
 the valley dwellers, whose whole early progress seems to have been one 
 long record of struggles with every sort of trial and discouragement. 
 
 The brave settlement at Deerfield again became the scene of blood- 
 shed and cruelty, when, at the beginning of Queen Anne's War, the 
 French and Indians descended upon it, murdering and torturing on 
 every hand. The fomous Deerfield bell was taken during this campaign, 
 and is believed to be still hanging in a little mission church on the St. 
 Lawrence River. 
 
 The long-suffering valley dwellers were alternately allowed to breathe 
 freely for a time, and then made to suffer all the distress of repeated 
 wars for an almost endless succession of years. But in 1760, permanent 
 peace came about, upon the surrender of the Canadian province to 
 Great Britain. 
 
 For nearly one hundred and thirty years wars had racked Western 
 Massachusetts to its foundations. 
 
 Hardly an acre of the beautiful green Connecticut Valley, now full of 
 peace and sunshine and homely sound of toil, but has known the pressure 
 of flying feet, hard-pressed by savage pursuer, — but has echoed to the 
 terrible shouts of slayer and victim, or lias drunk tlie blood of friends 
 and foes. 
 
 And yet even these events faded into the dim past before the on- 
 coming excitements of the Revolution. 
 
 Few events of ])articular significance at this crisis occurred in the 
 Connecticut Valley itself, although its roll of minute-men is a long and 
 honorable one. There were, however, many famous rejiresentatives of 
 Toryism in the region. 
 
 The only event of local interest in this general connection was the 
 " Shays' Rebellion," practically an uprising owing to a petulant feeling 
 on the part of the insurgents that they had not been getting their fiiU 
 dues in various ways. Headed by Daniel Shays of Shutesbury, they 
 marched against Springfield and threatened tlie courts and the arsenal. 
 
THE HAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 3 1 
 
 There was little bloodshed, and the chief indirect effect of the rebellion 
 was to hasten the adoption of a Federal government. 
 
 A camping ground is still pointed out northeast of Amherst. 
 
 From the close of this rebellion onward, life prospered in the valley. 
 Amherst, and its neighboring towns, strongly disapproved, and publicly 
 expressed its disapproval, of the War of 1S12, being then, apparently, as 
 ever, rather upon the conservative than the impetuous side of life. 
 
 The primitive means of crossing the Connecticut River were, of course, 
 ferries, for it does not appear certain that at any points between New 
 Hampshire and Connecticut were available fords. In May, 1 718, nine 
 pounds were raised for a free ferry for a year. The navigation of the 
 Connecticut had always been a difficult problem, owing to the falls at 
 South Hadley and Montague. It was not imtil after the close of the 
 Revolution, and of Shays' Rebellion, which had for twelve years occu- 
 pied the minds of all in Western Massachusetts, that an enterprise for 
 faciUtating transportation sprang into new life. This was the building 
 of canals around these falls. In 1792 this laudable enterprise was 
 authorized by the legislature, and the names of those forming the 
 corporation are still preserved. 
 
 For many years the bridging of the Connecticut, or " Great River," 
 was considered an impossible feat. It was attempted in 1792 at Green- 
 field. A toll-bridge was established at Springfield about 1805. It was 
 over twelve hundred feet long, and built with six imposing arches. Its 
 opening to the public was an occasion of great rejoicing, processions, 
 and speeches. 
 
 The two travellers, whose glance backward over the long history of 
 the fertile region they were passing so happily through had filled the 
 whole golden afternoon, were now approaching the primitive and pic- 
 turesque ferry at North Hadley. They hailed the sturdy boatman, who 
 took them slowly across to the lovely Hatfield shore by hand. An 
 idyllic little trip. 
 
 In these August afternoons the sun begins to lean toward the horizon 
 by six o'clock. A fresh coolness, even after the hottest days, springs 
 into the air, and the two in the carriage passed herds of cows, soft-eyed 
 and gentle, on their homeward way from pasture. 
 
 As the level sun-rays swept across the meadows, the green of the rich 
 grass was turned into velvety softness. The far, faint hills in the west 
 came forth in a deep purple evening dress. While yet it seemed to be 
 
32 
 
 THE HAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 A Picturesque Ferry. 
 
 summer, an unsuspected scarlet leaf of sumac glowed suddenly by the 
 roadside, — brilliant forerunner of that palpitating glory of color which 
 holds high carnival here throughout a royal autumn. 
 
 In this calm time how remotely misty seem those volcanic da)s when 
 all was but a strife of upheaval, — how impossible the stupendous proces- 
 sion of prehistoric mammoths who left their huge footjjrints in the mud 
 of that ])erpetual summer, — how equally far away the numb clas|) of the 
 glacial silence, — how more than strange the knowledge that the bed of 
 a great lake makes now the fertile farm, the shady woodland, the radi- 
 ant roadside ! 
 
 Nearer, yet still remote, the war-cries and the tragedies of two hun- 
 dred and fifty years ago, and the sturdy strength and inflexibility of 
 purpose which built up and made possible the beautiful life we know 
 to-day. 
 
 As the cool twilight descends, and one dwelling after another is 
 passed, the little home lights flash out cheerily into the still evening. 
 
 The warm yellow glow in the west grows less ; one bright star, senti- 
 nel outpost of a countless host, springs into life, and all the sweet valley 
 sleeps under the sky. 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 33 
 
 A FEW DELIGHTFUL DRIVES. 
 
 VIEWS FROM HOLYOKE—CHARMIXG HADLEY—THE "MEADOW CITY" 
 — BLOOD-STAINED DEERFIELD— OTHER ATTRACTIVE PLACES. 
 
 IN all New England there are few regions offering more delightful 
 opportunities for riding and driving than the portion of the Connec- 
 ticut Valley in which the town of Amherst lies. For miles around, 
 easy country roads wind along the highlands and through the valleys, 
 displaying lavishly all the beauty and grandeur of which indulgent Nature 
 is capable. It is like a vast park, through which one may wander for 
 months without exhausting the natural attractions, and be more deeply 
 impressed each day by the wonderful variety. Not a few are the visitors 
 who come to Amherst, and some of the neighboring towns, expressly to 
 spend an outing in driving ; and none depart disappointed. 
 
 With Amherst as a centre, there are long drives of a day or more to 
 Pittsfield and Lenox, fashionable as summer and fall resorts ; to Worth- 
 ington and Peru, on the lower Clreen Mountains, directly westward from 
 Amherst, and twelve hundred and sixteen hundred feet above sea-level ; 
 between Goshen and Ashfield — both delightful places in themselves — 
 is a charming " Little Switzerland " ; and, further to the west, Williams- 
 town and the Berkshire Hills are prominent ; Brattleboro' and Burlington 
 are the pleasant objective points in Vermont, as are Monadnock in 
 New Hampshire and Wachusett in Massachusetts. Indeed, the list is 
 almost limitless. Of the shorter and more important drives for those who 
 visit Amherst to become acquainted with the town and its surroundings, 
 a few of the best have been selected for brief mention in this book. 
 
 The ride to Mount Holyoke, eight miles, takes one to an outlook 
 not surpassed in the world. The road runs southeasterly to the Middle 
 Street of Hadley, four miles ; then south, along the Connecticut River, 
 two and one-half miles, with many choice views ; then up the mountain- 
 side through the veil of the old forest to the half-w-ay house. The rest 
 of the trip to the summit is made in a quaint little car holding four per- 
 sons, and making the ascent under a covered way by means of a station- 
 ary engine at the bottom. Athletes will prefer to climb the 522 steps 
 
34 
 
 THE HANDBOOK OF AMIIKRST. 
 
 which follow the side of the railway. Since the opening of the railroad in 
 
 1854, there has never been an accirlent. The summit has a perpendicular 
 
 elevation of 954 feet, and from it may be seen four States and forty towns, 
 
 eight of which are 
 
 in Connecticut. 
 
 The panorama of 
 
 the winding river, / 
 
 fertile valley, and 
 
 rugged mountains. 
 
 W' 
 
 Mount Holyoke. 
 
 as far as the eye can see, 
 well nigh defies description. 
 The drive home may be varied 
 by crossing the Hockanum 
 ferry at the foot of the moun- 
 tain, and following the other 
 side of the river to Northamp- 
 ton, and thence to Amherst. 
 " Old " Hadley, four miles, by the " old road," Amity Street, or by 
 Northampton Street. The cemetery, the broad streets liniMl witli elms, 
 and the Elmwood House, are the objects of interest. The latter is on 
 the site of the house where, two hundred years ago. Rev. Mr. Russell, the 
 first minister of the town, hid the regicide judges, Goffe and Whalley, 
 who had fled from England at the fdl of Cromwell. From thi- hiding- 
 place Goffe emerged to assume command of the settlers and drive off 
 the attacking Indians in a meinoral)k' bailie. 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 35 
 
 The "Meadow City," as Northampton is known, is an eight-mile 
 drive over a straight road. It is a thriving young city of fifteen thousand 
 inhabitants, and many busy mills of almost national repute. It has been 
 the home of such men as the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, Ciovernor Caleb 
 Strong, Rev. Timothy Dwight, and to-day numbers among its inhabitants 
 the noted novelist George \V. Cable, Judge 1). W. IJond, and President 
 L. Clark Seelye. Northampton has many charming drives within its 
 limits. Round Hill affords extensive views of river and meadow, and is 
 
 The Russell Church and Elmwood House, in Hadley. 
 
 of interest because of its connection with the historians Bancroft and 
 MoUey, and the "sweet singer," Jenny Lind. "Paradise" is a delightful 
 bit of nature preserved from the ruthless real estate agent by kindly 
 hands. One may reach it for a walk from Paradise road. Among the 
 other objects of interest in the city are Smith College for young ladies, 
 the Clark Institute for deaf and dumb, and the many manufactories. 
 Wade, Warner & Co., the publishers of " Picturesque Hampshire," and 
 projectors of similar works of other Western Massachusetts counties, 
 have a large printing business here, and publish the Hampshire County 
 Journal, a prominent weekly. 
 
ze 
 
 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 Florence, three miles beyond Smith College, is the terminus of the 
 horse-car line. A drive through it to Leeds, one and a half miles, and 
 then along the stream to Haydenville and Williamsburg, brings one to 
 the scene of the Mill River disaster of 1874, when 158 lives were 
 destroyed in less than an hour. These towns are pleasant manufacturing 
 villages. 
 
 Easthampton, elev-en miles, by way of Northampton, is the seat of 
 Williston Academy, a well-known preparatory school for boys. Return- 
 
 A Glimpse of Smith College. 
 
 ing by way of Mount 'Xoxw station and the Hockanum ferry lengthens 
 the distance to fourteen miles. 
 
 Mount Nonatuck, on the opposite side of the riser from Mount 
 Holyoke, is ten miles from Amherst, whether one crosses the Connecti- 
 cut by the Hockanum ferry, or goes by way of Northampton, and the 
 meadow road to the sovUh. The ascent is by a carriage road, to the top, 
 852 feet above sea-level, where there is a comfortable house. The view 
 from the summit is scarcely less beautiful than from Mount Holyoke. 
 
 Plainville : two miles ; a little settlement in the town of Hadley ; 
 Amity Street, first right after descending the hill. From riainville 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 17 
 
 thence by first left, around the base of Mount Warner, to North Hadley, 
 and return by the northern side of the mountain, is a pleasant drive of 
 nine miles. 
 
 The Huntington Estate ; three and a half miles ; Amity Street 
 directly west to the Connecticut River, then tbllowing the river north- 
 ward. The 
 first large 
 house at 
 the left is 
 the sum- 
 mer home 
 of P)ishop 
 
 The Huntington Estate. 
 
 F. D. Huntington, antl with the adjoining estates is a fine example of 
 the older Connecticut Valley homesteads. Following the river, the return 
 may be made by North Hadley. 
 
 Hatfield is five miles by way of North Hadley, and across the river 
 by a picturesque ferry. This town was one of the earliest of those set- 
 tled in this portion of the valley, and its history is filled with accounts 
 of Indian wars. It is laid out in two long streets, lined from end to end 
 with magnificent elms and pleasant estates. The return, if by way of 
 Northampton, southward, is eleven miles ; or by Sunderland, northward, 
 is fourteen miles, either way of great variety and charm. 
 
 Whately and Whately Glen ; twelve miles ; is a delightful picnick- 
 ing spot, and a haunt of artists and lovers of nature. North Hadley, the 
 ferry to Hatfield, and northwesterly roads from Hatfield Centre. The 
 return may be made by Sunderland, a mile or two fiu-ther. 
 
38 
 
 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 North Amherst ; two miles ; North Pleasant Street. Return may be 
 made by taking road to the west, to North Hadley, thence southeasterly 
 to Amherst, the whole distance being from nine to twelve miles, accord- 
 ing to variations ; or by the easterly road to North Amherst " city " ; 
 whole distance five miles. North Amherst "city'' is two miles from 
 Amherst by way of Mount Pleasant Street. 
 
 Mount Toby is eight miles due north through North Amherst and the 
 Leverett plain, into wildness where bowlders, hugh forest trees, clearest 
 springs and brooks surround an unequalled bit of rural loveliness, at 
 the very base of the mountain. A climb of two miles by an easy moun- 
 tain road brings one to the to]). From the wooden tower, now de- 
 stroyed by fire, could once be seen a wild sea of mountain tops and 
 lands in more than eighty towns. 
 
 It is seven miles to Shutesbury by way of North .\mherst "city," and 
 following along the side of the roaring waters of the upper Mill River. 
 The road is ])ictures([ue, and at times slmt in as if tlv,;re were no outside 
 world ; but from the crest, with a deep chasm farther east, one can look 
 {■AX over valley, hill, and range, and see dreylock in the west. Monad- 
 nock in the north, and \\'achusett in the east. 
 
 Leverett, six miles, through North .Xmherst " city," and directly 
 north, affords a fine series of views. A pleasant way is by way of North 
 .'\mherst and l''actorv Ilnljow. 
 
THE HAXDBOOK Of AMHERS7\ 
 
 39 
 
 Lock's Ponds, in North Leverett ; twelve miles ; a pleasant place to 
 picnic. 
 
 Montague, ten miles, through North Amherst, north through Leverett, 
 passing Mount Toby, is a wide and picturesque drive. 
 
 Sunderland, seven miles, through North Amherst, directly north. 
 
 To reach South Deerfield by way of the Sunderland bridge, one 
 must go through North Amherst village in a northwesterly direction for 
 ten miles, passing through the villages of North Amherst and Sunder- 
 land. Sugar Loaf Mountain, around whose base the road winds, after 
 crossing the bridge, is well worth ascending. The town of Old Deer- 
 field, five miles farther, is of great historical interest, and in it are many 
 memorials of the fierce French and Indian wars that more than once 
 devastated it. The return drive may be made through the North Hatfield 
 meadows, dire(?tly south, and across the river by the Hatfield ferry, and 
 thence to Amherst. 
 
 In Pelham the fishing-rod factory of the Montague City Rod Com- 
 pany is an interesting place to visit. It is about two miles directly east 
 from Main Street. This industry was founded in the year i860 by 
 H. Gray & Son, and was the first factory known in which fishing-rods 
 were made by machinery. The founders carried on a constantly increas- 
 ing business for fourteen years, and in 1874 sold out to J. (t. Ward & Co. 
 
 Looking -toward North Amherst. 
 
 This firm continued until 1880, when the business passed into the hands 
 of Bartlett Brothers. The senior member of this firm, L. L. Bartlett, 
 withdrew in 1883, and E. P. Bartlett, sole proprietor during the next six 
 years, greatly enlarged the plant, and trebled the amount of business. 
 
40 
 
 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 In 1889 the business combined with the Montague City Rod Company, 
 This company now employs at this factory a full force of fifty hands, 
 and has a constantly increasing business. Their annual output is about 
 75,000 fishing-rods of all grades, ranging from the boys' cheaj) rod 
 to the finest Cerman silver mounted split bamboo rods. The catalogue 
 contains descriptions of the two hundred different styles of fishing-rods 
 manuflictured. The stock used is the native ash, maple, and birch ; also 
 lancewood and greenheart wood imported from the West Indies, and bam- 
 boo poles from Calcutta. Mr. K. 1'. IJartlett, who is now in charge at this 
 
 The Fishing-Rod Factory. 
 
 factory, has been connected with the business ever since it started, and 
 as either part or sole owner during the last seventeen vears. It is owing 
 in a large measure to his energy and business capacity that the business 
 has grown and developed to its present large volume. His enterprise 
 has aided very materially in the growth oS. the manufacturing interest of 
 Amherst. The Montague City Rod Company has another large factory 
 for fishing-rods at Montague (jty. The officers of the company are : 
 President, L. I,. T.ardett of Montague City; treasurer, C. W. Hazelton 
 of Turner's Falls. E. P. BarUett is one of the directors of the company, 
 and superintendent of the factory at Pelham. Amherst is the post-office 
 address of this branch of the firm. 
 
THE HAA'DBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 41 
 
 West Pelham church ; four miles ; and thence southward, behind 
 the first mountain range following a mad brook down to Pansy Park, is a 
 pleasant drive. The way is about fifteen miles if the return to Amherst 
 is by going southeasterly to the Bay road, and thence through South 
 Amherst. 
 
 Mount Lincoln is a drive of about six miles due east to the West 
 Pelham meeting-house, and thenre soutli, clinging to the left-hand roads 
 
 The Tower on Mount Lincoln, 
 
 with guide-boards. The roads follow a deep chasm at the left, a private 
 graveyard at the right, the mountain woods, and along the mountain top 
 to the summit. The tower is twelve hundred feet above the seadevel, 
 the surrounding valleys, and no other point gives a clearer idea of the 
 Connecticut Valley as a whole. As the position is higher than Mounts 
 Holyoke and Tom and the Sugar Loaves, one may look directly across 
 them to the distant and loftier continuations of the ( ireen Mountains. 
 
 Pratt's Corner ; four to six miles, according to the variations ; East 
 Street, turning north, and taking the first road to the northeast. This 
 way is along the valley of the Pelham hills, and fiill of most charming 
 scener3\ 
 
42 
 
 THE IIAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 Pansy Park, the flower farm and seed establishment of L. W. Goodell, 
 is situated about four miles from Amherst, upon the main road to Belcher- 
 town, and about a mile this side of the railroad station, which takes 
 its name from this place. Here in the summer time may be seen 
 more than two thousand varieties of flowering plants, including pansies, 
 asters, pinks, petunias, and many others, being grown by the acre for 
 the seed. Especially during the months of August and September, all 
 these make a gorgeous display of floral beauty, which attracts thousands 
 of visitors annually from for and near. One of the most attractive 
 features of the place is the aquatic garden and artificial pond, con- 
 
 A Flower Field at Pansy Park. 
 
 taining one of the largest collections of water-iiluits gnmn in the o])en 
 air in America. Among other rarities in this collection are several 
 varieties of the Japanese and sacred Egyptian lotus, and about twenty 
 varieties of water-lilies from various parts of the world, including tlie 
 magnificent blue and red lilies from Zanzibar. The cultivation of the 
 latter has until recently been confined to the city parks and the grounds 
 of the wealthy, on account of the high price of the i)lants ; but 
 Mr. (loodell has shown that they can be as easily grown from the 
 seed as the common annuals, and made to flower in tubs, and in this 
 way they are now being grown from seed he has distributed all over 
 the country. The very rare Victoria Regia, from the river Amazon, 
 the largest water-lih' in the world, with leaves from four to six feet 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 43 
 
 across, was flowered at Pansy Park in the summer of 1890 without 
 artificial heat, the first time this has ever been accomphshed in an open 
 pond. The taste for the cultivation of aquatic plants increased so 
 rapidly that the following season Mr. Goodell constructed ponds to 
 cover several acres, and is cultivating this class of plants on a larger 
 scale than has ever before been attempted. In addition to the seeds 
 
 
 \ 
 
 The First Victoria Regia grown without Artificial Heat. 
 
 grown upon the farm, large quantities are imported from the growers 
 of England, Germany, and France, and some varieties that require a 
 long season to mature are grown on contract in the Southern States. 
 A catalogue and price list is published annually in January by Mr. 
 Goodell, and thousands of them sent out. The seeds are put up in 
 hundreds of thousands of packets, and go by mail or express to 
 customers in all parts of the country, and in fact all over the globe, 
 as orders are received from Europe, the East and the West Indies, 
 Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and other foreign lands. Mr. Goodell's 
 success in a business started under discouraging circumstances, and 
 4 
 
44 
 
 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 in competition witli old established firms, is remarkable. He began 
 during the Centennial year, with a capital of only S25, on a poor, 
 run-down farm, which was mortgaged and otherwise deeply in debt. 
 The old homestead, which has been in the Ooodell family for over a 
 century, was a itw years ago one of the most neglected and unsightly 
 in town, and would in the ordinary course of events have become one 
 of the much-talked-of " abandoned farms." It is now a most attractive 
 place, and well worth a long journey to visit. The year Mr. Goodell 
 began business, he had less than two hundred customers, while now there 
 are over fifty thousand. From two hundred to five hundred orders are 
 received daily during the selling season in the winter and spring months. 
 Six years ago, land more suitable for the cultivation of the flowers being 
 needed, Mr. Goodell bought the two estates adjoining his own, where most 
 of the growing has been done. Pansies being one of the leading special- 
 ties, the distinctive name of " Pansy Park" was then given to the place. 
 Belchertown ; ten miles ; a pleasant village on the hills at the 
 southeast. The road is direct after passing through the Kast Amherst 
 
 _ _ village and by the 
 
 1 Agricultural Fair 
 
 grounds. Good 
 hotel accommoda- 
 tions, with several 
 summer residences 
 antl a handsome 
 library building, 
 add to the natural 
 attractiveness of 
 tlie place. A half 
 a mile beyond the 
 Pansy Park Station 
 of the Massachusetts Central Railroad, the road passes the site of the 
 birthplace of Dr. J. G. Holland, the well-remembered author. In the 
 grove, at the right, just before crossing the railroad at Pansy Park Station, 
 there was formerly a school-house in which Henry Ward Beecher, when 
 a student at Amherst College, jireached his first sermon. Beautifiil 
 roads and picnic grounds about the ponds abound between .\mherst 
 and Belchertown. The dri\e from Belchertown to Ijifield offers land 
 views of more than ordinarv loveliness. 
 
 ^**^Wfl^^f'**«- 
 
 
 The Pond in Belchertown. 
 
Page 45. 
 
 A VIEW OF BELCHERTOWN COM.VION. 
 
THE IIAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 47 
 
 South Amherst ; four miles ; South Pleasant Street, following the 
 left-hand road after ascending the hill beyond Mill River. 
 
 The Old Bay Road ; four miles ; the right-hand road after ascending 
 the hill beyond Mill River, once the southern boundary of the town. 
 It runs along the foot of the Holyoke range, was first a bridle-path, and 
 later a part of the stage route between Northampton, Hadley, Brookfield, 
 and Boston. The " Bay Path " has been made memorable by Dr. 
 Holland. The road commands an immense variety of landscape. 
 
 Mount Holyoke Co,,.: ;,..::-i Hadiey. 
 
 The Notch ; five miles ; to the Bay road, thence over the Holyoke 
 Mountain range. This cut was the first outlet of the great lake which 
 once spread over this portion of the Connecticut Valley. 
 
 South Hadley and Granby, each eight miles, are beyond the Notch. 
 The former place is the seat of the Mount Holyoke College for young 
 ladies, a well-known educational institution. Returning home by the 
 road around the base of Mount Holyoke will give variet\-, and add only 
 three miles to the distance. By crossing Smith's Ferry in South Hadley, 
 the only ferry on the river which is operated by the force of the current, 
 and following the river to Northampton, the drive will be lengthened by 
 five miles. Granby is a small town, in early times a portion of Hadley. 
 
48 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 AMHERST OF THE PRESENT. 
 
 lis SITlWriOX— MATERIAL COXDmOX— GLIMPSES ALOXG THE 
 STREETS OE THE VILLAGE — NORTH AMHERST— THE •'CITV — 
 EAST STREET— SOUTH AMHERST. 
 
 THE town of Amherst occupies a position a little east of the centre 
 of Hampshire County, which was established by act of the General 
 Court, May 7, 166.2. The original county included the present 
 Berkshire County, set off in 1761; Franklin County, set off in 181 1; 
 and Hampden County, set off in 181 2. There is but one city in Hamp- 
 shire County, Northampton, and of the twenty-two towns, Amherst is 
 the second ui point of population. The total population of the county, 
 according to the national census of 1890, was 51,859. 
 
 Adjoining Amherst are : Sunderland and Leverett, in Franklin County, 
 on the north ; Shutesbury, in Franklin County, Pelham, and Belcher- 
 town, on the east ; Granby, on the south ; and Hadley, on the west. 
 On two sides, nature has provided the town sharp bountlary lines in the 
 ranges of the Pelham hills and Holyoke mountains. 
 
 Between these and the highlands, where the main village lies, inter- 
 vene broad valleys, which stretch away westward, to the banks of tiie 
 peaceful river. Several minor streams traverse the town in their ]o\\x- 
 ney to the Connecticut, here and there broadening into graceful ponds, 
 which never fail to attract the migrating water-fowl in sjiring and fall, 
 affording many a gootl shot to the chance sportsman. The woods 
 and the brooks as well furnish in their seasons similar amusement, 
 although the latter are fast becoming desolated. The whirr of the 
 I)artridge, the chatter of the squirrel, and the b()l)l)ing white tail of 
 the rabbit, frecpiently startle the wandering scholar who loves co give 
 himself to solitude and communion with nature. Sometimes a very 
 shrewd luuiter is permitted to hear and see these things, if he is careful 
 to be unarmed. 
 
 The area of .\niherst is about twenty-eight and three-ijuarters S(iuare 
 miles, and its \iliages are .Amherst, Nortii .\mlierst. North .\mherst 
 "city," i'^ast Amherst, or ICast Street, and .South .\mherst. 
 
1. Amity Street. 
 
 2. Lincoln Avenue. 
 
 3. Prospect Street. 
 
 REFERENCES. 
 
 4. North Pleasant Street. 
 
 5. Main Street. 
 
 6. Spring Street. 
 
 7. College Street. 
 
 8. South Pleasant Street. 
 
 9. Northampton Street. 
 
THE HAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 5' 
 
 The distances from the centre to the surrounding villages are : 
 North Amherst and the " city," two miles ; East Amherst, one mile ; 
 South Amherst, four miles. North Amherst "city" is a mile eastward 
 from North Amherst. 
 
 The roads and streets that connect these villages with each other and 
 with the neighboring towns are, in the main, the smoothest and most 
 comfortable of country thoroughfares. Within the limits of constant 
 and heavy travel they are laid and kept in repair with a thoroughness 
 seldom seen in towns of equal size. Their entire length is about seventy- 
 five miles. 
 
 The New London Northern Railroad has stations at South Amherst, 
 Amherst, and North /Vmherst " city." The distance from New London, 
 Conn., where the road connects with the New York, Providence, and 
 Boston and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroads, and 
 with the steamer for New York, to Amherst is 85 miles ; from ^Villiman- 
 tic, connecting with the New York and New England road, 56 miles ; 
 from Palmer, connecting with the Boston and xA^lbany, 20 miles ; from 
 Belchertown, connecting with the Massachusetts Central, 10 miles; 
 from Brattleboro, connecting with the Connecticut River, and the 
 Central Vermont, 36 miles ; and from Miller's Falls, connecting with 
 the Fitchburg, 15 miles. 
 
 The Massachusetts Central Railroad was extended through Amherst 
 in 1888, and has stations at South Amherst and Amherst. Boston is 96 
 miles distant ; Oakdale, where connections are made with the Worcester 
 and Nashua Railroad, 55 miles ; Belchertown, connecting with the New 
 London Northern, 9 miles ; and Northampton, connecting with the 
 Connecticut River and the New York, New Haven and Hartford roads, 
 8 miles. 
 
 In pohtics, Amherst is usually found within the Republican fold. Its 
 local elections are not carried on strongly marked political lines, but 
 they are frequently more exciting than the State or national contests. 
 There are about one thousand voters. 
 
 A few statistics will give the practical reader an idea of the material 
 conditions of the town. The tax rate for the year 1890 was $15.75 on 
 every $1000, and during the four years previous averaged $15.50. In 
 comparing this rate with that of other towns, the discount of- ten per 
 cent allowed in return for early payments must be taken into consid- 
 eration. 
 
52 THE IIAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 Law and order have an almost undisputed sway over Amherst, and 
 the guardians of the peace are hmited to a dozen constables and one 
 night patrolman. The grounds of the two colleges are protected by 
 specially appointed watchmen. The town lock-up is with rare excep- 
 tions desolate of inmates. It frequently shelters a weary tramp from 
 the cold, but offenders against the law, scarcely at the rate of a half- 
 dozen a year. 
 
 The fire department consists of two hose companies and a hook and 
 ladder company, all under the charge of a board of twelve engineers 
 appointed by the selectmen. In 1891 thirty-eight men comprised the 
 working force of firemen. Hydrants are located at convenient intervals 
 in the thickly settled portions of the town, and the force of the water 
 supply is such that the hand-engine is seldom called into service. In 
 the past four years, since 1887, the average number of fires has been 
 five. 
 
 The main village of .Amherst is lighted by gas and electricity. 
 
 A water system was introiluced by a private company in 1881, supply- 
 ing all the main portions of the town. The source of the supply is 
 Amethyst I]rook, four miles distant, in Pelham, and chemical examina- 
 tion has shown the water to be of excellent purity. 
 
 Shortly after the introduction of water, a sewerage system was planned 
 by the several influential citizens, and put in at the expense of benefit- 
 ing abutters. It now consists of tliree divisions emptying into running 
 brooks in different parts of the village, and the service is sufticient for 
 the accommodation of all living in this portion of the town. 
 
 One of the most attractive features of the village of Amherst is the 
 Common, a long stretch of greensward reaching from the .Amherst Col- 
 lege buildings to the business blocks. Previous to 18S0 it was an 
 unsightly swamp, and was changed to its present good condition through 
 the efforts of William A. Dickinson, Esq. The expenses were defrayed 
 by private sul)scri])tion, and at i)rcsent it is largely cared for by the 
 local improvement society. 
 
 The national census of 1890 i)laccd the po])ulation of .\mherst at 
 4512, — an increase of 214 in ten years. .As augmenting the social and 
 business life of the town, the 500 students attending the two colleges 
 may well be added to this number. The actual growth of the town may 
 be readil)' seen from these census figures: In 1776 there were 915 
 inhabitants; '790, 1233; 1800, 1358; 1810, 1469; 1820, 191 7; 1830, 
 
THE HAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 55 
 
 2631; 1840, 2550; 1850, 3057; i860, 3206; 1870, 4035; 1880, 
 4298. 
 
 The elevated situation, the pure air from the hills, the excellent water 
 suppl}^ and the freedom of a country life, combined with the material 
 comforts of modern homes, make Amherst one of the healthiest and most 
 cheerful of the towns of Western Massachusetts. The deaths average 
 about sixty-five in a year, and the proportion of sickness is small. 
 
 Amherst exults in still retaining that ancient emblem of pure democ- 
 racy, the town-meeting, and many are the patriotic words, sage counsels, 
 and, it must be confessed, now and then, bits of oratorical filling, that 
 have echoed in the ears of the oldest inhabitants at these assemblages 
 of the people. The college boys have always been zealous in their 
 attendance upon town-meetings, and there is more than one legend 
 among them of the absurdities that were gravely legislated upon in the 
 mythical times when students are said to have been allowed to cast their 
 votes on important town matters. If such times ever did exist, no one 
 can clearly remember them, although of course this casts no doubt upon 
 the truth of these circulating stories. The annual meeting, when officers 
 are elected and appropriations made, occurs on the first Monday in 
 March. 
 
 The yearly expenditures of the town reach about $42,000. In 1890 
 they were Si 10,947, which included the cost of the new town hall. The 
 public debt in that year was $142,000. The total valuation of taxable 
 property was $3,290,128. About $2,000,000 is untaxable. The taxable 
 personal property amounted to $931,314, and real estate $2,358,814. 
 
 The educational interests of Amherst are well provided for in the 
 annual appropriations. The schools in 1891 were eleven in number, 
 with twenty-one regular teachers. The expenditures for schools in the 
 year 1890-91 were $11,499, or $14 for every pupil. The school build- 
 ings and land are valued at about $60,000. Amherst schools rank well 
 among those of the State. W. D. Parkinson has been superintendent 
 since 1893. 
 
 The village of xAmherst is the business centre of the town. Three 
 short brick blocks, wherein are located the majority of the stores of the 
 town, radiate from the Amherst House, a hostelry bearing an enviable 
 reputation throughout the State. For many years this site has been 
 occupied by the hotel of the town. The original building was burned, 
 with the rest of the blocks in Merchants' Row, in 1879. The jiresent 
 
56 THE II A XD BOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 house was built directly after the fire, and is owned by the Conkey 
 heirs. Ordinarily, one hundred guests may be accommodated, and at 
 such occasions as the commencement of the colleges, special arrange- 
 ments nearly double this capacity. I). H. Kendrick has been the pro- 
 prietor since 1S94. Connected with the hotel, T. L. Paige kis a finely 
 equipped livery stable. 
 
 About this end of the village Common are clustered the post-office, 
 town liall, banks, newspaper office, and stores. At the further end rises 
 College Hill, with its group of college buildings. 
 
 The village post-ofifice and the Amherst Savings Bank are located in 
 the block next the hotel. The employees of the post-office handle 
 about 1,000,000 letters and 580,000 papers in a single year, and the 
 cash receipts are never flir from $10,000 a year. 
 
 The Savings Bank was incorporated Ai)ril 15, 1S64, and began busi- 
 ness the 2d of January following. The amount of deposits, January i, 
 1891, was $1,359,419. E. F. Cook was then presi lent. 
 
 The comfortable quarters of the Amherst Club are in the next block, 
 which belongs to B. H. Williams. This club was organized in 189 1 by 
 the young business men of the town, and it has handsomely ap|K)inted 
 reception, reading, and billiard rooms. Herbert T. Cowles was the first 
 president. 
 
 The Amherst National Bank, in Hunt's Block, was organized in J.uiu-, 
 ary, 1864, largely through the infiuence of tlie late Leonard M. Hills, 
 who became its first president. At Mr. Hills' death, I,. 1 ). Hills suc- 
 ceeded to the office, which he has since held. The capital of the bank 
 is $150,000. 
 
 The Baptist church stood for many years next to Hunt's Block. The 
 society was organized as a branch of the New Silem and I'rescott 
 church, November 8, 1827, later becoming a branch of the church at 
 Northampton, and recognized as an independent organization on .\ugust 
 3, 1S32. This building was erected in 1855. 'l"he pastor in 1894 was 
 Rev. G. L. Holman. 
 
 Across the Common, on the corner of Spring Street, is the Crace 
 Episcopal church, a handsome gray-stone structure, with a curious 
 finger-like sjure at one corner of the tower. The Right Reverend 1'. IX 
 Huntingt(jn, Rjishop of Cer.tral New York, organized the sociel\', with 
 thirty-seven members, Se[)tember 12, 1864. Rev. S. 1'. Barker, 1 ).!)., 
 was installed as the first i)astor, January 11, 1865, and until March of 
 
TJIE HAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 59 
 
 the year following, services v/ere held in the hall of the old Amherst 
 Academy building, then standing on the present site of the Amity Street 
 Grammar School. The church building was consecrated July 17, 1866 : 
 it cost $40,000, and has a seating capacity of five hundred. At present 
 there is a generous active membership, and since 1S93 the Rev. David 
 Sprague has been the rector. 
 
 The town hall is a picturesque building of brick, red sandstone, and 
 granite. It was erected by the town in 1SS9 at a cost of $58,000, H. S. 
 jMcKay of Boston being the designer. In addition to a handsome hall, 
 seating eight hundred and fifty persons, there are rooms for the town 
 officers, the district court, the town library, and several business men. 
 
 In the rear of this hall, Company K, 2d Regiment, M. V. M., has a 
 large armory, built by the town in 1S90 and rented to the State. The 
 company was organized November 19, 1887, and in 1891 had full ranks 
 with E. G. Thayer, captain; W, A. Thayer, ist lieutenant; F. A. Bard- 
 well, 2d lieutenant. It was disbanded in 1894. 
 
 In the rear of the American House Block, opposite, is the office of 
 the Amherst Record, a thriving weekly, which was established in 1848. 
 It first appeared in 1844 under the name of the HampsJiire ami Fraiik- 
 lin Express, Samuel C. Nash being editor. In 1S65 it became the Haiiip- 
 sliire Express, and three years later, the Avihcrst Record. The Record 
 is published every Wednesday afternoon, and its editors, Carpenter & 
 jMorehouse, are the proprietors of a large job and book printing business, 
 
 Kellogg's Block, at this end of the Phoanix Row, stands upon the site 
 of the home of Noah Webster, who resided in Amherst from 181 2 to 
 1822. The house was destroyed by fire in 1838. 
 
 Masonic Hall, in Cook's Block, is the headcpiarters of the Pacific 
 Lodge of Masons, the E. M. Stanton Post 147, of the Grand Army, and 
 the Women's Rehef Corps. 
 
 It is a peculiarity of the village, that the chief streets radiate in every 
 direction from the Common, The most satisfactory results, therefore, 
 of an attempt to see whatever there is of interest, will be obtained by 
 taking the Common as a starting-place for a walk through each one. 
 They are not in any case thickly populated for more than a tjuarter of 
 a mile from the Common, and a raml)le about them, while not occupy- 
 ing a long time, will well repay an admirer of country scenery, in the 
 sight of the many comfortal)le homes, — for Amherst is truly a village 
 of homes, — -and now and then the distant landscapes of rare beauty. 
 5 
 
6o THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 From the side of the Amherst House, Amity Street, the " old road " 
 to Hadley, extends directly westward to the town boundary, Plain- 
 ville, and the Connecticut River. It is the modern survivor of one 
 of the original roads of the town, laid out with a width of forty rods in 
 
 1703- 
 The building opposite is a veritable landmark. When it was but one 
 
 story high, it contained the town's first post-office, which was removed 
 
 from East Amherst about 1820. The first postmaster sold out, after 
 
 being a few years m this place, to one Jared \Vhite, who paid $100 
 
 for the business, and continued it in the same location. The building 
 
 was purchased by Frank P. W^ood, who opened it as Wood's Hotel in 
 
 1882. It is best known to the college boys as "Frank's," and the 
 
 warm-hearted proprietor has had a permanent position in the usually 
 
 fickle affections of the boys, ever since he first demonstrated to them 
 
 his skill as a cook and his kindness as a friend. More than one class 
 
 and club has celebrated their friendship for the man and the place in 
 
 their publications, and many a delectable game bird, rare-bit, or lobster 
 
 have they enjoyed during the days when the restaurant was open. 
 
 " Frank" entered private life in 1889, but as a caterer he is still in great 
 
 demand. It is now an annex of the Amherst House. 
 
 The Grammar School building opposite stands upon the site of 
 Amherst Academy, in its day the most prominent educational institu-„ 
 tion in this part of the State, and very influential in the founding of 
 Amherst College. Opened in December, 18 14, the incorporators, when 
 the charter was granted two years later, included all the leading citizens 
 of the town, which was then about one-fourth its present population. 
 Yox a dozen years both sexes were admitted to the Academy. A poor 
 student preparing for the ministry was required to pay no tuition, and 
 very frequently found kind people who gladly gave him his board. The 
 number of pupils attending the Academy at one time amounted to ninety 
 of each sex. After young ladies had been excludctl, the number varied 
 between seventy-five and one hundred. Conne(^ted with the Academy as 
 a i)upil was Mary Lyon, the founder of Mount Holyoke College at South 
 lladley. Amoni; the teachers, since become prominent, was the venera- 
 ble Professor William S. Tyler of Amherst College. The Academy build- 
 ing was a three-story brick structure, and being considered unsafe, was 
 taken down in 1S68 to make way iox the present school-house. 
 
 The old homestead of Judge Strong, once the adjutant-general of 
 
^mm^^i^;?A ^:,v^g%i^- ■••• 
 
 Pa"e 6i. 
 
 GRACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
 
THE IIAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 63 
 
 Massachusetts, stands some distance back from the street. It is now 
 owned by Mrs. S. E. Emerson. 
 
 South Prospect Street. 
 
 Among the other residences on Amity Street are those of Professor E. 
 P. Crowell, Dean of Amherst College ; E. Pj. Marsh, registrar of Amherst 
 College ; Professor Charles Wellington, Dr. Charles k. Goessmann, Pro- 
 fessor G. F. Mills, all of the Agricultural College, and the summer home of 
 Hiram Heaton of New York. President H. H. Goodell of the Agricul- 
 tural College lives on Sunset Avenue, near Amity. On Lincoln Avenue, 
 leading directly to the Agricultural College, is one of the finest views in 
 the town. On this street is the house of Mrs. C. D. Adams. 
 
 That portion of Pleasant Street which extends northward from the 
 hotel is most aptly named. For the distance of a quarter of a mile, 
 great straight-trunked elms line each side of the road, almost uniting 
 their branches overhead, and sheltering in the warm summer time many 
 a tuneful katydid. The residences on the left side of the street are 
 those of E. D. Bangs, the treasurer of the Savings Bank ; the Conkey 
 Mansion, now the parish home of St. Bridget's church, and occupied 
 by the pastor, the Rev. J. H. Gavin; the home of Levi Cowles, standing 
 a generous distance back from the street ; and the dwelling of George 
 Cutler. On the other side, live W. H. Long, William Kellogg, whose 
 
64 
 
 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 house is on land bought from Noah Webster, and Dr. O. F. Bigelow. 
 The Universalist Society, organized November, 1887, has erected a new 
 church building here. The services were held in Masonic Hall pend- 
 ing the erection of the church, and the Rev. J. H. Holden is pastor. 
 
 The village cemetery includes within its limits the graveyard that 
 was laid out by the town of Hadley in 1730. 
 
 On the road toward the Agricultural College is the St. Bridget's 
 Roman Catholic church, built in 1871. Previous to that time the 
 
 North Pleasant Street. 
 
 Catholics of the town held their meetings in Palmer's Pilock. on the site 
 of which the town liall now stands. Until 1872 the pastors came from 
 Northami)ton, but in that year Rev. Francis Hrennan was installed. The 
 pastor since 1892, Rev. J. H. Gavin, is also pastor of the Hadley 
 church. 
 
 A short distance beyond is the residence of H. D. Fearing, manu- 
 facturer of straw hats. 
 
 Leaving Pleasant Street here, it will be interesting to return to Mount 
 Pleasant Street, which extends over the hills to North .\mherst " city." 
 A short distance from the fork of the two roads is W'ildwood Cemetery, 
 a most beautiful spot, bought and laid out in 1888 by a private cor- 
 poration. 
 
THE IIAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 67 
 
 Within this forlc, standing high above the roads at either side, and 
 commanding a splendid view of the village and of the Connecticut 
 Valley, is the Mt. Pleasant Institute, of which William K. Nash is the 
 principal. The situation is one of the most beautiful in all Amherst, 
 as anyone who has visited it will testify. The large, generous build- 
 ings of the colonial style, surrounded by twenty acres of grounds 
 belonging to the estate, and shaded by handsome forest trees, offer an 
 ideal home for growing boys. The institute is designed for the educa- 
 tion of boys in the broadest sense of the term, including not only the 
 cultivation of the intellect, but the moulding of character and the 
 
 Mt. Pleasant Institute. 
 
 development of good health. Not more than sixteen pupils are accom- 
 modated at one time, as it is believed that a larger number cannot 
 receive the best attention and care. The courses of study include 
 a thorough preparation for college, school of technology, or for busi- 
 ness. The school was established in 1846. 
 
 Returning to the village square, a walk to the American House brings 
 one to the corner of Lessey Street. The first two estates, on the left, 
 belong to E. P. Cook, the president of the Savings Bank. The second 
 of these is occupied by Mr. Cook, and the first by Frank P. Wood, 
 who formerly kept Wood's Hotel on Amity Street. For many years 
 the Northampton and Amherst stages, owned by Mr. Cook, made their 
 
68 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 two daily trips from the stables in the rear of this house. At the com- 
 pletion of the railroad they were discontinued. The place is of historical 
 interest, as it includes an orchard i)lanted by Noah Webster. 
 
 Upon Oak Grove Hill, over which Lessey Street leads, are the resi- 
 dences of Rev. W. S. Tyler, D.D., of Amherst College, and his son, 
 Professor J. M. Tyler. The house of Dr. Tyler was the birthplace and 
 youthful home of Helen Hunt Jackson, whose writings, under the nom- 
 de-plume " H. H.," still charm many readers. 
 
 The Chapter liouses of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity are on the 
 summit of the hill. The " Oak Grove School " for young ladies occupies 
 the colonial mansion, formerly the residence of J. Howard Sweetser of 
 New York, on the opposite side of the street. This school was founded 
 in 1885, and is conducted by Miss V. W. Buffam, a graduate of Welles- 
 ley College, assisted by an able corps of instructors. The aim of the 
 school is to train up girls with healthy bodies, sound minds, and refined 
 manners. The facilities can hardly be excelled. The boarding pupils 
 enjoy a well-kept home in a charming situation. Preparation is here 
 made for college, several of the best institutions in the State accepting 
 the certificates of the school in place of regular examinations for admis- 
 sion. 
 
 Main Street is a well-travelled thoroughfare along which one may look 
 from the verandas of the Amherst House. It crosses New London; 
 Northern Railroad near the station, and extends through East Amherst 
 to Pelham. 
 
 The meeting-house of the First Congregational Society, on the right 
 side of the street, was dedicated September 23, 1868, the corner-stone 
 having been laid September 21st of the previous year. The society dates 
 back to the earliest settlement of the town, when there was no distinction 
 between the religious and political body. The business of the parish 
 was transacted in public meeting, and the necessary funds for its sup- 
 l)(jrt were raised by taxation, togetlicr with those needed for highways 
 and the other usual expenses of a town. Tlie first meeting-house was 
 built about 1740, upon the site of tlie present college Observatory. It 
 was a severely j^lain structure without and within, .\round the sides 
 were ranged the pews, the men sitting on one side and the women on 
 the other. 'I'he first minister was Rev. David Parsons. In 1788 a 
 meeting-house of a more elaborate character was erectetl upon the same 
 site, and three years after, private individuals contributed the money for 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. /I 
 
 the belfry. The opening of the College was followed by a need for bet- 
 ter accommodations, and the third building, the present College Hall, was 
 erected in 1S29. This cost ;$65oo, and originally had a portico in front 
 supported by huge pillars. When it was finished, the society decided 
 that the town should hold no meetings in it, and it was after it had 
 been occupied some years that the people became worldly enough to 
 allow stoves, kerosene lights, and an organ to be admitted. The growth 
 
 of the society since it has occupied the present building has been steady. 
 It has now the largest membership in the town, excepting only the col- 
 lege church. The building cost $75,000. In the spring of 1890 the 
 church celebrated its one hundred and fiftieth anniversary. Since 
 1892 Rev. Frank L. Goodspeed has l)een pastor. 
 
 The residence of William A. Dickinson, Esq., treasurer of Amherst 
 College, is situated upon the opposite side of the street. The estate 
 adjoining has long been in the possession of the Dickinson family, and 
 is now the home of INIiss Lavinia Dickinson, whose sister, Emily Dick- 
 inson, left, at her death, the wonderful poems which have since been 
 
72 
 
 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 published. This house was the first brick building in Amherst. The 
 residence of the late Professor R. H. Mather is at the ritrht. During 
 the first year of his administration, President Gates occupied the house. 
 Mrs. T. B. Hitchcock resides in the house between it and the church. 
 
 Further down the street, and standing some distance back, are the 
 residences of Leonard D. Hills, president of the National Bank, and of 
 Henry F. Hills, president of The Hills Company, manufacturers of 
 straw goods. 
 
 Beyond the railroad, on the same street, is the church building of 
 tiie Methodist Episcopal Society, first organized in 1868, with Rev. E. 
 
 F. Pitcher, pastor, and reorganized in 1S75, under Rev. S. L. Rogers. 
 The present building was erected in 1879. In 1894 Rev. A. Scpn'res 
 was the i)astor. 
 
 The residence of S. A, Stevens is on the same side, near the East 
 Street. 
 
 Grouped near the railroad station of the New London Northern road 
 are the only manufactories of the village. The wooden buildings of The 
 Hills Company are devoted to the manufiicturing of straw goods. In 
 the season closing May, 1891, this company made 350,000 dozen straw 
 hats. G. B. Burnett & Sons occupy the brick building. Each year 
 tliey turn out a large line of the finer grades of straw hats. 
 
 Spring Street, extending eastward from the centre of the village 
 
74 ^l^lfl'- J/AXDBOOK OF .LUI/ERS/: 
 
 Common, has several pleasant residences, among them that of Professor 
 D. P. Todd of Amherst College. The High School Iniilding. built about 
 iS6o, is here. 
 
 College Street is parallel with Spring Street. On the corner of the 
 Common is the Beta Theta I'hi Mouse, and l)eyond, the Chi Phi and 
 the Phi Delta Theta houses. The residences here include those of 
 Dr. H. H. Seelye, assistant in the physical culture department of the 
 Amherst College; Mrs. Laurens P. Hic':ok, widow of the late Dr. 
 Hickok, whose works on philosophy perjjetuate his name ; exT^resident 
 Julius H. Seelye, whose connection with Amherst College dates from 
 1S55 ; Professor W. L. Montague, of Amherst College, and the director 
 of the Summer School of Languages; Dr. Edward Hitchcock, son of 
 the president of Amherst College of that name; Mrs. A. L Cooper; 
 and Dr. T. P. I-ield. 
 
 A short distance beyond the railroad bridge, at the right on South 
 Pleasant Street, is Mt. Doma, Mrs. R. G. Williams' Select Family 
 School for girls. The })ast success of this institution has won it a repu- 
 tation among its friends and pupils. It is recommended for its faithful 
 and earnest instruction by man)- well-known educators. It is con- 
 ducted by an able coips of teachers. 
 
 On South Pleasant Street, beyond College Hill, are the Delta Upsilon 
 House and the residence of IMrs. Edward Tuckerman. P>eyond the 
 railroad bridge is the home of the Misses Snell, daughters of tiie late 
 Professor E. S. Snell of Amherst College, l^ver since the death of Pro- 
 fessor Snell, the weather statistics of the College have been kept and 
 published from this house. 
 
 A short distance from here is the residence of Professor A. L. 
 Kimball of Amherst College, and beyond the railroad bridge is the 
 home of Professor Iv P. Harris of the same institution. 
 
 Pleasantly located on Park Street is the residence of Mrs. W. F. 
 Stearns, whose father, Dr. William A. Stearns, was one of the presi- 
 dents of Amherst College. Mrs. Stearns has here a Home School for 
 \'oung Ladies, the oldest institution of its kind in Amherst. It offers, 
 in addition to a thoroughly attractive home, all the advantages for an 
 intellectual training, and for careful i)h\sical, social antl religious cul- 
 ture, that can be found in the best and most exclusive private schools 
 in the ICastern States. Mrs. Stearns personally conducts the affairs of 
 
THE IIAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 75 
 
 the school and is assisted by an able staff of teachers. The school 
 offers especially fine opportunities for studying music and painting, in 
 addition to the usual courses in the languages and other studies. The 
 location is an admirable one. It is very healthful and convenient, 
 and yet is sufficiently removed from the more travelled roads to ensure 
 privacy. The school has many influential friends and is highly recom- 
 mended bv them. 
 
 Mill Valley. 
 
 At Mill Valley, a mile from the village, on South Pleasant Street, is 
 a picturesque group of comfortable farmhouses. 
 
 Northampton Street is the direct road to Northampton. On the 
 corner opposite College Hall is the Psi Upsilon House, and next to it 
 is the Chi Psi Lodge. Still further from the Common are the Theta 
 Delta Chi House and the homes of Professor William Covvles, Pro- 
 fessor H. H. Neill of Amherst College, O. D. Hunt, a prominent 
 merchant, and Professor B. K. Emerson, Professor A. D. Morse, and 
 Dr. J. E. Tuttle of Amherst College. 
 
 At the corner of Parsons Street, the first left, is the Zion Congrega- 
 tional church, established and supported by the students of Amherst 
 6 
 
76 THE HANDBOOK OF A^[HKRSr. 
 
 College. The building was erected in 1868, and in 1891 Rev. Milton 
 Waldo was the pastor. 
 
 On Lincoln Street, near the Theta Delta Chi House, is the home of 
 Professor Levi .S. Elwell. 
 
 Dr. ^Llrshall Henshaw and Prof. G. D. Olds live on Orchard Street. 
 On this street and on Northampton Street are entrances to the athletic 
 field of Amherst College. 
 
 North Amherst. — The road from Amherst follows along the rich 
 highlands, descending a short hill or two, and rising again as it nears the 
 village. Here everything clusters about a pleasant square, the stately 
 white church, a brick school, stores, and neat dwellings. Just beyond 
 the settlement the historic Mill River, once the northern boundary of 
 the town, flows westward to the Connecticut. North Amherst " city " 
 is a mile to the east, and Factory Hollow, a diminutive but active manu- 
 facturing settlement, is a short distance to the north. 
 
 The church building of the North Congregational Society was built 
 in 1826. It contains a fine organ, the gift of Mrs. G. E. Fisher. The 
 society was organized November 15, 1826. Rev. Eber W. Ga\lord 
 was the pastor in 1891. 
 
 The school building is occupied by a primary and a grammar school. 
 The North Amherst Library Association has a collection of nearly two 
 thousand volumes for public use in this building. 
 
 The i^ost-ofifice was established about 1839. The nearest railroad 
 station is at the " City." 
 
 Among the residences here are those of Henry W. Haskins, several 
 years one of the selectmen of the town, Edmund Hobart, and Jonathan 
 Cowles, whose farm is one of the largest in the State. 
 
 North Amherst " City" is not so large as its name would lead one 
 to believe. The confiding visitor exi)ects something more than the 
 single street, with its railroad station, store, church, and school- house. 
 Peside some cheerful houses, and a factory or two, that is all there is. 
 The village cemetery is a short distance on the road to Amherst. 
 
 The Methodist Society, whose litUe meeting-house stands near the 
 railroad track, was not regularly organized until INLarch 9, 1849, four 
 years after the dedication of the building. ICxtensive repairs were 
 made upon the house in 1876. The pastor in 1894 was Rev. J. 
 Meracle. 
 
 There is no post-office at the "City"; all the mail goes to North 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AM HER ST. 8 1 
 
 Amherst, or is opened informally at the railroad station by the post- 
 master, who drives over for it. 
 
 The little Queen Anne school-house was built in 1890. Among the 
 residences is that of A. R. Cushman, whose leather-board mills are some 
 distance beyond the centre of the village. 
 
 East Amherst, or "East Street," as it is locally and perhaps better 
 known, is a mile eastward from the main village, Amherst. Like that 
 place, it is built around a grassy remnant of one of the old wide roads, 
 the east street, laid out in 1704. This village in the early part of the 
 century was the active centre of the town. As late as the year 1825, 
 town-meetings were held in the church which then stood at the head of 
 the Common, where the iron water trough now is. The post-office is a 
 branch of that at Amherst. 
 
 The Second Congregational church was built in 1839, the first meet- 
 ing-house of the society having been erected in 1790. Since 1886 Rev. 
 F. J. Fairbanks has been pastor. 
 
 The present beautiful Common was laid out by the enterprise of sev- 
 eral public-spirited citizens, among them Charles O. Parmenter, at one 
 time representative to the General Court. 
 
 East Amherst had the first post-office of the town. It was in the 
 house now occupied by Willard M. Kellogg, on East Street, some dis- 
 tance north of the village store, and was opened about the year 1815, 
 Rufus Kellogg being postmaster. The mails arrived only once a week 
 at those times, and it is within the memory of Mr. Willard Kellogg that 
 his father was summoned from the hayfield by the blowing of a horn to 
 change the mail while the carrier, who came on horseback, sought rest 
 and refreshment. Rufus Kellogg, after a few years, moved the office to 
 the main village, keeping it in the building now occupied by Frank 
 Wood. At the right on the Pelham road, just beyond its corner, near 
 the residence of Noah Dickinson, and the Common, there stood in 1787 
 a tavern kept by Oliver Clapp, a friend and sympathizer of Daniel Shays, 
 the leader of Shays' Rebellion. Landlord Clapp is said to have given 
 aid and comfort in various ways to the insurgent captain. On the retreat 
 of Shays from Springfield, January 28, 1787, with his eleven hundred 
 men, a halt was made at the hostelry, but not for a long stay, as General 
 Lincoln, commanding the State militia, was following in the rear. Just 
 after Captain Shays had departed toward Pelham, eleven sleigh-loads of 
 his provisions stopped at the tavern, where the horses were about to be 
 
82 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 fed, but the loyal innkeeper hurried them after the retreating rebels, who 
 were in great need of the stores, and would have been seriously affected 
 if General Lincoln had appeared in time to take the loaded sleighs. 
 
 After Clapp's tavern was given up, another was built at the north end 
 of the Common. This is still standing, though it has outlived its first 
 use by many years. 
 
 On the east side of the Common is the okl residence of Oeneral Kbene- 
 zer Mattoon, a major in the Revolution, member of Congress in 1801, 
 a sheriff of Hampshire Country, major-general and adjutant-general of 
 the State militia, and captain of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery 
 Company of Boston. He was born in 1755, and died in 1843. 
 
 A short distance from the village Common, on the road to Belcher- 
 town, are the grounds of the Hampshire County Agricultural Society. 
 
 South Amherst is a small farming village in the southeastern part 
 of the town. It has a church, a post-office, and store, and not far away 
 are stations of the Massachusetts Central and New London Northern 
 Railroads. 
 
 The South Congregational church was first organized in 1824, and 
 reorganized in 185S. The church building, erected in 1825, was 
 remodelled in 1843. l^^e first pastor was Rev. H. B. Chapin. Rev. 
 H. W. Boyd was pastor in 1891. 
 
 The post-office was estal)lished in 1838. 
 
 The town almshouse, and farm, near the east street, was rebuilt, after 
 a destructive fire, in 1882. It is valued at about $8000, and yields the 
 town, under the superintendence of Henry C. Dickinson, a good return 
 upon its value. 
 
THE HAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 87 
 
 AMHERST COLLEGE. 
 
 A GLAXCE AT ITS HISTORY— THE COLLEGE OF THE PRESEXT— 
 THE SrALUER SCHOOL OF LAXGUAGES—A TOUR OF THE COL- 
 LEGE Bi'HDIXGS—THE GREEK LETTER FR ATE RX I TIES— THEIR 
 HOUSES. 
 
 AMHERST COLLEGE was opened September iS, 1821, under 
 the name of the " Collegiate Charitable Institution." On this 
 day the first president was inaugurated, and the first building 
 dedicated. 
 
 As long before as 1762, the people of Hampshire County had made 
 several ineffectual attempts to obtain a charter from the Cieneral Court 
 and the Governor of the Province of INLissachusetts to incorporate a 
 " seminary of learning." The matter seems to have been forgotten in 
 the excitement of the approaching war ; but the interest then awakened 
 was only in abeyance, and afterward resulted in the founding of Williams 
 College and the establishment of Amherst Academy. It was from this 
 latter institution that the vVmherst College developed. 
 
 The Academy was opened in 1S14. The residents of Hamjjshire and 
 the surrounding counties subscribed the money needed for its support, 
 and in 18 16 the State granted it a charter. The building stood upon 
 the site of the present grammar school-house on Amity Street ; and the 
 land was the gift of Dr. David Parsons, afterward made president of the 
 Board of Trustees. JNLany distinguished names are to be found upon 
 the books of the Academy, connected with it as teachers and pupils. 
 For years it ranked among the first schools of Massachusetts. 
 
 In 1 81 8, when the trustees were engaged in collecting a scholarship 
 fund of Sro,ooo for " indigent young men with the ministry in view," it 
 became evident that the people were willing to give a larger sum for an 
 institution of a higher grade. Accordingly, after more than $51,000 
 had been gathered in conditional subscriptions, it was voted to found 
 the " Collegiate Charitable Institution." The money thus obtained was 
 the first that Amherst College had, and to-day it is entered on the books 
 of the treasurer as the '• Charitable Fund." 
 
88 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 The laying of the corner-stone of the first building of the Charitable 
 Institution, the present South College, is thus mentioned in the reports 
 of the occasion : "On the ninth of August instant (1820) the Board of 
 Trustees of Amherst Academy, together with the subscribers to the fund 
 then present, a number of the neighboring clergy, and the preceptors 
 and students of the Academy, preceded by the building committee and 
 the workmen, moved in procession from the Academy to the ground 
 of the Charity Institution." The dedication exercises, the fall of the 
 year following, were simple, and opened with an address by Noah 
 Webster, president of the Board of Trustees. The institution began 
 September 19, with forty-seven students and three instructors. 
 
 After the young college had been fairly launched upon its career, the 
 trustees, who were still trustees of the Academy, turned their attention 
 toward obtaining a State charter, which should give them the privileges 
 of a recognized college. It was a long struggle against well-organized 
 opposition from Harvard, Brown, and Williams colleges. State politics 
 were affected not a little by it, but the publicity of the agitation only 
 brought popularity to the infant institution. When the charter, which 
 changed the name to Amherst College, was finally granted, February 25, 
 1825, the number of the students and instructors had increased nearly 
 threefold. Upon those students who had graduated ])rior to the grant- 
 ing of the charter the trustees immediately conferred the honorary 
 degrees due to them. 
 
 The first president of Amherst College was the Rev. Zephaniah Swift 
 Moore, D.D. He had been president of Williams College, resigning 
 that office to accept the position at Amherst. His official term was 
 from September, 182 1, to June 29, 1823, when he died. The following 
 list gives the names and terms of office of the succeeding presidents of 
 the College : — 
 
 Heman Humphrey, D.I > 1823-1845 
 
 Edward Hitchcock, D.D., LI.. l^ 1845-1854 
 
 William Augustus Stearns, D.D., LI..D 1S54-1876 
 
 Julius Hawley Seelye, D.D., I.I..I) 1876-1890 
 
 Merrill Edwards Gates, I'h.D., LL.l)., L.H.I)., chosen president July 
 30, 1890, assumed the duties of the office October 27 of the same year. 
 His formal inauguration occurred at the following commencement. 
 
 The government of the College is vested in a Board of Trustees, whose 
 cor[)orate name is " The Trustees of .\mhcrst College." Its member- 
 
^<e^-5^=«^ 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 93 
 
 ship can never be more than seventeen, of whom seven must be clergy- 
 men and the remainder laymen. 
 
 The College is not sectarian, and there are no sectarian or denomi- 
 national restrictions as to the membership of the Board. 
 
 Five positions are now filled by the alumni of the College, though for 
 nearly fifty years the legislature of the State exercised this power. The 
 Board holds two regular meetings, usually one during commencement 
 week, and the other in the fall of each year, special meetings being 
 called by the president when necessary. The control of the internal 
 affairs of the College is in the hands of the faculty, of whom the presi- 
 dent is the executive officer. This body in 1891 comprised twenty-two 
 professors and nine lecturers and instructors. 
 
 In 1882, at the suggestion of President Seelye, the faculty associated 
 with them in the direction of college affairs a body of ten students, 
 known as the College Senate. The members are elected by their classes, 
 acting under established regulations, — four seniors, three juniors, two 
 sophomores, and one freshman. The president of the College presides 
 at the meetings of the Senate and may veto any of its actions. All 
 questions of decorum and discipline may be brought before it, and 
 offenders may be punished by suspension or expulsion from college. 
 * Since its beginning the plan has proved successful in lessening the 
 number of restriction rules of the College, bringing the students and 
 teachers in close yet dignified relations, and developing a manlier spirit 
 among the students. In a letter to the alumni of the College in the 
 fall of 1888 President Seelye said : — 
 
 "The action of the faculty in referring to the decision of the Senate all questions 
 of college order and decorum has been justified by the result. The Senate have con- 
 sidered such questions, from the first, intelligently and without jiassion; and during 
 the past year there has been an evident growth in their sense of responsibility, and in 
 the weight given to their judgments by the College. The decisions of the Senate 
 have sometimes gone entirely counter to the prevailing wishes of the students ; but 
 they have been accepted, so far as I know, without dissent. The .Senate seems now 
 able, not merely to voice, but to direct, college sentiment on matters submitted to 
 their jurisdiction; and I cannot Ijut think that there is in this an educating force of 
 great worth and promise." 
 
 The Amherst method of student government hns recently been copied 
 by several prominent institutions. The Senate meets monthly at the 
 president's office. 
 
 * In 1894 the Senators were withdrawn by their classes. 
 
94 ^'//^- HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 The departments of instruction may be divided into Philosophy, His- 
 tory and Art, Language and Literature, and Science. The student is 
 offered his choice of a classical or a scientific course, the former entitling 
 him at graduation to the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and the latter to 
 that of Bachelor of Science. 
 
 The work of the first year at Amherst College is prescribed for all 
 students. After the first term of the sophomore year, there is great 
 freedom of choice among an exceedingly broad system of electives. 
 Out of the fourteen to sixteen hours of work in a week for each student 
 through sophomore year, an average of less than five ; through junior 
 year, a little more than one ; and through senior year, a little more than 
 three, — which inckulcs [philosophy anil oratory, — are prescribed for 
 each term. 
 
 The elective studies, open for choice, include the fullest work in 
 CIreek, Latin, French, German, Italian, and Sanskrit ; ample courses in 
 rhetoric and oratory, logic, English literature, biology, both cry])togamic 
 and phenogramic ; zoology, physiology, and general biology, and full 
 opijortunity for laboratory work in chemistry. In geology and miner- 
 alogy the College has held a leading place ever since the work of Presi- 
 dent Hitchcock made its name as well known in I'^ngland and Ocrmany 
 as in America. For physics, the new laboratory will afford, in addition 
 to the general work, ample facilities for full courses in electricity and 
 its application. There are fiill courses in practical and theoretical 
 astronomy with observatory work ; and thorough instruction in history, 
 political economy, political ethics, and the duties of citizenship ; in psy- 
 chology, moral ])hilos()phy. metaphysics, and the history of philosophy, 
 and biblical literature. Physical culture is prescribed throughout the 
 college course. 
 
 Attendance upon college exercises is rrc|nircd. An allowance for 
 necessary absences is made bv permitting the student to remain away 
 from one-tenth of the total number of exercises of each course in a 
 term, without requiring an equivalent. \\\ excess of this proportion of 
 alfsences is made up by specially assigned work, the amount of which 
 is determined by tlie degree of the delinciuency. In llie case of excess 
 of absences from Sunday services and morning prayers, special work in 
 some of the regular courses is required. 
 
 The number of students in the College has averaged ,:;44 during the 
 ten years ending 1891. It is a matter of some interest to ntite that 
 

 
 
 ?ll/)f 
 
 w^ ifc 
 
 w«f|r 
 
 #"/l*' 
 
 Page 93. 
 
 17'///' if( 
 
 COLLEGE HALL. 
 
THE IIAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 97 
 
 during the last few years about one-seventh of all the entering students 
 have come to Amherst from other institutions. In 1891 the students 
 represented thirty States of the Union. The following table gives the 
 number of students and teachers, at intervals of five years, since the 
 founding of the College. It indicates the fact that the largest number 
 in college, until after the year 1866, was 259 in 1S36, and that between 
 these years there was a period of great depression. Since 185 1 the 
 increase has been gradual, but almost constant. 
 
 Year. 
 1821. 
 1826. 
 1831. 
 1836. 
 1841 . 
 1846, 
 1851. 
 1856. 
 
 Students. 
 
 , ... 59 
 
 ... 1 70 
 
 ... 195 
 
 . . . . 259 
 
 ... 142 
 
 1 20 
 
 190 
 
 . . . 229 
 
 Year. 
 
 1861 
 
 1 866. 
 
 1871. 
 
 1876. 
 
 1881. 
 
 1886. 
 
 1891. 
 
 Students. 
 
 ■ • • 235 
 
 ... 203 
 
 , . . . 261 
 
 ••• 338 
 
 • • • 339 
 
 ••• 331 
 
 ••• 351 
 
 Amherst College receives students from a large number of prepara- 
 tory schools, some of the best of which are allowed to enter their pupils 
 on certificate of the work done. 
 
 The following are some of the leatling ones : — 
 
 Adelphi Academy, Brooklyn, X.Y. 
 Boston Latin School, Boston, Mass. 
 Chicago High School, Chicago, 111. 
 Newton High School, Newton, Mass. 
 Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. 
 Phillips Academy, Exeter, N.H. 
 Polytechnic Institute, Brooklyn, N.Y. 
 Roxbury Latin School, Roxbury, Mass. 
 Saxton River Academy, Saxton River. 
 Springfield High School, Springfield, Mass. 
 St. Johnsbury Academy, St. Johnsbury, Vt. 
 Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Mass. 
 Worcester Academy, Worcester, Mass. 
 Worcester High School, Worcester, Mass. 
 
 The amount of pecuniary assistance that Amherst is able to give its 
 worthy students is constantly increasing. 
 
 An enthusiastic scholar of slender means need not leave the Col- 
 lege for want of aid. Opportunities for earning money are frecpiently 
 
98 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 offered by the residents of the town, and desirable positions where a 
 student can aid himself by rendering service in the different depart- 
 ments of the College are reserved exclusively for those who recjuire 
 financial assistance in obtaining their education. In addition to this, 
 the beneficiary fimds are divided liberally and jusdy. 'I'he amounts 
 available are shown in this table : — 
 
 Charitable fund $83,000 
 
 Scholarsliip fund 70,400 
 
 Private schularsliip ^ifts 470 
 
 Fclluwsliips ijro 
 
 Pri/es 
 
 i>779 
 
 $156,196 
 
 The cost of an education at Amherst is so often a matter of serious 
 concern within the family circle that reliable data cannot fail to be 
 appreciated. Published estimates are often found to differ from 
 experience. Careful inquiries have been made among trustworthy 
 students of the College, and the estimates given below are based upon 
 actual experiences. The effort has been to err, if at all, in overstating 
 rather than understating those expenses which vary with a student's 
 personal habits. The smallest annual expenditure reported was ^^308. 50, ' 
 which included every item of cost except the long vacation. A large 
 numljer of students spend less than $400, and this can Ijc done without 
 suffering of any kind. The majority of students are believed to sjiend 
 between $475 and S675 each year. In the following table the annual 
 expenditures are itemized upon four different scales. The actual cost 
 of each item has been carefully obtained and entered, without taking 
 into consideration the fact that it is almost uni\ersally the (Mistom in 
 college to reduce the net expenses by renting lurniture, or buying it, 
 as well as books, at second hand, and of disposing of them at the close 
 of the course or of the )ear. These and other very useful methoils 
 of cconomi/ing may well be considered by students who wish to 
 estimate in ad\anre the expense of going through college. The upper 
 limit of expeniliture is of course indeterminalile. The estimate in this 
 case is made on the assumption that the student rooms alone, while 
 in the three lower tables, tlie exjK'nses of room-renl, fuel, lights, and 
 furniture are entered as if sharetl with a room-mate. 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 103 
 
 
 Least. 
 
 Economical. 
 
 Liberal. 
 
 Expensive. 
 
 Tuition 
 
 Boolcs 
 
 Room 
 
 Fuel and Lights . . 
 
 ISoanl 
 
 Furniture fannual aver- 
 age) 
 
 Clothing 
 
 Washing 
 
 Society Fees .... 
 
 Stationery 
 
 Subscriptions .... 
 Sundries 
 
 Totals 
 
 $110.00 
 
 8.00 
 
 {b) 12.00 
 
 11.00 
 
 1 1 1 .00 
 
 10.00 
 50.00 
 10.00 
 
 5.00 
 
 30.00 
 
 $110.00 
 
 15.00 
 
 30.00 
 
 15.00 
 
 129.50 
 
 15.00 
 70.00 
 15.00 
 (rt) 20.00 
 10.00 
 5.00 
 35.00 
 
 $110.00 
 
 20.00 
 
 75.00 
 
 25.00 
 
 14S.OO 
 
 30.00 
 150.00 
 25.00 
 {a) 20.00 
 15.00 
 20.00 
 50.00 
 
 $110.00 
 35.00 
 
 200.00 
 40.00 
 
 222.00 
 
 40.00 
 200.00 
 40.00 
 ((C) 20.00 
 20.00 
 40.00 
 60.00 
 
 5357-0O 
 
 $469.50 
 
 $688.00 
 
 $1,027.00 
 
 {a) This sum is believed to be a fair average. (/') In the dormitory. 
 
 The Department of Physical Education and Hygiene deserves especial 
 attention here, because it was the first to be established as a part of the 
 regular course in any American college. In fact, the systems of physical 
 culture now in use in nearly ail the institutions of learning in this coun- 
 try are largely copies, or embody many features, of the Amherst system. 
 To the late President Stearns belongs the credit of suggesting that daily 
 exercise under the supervision of a physician should be a required por- 
 tion of the college student's life. He had found that, if left to them- 
 selves, the students neglected to care for their health, and frequently 
 graduated from college physically wrecked. The plan he proposed was 
 at length adopted by the trustees, and a regular professorship founded. 
 In i860 the Barrett Gymnasium was built for the department, and the 
 year following Dr. Edward Hitchcock, the son of President Hitchcock, 
 and the present incumbent of the position, was appointed. The history 
 of the department is the history of the life of its chief. He developed 
 a system at first unknown, then distrusted, but now apjiroved by the 
 most eminent educators. 
 
I04 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 The present organization of the department brings within its scope 
 everything which has a bearing upon the physical welfare of the college 
 students. Its purposes may be conveniently classed under these five 
 heads : — 
 
 Personal acquaintance witli the i)hysical condition of every student. 
 
 Requirement of the amount of daily exercise which experience has 
 shown to be most beneficial, and the direction of all who take special 
 exercise. 
 
 Examination of every student at intervals during the college course, 
 and preservation of all statistics thus taken. 
 
 Class instruction in anatomy, physiology, and hygiene. 
 
 Control of the general athletics of the College. 
 
 These functions are fully performed. At all times during the college 
 year Dr. Hitchcock is thoroughly conversant with the general health of 
 every student. Overwork is scarcely possible under such care, and 
 when sickness does occur, the case is carefully followed by the depart- 
 ment, which interferes, however, in no way with the physician in charge. 
 Students may at any time consult Dr. Hitchcock. 
 
 Regular exercise in the Gymnasium is recjuired of every student in 
 college. F^ach class assembles four days in the week for a half-hour's 
 pleasant drill with wooden dumb-bells. There are always class officers 
 to lead the exercise under the direction of the professor or his assistants. 
 In a modified way, well adapted to the purposes of the department, the 
 organization of the classes is like that of a military body. An annual 
 prize drill occurs in Ma\-, the tliree upper classes competing. The 
 prize on this occasion is $ioo, given by Dr. Rufus P. Lincoln, of the 
 class of 1862, to the class obtaining the highest mark in the dumb-bell 
 drill and marching. Athlcticall}' inclined students, particularly those in 
 training for any of the college teams, are given every needed suggestion 
 an<l direction. 
 
 Perhaps the most interesting jiortion of the work of Dr. Hitchcock, 
 and certainly the most valuable to the department, is the system of 
 anthropometry, or recording of physical statistics. Three times during 
 the college course the student is examined, measured, and tested in 
 every essential fimction of the body. If found defective or undeveloped 
 in any parts, he is advised what he may do to reach, or exceed, the 
 usual standard. From the immense number of measurements made in 
 the past thirty years, the deixirtment is al)le to gi\e a \-aluable and 
 
= ^ 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. IO7 
 
 interesting average of measurements as a basis for advice and the future 
 exercise of the student. The examination that is thus made is more 
 minute than that required in the United States army. An important 
 feature of the system, as practised at Amherst, is the publicaticjn of the 
 averages for the use of all who may be benefited by them. 
 
 Ur. Hitchcock conducts classes in the subjects that are important as 
 giving the young man a thorough knowledge of the proper care of his 
 health. This study is required early in the college course. 
 
 In the direction of the general athletics of the College, the department 
 exercises only a reasonable supervision of the members of the base-ball, 
 foot-ball, and athletic teams of the College. The control in the matter 
 of conducting the contests for championships with other colleges, and 
 the financial management of the teams, is lodged in the Athletic P.oard, 
 organized in 1S91, and consisting of three members of the college fac- 
 ulty, four alumni of the College, who are not members of the faculty, 
 and the managers of the three teams. Of these members. Dr. Hitch- 
 cock, as the head of the department, and F. B. Pratt of the class of 
 1887, as the donor of the Pratt Field, are life members. 
 
 Dr. Hitchcock has as an assistant, a practising physician in the town, 
 and since 1890 there has been a second assistant under the provisions 
 of the Lincoln fellowship fund. 
 
 THE SUMMER SCHOOL. 
 
 During a portion of the long vacation of Amherst College, the Sum- 
 mer School of Languages, under the direction of Dr. L. Sauveur of 
 Boston and Professor W. L. Montague of Amherst College, is in ses- 
 sion. The school was established in 1877 by Dr. Sauveur, who in 
 1883 surrendered his interests to Professor Montague, and opened a 
 school of languages at PJurlington, Vt. 
 
 Owing to the Exi)osition at Chicago, the session of 1893 was omitted; 
 but in 1894, after an absence of ten years, Dr. Sauveur returned to 
 Amherst, and the two schools were united under the name of The 
 Sauveur College of Languages and the Amherst Summer School, of 
 which Dr. Sauveur is president, and Professor Montague, director and 
 manager. The characteristic features of both institutions are retained. 
 8 
 
IO(S THE UAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 The school term opens shortly after the College has closed, and con- 
 tinues five weeks — a period which is always pleasantly and profitably 
 occu|)ied with recitations — frecjuently in the open air — lectures, ex- 
 cursions, and many social affairs. 
 
 The College Chapel forms the headquarters of the Summer School. 
 In this building are the director's office and the rooms of most of the 
 recitations. Walker Hall opens several of its rooms for recitations; 
 the Laboratory, for work in chemistry ; and the privileges of the Gym- 
 nasium, Appleton Cabinet, the Observatory, and the Library, are all 
 offered to the members of the school. 
 
 Making no pretensions at the first to be anything more than a school 
 of languages, the courses of study have been gradually broadened until 
 now they are embraced in the following distinct departments: French, 
 German, Spanish, English Literature, Latin, Greek, Physical Educa- 
 tion, Library Economy, Geology and Mineralogy, Mathematics and 
 Physics. All of these courses are graded so that the best advantages 
 are offered to persons of every degree of accomplishment. A most enjoy- 
 able feature of the French and German departments has ahvavs been 
 the boarding-tables, at which native teachers preside, and all English 
 words are strictly discountenanced. The amount of study is entirely 
 optional. Frequent lectures upon interesting subjects are delivered 
 each week. The force of teachers comprises about twenty of the most 
 successful and best known educators of the country. The instructors 
 in French, German and Italian are natives of foreign countries, all 
 highly educated, and speaking their language in its purit\- and i>erfec- 
 tion. 
 
 The members of the school are, to a great extent, teachers of various 
 schools throughout the country, coming to Amherst to increase their 
 knowledge and improve the methods which can be gained onlv from 
 native instructors. Besides these, there are always many people who 
 stud}- for their own pleasure, and young men and women in i)reparation 
 for ((jUegc or special work. The average attendance in the five years 
 ending in 1890 has been over two hundred, and nearly every State and 
 Territory in the Union has been represented. 
 
 An especial aim of the school is to furnish the best instruction and 
 to reduce the expenses of those attending to a minimum. The tuition 
 for any or all of the languages is i52o; for library economy and the 
 
THE IIAXDBOOK OF AMHKKST. I I 3 
 
 sciences, each subject, S12 ; and for any subject in art, Sio. The lec- 
 tures are 52 and $3 for the term, according to the course. 
 
 A children's department, intended exclusively for pupils under the 
 age of thirteen, has been very successfully introduced. It is in charge 
 of a native teacher who is especially well adapted to the work of inter- 
 esting and instructing young people. The tuition in this department 
 is $6 for the term. 
 
 The sessions of the school have always proved successful from a 
 social as well as a scholarly standpoint. Amherst offers a wealth of 
 natural enjoyment that is never unappreciated, and excursions, drives, 
 and jjicnics are as numerous as there are days in the school term. 
 Taken all in all, the life of a summer school student is far from being 
 irksome. 
 
 THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS. 
 
 One of the chief features of a visit to Amherst is a walk through the 
 college grounds, with a glance at the buildings and their interesting histo- 
 ries. With the exception of College Hall, the Church, and the Cabi- 
 nets, all will be found open during the greater part of the day when the 
 College or the Summer School of Languages is in session. The Cabi- 
 nets may be seen during fixed hours each week-day, usually from ten 
 o'clock to five, between May 15th and November ist, and from ten to 
 twelve and three to four at other seasons ; or they will be opened at any 
 time on application to the custodians, whose residences are usually 
 bulletined at the entrances. 
 
 Perhaps the most convenient starting-point for such a tour is at the 
 corner of Northampton Street and the Common, where stands 
 
 College Hall, which was built in 1830, by the First Congregational 
 Society of Amherst, and used by them as a place of worship until 1S67, 
 when purchased by the College for $8000. The building is now used for 
 the public lectures, commencement, and other exercises of the College, 
 and has a seating capacity of eight hundred, which may be increased 
 by nearly two hundred if the platform be brought into service. Next to 
 College Hall is the 
 
114 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 Henry T. Morgan Library, enlarged to its present size in 18S2. 
 The original building included the square portion at the northeast corner 
 and the tower, and was built in 1853 at an expense of $10,000. This 
 was the first stone building of the College. The new portion, compris- 
 ing the librarian's office and the rooms above it at the side, and the 
 large book room at the rear, was designed by Allen & Kenway of 
 Boston, and was completed at a cost of $48,381, which included the 
 entire renovation of the original building. The whole structure is of 
 Pelham granite. In the hallway, at the right of the entrance, and in 
 the old i^ortion, is a room for small gatherings and recitations, used as 
 headcjuarters of tlie alumni at commencement ; beyond it is a ]xicking- 
 room, both of these opening into a large cataloguing-room. The libra- 
 rian's office is at the end of the hallway. On the walls at the right of 
 this hall are valuable specimens of Assyrian art, in the shape of eight 
 huge sculptured stone slabs, bearing colossal mythological figures in 
 relief and hieroglyphic inscriptions. Their actual cost was about $600; 
 their value many thousands. These slabs were presented to the College 
 in 1855 by the late Rev. Henry Lobdell, of the class of 1849, a mission- 
 ary to Assyria, who died at Mosul in 1850. They were taken from the 
 palace of Sardanapalus, the last king of Assyria, and their inscriptions 
 belong to a period nine hundred years before Christ. In 1871 Rev, 
 \W H. Ward, 1 ).!)., of the class of 1856, and since 1870 editor of the 
 Nezv York Independent, greatly enhanced the value of these works of 
 ancient art by translating, from the cuneiform characters, into English 
 the inscrijitions, which were found to be a record of a conquest. The 
 manuscript translations are preserved in a bound volume in the Library, 
 and are very interesting even to those not professing to be arch;^ological 
 students. At the head of the stairs is the book-delivery room of the 
 Library, opening from which is the reading-room, which occupies the 
 entire second story of the original building, and formerly contained all 
 tlic books of 1I1C I ,ibrar\'. 
 
 The reference books and periodical literature are kept here. This 
 is a large, finely decorated room, lighted by long windows, and a lantern 
 in the roof. In the side opposite the entrance are beautiful stained- 
 glass windows of api)ropriate design. They are the gift of Hon. Frederic 
 Ayer of I.owrll. Leginning at the left of the entrance of the room, the 
 paintings on the walls are in this order : the fust five j^residents of the 
 College, Drs. Moore, Humphrey, Hitchcock, Stearns, and Seelye ; Pro- 
 
THE II A XD BOOK OF AMHERST. WJ 
 
 fessor W. S. Tyler, Professor N. W. Fiske, Professor C P. Adams, Pro- 
 fessor C. U. Shej^ard, Professor Aaron Warner, who were all at the same 
 time members of the faculty ; and Joel Giles of Townsend, Hon. David 
 Sears of Boston, Hon. Samuel Williston of Easthampton, Hon. Chester W. 
 Chapin of Springfield, S. H. Winkley of Philadelphia, Hon. G. H. Gilbert 
 of Ware, Rev. Dr. Brace of Hartford, Conn., who have been liberal bene- 
 fiictors of the College. The portraits in the book-delivery room are of 
 President Stearns and Hon. David Sears. The attendants will readily 
 grant permission to inspect the book room, and visitors will find it very 
 interesting. There are six floors for the storage of the books, each 50 
 by 41 feet in area and 7^ in height. They are entirely of iron lattice- 
 work, which, with the walls of solid masonry and iron door, renders the 
 entire room as nearly fireproof as it is possible it could be. The shelves 
 are capable of holding 20,000 volumes on each floor, or more than 
 120,000 in all. At the first of January, 1891, there were 55,000 volumes 
 in the Librarv, and the annual increase is between 2000 and 2500. In 
 1867, the libraries of the Athenje and the Alexandrian societies, then in 
 very active existence, were merged into the college I>ibrary, and for 
 some years the members of these organizations paid an annual fee to the 
 College for the care and increase of the volumes. The students have 
 always been allowed almost complete freedom of access to the book 
 room and its contents. The building bears the name of Henry T. 
 Morgan of Albany, whose generous gifts to the College aided in erecting 
 the new portion of the Library. In 1891, William I. Fletcher was the 
 librarian. 
 
 Next to the Library stands the 
 
 President's House. This was erected by the trustees of the Col- 
 lege in the year 1834, and cost S9000. The first house erected for the 
 president of the College is still standing, and, in a remodelled condi- 
 tion, is the chapter house of the Psi LTpsilon Fraternity. President 
 Humphrey occupied the present house immediately after its erection. 
 For a number of years previous to 1891 it was a private school for 
 young ladies, and after being again remodelled became the home of 
 President M. E. Gates. 
 
 Crossing the head of the Common, in front of the Library, the 
 
 College Fence is noticed at the right. This is an institution peculiar 
 to college men. It is usually the scene of the celebration of the victories 
 of the College, and almost any summer evening a group of students can 
 
Il8 THE HANDBOOK OF AMIIRRST. 
 
 be found gathered upon it, making the air melodious with college songs. 
 It was presented l)y the class of 1889 and dedicated by appropriate exer- 
 cises, in which the faculty and students took part, in the spring of 1887. 
 Custom prohibits the freshman class, unless having won some honor for 
 the College, from using this fence. 
 
 Passing into the college grounds, the brick building at the right is 
 
 Williston Hall, which occupies the site of the former North College 
 dormitory. The dormitory was built in 1827 at an expense of $10,000, 
 and was burned early in the spring of 1857. The loss occurred during 
 the darkest days of Amherst's history, but it proved an unexpected 
 benefit. Scarcely had the flames been extinguished when the late Hon. 
 Samuel Williston of Easthampton announced that he would erect a new 
 building, containing recitation rooms and laboratories that had long 
 been needed by the College. Williston Hall was thus dedicated May 
 19, 1858, and cost $15,000. The main entrance of the building is on 
 the north side, and in the hallway is an interesting memorial of the 
 Amherst College students who fought in the Rebellion. It is a six- 
 pound brass cannon, which was captured at Newbern, N.C., March 
 14, 1862, and upon it is engraved its history and the names of the 
 Amherst students — four officers and sixteen i)rivates — who were killed 
 in the battle. After its capture, the cannon was presented by General 
 liurnside to the Twenty-first Regiment, M.\'., who in turn gave it to 
 the trustees of Amherst College " as an enduring monument to the 
 memory of their lamented brothers who fell while fighting for liberty 
 and union." 
 
 The Mather Collection of Art occupies the entire upper story of the 
 building. It is probably the finest collection of plaster casts in the United 
 States, excelling only that at l>oston, Mass. The honor of the sug- 
 gestion, as well as of the actual gathering of money and purchasing of 
 the collection belongs to the memory of the late Professor Richard H. 
 Mather. Professor Mather solicited, largely from i)'.'rsonal friends, the 
 first $10,000 of the fund, and made the selections himself when visiting 
 Europe. The casts began to arri\e in 1874, and during Professor 
 Mather's life not a year jiassed without the adilition of something desir- 
 able. The collection has long since outgrown its ]iresent room, and 
 until better accommodations an' ])ro\ided few adtlitions can be maile. 
 although a fund is constantly accumulating. 
 
 As an example of the care that IVofessor Mather took \\\ makmg the 
 
Tin-: iiAxnnook' of amiikrst. 
 
 123 
 
 collection, this room contains the only cast in existence of the bronze 
 doors of the Senate Chamber at Washington. 
 
 "Walker Hall. — This building was completed as it now stands in 
 1S83, and cost $87,250. Twelve years previously, a building of the 
 same general design was erected on the same site through the gener- 
 osity of Dr. W. J. Walker of Charlestown, Mass. The original ^Valker 
 Hall was burned March, 1882, and with it was destroyed one of the 
 most valuable collections of minerals in the country. A portion of 
 the outside wall of the building alone remained, and after it had been 
 strengthened on the inside, became a part of the new Walker Hall. The 
 
 The Chemical and Physical Laboratory Building, 
 
 expense of the rebuilding was met by the late Henry T. Morgan of 
 Albany, N. Y., and in return he was honored by having his name 
 attached to the College Library. The administration offices are in 
 this building. 
 
 The Chemical and Physical Laboratory Building was erected in 
 1S93, at an expense of jgioo,ooo, not including the cost of the ecpiip- 
 ment and apparatus. It was designed by McKim, Mead and White and 
 built by Norcross Brothers of Worcester, Mass., and is excellently 
 arranged in every detail. 
 
 The Barrett Gymnasium, erected in i860 at a cost of ;5io,ooo, was 
 largely the means of developing the system of physical culture for which 
 9 
 
124 
 
 THE HANDBOOK Of AMHERST. 
 
 Amherst is justly famous. It was the first building in the country 
 erected for gymnastic work in charge of a regularly appointed profes- 
 sor. It is of Pelham granite, and is 70 feet long by 50 wide. It was 
 designed by C. E. Parkes of Boston, and bears the name of Dr. Benja- 
 min Barrett of Northampton, who was a large contributor toward the 
 fund for its erection and support. Since the completion of the Pratt 
 Oymnasium in 1884, the building has been used for various purposes, 
 while awaiting alterations to make it a geological cabinet. 
 
 The Barrett Gymnasium. 
 
 When used as a gymnasium, the physician's office, dressing-rooms, and 
 bowling-alleys were on the ground floor, with the main hall for class and 
 si)ecial exercise above. 
 
 The College Church, designed by W. A. Potter of New \'ork, was 
 erected in 1X70-71. and cost $70,000, of which the late William I"'. 
 Stearns, son of President Stearns, contributed $47,000. The site for the 
 building was chosen for its remarkable beauty. A dormitory known as 
 " l'".ast College " stood between it and the tree-sheltered i)ath leading to 
 the college well. This dormitory was taken down shortly after the church 
 was comi)lctcd. The view from the rear of the church is one of the 
 finest within the limits of Amherst. Two miles across the valley, the 
 Pelham hills rise in gentle outline, the range extending from the north. 
 
THE II AX D BOOK OF AM II EK ST. 12/ 
 
 as far as can be seen, until near the southern limit of the town it is lost 
 in the Belchertown hills. The valley, broad and fertile, is well popu- 
 lated in parts, and contains nearly all the manufactories of the town. 
 Toward the south it spreads out into generous farmlands through which 
 run two thread-like railways. The grandeur of this landscape when the 
 foliage has become brilliant in the fall, is unsurpassed by any in the west- 
 ern part of the Commonwealth. This crest of the College Hill is visited 
 by lovers of nature in every season of the year. 
 
 The church building itself is not out of harmony with its surroundings. 
 Its gray sides and brown sandstone trimmings are plentifully covered 
 with the soft, clinging ivies planted by the college classes at their gradu- 
 ation. At the entrances and between the windows are soft-hued shafts 
 of marble. Curious carvings decorate the brown stones in the gable 
 ends of the building. "Dei Glorije " and " A.D. 1S70" are on the 
 north side ; the cross and other symbols of the Christian Church, with 
 small reliefs of the four evangelists, between the windows, on the east 
 side ; a lantern, thorn branch, passion flower, wheat, and grape vine, all 
 typical of incidents in the life of Christ, on the south side ; and " Agnus 
 Dei " and " Rex," " Lex," " Dux," " Lux," on the west side. The spire 
 of the church is about one hundred and fifty feet high, and twenty-four 
 feet square at the base. Its four sections are alternately square and 
 octagonal. Within it hangs a chime of eight bells, given by George 
 Howe of Boston, as a memorial of the Amherst boys who fell in the 
 War of the Rebellion. The gift acquires special significance from the 
 fact that the son of Mr. Howe was among the number whose lives were 
 sacrificed for their country. The seats in the main portion of the church 
 are reserved for the families of the faculty, the juniors, and seniors. In 
 the right transept are seated the freshmen, in the left the sophomores. 
 The capacity of the house is about six hundred. The stained glass 
 window in the right transept was given by the Congregational church 
 at Bedford, Mass., President Stearns' native place ; that oi)])osite, by 
 Ex-Governor Onslow Stearns of Concord, N.H. ; and that in the rear of 
 the church, by the late Eckley Stearns of Woburn, Mass. President 
 Stearns' former church at Cambridgeport, Mass., presented the jiulpit. 
 Tablets placed upon the church walls commemorate the usefiil lives of 
 President Stearns, William F. Stearns, and Professor Richard H. Mather. 
 The corner-stone of the building was laid in the autiunn uf 1875, ^'"'"^ 
 the dedication occurred July i, 1S73. 
 
128 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 At the side of the college grounds, and south of the church is 
 The Pratt Gymnasium, begun in the summer of 1883, antl completed 
 the following spring at a cost of $68,000. It ranks third among the col- 
 lege gymnasiums of the country, those of Yale and Harvard only being 
 superior in size and cost. The building is of brick with brownstone 
 trimmings, and is 122 feet long and 88 wide. It bears the name of Pratt 
 Gymnasium in recognition of the generosity of Mr. Charles M. Pratt of 
 New York, a graduate of the class of 1879. In the hall, at the right 
 of the main entrance of the building, is a brass tablet, bearing this 
 inscription : — 
 
 Erkcted by 
 
 CHARLES MILLARD PRATT, of Brooklyn, N.V., 
 Class Caftain of the Class of '79, 
 
 TO INCREASE THE USEFULNESS OF HIS AlMA MaTER I\ 
 THAT DEPARTMENT IN WllICII HE EVER FELT AN 
 INTEREST, AND TO EXPRESS THE WARM AFFECTION WHICH 
 HE CHERISHED FOR ITS FAITHFUL HEAD, 
 
 L)R. EDWARD HITCHCOCK. 
 
 The oiifice of the professor of hygiene and physical culture and the 
 room for making physical examinations and recording statistics occupy 
 the corner of the first floor, between the main and side entrances. The 
 other rooms on this floor are the large dressing-room, containing 274 
 heated and ventilated lockers, and shower-bath, dry-rub, and small 
 dressing-rooms. The main hall is 80 feet long by 64 wide, and contains 
 such apparatus as is needed for class and individual exercise. It is two 
 stories high, and lighted and ventilated from the sides and roof. A 
 running-gallery, 207 feet 10 J inches long and 6 feet wide, encircles the 
 hall I r feet above the floor. In the second story is the " Resort," the 
 head(|uartcrs of the college weekly, The Amherst Stiiihuf, and a store- 
 jilace fur many higlily ])ri/ctl trophies and relics of college interest; a 
 billiard room, the only one in the country connected with a college 
 gymnasium, and containing a i)ool and two billiard tables ; antl the 
 rooms for the custodians of the building. The basement has a base-ball 
 cage, 76 by 21 feet, three bowling-alleys, 70 feet long, and a sparring- 
 room. Tub and sponge baths of the best patterns, dressing, and furnace 
 rooms occupy the remainder of the basement. 
 

 
THE HANDBOOK Of AMHERST. 13I 
 
 As the visitor passes up the walk from the main entrance of the 
 Gymnasium, directly in front, is 
 
 Appleton Cabinet, erected in 1855, at an expense of $10,000, appro- 
 priated for the purpose by the trustees of the will of the late Samuel 
 Appleton of Boston. Mr. Appleton left the sum of $200,000 at the 
 disposal of his executors to be used for benevolent and scientific 
 purposes, and it was in response to the urgent appeals of President 
 Hitchcock, then in office, that the money for this building was obtained. 
 The portion of the Cabinet first approached as the visitor proceeds from 
 the Gymnasium, is the biological laboratory and lecture room, where 
 specimens for class work and illustration are kept. 
 
 The main part of the building has been made almost completely fire- 
 proof for the protection of the collections that are stored in it. The 
 entrance from the biological lecture room is closed by heavy iron doors. 
 The second story is devoted to the Adams Zoological Museum, a large 
 part of which was the gift of the late Professor C. P). Adams. The col- 
 lection of insects and shells are kept in the horizontal cases. The latter 
 collection comprises about eight thousand species, and of it Professor 
 Louis Agassiz once said, " I do not know in all the country a con- 
 chological collection of equal value." In the gallery at the head of the 
 hall has been placed the Audubon collection of birds, presented to the 
 College in 1886 by the Hon. E. E. Farnam, of the class of 1855. It is 
 valued at $1200. The cast of the skeleton of the American Megathe- 
 rium, near the entrance, was the gift of the late Joshua Bates of London, 
 England. The original skeleton was found in Buenos Ayres, South 
 America. 
 
 The ground-floor of the Cabinet is chiefly occupied by the Hitchcock 
 Ichnological collection, made by the late President Hitchcock between 
 the years 1835 '^"^^ 1864. President Hitchcock was the originator and 
 develoi^er of the science of Ichnology, and this collection is the largest 
 and most valuable of its kind in the world. It now consists of 21.773 
 tracks of animals of 120 different species, all belonging to the general 
 name of Lithichnozoa, or Stone-track animals. Most of the slabs were 
 taken from stone-<iuarries at Turner's I''alls, South Iladley, and Holyoke. 
 Complete reports of the discov'cries were prepared by President Hitch- 
 cock, and submitted, in 1853 and 1865, to the State. Among the most 
 interesting of these slabs, as one passes through the room, is the large 
 horizontal stone at the left, marked with the tracks of the great " Oto- 
 
132 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 zoum." It was found at Mount Tom station ; and on the table beside 
 it is the reverse of the impression. This enormous animal had the bulk 
 of an elephant and the build of a toad. On the wall, behind the bust of 
 President Hitchcock, is a set of specimens which prove the animals 
 making these tracks to have been quadrupeds. The marks show the 
 fore-feet, the trace of the tail and the hind-feet, with imprints of the heels, 
 as if the animal had crouched down on the soft mud. On the stairway 
 wall is another interesting stone, which has the footprints of an animal 
 that had lost one of its toes, the impressions showing first a two-toed, 
 and then a three-toed foot. In the first wall case are the only bones of 
 the track-making animals ever found in Massachusetts. The next slab 
 at the left, standing on edge, shows impressions of the feet of an enor- 
 mous animal, the tracks being a foot long, and between them running a 
 great tail-trace. The large, framed slab has interest because it was used 
 a long time as a flagstone. Near it hangs the egg and leg-bones of an 
 existing bird of New Zealand. They were placed there at the time the 
 track-making animals were thought to be birds : at the present time 
 they are generally believed to have been reptiles. 
 
 The next slab is marked by the feet of an enormous three-toed bird ; 
 the imprints will hold a gallon of water, and are three times the size of 
 those of an elephant. The central one of the side rooms contains, on 
 the walls and tables, a collection of slabs remarkable for the great variety 
 of insect tracks. More insect tracks and the most perfect footprint of 
 a reptile, ever found, are in the last side room. The footprint shows 
 plainly all the wrinkles of the epidermis of a three-toed foot. Under 
 the windows in this room are stones marked by rain-drops, one of them 
 showing the steps of a lizard-like reptile, who turned a sharp corner in 
 his haste, throwing his tail outside of the row of his footprints. There 
 are several specimens of what President Hitchcock designated as "stone 
 books " here. They show the same footprint through a number of 
 layers of stone, and when split open form a book, the leaves of which 
 fit into oiie another. 
 
 The Ciilbert Museum of Indian relics is placed in the first of the 
 three small rooms. There are four hundred specimens of the stone 
 implements used by the North American Indians, especially those of 
 the Connecticut Valley. The collection took the name of the Hon. 
 George H. Gilbert of Ware, who contributed largely toward the expense 
 of gathering it. 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AMIIEKST. 1 35 
 
 Passing out of the main entrance of the Cabinet, the brick buiUHng 
 at the right is 
 
 The South College Dormitory. This is the oldest building on the 
 college grounds, originally containing both recitation and living rooms. 
 Its corner-stone was laid in the summer of 1820 by the trustees of 
 Amherst Academy, and the building completed in a little more than 
 three months, the dedication occurring in September of the year follow- 
 ing. The institution was then known as the Amherst Charitable Insti- 
 tution. Noah Webster, president of the Academy, and afterward 
 president of the trustees of the Institution, delivered the oration at 
 the laying of the corner-stone. The building is 100 feet long and 
 30 wide, and cost ;> 10,000, raised by subscription. Much of the 
 material used in the construction was contributed by persons living in 
 Amherst and the neighboring towns, even at the distance of twenty- five 
 miles. On one occasion these acceptable gifts were received just as 
 work was about to be suspended for want of material to carry it on. At 
 present the building contains thirty-two double rooms. In the summer 
 of 189 1 extensive alterations were made in this building, steam heat 
 and other improvements being introduced, and the suites of rooms so 
 arranged that each student might have a well-lighted bedroom ; provis- 
 ions made to accommodate three or four students who desire to occupy 
 a common room as a study. The views from the windows of some of 
 the upper rooms are magnificent. 
 
 The College Chapel, next to the South College Dormitory, was built 
 in 1827, and bore for some time the name of Adam Johnson of Pelham, 
 who bequeathed money for its erection. The suits at law conducted by 
 the college authorities to establish the validity of the will reduced the 
 legacy to $4000, and 1 11,000 had to be raised from other sources. 
 The building measures 100 by 56 feet. For many years it accom- 
 modated all the departments of instruction in the College. Dr. Tyler 
 says that beside the Chapel proper, the " buiUling originally contained 
 four recitation rooms, a room for philosophical apparatus, and a cabinet 
 for minerals on the ground-floor, two recitation rooms on the second 
 floor, a library on the third floor, and a laboratory in the basement." 
 The basement was the chemical workshoj) of Professor Hitchcock, 
 afterward president of the College. The arrangements have been very 
 little altered since then. The two rooms on the second lloor form 
 now the small chapel, and the rooms above are seldom used. In ihe 
 
136 
 
 THE HAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 main chapel, morning prayers are held. The seniors are assigned the 
 seats in the centre of the room hall, the juniors on their right, and 
 the sophomores on their left. The gallery is for the freshmen and 
 visitors. 
 
 In favorable weather the ascent of the College Chapel tower will repay 
 the visitor. There are ninety-eight steps to climb, and the summit com- 
 mands a magnificent view of the Connecticut Valley. The stone step 
 
 Woods Cabinet and Observatory. 
 
 in the main doorway of the building is 358 feet above sea-level. The 
 clock in the tower was presented by L. H. McCormick, '81. The 
 next building, 
 
 The North College Dormitory, was built in 1822, after the same 
 l)lan as South College. Until the erection of the Chapel, daily prayers 
 were held in rooms in the building. Its cost was $10,000. In 1893 
 the demand for rooms increased and the building was altered in the 
 same manner as was South College. On the knoll, in front of the 
 North College Dormitory, is situated 
 
 The Woods Cabinet, with the College Observatory and the geological 
 lecture rocjms adjoining. The building stands upon the site of the first 
 meeting-house of the First Congregational Society. The Cabinet and 
 the Observatory were built in T847 at a cost of $9000, which was raised 
 

 
 $- 
 
 ftjilfMr-V" 
 
THE HAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 14I 
 
 by subscription, the name ot Hon. J. B. Woods of l-hifield being given 
 to the Cabinet, and that of Hon. Abbott Lawrence to the Observatory, 
 in recognition of their bequests to the College. The geological lecture 
 room was added in 1855, and cost $1000; and two years afterward 
 Enos Dickinson of South Amherst gave the Dickinson Nineveh Callery, 
 which for twenty-seven years held the sculptured slabs now in the hall- 
 way of the College Library. The collections in this building cover the 
 whole subject of geology and mineralogy. The main room on the lower 
 floor contains a collection valued at $10,000, illustrating the geology 
 of the Western Hemisphere, with particularly complete collections from 
 Massachusetts and Connecticut. The large collection of minerals in 
 trays is not open to pubHc inspection. On the second floor is the Shep- 
 ard collection of meteorolites, and in the gallery a very large collection 
 illustrating the geology of the Eastern Hemisphere. 
 
 The Observatory consists of an octagonal tower, 50 feet high and 17 
 feet in diameter, with a revolving dome and a central pedestal supporting 
 a telescope with an aperture of 7^ inches and a focal lens of 8^ inches. 
 The telescope was presented by Hon. Rufus Bullock of Boston, and 
 cost $i8co. In the transit room, 13 by 15, is a transit circle built by 
 Gambey of Paris, the telescope having a focal length of about 3 feet 
 and an aperture of 2\ inches. 
 
 Pratt Field, on Northampton and Orchard streets, about a (piarter 
 of a mile from the college buildings, comprises about thirteen acres of 
 land presented for athletic purposes in 1890 by Fred B. Pratt, of 
 Brooklyn, a graduate of the class of 1887. The field is laid out with 
 a (juarter-mile oval track, a hundred-yards straight-away track, and a 
 short track for jumping. A handsome grand-stand, designed by 
 William B. Tubby of New York, and having a seating capacity of 
 six hundred, was erected in 1891 at the west end of the oval. It 
 contains ample conveniences for the use of the college teams, inc hiding 
 dressing-rooms and baths. Other portions of the field are to be laid out 
 for lawn tennis and other out-of-door sports. The entire field cost 
 about $20,000, of which about $9000 was the price of the grand- 
 stand, all being the gift of Mr. Pratt. 
 
 Hallock Park, on the opposite side of the railroad cut, belongs to 
 the College : most of it was a gift of Leavitt H. Hallock, of the class 
 of 1863. 
 
 On the further side of Snell Street is Blake Field, which for many 
 
142 THE HAXDBOOK OF AMIIi^RST. 
 
 years was the only athletic field of the College. To Lucien I. Blake, 
 of the class of 1877, belongs the credit of acquiring this field. In 
 1876 he gathered about $900 from the alumni of the College, paying 
 the $600 additional in a mortgage in the name of the athletic associa- 
 tion. In 1890 this debt was assumed by the trustees. The first athletic 
 field of the College is now included in Pratt Field. It was sold to the 
 Massachusetts Railroad, who at first proposed to lay their track through 
 it, and recently re-purchased. 
 
 THE FRATERNITY HOUSES. 
 
 Nine of the many Greek-letter fraternities of the country are repre- 
 sented among Amherst College students. In order of their establish- 
 ment here, they are : Alpha Delta Phi, Psi Upsilon, Delta Kapi)a 
 Epsilon, Delta Upsilon, Chi Psi, Chi Phi, Beta Theta Pi, Theta Delta 
 Chi, and Phi Delta Theta. This number is probably larger in ])ro- 
 portion to the size of the College, than can be found at any similar 
 institution in the United States ; but notwithstanding this, tlie college 
 authorities are unanimous in believing that Amherst has been benefited, 
 intellectually and socially, by the presence of these fraternities. Thus 
 far, any well-recognized fraternity has found its efforts to establish a 
 chapter at Amherst warmly seconded by the faculty, although, on 
 account of the rapid increase during the last few years, it is hardly 
 ])r()bal)le that this iK)Iicy will be continued. Duriug the few years 
 directly following the establishment of the earlier chapters, the senti- 
 ment of the College generally opposed the idea of secrecy, and the 
 o])en literary and debating clubs were very formidable rivals for society 
 honors. At the present time the open societies have disappeared, with 
 one exception, and more than eighty-two per cent of all the members 
 of the College belong to the (ireek-letter fraternities. The actual 
 numbers of students in college and members of the fraternities, since 
 1 889, wlien the last chapter was established here, are shown by the 
 accomjianying table : — 
 
 Students in Members ok 
 
 CoLLEGE. Fraternities. 
 
 18S8-89 358 299 
 
 1 889-90 344 281 
 
 1S90-"" 352 2S9 
 
THE HANDBOOK Of AMHERST. 147 
 
 The following letter of Ex-President Julius H. Seelye, printed in the 
 Century Magazine for September, 1889, gives an admirable idea of the 
 advantages of the societies to their members, as well as of their position 
 and relations to the College : — 
 
 " (Others can give a more accurate opinion than I upon college fraternities else- 
 where; hut so far as Amherst is concerned there can be only a favorable judgment 
 concerning them by any one well informed. Without a doulit they exercise here a 
 wholesome energy, both upon their individual members and upon the College. Com- 
 bination is strength, whether with young men or old; and where men combine for 
 good ends, better results may, of course, be looked for than where the same ends are 
 sought by individuals alone. 
 
 " Now the aim of these societies is certainly good. They are not formed for 
 pleasure simply, though they are one of the most fruitful sources of pleasure in a 
 student's college life. Their first aim is the improvement of their members, — im- 
 provement in literary culture and manly character. They are all of them literary 
 societies. An effort was made not long since to introduce among us a new society, 
 with prominently social, rather than literary aims; but it not only failed to receive 
 the requisite assent of the president of the College, but was not favored by any con- 
 siderable number of the students, many of whom stoutly opposed it. 
 
 " One of the happiest features of society life at Amherst is connected with the 
 society houses. There are no better residences in the village than these, and none 
 are better kept. They are not extravagant, but they are neat and tasteful; they have 
 pleasant grounds surrounding them; the cost of rooms in them is not greater than 
 the average cost in other houses, and they not only furnish the students occupying 
 them a pleasant home, but the care of the home and its surroundings is itself a culture. 
 
 " There need be no objection to these societies on account of their secrecy. The 
 secrecy is largely in name ; it is, in fact, little more than the privacy proper to the 
 most familiar intercourse of families and friends. Treated as the societies are among 
 us, and occupying the ground they do, no mischief comes from their secrecy. Instead 
 of promoting cliques and cabals, in point of fact we find less of these than the history 
 of the College shows before the societies came. The rivalry between them is a 
 healthy one, and is conducted openly and in a manly way. 
 
 " The societies must give back to the College the tone they have first received. I 
 am persuaded that in any college where the prevailing life is true and earnest, the 
 societies fed by its fountain will send back bright and Cjuickening streams. They 
 certainly give gladness and refreshment to our whole college life at Amherst." 
 
 All of the fraternities represented at Amherst have chapter houses, 
 and in most cases own them. These buildings are large enough to 
 accommodate at least a portion of the members beside providing parlors, 
 reading-rooms, and a lodge room for general use. The chapters of 
 Chi Psi, Psi Upsilon, and .\lpha Delta Phi now own the entire southern 
 
148 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 end of the square bounded by the village Common, Northampton Street, 
 and South Prospect. 
 
 The members of the fraternities are usually glad to welcome their 
 friends for the inspection of the houses at any time, excepting only 
 on Tuesday evenings, which are universally observed as " society 
 nights." 
 
 Presuming that visitors to Amherst have acquaintances in each 
 fraternity ready to become their hosts, the following order will be found 
 convenient for a tour of the houses : — 
 
 The Delta Kappa Epsilon (Sigma Chapter) house is situated on 
 Oak Grove Hill, Lessey Street, a short walk east from the Amherst 
 House. The original portion of the house and the grounds were pur- 
 chased by the chapter in 1885, and the new part added the same year. 
 Together they now accommodate eighteen students. The Delta Kappa 
 Epsilon fraternity was founded in 1844 at Yale University, and in 1890 
 had thirty-one chapters and about eight thousand members. The 
 Amherst Chapter was organized in 1846, the original members being 
 six students of the class of 1848. The quarters of the chapter have 
 been successively in North College, Cook's Block, and the present 
 dwelling-house of W. H. H. Morgan on Maple Avenue. The chapter 
 has thirty-four active and more than five hundred alumni members, 
 among the more prominent of these latter being General F. A. Walker, 
 president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Judge I. H. 
 Maynard, assistant secretary of the Treasury in President Cleveland's 
 administration; Charles Hallock, editor oi Forest and Stream ; Mel- 
 vil Dewey, librarian of the State of New York ; Rufus G. Kellogg, donor 
 of the Kellogg prizes in Amherst College. 
 
 Returning to the Amherst House, and proceeding in the directii^n of 
 the College, at the right are the 
 
 Alpha Delta Phi (Amherst Chaj)ter) houses, which occupy the lot 
 on the corner of Pleasant and Sellen streets, and extending back to 
 North Prospect Street. The new house was erected in 1890, and is a 
 three-story and basement building, the materials used being l-'.lyria 
 sandstone, pressed brick, and terra cotta. On the first floor are drawing, 
 ban(piet, and reading rooms ; while the two ujijjcr floors furnish accom- 
 modations ft)r eighteen members of the chapter. The house stands 
 some distance back from the street, and faces the village Common. The 
 chapter also owns the lot of land in the rear of this house, fronting on 
 

THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 153 
 
 South Prospect Street. The old house stands in the rear of the new 
 one, facing the side street. Originally a dwelling-house, it was pur- 
 chased by the society in 1874. It was the first chapter house to be 
 established in Amherst, and contains rooms for sixteen students. The 
 Alpha Delta Phi fraternity was established in 1832, by Samuel Eels, and 
 has a membership of over five thousand. The Amherst Chapter was 
 the first chapter of a Greek-letter fraternity to be established at Amherst, 
 and its total membership is a little over five hundred. The active 
 membership of the chapter averages about thirty-three. 
 
 Among the alumni of the chapter the names of Rev. Henry Ward 
 Beecher, Rev. Roswell Dwight Hitchcock, Rt. Rev. Frederic Dan Hunt- 
 ington, Rev. Richard Salter Storrs, Rev. Edward Hitchcock (president 
 of Amherst College from 1845 to 1854), Hon. John E. Sanford, and 
 Rev. E. Winchester Donald are prominent. Next to the Alpha Delta 
 Phi houses, and facing the village Common, is the 
 
 Psi Upsilon (Gamma Chapter) house. The building was erected as a 
 residence for the first president of the College, Rev. Zephaniah S. Moore, 
 and was the "President's House" until 1833. Its corner-stone was 
 laid by Noah Webster, and the trustees of " The Collegiate Charitable 
 Institution," September 18, 182 1, directly following the inauguration of 
 President Moore and the dedication of South College. It was bought 
 by the chapter in August, 1879, and now accommodates fourteen stu- 
 dents. The Gamma Chapter was established in 1 841, by sixteen mem- 
 bers of the classes of 1842, 1843, and 1844. For some years it was 
 virtually a junior class society. The first rooms were in South College ; 
 and later, after one or two changes, in Cutler's Block. This latter 
 building was burned July 3, 1879, destroying nearly all the possessions 
 of the chapter. In 1890 the chapter bought the adjoining estate on the 
 corner of the Common and Northampton Street, intending to erect here 
 a second building. The Psi Upsilon fraternity was founded at Union 
 College in 1833, and in 1891 had 17 chapters and about 7000 mem- 
 bers. In that year the Gamma Chapter had 38 active members and 
 425 living alumni, among whom are Ex-President Julius H. Seelye of 
 Amherst College, Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst of New York, Ex-Governor 
 Andrews of Connecticut, Hon. George B. Loring of Washington, Arthur 
 S. Hardy of Hanover, N.H., Professor Herbert B. Adams of Johns 
 Hopkins University, President H. H. Goodell of the Massachusetts 
 Agricultural College, and Henry D. Hyde, Esq., of Boston. 
 
154 THE HAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 On the corner of Northampton and South Prospect streets, adjoining 
 the grounds of the Psi Upsilon Chapter, is the 
 
 Chi Psi (Alpha Chi) Lodge, erected in 1884, after plans made by- 
 Robert S. Stephenson of New York. The Alpha was founded in 
 November, 1864, by members of the classes of 1864, 1865, and 1866, 
 and owns, in Addition to the lot on which the house is situated, the estate 
 in the rear, known as the Burt place. The membership is small, rarely 
 exceeding six men from each class. The Chi Psi fraternity was founded 
 at Union College in 1841, and has Alphas in sixteen colleges, embracing 
 in their membership about three thousand men. The lodge contains 
 rooms for thirteen members, beside ample parlors, library, and room for 
 fraternity purposes. The fraternity is represented in public life by 
 Chief Justice Fuller, Ex-Speaker T. B. Reed, J. Sterling Morton, and Ex- 
 Postmaster General Dickinson, and among other members are Commo- 
 dore Elbridge T. (ierry, Hugh Cole, Esq., Francis M. Scott, Frederick 
 D. Tappan, William Astor of New York, General Duane, late Chief of 
 Engineers, U.S.A., President Thomas W. Palmer of the Columbian 
 Exposition, President Brainard of Middlebury College, and Robert Earl 
 of the New York Court of Appeals. 
 
 On the right, further down Northampton Street, stands the 
 
 Theta Delta Chi (Mu Deuteron Charge) house, which was pur- 
 chased by the charge in 1889, and an addition made in the summer 
 of 1890. The charge was founded in 1885, by twenty-four members 
 of the classes of 1885, 1886, 1887, and 1888, and for five years occu- 
 pied the second and third stories of Dickinson's, and the adjoining 
 block. Pleasant Street. The present house accommodates twenty stu- 
 dents, and the membersliii) of the charge in 1891 was thirty-five under- 
 graduates and fifty-one alumni. 
 
 The Theta Delta Chi fraternity was founded at Union College in 
 1846, and comprised, in 1891, nineteen charges. Before the war the 
 fraternity was very strong in the Southern States, but it is now re]ire- 
 sented in that section almost solely by its alumni. 
 
 Returning to the corner of Northampton Street, and crossing the 
 Common, the building on the left corner of College Street is the. 
 
 Beta Theta Pi (ISeta Iota Chai)ter) house, purchased for a cha])- 
 tcr house in 1 886, and accommodating twenty of the members. The 
 chapter grew out of a local societs', tlie '"Torch and Crown," which 
 was foundcil in 1X78 by members of the class of 18S1, and in the fall 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 157 
 
 of 1879 occupied the present Theta Delta Chi chapter house, on 
 Northampton Street. The " Torch and Crown " received a charter from 
 the Beta Theta Pi fraternity in 1883, and was made a chapter of that 
 fraternity. In 1891 the fraternity had sixty chapters, and over nine 
 hundred and fifty undergraduate members. 
 
 Among its prominent members are Secretary of the Interior, John W. 
 Noble ; Justices James M. Harlan, Stanley Matthews, and William B. 
 Woods, of the Supreme Court of the United States ; besides ten United 
 States senators, forty United States representatives, fifteen State gov- 
 ernors, and six ministers to foreign countries. 
 
 Proceeding down College Street, the second house at the left is the 
 
 Chi Phi (Phi Chapter) house, built in 1885 by the chapter, then of 
 nine years' standing. The building is of the Queen Anne style, and 
 furnishes apartments for eleven students. From the time of the organ- 
 ization of the chapter until the present house was completed, the head- 
 quarters were in Palmer's Block, which once occupied the site of the 
 town hall. The Chi Phi fraternity was founded in 1854, at Princeton 
 College, and now has twenty-two chapters. Among the one hundred 
 and sixty alumni and active members of the Phi Chapter are Hon. 
 Henry Stockbridge, '77, of Baltimore, Md., and the Rev. H. H. Kelsey, 
 '76, of Boston, who had much to do with the institution of the chapter. 
 
 Further down this street, and opposite the home of Ex-President 
 Seelye, is the 
 
 Phi Delta Theta (Massachusetts Beta) house. The chapter was 
 founded May 9, 1888, with twenty-three members from the classes then 
 in college, and at once leased its present building and grounds of their 
 owner. Professor W. C. Esty, securing the right of future ownership. It 
 was the sixty-fifth chapter of the fraternity, which was founded at Miami 
 in 1848. During the War of the Rebellion the chapter-roll was reduced 
 to five ; and two of these were the causes of the reawakening of the 
 fraternity. The organization is controlled by a general council and 
 province presidents, whose power is absolute within their spheres, — a 
 convention of the chapters once in two years, and a ])rovince conven- 
 tion once in two years. In 1891 there were sixty-six undergraduate and 
 twenty-four alumni chapters, the whole membership being 6803 under- 
 graduates and alumni. The fraternity numbers among its members 
 Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States. 
 
 The only remaining fraternity house is situated on South Pleasant 
 
158 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 Street, and to reach it the visitor should return to the corner of North- 
 ampton Street, and pass College Hall, the Library, and dwelling-houses, 
 on the way to the Central Massachusetts station. 
 
 The Delta Upsilon (Amherst Chapter) house was purchased in 1882, 
 thirty-hve years after the founding of the chapter. The rooms first 
 occupied were in South, and later in North, College. The chapter was 
 re-established in 1869, a hall being fitted up in Palmer's Block, which 
 stood on the site of the town hall. Four years after, the chapter moved 
 to quarters in Kellogg's Block, where a hall and several suites of rooms 
 were occupied by the members, until the present house was entered. 
 The Delta Upsilon fraternity was founded in 1834 at AVilliams College, 
 and the Amherst Chapter in 1891 numbered twenty-nine active and 
 334 alumni members. Among the latter are : Rev. (icorge Washburn, 
 president of Robert College, Constantinople ; Rev. Daniel Bliss, presi- 
 dent of the Protestant College at Beirout, Syria ; William Swinton, author 
 of Swinton's educational works ; Rev. Hiram C. Hayden, president of 
 Adelbert College, Cleveland, O. 
 
 The Phi Gamma Delta (Alpha Chi Chapter) was established Novem- 
 ber 25, 1S93, and in 1S94 had eleven members. At the time of the 
 establishment they occupied a house on Pleasant Street. The Phi 
 Camma Delta fraternity was organized at Washington and Jefferson 
 College in 1848, and in 1894 had 48 Chapters. Among the prominent 
 members of the fraternity are Gen. Lew Wallace, John Clark Ridpath, 
 INLaurice Thompson and Senator Z. B. Vance. 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. l6l 
 
 THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 
 
 HISTORICAL NOTES— PRESENT CONDITIONS — THE EXPERIMENT 
 STATIONS— A GE4NCE AT THE BUILDINGS. 
 
 THE Massachusetts Agricultural College was one of the first institu- 
 tions of its kind to be founded in the United States. By an act 
 passed July, 1862, Congress granted to each State a portion of the 
 public lands, the money frogi the sale of which, it was provided, should 
 go toward establishing and maintaining at least one college where " the 
 leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific studies, and 
 including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are 
 related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in order to promote the 
 liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several 
 pursuits and professions of life." The State legislature formally accepted 
 this grant April 18, 1863, and afterward set aside one-third of it for the 
 Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Boston. The trustees for the 
 Massachusetts Agricultural College were incorporated by an act of April 
 29, 1863, and they found their share of the Congressional grant to be 
 360,000 acres of land, which afterward yielded $219,000. The corpora- 
 tion organized with Governor Andrew as president, A. W. Dodge, Esq., 
 vice-president, and Charles L. Flint, secretary; but in 1864 the legisla- 
 ture changed the legal name of the institution to the Massachusetts 
 Agricultural College, and Hon. Henry E. French of Cambridge was 
 elected president, the Governor remaining an ex-officio member of the 
 board of trustees. The question of the location of the College provoked 
 much discussion among the parties interested. The decision came when 
 the town of Amherst promised $50,000, and sufficient land at a reason- 
 able rate, the trustees accepting the offer May 25, 1864, and the Gov- 
 ernor and Council approving the choice soon after. The present estate 
 of the College — 383^ acres — was then purchased at a cost, including" 
 the buildings then standing, of about $43,000. The erection of the first 
 college buildings was authori/.ed by the trustees May 26, t866. In this 
 year President French resigned, and was succeeded by the Hon. Paul 
 A. Chadbourne, who in his turn retired the following year because of ill 
 
1 62 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 health. The work of the trustees up to this time had been simply pre- 
 paratory to the opening of the College, and, therefore, the list of actual 
 presidents may be said to commence with President Clark, who suc- 
 ceeded President Chadbourne. The terms of office of the presidents 
 were as follows : — 
 
 Colonel William S. Clark, Pli.I)., LL.D 1 867-1 S77 
 
 Charles Louis Flint, A.M., LL.15 1 879-1 880 
 
 Hon. Levi Stockbridge 1 880-1882 
 
 Hon. Paul Ansel Chadbourne (.Second Term) 1S82-1883 
 
 James Carruthers Greenough, M.A 1883-1SS6 
 
 President Henry Hill Cioodell was the acting president during six 
 months of 18S3, and in July, 1886, was elected to the i)osition which 
 he still holds. 
 
 The College was opened for students October 2, 1867, the entering 
 class numbering thirty-three. The instructors numbered four. Pefore 
 the close of the term there were fourteen more students. 
 
 The faculty comprised, in 1891, twelve members exclusive of the 
 president. This body has the general direction of the College in 
 matters relating to the curriculum and to discipline. 
 
 The State Board of Agriculture constitutes a board of overseers 
 of the College, and through their special committees make frequent 
 examinations of the work and condition of the institution. Their 
 annual reports are submitted to the legislature, and are published as 
 public documents. 
 
 The degree of Bachelor of Science is awarded to successful graduates, 
 the governor of the Commonwealth signing the diploma. By a special 
 arrangement between the authorities of the College and the Boston 
 University, the former has become the Agricultural Department of 
 the University, and receives its students in that science. Students 
 of the Agricultural are permitted to matriculate with the University, and 
 on graduation may receive its degree of Bachelor of Science, in addition 
 to that of the College, thus obtaining the ])rivileges of alumni in both 
 institutions. A military diploma is granted at the discretion of the 
 professor of military science and tactics. 
 
 The course of study at the C'ollege is entirely j^rescribed, and is 
 largely scientific in its nature. There are ami)le provisions, however, 
 for the study of literature and the languages. 
 
 Generous financial aids are offered to students who wish to obtain an 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 165 
 
 education at a small expense. As nearly all the scholarship funds of 
 the College have been established by the legislature, students coming 
 from homes within Massachusetts are favored before those from other 
 States. In addition to the following specified sums, $5000 is devoted 
 each year to the payment of those who perform work in the various 
 departments. About $250 is given annually in prizes. The scholar- 
 ships are : eighty State scholarships, established by the legislature of 
 1886, $10,000; fourteen Congressional, established by the trustees, 
 ^1120; private bequests (the income of $3000) amounting to $150. 
 Application for one of the State scholarships is made to the State senator 
 of the district in which the student resides ; and for a Congressional 
 scholarship, to the representative to Congress. 
 
 The necessary expenditures of a student in college are estimated as 
 closely as possible in the accompanying table. It is assumed in these 
 that the student actually pays for each item, any beneficiary money which 
 may be credited to him by the College, or any other means which may 
 be adopted to reduce the cost of an education, not being taken into 
 consideration. It is believed that the estimate in the " Least " column 
 may be followed without injurious deprivation of any kind. The students 
 are required to room in the college dormitories, and with a room-mate ; 
 the items of rent, furniture, fuel, and light are reduced by being shared. 
 The actual cost of these items to each student is therefore entered in the 
 estimates. In the rent of the higher-priced rooms, steam heat is included. 
 
 
 Lkast. 
 
 MODKKATE. 
 
 Ami'LE. 
 
 Tuition 
 
 Hooks and Stationery .... 
 
 Room Rent 
 
 Furniture (annual average) . . 
 
 Board 
 
 Fuel and Light 
 
 Washing 
 
 I'lothing 
 
 ♦.Military Suit 
 
 Society and ('lass Taxes . . . 
 
 Sul)scri]itions 
 
 Sundries 
 
 Boston University Course . . 
 * Laboratory Fee 
 
 Totals 
 
 380.00 
 8.00 
 24.00 
 8.00 
 90.00 
 11.00 
 10.00 
 30.00 
 
 (15-75) 
 3.00 
 
 15.00 
 
 (30.00) 
 
 $80.00 
 12.00 
 36.00 
 15.00 
 
 108.00 
 15.00 
 15.00 
 60.00 
 
 ('5-75) 
 
 8.00 
 
 5.00 
 
 25.00 
 
 10.00 
 
 (30.00) 
 
 $80.00 
 20.00 
 4800 
 25 00 
 
 I 26.00 
 25.00 
 25.00 
 
 1 00.00 
 
 (•5-75) 
 15.00 
 10.00 
 40.00 
 10.00 
 
 (30.00) 
 
 $279.00 
 
 $389.00 
 
 $524.00 
 
 * Each of these items occur only once during the college course, and are not inchulcd in the totals. 
 
1 66 rilE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 The military department of tlie College is under the direction of an 
 officer of the United States army, detailed to the position by the Secre- 
 tary of War. Instruction in military drill tactics is made one of the 
 requirements of the College by the act of Congress providing for the 
 establishment of the institution. Each student, not physically incapaci- 
 tatetl, is tlius under the surveillance of the commandant. The cadet 
 battalion, organized with four companies, is officered by the students of 
 the upper classes ; and the drills are held three times each week. 
 Recitations upon the tactics and the art of war, and practical instruc- 
 tion in target, artillery, and mortar practice are features of the depart- 
 ment. During the sessions of the College, the rooms of all the students 
 are inspected once a week by the commandant. Most of the arms 
 and ammunition used in the battalion are provided by the United 
 States. The military diploma, awarded by the commandant at the sat- 
 isfactory completion of the college course, recommends the receiver 
 to an office if volunteer troops are ever called for by the State author- 
 ities. 
 
 Connected with the Agricultural College in their aims, yet distinct in 
 organization and work, are the State Agricultural Experiment Station 
 and the Hatch I'^xpcriment Station. These are so nicely arranged that 
 they supplement each other in their experiments, neither one attempting 
 the same line of investigations as the other, although in several instances 
 the same person is in charge of similar departments in the College and 
 in both of the stations. This plan lessens the necessary expenses, and 
 increases the funds available in every department of experiment, resulting 
 in unusually large returns in ])roportion to the outlay. The organizations 
 of the two departments arc here gi\cn. 
 
 The Massachusetts State Agricultural Experiment Station was 
 established in 18S2, by an act of the legislature, passed May 12 of that 
 year. The Station was located at the State Agricultural College, forty- 
 eight acres of land being leased from the College, and its management 
 was vested in a board of control of seven members, the governor of the 
 Commonwealth being president ex officio. The sum of $3000 was first 
 appropriated for ecpiipping the new station, and 1^5000 a year thereafter 
 granted for its maintenance. This annual grant was increased in 1.S85 
 to $10,000. 'I'he objects of the investigations of the Station were fully 
 set forth in the original act as follows : " The causes, prevention, and 
 remedies of the diseases of domestic animals, plants, and trees. The 
 
Page 167. 
 
 THE CHAPEL AND LIBRARY. 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 1 69 
 
 history and habits of insects destructive to vegetation, and the means of 
 abating them. The manufacture and composition of both foreign and 
 domestic fertihzers, their several values, and their adaptability to dif- 
 ferent crops and soils. The values, under all conditions, as food, for all 
 form animals, for various purposes, of the several forage, grain, and root 
 crops. The comparative value of green and dry forage, and the cost 
 of producing and reserving it in the best condition. The adulteration 
 of any articles of food intended for use of men or animals ; and in any 
 other subjects which may be deemed advantageous to the agriculture 
 and horticulture of the Commonwealth." 
 
 After the organization of the Board of Control of the Experiment 
 Station, Charles A. Goessmann, Ph.D., LL.D., was elected director and 
 chemist, which positions he has held ever since. The director has six 
 trained assistants in the chemical work and one in the field. The mem- 
 bership of the Board of Control was increased in 1888 to eleven. They 
 are elected for terms of years, — two from the members of the State 
 Board of Agriculture, two from the Board of Trustees of the State Agri- 
 cultural College, one from the Massachusetts Society for promoting 
 Agriculture, one from the Massachusetts State Grange, and one from 
 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, appointed by the respective 
 organizations, and the president of the State Agricultural College, the 
 director of the Station, and the secretary of the State Board of Agricul- 
 ture. This Board of Control submits to the legislature, through the 
 director of the Station, an annual report of its investigations, twenty-five 
 thousand copies of which have been printed each year since 1889. The 
 Station also issues occasional bulletins of ten thousand copies each, and 
 monthly statements of official analyses of commercial fertilizers during 
 the months of April and October of every year. 
 
 The work at the Experiment Station is limited only by the amount 
 of money available. Each new source of revenue opens a corresponding 
 channel of investigation. The annual income amounts to ;? 16,500, of 
 which $10,000 is received from the State, $5000 from the Hatch Experi- 
 ment Station in return for doing the entire chemical work of that insti- 
 tution, and about $1500 from certificates issued to dealers in commercial 
 fertilizers as required by law. 
 
 The grounds of the State Experiment Station are leased from the 
 Agricultural College, at merely nominal rental, for a period of ninety- 
 nine years, and comprise forty-eight and one-half acres, of which ten 
 
I/O THE HAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 are woodland. Seventeen and three-quarters acres are on the west side 
 of the county highway, and thirty and a half on the east side. 
 The buildings of the Station are valued as follows : — 
 
 Chemical Laboratory (with fixtures) $15,000 
 
 Agricultural and Physical Laboratory (two) 12,000 
 
 Farmhouse 2,000 
 
 Barn and Feeding Stabk-s (w ith fixtures) 6,000 
 
 The Hatch Experiment Station of the Massachusetts Agricultural 
 College was organized in 1887 under the jjrovisions of the Hatch act, 
 which passed Congress and was approved by the President, March 2, 
 of that year. The act established experiment stations in all the States 
 and Territories of the Union, with the object of promoting " scientific 
 investigation and experiment, and the principle and application of agri- 
 cultural science." For each station the annual appropriation of $15,000 
 was granted ; of the first year's income, not more than twenty per cent, 
 and the years following, not more than five per cent, of this sum might 
 be used for erecting buildings for the Station. The president of the 
 Agricultural College, Henry H. Goodell, LL.D.,was elected director, 
 and the treasurer of the College, treasurer of the Station, which positions 
 they have held ever since. The departments of the Station, as now 
 established, are Agriculture, Horticulture, Entomology, and Meteorology. 
 The Station is always engaged in investigations important to the farmer 
 and other classes in the State. Quarterly bulletins of about eleven 
 thousand copies are issued. Of the annual income, S5000 is paid by 
 the Station to the chemical de])artment of the State Experiment Station, 
 where all the work of that kind is jjcrformed. The ])roperty of the 
 Hatch ]\xi)eriment Station is divided among the various departments 
 as follows : Agricultural (barn) $4,000 ; Horticultural (greenhouses) 
 $2,800; Entomological (insectary) $2,000; Meteorological (appara- 
 tus) $1,800. 
 
 By act of Legislature, 1894, the two Stations were consolidated and 
 made a department of the College. 
 
 THE COLLl'lCE liUIl. DINGS. 
 
 The Agricultural College is situated on North Pleasant Street, 
 about a mile from the village of Amherst. Eying upon the western 
 slope of Mount Pleasant, it overlooks the entire Connecticut \'alle\', 
 
THE HANDBOOK' OF AMHERST. 173 
 
 within the boundaries of the prehistoric lake. The extensive grounds 
 are always admirably kept, and the buildings offer many things of in- 
 terest to the visitor. The distance is convenient for a pleasant walk or 
 drive, and as the institution has been considered by the leading agricul- 
 turists who have visited it from the United States and Europe, as the 
 finest in this country, it certainly should not be neglected. 
 
 In making the tour of the college buildings, it will be found most 
 convenient to enter the grounds by the way of Amity Street and Lincoln 
 Avenue, or by North Pleasant Street, in either case commencing with 
 the college barn, at the left, and following the course marked out in this 
 book. 
 
 The first building to be noticed is the 
 
 College Barn, built in 1869, and altered to its present form in 1889 ; 
 valued at §14,500. The building contains the specimens used for 
 illustration in the department of agriculture in the College. For this 
 purpose there are typical specimens of farm stock, representing the 
 different breeds of horned cattle and swine, a valuable stallion, and a 
 small flock of sheep. The apparatus for farm work is very complete. 
 The building is so neatly kept as to be attractive even to persons who 
 have no special connection with agricultural affairs. In the manage- 
 ment of the college farm it is intended to illustrate the systems and 
 methods best suited to the conditions of this locality, and in all the 
 operations the possible educational effect is kept prominently in view. 
 While labor on the farm is not compulsory, not a little is performed by 
 the students, and every opportunity is given to any who specially desire 
 instruction in any particular line of farm work to obtain it. The dwell- 
 ing-house adjoining the barn is occupied by the superintendent of the 
 college farm and his assistants. 
 
 Some distance southward from these buildings, and just beyond the 
 boundaries of the college grounds, is the D. G. K. Society house. This 
 was bought in 1891, from Professor C. D. Warner, whose residence 
 it was. 
 
 The next building is the 
 
 Drill Hall, erected in 18S3, at an expenditure of S6500, a legislative 
 appropriation for the purpose. The Armory, at the right of the entrance, 
 contains the arms furnished by the State to the college corps of cadets. 
 The main hall is 123 feet long and 48 feet wide, and has an asj^halt 
 floor. It is heated by a hot-water system, introduced in 188S. This 
 
1/4 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 comfortable winter quarters of the corps is used by the students as a 
 gymnasium. The second floor of the buiUUng contains the command- 
 ant's office, and a recitation room for the classes in military-tactics 
 science. A short stairway leads into the tower of the building. On 
 the campus adjoining this building are earthworks for use in mortar 
 practice — a part of the regular military training of the College. 
 
 On the right is the 
 
 College Chapel, completed in iS86, at a cost of $31,000, which was 
 provided for the purpose by special legislative appropriations. The 
 material used in construction is Pelham granite, with brownstone trim- 
 mings. The two entrances at the south end of the building lead into 
 the alumni headquarters, and by winding staircases to the hall above. 
 The college library occupies the main portion of the lower floor. This 
 contained in 1894, about 15,500 volumes, and its rate of increase 
 during the past three years has been twelve hundred volumes annually. 
 The president's office is situated on this floor. The second story forms 
 a hall capable of seating six hundred people, and here the Sunday ser- 
 vices of the College, and the commencement exercises are held. The 
 building is heated by steam and lighted by electricity. 
 
 The South College Dormitory, beyond, was first built in 1S67, and 
 contained several recitation rooms and the college library. On February 
 4, 1885, it was destroyed by fire, and rebuilt in 18S6, at a cost of 
 ^37,000, a sjiecial appropriation by the legislature. The building is 
 brick, three stories in height, and contains twenty suites of double 
 rooms for students. The soutli wing overlooks the college campus and 
 parade ground. In the north wing are recitation rooms and the museum 
 of the biological department. The collection in this museum contains 
 representatives of every type of American animal, and is valued at about 
 $3500. The office of the Hatch r^.xperiment Station is in the tower of 
 this building. 
 
 The meteorological observatory of the Hatch ]''\periment Statit)n is 
 also located in the tower. The observatory was established by money 
 granted under the Hatch Ex]:)eriment Stations act of Congress, and it 
 is modelleil as nearly as possible after the Central Tark observatory in 
 New York City. 01)servations were commenced by Professor C. I). 
 Warner, the first and i)resent director, on January i, 1SS9. Tiie instru- 
 ments in use are all of the Drajjcr self-recording pattern, which ordi- 
 narily require the attention of the observer not oftener than once a week. 
 
THE IIAXDBOOK OF AMHERST. lyj 
 
 The most important of them is the electrograph, which was constructed 
 after Professor Warner's design by Elliott Brothers, London, England. 
 It measures the electric potential of the atmosphere, and keeps a record 
 by a delicate and continuous photographic process. 
 
 North College Dormitory, completed in the fall of iS6S. Its cost 
 was S36, ooo, and sixty-four students may be accommodated in it. The 
 college reading-room is on the first floor. 
 
 Just behind this building is the 
 
 Laboratory Building, the first of the college buildings, erected in 
 1867. Originally a two-story building, it has been altered, now being 
 valued at $10,360. It now contains the chapel, used for morning 
 prayers, the laboratory of the zoological department, and a part of the 
 chemical department, on the first floor ; the rooms of the mathematical, 
 physical, and chemical departments, on the second ; and an interesting 
 collection of agricultural implements from Japan, in the third. This 
 last story was formerly the drill hall of the cadet battalion, and is now 
 used as a museum until a special building is erected. 
 
 New Barns, Stable and Dairy School. — Near the centre of the col- 
 lege estate and at the foot of the slope west of the campus, stand the new 
 farm buildings erected in 1893 and 1894 at a cost of about 535,000, 
 specially appropriated by the Legislature for the purpose. These in- 
 clude a commodious storage barn with a capacity of 212 tons of hay 
 and 380 tons of silage, connected with which are three large wings ; 
 a horse stable and the farm house which has been moved from its for- 
 mer site near the old barns. One of the wings will stable 70 cows, 
 another will accommodate 75 sheep, 80 hogs and 20 head of cattle, 
 while the third provides facilities for the manufacture of butter, and 
 for instruction in matters pertaining to the dairy industry. This wing 
 contains ice-houses, heavy machinery and light machinery rooms, 
 boiler rooms, class-room, laboratory, and creamer and dressing rooms. 
 It is equipped with all modern dairy machinery and educational 
 appliances. In its basement will be installed an electric light plant 
 to supply the whole institution and for use as an educational adjunct 
 in the course in electricity. 
 
 The barn and stables include many new features, and have been 
 designed with especial reference to securing superior sanitary conditions 
 for their occupants. In jjlace of the usual small allowance of perhaps 
 
17^ 7 7//: //A NDB 00 K OF A MIIER S T. 
 
 250 cubic feet of air per animal, each cow in the new stable is allotted 
 1 100 cubic feet, and the room is abundantly lighted and ventilated. 
 The interior finish has been designed with particular reference to clean- 
 liness, and the walls and roof with a view to securing an equable and 
 comfortable temperature. 
 
 Across the ravine is the residence of the college pastor, and next to 
 it is a 
 
 Boarding-House, built by the College in 1868, costing $8000. For 
 a number of years it was managed by the college authorities, but in 
 1 89 1 was in the hands of a boarding-club of sixty students. The house 
 accommodates the family in charge of the practical details. 
 
 The Barn, of the Hatch Experiment Station, is in the rear of the 
 boarding-house. Built in i88g, and costing $4000, it is used for experi- 
 ments in feeding farm stock, and in other matters of importance to the 
 farmer. The building was burned in the spring of 1891 and immedi- 
 ately rebuilt. 
 
 Following the road as it completes the circle of the college grounds, 
 the visitor finds himself before the 
 
 Chemical Laboratory of the State Experinient Station, built of brick 
 and sandstone. It faces to the south. The main building is two stories 
 in height, measures 30 by 42 feet, and has a tower projecting from the 
 southeast corner. Two parallel wings, each one story high and 32 feet 
 long by 19 feet wide, join the rear of the building. The main house 
 contains, on the ground-floor, the director's office, assistants' room, two 
 small weighing-rooms, and passages leading into the wings, which are 
 used as laboratories. Of the rooms on the upper floor, one is occui)ied 
 by the assistants, and the other three are used for storing collections 
 illustrating various agricultural industries. The building was erected in 
 18S3, after plans suggested by the director, and made by K. A. Ellsworth, 
 a graduate of the College. Its cost was 5i 5,000, including the apparatus 
 it contains. Of this sum, ;>i 1,500 was a legislative approi)riation. the 
 rest coming from the regular income of the Station. The entire chemi- 
 cal work of both the Massachusetts State and the Hatch Experiment 
 stations is carried on in this laboratory. 
 
 The Farmhouse and barn of the State F,x])eriment Station are situ- 
 ated about out' hundred and Hfty yards north of the chemical laboratory, 
 and are valued together at $8000. The house and main barn were built 
 bef )re the farm passed into the hands of the State, and has been re- 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. iSl 
 
 modelled from time to time since. Here resides the former of the 
 Station, who is in general charge of the farm work under the superin- 
 tendence of the director. The barn contains the seed-room, grain- 
 room, silos, scales for weighing the crops, and live stock. In 1886 the 
 feeding-stable and first wing were added, and shortly after another stable 
 and wing of the same size were built in the rear of the first. Experi- 
 ments in feeding and digestion that have been carried on here are 
 among the most important to farmers of all that the Station has under- 
 taken. A visit to the barn cannot fail to be of interest. Everything is 
 kept in most perfect order and neatness. The buildings are subject to 
 frequent change, depending upon the nature of the questions under 
 investigation. The creamery attached to the barn was built in 1887, 
 and the ice-house of one hundred tons' capacity was erected at the same 
 time. 
 
 Just across the town highway from the Chemical Laboratory stands the 
 Agricultural and Physiological Laboratory of the State Experiment 
 Station, a brick building, two and a half stories high, with brownstone 
 trimmings, and a frontage of forty feet, and a depth of thirty-five feet. 
 This was the first building in this country erected for the special purpose 
 of studying the more intricate questions of plant growth with reference 
 to agricultural plants, and the relation of fungus growth to plant dis- 
 eases. It was completed early in 1890, at a cost of ;$ 10,000, appropri- 
 ated by the State legislature. Its outfit cost nearly $3000. The second 
 floors are divided into four, of equal size each. The lower floor is 
 devoted to microscopic investigations. It contains an ofhce with two 
 laboratories and a photographic studio, supplied with an overhead rail- 
 road for bringing large plants from the shed to the camera. The second 
 story is occupied by the assistant superintendent of the field and feeding 
 experiments. He has an office, and a chemical laboratory for studying 
 the physiological condition of the soil, and a private apartment. In the 
 rear of the building, and connecting with it, is a covered shed, twenty- 
 five feet square ; a glass house, of the same size ; and a greenhouse, 
 twelve feet wide, and forty feet long. From the open side of the cov- 
 ered shed, three parallel railways extend sixty feet on to the grounds. 
 Within the shed are turn-tables and tracks, which lead into the glass 
 house ; and altogether they furnish a very convenient method of trans- 
 porting the plants under investigation to and from the open air. This 
 system of connecting shed and glass houses and photograpliic studio by 
 
1 82 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 means of railways is modelled upon a plan used by Dr. Hellriesgel, at 
 Beruburg, Germany. The building was designed, in conformity with 
 special instructions, by E. A. Ellsworth of Holyoke, a graduate of the 
 College. It is maintained by a portion of the funds of the Hatch Experi- 
 ment Station. 
 
 Following the college road as it turns again in the direction of the 
 town, the dwelling-house at the right is the home of the professor of 
 horticulture. Ikyond is the 
 
 Botanic Museum of the College, built in 1866, at a cost of $5180. 
 It is a two-story frame structure, 43 by 45 feet, and was one of the four 
 buildings erected about the time of the opening of the College. On the 
 first floor is a laboratory and recitation room. On the floor abov^e is the 
 Knowlton Herbarium, collected by W. W. Denslow of New York, of fifteen 
 thousand species, one of the finest collections in the country. A large 
 collection of native woods, and fifty specimens of wood from the Hima- 
 laya Mountains, made by the celebrated travellers, the Von Schlagentwelt 
 brothers, are also kept in this room. One of the most interesting 
 objects in the room is a cast of a mammoth squash, grown in the jjlant 
 house in 1873, which actually lifted, in the course of its growing, a weight 
 equal to forty-five hundred pounds, and for some days after an accidental 
 cracking of the shell supported five thousand pounds. The office of the 
 college treasurer is in this building, his hours being from four to five 
 o'clock one or two afternoons of each week. 
 
 The neighboring stable was built in 1885 for the use of the horti- 
 cultural department of the College, cost ^1500, and is conveniently 
 arranged for the use of the department. 
 
 The President's House, on the hiU-side, was built in 1SS4 for the 
 use of President C.reenough, and cost $11,500. It is still the proi)erty 
 of the College, and occupied as a residence by \\'. 1*. I'.rooks, professor 
 of agriculture. 
 
 On the land between this building mid the stable, tlie horticultural 
 department makes experiments in growing small fruits and berries. A 
 fine vineyard is at the north of the president's house, and a large peach 
 orchard and a nursery at the east. These contain many of the finest 
 vnrieties of vines and trees, which are cultivated entirely for experiment. 
 
 The Durfee Plant House, a gift of the late Dr. Nathan Durfee of 
 Fall River, at one time treasurer of tlie College, was built in 1868 at an 
 expense of $12,000. On January 23, 18S3, the house was ])artially 
 
Page 1S5. 
 
 THE PLANT HOUSE. 
 
THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 187 
 
 destroyed by fire, but was immediately rebuilt, and is now valued the 
 same as originally. The main house consists of an octagon, 40 feet in 
 diameter, and two wings each 60 feet long and 30 wide. A workroom 
 in the rear of the octagon communicates with two parallel pits each 50 
 feet long. A small wing. 24 by 16 feet, opens from the northeast corner 
 of the octagon. The main house contains many types of plants for 
 illustration and educational purposes. These are provided from the 
 
 The Insectary. 
 
 income of a $10,000 fund, the gift of the late Leonard M. Hills and his 
 son Henry F. Hills, of Amherst. The pits and the small wing are used 
 for growing marketable plants and flowers. 
 
 The Greenhouse of the Hatch Experiment Station was constructed in 
 the fall of 1888, after special plans devised by Professor S. T. Maynard, 
 the head of the horticultural division. Completely fitted, it cost $2800, 
 and is designed for experiments in plant-growing, with different methods 
 of heating. There is a main room, containing the heatingapparatus, 
 and two parallel greenhouses of exactly the same size and construction, 
 extending from the soiith side. One of them is heated by steam, and 
 13 
 
1 88 THE HANDBOOK OF AMHERST. 
 
 the other by hot water. Valuable investigations are made here each 
 winter, and the results widely published. 
 
 The grounds at the south of this group of buildings is used by the 
 horticultural department for experiments in fruit and ornamental tree- 
 culture. The farmhouse on the opposite side of the road is one of the 
 buildings bought with the land at the time of the establishment of the 
 College. The small building at the left is the 
 
 Insectary of the entomological department of the Hatch Experi- 
 ment Station, built in 1889. The expense of its construction, $2000, 
 was met by the Agricultural College and the Massachusetts Society for 
 the Promotion of Agriculture. The investigations of this department 
 relate to the life and habits of insects injurious to vegetation, and are 
 under the direction of the State entomologist, Professor Charles H. 
 Fernald. The building is a story and a half high, 28 by 20 feet 
 in area, and has adjoining it a greenhouse 30 feet long and 18 
 wide. The ground- floor contains the entomologist's office, a labora- 
 tory, and an "insecticide room," where the various compounds for 
 killing insects are tested. The laboratory occupies the entire half of 
 the floor adjoining the greenhouse. This latter is divided into a hot 
 room and a cold room, which are used for breeding insects. In the 
 cellar of the main house are vaults for wintering such insects as may be 
 under investigation. It was in this building that the extended investiga- 
 tions of the gypsy moth, for the destruction of which the State has 
 expended much money, were first made. The department is constantly 
 receiving queries from all over the country, principally this State, how- 
 ever, in regard to the destruction of common and injurious insects. 
 
Noteworthy Business Firms, 
 
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A HISTORY OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 
 
 /*^ IXCE retiring- from his long active service in the class-room, 
 ^^V the venerable Dr. William S. Tyler has been engaged in 
 V^ preparing a new and popular edition of the 
 
 History of Amherst College 
 
 which will shortly be published by subscription. 
 
 l)r. Tyler is the official historian of Amherst College. At the 
 time of the Semi-Centennial Celebration in 1S71, he prepared the 
 The Author '"^^'' ^"'^' ^'''''' now, the only history of the college 
 ever published. His long and intimate acquaint- 
 ance with Amherst and the high positions he has held in connection 
 with the administration of the college especially fit him to be the 
 author of its histor_\'. 
 
 The causes which led to the establishment of the college are 
 traced brielly, and the history of the successive administrations of 
 Cnntpnt<4 ^'"" '"^'' ''^'^ presidents follows in an entertaining 
 story. 
 
 Such portions of the original History as are used at all have 
 been very largely rewritten. The statistical matter ami other 
 references which break the thread of the story have been omitted. 
 There are entirely new chapters upon the flection and the admin- 
 istration of President Seel_\e, the establishment and growth cf the 
 Amherst system, the athletics of the college, the secret societies, and 
 all the other features of Amherst life which have marked the period 
 since the first History was published. 
 
 In its mechanical make-up the book will be all that the best 
 workmanship can make it. The manufacturing work will be done 
 
 Mechanical Make=up '" ^''^' 1"'"'>"^' establishment of the well- 
 known jniblishers, Messr.s. D. .'Vi'I'i.eto.n 
 & Co., of New \'ork. It will be duodecimo in size, of about 400 
 
pages, printed from entirely new plates on fine paper, fully illustraied 
 and attractively bound. It will be a book that every alumnus and 
 friend of Amherst will wish to read and own. 
 
 There will also be a De Luxe edition of the History of Amherst 
 College, limited to one hundred numbered copies. This edition will 
 De Luxe Edition ^^ known as the Author's Autograph Edition, 
 and will differ widely from the ordinary 
 edition. It will be printed on heavy English paper, with large mar- 
 gins, gilt top and uncut edges. In addition to the illustrations which 
 will appear in the other edition, there will be a special portrait of the 
 author, and in each of the one hundred copies Dr. Tyler will write 
 his autograph. The binding will be an appropriate one, and the book 
 will be inclosed in a neat box. There will never be more than one 
 hundred copies of this edition issued. 
 
 The Author's Autograph Edition will be sold at $5 a copy, and 
 
 the numbers will be assigned in the order in which the subscriptions 
 
 _„ . are received. 
 
 Price 
 
 The price of the regular edition will be $1.50 
 
 a copv. 
 
 FREDERICK If. HITCHCOCK', 
 
 Publisher. 1894 
 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 Please send me wlien published eop of the 
 
 edition of Dr. Tyler s A History 
 
 of Amherst College, for whieh I loill pay 
 
 on delivery. 
 
 A ddress . 
 
 Send all orders to the publisher at .\mherst, Mass., or 55 West 45th 
 Street, New ^'ork. 
 
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 ETC. FIKST-CLASS I'RINTINC, OF EVERY KIMl. : : : : : 
 
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 ■11