m««MKL* =»jfcB£t Copyright^ . COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. nt ■&4-fMf &h ftiBRARYofCOnQRESS Two Copies Beccived J)£.C 30 W8 y-O popynent Entry . GLASS CL AW. No. Copyright 1908 by SUMNER GILBERT WOOD •\ kxpl*N&-|oN fifths, of an ancient plan to is appi ii ■!■ "THIS PLAN' DESCRIB1 of Hampshire. Lying upon Sheffield Road. It also describes the several Lots Belonging to the chief Pro- prietors (as is Represented by the hrst Letter of their Nam. .Number And also the subdivision of the Settlers part. And len , v." P'V,? 1 ' laid °"tbctv...„ the Lots « | st and N-. u East in the hrst Division of Said Seltli Surveyed partly by M' Roger New- bury of Windsor ,(,,„,„„ Sur . vey- and partly by jot,,, llu.i ppearbv the Original ' «en from a true cop Westneld April 19a ,;, BARNETT ilARKIN ' tophei |ac..b _ t o .. Lawtim p' ,. Francis Bnnlev w ■■ ! ;;■ , francis Wells tier, the first dp 1 ■ , . , er, the second division, .,,„, by the second division street «.« u™ he Shef- field. Ilousatonic, Great Barr, being the village street. -'■'<■■' Ml red ■•'- ""heated thus _„_ ?■"} "*>»* ' ancient and modern ' .band„„"l Manv ..mted to a, ml '.I sitated by inaccuracies of the' Braeral scheme is L : "hnbrool," ' ,1, he 1,1 "' having been 1 1 , r The road indicatod i],„. iecS "vard i' 1 i.e. p. .11,1 B. The branch; now. Peebles B3 B Bedlam brook Y B , Freehold brook. Brook. North Meadow brook. .1 hrook. W B . Wheel, c A G , Aimer Qjbbl House K B T . Reuben Bois 1 I ' "i.'r tavern " II II .rn.i.n-Suu III 1 1. 1 Mitctllantous: W 11 . Walnut inn J. B, lei P X ft 1 Contents Chapter I. Pixley's Tavern, 1 Chapter II. The Corner Tavern: The Hustons and Peases, . 19 Chapter III. The Corner Tavern: The Ashmuns and their Successors, 34 Chapter IV. The old Post Road: or, The Berkshire Road, . 68 Chapter V. The Street and The Old Aristocracy, .... 98 Chapter VI. The New Aristocracy and The New Village,. . 147 Chapter VII. Beech Hill, 186 Chapter VIII. Social Functions of The Tavern, 216 Chapter IX. Turnpike Stories 252 Chapter X. The Westfield River Branches and The East Part 269 Chapter XI. The North End, 286 Chapter XII. Tales of Stage-coach and Wayside Inn, . . . 307 List of Illustrations Turnpike of 1829: "Number Three" Frontispiece Opposite page Pixley's Farm, 8 Blair Pond, ... 16 Congregational Meeting House, . . .24 "Albany Road," looking up to School House, . . 24 Barn of Comer Tavern — Ashmun's, . . .32 The Hon. George Ashmun, 36 The "New Hotel" of Russell Sage, Esq., ... 52 House of Reuben Boise, Esq., 68 Front Stairway and Parlor Cupboard, . . .72 Berkshire Road, at foot of Step Hill, .... 80 Mile-stone on Berkshire Road, 84 Benjamin Scott's Tavern 88 Walnut Hill 88 Parlor Fireplace, Scott's Tavern, 96 Old Parade Ground — The Ten-acre Lot, . . .100 The Town Street, 104 Capt. Abner Pease's Tavern, 112 The Business Centre of the New Village, . . .112 The Samuel Boies Tavern, 116 Site of Episcopal Church and Job Almy's, . .120 Site of Deacon William Boise's Store, . . .128 Tavern Sign and old Hatch Tavern, . . . .148 East End of New Village, 164 House of John Boies, etc., 184 At the Gore, 184 Road on Beech Hill, 192 House of Jedediah Smith, Esq., 196 Deacon Robert Lloyd's House, 200 Front Stairway, Dea. Lloyd's House, .... 208 Kitchen Fireplace 212 Birch Hill, 248 Gate House, 256 Tavern at horth Blandford, 256 Turnpike of 1829 : Meadow, 260 Turnpike of 1829: Long Hill, 264 F alley's Cross Roads — Huntington, . . . .272 "East Part" Tavern — Parks's, 276 Well-sweep, ..'..' 280 Harroun-Sinnet- Bruce Tavern, 288 Harroun-Sinnet- Bruce Bar-room, 288 Taggart Tavern, 292 Capt. Abner Gibbs's House, 292 First House of Reuben Boise, Esq., .... 296 Harroun-Sinnet- Bruce Tavern 296 Cellar Stairs, Taggart Tavern, 304 The Baird Tavern 308 Bar-room, 308 The Green-woods Road, 312 "County Road from James Beards to Barrington, Road," . . 320 Watson E. Boise, 324 Little River, 328 Westfield River at Russell, . . . Appendix House at Northerly End o f Pixley's Farm, Appendix "®Ij? totljrrtt . ♦ . . rantr tn mrrt us as far as ®lj£ Jftarket nf Apptus atto ®lj? QJl}r?£ ©aufrtiB; wljom uifynt Paul saw, In* Hjankro <&nb, attu tuck nmraru?." Gtyr Arts nf St?r Apnsta. Foreword This little book is a sort of by-product. For five years past, or more, I have been engaged in the study of the history of this town, having made minute investigation of the town and church records, then of a couple of thousand or so of deeds in the Spring- field registry, supplementing this by a like study of other material in both Springfield and Northampton, such as inventories, records of license, of county roads, etc. Little by little, as my friends became interested in my work, through their kindness I received access to other documents, as rare as they are valuable to our local history. In writing up this material it was my intent to devote two or three chapters to the tavern features, which pres- ently expanded to such proportions as to demand much more space. In no small degree the tavern and turnpike story shapes and describes the social development of the town, so rich in fact and incident. So I concluded to test my ability to interest the natural constituency to which Blandford history might appeal, by the publication of this monograph, before running the larger risk always attaching to the publication of the conventional local history, the circulation of which is necessarily narrow. Should this little volume meet with such response as to warrant the venture, it is my intent to follow it by another, and larger, on "The Homes and Habits of Ancient Blandford." The spelling of certain proper names in this book may seem to be peculiar; but so was the spelling of the fathers. Carnachan, Carnahan, Cannon are the same name; so are Loughead and Lloyd; so are Boies, Boise, Boys, Boice, etc. They so occur in the records. Beard and Baird are interchange- able. I have conformed my custom to theirs, and am contemporary with them. I have even followed this habit in certain respects to the spelling of the names of the places. If I am open to criticism in this particular, it is a small matter. I have tried to live with these people and to think as they did. I am under lasting bonds of gratitude to many helpers; to the town clerk of Blandford, Mr. Enos W. Boise, for continuous courtesies, documentary material and traditions; to Mr. William J. Keep, of Detroit, Mich., for reminiscences of Rev. John Keep; to Miss Cornelia Warren, of Waltham, for similar material concerning Rev. Dr. Dorus Clarke; to Mr. H. L. Butler, of Philadelphia, Pa., for in- valuable memories of Rev. Daniel Butler; to Mrs. Elizabeth H. Morton, of Springfield, for voluminous and valuable biographical material concerning the Ashmuns; to Mr. Enos Boise Lewis, for a facsimile of an ancient plan of the town; to Mrs. Bliss and Miss Harriet C. Bliss, of New Britain, Conn., for illumin- ating incidents; to Miss Lauraette Smith, for price- less documents, particularly the ledgers of Col. Samuel Sloper and Jedediah Smith, Esq., and for the court docket of the latter, as well as for mis- cellaneous matter; to Mr. Andrew Soule of Otis for assistance in locating Scott's tavern: also for tradi- tion and story to the following; Mrs. Julia Hamilton, Mrs. Susan B. Nye, Messrs. H. A. and H. L. Blair, A. L. Stewart, Asa Culver, C. R. Miner, W. D. Healy, Lester Moore, Mrs. Barber Nye, Miss Hattie Emmons, Mrs. H. B. Sperry, Rev. Wm. A. Lloyd of Chicago, and to the late Hon. Samuel Knox and Mr. Samuel A. Bartholomew. By no means least of all has assistance been given me by my wife, in literary criticism, in preparation of the map, in making the cover design, and in sym- pathetic co-operation with me in all my work. Besides, I owe a debt of gratitude to many house- holders and good wives who have repeatedly thrown open their house to my presence and my camera for interior views, and for other courtesies. Whatever may be the fate of this book, these many personal friendlinesses will ever remain with me as a memory of appreciation. A large mass of literature on which I have depended has been freely quoted or referred to in the text, and is fully acknowledged in foot-notes, passim. Chapter One P ixley V Ta v er n T "^HE subject of road-making is interest- ing or dry according to one's point of view. The surveyor's account is apt not to be thrilling. But when one consid- ers that a highway is a not unimportant factor in the tide of human life, that over its surface vibrates to and fro the commerce of a people, that by means of it fortunes are made and unmade, that human hearts throb with joy or sink down in gloom as they traverse its length, that wedding companies and funeral processions pass along it as in Cana and Nain, that it has taken its full share in the development of the home and of the State, as men have studied and toiled and sweat upon it in the subjugation of nature so inviting yet so unwilling and stubborn, the roadway becomes the stage TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES for a drama. Long after, when you behold this same highway become grass- grown and covered with a mantle of forest foliage, as year by year it has dropped backward into primeval silence and oblivion, until only by accident or painful searching you discover it at all, its once hospitable and cheery asso- ciates — the homes of the people — having fallen silently into so many cellars over which lilac and tansy or greensward and maple have gently erected nature's living memorial, or mayhap a Lombardy poplar or two is watching in stately silence over the dead and gone, the road means much. Just as much it means when this humanity is in the midst of hubbub and dust. The road whether old or new, has its still living interest. A tavern is nothing except as it becomes vocal with the tongues of men, and a road is eloquent when human voices speak along it and human hearts find the coursings of life through it as though an artery. In the old town of Blandford, originally known as Glasgow, New Glasgow, or Glascow Lands,* the earnest student of its history, * Usually spelled, in original dacumsats, Glascow or Glasgo Lands. PIXLEY'S TAVERN assisted by here and there an oldest inhab- itant and now and then a musty old deed, discovers abandoned roads everywhere. When one newly comes to his ken, a still profounder reverence has he for the struggle for life and character of his forbears — and for himself and his contemporaries, whose story the scribe with the inkhorn by his side has not yet completed. This Blandford of the olden time occupied a position analogous to that of the modern busy railroad town. Alike in peace and war important thoroughfares crossed its hilltops and ravines. From the town's infancy, until the railroad, hugging the streams of the valley, left it in attenuating loneliness, Bland- ford was listed in the almanacs of the day on the post and stage routes as an important station. Tavern and turnpike in Blandford yield a rich chapter of fact and event to the local historian, a chapter flavored with an element of cosmopolitanism not to be ignored. The stranger, even the modern resident, finds it not easy to realize what bustle of travel and traffic there used to be over these now quiet roads. 3 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES "A region of repose it seems, A place of slumber and of dreams, Remote among the wooded hills." But there is something to remember, some- thing to glean out of the remote past, grow- ing remoter as one and another octogenarian goes on into the silent land, with all the wealth of his memories of a day, the vanish- ing ghosts of which he has been able to call up from the slumbering years. The wayside inn, "Built in the old Colonial day, When men lived in a grander way, With ampler hospitality," is with us still, here and there standing, or, quite as likely, a crumbling ruin, mute and eloquent witness of days almost forgotten. For good or ill — one may say, for good and ill — the tavern has been a fundamental in- stitution in the development of New England society. It should be classed perhaps third with the church and the school as formative and expressive of the life and institutions of the people; necessarily so, since New Eng- enders, with all their strictness and with all their inquisitorial fashions, were a social PIXLEY'S TAVERN folk, having to do not alone with each other but with the whole world. The tavern was a chief intermediary, and the tavern-keeper "lived by the side of the road." Before ever there was a settlement in Glasgow there was a tavern. The wilderness was becoming surveyed and mapped. The adventurer was making lonely marches across country, or laboriously marking out bound- aries with a trusty surveyor,— two prophetic personages, heralds of the civic life that was to be. Meanwhile the proprietor aforesaid was crossing and re-crossing the length of the State on horse-back in order to induce the Great and General Court to lend the needed authority for the consummation of the enter- prise. The name of Glasgow had been preceded by the descriptive lingo, "Suffield Equivalent Lands," a phrase derived from that stage of real estate transition intervening between provincial ownership and the proprietorship which contemplated the immediate creation of the town. There were boundary disputes between Massachusetts and Connecticut, and similar differences between towns, all of 5 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES which found their adjustment by the trading of lands, until at last Christopher Jacob Lawton, a resident of Sum eld, attorney and large land speculator, became leading pro- prietor of the aforesaid tract. He shortly shared this proprietorship with three others of kindred spirit. It was in the early thirties of the eighteenth century. Springfield and Westfield were thriving towns, and to the westward lay the district or tract known as Houssatanick, or Housatunnock. Here Lawton had interests as well as in Suffield Equivalent. Naturally he would want to establish communication between the separated estates, a commend- able purpose running parallel with the desire of the Province, which was anxious to settle and develop into towns all this outfying region. So Lawton asked the Legislature for a grant of five hundred acres of Province land along this way for the purposes of a tavern. That august body replied as follows: Order granting a plat of 300 Acres of Land to Christopher Jacob Lawton* * Acts and Resolves of the Province of Massachusetts Bay Vol. 11, pp. 684 and 685 Chap. 83 Resolves of 1732-33 PIXLEY'S TAVERN "A Petition of Cornelius* Jacob Laughton of Suffield Setting forth the extream badness of that part of the Road from Westfeild to Albany that lies between Westfeild & Housa- tannuck & the great Hardship that Travellers are forced to Suffer especially in the Winter Season there being no House for the Space of forty Miles praying the Grant of Five Hundred Acres of province Land upon Con- dition that he build & keep a House of Entertainm* near Midway on the s rf Road. Read & in Answer to this Petition "Ordered that the prayer of the Petition r be so far granted as that the Petition r have Leave by a Survey r & Chainmen on Oath to survey & lay out three Hundred Acres of Land in a regular Form not less than fifteen Miles from one of the within mentioned Towns as the Road goes, to lay on s^ Road as it is now used, & return a Plan thereof to this Court at the next May Session for Con- firmation. W ck Grant is hereby confirmed to the petition r his Heirs & Assigns for ever, He complying with the following Conditions viz' that he does by the first day of October * Given name appears as Christopher in subsequent legislation . TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES next erect & compleatly finish on s d Land & near said Road a Dwelling House forty four feet long, Eighteen feet wide & eight feet Post at least & also a Sutable Stable for Horses, & shall fence clear & sufficiently stock with English Grass, three Acres of Land by the first Day of Sept r 1734. & two Acres more each of the succeeding Years, That the Petition' by himself or some other sutable person (who has a Family) shall actually settle & reside with his Family on the Spot by y e first Day of October next & to dwell there for the Term of Twenty Years then next coming said person to be a man of good sober Conversation & such as the Justices of the Court of General Sessions of the peace for the County of Hampshire may think a proper person to keep a publick House of Entertainnr* & to be at all Times provided with necessaries fit for the Entertainiri of Man & Horse &c. & in Case of failure of any of the above particulars the s d Grant to revert to the Province, the person inhabiting on s d Land & keeping such publick House to be freed from paying excise for the Term of Ten Years from the first of his 8 PIXLEY'S TAVERN living there. [Passed December 7]" (1732). By summer or fall Lawton had his "publick House of Entertainment" in running order, though not yet of the proportions laid down in the terms of the General Court. The court of general sessions of that season, at North- ampton, bears record:* "Joseph Pixley Jun r Living on M r Chr Jacob Lawtons Land be- tween Westfield and Sheffield to be an Inn- holder Taverner & Common Victualler at s d Place is by this Court admitted and approved as a Suitable Person agreeable to the order of the Gen' Court Respecting the same." This hint of the location of Pixley 's tavern as "between Westfield and Sheffield" is grim witness to the loneliness of this little hearth-fire lighted in the midst of the vast wilderness. Glasgow was not yet, nor any other settlement from Westfield, nine miles from the Connecticut, westward to the Housa- tonic. An ancient tradition testifies f that "for several years it had no floor nor chim- ney. A fire was constantly kept upon the ground in the centre; logs eight and ten feet long were drawn in by a horse and rolled * Vol. 2, p. 253. t Historical Address, Blandford, Sept. 21, 18S0, by William H. Gibbs, p. 46 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES upon the log heap fire, the smoke passing out through a hole in the roof." This little snatch of what hospitality the pioneer hos- telry afforded the hardy traveller of the period is rescued from a too silent past, and the story lapses for the most part into the unknown. Five years later Pixley was still running the place and, Sept. 24, 1737, — two years after the village of Glasgow, four miles to the eastward, was fairly established, — he bought it of Lawton "for Divers Causes & Consider- ations (him) thereto moving." All trace of the old tavern was long years ago obliterated, as also of the fort, or block- house, which tradition — and tradition only — declares to have been put up thereabout during the wars with the French and Indians. But there is no manner of doubt about the general location of the farm, in the southwest part of the town.* Whatever prestige the tavern ever had was derived from the patron- age of wayfarers. There was little or no coloring of local importance there, albeit the first settled minister of the town laid hands upon it. Its career was checkered. Law- * In the original farm lots, numbered 11 and 12; in 1850 owned by Almon J. Lloyd; within memory of modern residents, by the late James S. Brooks, and now by N. C. Julien. 10 PIXLEY'S TAVERN ton's dealings with the Province were of the character of a shyster, and the General Court relieved him of his right to the tavern and farm, or whatever title he still held to it, Dec. 20, 1738. But through the intercession of David Ingersoll, of Westfield, the Legisla- ture, three days later, gave back his holding "Provided he or they* in the same way & manner comply with the conditions of the grant to all intents and purposes whatever within one year, and particularly that he build and finish a convenient Dwelling House to stand near the new Road at the North end of the granted premises, for the accom- modation of Travellers, of the dimensions expressed in the former grants. "f It ap- pears that this wayside inn was hobbling along with tardiness and difficulty. What use Rev. William McClenachan, who bought it in 17 44 J, could have made of it, unless to derive income from its rental, is hard to see. He not only possessed himself of the tavern and farm, but of the whole one thousand acres of the two farm lots in which * Heirs or assigns. t Chap. 20, p. 527, Acts and Resolves. One is tempted to put the query as to what became of travellers of dimensions other than those expressed in the Act. I Springfield Registry of Deeds, Vol. O, p. 729. 11 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES the tavern farm was located. This reverend gentleman kept hold of the property after leaving for the wars, mortgaging it in 1750, several years after his successor was settled in town, to one Samuel Watts, three years later selling it to a Boston distiller, Zechariah Johonnot. The title became mixed. Watts, who got hold of the property again, found himself obliged to defend his claim by suit against one Joseph Clark, who also operated the tavern and farm for some years. There is court record of Clark's license in 1762 and '63. There is furthermore this interesting act of the Provincial Legislature, under date of June 15, 1762: "A Petition of Joseph Clark of Blanford — Setting forth That in the Year 1760 He purchased a licensed House and purchased a barrel of Rum, but being sick in August when he should have applied for a license, and his House lying in the Road used by Soldiers sold the same, out to them: and he boght the said Rum of a Retailer who had paid the Duties of excise thereon — Praying that he may be exempted from the Penalty of the Law — "(12th) In the House of Representatives 12 PIXLEY'S TAVERN Read and Ordered That the Prayer of the Petitioner be so far granted that the Petitioner be discharged from the Penalty for Selling strong liquors within mentioned so far as it belongs to this Province. "In Council Read and Nonconcurred." It appears that the bandying about of liquor bills from one house to the other, to be finally thrown out into the street, is an old trick of the Legislature. Clark's troubles were but beginning, for the next year he was destined to lose both farm and tavern to the aforesaid Samuel Watts of Chelsea, who claimed superior title, and won judgment to that effect from the court. Clark betook himself to Granville, where we take leave of him, since our quest is not of him, but of the old caravansary. The scattering items of intelligence thus gleaned from official records are evidence that this first tavern in Glasgow Lands was still running, and that, being on one of the great thoroughfares of the Commonwealth, it was a station of importance. In fact, the road, or bridle-path, was a continuation of the old Bay path. Armies, or detachments 13 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES of them, passed through the centre of the town, and four miles beyond assuaged their burning thirst at Pixley's tavern. The road, or path, on which Pixley's stood, bulked large in the history and imagination of the people of the Province in the time of our story. The farm is described in one of the deeds as "on the Great Road leading to Housatunock." In the early town records this road is commonly denoted as "the Road to Tunak," or "the tunock road." In 1735 — the year of the settlement of Glasgow — the path which had been opened past Pixley's was made a regular road, such as it was. It "divided the gift of land subsequently made by the Stockbridge Indians to the Govern- ment, and on the 15th day of January, in the year above mentioned, the General Court ordered that four townships should be laid out upon the road between Westfield and Sheffield, contiguous in position, and either joining Sheffield" or the Suffield Equivalent.* These towns were to be "Six miles square, to contain each sixty-three home-lots, laid out in compact and defensible form, one of * The History of Western Massachusetts, by J. G. Holland, Vol. I, p. 169. 14 PIXLEY'S TAVERN which was to be for the first settled minister, one for schools, and one for each grantee, which shall draw equal shares in all future divisions."* These townships were num- bered 1, 2, 3, and 4. No. 1 was Tyringham; No. 2, Partridgefield, now Peru, together with parts of Middlefield and Hinsdale; No. 3, Sandisfield; and No. 4, Becket and Gage- borough, the latter now Windsor. "The present town of Great Barrington, formed of portions of both the upper and lower Housa- tonic townships, was settled as early as 1730, and in 1740 was established as the second parish of Sheffield, "f In an "Almanack" of date, 1766, 1 giving a. description of the various post routes of the country, is this itinerary: Road to Albany From Springfield to West- field, 7 Bounds of ditto, 5 12 Blanford, 8 20 Green Woods, 12 32 No. 1, 7 39 Sheffield, 4 43 * Id. t Id. X Probably Hutchin's, the title page is gone. 15 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES Sheffield Bounds, 3 46 Noble-Town, 11 57 Bounds of ditto, 4 61 Stone-House, 6 67 Kinderhook, 10 77 Half- Way House, 10 87 Albany, 7 94 This service was by post rider. Stages were yet to be. Pixley's does not here ap- pear. The "Green Woods" was a tract lying immediately to the westward of Bland- ford, extending along its full western bound- ary from north to south. There is a modern survival of the name attaching to one of the later post roads to Albany a few miles to the north of this oldest post road. Possibly Pixley's was esteemed to be in the "Green Woods" in 1766. Perhaps it had ceased to be altogether. Certainly by 1771 its public character had gone from it. In that year it passed from the administrators of the estate of "the Hon"' Samuel Watts Esq."* to Jonathan Shepard, and the inn was no more. The old road crossed a part of the town little visited or known by most of its present * The pompous title affords large presumption, in the phraseology of the time, of the worthy gentleman's intimacy with the liquor traffic. 16 PIXLEY'S TAVERN dwellers, where other roads as well as this one are largely abandoned and grown up to forest or become pasture. Its houses are falling to ruins or already gone, with scarcely a discernible cellar or foundation remaining. Here and there a tenanted residence with- stands the march of decay, but only for a little, and seems to whisper to the infre- quent traveller, "Morituri, salutamus." There in the brush is still reposing a milestone of the old post route two or three miles beyond Pixley's, the distance to Albany being carved upon its face. A languishing postal star route, with difficulty finding a contractor when the business is periodically advertised for bids, cuts athwart the old road, as does the approved route of the automobile club on its runs between Springfield and Lenox, but avoiding, for the most part, the straighter and ruggeder road of the pioneers. We began with a pioneer in the vast wilder- ness. We have arrived at a chauffeur and his proprietor of wealth and ease, gliding over the country upon cushions of air. It is time we retraced our steps to the long Past. In the concerns of this least of all 17 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES known taverns of Blandford, we have confront- ed Legislature and proprietor, minister and gentleman, adventurer and soldier. We have taken one glance at the crackling fire of great logs in the monstrous fireplace, and have seen a group of wayfarers encircled about it, the smoke pouring in clouds through the hole in the roof. We have found a barrel of rum and discovered a group of soldiers drinking; but those soldiers were also mixing with blood the mortar which was to hold together the great foundation stones of the nation. We have watched the bridle-path across one half the Commonwealth widen into a post road for carry- ing the messages of peace and the businesses of a great people. We have beheld this rude inn of a fleeting generation vanish away with the smoke of its own fires, and not so much as a square mound of turf left to mark its site to-day . But it was an institution without which the State could not well be. It should not be for- gotten. Other taverns of old Blandford there were of which we know vastly more. Even so this one has established its right to have been. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts took a building stone out of Pixley's tavern.* * V. Appendix III. 18 Chapter Two The Corner Tavern: The Hustons and Peases THE corner tavern was altogether unlike Pixley's in its origin and traditions. Like Pixley's, it faced the " 'Tunack Road," altogether to its advantage. But it was a village inn, within a stone's throw of meeting-house and school-house. It did not have to be legislated into existence, but sprang up indigenous to the soil, and did not melt away into forgetfulness as the years multiplied. The corner tavern grew with the town, helped to make the town grow, gathered within its cheerful precincts much of what was best in town life, became a deep and fruitful soil in which local traditions took root, nourished men of distinction, and made history for town, commonwealth and nation in the persons of men we know. With the possible exception of an obscure decade in the eighteenth century, the corner tavern was in active operation for nearly a century and three quarters.* * The Mountain house, which burned to the ground in the late fall of 1901, was the last survivor. It was an enlargement of the building erected by Orrin Sage, Esq. TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES At the very first the school-house inter- vened between the tavern and the corner of the town street.* But presently a short cut of a few rods was made, beginning be- tween school-house and tavern and joining the old street close by the meeting-house. In the New England town a tavern was always to be found near the meeting-house. Sometimes the conditions of the license re- quired that it should be so. Else where should town meetings adjourn to, or church- goers resort during noonings? No need to compel these Scotch- Irishmen to put up a public house of entertainment in the very heart of the community. They had sense and good taste enough to do it without being told to. "A little East of the Meeting House," it was, says one of the deeds. And it was there at least five years before the sanctuary, but let it not be thought that it preceded public worship and Christian service by a year or a day. When the Hopkinton men were negotiating with Lawton for home lots in what was to be the settlement of Glasgow, John and * Now known as North street, which then passed straight down between the pines to its southerly extension towards West Granville. 20 THE HUSTONS AND PEASES Robert Huston drew two lots adjoining each other. Robert's was just across the street from the meeting-house lot, or from that spot where the meeting-house was to be. John's lot happened to be just next north of Robert's. The first settlement was made in 1735. Robert took out an innholder's license in 1736, and this was continued until 1740, when John was licensed, in which year the aforesaid John was also appointed by the court of general sessions of the peace at Northampton, "To take care of the Preserva- tion of Deer att Glascow." In the fifties William Huston carried on a license for a few years. Not improbably he was a younger brother of the other two Hustons. At any rate, he was one of "the boys" drawing a small lot away up at the extreme northern end of the line, where it is not to be supposed that he did his business. It is altogether easy to believe that the three Hustons pooled their interests more or less in their business as hospitalers, and all located at the corner tavern, John being ever the man of force. John and William both became officers in the French and Indian wars. The former 21 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES was surveyor, land agent, man of the world and elder of the church. He surveyed and laid out the towns of Housatunnock and Pontusuck, the latter name ultimately giving way to that of Pittsfield, the shire town of Berkshire county. He had large share with Roger Newbury in laying out the town of Glasgow, and it might be hard to specify in what large land grant of his time in western Massachusetts he did not have a part. This primeval institution, the corner tavern, in the front rank before all others, proceeded early to perform its traditional functions. The records, if scanty, are at least specific. When the Rev. James Morton's ordination was under consideration, after some backing and filling it was decided that the council having the important business in charge should be entertained at the candidate's house. That clerical gentleman was . abun- dantly versatile, quite too much so, some- times, to please the more punctilious of his flock, and on this initial occasion he put in a bid for the business of entertainer as a not unprofitable incident in the quite too scanty ministerial budget. Nevertheless, when all 22 THE HUSTONS AND PEASES the bills came to be settled, quite an account was presented by the proprietor of the corner tavern. Sept. 29, 1749, "Voted Granted to mr Huston Eighteen Shillings old tenor for keeping of men and horses at the ordenation." Other grants were made to individuals, but the articles paid for are not specified. There is sufficient definite- ness, however, with respect to a council which convened a few years later, and its dependence upon the distinguished land- lords of the village.* "Voted, to give Mr. Root 6 pence lawful money for Each Meal of Vittles each member of the council shall eat in the time that they shall Seat Hear on our Business, and also 18 pence old tenor per Night for each Member of the Council's lodging, and that the town pay Mr. Root for the strong Drink that the Council drink while they are Hear on our Business, saving Syder at their Vittles," which appears to have been a part of the regular menu. He wit Root had entered upon the succession as proprietor of the corner tavern. * The citation is made from Mr. Gibbs's address, p. 49, as long years ago some vandal cut out the leaf in the town records containing the minute. 23 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES Some months later in the same year it was "Voted, That the town shall pay to Dea. Israel Gibbs and Samuel Carnahan the first Cost for the Rum and sugar the Council shall Need while they Seat Hear." This council first met in February, then adjourned to the June following. Hence the two appropria- tions. Their minds were not so overcome by "strong Drink" nor were their judgments so warped by abundant hospitality but that they sat soberly in judgment upon pastor and people, soundly admonishing both for their errors. In 1766, at another and later council, "Landlord Reece," proprietor of the same house, was granted one pound for "Each minister and Delegit," not specifying the fare. This was for the council which ended the stormy pastorate of Mr. Morton. Meantime, during all these years, this house of entertainment had been having its full share, with other similar resorts, of the patronage of the citizens on town meeting days. "Adjourned to mr. Hustons" is the laconic expression which hints of agreeable refuge for voting citizens from the chilly winds of March or the parching thirst of 24 Congregational Meeting-House "Albany Road," looking up to School-House THE HUSTONS AND PEASES August. Says Edward Field,* "There is no more picturesque character in early Colonial life than the individual who presided over the tavern. He was a prominent per- sonage in the management of town affairs, was thoroughly informed on all public matters and private matters as well; he enjoyed the confidence of all who gathered around his fireside, and he always held public office. Indeed, to hold public office was the preroga- tive of the tavern keeper. His house was the rendezvous for all townspeople, and all matters of news sooner or later, generally sooner, were discussed around his blazing fire in winter or where the breezes blew coolest around his place in summer." The Blandford innkeeper was no exception to this rule. The Hustons were prominent men, Robert and William both serving as selectmen. John was absent too much on his various businesses to hold office in the town. Thus the corner tavern took root securely. But it grew slowly. Twenty years after Robert Huston kindled his hospitable fires at this old inn, the first rude dwelling had * The Colonial Tavern. 25 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES been replaced by a more pretentious building known in the conventional phraseology of the time as a "Mansion House." By this was meant, first that it was a frame structure as distinguished from the first log house of the Hustons, and secondly, that probably it was somewhat larger than the generality of houses.* Even so, and in spite of the fact that other little taverns had sprung up in or near Blandford village, in periods of war the capacity of the house was far over- taxed. A document of the day (1757) bears witness to the passing of soldiers along the road by "hundreds," so that "it was im- possible for the Tavern to accommodate" them. The minister's house was therefore thrown open, again sadly to the scandal of that ecclesiastic's fastidious flock. Before ever Pixley's was reached on the westward march, the corner tavern invited the way- farer. Throngs of travellers passed it — and * The deed referring to it is recorded in Vol. X, p. 746, Elisha Parks being grantor and Hewet Root grantee. It is described thus in detail : "a little East of the Meeting House where the sd Root now Dwells where Robert Huston lately Dwelt being the Settling or House- lotts in sd Township known by lotts No. 43-44 45 adjoining Each other, Bounded Northwesterly on Robert Henrys lott and South Easterly on John Boyses lott, Northerly on the Second Division lotts, Southerly by the Highway or Common Partly and Partly by the land of Rev. Mr. James Morton with a Mansion House and a Barn Standing thereon Containing one Hundred Eighty acres be the Same more or less." 26 THE HUSTONS'^AND PEASES patronized it — regiments and cavalcades, caravans of emigrants, post-men and the local stream of life. No trace of any tavern log book of this early generation has survived to satisfy the curiosity which eagerly asks for more. The best that can be done is to cite here and there a fragmentary note from the town records or some fugitive document. In 1759 ex- tensive improvements were going on at the meeting-house, where "mr Kattlen" was engaged as a skilled workman from abroad. He was boarded at several places, one of them being the house of "mr pees." This was Nathaniel Pease, recently succeeded to the business at the corner. He received "five shillings per week for Belleten mr Kattlen four weeks." The Peases, first and last, were a numerous and influential clan, and hailed from Connecticut. What prestige Nathaniel had already become possessed of when he sat himself within the hospitable mansion at the corner may be indicated in the fact that that very year he was named by the town as first of a committee to "Lay 27 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES out the pew pate* to Each person according to the List." He served the town as a selectman and town meeting moderator. The inn on the corner was gathering dignity. Next came Levi Pease, a native of Enfield, Conn., in 1739 or '40. Levi was a black- smith, and was by no means the only man of that honorable trade who passed on to the place of landlord. Something about the publicity of the smithy was inviting to the more aristocratic and cosmopolitan occu- pation. Levi Pease made a local name for himself in the Scotch-Irish town of Pelham, then came to Blandford. He was a typical Boniface of the old style. Utterly forgotten by his Blandford townsmen of the present generation — melancholy testimony to the ease with which a community consigns to oblivion what should be among its choicest memories — he rises up out of the past to greet us from the pages of colonial history as one famous among the pioneers of civic progress in New England. From 1770 to 1776 he was owner of the corner tavern, whence he went to * A clerical error for "rate." The other men on this committee were John Knox, also an innkeeper, John Hamilton, William Boies, and David McConoughey. 28 THE HUSTONS AND PEASES establish himself in Shrewsbury, Conn. It was in Shrewsbury, in the tavern to which Levi Pease was to succeed after leaving Blandford, and while that young man was getting together his ideas of the public busi- ness in this lively village, that John Adams heard the stirring dialogue over the Stamp Act. "If Parliament can take away Mr. Hancock's wharf and Mr. Rowe's wharf, they can take away your barn and my house." Mary Caroline Crawford* quotes this same statesman and writer as saying concerning "Landlord Pease" at that time, that he "was the great man of the town; their represen- tative &c as well as tavern-keeper, just re- turned from the General Assembly at Hart- ford." The date is a little confusing. He was owner of the Blandford establishment at that time. In the ledger of Col. Sloper, who was carrying on a miscellaneous establish- ment of farm, store, tavern and what-not a quarter of a mile above, on the town street, there is a family account against Levi Pease: To 1 accompt Book 5-6 5 6 To 1 lb Brimstone 9d 9 * In Little Pilgrimages Among Old New England Inns, p. 209. 29 3 3 6 1 3 3 6 1 6 6 2 2 8 2 8 1 2 3 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES To 1 red Spoted Hanker To 1 lb Mapel Sugar To 1 Slait pensel To 1-4 lb indego 3-6 To 1 Box & Sope To 1-8 yd Callico at 5-6 To 1 Set of tea Dishes 2-8 To 12 galons of rum at 4- To 1-8 yd Carlet Broad Cloth J. H. Temple* tells this story of the man whose early movements have seemed so obscure, and whose later enterprise was so conspicuous. "He was in the public service during the whole of the war, in the commissary department! and as the bearer of important despatches. When Gen. Thomas was on the northern frontier, he often passed to and fro between him and headquarters; and was present with him when he died of smallpox. He was strong, courageous and wary. He used to tell how to avoid capture when carrying orders ; he crossed the lake in a small boat, and alone, rather than travel by the usual routes ; lying concealed in the day time, * In his History of Pelham. t To which his tavern experience immediately preceding in Blandford undoubtedly prepared him. 30 THE HUSTONS AND PEASES and pushing ahead at night. When the moon shone bright, he would pull out from shore, and stretching himself at length, would work the boat with his hands as paddles. He always got his despatches through safely. Commissary Wadsworth always trusted him with a saddle-bag full of money with which to purchase cattle and horses, taking no receipt therefor." Pease became a courage- ous adventurer in the business of serving the traveling public, having the prophetic vision of a true statesman. At the close of the Revolution he established a line of stages be- tween Hartford and Boston. He ran empty wagons back and forth repeatedly before the people awoke to their privilege. But Pease was awake before them, and knew that the people would follow. He was the animating spirit of the first Massachusetts turnpike, which connected Boston and Worcester.* He was made poor by these several enterprises, but New England was made rich. Levi Pease died in 1824. The Peases were numerous, and were * There is an interesting chapter on Levi Pease, "The Father of the Turn- pike and Some Related Taverns," in "Little Pilgrimages Among Old New England Inns," before referred to. 31 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES addicted to innkeeping. In the vicissitudes of the business the farm and the tavern lot, or homestead, became differentiated, the one from the other. The latter was of thirty acres, or twenty-eight, as sometimes esti- mated, divided into two equal parts by the road. The tavern itself was on the north or east side. Two large barns were on the opposite side abutting upon the "Burying Yard," Rev. James Morton's home lot and Judah Bement's, the blacksmith. The northeasterly lot was sixty rods front by forty in depth. The estate is furthermore described in 1776 as bounded on the west by "the Training Field," the same being a part of the ten-acre lot, or common. There was also "a Store House Standing between s d House and barn."* Robert Pease came from Somers, Conn., to carry on the succession. From him the * Deeds, Vol. 8, pp. 273 and 338, Vol. 10, p. 128, Vol. 13, p. 755. Robert Huston and his successors in business down to and including Na- thaniel Pease, owned the home lots in the first division numbered 43, 44, and 45. The northern boundary of this combined plot is at_ or very near the present southern boundary of the agricultural fair grounds, and below the school-house it extends on both sides of the present village street — the old Sheffield, or 'Tunock.road — to about the point where the Methodist Episcopal church stands. It included land on both sides of the present Russell road to the western boundary of the second division, near the H insdale house. All but fifty acres of this farm passed from Nathaniel to his son Levi, who in turn sold it to Robert Pease in the year of the country's Independence. 32 THE HUSTONS AND PEASES farm passed to his two sons, Abner and Alphaeus, but the tavern lot of twenty-eight acres was bought of Robert Pease, April 3, 1779, by Justus Ashmun, for the sum of twelve hundred pounds in the currency of the day. Testimony is borne to the hold which the Peases had got upon the place and its reputation, by the descriptive clause in the deed of sale, "being well known by the name of Pease's Tavern." The "store House" is again particularly named in the instrument of conveyance.* For the present the Peases pass out of view, to appear again in a rival stand just north of the meeting- house. In passing over to Justus Ashmun, the corner tavern was assured of increase to its local prestige and an honorable part in giving to the State some of its finest souls. * Vol. 16, p. 358. 33 Chapter Three The Corner Tavern: The Ashmuns and their Successors. * IN the year 1777, the residents of a little village on the Hudson, forty or forty-five miles above Albany, were compelled by the approach of the British army under Burgoyne, to seek other homes. One of these refugees was Justus Ashmun, who fled with his family, but was obliged to leave nearly all his property behind him.f He estab- lished himself in Blandford, where he suc- ceeded Levi Pease as proprietor of the corner tavern some months before he became its owner. That prince among editors, Samuel Bowles, on occasion of the death of George Ashmun, grandson of Justus, wrote in the Springfield Republican, speaking of Bland- ford as "that olden glory of our mountain * For many of the facts given in this chapter concerning the Ashmuns I am indebted to the kindness of Mrs. Elizabeth H. Morton, who gave me access to several newspaper articles referred to in sub- sequent pages. Mrs. Morton is a daughter of the late Hon. George Ashmun. t From an article in the Hampshire Gazette, 1819. THE ASHMUNS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS towns," and remarked thus concerning Justus Ashmun: He "kept the tavern there, in the days when all the travel between the East and the West stopped there to change horses and to breakfast or dine, in the days when tavern-keeping was the privilege of the first citizen, and when the tavern-keeper had the confidence, not only of all the citizens of his village, but of all the great men who went back and forth from under his roof. Judge Sedgwick of Berkshire found a familiar and congenial home in this mountain tavern, and there found Eli P. Ashmun, a bright and promising lad, whom he encouraged to study the profession of the law." Eli was born in New York State and was a small child when the family came to Massachusetts. What the fellow citizens of the new landlord of the corner tavern thought of him may be inferred from what they gave him to do. He served several terms as selectman, and was moderator of town meetings repeatedly. No sooner had he come to town than his fellow townsmen put him on the Committee of In- spection and Safety, in which responsible posi- tion he acted during three successive years. 35 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES He was placed on a committee to supply the pulpit in 1782, and on that same committee were these other public landlords: Dea. William Boies, Dea. Samuel Boies and Brig- adier General Warham Parks. In that same year, when the town voted to "seat the Meeting house according to Age, Pay and Dignity," the landlord of the corner tavern was made chairman of the committee to "estimate the Pews," along with Capt. William Knox and Deacon Samuel Boies. Ten years later Mr. Ashmun was one of a much larger committee to seat the meeting house, and again on that committee was gathered a notable company of men who kept public houses: Col. Samuel Sloper, Dea. Samuel Boies, Jedediah Smith and Ensign Timothy Hatch* — a majority of the committee. He was justice of the peace, and, one year (1793) in his occupancy of that honorable position, was chosen "Saxton and to Take Care of the Meeting House by Keep- ing it Clean & Securing the Doors." In 1779 he was selected as the town's responsible representative at the Concord convention * If not that year running a public house, at least for many years before and after. 36 The Hon. George Ashmun THE ASHMUNS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS for the regulation of the depreciated and demoralized currency, and received ^"60 remuneration in the aforesaid currency for his eight days' absence. If there was an auction — "vandue"* they called it — it was located at the tavern, always. October 5, 1786, the town "Granted Justus Ashmun ten Shillings for Liquer Spent on the Towns Vandue of a bridge and arbitra- tion." It was the bridge over what is now known as Peebles' brook, and there had been disagreement over it. Again the next year Mr. Ashmun was on a similar bridge business "Near Frary's Mills" f with Samuel Sloper and Jonathan Frary. When at last thous- ands of acres of the unimproved lands of the town, still held by the original proprietors or their heirs, were condemned when no one appeared to pay the taxes on them, in 1782 Justus Ashmun with Gen. Warham Parks and David McConoughey was made a com- mittee to assist the collectors in their sales, the land so purchased to be the property of the town if no other bidder should appear. * Vendue. t More recently known as Peebles' mill. 37 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES Thousands of acres were so disposed of at public sale in the tap-rooms of the taverns. More than to any other, town meetings adjourned to Mr. Ashmun's. "Voted* to Adjourn the meeting to Landd Ashmuns;" "Voted f to adjourn the meeting to Mr. Ashmuns to meet forthwith — met according to adjournment." It was warm there, and congenial — especially after the glasses had been drained. When Rev. Joseph Badger was ordained to the gospel ministry in the old church, the perquisites were as fairly distributed as possible among the near-by innholders. Abner Pease, just above the meeting-house, was granted "four pound Seventeen Shilling & Sex pence for Entertaining the Ordaining Counsel by order;" Justus Ashmun was granted "one pound four Shillings for wine for the Counsel;" Russel Attwater, a little lower down the street, "Twenty four Shillings for Rum for the Counsel and Suger."J Finally, when the Louden disaffection {J had reached * Jan. 27, 1780. t Oct. 9, 1873. t Dec. 3, 1787. jJThe persistent attempt, covering many years, on the part of the people living in the western part of the town, "to be set off to Louden," now Otis. 38 THE ASHMUNS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS the stage of legislative investigation, a com- mittee made up largely of taverners was chosen to meet the legislative committee. This local body was composed of Dea. Samuel Boies, Justus Ashmun, Esq., Reuben Boies, Collector, Samuel Sloper and Capt. William Knox. There was but one layman among them, — if one is not too insistent upon the particular year of the license. There is entry of 1779, "Granted to Justus Ashmun £2 — 15 for entertaining Sick Soldiers five Days at his house." In peace or war, whether with arms or arguments, the corner tavern was equally in evidence and equally useful. The innholders of these old days did not entertain strangers and sell them cider and rum and flip because they could do nothing else. They were farmers to a man. The whole air of the time savored of simplicity, virility and ruggedness. There was no ser- vility in the atmosphere of the tavern, but homely hospitality at once hearty and in- dependent. It partook of the life of the community, for the residents were dropping in all the time. One must believe that 39 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES somewhat of Sabbath restraint hung about the place on that austere day. But that tongues were not let loose then and there who may believe? A tap-room and a blaz- ing fire in winter, or the benches and chairs on the veranda in the breezes of summer, were sufficient invitation for that. Work was hard enough when they worked, which was most of the time, but for home-born and stranger alike the tavern was a common meeting ground. It is a long way back from the present, and fortunate are we that imagination is not our only guide. President Timothy Dwight, of Yale College, forced by ill health to travel, chose his own New England as his first theatre of exploita- tion, and as his inevitable assistants, the stage- coach and tavern. He began his tours in 1796. He was at that time no youth, and his opportunity for retrospect into the gen- eration immediately preceding was of the best. In his "Travels in New England and New York," he gives discriminating and interesting glimpses into the tavern of his day and of the days of his fathers. Some- thing of the atmosphere of the corner tavern 40 THE ASHMUNS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS in Blandford can thus be learned at first hand. "Our ancestors," he says, "considered an inn as a place where travellers must trust themselves, their horses, baggage and money; where women as well as men at times lodge, might need humane and delicate offices, and might be subjected to disagreeable exposures. To provide for safety and comfort, and against danger and mischief, in all these cases, they took particular pains in their laws and administrations, to prevent inns from being kept by vicious, unprincipled, worthless men. Every Innkeeper in Con- necticut must be recommended by the Select- men, and Civil Authority, Constables and Grand Jury of the town in which he resides; and then licensed at the discretion of the Court of Common Pleas. Substantially in the same manner is the business regulated in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. In consequence of this system, men of no small personal respectability have ever kept Inns in this country A great part of the New England Innkeepers, however, and their families, treat a decent stranger who 41 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES behaves civilly to them in such a manner as to show to him that they feel an interest in his happiness ; and, if he is sick or unhappy, will cheerfully contribute everything in their power to his relief." This distinguished educator devoted a few pages to the story of the Scotch- Irish towns in western Massachusetts, including Bland- ford. He said of them, "During a short period these people exhibited that variety of opinions and manners which they brought with them; but for many years they have worn the common, sober, orderly character, which has ever prevailed in the Valley.* No County in the State has uniformly so firm an adherence to order and good government, or a higher regard to learning, morals and religion." Reverting again to the subject of the old New England tavern, the same writer pro- ceeds: "The best old-fashioned New Eng- land inns were superior to any of the modern ones which I have seen. They were at less pains to furnish a great variety of food. Yet the variety was simple. The food was always * i. e., of the Connecticut. 42 THE ASHMUNS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS of the best quality; the beds were excellent; the house and all its appendages were in the highest degree clean and neat; the cookery was remarkably good; and the stable was not less hospitable than the house. The family in the meantime were possessed of principle, and received you with the kind- ness and attention of friends. Your baggage was as safe as in your own house. If you were sick, you were nursed and befriended as in your own family. No tavern-haunters, gamblers or loungers were admitted, any more than in a well ordered private habita- tion; and as little noise was allowed. "There was less bustle, less parade, less appearance of doing much to gratify your wishes, than at the reputable modern inns; but much more actually done, and much more comfort and enjoyment. In a word, you found in these inns the pleasures of an ex- cellent private house. To finish the story, your bills were always equitable, calculated on what you ought to pay, and not upon the scheme of getting the most which extortion might think proper to demand."* * Pp. 261-2. 43 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES In this connection a paragraph from Mrs. Alice Morse Earle's "Customs and Fashions in Old New England" will not be out of place. "The traveler did not carry his meals from home because the tavern fare was expensive; at the inn where he paid ten cents for his lodging he was uniformly charged but twenty- five cents for a regular meal; but it was not the fashion to purchase meals at the tavern; the host made his profits from the liquor he sold and from the sleeping-room he gave. Sometimes the latter was simple enough. A great fire was built in the fireplace of either front room — the bar-room and parlor — and round it, in a semi-circle, feet to the fire and heads on their rolled up buffalo robes, slept the tired travelers. A few syba- ritic and rheumatic tillers of the soil paid for half a bed in one of the double-bedded rooms which all taverns then contained, and got a full bed's worth, in deep hollows and high billows of live-geese feathers, warm homespun blankets and patch-work quilts." It was not all quite so sober, however, as President Dwight thought, nor was it always the fact that a man got a whole bed for half 44 THE ASHMUNS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS pay. It was quite the custom to fill both beds when necessary, as sometimes it was, and a man was thought nothing less than a curmudgeon who made any objection to the landlord waking him up an hour or two after he had gone to bed, leading by candle another man, a stranger, to finish out the night with him. As Blandford increased in prosperity and came to consciousness of power in the years succeeding the Revolution, her sons began to go to college or to set their faces toward the vast and inviting West. If college were not practicable, resort was had to the best which the community could afford — and it was much — in the way of private teaching which should supplement the public educa- tion. Private libraries in the homes of the people were scanty indeed. When an estate was inventoried, there was usually listed a Bible or two, perhaps a psalm-book, occa- sionally a prayer-book, and not infrequently a few "old books" of not sufficient value and number to specify further. Justus Ashmun was an exception to the rule. He had a library whose inventory was as follows : 45 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES 1 Set Spectator 8 Vols. $2.50 1 Great Bible 4.00 1 Thompsons Seasons .75 1 Salmons Universal Gazetteer .50 1 Dorhams phypeotheology* .75 1 Pomfrets Poems .25 1 Yoricks Sermons .33 1 Romains Do. .25 1 Salmons Dictionary 1.00 1 Sky Lark .25 1 Harveys Meditations .33 2 psalm books .34 1 Art of Speaking .33 Of these books, five, namely, Thomson's Seasons, Art of Speaking, Harvey's Media- tions, Pomfret's Poems and the Sky Lark were all advertised in Thomas's Old Farmer's Almanack of the day, books published and sold by the remarkable compiler of that important little annual, which, it may safely be inferred, was a regular comer to the corner tavern. The little library is an unusual one for its day in Blandford, and the inventory stands as witness to the literary taste and large outlook on life of the landlord at the old stand. * What this really was who knows? Nothing else can seem to be made out of this item. 46 THE ASHMUNS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS It is a curious fact that the only other detailed list of books of domestic libraries which I have discovered in the town's early history, with the exception of one which served to feed the young mind of Rev. Daniel Butler in the old home on Beech hill, belonged to a man who also had a license to sell liquor, though it was a retailer's, not an innholder's, license. This was the library of James Wallace, whose house was some- where in the vicinity of Birch meadow brook, at the westerly foot of Birch hill. He was a "hosier" or stocking-maker by trade, and appears to have been a man of considerable activity and some influence, though little is now known of him. His connection with our present story of Justus Ashmun is peculiarly interesting, not only as illustrating the kind of books which used to regale thoughtful readers in New England country towns, but from the further fact that Justus Ashmun 's literary collection was partly gathered from this very library of James Wallace, as the administration papers of Jedediah Smith, Esq., another chief func- tionary of the town and keeper of a public 47 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES house, bear witness. This library of Wal- lace's was sold and scattered all over town, Justus Ashmun being not the least of the purchasers. The date is 1795, and the library, as inventoried, together with notes of purchasers, etc., is thus listed: One Book Seamans Compass " Young man Companion (L* John Wat- son) 0-1-3 monthly maczean (Wm. Thompson) 0-0-2 " Pamphlet (Asa Merit) 0-0-2 " By Dct Whelock Book medical experiments (Sol. Noble) 0-0-6 " the mercial* Law (Sol. Noble) 0-0-2 " Old Prair Book (Wm. Thompson) 0-0-2 " the Mirror " pamphlet (sold to Sol. Noble) 0-0-2 " Wm. Thompson) 0-0-2 "M r Atkins) 0-0-1 " " Osborn) 0-0-1 " dissertation on the govtf (Asa Merit) 0-0-3 % (Wm. W Gomery) 0-0-1 " Do Common Sence (Sol. Noble) 0-0-2 old Blank occont Book (Wm. Knox) 4-6 Book called the Builders Guid ( Wm. Knox) 1 " Geographical Gromer (Elijah Knox) 2-6 " English Dictionary 2-6 * I. e., martial. t Or, gout? 48 THE ASHMUNS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS Sold to Esq. Ashmun Old Books to the Amount of five Shilling & Nin Pence 5-9 Sold to Wm. Thompson, old Books 3 one Salmons Family Dictionary 3 Universal Gazetteer 4 Book Called New Devotion 1-6 Dto the Loyalty of Presbyterians 5 ' ' Obedience to the Laws of the Gosple 6 troubles of David 1-3 Bible 1-6 the Mareners Callender 1 Military Instructions 1-6 the trety of Replevin 1-4 Popes Essay on man 4 " D Small Pamphlet 2 Small Dto on St Patrick 4 Old Waggoner 2 Narrative on the Proceedings of Govern- ment of New York 1 Book on religion By Dr Dowman 6 Arnicas appeal a Pamphlet 5 Dto the Cooks Guide 4 Irish Rebellion 1-6 Justus Ashman bought "Old Books to the Amount of thre Sillings ' ' * It is altogether a remarkably interesting list, and will bear study in the light of the * The above items are gathered from several lists, but otherwise are un- changed from the original documents. 49 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES times in which it appeared. Justus Ash- mun's library was materially increased by his modest investments from the estate of his contemporary. This country innkeeper and squire did not live to witness the brilliant careers of his son and grandsons. He died in 1799. That not easy conditions and splendid ap- pointments, but character, stamped the man for what he was, testimony additional to the simple narrative already told follows here- with in the modest inventory of Justus Ashmun's estate: 1 Chest with Drawers 1 Desk " book Case 1 Large Clock & Cace 10 Dining Chairs at 75 cts each 14 Armed Do at $1 Each 1 old Do 1 Rocking Do 1 Looking Glass 1 pair hand irons with Brass heads 1 do hand Bellows 1 Small Slice & tongs 1 Small steel yards 1 Long Maple Table 1 Dining Cherry Do 1 Kitchen pine Table 50 THE ASHMUNS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS 1 Long Cherry D° with leaves 1 d° pine D° with D° 1 Dining Cherry D° broken 1 large Stand do $0.50 & one Small D° 0.25 1 pair of large hand irons $2.50 & 1 Slice & tongs large 1.25 11 Kitchen Chairs at 25c each 2 Trammels $1. 1 Small Shovel 25 c 1 Large pot $1. 1 D° $1. 1 do 25c 1 D° Kettle $1. 1 dish Kettle 75c 1 Skillet 17c 2 small kettles $1 1 Frying pan 50c 2 Spiders $1 1 Gridiron 25c 1 toasting D° 14 c 9 l / 2 lb old brass $2 5 Sad irons 1.3 7 1 large brass kettle $7 1 Saw 75c 3 Sickles 42 c 1 Garden Rake 10 c 3 Tin Candlesticks 17c 2 Meal Sieves 67 c 3 Brass Candlesticks $3 3 d° old 2.25 iy 2 doz. Earthen Table plates 1.25 1 doz difrt 0.37 1 oval Earthen dish 2$ c half doz glasses 75c 1 Salver 25c 2 doz Colored cups & saucers 66 1 Sugar bowl 17c 1 Blk teapot \l c 1 pi Salts 17 c 1 Qt decanter 30 1 pt do 20 1 Cruit 8 28 Glass bottles 2.33 12 old Silver $12 1 pr Snuffers & Tray 50 4 tin Cannisters 50 1 pepper Mill 33 1 pr money Scales, box & weights 75 6 pewter platters $2 6 lb old pewter 33 3 tin milk pans 75 1 Tin Can $3 2 large spinning Wheels $1 1 Small DM.50 51 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES 1 Clock Reel 25 1 hetchel 75 1 Seal Trunkal 1 Bed with Wait Ticking Bedding & bed stead $10 1 D° plain D° D° 10 1 Do wait " 14 1 " 9 1 " " old 6 1 4 1 4 1 4 I D° do without Bolsters & Bedstead 3 I I old hog heads at 1 Each 1 Warming pan 2.50 200 wt old iron 6.66 1 Gun $5 1 do large $3 1 do & bayonet $5 1 Camblet Cloak $1.50 1 Great Coat $3 1 Straight bodied Coat $3 1 Surtout 1 Ox Cart with Clavis & pin $12 1 ox yoke 75 1 Ox plough 1.75 1 horse do 1.00 25 tons of hay $125 1 broad ax $1. 1 crowbar 1.50 1 hoe 50 3 Chains $3. 3 narrow axes $2. 1 Mans saddle $3. 1 Womans $6 1 bridle 50 2 bags $1. 10 Towels at 25 each 7 Table Spreads (The library, as given above) 1 Yoke Oxen $50 4 Cows at $11 2 2 year old Stears at 9 2 do Heiffers at 9 20 Sheep at 1.25 52 THE ASHMUNS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS 1 old horse 1 7 1 " gray Mare 18; 1 4-year old Rone do 50. 1 3 year old Colt 35 1 2 years old Do 25. 1 Swine 10. 55 Bushels of Corn in the Ear 21.83 60 Barrels Cider 50. Farm of Land on which the buildings Stand estimated to contain 200 acres with all the buildings thereon 3700 40 acres of Land lying in N° 5 & 6 in the first Division of Settling Lots in Blan- ford 1 60 . 00 126 acres of Land lying in No 9 in Sd Blanford 370 25 acres of D° in No. 27 in D° 75 5119.60 Eli P. Ashmun [ Adm r Russell Atwater J Justus Ashmun tilled the soil; his hands were horny with labor; his hospitality was abundant, not ostentatious. As for liquid stock, it is to be noted, there was no rum, no brandy, no paraphernalia for hard and general drinking except the beverage which was universally served "with their Vittles" in the farmers' homes of the day. 53 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES In this tavern home was trained Eli P., son of Justus and Keziah Ashmun. There were other children, one of whom, tradition says, was born in the wilderness, during the flight to Blandford. The public schools, at the time of Eli's boyhood, "were in feeble and embarrassed condition, and classical schools between these and college did not exist, or were so few and far between as not to be generally accessible, — and even the colleges, some of them, were broken up, suspended, or greatly crippled in their Jmeans of usefulness."* So it came to passjthat, "till the age of 19, Mr. Ashmun remained, employed in various domestic labours, and particularly in attendance on the tavern. Till this time he had received little more education than could be derived from a desultory attendance in the winter on the village school, and the occasional gleanings of a leisure hour. His father was a man of strong and well informed mind and liberal manners, but was so engrossed by his various employments as to be precluded from paying any great degree of attention to the education * From an anonymous tribute to Eli P. Ashmun, by a pupil in his office, and published in the Hampshire Gazette, after Mr. Ashmun's death. 54 THE ASHMUNS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS of his children."* When he was a lad, he studied for a time with a clergyman of a neighboring town, then entered the office of Judge Sedgwick, with whom he covered a five-year period of study in four years. He opened an office in his own town, the pioneer in his profession in Blandford. His place of business was his own house, f which he built a little below the tavern. Mr. Ashmun had a large local practice, and many a hard drive he took, and many a close and search- ing arraignment of transgressors was spoken from his lips in the court room in the house of Jedediah Smith, Esq., on Beech hill. Here in this mountain town "the public atten- tion was turned to him as possessing un- common powers of mind and great promise for professional distinction; the circle of his acquaintance extended ; his professional busi- ness increased, and in a very few years he compassed a professional practice hardly second in extent to any in either of the * From an article in the Hampshire Gazette, 1819, following the death of Eli P. Ashmun. t Now on the northeast corner of the Russell road. In this house the late Hon. Samuel Knox was born and died. "Squire Knox" studied law with Mr. Ashmun, and became prominent in national politics, being intimately associated with President Lincoln in the period of the war, when he was the only republican representative in Congress from Missouri. 55 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES counties of Hampshire or Berkshire."* He possessed remarkable talents for discerning the truth, and faithfully made use of them for exposing falsehood and chicane, for cross- examining a false witness until the perjurer was glad "to compound for his own safety." In 1807 he removed, with his mother, to Northampton. "He was for several years a member of both houses of the Massachusetts Legislature. In 1816 he was chosen a coun- sellor, and soon after, on the resignation of Mr. Gore, a member of the Senate of the United States. He performed the duties of this office for two years, when his increased fondness for domestic life, and the em- barrassment occasioned by a severe pecuniary loss, induced him to resign, "f He was associated in the Senate with Harrison Gray Otis. He died prematurely in 1819 of a pulmonary complaint, a disease which prob- ably hastened his indisposition to continue in public office, which office he filled with great dignity and ability. If at first thought it may seem to be wandering wide to pursue the story of the * Reminiscences of a pupil, t Hampshire Gazette. 56 THE ASHMUNS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS Ashmun family from father to grandson in careers which look back only somewhat re- motely to the old corner tavern, yet certain traits of the country landlord and squire became so persistent in the children of the next two generations, that to learn those marks of great manhood in the grandchildren is to know the grandsire better. Eli P. Ashmun had two sons, John Hooker and George. The former, a man of rare talent in his profession, became Royall Pro- fessor of Law in the Dane Law School of Harvard University in 1829, a position which he filled with such distinguished ability until his untimely death in 1833, that it was thought by many that a satisfactory suc- cessor could not be found at all. Samuel Bowles said of him that "he possessed one of the subtlest intellects that was ever devoted to the disentanglement of legal questions, and his epitaph, written by Charles Chauncey Emerson, says he was fitted to teach at an age when most men are only beginning to learn."* One finds again the father in the son u\this further estimate * Springfield Republican, 1870. 57 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES of his character by George H. Hillard:* "He walked in the steady daylight of truth; he was never led astray by phantoms and unsubstantial gleams He detected at once sophistry, loose and inconsequential reasoning, fanciful distinctions, subtle re- finements, and all the arts by which partisans deceive others and often themselves, and treated them with no mercy His recitations were so searching, and the desire of his approbation was so strong, that all, even the most indolent, if they pretended to study at all, studied faithfully and learned accurately." One requires not a too lively imagination, seeing the same sterling qualities of mind and character in the father and son, to be persuaded that the grandfather, — taverner and country squire, — imparted to these worthy men some initial access to their priceless gifts. Pursuant of this thought, it is in order to trace in bare outline the character and career of George Ashmun, younger brother of John. He studied law in Northampton with his elder brother, and became partner in law * Springfield Republican 1870. 58 THE ASHMUNS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS with Chief Justice Chapman of Massachusetts. He practised law in Springfield, was four times a member of the Massachusetts Legis- lature, and Speaker once, was twice in the Massachusetts Senate and three times in the National House of Representatives, was the dignified and masterful chairman of the republican convention that nominated President Lincoln. "He had something of the great power of logical analysis for which his brother, the professor, was distinguished; but he had also more brilliant qualities of mind, greater power of expression, a more commanding presence, and that gift of per- sonal magnetism which gave him great in- fluence with courts and juries."* After Fort Sumter was fired on, in a memorable con- ference by night with Stephen A. Douglas, he converted that great Illinoisian to his country's cause. At the close of the inter- view, "'Now,' said Mr. Ashmun, 'let us go up to the White House and talk with Mr. Lincoln. I want you to say to him what you have said to me, and then I want the result of the night's deliberations to be * Samuel Bowles in the Springfield Republican 1870. 59 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES telegraphed to the country.' .... Then and there Mr. Douglas took down the map and planned the campaign. Then and there he gave in, most eloquently and vehemently, his adhesion to the administration and the country. Mr. Ashmun briefly epitomized the story and it went by telegraph that night over the country to electrify and encourage every patriot on the morrow."* He was "a king among men, and drew around him a circle of devoted and loving friends, "f Surely the corner tavern had established its right to be. The venerable institution, after Justus Ashmun 's death, became the widow's dower. Most of the farm property passed into other hands, but she had posses- sion of half the barns on the opposite side of the road. She carried on the license in her own name for a time. Reuben, perhaps a son, appears to have conducted it for several years. J In 1807 the tavern property, including forty-five acres of land on both sides of the road, passed over to Benjamin Scott, who kept up the traditions and business of the * Samuel Bowles in the Springfield Republican 1870. t Id. t Titus Ashmun, whoever he vvas, had a license in 1798, in a location not indicated. 60 THE ASHMUNS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS house with good prestige. His local career began in a remote part of town, where we shall presently seek him out again. By the time he had become well established in the corner tavern, he was written down as "Merchant," having already advanced from the honorable rank of "yoeman" to the commercially distinct occupation of "trader" — the usual path of the old-time innkeeper. He was not for many years in the village. In 1812 his widow, Margaret*, was in posses- sion of her dower, the old tavern where her husband was established before removing to the village, and she appears to have con- tinued the business there. Some of her husband's estate was sold "at public vendue" from this same corner tavern when the latter was in the hands of Isaac Lloyd. That was as late as 1826, and the property was bid in by Henry W. Scott, possibly a son. Ser- gius W. Lloyd was proprietor in 1823 and other years. Little has been saved for tradition con- cerning this old stand during the early years of the nineteenth century, but enough, from * Mrs. Scott is recorded as having a license in 1810. 61 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES frequent references in real estate convey- ances and like documents, to show that it was keeping on its way, though the com- manding influence of a continuing, masterful personality like that of Squire Ashmun was gone. The property passed from one to another in somewhat rapid succession. In 1811, and perhaps for several years, Eleazer Slocum was landlord, and under his management the house was a prominent one among the numerous taverns of the town. Jabez Goodell was proprietor and owner in 1813. The next year it passed to Asa Smith, who was a squire, and for many years was deputy sheriff. Many a warrant was issued by him, and many a prosecution, whether civil or criminal, was conducted by him with the assistance of the local lawyers, the trial being had in the court room of Jedediah Smith on Beech hill. The deputy sheriff owned for a time the house on the terrace, built by the Hatches, opposite the old parsonage. One would like to know more about this dignitary, but documents other than those referred to are unrewarding. The property under review was subject to 62 THE ASHMUNS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS so many changes during this period, so many divisions and subdivisions, so many inherit- ances and mortgages, as to become seriously involved. Many stages on through lines were passing and re-passing, business was pushing, and men and women of unrest and prophetic vision were looking westward, as States and territories were carved out of the national domain. In the midst of it the tavern was the subject of enormous com- petition. Profits must have been corres- pondingly divided. So mixed became the titles to the corner tavern, or so heavy were the mortgages, that in 1828 a transfer was made by the administrators of Isaac Lloyd to William Watson for the sum of two dollars and a half, subject to a mortgage to General Alanson Knox. The same year the property was taken over by Orrin Sage, a prominent business man of the town, who figures actively in another chapter of our story. At last the venerable Mansion House of the Ashmun regime was torn down, and Squire Sage put up a new hotel on the spot. This new improvement produced so great an impression upon the town that, at a town 63 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES meeting held May 10, 1830, on motion of Milton Boies, the following resolution was passed : "Whereas Orrin Sage has erected a hand- some and commodious house on the grounds where there has been a public house for nearly seventy years — and whereas the licensing of said house as a public tavern would very much accommodate travellers, and the Inhabitants of the town it being much more central than any other place — and whereas the travel and business through this town has of late very much increased — Therefore — "Voted, That, in our opinion, public neces- sity and convenience require that Justin Loomis, who now occupies said House, should be licensed as an Innkeeper," etc. In pur- suance of this action the County commis- sioners were to be memorialized. It is of record that Loomis received his license that year and the next. In November of this year, the town voted that the post office should be removed to Squire Sage's store as more central and convenient than any other place. The store was opposite the tavern. 64 THE ASHMUNS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS Somewhat later the business of the tavern fell into the hands of Samuel Day, whose administration of it connects with remin- iscences of those now living or but recently dead. The late Hon. Samuel Knox bore witness that the house had a high record for hospitality, but on an exceptional occasion was able to cater rather inadequately to a transient party of four. One of the party was an insane patient in the charge of officers who were conveying him to the hospital at Worcester. There was a plate on the table containing but three cakes. The patient, not entirely bereft of wit, surveying the meagre fare, hastily bowed his head, and in the hearing of his companions returned thanks on this wise : "Three cakes, and us four; Thank the Lord there's no more." Judge Knox used to tell another story of old stage-coach days. Its date is later than that of our narrative, but it belongs with it, nevertheless, so far removed from it are we now by means of steam railroads, elec- tricity, the depletion of the country and the wild inflation of the city. However near 65 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES to the biographical experience of elders still in the flesh, the story is of another world whose door is fast closing to all living mem- ories, a world that shall never again be. Mr. Knox had occasion in his young manhood to go from his native town to Chicago. Of course he went by stage nearly all, if not quite all, the way. On the trip west he fell in with a drunken driver, of whom he was sorely minded to make complaint to head- quarters, when he discovered that this Jehu was an old pupil of his. The young man was fulfilling the promise of his boyhood, as the lad had broken up two schools before Mr. Knox took charge as successor to the routed pedagogues. The new teacher found early occasion to request the youth to desist from certain offensive conduct, but the boy kept right on. Taking out his watch, Mr. Knox said, "I wish you to discontinue that action for the good order of the school, and I will give you two minutes to remove your- self from the school, or I shall remove you." The boy began to cry and to promise refor- mation. He was allowed to stay. One day the music teacher came in and began to 66 THE ASHMUNS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS criticise the master's method, whereupon this boy left his seat, walked up to the music teacher and said, "You shut your mouth, or I'll put you out." This one-time school teacher of Blandford, won to relenting by appealing memories of other days, made no complaint of his drunken driver. We have gone far afield. The corner tavern was no mere provincial caravansary. Its field was the world. 67 Chapter Four The Old Post Road; or the Berkshire Road "^HE east-and-west road through the town was known under various desig- nations. In the earlier days it was called "the Sheffield road," or, "the Great Road leading to Housatunnock." It was sometimes spoken of as "the post road." In the earliest times it was the only road dignified by the postman's presence. By 1770 it received the designation of "the Great Barrington road," and shortly after, "the Albany road." Sometimes it was de- scribed as "the road to Stockbridge." Occa- sionally, in Revolutionary times, it would be referred to as "the High Way from Blan- ford Street to y e Green woods road;" but that, like "the Tunock road," was a local designation. At the close of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth it commonly went by the name of "the County road," never as the village street, House of Reuben Boise. Esq., Berkshire Road THE OLD POST ROAD or the town street, for it was not that, though it is to-day. The road itself, in its changing names, reflects something of its checkered and interesting history. It entered the town after the weary climb over Russell mountain, to adopt a modern designation, and ran over the crest of Birch hill, in the southeasterly quarter of the town's territory, a section now almost wholly given over to woodland and pasture, but well populated in the early years. Traces of many an old cellar hole and here and there the deep scar of an abandoned road are discernible. Somewhere near the foot of Birch hill was the tavern of Dea. John Knox, who began the business of innkeeper in 1757, continuing to 1771, and as retailer for two years longer still. This town worthy had emigrated from Glasgow, Scotland, his native city, with his older brothers William and Adam, when only ten years old.* His house was on the high road of travel east and * It is impossible to locate John Knox's tavern. His son Elijah built the fine large house recently owned by E. W. Bennett, a lineal descendant, and now in possession of S. H. Peebles, on the old turnpike road to V/estfield. John Knox owned that lot, and there was an old cellar hole just below the present house, which was built in 1784. But he also owned real estate farther down the road, at or near the more recent "gate house," in the present Wyman neighborhood. John Knox's "Homelot" was there in 1767. It would seem that his house must have been in that immediate vicinity. 69 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES west through the heart of the town. In the Old Farmer s Almanack of the year 1802, there is a stage and tavern list which mentions "Knox" as the stopping place on the line in the town of Blandford. It is a little puzzling, as there is no Knox named in the official list of Blandford licenses for that year. But this is only one instance with many others where the innholder's or re- tailer's business was carried on extensively without any present evidence, in extant official records, of a license. That was pre- eminently true of Squire Jedediah Smith and Col. Samuel Sloper. The almanac list just cited is here reproduced by way of interesting comparison with one on a previous page: TO ALBANY AND QUEBEC. Springfield Parsons 96 Over the rivei • to Ely's 2 Westfield Clap 7 ditto Emerson 3 Blandford Knox 6 Greenwood Rowley 6 ditto Emerson 3 Tyringham Chadwick 7 Great Barrin gto n Root 9 70 Whiting Hicks 1 4 Cowles 4 Mackinstry Ray Haggaboom Goofe 3 3 3 4 Voubarg Fitch 1 2 8 THE OLD POST ROAD ditto Egremont Nobletown ditto ditto Stonehole Kinderhook ditto ditto Albany Ferry After about a mile of gentle rise has been accomplished up toward the modern village of Blandford, a trim little white cottage is seen, surrounded by verandas, and backed by a larger L. It is a modern summer cottage.* Until quite recently it stood simply for what it used to be, without L, innocent of verandas, devoid of paint, homely, individual, humble. It stands on the easterly rim of the village, just under the brow of the elevation on which the latter rests, and the modern cottages on Sunset rock look down upon it. It occupies the lotf which John Boies bought of Adam Knox in 1749. Thence J the estate passed over to * Belonging to Myron L. Henry, of Mount Vernon, N. Y. t No. 46 of the first division. The street cuts diagonally across the home lots of the second division, and the easterly tier of the first division lots, then turns, by the school house just below the meeting house, so as to pass down "Tannery hill" between lots 8 and 9. t In 1760 Dr. John White bought or essayed to buy it. He mortgaged it back to the owner, to whom it reverted again the next year. 71 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES his son, John Boies, Jr., in 1769. There is a strong tradition among the descendants to the effect that John Boies kept a tavern in this little house. His license is not of record, neither is there any other documentary evidence, unless a reference in one of the deeds should be accounted such, which refers to the building as "the house commonly called by the name of the John Boies house," a rather unusual manner of describing a strictly private house. This residence of John Boies was very unassuming, standing only a story and a half high. Probably a bed and a meal could be furnished to a passing guest, but, as always, the liquid refreshment to be had constituted the prin- cipal reason for the public character of the house, if such it had. Mention of other taverns in this imme- diate vicinity is left for a succeeding chapter, as our present design is not to linger in the village, but to pass over the famous old highway which so early pierced the wilder- ness to open to civilization this western section of a developing commonwealth. The corner tavern below the meeting-house is 72 I™lr\_ ^n > t~| 1.' ml " ZDuflj 11 . 1 H&4 Front Stairway, and Parlor Cupboard, Reuben Boise's House Showing (a) one-half of double wagon-seat; (b) glass flip mug on middle upper shelf of cupboard THE OLD POST ROAD forging on its way of fame. Between it and the old burying-ground, dipping down the hill deep into the cross valleys of Little river watershed the road invites the wayfarer to Pixley's and the new western towns. Echoes of the prodigious importance of this thoroughfare, and of the extreme diffi- culty and cost of construction and main- tenance, come down to us along through the years. Spite of all, through the midst of poverty and war, possibly also through occasional neglect, the fathers were now and then involved in trouble. "The grand jurors of our Sovereign Lord y e King" — so read the records of the court of general sessions for the county of old Hampshire, in the year 1756 — "do on their Oaths present the Town of Blandford for not repairing the Highway — The said Town appeared by John Boice one of y e Selectmen of said Town and on their behalf pleaded guilty to y e Presentment. The Court referred the cer- tification to y e next Court." The next year the town was fined for the offense aforesaid one shilling and cost. John Boies may have pleaded the court's clemency on account of 73 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES the struggles and poverty of the town. At any rate consideration was given at the same time that it was forcibly signified that in any event the thoroughfares must be kept open. It was not this town alone which felt the burden to be too heavy to carry. On June 14, 1762, the General Court of the Province granted a petition of Eldad Taylor, Esq., in behalf of township No. 4, asking for relief from burdensome taxes. "They had been there," he said, "but little more than four Years when the tax was laid, during which time they have been a great part employed in making and cleaning Roads not only through their own Town, but through the Country to Blandford." Along this high road passed those troopers whom Rev. James Morton entertained to the scandal of his people. Up and down these steep and rocky declivities were drawn Washington's cannon, when Gen. Henry Knox dismantled Fort Ticonderoga to make effec- tive the siege of Boston, and this was the sorrowful way of some of the Hessians on their involuntary trip to Boston after their capture. This, too, was the way to Louden, 74 THE OLD POST ROAD which bulks so large in the imaginations of so many discontented citizens of the town after the Revolution, while over and along these hills and dales traveled thousands who came from the eastern towns to fill up the population of the new towns to the west- ward. In business, comfort, and pleasure the tavern was no insignificant chapter in the experience of the motley throngs and scattering wayfarers. Says Dr. J. G. Holland,* "The first road, or path, through the townf was made by General Amherst and his army in 1759, on his way from Boston to Albany. On this passage he staid one night each in West- field, Blandford, Sandisfield on Noble Hill, and Monterey at the Brewer place. For many years after the Revolution, this road was called 'The great Road from Boston to Albany,' and was the only road between those places crossing directly the county of Berkshire. Burgoyne's army, after the sur- render at Stillwater, passed over the road on their way to Boston, and remained three * History of Western Massachusetts, Vol. II, pp. 540-541. t Of Louden. 75 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES days at Otis, where they buried one of the soldiers." Gen. Knox told in a diary his story of the Ticonderoga expedition in part on this wise. Its object was "to transfer the serviceable portions of the cannon and other ordnance captured in that fortress to the camp of Washington where it was so greatly needed for the successful prosecution of the siege of Boston."* The project was Gen. Knox's own, and its success won for him the favor of Washington, whose Secretary of War he became. The diary continues: "Fort George, Dec. 17, 1775 It is not easy to conceive the difficulties we have had in getting (the cannon) over the lake owing to the advanced season of the year & con- trary winds. Three days ago it was very uncertain whether we should have gotten them until next spring; but now please God they must go. I have had made 42 exceed- ing strong sleds, & have provided 80 yoke of oxen to drag them as far as Springfield when I shall get fresh cattle to carry them to camp. *New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 30, p. 321. 76 THE OLD POST ROAD "The route will be from here to Kinder- hook, from thence to Great Barrington and down to Springfield I expect to begin to move them to Saratoga on Wednes- day or Thursday next trusting that between this & then we shall have a fine fall of snow which will enable us to proceed further & make the carriage easy." Jan. 5, 1776. Albany. The snow tarried. Instead, there was "a cruel thaw." "Jan. 10th. Reach'd No. 1, after having climbed mountains from which we might almost have seen all the Kingdoms of the Earth. "11th. Went 12 miles thro' the Green Woods to Blandford. It appear 'd to me almost a miracle that people with heavy loads should be able to get up and down such Hills as we have, with anything of heavy loads. 11th. At Blandford we over- took the first division who had tarried here untill we came up, and refus'd going any further, on acco" that there was no snow beyond five or six miles further in which space there was the tremendous Glasgow or Westfield mountain to go down. But after about three hours persuasion, I hiring 77 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES two teams of oxen, they agreed to go." By Jan. 24 Gen. Knox reported in person to his chief, the cannon and mortars were quickly placed, the position of the enemy was rendered speedily untenable, and Boston was evacuated. Two. receipts are appended: "Receipts "Fort George, Dec. 16, 1775. "Rec d of Henry Knox twenty dollars which Cap'. John Johnson paid to different Carters for the use of their Cattle, in dragging Cannon from The Fort of Ticonderoga to the North Landing of Lake George j£lO. 8 W m Brown } r . Lieut* "Blandford, Jany 13, 1776 "Rec^ of Henry Knox eighteen shillings lawful money for carrying a Cannon weighing 24C.3 from this Town to Westfield being 1 1 Miles 18 s. Solomon Brown" Whether Blandford was a provincial town, whether the taverns had anything to do, whether the tap-rooms afforded opportunity for spirited and timely topics of conversa- tion, whether the youth of the town were in touch with what was going on, let these facts and citations give answer. Gen. Knox was not the only army officer * This is a Blandford name. THE OLD POST ROAD of the Revolutionary forces that had to en- counter the "tremendous Glasgow or West- field mountain." Sept. 24, 1777, Gen. Heath called the attention of the State Legislature to "the almost constant passing and re-passing of carriages to and from the northern Army with provisions and Military Stores" over a well nigh impassable road. A committee was appointed to make repairs. A petition had been sent in by "Inhabitants of Berk- shire and others representing that the publick Road, leading from Westfield, through that rough and but little cultivated Tract of Land, well known by the name of Green Woods, to Great Barrington is almost im- passable for want of Reparation; that the exigencies of War, the Situation of our Continental Army on the Hudson's River and the present State of our foreign Trade render it necessary that a very great Part of the Supplies of the Provision of the Inhabi- tants of the State consisting of foreign Com- modities as well as Provisions of flour and other Necessaries remitted to Boston and other Sea Ports within this State should be transported there, — whereby a prodigious 79 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES additional Expense is incurred as well to the Continent as to Individuals, in Teams and Carriages, dashing in pieces of Casks and other vessels, occasioning the great Damage or total Destruction of their valluable Con- tents; and as the Expense of repairing said Road so as to make the same feasable would greatly exceed the abilities of those People who live near and who alone are by Law obliged to repair the same, your Petitioners are of Opinion that should your Honors grant a Lottery for the Purpose of raising a sufficient Sum of Money for repairing said Road, a sufficient number of People, from a true Spirit of Patriotism, conscious of the Utility of the Measure would speedily and cheer- fully contribute a Sum adequate to this important Purpose," etc. This petition was signed at Great Barring- ton by James Bull and twenty-seven others. Lottfries were a favorite means of raising money in those days, both for public im- provements of this sort and for educational and benevolent purposes generally. The sittings for these lotteries were held at the taverns, where the people of the country 80 !erkshire Road, at foot of Step Hill THE OLD POST ROAD flocked to take their questionable chances. It sometimes developed that exception was taken to the method, under the guise of zeal for purer morals, when politics or other objection to the scheme was the real one. As a matter of fact, this enterprise of road- building and road-repairing was subject of a good deal of pulling and hauling other than that of material freight. Rival routes were laid in evidence. As in the lay-out, construction and operation of modern rail- roads, so in these days and a little later in the turnpike period, roads were opened for the purpose of attracting traffic away from an already established line to a new one. That transpired in Blandford and in adjoin- ing towns. Fortunes were made and unmade by such scheming and building. This par- ticular piece of business became a hot-bed of discussion and passion. There were three rival routes to be adjudicated upon. Then it appeared that it was both immoral and inexpedient to raise money by so question- able a means as a lottery, unless it should be to meet the strenuous necessities of one road at the most; that the repairing of three 81 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES roads would invite all sorts of political jobs with their resulting demoralization. The order passed for the repair of three roads. The sum authorized to be raised was not to exceed two hundred thousand dollars, and that "with a deduction of twenty per cent, upon the amount of the tickets sold." The "South road" was des- cribed as running from Josiah Brewer's to the "crotch of the road near Blandford meet- ing-house," evidently the junction of the town street and the Housatonic road. The "middle road"* was designated as extending "from half a mile west of Tag- gard's, so called, to Becket line." That would appear to be the road still called in town by the name of the Green woods road, and will be the subject of a later chapter. The committee to receive and expend the money were Trueman Wheeler, Esq., Major Warham Parks, Mr. Jonathan Brewster, Capt. Eli Root, and Capt. Norton. Parks was, or was soon to become, a Blandford man, of large affairs and influence, and withal a keeper of a tavern. * The third road does not concern this story. 82 THE OLD POST ROAD The path which was marked out over this route in 1735 could have been in no true sense a road — only a bridle-path. The first lay-out which I have been able to find record of is that by the county of old Hampshire, of date, Aug. 27, 1754. It is entitled, a road "from y* Town of Westfield thro Blan- ford & No 1 to y e North Parish in Sheffield," etc. It appears to have been innocent of any surveyor's accounting. For that reason, doubtless, it is far more intelligible and interesting to the ordinary reader, though more of detail in the description would now be appreciated. This became known as the Berkshire road. After climbing the mountain substantially as the fathers climbed it at the beginning, the record runs: "The Road from y e East side of Westfield mountain to Blandford bounds to be 8 rods wide from y e aforesaid line we continued in y e main as y e road is now Trod until we come South of Blandford meeting house." That road can even now easily be traced through the woods up and over Birch hill. William H. Gibbs is un- doubtedly right when he says,* speaking of * Historical Address, pp. 46-47. 83 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES the earliest years of the town's life, "Roads in those days were hardly worthy of the name, and in fact were nearly impassable. It is said that two men sank down and ex- pired on their way to Great Barrington. For many years the only way of transporting heavy merchandise was upon a dray." This artery of commerce and good neigh- borhood, after climbing the hill from the valley at Springfield and Westfield, rises to an elevation of 1460 feet at the ten acres where stood the proprietors' school-house and the corner tavern, with the old burying- ground on the opposite side of the street. The elevation at East Otis, which lies just across Blandford's western boundary, is 1500 feet. But a basin, almost a chasm, lies between, with dip to the southeast, which thrusts the waters of the Westfield Little river system rapidly down into the valley. The highway cuts athwart these brooks and ridges at right angles, up and down its devious and difficult way. The road no sooner gets well by the old burying-ground than the fall begins. Passing the site of the now lamented Watson house, where 84 THE OLD POST ROAD John Watson was soon to have his tannery, and where, after the Revolution, he carried on a retailer's license for a year or two, down what is now called, after his industry, Tannery hill, in the course of its first mile of descent the road sinks to the level of 1100 feet, where it crosses a little brook, then rises over a knoll to descend still deeper again in the next half mile to 1000 feet. Here a bridge spans the pond brook, which conveys the waters of North meadow and Long ponds through North Blandford down to the river. The commissioners describe their path- finding from the town street down and over these rugged slopes according to the ap- proved signs of their day. "Leaving ye Town street* to y e Southward," they say, "we steered a Westerly Course thro ye land of the Rev d Mr. Morton & Roberts Henry y e Road to be 4 Rods wide between these men and to be Taken proportionably from each." The lay-out goes on to mention the stream which empties the ponds: "We still kept a westerly Course by a line of marked Trees till we came in to y e main path * This means that what is now the West Granville road was then called "ye Town street" in its southward extension. 85 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES leading to No 1 near a large Brook from Westiield Bounds thro Blandford to said Brook y e Road to be 6 Rods wide except between Morton and Henry aforesaid; From y e aforesaid Brook we continued our Course in y e trodden path till we came to y e steep Hill so called." A little before this hill is reached, on the first summit above the brook, commanding an extensive outlook, stands the large, square, two-story house built by Squire Reuben Boies just after the Revo- lution. He had become a large landholder and a man of position and influence in the town. His much humbler and earlier home was a couple of miles to the north, a house still well preserved as L to a larger and more recent structure. He had an Jinnholder's license in 1781 and again in 1784, when his new house was built. In all probability the indicated period is short of the facts. His new home was well adapted to entertaining, and he probably found a way to put his dwelling to large use. Enter the wide front door. Before you rises a stairway leading to a landing midway of the two floors, where the stairway divides 86 THE OLD POST ROAD and brings you to either side of the upper hall according to your fancy. In this spacious upper story there were the bed rooms, uniting — or dividing — two of which was a swinging partition suspended from strong hinges. This was for the purpose of fur- nishing a dance hall of due proportions by suspending the swinging partition by means of hooks to the ceiling. Down stairs, in the parlor, is a cupboard stored with ancient china and glass ware, including the ancestral flip mug of glass, imported from Ireland by the original Boises. The shelves in the upper part have that peculiar, compound curvature of outline, with a swell front in the center, which is so choice a relic of the ancient days. The spacious kitchen bears witness to the hospitality of the builder and proprietor. Oil portraits look down from the walls and bid you remember the days of laughter, but especially the days of silence. Then there is the old double chair, firm and straight and elegant of its kind, the first double wagon seat — so it is said — used in town, an article of furniture seemingly for alternate use at home and on the highway. TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES The road on which the windows of this house look out is that whose martial history has already been recounted. Burgoyne's fellow prisoners passed along here, and the modest claim is put forth that not in this house, but in a predecessor on the spot, Gen. Washington spent a night. Squire Reuben Boise was a man of sub- stantial position and large influence in town. He was for many years town clerk. When he finally relinquished his task, the town passed (in 1818) this resolution : "Voted unanimously that the thanks of the Town be presented to Reuben Boise Esq r for the long and faithful Services he has rendered them up to the present advanced period of his life, and that he is entitled to the best wishes of his Fellow Townsmen so long as a wise and holy providence may be pleased to continue him with us." From Squire Boise's old mansion the road to the westward dips a little into a quiet dale, then abruptly mounts to another and higher eminence. It is the hill which the county commissioners of 1754 called "steep THE OLD POST ROAD hill." The name which they have helped to preserve still clings to it in the corrupted form of "Step hill," which corruption is now the inheritance of generations. In less than a mile of continued westerly progress to this point, three hundred feet in elevation have been recovered. Here and along the diverg- ing road to the north leading down into North Blandford a majestic panorama of hill and valley expands eastward and northward and southward. To the eastward, extending for miles along the sky line, one sees the length- ened plateau chosen by the fathers for their town street. The meeting-house of 1822 stands up in full height, from the ground to the weather vane on its steeple, white and glistening in the western sun, fronted by the old pines where the ancients hitched their horses, while just on the hither slope in crowded tier on tier are seen the white marble slabs of the cemetery representing the same generation which built the sanc- tuary that overlooks the graves of both yards, and those that have followed in the last journeyings of life. Thence, northward, stand silhouetted against the sky the modern 89 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES homes and barns of the old street, with a few surviving representatives of the ancient days, not excepting a tavern or two. On this eminence let us tarry. On the north side of the road is the snug old home of Asa Culver and his wife, built, probably, by William Loughead* shortly after the Revolution, next owned and occupied by Isaac Loughead, who, as we have seen, later owned and ran the corner tavern in the Centre. The old big chimney has been topped off above the roof by a ridiculous little one of modern type, but otherwise the house is the same spacious, broad story- and-a-half building, with roof sloping to the street, front door in the front centre opening into a little hall whence a crooked stairway mounts upward to the chambers under the roof, one spacious room on either side, and in the parlor a cupboard like that in Squire Boise's. A friendly grape, with woodbine alternating, covers the trellis all along the front side, affording a leafy and fragrant bower in summer, and allowing all the genial warmth of the kindly winter sun to pour in at the windows during the months * Lloyd, as now spelled. 90 THE OLD POST ROAD of cold. Opposite is a beautiful modern cottage. By a happy conceit the two dwel- lings have received the soubriquets, respec- tively, of December and May. The new cottage is built on the site of an ancient tavern, probably erected by James Moore before the close of the Revolution. From this height the county road pushes along past Blair pond, originally called Twenty-mile pond, over a somewhat less rugged country, to the western boundary of the town near to its southwestern corner. Returning now to our guides of 1754: "then steering Southwardly by a line of marked Trees ab' 16 Rods then northwardly by a line of marked Trees we came into y e afore- said path till we came to y e 20 Mile Pond so called then turning Northwardly by s d Pond we kept a line of 2 marked Trees till we came into y e old path* at y e Right hand we kept a line of marked Trees till we came to Carriers house w h stands on y e aforesd path" — this was Pixley's — "from thence as y e path is now Trod to Rickleys heap of stones, so called then by a line of Trees markt on 3 sides for y e north side of y" Road, partly * V. Appendix III. 91 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES in and partly out of the old path till we came to Jno Brewers Improvement in No 1 The road from y e aforesd brook to y e top of Nobles hill 8 Rods from Top of said hill on y e East to y e Top on y e West to Farm- ington River 15 Rods from thence to No 1 8 Rods." This western side of the town was once populous, its farms wide-stretching over up- land, meadow, and forest. They were pro- ductive too, and prosperity abounded. The schools were thronged, the taverns were not isolated, and the traffic of a State passed along. In the old plan of the township, one-half in the farm lot numbered 7, and one-half in 8, there is located a pond, about the size of Blair pond. None is there now, but instead, a swamp, known as "Great swamp," filled with alders , red ash and black spruce . A road crosses it, a section of a once lively thoroughfare.* With the exception of one corner of its territory, there is no modern deed covering any part of the area or this swamp. Yet * T c is now uncertain just where, through this section, the old Housatonic road ran. It is hardly to he believed that it crossed this pond or swamp. But it was not far off. 92 THE OLD POST ROAD it was in the hands of private ownership forty years after the thoroughfare was opened, for it was in part the farm of Ben- jamin Scott before ever he aspired to run the old corner tavern. It could not have been so very many years after the work of the commissioners of 1754 was done, that a new road* was opened from Blair pond to No. 1, or Louden, line, northerly of the first one. This more northerly road itself is very old, and corres- ponds with the dotted line laid down on the old map, a fact which would suggest that originally this dotted line did not belong in the plan at all, being added after the newer road was cut through. This thorough- fare passes near to the old Watson house by the pond, directly past the Blair pond school-house, or No. 7, up through "the narrows" and on by the ancient farm house of Mrs. Joseph Shepard, whose late husband was grandson of Jonathan Shepard, the purchaser of Pixley's farm, after its checkered career in connection with the tavern had come to its inglorious end. Tradition has it that this house was itself a tavern; and * V. Appendix III. 93 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES its sumptuous proportions, with large front and end doors, invite one to believe it, but there is no trace of any documentary evidence to support the tradition. A network of roads converges in or very near to the present settlement known as East Otis, just over the western boundary of the township of Blandford, and near to the southwest corner of the latter. One of these, cutting that corner, is the old Hartford and Albany stage-road, otherwise known as the road from Louden to Granville, cross- ing also a section of the township of Tolland. It is a dreary waste, and off the old post-road. But the farm of Benjamin Scott was on both these roads, though his house happened to be on the Hartford and Albany line. We will tarry here for a little. Just to the south of the great swamp stands the lonely wreck of the tavern.* This is on the thorough- fare referred to by President Timothy D wight, in his story of extensive New England travel just about the time when Scott's tavern was doing business. He speaks of the Farmington * Better known now by a few as the Dearing place. It is so distant from town as to be supposed by some to lie within the territory of Tol- land. 94 THE OLD POST ROAD river running through Becket, Bethlehem, Louden, Granville, Hartland, Barkhampstead, New Hartford, Canton, Burlington, Bristol and Farmington, and says, with some spice of exaggeration as to grade: "Along its banks a turnpike road extends from Farmington to Becket in Massachu- setts; and thence through Lenox and Pitts- field to Albany; with a rise so gradual as to ascend the summit of the Green Mountains in a manner absolutely imperceptible to the traveller."* Scott began making real estate purchases in this section as early as 1799, amassing a considerable holding. Parts of his farm in- cluded the "Red Ash Swamp" and the "Black Spruce Swamp." He may have had a store, and carried on miscellaneous barter. At any rate, so little trading of any kind was done in cash in those days, and mortgages were taken and foreclosed so often by inn- keepers to make themselves good, that the landlord was almost of necessity a "trader," as Scott was, whether in personal or real property. There is just the fragment of an * Pp. 298, 299. 95 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES account which Scott had for two years with Jedediah Smith, Esq., which in part illus- trates the point : Benjamin Scott Debtor December 12:1807. to taking the Deposition of Francis Hamilton & Rachel Lloyd $1 June 8: 1808 to Execution Benjn Scott vs Stephen Pelton .25 11 to Execution Benjn Scott vs Zebede Waterman . 25 13 to two Bushel of potatoes . 50 November to an alias Benjn Scott vs Zebede Waterman . 25 December 23 to a Concession Note Shubael Upsan to Benjamin Scott .41 Aside from the fact, already mentioned in a previous chapter, that Benjamin Scott's widow became proprietor of the house for a time after his death, this is all that the past seems willing to give up concerning this wayside inn. It is to-day a picturesque ruin, but will soon be no more. One goes freely in, looks up to the empty cupboards of the tap-room, sees bricks and mortar heaped in unsightly masses in the ornamented fire- places, lingers under the shade of the friendly trees, tries to repair in vision the wrecks 96 THE OLD POST ROAD of time and hear the bugle of the approach- ing stage from Hartford or Albany, to listen to the speech of guests and hangers-on and smell the savory odors from the kitchen where the meal is preparing, and to hear the clink of the glasses at the bar, where tongues are loosened, and, alas! where mortgages are started that prophesy the coming foreclosure as in the above account. The silent house for the most part holds its own secrets. It is not a place to stay in long. It is too silent and too lonely. 97 Chapter Five The Street and the Old Aristocracy T~~] ~^HE town street par excellence was the road which divided the east and west tiers of the first division settling lots. It was "the Great and General Rhoad," "the town street road," etc. From the meet- ing-house it ran north, eleven and one-half degrees west, in a bee line for two and one- third miles. At the easterly end of the twenty-third lot, it swerved off northwest- wardly, crossing several other settling lots diagonally, passing through what was very early called the "North end," and thence over North meadow brook and on into Becket — in other words, through the Green woods. In 1761 this was made a county road, on petition of Eldad Taylor of West- field, asking for a road from Blandford to Number 4, and thence to Pontoosuck. Northward of the point of divergence just mentioned, was a road passing on to the THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY northward somewhat crookedly as it ran in and out among the hills, to the end of the home lots of the first division, and separating that section of the first division lots in a sort of zig-zag way. Long before the end of the eighteenth century this northerly road became known, after its pristine im- portance had declined, as "the old town road." At the extreme northern end were the first, small division, or boys' lots. From eminences here and there are such far- stretching views to the north, of valley and mountain, as to merit the name which in recent years it has received— Beulah land. Just above the meeting-house, on or near lot number ten, in which is located the cemetery, was Robert Black's tavern in 1748. It stood where now is the cemetery. Black was an original settler and drew that lot. How long he kept his tavern it is hard to say, the facts so persistently outdo the records of the county court. Robert and David Black were selling lots back and forth in 1768 and thereabout. It was on the tavern site that Rev. Joseph Patrick bought and made his home during his brief 99 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES and unhappy ministry; so that the place was not run continuously as a tavern. Black took his turn in the traditional entertain- ments of town meetings, when the March winds had sufficiently chilled the bones of the yeomanry in the stoveless meeting-house. Doubtless, too, Sunday worshippers found genial warmth there as well as at Pease's or Ashmun's. Robert Black furthermore did his part in fulfilling the function of care- taker in "keeping the meeting house kee & opening & Shuting y e Doors & sweeping y e house for y e year 1769," as well as other years. A consecutive history of this tavern site is not possible. It passed to Robert Pease, of Somers, Connecticut, in 1782; thence, two years later, to his two sons, Abner and Alpheus, "with all buildings." Contempo- rary with Justus Ashmun's corner tavern it became known as Pease's tavern, thus continuing the name by which the older house first won its popularity. Alpheus seems to have dropped out, and the house became Capt. Abner Pease's. The record of his license covers the years of 1793 to 1799 100 THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY inclusive, but the stand doubtless got its repu- tation from a much longer term of service than this would indicate. The house is still standing, long since degraded to a rear-end building.* This tavern must have been for many long years a close competitor to the one on the corner. One has only to make a patient study of the mortgage deeds and foreclosures of the time to be assured that many a man drank up his homestead and brought his family to impoverishment at this tavern. In this respect, indeed, the tavern was like most places of its kind, the corner tavern under Justus Ashmun having been a marked exception. Incidents of gaiety, days and nights of good cheer and abundant hospi- tality, passing shows and fireside chats there were, of course, all along the years. These have gone into silence and forgetfulness, while the careful registry of deeds alone re- mains to preserve the story of business failures and domestic sorrows whose secret lay in the tap-room and the too imperious thirst of the old inn's multitudinous patrons. Capt. Pease became a lieutenant in the * Now belonging to Mrs. Rubena Delehanty, and lately of the estate of A. J. Smith, deceased. 101 fcRNS w. N rURNP KES century, s - as seta L798 and 1801. His i Sag '■ is d s n I - . s cons s - ■ law Irishman and resented an undue meddle- s neness on le vis the Irishman. ut the tal Fuddv." n§ I that individual the es : his ays For years -. abr ad ex< One da; - mis- chi< - - t the village kx - the horse's nsertabr . stnut Lie. When : I an uv v him i : gi und with despatch, "Tut, tut!" said he: "this ) THE OLD AS I B Before E I ■ TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES legal and financial errands in this connection and in forwarding the Province tax, as well also as in attending presbytery as repre- sentative of the church. He was a much traveled man for those times. In one of the intervals between the furious conten- tions of minister and people, when extensive repairs were going on at the meeting-house, and "mr Kattlen" was in so long demand as an artisan, this same "matthew Blier" took his turn with "mr morton" the minister and "mr pees" the innkeeper at "Billet in" the gentleman, "man and hors keeping and other things for the pulpeat." He and his neighbor and competitor, Robert Black, with Robert Henry, were assigned the duty of establishing the bounds of the ten-acre lot and burying ground, in 1761. He very early built a saw-mill down in the second division "Eastward from the metting House." The Blairs were born to run a mill. Matthew Blair, Jr., succeeded his father, and other heirs divided the estate after him. For this story they do not interest us. But Samuel Sloper, who appears to have come into the lot numbered 11, as a tenant, 104 THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY as early as 1772, and who bought the lot in 1786, does interest us very much, for a more picturesque personality never lived in Bland- ford town than he. The official records do not reveal a license for Samuel Sloper before the year 1778. It was an innholder's that year, and the same in 1781 and '84. In 1787 it was a retailer's. He must have had a license of some sort through the years, beginning much earlier and continuing much later than those dates. His ledger, rare old survivor of Blandford's cruel conflagrations, bears date of 1773, but contains items of sale in 1772. It must represent business done on the old Blair homestead as far back as this latter cited date. The Blairs appear to have transferred their interests and activities to the mill and otherwheres after the deacon's death. The old ledger and other scattering records, together with traditions still alive, throw a vivid and picturesque light over this unique and withal leading character of Revolutionary and later times in this goodly town. We know what he did, the goods he sold, the neighbors he lived among, the influence he 105 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES wielded. A more versatile man the town never contained, though he may not have been a man of highest ability and culture. Whether in peace or war, in church or town, in affairs local or in concerns national, he was bustling, breezy and necessary. He never amassed a fortune, though he handled considerable property. He got himself into hot water more than once, became financially pinched, was probably too easy-going, too open-hearted for overmuch getting and keep- ing. Withal this landlord, store-keeper, soldier, ecclesiastic and general factotum adds immensely to the substance and tone color of the life of the town in the last third of the eighteenth century. His Revolu- tionary war record was most honorable, and must have stirred the pride of the citizens, who delighted to promote him to places of honor in peace as well as in war. In the intervals of his military service, he would come home and moderate a town meeting, serve a term as selectman, or consult the interests of his compatriots on the committee of inspection and safety. Then he would don his sword and be off again to the war. 106 THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY He was such a man as to leave behind him a legacy of traditions, still current. To one of his soldiers, who had won the fine nom de plume of "Pun'kin," he called out, one day on the march, "There, Pun'kin, is a good fat pig. I'll hold the kittle, but don't you touch the pig!" The colonel looked the other way while the pig was caught and put into the kettle, and the colonel never saw it again alive. Such law- lessness doubtless made him more popular with his soldiers than with the countryside. How many complaints were lodged at head- quarters against the marauding habits of his company, or regiment, is not of record, nor the number of such seizures which he never saw. One incident more has survived, however. Complaint was made that his regiment had stolen a lot of honey. He did not think that any of his men would do such a thing as to steal honey, but the aggrieved were granted the liberty to make diligent search in camp, the colonel mean- time warily accompanying them. The honey was in a keg in one of the tents. When the searching party were approaching danger- 107 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES ously near to it, the colonel cried out to his men, "Here, boys, look out for your soap grease!" The visitors were not after that kind of ingredient, and the honey was not found. When the war was over, Col. Sloper rep- resented his town at the General Court. He was one of the town committee appointed to review the State constitution when that was before the suffrages of the people, and was a delegate at a county congress. When Murray field was in trouble, "Capt Sloper of Blandford," with two other men from Worth- ington and Norwich, was appointed on a com- mittee of mediation. He was town clerk for a period of years. Samuel Sloper was not arrayed in king's garments. His inventory, made in 1803, contains no mention of sword, not even a gun, nor buckles, nor silver ornament of any kind, nor silken stockings; only a hat valued at thirty cents, one linen shirt at forty, "1 pair old velvet breeches," worth fifty cents, "1 fancy cotton vest," one dollar, "1 striped nankin do," thirty-three cents, "1 pair buff breeches," a dollar and a half, and one pair 108 THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY of woolen hose. That was all. He must have been a man of simplicity. His house- hold goods were plain affairs too, and seem to indicate that he had given up the business of public host before his demise, since he died possessed of but two bedsteads and four dining chairs, though his kitchen boasted nine chairs — the neighbors used to come in and occupy them and chat together, perhaps. There were only a half dozen knives and forks, and other paraphernalia of dining room and kitchen to correspond. He took the war census of the town in 1776. He was one of the men to distribute the salt which the state sent out to the towns during the stress of the war. The genial and jolly soul must have loved peace more than war, and bonhommie more than filthy lucre. No mortgages and foreclosures, with their entail of woe and broken homes, such as burden the accounts of most of the old landlords, mar the pages of Samuel Sloper's ledger; neither is there any trace of such transac- tions with Sloper as plaintiff in the papers of Squire Smith. There was rum enough to float a navy. But no sheriff's notices 109 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES ever followed up the book-keeping of this old worthy. Where the records are abundant, as is the case here, silence would seem to become positive evidence. Confirmatory of this conclusion is a page of entries against one Thomas Lathrop. He had bought a yard or two of "Persian," a tea kettle and tow cloth, "Shoes, Bees- wax and Sugar," saving items in an account which was sadly overweighted with charges for rum and sugar— a more sinister com- bination that bees- wax and sugar. The list is long; too long, evidently, in the mind of the colonel, who inscribed in diagonal lines underneath it all this legend; "don't get no more rum til you pay for what you have got." The account was presently closed, both as to cash and rum. Colonel Sloper made his mark on the pages of the town history in many ways, and his house and store must have been, for years, a resort for all lovers of good stories, while withal there was resident in the old soldier's bosom the spirit of the pioneer. His interest in the promotion of the settlement of the West belongs not here. 110 THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY Suffice it to say that his best gift to that enterprise was his son and namesake. He him- self died possessed of personal and real estate, when the encumbrances were deducted, valued at only eight hundred dollars. He owned the lot opposite his house, where are two modern cottages for summer residence.* This lot passed, after his death, to Solomon Noble. If the truth were all told about the house of Samuel Sloper, as of many another man who carried on an innholder's license, prob- ably it would be learned that there was little real public entertaining except that which pertained to the wet goods. "Mr. Levi Pease Boston" boarded his son there two days in the week for a period. John Waldo Wood, who had owned the lot to the south of Sloper's for a little time, boarded at the Sloper house during nine months of the year 1780, the bill bsing about one-half paid by a barrel of New England rum. Col. William Shepard also boarded his son Noah there, and returned in payment "Rie" at three shillings per bushel, 17 86-' 89. The liquor dispensed at Col. Sloper's store, * Belonging to W. H. Dexter, of Springfield. Ill TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES or tavern, was no small part of the doings of those eventful years. It was largely sold in quantity, to be taken home, but was also mixed and drunk on the premises. Rum and brandy were sold by the gallon or quart, and flip by the mug. "Sider" was made on Sloper's premises, or farm, some- where. It is a fair question if brandy, at least, were not distilled there also. Flip was a most popular drink, and was entered continuously upon the ledger. The same was true to a less extent of Jedediah Smith, and the beverage would be in evidence in every other taverner's day-book or ledger, if it were only extant. Mrs. Earle says:* "Flip was a dearly loved drink of colonial times, far more popular in America than in England, much different in concoction in America than in England, and much superior in America — a truly American drink. . . . American flip was made in a great pewter mug or earthen pitcher filled two-thirds full of strong beer; sweetened with sugar, molasses or dried pumpkin, according to individual taste or capabilities; and flavored * Stage Coach and Tavern Days, pp. 108-9. 112 (a) Capt. Abner Pease's Tavern (middle of group of buildings) (b) The Business Centre in the New Village, and the Luther Laflin Elm THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY with a 'dash' — about a gill — of New England rum. Into this mixture was thrust and stirred a red-hot loggerhead, made of iron and shaped like a poker, and the seething iron made the liquor foam and bubble and mantle high, and gave it the burnt, bitter taste so dearly loved." In itself alone Samuel Sloper's ledger is abundant corroboration of the spirit of lines which Edward Field has quoted in the pages of his book:* "Landlord, to thy bar room skip, Make it a foaming mug of flip — Make it of our country's staple, Rum, New England sugar maple, Beer that's brewed from hops and Pumpkins, Grateful to the thirsty Bumpkins. Hark! I hear the poker sizzle, And o'er the mug the liquor drizzle, And against the earthen mug I hear the wooden spoon's cheerful dub. I see thee, landlord, taste the flip; And fling thy cud from under lip, Then pour more rum, the bottle stopping, Stir it again and say it's topping; Come, quickly bring the humming liquor, Richer than ale of British vicar, Better than Usquebaugh Hibernian, * The Colonial Tavern 113 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES Or than Flacus' famed Falernian, More potent, healthy, racy, frisky, Than Holland's gin or Georgia's whisky. Come, make a ring about the fire And hand the mug unto the squire; Here, Deacon, take the elbow chair, And Corporal Cuke, do you sit there; You take the dye tub, you the churn, And I'll the double corner turn. See the fomenting liquor rise And burn their cheeks and close their eyes ; See the sidling mug incline, Hear them curse their dull divine Who on Sunday dared to rail Against B-'s flip or Downer's ale. Quick! landlord, fly and bring another, And Deacon H. shall pay for 'tother; Ensign and I the third will share — It's due on swop for the pyeball mare." According to every evidence, this is all realistic of the spirit of the day, unless it should be said that in Blandford, at least until the Revolution, little fault could be found with the minister such as was found in the doggerel. The old Revolutionary hero kept some- thing of a stable, and pastured horses and stock. Solomon Noble, blacksmith and inn- 114 THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY keeper, went often to the Sloper place for horse and wagon for trips to Louden, Wil- liamstown and other places, besides putting out his stock in the Sloper pasture. For the munificent reward of three shillings, the old veteran, in 1788, moved the family of David Knox, by means of "Teame & Boy." Now and then he turned his hand to odd jobs. He carted and laid out John Waldo Wood's flax one season for seven pounds ten shillings. He seems to have made shoes and other garments for his family. At any rate he did it for others. For Enos Loomis's young son, who was bound out to him, he did on this wise: "Caping your Sons Shoes, 1-3;" "one Bottle Green Coat full trimed and made for moses," seven shillings. He made several shirts and a frock for the Martin Leonard Company. The number and kind of things which this old veteran and dabster did make an astonish- ing list. He was surgeon-in-ordinary to the parish of Blandford, and this long before ever he had accumulated an army experience. Veterinary too he was. The account is peppered over with charges for the treat- 115 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES ment of young horses for the ordinary pur- poses of the farm and road. In the account of Eliphalet Thompson, in the year 1772, along with "frying Pann," tea kettle and "1 Pr Sizers," is the charge "To Seting your boys rist," twelve shillings. James Sinnet, in 1785, became indebted to "Seting your knee and Dressings," and "to Sundri Dress- ings," four and three shillings respectively. Colonel Sloper died in 1802. Thirteen years before, an infant daughter was laid away, and the two rest side by side without other company, in the family burying place. Did his widow go to Ohio with Samuel Sloper 's son and namesake? The convivi- ality of the old tavern and country store then, is only part of the story. The boy learned something else than to hang round the tap-room and drain the sugar from the bottom of the mugs. At last the old store was shut. The tavern was closed. But there went up in the valley of the Scioto a thriving town, a church and an academy. The street is long. It begins on the hilltop of Blandford. The other end is in the Old Northwest. 116 The Samuel Boies Tavern THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY No one can at all appreciate the early history of Blandford without often calling to mind its position along the track of armies. Through all the colonial wars and through the protracted years of the Revolutionary war, fife and drum were familiar sounds, and the march of soldiery habitually fired the passion of the boys and youth. The taverns swarmed with soldiers, and many a muster, without a doubt, took place in the old meet- ing-house, the ten acres outside being used for evolutions. It is of certain record that for years during the early history of the town this ground was used for the purposes of a military parade. Probably because it was too uneven and became too cramped for such uses, in 1796 the town authorized Reuben Boies, Asa Blair, Samuel Knox and Reuben Blair, "yeomen," to purchase of Benjamin Chapman a plot of ground fronting on the town street, in lot 41, about forty-seven rods in length and ten rods deep. Henceforth this became the historic place for the training of the militia. The boundary stones of this old parade ground have been built into stone walls in the near vicinity.* * The lot is opposite the home lot of James P. Nye. 117 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES Aside from certain exemptions ordered by law, every male citizen of eighteen years and under forty-five was obliged to perform military duty, and was further obligated under penalty to provide himself with the necessary uniform equipment. The towns were required to keep in store a specified quantity of powder, balls and other material of war. There were practice parades, and there was the annual inspection on the first Tuesday in May. That was the great day in all the year, especially for the boys. Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, the famous missionary to the Turkish empire and founder of Robert College, in his "Life and Times," tells of such a day in his boyhood. "Then a regiment turned out Everybody went to it. When there was a sham fight with the Indians in war paint and feathers, it was to us intensely exciting." The feathers indeed were not missing in the Blandford parades, for I have been told that hereabout the domestic fowl was almost as fearsome of that day as of Thanksgiving. Then there were the re- freshment stands, with ginger-bread and what-not, and every well regulated household 118 THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY gave the children the wherewithal to surround these stands with the view to their capitula- tion. There was a law prohibiting officers treat- ing on this day. Yet it was a high day for the tavern. Chipman Wheaton, of local fame, remembered by some to this day, was once heard to say concerning the corner tavern on one of these occasions, that he himself had taken in at that bar three hundred dollars. Almost literally everybody was drunken before nightfall, officers and all. I have a personal letter from a native of the town which tells of three officers striking hands together at the close of one such day and pledging each other to abstinence hence- forth, as they saw the melancholy exhibition of intoxication all over the field. Of all the officers of that regiment, the three were the only ones to die sober. The Scotch- Irish people were rather dis- proportionately inclined to the love of ardent spirits, and drunkenness became the curse of the town. Following the War for In- dependence, inns and places for the retailing of liquors mounted up to ten, a dozen, even 119 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES well along into the 'teens in number. Many of the most prominent men in the town were engaged in the traffic in liquors, either as innholders or retailers. The annual average sale was enormous, estimated by different authorities of the time or a little later as twenty-five to fifty hogsheads, a statement without doubt not including hard cider. Rev. John Keep, later of national fame as one of the builders of Oberlin college, or- dained and settled in Blandford in 1805, became chaplain of a regiment. His salary and his social distinction were in the hands of men whose traffic, and in no small measure whose habits, more and more provoked his disapproval. True prophet that he was, a dozen years before the general awakening on the subject, he began denouncing these things as ungodly and abominable. "On one Sabbath the Brigadier General with his whole staff and the Colonels and majors of the Brigade were present ( at Sunday service) as hearers." It was his opportunity, and the young prophet failed not of his duty. "I gave to the congregation," he says,* * In some personal memoirs, kindly loaned me by his grandson, Mr. Wm. J. Keep, of Detroit, Mich. 120 o o THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY "as thorough and as severe a sermon as I could muster .... The cannonading made a commotion, but the effect was good. The general officers commended my courage." The year when this courageous onslaught was made on prevalent drinking habits is not given. I have been told that Mr. Keep's temperance principles were a moral develop- ment of his ministry later than the very first. At any rate, what the local feeling and custom were on the subject is plain to see from a minute in the records of 1808 when the commissioned officers of the town were instructed to "procure at the Expence of the Town Two Waggons, one for Each Company also for such of the Troops as live in Town, for the purpose of carry 8 their Baggage to Hadley" and five dollars were granted "to be laid out in Spirits for the use of the Militia in this Town, under the Direc" of the officers." Dr. Leonard Bacon, in his "History of American Christianity," says* concerning the general moral condition of the country at this period: "The closing years of the eighteenth * P. 231. 121 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES century show the lowest low-water mark of the lowest ebb-tide of spiritual life in the history of the American church. The de- moralization of army life, the fury of political factions, the catch-penny materialistic moral- ity of Franklin, the philosophic deism of men like Jefferson, and the popular ribaldry of men like Tom Paine, had wrought, to- gether with other untoward influences, to bring about a condition of things which to the eye of little faith seemed almost des- perate." Blandford boys had begun to enter Yale college. Most of the students were sceptical; wine and liquors were kept in many rooms. Intemperance, profanity, gambling and licentiousness were common. The boys read Tom Paine and believed him. What was going on in Europe exerted a powerful influence over them, as it did in America in general. Rev. Joseph Badger, minister in Blandford during this period, him- self an old soldier of no mean repute, had been a book-binder. One of his own people, in a spirit of raillery, sent him an unbound copy of Paine 's works, asking him to bind it. The politics of the day were aided and 122 THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY abetted by the tavern. It not infrequently happened that the landlord was an officer of the militia. If he was not that, he was more than likely to be gentleman or squire. The train band was a fit training school for the more imposing town meeting. As for the routine duties of the parades themselves, that they were often far from welcome is duly attested. It was so everywhere, and local history in this respect conformed to the general rule. Among the "dockets" of Jedediah Smith, Esq., the following com- plaints may serve as a few examples. Aug. 14, 1802, John Collester, clerk of the company commanded by Seth Parsons, com- plained that David Boies, Captain of said company, "Drove forth and mustered his Said company to improve them in the mili- tary art," and Joseph Hills of Blandford failed "to appear on the Sixteenth day of June at the usual Parade near ( Landlord) Sam" Boies 2 d Inkeeper in Said Blandford with his arms and Equipments according to Law and orders of Said captain" etc. "James Henry vs. Davis E. Richards. Received and filed November 30, 1805 123 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES "To Jedediah Smith Esquire one of the Justices of the Piece Within and for the County of Hampshire "James Henry Clerk of the Company of foot Commanded by Jonas Johnson Cap* in the regiment of militia in the said County of Hampshire Commanded by Seth Parsons Colonel Commandent Complains as well for the said Jonas Johnson for the use of and in trust for the Said Company as for himself in a plea of debt for that the Said Jonas Johnson Cap' as afore Said on the twenty six day of Sep' issued his orders to davis E Richards acting in the Capasity of Corporal to notify and warn the Several persons then absence belonging to his District to appear on the third day of October at the usual parade near the meeting Haus in the said Blandford to be improved in the military art and the Said Davis E Richards then and there in violation of Said Law and the orders of Said Cap' and did not warn John King according to Law and orders where by and by virtue of the Law in Such Cases made and provided the Said Davis E Richards hath forfeited the sum of twelve Dollars to 124 THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY be disposed of by Said act is directed and in action hath accrued to the Said James Henry in his Said Capacity to have and re- cover the same to be disposed of as afore Said yet though requested the Said Davis E Richards hath not paid the same but detains it Wherefore your Complainant prays that the Said Davis E Richards may be Sumoned to appear and shew Cause if any he has Why a warrant of distress Should not be issued against him pursuant to Law James Henry Clerk Blandford November 25th, 1805" Still another paper by James Henry bears witness that a parade was held on Sept. 26, 1805, and that "Darias Stephans of Blanford a privat Soldier in the train band being duly enroled in and belonging to Said Com- pany and liable to train therein was duly warned being more than four days previous — duly notified to appear — at the usual parade near the meeting House in Said Blanford with his armes and equipments according to Law," and did not appear so armed and equipped. The complainant prayed that the defendant be made to appear 125 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES and answer to a charge of liability to a fine of "tin Shillings equal to one dollar and Sixty Seven Cents." Dated, Nov. 25, 1806. Tradition says that the place opposite the new parade ground, which came to be known as the Cannon place, was selected by the town authorities in the time of the Revolu- tion as a quarantine for Tories. The story is further that William Cannon, who lived there, and carried on a retailer's license, according to record, from 1763 to 1767, was one of the aforementioned gentry who, feel- ing the bitterness of the disgrace in which he was held by his fellow citizens on account of his political views, called together some of his old cronies at the corner tavern, offered a last drink together, then went home and hanged himself. This individual appears not to have deserved the opprobrium which tradition has cast upon him, but the story suggests certain features of local history in the stirring days of '76 and the part which the tavern had therein. William Cannon was twice selectman in years just preceding the Revolution. Closely depending upon this central com- 126 THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY munity, a mile and a half or so to the west- ward, was a scattered settlement, known then, as now in its more attenuated condition, as "the Gore." When the proprietors mapped out the home settlement lots of sixty acres each, they laid them down diagonally on the town plot, so that, as the settlement rectangle was bounded, it cut athwart some of the farm lots of five hundred acres each, making of them triangles instead of squares. The Gore is located in that one of these lots which bears the number 33. It is a right-angled triangle, having its long hypotheneuse bound- ing the west ends of a baker's dozen of the first division lots. Its centre lies about midway between Blandford and North Bland- ford, but all thought of the North Blandford road, as the villagers now know it, must be blotted out. The modern mail route through North Blandford to Otis, so far as the road connecting the two villages is concerned, came into being only after the town of Blandford was nearly a century old. The Gore is a varied tract of hill and inter- vale, where two or three little brooks, es- 127 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES pecially that one which the fathers called "the branch," and in modern maps is called Bedlam brook, gathering their waters from the northerly slopes, hurry them down through wide intervales and narrowing meadows to Little river. There first Robert Blair made his lonely home, left it awhile and returned to it again. There too the Boieses and Osbornes came, and a few of the most attractive homes in the town still bear witness at the Gore to the enterprise and taste of the progenitors. This neighbor- hood was reached by a road, or lane, laid out by the town in 1768, opening from the town street and running westerly between lots 12 and 13, belonging to Deacon Matthew Blair and William Carnahan respectively.* It ran down to an old mill on the brook not far from the Berkshire road, now deep in the woods. This road has been abandoned for perhaps two or three generations and the name "Gore road" became transferred to that one running westerly into this same general locality, departing from the town street nearly a mile farther up. This latter * Between the house of J. P. Nye and that of the late Mrs. J. S. Porter. 128 HI 'i •llf^ THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY highway was adopted as a county road in 1773, and was described as running "West- ward to the Green Wood Road that leads from Westfleld to Great Barrington." Its point of juncture was still further described as "at the Northwest Corner of the Walnut hill." This road avoided North Blandford — because there was then no such village — and ran up over "Nigger hill," a spur of Walnut hill, crossing the stream nearly a mile below the present village. It crossed, or left, the point in the modern turnpike to North Blandford at the spot known as the Jerod bars, a reminiscence of the old negro, Jerod, or Jared, Cables, who was stable boy at the Baird tavern. There were other roads accommodating the Gore district which need not here detain us. They were frequently changing, owing to transmutations of business and homes in that neighborhood and beyond. Was there ever a tavern at the Gore ? Who knows ? The Blairs were there, with milling operations at the southerly end of the settlement, and there were several Blair licensees. Wherever the Blairs were in those days things were doing. 129 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES A little way above the parade ground, on the westerly side of the street, was the pound. It occupied a knoll, where the bed rock comes to the surface, and the wagons rumble over it as on a pavement which nature laid mil- lenniums ago. Nearly opposite the pound was the "Deacon Samuel Boies' home farm," still so called in 1791, though David Boies had purchased it two years before. From this point the road dips down into a meadow, or swamp, where the first settlers struggled and wallowed for a day, painfully pushing on with their baggage to the hill beyond, where soon after a log fort was erected for the defence of the people against the Indians. Easterly from the northerly end of this swampy stretch and from the friendly water- ing trough there, a hill rises at some distance from the road, spattered with some white outcropping veins of quartz, like spots of lingering snow, giving the hillside a peculiar distinction. Where the hill comes down to meet the lowland, yet high enough up to escape the dampness of the swamp, is still an old cellar hole over which David Mc- Conoughey — both father and son — lived for 130 THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY many years after 1745. William Donaghy "first Settled and Improved" it, as an old deed of sale relates. Near by, mammoth in its decrepitude, is a partly dismantled chest- nut, grisled and faithful survivor of the days of yore. The McConougheys were prom- inent citizens of the town, and trusted public officers. The next lot, number 36, on that side of the street, is on higher ground, and the road rises again to traverse a plateau nearly sixteen hundred feet in elevation, which it sustains for a mile or more. This old street must have been the pride of the fathers' hearts, "beautiful in situa- tion, the joy of the whole earth," like Mount Zion. Wherever the forest was sufficiently subdued the eye caught vistas of splendid landscapes, the hills extending like billow upon billow north and east, beyond the Woronoco and Connecticut valleys, while down the avenue of travel to the south was to be seen the old meeting-house seeming to stand in the very middle of the street. This highway and town street of the fathers became a county road as early as 1759. The commissioners laid a new road from near 131 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES the corner tavern up to the meeting-house, as the town road had run directly across the ten acre lot and on toward West Gran- ville. From the tavern the new road ran north, 28 degrees west, 28 rods "to the North East corner of the meeting house," after rounding which it ran "up the main Street between the fences Seven hundred and thirty two rods," north, eleven degrees west, and was to be four rods wide. In 1807 the town widened the street. The lay-out as reported to the town was as follows : "Laid out November 9 th 1807 in Blandford a Town road beginning at the east side of the Pulpit window of the meeting house in said Blandford and running thence in the centre of s d road north 14 degrees west about nine hundred & Twenty rods, to the North Line of the Settlers lotts, Said road to be Six rodds in Wedth." This road ran on through Becket to Pittsfield. In 1801 it had become a part of the Eleventh Massa- chusetts Turnpike. Lot thirty-six, mentioned above, was the connecting link on the east side of the high- way between swamp and upland, and ad- 13 2 THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY mitted of buildings close to the street. This lot was drawn in the beginning by Samuel Cannon, or Carnahan, and became known as "Samuel Carnahans home lot," "on which Samuel now lives, "as a deed of 1803 relates, though probably concerning a son. In the year just named, James Hazzard, "Gentle- man," bought the homestead and put up a store there, giving a mortgage on it to the Boston bank, and in this "new store" he sold liquors in accordance with his license of 1804 and 1805. The Hazzards operated chiefly in the old town of Russell, now known as Russell mountain, near Hazzard's pond, as Russell pond is still called on the maps. James appears not to have been the first person to carry on the business there, for indications strongly point to this as also the spot where James Sinnet conducted a similar business in 1788. Joseph Eells suc- ceeded Hazzard in 1810 and 1811. He was father of Cushing Eells, who became the co- laborer of Marcus Whitman and the founder of Whitman college. The Eells home, how- ever, for the most part, was on the farm at the foot of Birch hill. But the corner of the 133 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES lot where the store was, on the town street, is known to this day among elderly people as Eells' hill. Joseph Eells sold to John Gibbs in 1812. The business stand just described is re- ferred to in one of the deeds as located near "landlord Boies 's line." Hazzard was not very successful. Strange indeed would it have been if everybody, even in those bibulous days, when builders raced with one another to finish a public house before a competitor should get the trade, should have avoided insolvency. This Boies's tavern, or inn, stood, and still stands, just to the north of the now smoothed and grass-grown Eells' hill,* a fine old two- story house, with a large front room on either side of the stairway which opens out of the traditional, small, rectangular hall, and spans the distance between the floors by several angular turns. The old tavern stands broad- side to the street, front door facing the same, the old bar-room door being on the southwest corner, on the gable end looking down the street to the meeting-house. This inn was for years one of the stopping- * Mr. Amos Loomis now resides there. 134 THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY places for stages on the Boston and Albany route. Tradition is strangely silent about this old caravansary, but the records are beyond the possibility of a doubt. In the bar-room of this inn the unfortunate Hazzard parted with his store and thirty acres of land under sheriff's sale, Barnabas Whitney being deputy and, apparently, auctioneer.* The builder of this substantial piece of architec- ture, — entirely plain except the line of fine, cubical beading just under the eaves, — is subject of conjecture, but there is approxi- mate solution of the problem. The lot (No. 35,) was drawn at first by Israel Gibbs, from whom it passed to his son Isaac, who in turn sold it to Warham Parks, "of Westfield," in 1780. The instrument runs thus: The par- cel of land "being of the settling lots in said Town & is the same whereon I now live & is lot Number Thirty five in the first division with a Mansion House and barn standing on the same and is bounded westwardly and northerly f by the street or highway and southerly by Sam" Carnahan's home lot con- * The estate passed to Samuel Knox, at that time the mortgagee, for fifteen dollars, t A road bounded the northerly side of this lot, as given in the town records in 1750, It has been long since obliterated. 135 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES taining by estimation sixty acres more or less." The date of the deed is Feb. 14, 1780, from which it would appear that the house is older than that, and was possibly built by Isaac Gibbs. However that may be, there is an interesting tradition concerning it and two other houses in the immediate vicinity. It is but a stone's throw from this house to that of Deacon Amasa L. Stewart, across the way, in lot 19; and it is but another long stone's throw from the latter to the house of Roscoe Ripley, the site of Job Almy's tavern for many years in the early nineteenth century, the tavern itself having burned to the ground some years ago. The Almy house was on the northeast corner of the old town street and the Northampton road, the Stewart house being about half way between the other two buildings, but on the opposite side of the street. The Stewart house bears all the marks of age which characterize the Boies tavern. The story is that these three houses were build- ing at the same time, and that the builders were running a race with each other to finish first, as each house was intended for 136 THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY an inn. The northernmost house was said to be first completed and so got the business, thus ruining the chances of the other two. It will be remembered that Warham Parks was cited as of Westfield when he purchased the estate which afterward became the Samuel Boies tavern, and that he had already been living on the place before he bought it. This gentleman, who was "of Westfield" only by virtue of a long reminiscence, wielded a wide influence in Blandford during the fifteen or twenty years when he was in the town. He carried a license from 1780 to 1783, but just where, it is not easy to affirm. It would appear that for a part of the time he con- ducted business in the northeast part of the town, where the Parks home farm was, in the five-hundred-acre lot, No. 39. But so remote a section, bustling though it then was, could not long satisfy so moving and ambitious a spirit, and he very soon began to operate in the heart of the community. It is a curious fact that he possessed himself of every one of the three actual, or would-be, tavern sites about which the significant tradition just recited has come down, and 137 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES at the very time when the events related are most likely to have happened. In 1780 he was living in the southernmost of the three. The tradition declares the winner of the building race to have been a man by the name of Beard. The northernmost place, afterward the Almy lot, was known as the Beard lot, having been originally drawn by James Beard, an Englishman, in 1737. He passed a part of it on to his son James, Jr., selling forty-four acres to Warham Parks, in 1782, for one hundred and fifty pounds in silver, the same "having thereon standing an Old House and Barn." This lot was on the corner, and Beard speaks of it as the place where he "formerly lived," implying that he was not then living there. Parks parted with it to Samuel Crooks Gibbs three years later, naming as one of the special privileges of the conveyance the use of the "Bagg well" in the lot opposite. There was, it seems, some water consumed, even then. The lot midway between, and across the street, known as the Brown lot, passed from Solomon and William Brown to Elisha Parks, in 1769. It had on it a "Dwelling House 138 THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY & Barn," probably a humbler abode than the competitor of the two taverns. Just when Warham Parks took possession of it I am unable to say, but in 1787 he sold it to "Samuel Boies 2 nd Innholder." That was two years after the latter had bought the tavern stand so long to be operated by him and his son. It was held by the Boises nearly forty years, when it passed by an execution sale held in the corner tavern, — Isaac Lloyd being landlord, — to Luther Laf- lin. Years after, this lot became known as Luther Laflin's bear lot. It was in this house that the tragedy occurred which occasioned the melancholy inscription on a headstone in the old burying ground : In memory Miss Betsey Boies Dauf of Mr Samuel & Mrs Elizabeth Boies who died July 18'* 1814 aged 18 years. She died of a burn rec'd while a sleep by the inflamd Bedcloths suppos'd to be accidentally set on fire by her candle. There can hardly be any doubt that Parks improved his license, which by the way, was 139 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES a retailer's, a part of the time at least in one or more of these three houses. Perhaps he was the builder of all three, the tradition serving to reflect simply the feverish impulse which was given to this class of business in these earliest years of stage travel and re- covery from the incubus of war. Previous to the period of the three-tavern tradition, in 1779, Major Parks owned lot 25, after- ward in possession of Isaac Gibbs, "lying about two Miles and one half North from the Meeting House in s d Town & lies partly on the East & partly on the West side of the County Road running through said Town to Becket," "having thereon standing a Mansion House & Barn." But this too, as subsequent events proved, was too far north of the centre of life to satisfy so commanding a spirit. There was scarcely a dignity to which his fellow citizens did not feel themselves honored in promoting Warham Parks. For five con- secutive years he was selectman, when such material was easy to find. He was one of the most popular of moderators of town meetings in a period when legal and forensic 140 THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY abilities abounded and politics was both a business and a pastime. He was chairman of a committee to seat the meeting-house, and of a large committee of local notables to extend a call to Rev. Aaron Crosby; was chairman also of a committee to build pews, and of another committee to dispose at public sale of the unimproved lands of the town. But his reign was short. He re- turned to Westfield and died there, possessed of a considerable estate. There was still another licensed bar, from 1785 to 1792, in the' midst of this cauldron of business and social ferment. It was run by John Gibbs, son of Israel. His "Homelot" was wedged in between the two tavern lots on the east side of the street. He may not have been as prominent a member of society as some of the others, but he was a selectman in 1781. A generation later there was a store on this lot, at the northwest corner, and there may have been one much earlier. Still another retailer's license — and therefore probably also another general store — was carried on by Samuel Blair, son of Rufus and Dolly, in 1810, in a half-acre in the 141 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES northeast corner of lot 17. This little spot had a kaleidoscopic career of ownership and eclat. Blair was known as a "trader," and so must have done considerable business; but his place was sold over his head by Deputy Sheriff Asa Smith, at public sale, at the house of Eleazer Slocum, the corner tavern, to James Babcock, blacksmith. In 1779, and for four or five years there- after, Deacon William Boies was selling strong drinks under a retailer's license in the busy part of the town street, namely, in lot 21, just above the Baird lot, on the opposite side of the street. There were at least seventeen licensed innholders and retailers in the town of Bland- ford in the year 1784. In Springfield, in that year, there were less than thirty. Noth- ing in the world could have added more dignity to the business than the prestige already borne by the men who conducted it on this street. Old Matthew Blair had held the office of deacon steadily and honorably, and was familiarly known as "Elder Blair." Samuel Boies, who died Sept. 4, 1804, was, as his tombstone impressively 142 THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY tells us, "a ruling Elder of Christ Church in Blandford more than 40 years." Both the Boieses represented their town at the General Court, William, himself also a deacon, consecutively for many years, and was town clerk for eleven years without a break. The two Boieses were moderators of town meet- ings without number, and when a Bill of Rights was framed by the people, Deacon William was charged by his fellow-citizens with the honor of representing them. This section of the old town street was a busy and important centre of life for many years. There were at least a blacksmith shop or two and a school-house there. Three or four stores were in this close vicinity, and in 1830 the Protestant Episcopal society built a church edifice opposite Job Almy's tavern, on the west side of the town street. John Ferguson lived in the lot opposite the Boies tavern until his death. Unless there was a second John Ferguson* of whom there is not particular record, this man was the redoubtable captain of the minute-men of 1776. Rev. Joseph Badger lived just south * There were so many lots in widely separated sections of the town in possession of an owner, or owners, bearing this name, that some doubt may possibly rest on the absolute identification. 143 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES of what is now known as the Gore road, but which was then called the "High Way from Blandford Street to y e Greenwoods Road," or, the "County road leading from the Street westward." Mr. Badger sold out in 1795 to Dr. Joseph Wadsworth Brewster forty- four acres with a "Mansion House and a Barn," the latter selling also, in part, ten years later, to another physician, Dr. Nathan Blair. Farther down the street, opposite the parade ground, Dr. Charles H. Little was living in 1811. On the two miles between the meeting- house and Prospect hill was almost every- thing one could think of to make a community self-respecting and aggressive: men of civic influence, military dignity and ecclesiastical power; meeting-house, school-house, shops, stores, taverns, the pound, the military parade and the old fort. Just below the Boies inn, between that popular resort and Pound hill, on the causeway — originally the fateful swamp — the young men of a later generation used to go on Saturday after- noons to speed their horses, not with sulkies, but on horseback. Whatever was doing, 144 THE STREET AND THE OLD ARISTOCRACY this was the center for fun and business, and the tavern was the headquarters. The Boies tavern ran under a license, for father and son, covering an uninterrupted period of twenty-nine years, beginning, according to the county records, in 1787. Job Almy's license began much later, extending from 1807 to 1826. That house was a two-story building, and very long. Almy kept a store and bought considerable real estate in the vicinity of his house as well as elsewhere. His name is still familiar among those in- itiated into the secrets of the past. For a considerable period of years the Episcopal society met regularly at his house or store for the transaction of their annual business. What these pages have recorded of tavern life is scarcely more than a skeleton, and an incomplete one at that. Loaded stages passed up and down this street, as trains pull in and out of some central railroad town to-day. The street was full of life. Those scenes and sounds are so much of the past that some old residents of to-day doubt the facts which records of court and county registers indubitably prove, while from one 145 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES and another the traditions are gleaned which together fit so strangely into the things of record and send back faint echoes of genera- tions we fain would know more about. 146 Chapter Six The New Aristocracy and the New Village WHILE all this aristocracy was holding its tenure in the heart of the old street, affairs were by no means stagnating down on the Albany road. Below the meeting-house, on this road, the leaven of change was working. A few men were there who had the spirit of prophecy and were capable 1 of doing things. Just why they chose this scene of operations it would seem easy to guess. With land held pretty tightly up town, there was unimproved and saleable property on the great route of through travel lower down, and located on such wise as to promise development. So, before the Revo- lutionary period was well over, a new era of business activity began to dawn, and when peace was well established the progress be- came vigorous. Men of business, all of them innkeepers or having a retail license, all land speculators, all men of influence in town affairs, came in to develop that section of the TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES old home lots which in later generations has constituted the village of Blandford. One of these men was Timothy Hatch. He seems to have come to town in or about the year 1781, when he purchased thirty acres, being the eastern part of lot 47, first division, the second lot below John Boies's, "with a Dwelling House," and is written down in the deed as of Hartford.* The L of the present house is very old, and may not improbably be that where Timothy Hatch first took up his abode. His license appears to have begun in that same year. The next indication of him is in a deed of March 1, 1785, wherein is conveyed to "Timothy Hatch Merchant" about an acre of land "on the north side of the Albany road so Called," the same being the southwest corner of the old Pease farm, and adjoining on the west the tavern property of Justus Ashmun. The plot had a frontage of four- teen rods. Hatch probably built a house there that spring. In any case there was one there when he sold the place to John Robbins, June 27 of the same year. That * The location corresponds with the homestead of Edward Dunlap, re- cently the home of Howard P. Robinson. 148 Tavern Sign of Rufus Blair and Samuel Porter Supposed First Tavern (left section of house) of Timothy Hatch and HIS SUCCESSORS THE NEW ARISTOCRACY gentleman held it for only a year or two, when (1786) it became the property of Russell Attwater.* In this same year Hatch bought fifty acres of the Pease farm.f While everybody smelled of the soil in those days, and Hatch doubtless was no exception, this deal, it may be safely guessed, was not pri- marily for farming purposes. The house on the corner of the old second division road, J as it was called for many years, (beginning with the ministry of John Keep, the parsonage,) must have been built at about this time. It seems almost certain that the builder was Timothy Hatch, who was living in it in 1793, in which year he gave a mortgage on it to Russell Att- water, already a rising and successful merchant. The instrument is interesting. It describes the lot as bounded southerly on "the great road from Westfield to Great Barring- ton," otherwise called the Albany road, west on Attwater, north on Lieut. William Knox, Jr., to whom Hatch had sold three * This plot corresponds very nearly with the present house lot of Miss Electa B. Watson. t The part conveyed had for its southeastern bound the road to the second division, so called, long since disused, but discernible just easterly of the house of Enos W. Boise. Its southwestern bound was the Albany road, now the village street. Its northwestern bound was an extension of the corresponding bound of the acre-lot with house, and the remaining bounds were coterminous with the lines of the original northern boundary of lot 43 in its extreme eastern part and the easterly ends of lots 4.3, 44, and a small part of 45. X By which was meant the road leading to the second division. 149 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES acres of the northernmost corner of his fifty acres, and east "on the Road called the Second division road;" fourteen acres, with "house, barn, merchants store Hatters Shop and pot Ash Works thereon standing." Here is something illuminating in tracing the growth of this thriving community in the closing years of the eighteenth century. From 1781 and onward Hatch's license had been a retailer's. That year and thence- forward to the close of the century he had an innholder's license, and he was living in this same house in 1800, as of record in another deed of mortgage to Jonathan Dwight, Esq., and Jonas Nut Dwight Marshal of Springfield. The increasing through travel over this principal artery of the common- wealth invited business. In all these years Timothy Hatch had not escaped the notice and public favor of his fellow-citizens, and was often occupying public station. He was "Ensign Timothy Hatch" until the year 1793, when the more enviable title of "Captain" was accorded to him. Throughout this period he was moderator of public assemblies galore, and several times selectman. He was the first 150 THE NEW ARISTOCRACY postmaster the town had. In the church he was a not uninfluential adherent. Once he was appointed on that ever important committee charged with the delicate duty of seating the meeting-house. At this par- ticular time (1792) indeed, two-thirds of the committee were innkeepers. There was a hatter's shop on this corner. The business was passed along from father to son. The potash works were not the only establishment of the kind in the town. Timothy Hatch was not a man of one idea. Builder, innkeeper, merchant, manufacturer in at least two different enterprises, post- master and man of affairs was he. It is not germane to the present inquiry to follow the Hatches, father and son, into all their real estate deals. But it is pertinent to discover, so far as may be, how these men and others, landlords or of similar craft, operated as leaders in the working out of town and village life. The old John Boies farm, — and indeed, practically the same might be said of the other farms in the neighborhood — began to be so divided and subdivided and the old 151 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES boundaries ignored, that hereabout the primi- tive divisions into sixty-acre home lots had become a thing of the past. The crossing of these lots obliquely by the road hastened the process. In 1791 John Follet, who had ob- tained possession the previous year of the John Boies house, sold the same, with three acres of land, to Solomon Noble, a black- smith, whose activity in the new movements was also a considerable factor. Noble moved into the house and built, or had, his shop there, but sold the whole estate the next year after he bought it, to Timothy Hatch. The latter presently rented the same to Walter Shepard, who finally bought it in 1794, with the shop and three acres of land. This lot had thirty rods frontage on the street, the house standing in the centre. Walter Shepard also was a hatter. Who built the hat shop is not of record, but not improbably Hatch erected it for Shepard, who continued to live and carry on his busi- ness there until his death, a few years later. The place became familiarly known as the Walter Shepard place, and Widow Shepard continued to live there for some years, when 152 THE NEW ARISTOCRACY it was finally sold to Joseph Bull, innkeeper. Amid all the commotion and parley of business, public affairs and things masculine generally, it is a relief and an uplift to arrive at a little spot where domestic quietness and humble toil are given their peculiar and ap- propriate place. During all the years of Walter Shepard's residence in this humble home, and his application to his own daily work in the shop close by the house, as well as in the frequent mention in the deeds of "widow Shepard," it is refreshing to remember that after all, if there were no such oases, if a community were not mostly made up of the unnamed and unheralded, there would be nothing to say of the leaders. There would be no leaders, since there would be no rank and file. In all the hubbub of trade, traffic and promotion, the women and children are mostly silent and forgotten. After all, the chief part of the history is unwritten. In 1814, the hatter's shop and the little house beside it became the property of Timothy L. Hatch, son of Timothy, after brief possession by Joseph Bull, Russell 153 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES Attwater and William Ashley. The elder Hatch meantime appears to have removed again to his former residence in Hartford, but not until he had left still further witness of his building activity. On another little sec- tion of the old John Boies farm, on the south- west of the four corners— the same being constituted by the intersection of the Albany road with that to the second division on the one hand, and the road to the east parish in Granville (now Sunset rock road) on the other — and just opposite the tavern, on half an acre of ground, a "new house" was built. That was about 1800. It was owned and probably built by the two Hatches. It stands on a high bank. There is no well there. Building in such a place, when land was plenty, adds emphasis to the real estate boom which was on when the eighteenth century had grown old. Things went lively in the taverns and licensed stores in those days. We might add, at the blacksmith shops as well. Drunken brawls were not infrequent, and many a fortune that was made was lost again. It seems a little unjust to single out one from 154 THE NEW ARISTOCRACY another for illustration. There is some pleas- ure, however, in selecting Timothy L. Hatch in such a connection, because of the stiff fight which he put up against his too fervent love of strong drink; and, it would appear, he nobly won in the end. The Hatches seemed not to have been able long to hold what property they acquired and developed. Wherever they were, the lawyer and sheriff had plenty of business. Timothy L. Hatch is still well remembered as an old man by some of the elderly ones in town. He was communicative and social, and loved to make an excuse of bringing a neighbor's mail to sit down and chat with his old friends. He went by the nickname of "Old Rorum," for whatever reason is left now to conjecture. Hardly had the father and son built their new house* on the high bank at the corner, than they were obliged to part with it. The day was January 11, 1802; the place, "the House of Solomon Noble Innholder in Blan- ford," the parsonage of later date. It was at three in the afternoon, and the logs were crackling in the fireplace while the men of the town were gathered by it and in front * Now the summer house of Irving A. Quimby. 155 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES of the bar to put up bids or watch and listen to those who should venture, as Deputy Sheriff Parsons Clapp announced the sale and called for offers. The execution had been served by Jonathan Dwight, Esq., and James Scott Dwight, merchants. There was already a mortgage to Eli P. Ashmun, and this sale was that of the right in equity to redeem the property. Solomon Noble was the buyer, for $217. * The Hatches managed to keep some kind of hold on the estate for a couple of years longer, when they sold what they could claim of it for $200 to the D wights, who in turn conveyed it to Dr. Joseph B. Elmore. In 1823 Timothy L.'s hat shop was the subject of attack, this time by the State of Connecticut, which had a mortgage on it. This attachment, or sale, is described as follows: "part of a Hatters Shop situate in Blandford is s d County near the dwelling House of the said Timothy L., to wit, The South room on the lower floor of said shop and so much of the North room on the lower floor as is South of a line drawn from the * Vol. 40, p. 391, Springfield Registry of Deeds. 156 THE NEW ARISTOCRACY South side of the East door to the bottom of the stud next South of the Northeast corner post."* And again, that very same year, part of the chamber and garret were similarly dealt with.f The train of conditions which led to these troubles is plainly enough revealed in the records of the church. It was in 1824 that Hatch was confronted with the charge of "having on a public day been guilty of making too free an use of ardent spirits, ' ' and confessed his weakness, "both to individuals and before the church." In this confession he is made to say that he has been "somewhat addicted to the Sin of Intemperance," an acknowledg- ment the truth of which was emphasized by the necessity of a repetition of the disciplinary process four years later. On that occasion he pleaded, in his confession, "I think I have now a more penitent state of mind & more humility than when I fell before." The church was forbearing, but the necessity for temperance reform was lying heavily on the conscience of the religious community, and as more complaints were coming in * Registry of Deeds, Vol. Ex. F, p. 61. t Id., p. 74. 157 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES against the habits of Mr . Hatch, the church passed a resolution in 1831 suspending him from good standing and the privilege of the sacrament. In this category of discipline he appears to have remained three years, "faint yet pursuing," until at last he averred that for more than a year he had entirely ab- stained from the use of intoxicants, and was willing to become a member of the Temper- ance Society, whereupon he was received again into good standing with his brethren "without doubtful disputation." All this was under the ministry of that stern disciplina- rian, Rev. Dorus Clarke. This entry of triumph on the part of Timothy L. Hatch has no sequel in the records. His was an interesting character and career, and the final entry stands to the credit of his manhood. The individual whose career of struggle we have followed for a little was by no means a solitary example of the prevalent evils of the time in Blandford. Nor is it to be in- ferred that the new village was more rife with it than the old aristocracy on the hill. Rev. Joseph Badger made entry of date, November 20, 1787, to the effect that at a 158 THE NEW ARISTOCRACY meeting of the session at his house, the elders present being William Boies, Samuel Boies, John Knox and Robert Lloyd — all licensees at one time or another — "Capt William Knox & William Mitchel voluntarily appeared and confessed themselves to have been overtaken in the heinous sin of drunkenness, & signified their willingness to manifest their repentance by publickly confessing their sin." Under the ministry of Mr. Keep, Samuel Boies was arraigned for similar offences. Asahel Water- man fell under like charge. In 1820 Asa Blair was joined to the procession and made manful acknowledgment. Eleven years later David Allyn did the same. These incidents are but symptoms of the disease of the body politic, carrying with them as well the evi- dence of protest and reform. The people were not given over to utter debauchery. There was self respect, there was religion, there was leaven in the lump. To revert again to tavern vendues, one unfortunate victim was one Samuel Beach, who lived in the east part of the town. The plaintiffs were George H. Sylvester of Chester- field and Fordyce Sylvester of Blandford, 159 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES "both traders and joint dealers in Merchandise under the firm name of G. H. Sylvester and Son." Fordyce Sylvester had a retailer's license in town in the years 1818 to 1821. Judgment had been obtained at the court of common pleas on the fourth Monday of August, 1820, in the sum of $131.80, and $8.80 additional to cover costs of court. The document bears the signature of Alanson Knox, Justice of the Peace, who was living in the old Eli P. Ashmun house, and doing a law business in the lower village. David Collins, Jr., deputy sheriff, made affidavit, Sept. 19, 1820, that he had taken "One Hog, and two Shoats and seven Sheep." The same day, having already advertised the property, he sold it at public vendue at the dwelling house of George Bradley, an old gambrel- roof house, standing where now stands the Methodist church parsonage. "Sold the Hog," the record runs, "to Alanson Knox of Blandford in s d County" for $4.74, each of the shoats for one dollar to John Sibley of Westfield, and the sheep to Logan Crosby of Blandford, for 68 cents each. Real estate as appraised by John Noble, Logan Crosby 160 THE NEW ARISTOCRACY and Prentice B. Cook, was set off to the creditors for use and improvement by them "for six years and no more," which looks as if those enterprising merchants contemplated running a store in that distant section of the town. The story of tavern vendues and church discipline has been a long digression, but a needful one to reveal a little of the life of the times under review. When the sale was over, of course the drinks went round, and to the whole affair, aside from sorrow or joy at- tending the settlement of legal troubles, there was added occasion for visiting, enter- tainment, and to drive dull care away until it should come round again to be similarly treated. In a biographical article upon Rev. Mr. Keep, President Fairchild said that there was a "famous ball" given on the evening of Rev . John Keep's ordination, ' 'the young people expecting a stern rebuke from the pulpit on the following evening." He added that the rebuke did not come, but instead, "Mrs. Keep invited the young women of the parish to gather at her house to form a reading 161 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES circle." This young woman, as matter of fact, was not for eight months to become a bride, and was hardly likely to do at that time what she is said to have done. But that such a circle was afterwards formed by the aid of Mrs. Keep and her unmarried sisters Mr. Keep himself bore witness. The young men presently found the ball-rooms becoming deserted, and themselves sought and obtained entrance to the literary gather- ings. While convivialities and execution sales were going on at the taverns, other influences were at work, and so the life of the town and the village developed, as it always develops everywhere, with good and bad elements commingled. What the trend in general was the sequel may show. When Timothy Hatch left the little old house a half mile down the road for his larger enterprises nearer town, he sold the old place to Robert Blair, who may very likely have lived there a couple of years. The Blair clan in those days would hardly have known themselves without one or more fond fathers of the Christian name of Robert passing the same along down the generations 162 THE NEW ARISTOCRACY to promising sons, with the result that it now becomes difficult or impossible to dis- tinguish one Robert from another. The old deacon had a brother, Robert, who lived until 1802, and he and Matthew both had sons of that name, and there were, or came to be, Robert Blair, Senior, Junior, Second, Third and Fourth. The Blair genius was for building and operating mills, but for a time Robert, Senior, and Robert, Junior, from whichever branch of the fertile tree they may have sprung, were much in evidence with the Hatches and the rest who were building a new community to rival the old aristocracy which abode on the wind-swept heights of the town street. In 1787 John Robbins sold thirteen acres of land to Robert Blair, Jr., south of the Second division road and of the road to East Granville, and on both sides of the main road up "from Westneld to Blandford meet- ing house," as some of the deeds have it. This lot of land surrounded, but did not include, the John Boies, or Walter Shepard, house, with its three acres and changing owners. The B lairs were now at the four 163 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES corners, where for years there was a deal of business, speculation and drinking, with all the history, comedy and tragedy which those things involved. It is all like the complicated movements of men on a chess board. Busi- ness was built up and ruined; homes were made and darkened. It was a veritable maelstrom. Robert Blair, Jr., is credited, in the record of general sessions, with an innholder's license in 1784 and '85, and from 1790 to '93, while to Robert Blair is given a license in 1787 and y 88. Father and son were without doubt closely associated. It is impossible always to distinguish between them in the records. One of the various Roberts had possession of the Hatch tavern for a little while, but not of the hat shop. Then the former passed to Russell Attwater, in 1794, who in turn sold it to Solomon Noble, in 1796. Ownership of this tavern was no more uneasy than that of most other houses on this corner. Out of the thirteen acres bought by Blair, Vassal White, son of Dr. John White, bought a corner lot fronting one hundred feet on the main road and fifty feet on the Second 164 THE NEW ARISTOCRACY division road, and lived in his own house there, whether built by himself or by Blair. He was a clock-maker. In the winter of 1794 this gentleman leased his place for two years, beginning Feb. 1 of that year, to Robert Blair 4th, who was a cardboard maker.* It thus appears that there were two or three houses and barns on this corner, of which every trace has long since passed away, with their every tradition. In May of this same year Robert Blair sold to Att- water all his possessions on these corners. They included three houses and two barns on and below the corner between the main and Granville roads, and "a store across the way." These three houses and other build- ings, it would appear, Robert Blair, inn- keeper, was instrumental in putting up. But just exactly where the tavern was, or * The property is thus described: "my (White's) present dwelling house situate five rods Easterly of Robert Blair Jr. present dwelling House with all the privileges thereunto belonging with the Garden ad- joining East and North of said house and all its privileges." V. Vol. 31, p. 753, Springfield Registry. As the roads here run diago- nally to the four cardinal points, the phraseology is a little blind. The "five rods Easterly of Robert Blair Jr." may indicate the Hatch tavern on the opposite corner, in which case the garden spoken of would be situate to the southeast and northeast of the house — its natural position. Eight days previous to this lease, Robert Blair gave a mortgage of his "dwelling house, barn and all other build- ings." Vol. 32, p. 682 165 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES where the taverns were, in all these years, it seems impossible to say. William Thomp- son preceded the Blairs in holding real estate on this corner, and he maintained a license in 1785, not improbably hereabout. Russell Attwater was not strictly an inn- holder, but a licensed retail dealer. Never- theless, he may not inappropriately find mention here. He was a man of large busi- ness capacity, amassed a fortune, and finally became proprietor of a western town, to use the nomenclature of the time. The town of Russell, New York, is named for him. He was a man of some education. He wrote a good letter in an easy hand. He was largely influential in the affairs of this town while he was here. Like Justus Ashmun, he be- came a squire. He acquired the military title of Major, and was promoted to the full enjoyment of town honors such as were usually bestowed on men of his class. His purchase of Timothy Hatch's house near the old corner tavern has been noticed. His conveyances of real estate, as buyer and seller, run into the scores. Obliged at first to mortgage his property heavily, he cleared 166 THE NEW ARISTOCRACY away such incumbrances and loaned money somewhat largely on local real estate, and these dealings had chiefly to do with property in that part of the village where Timothy Hatch had preceded him by a little. Par- ticularly, he operated in three of the four corners where the Hatches also so largely invested, the one corner which he seemed to let alone being the house on the high bank opposite the tavern. We found Robert Blair, in 1785, ensconsed in the little house down the road, where Hatch first kept tavern. In 1794, Robert Blair, Jr., sold this property to Rufus Blair. Now Rufus was also an innholder. He had a retailer's license in 1785, and an innholder 's in 1791; sometimes one and sometimes the other until, and including, 1794. It looks as if this little house had been continuously a place of entertainment, or lodging, or both, from the time that Timothy Hatch bought it. Samuel Porter purchased this property in 1790. But he also owned a house near that of Judah Bement, and in 1794, bought a little more land adjoining it, fronting six rods "on the great road," 1.67 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES and two rods deep, about the same time also mortgaging his other property back to Rufus Blair. Thelatter's license expired in 1794, and Porter began in the year following. There is an old tavern sign, even yet in good preservation, with date, 1795, upon the top, and bearing the legend, "Potters Inn." Behind these words can be read in fainter lettering, "Rufus Blair." Porter was evidently Blair's successor in the business, and bought the same. The sign is a precious relic, the only one of the kind out of scores that first and last must have swung over the turnpikes and thoroughfares of Bland- ford. It is interesting as illustrating the attempt at artistic and patriotic appeal to the wayfarer in its decoration. On either side of the swinging sign, in the centre, is an American flag, but devoid of the field of stars, the flag being overlaid, on one face of the sign, with a representation of an anchor and cable. The indications seem to be that Rufus Blair conducted business at his place down the road, while his successor joined the march of progress, moving up into the new 168 THE NEW ARISTOCRACY and growing neighborhood. It is worthy of further remark that Samuel Porter bears the title, in the county records, of "bb D." When he bought the strip of ground of his blacksmith neighbor, it was accompanied with the prohibition on the part of the grantor, during the life of the said "Beament," to sell the same to any one by occupation a blacksmith. * Judah Bement had his home and shop on the southwest side of the road, to the north or west of the present library. f He was on the same spot as early as 1761, and in all those years following had been pursuing a career of honest industry and solid worth, without much noise. There were other Bements, possibly brothers of Judah, but they were not as permanent as he. Judah hammered away at his anvil without feverish ambition, and seems to have emulated the career of such an one as Longfellow's village smith. In the '70s he was selectman for five successive terms, and for six years town * Attwater's license, if we may trust the county records, was not con- tinuous, and Porter's license just fills the gap. It suggests the query whether there was some contract between the two. t There is a depression still in the orchard, near the street, on the grounds of the Glasgow Hall, recently the estate of the late Lewis Parks. 169 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES clerk, his hands on the records betraying the fact that his education was chiefly ob- tained in the great school of life. He was tithingman one year, and had the honor to serve on the first committee of inspection and safety. Having won his own self respect and that of his fellow citizens, he was content to stay by his anvil. Peace be to his memory. Solomon Noble, who has already joined the group of promoters in innholding, claims a larger attention than has yet been paid to him. He kept at his business of black- smithing long after he began running a tavern, which covered the years, according to record, 1800 to 1809, with the apparent exception of 1808. The large acreage of farm lands which he acquired in the fivc- hundred-acre lots 45 and 48, in the southeast part of town, failed to present permanent attraction to him. These at one time and another he largely disposed of. Indeed, like Timothy Hatch and the Blairs, he was not long at a time in the same spot. In 1796 he acquired the Hatch tavern on the corner, and years after he had ceased to live there he continued to call it his "Tavern Farm or 170 THE NEW ARISTOCRACY Homelot." Without doubt he hung his sign out there. There is documentary evidence of his living there in 1802. Not any of the deeds speak of him as an innholder, but they do, almost to the last, refer to him as "Solomon Noble Blacksmith." There are to this day, under the soil close by the house, black- smith's cinders. He dabbled in property around this corner awhile, only to dispose of it, then began exploiting real estate on both sides of the road north of the meeting- house in half a dozen different lots, near and remote, including the Sloper farm and the Upson farm — that is, lot 12, and the Cannon farm, or lot 13. This last was just to the north of the old "Gore lane," or "Gore road;" not the road now bearing that name, but one long since abandoned, extending in a westerly direction between lots 12 and 13, opposite the parade ground. This was in 1805, and there he made his home for awhile and had his shop. It would seem, too, that his tavern must have been there so long as he lived on that lot. The Sloper house did not come into his possession until several years later. Solomon Noble's in- 171 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES fluence was considerable during the years of his activity in the village. The transformation into a parsonage of the old Hatch and Noble tavern, on the corner of the road to the second division, has already been alluded to. That was in 1806. Mr. Keep cut down most of the trees in the orchard, for the cider which ministered to conviviality in the tavern was to be no more in the parsonage. It is said that when Rev. Dorus Clarke succeeded Mr. Keep, he still further reduced the orchard. Already, on the opposite side, in the Hatch house high up on the terrace, a doctor, Joseph B. Elmore, had located, but not for long, for he had come and gone before Mr. Keep arrived to sanctify by his personality the tavern stand, and the doctor's house was then in possession of Paul and Barnabas Whitney, '"Traders." On the southeast corner* were Moses and Enos Bunnell. The former was a merchant, and had a retailer's license in 1804 and the year following. The business may not im- probably have been done in "the store across the way." The kaleidoscopic changes which character- * Now occupied in summer by Dr. Plumb Brown. 172 THE NEW ARISTOCRACY ized ownership in real estate in this newer and fast evolving community are too many to record in this narrative, already encum- bered with details. Store business rapidly followed the rise of the tavern. The mer- chant in those days could hardly do business without a license to sell the inevitable strong drink. Nathaniel P. Little, one of the pio- neers of the Scioto company, in 1802 bought and almost immediately sold a store on the corner of the West Granville road.* Little appears to have had no license. Russell Attwater kept store in several locations in the new village. He was licensed for about a dozen years. One of his stores was on or near the site of the present library. An- other was on the opposite side, where the village store has been for now many years. He was succeeded by William Ashley for a time, then came Lyman and Collins. Joseph Bull was also on the southerly location for a number of years. Amos M. Collins was a man of large business capacity and immense influence in the town. His retailer's license ran from 1810 to 1817 inclusive. Joseph * This store appears to have been located in the lot containing the former home of Rev. James Morton, and opposite the present house of Mrs. Elisha Shepard. 173 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES Bull preceded hm by a few years, having both innholder's and retailer's licenses, and left a record of great activity. The Bradleys — John and George and James and Thomas, — in combinations of partnership continually changing, kept affairs from stagnating on the west of the Keep parsonage; then Luther Laflin came in, buying this property, as also that still farther west, succeeding to Lyman and Collins. These are to be included in the all-embracing fraternity. The magnifi- cent Laflin elm is still with us, scarred by fire but yet a grateful ornament to the street. After Luther Laflin was Linus B. Barnes whose retailer's license began in 1832. Farther up the street, and just below the corner tavern, was Orrin Sage, who also had taken a part in the metamorphoses of the Bradley business. This gentleman carried a retailer's license from 1811 to 1833. These later business men, who did so much to build the town in the prosperous years of the early nineteenth century, deserve much more extended notice, but belong more fit- tingly in another story than that which occupies these pages. 174 THE NEW ARISTOCRACY The new life of this young village became further augmented by a physician who is worthy of a name with the very first, though he came after the early development was no longer a prophecy, but an accomplishment — Eli Hall, who, with Luke, perhaps a brother, bought land on the southerly side of the street as early as 1807, and built a house in 1820.* He held a retailer's license in 1810 and '11 and Luke continued it in 1812, apparently in the old corner tavern; for when the Episcopal society in that year met in annual conclave, their place of assemblage was described as at the school-house "near Luke Hall's Inn." The Doctor was a man of ability, high standing and worth, was a staunch supporter and trusted helper of Rev. John Keep in the church, and later be- came active in the temperance reform. That section of the old town street which ran from the burying-ground southward claims a reminiscent visit from the student of historic Blandford. In part the story of it attaches to that of the preceding chapter, but in part also to this one. It was really * Now Glasgow hall. 175 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES a spur from each street and seemed itself to hesitate as to which it should belong to when the time of decision came. In the early days it was a much busier and more promis- ing location than its modern appearance of sleepiness remotely suggests. There was a time when the business men of the new village seemed to look to it as warranting development. For years it was in part the road to the mill. Dr. Robert King lived there for nearly a generation. Justus Ash- mun diligently acquired real estate on the west side of the road, buying it piece by piece. Russell Attwater, Thomas Bradley, Orrin Sage, Benjamin Scott, James and William Watson and others, all business men, went in there at or near the beginning of the nineteenth century, seeming to expect a business future before that part of town. Nathaniel P. Little, the Ohio pioneer, had a store on the corner. It requires but a small makeweight to turn the scale when in unstable equilibrium. That casting weight was gradually thrown to the east instead of to the south, of Rev. James Morton's corner. 176 THE NEW ARISTOCRACY The road had been originally laid out coincident with the division line between the two tiers of first division home lots, but had to be shifted somewhat irregularly to the westward in order to avoid the ravine and brook running through it. The road is now spoken of sometimes as the Falls road. A very early town lay-out of the road was on this wise: "Put to voat to see if the Town will Establish the Road South of the meeting hous beginning at the Northwest Corner of the Rev. m r mortons ortcherd as the road now Gos to the west end of the wido Hamil- tons House from thence as the road now Goes through will™ Provans Land from thence as the Rood now Gos through the Land of James Campbls from thence through James & Robert M' Gomarys Land Said Rood to be three Roods wid" Furthermore: "Put to voat to see if the Town will Grant to the Persons above Named three Roods of Land Laid out for a Rood at the East end of the Said Pased in the Positive" "Wido Hamilton," mentioned in this instrument, claims our attention, for she had 177 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES an innkeeper's license, as did her husband Armour Hamilton before her, in the lot ad- joining Mr. Morton's to the south. As early as 1742, possibly earlier, he received a license as innkeeper "in the House where he now dwells," to quote the record of the court of general sessions. That license was annually renewed until his death in 1748, or a little before. After that his wife Agnes continued the business for a few years. They owned a lot in the eastern section of the second division.* But the movement of travel and business was not there, so they located on their first division lot. There is repeated documentary evidence of "widow Hamilton" living there down to the year 1778. But all traditions of the place and the people have been covered up with the overgrowing of the cellar hole by the sod cropped for generations by the unconscious kine. If Armour Hamilton occupied a humble place in the life of the infant town, he was yet a respected and trusted citizen. He served on a committee to build the pound, in 1748, and the same year he or James Cald- * East of the present home of L. C. Nye and Son. 178 THE NEW ARISTOCRACY well, according as either of them might be "going to Boston upon their Busnes," was to negotiate with the presbytery there for a minister for the people. One wants to know more about this place of public entertain- ment in those days of beginnings, but the volume is closed which has grudgingly yielded this bit or two of documentary record, and affords not the trace of a tradition besides, unless one may reckon in the inventory, which is dated 1748: a blue Coat at £ 12 a Coulter & Share 1-10 a red Jacket 1 a Cops (Caps?) -10 a green Coat 4 Pewter 9- 8 a Gun 14 Knives & forks -15 a horse 40 Saddle 3 Hollowware 6 a black Cow 25 Drinking Glasses -15 a fore Cow (farrow) 25 Case & Bottles 2-10 a black Heifer 14 Harrow Teeth 1-10 a year 8 a brass Kettle 4- 0-0 a black Calf 5-10 a Pot 2- a little 1-10 Frying Pan -15 a brown 4-10 Pails 1 a 60 acre Lot 70 Wooden Dishes -13-4 Horse Traces 1-10 Barrels 2-12 a Spade 1 Churn - 5 a Gun 4-10 Wheels 1-10 Stillyards 1- 5 areel - 5- Axes 1 Chairs -16- Hoes 15 Bed & Clothing 13-10 a chain 1-15 7- 5 Tramil 2 " " " 7-10 Tongs 2 Sheep 9-15 a Bed 2 Hogs 32 Fine Cloth 23 Chest of Drawers 5 Coarse Cloth 26 Table 1- 6 Wool 3- 8 Three Glass Bottles - 6 Woolen yarn 4 3 Chairs - 6 Linen yarn 2- 9 Coin (.Corn?) 3 Hay 40 Wheat 3-10 Beef 10 Scythes 1- 2 (?) 2- 5 Hay fork - 8 Pease 1-10 Tallow - 9 Turnips 2- 2 Square -16 Homelot & Buildings 500 a Hamer & axe -1 - Fire Slice 1 Andirons 3 179 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES It is all a typical outfit for a primitive Blandford home of the thrifty sort, with little to suggest the wayside inn unless it be the "Case & Bottles" and the "Drinking Glasses." We do not read of town meeting adjournments there. Altogether it would seem to have been just a simple neighbor- hood resort, with those liquid appurtenances which the people of the time universally considered as natural and necessary. In 1771, this road was somewhat minutely described in a county lay-out. On the course from Granville, after crossing "Pebbles brook," it was described as extending "to a great Rock in the middle of the River." Then climbing the steep hill, it ran "by Robert Montgomery's fence to a heap of Stones near a path in the field about 7 rods west of Montgomery's house," then "North 42 perch to a great red oak six rods west of James Montgomery's." The first Montgomery named lived on the lot first settled by Hugh Black.* James occupied the next lot to the north. Not long after * Now and long since known as the Osborne place. 180 THE NEW ARISTOCRACY this, Robert Montgomery sold out his posses- sions there and moved up to Beech hill, where he was living in the eighties and carried on a retail license, assisting thus in all probability in building up the reputa- tion of the Devil's Half-acre. James Mont- gomery had bought his lot in 1761 of Samuel Stewart who had an innholder's license in 1759. This is all that seems to be known of Stewart, but even so, it is another straw to indicate that business was once there. The next landmark in the lay-out of this county road is a heap of "Stones on a Rock at the End of Campbell's Lane." That, it would appear, was the "road to the mill," otherwise so called. The mill was in the hollow, but the miller chose to live nearer the village. About one hundred rods farther north was a landmark in the road "4 rods east of Provin's house." That was James Provin. Robert King settled on it about ten years after and lived there about twenty years, until his death.* The next house to the north was "Widow Mercy Provin's house in the path," and the road ran three rods * The place is now part of the farm of H. K. Herrick. 181 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES east of it. Next was mentioned "Widow Campbell," whose house was four rods east of the road, which soon terminated at "a Heap of Stones by a Stump by Berkshire Road about 2 or 3 rods from the corner of Mr. Morton's fence thirty or forty rods South of Blanford meeting House." Most of these homesteads and landmarks are not so much as a dim memory today. A few years ago, while workmen were digging a cellar for a modern cottage on this old road, a part of a gravestone was uncovered and then built into the wall. "We bring our years to an end as a sigh."* Into the lower village, then, little by little, always around the personality and tap-room of the innholder or licensed retailer, there was gathered a community of resource and wealth, of poverty, too, and sorrow, but withal a typical community of the olden time. The politician and lawyer came with him. There was as much politics to the square rod in and about these taverns of generations gone as anywhere on earth, but the low whisperings and strident voices * Psalm xc. 9b, American Revised Version. 182 THE NEW ARISTOCRACY alike are all hushed, and their particular emergence, except as results of town elec- tions and the like may reveal, has become one with all other content of oblivion. But the newer aristocracy of the newer village became at last the focus of municipal life. Tradition is hard to change, and at least until the nineteenth century, and I know not for how much longer, the old original highway which separated the first division lots by a north and south line continued to be known as the street. The road which claimed the newer village bulked large in the business and imagination of the people. More and more it cast into shadow the other road, or street. This ' 'great road leading from Blandford to Westfield,' 1 or "from Boston to the meeting houce in Blandford" (to quote from the deeds) waxed greater, though it did not in that generation assume the name which the old aristocracy had given to the original artery of town traffic. Later, when the old "town street" was thought of as an inter-town thoroughfare, or as inter-state highway, it was designated as "the County Road running thro' said 183 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES Town to Becket," or as "the No. 4 Road," or even as "the Albany road." There were the first and ever popular "homelots;" there was the meeting-house, and by and by there was a second sanctuary. Taverns there were in plenty, some stores, the pound, the parade ground. New homes and other taverns were yet to come, and a legacy of life was still theirs. But from the time that Pease sold to Ashmun and to Hatch, and the latter with the Blairs began to build and operate, and these all, with post office and stores and other men of large affairs, clung to the new location, the prestige of the upper and more northerly village began to wane. And the determining factor in it all was the tavern; not the meeting-house, for that remained, or, when it was abandoned for a better, the new one rose near its site. The tavern was the pioneer. Its proprietors were men of the church, these landlords, almost without exception, and men of public spirit, men of enterprise and far sight. The old street did not yield up its leadership without putting up a stiff competition for many years. But one by one its taverns faded 184 Z f o w s . O J J J O D THE NEW ARISTOCRACY away, its stores became closed, and most of its houses crumbled into the cellar or fed the devouring flames, leaving too few land- marks of the days that are no more. Much of similar fate has attended the modern village too, but so far as Blandford has a centre, so far as it focuses life in an approach to business and society, it is still where the pioneers of the newer taverns chose to locate it. 185 Chapter Seven Beech Hill THE name of Jedediah Smith was one to conjure by in the time of the first two presidents. Jedediah the elder, graduate of Yale in 1750, minister in the town of Granville shortly after, a Tory, dismissed from his charge in 1776, departed for Natchez as a missionary. He took his family with him except the son who was his namesake. The father died from the effects of malarial fever in the very year of his de- parture for the South. Already, some years before leaving Granville, he had bought large areas in Blandford, including the farm con- veyed by the father to the son in 1772, on which the latter built his home. That was on Beech hill, far-famed among the knowing ones thereabout, whether in social, ecclesi- astical or legal history. Across the street from the present house, itself very old, there is a little oblong hollow, the only remaining vestige of the original log home. A little way to the north another and larger house, BEECH HILL now a shapeless mass of wreckage, was built for or by a son of Jedediah the younger. Beech hill is a wide-spreading, rolling plateau, four miles south of the village of Blandford, partly within that township and partly within the precincts of Granville, though distant also from the centre of that town. It obtained its name from the trees which predominated in the forests of that region, and the land when cleared yielded abundant crops. In the days when New Englanders loved the hilltops it was an ideal location for a community. Its single drawback was the fact that an invisible line divided it into a double jurisdiction, and while meeting- house, school- house and court-house all thronged with life for a generation, it could not withstand permanently the pull from the north and the south to post offices and village life. Had original town lines been differently blocked out, Beech hill would today be crowned with an old-time meeting- house and the lingering, sleepy dignity of a venerable New England town. There is nothing to indicate that Jedediah Smith was ever proprietor of a tavern. But 187 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES he was intimately associated with the tavern constituency, his entire career having been bound together with it both directly and indirectly. His business activities were di- verse and far-reaching. Farmer, lumberman, cider-maker, distiller, gentleman and judge, he was a chief functionary in the life of the town. He was several times selectman of the town of Blandford, once at least tithing- man, and for many years judge of district court which sat in his house. He repre- sented the town at the General Court in 1795 and 1796. It seems a little queer to read in "Jedediah Smith His Account Book" the sales of large quantities of brandy and "brandy in the spirit" — a highly distilled liquor and sold at a higher price than the other article — and then turn to his court docket and read the entries of trial and conviction for crimes and misdemeanors which must have been due in part to the sale and use of that very spirit. Such, however, were the times, and Squire Smith was only one, and not an ex- ceptional, exponent of them. Rev. James Morton, according to a credible tradition, BEECH HILL distilled, after his retirement, hundreds of hogsheads of cider brandy. Squire Smith kept a "brandy book" which is not now in evidence, though references to it are. He also kept a "Docket or Book of Entries." This, together with his account book, reveals a marvellous amount of legal business done by him in the early years of the nineteenth century. We find him closely associated with other justices in town and with the lawyers of local residence, one of whom at least won a national reputation. The tavern business is prominent in all these records. Cash was hard to get, accounts ran up, balances had to be struck, embarrassments arose, passion mingled with drink and in- flamed by it precipitated a crisis, then followed the appeal to court, perhaps after violence had ensued and when to the civil claim a criminal charge was finally added. In the account book stands a list of suits carried before him in the year 1703 by Eli P. Ashmun, numbering not less than sixty. There is a bunch of execution papers among the documents left by this country squire, bearing date of 1810, to the number of 189 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES seventy-four. Nearly every one of them represents a Blandford litigant on one side or the other. Similar records are left of other years, and legal records of the first third of the eighteenth century, still treasured in the old homestead of Squire Smith, are measured literally by the bushel. A few of the papers of 1810 were issued by other local judges, but only a few. When Asa Smith was plain- tiff, as he was in two cases, the trial was under Eleazer Slocum, the one-time proprietor of the corner tavern. David Boies presided on the bench in three or four of the cases. But nearly all went to Beech hill. Of the plaintiffs the tavern men or licensed retailers were in the majority. Eleazer Slo- cum figured in this capacity once; Benjamin Scott or the administrators of his estate, seven times, John Lloyd and Job Almy each four times, Joseph Bull five times, Asahel Lyman, "Trader," twelve times, and Fred- erick J. Redfield, "Trader," quoted as some- times of Middletown, Conn., and sometimes of Blandford, eleven times. I have not dis- covered the licenses of these last two, but the designation of "trader" almost proves it. 190 BEECH HILL Three Blandford men appear as particularly unfortunate in the role of defendants in this year of grace 1810. Reuben Parks was the victim of no less than seven prosecutions, at the hands of Eleazer Slocum, Samuel Boies, Frederick J. Redfield, Job Almy, Asahel Lyman and Elias Hayden. Heman Leonard, a clothier, who lived and ran a factory just below where of late years Peebles' mills have been, had five executions served upon him; Dr. Nathan Blair five also, two by Benjamin Scott or his administrators, one by Joseph Bull, one by Asahel Lyman, one by Elias Hayden. Solomon Brown, in a suit entered by Job Almy, was adjudged a debtor for eighty dollars, and not finding wherewith to pay, and wishing to escape imprisonment for debt, left for parts un- known. A dozen of these suits were to re- claim less than two dollars each; one was a pursuit of 87 cents and another of 89 cents. One or two were yielded in part by the creditor. Without doubt many of these were criminal suits, but the execution papers give the student no hint of distinction between them. 191 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES More enlightening as well as more interest- ing is the single volume of dockets, or book of entries of Squire Smith which has sur- vived the wrecks of time. It exposes to view the seamy side of tavern life in Blandford. Assaults were frequent. All kinds of mis- demeanors which could possibly be con- strued to fall under the ban of the law, — since the opportunity for litigation was easy, and drink inflamed the passions, — were dragged into the Beech hill court. It was the fashion to complain of one another's sins; and as it was easy to run up costs of prosecution, it was not unusual for the offender, foreseeing his danger, to complain of himself, thus saving something of the expense of indictment and trial. Weakness, passion, fear and revenge all played their part, as they do now, and very far more than they do now, at least in country towns. It gives a strong encouragement to optimism for one thoughtfully to study such a docu- ment as the docket of Jcdediah Smith, con- trasting the condition of society then re- vealed, with that at the present, far as the latter may be from the ideal. We will review 192 Road on Beech Hill BEECH HILL the entries for a little, and for the purpose of exactness and truth in proportion, take up the items in order as recorded. (1) April 13, 1802. "Noah Farnum 2 d Came before me Jedediah Smith .... and Confessed that he had broken the Peace by Laboring on the Lords day at boiling maple Shugar on the fourth day of April." Adjudged guilty and fined. * The second entry is now passed over for extended remark later. (3) Joseph Crawford of Western com- plains against "Solomon Noble, Ebenezer Kennedy Enos Bunel and John Cochran Junr, all of Blandford," for assault on Feb. 4. Warrant drawn by Russell Attwater. Kenedy pleaded guilty, the rest not guilty. Kenedy and Cochran were declared guilty, the former being fined $3.33, the latter $1.00 and costs. (4) Feb. 7, 1803. Joseph Crawford was fined 67 cents for "Swearing one profane Oath". The witnesses were Solomon Noble and Martin Cannon. (5) May 8, 1803. Horace Harrison of Granville complained of himself that "on the third day of February 1803 with force and * Amount obscure 193 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES arms (he) did Sell and Dispose of five Gallons of Cider brandy to John Lloyd not having license as the Law Directs to sell the same." Fined $6.67. (6) July 9, 1803. Henry Kenedy and Henry Hinds, both of Blandford, fined $3.33 and $2.00 respectively, on complaint of Aaron Fish of Westfield, for assault. Eli P. Ash- mun, prosecuting attorney. (7) Nov. 12, 1803. Thomas Pelton, on complaint of Nathaniel Haley of Blandford, for assault, pleading guilty, was fined $2.50 and costs. (8) Omitted by error, or error in original document. (9) April 20, 1804. Charles Robinson of Granville complains of Nathaniel Haley that "the Said Nathaniel Haley of Granville at Blandford did profanely Swear in the words following to wit By God and Repeated the Same words By God ten times which is Contrary to law &c." Haley fined $2.50 and costs. (10) June 24, 1804. Thomas Moor of Blandford fined for offence similar to last named, same amount. 194 BEECH HILL (11) July 7, 1804. James Lloyd com- plains against himself of an assault on James Lloyd 2 nd . Fined $2.00 and costs. (12) Sept. 11, 1804. James Balow of Granville complains that "William Griffin of Blandford in Said County yeoman did With force and armes being a Traveller Travel on Said (the Lord's) Day With his Carrage on the highway Leading from Gran- ville to Blandford in the East Parish of Said Granville and being Called upon to Give a reason or Cause for travailing by Said James totally refused & made no Answer the same not being from Necesety or Charity which is Contrary to Law." Defendent pleads guilty "in part," "towit for traveling." Fined $4.00 and costs. (13) William Boies complains of himself that on October 2 "in and upon the body of Duty Underwood (he) Did then and there with force and arms an Assault did make and him the Said Duty did beat and Evilly Treat and Other injuries to the Said Duty then and there did in Evil Example to others in like kind to offend." Fined $1.50 and costs. Duty Underwood was bartender at 195 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES the Baird tavern — later the Bartholomew house. ( 14) Case of adultery. (15) Jan. 11,1805. John Upson Jr. and Daniel Upson charged with forgery and coun- terfeiting. Discharged as probably not guilty. (16) Jared W. Knowlton charges that Daniel Upson assaulted William Knowlton. Defendant fined $1.00 and costs. (17) April 29, 1805. Dudley Williams of Russell complains of Samuel Bull for traveling on the Lord's day. Not guilty. ( 18) John Bacons gives bonds to indem- nify the town "harmless from all Charges that might Arise on Account of the Child Sworn upon him." ( 19) Barnabas Whitney of Blandford com- plains of assault by William Perkins. De- fendant fined $1.00 and costs. (20) July 27, 1805. James King of Bland- ford complains that Benjamin W. Robbins of Westfield "at Blandford with force and arms to wit with Scythes & Sickles an Assault did make in and upon the body of one Curtis Knox of Said Blandford." Defendant fined $3.33 and costs. 196 BEECH HILL (21) Aug. 28, 1805. "Cyrus Minor Titus Knox Chester Clark and Stephen Carnahan all of Blandford aforesaid Labourers on the twenty fifth day of August Instant being the Lords day at Russell in Said County with force and arms did Goe into the river in Said Russell to recreate themselves and Swam in the water all which is against the peace and Dignity of this Commonwealth." Fined $4.00 each. (22) The next day Daniel Upsan went before the judge and entered complaint of himself as having done likewise. Fined similarly. (23) Oct. 5, 1805. John G. Wilson of Blandford, blacksmith, complains in warrant by John Phelps, Esq., that Robert Cannon made "an Assault upon the body of your Complainant and him your Complainant with his fist Gun Club Stone ax Stick Beat wound Bruise Smit Struck him the Said John G being in the peace of God and this Common- wealth." Not guilty. (24) Nov. 16, 1805. Ansan Boies of Blandford, "Student in Physic," complains of "John Blair the third," in warrant by Eli P. Ashmun, Esq., that the defendant "having 197 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES arrived at discretion did profanely Curs in the words following to wit God damn you." Also at another time in the words, "by God." Blair fined $1.75 for first offense, and 25 cents for the second, and costs. (25) Nov. 16, 1805. Ajax Whitney of Blandford complains of "John Blair the third" under warrant by Eli P. Ashmun, Esq., of assault. Blair fined $1.00 and costs. (26) Nov. 16, 1805. Barnard Shepard of Blandford complains of John Blair the Third of assault. Blair fined $3.33 and costs. (27) Same date. Barnard Shepard com- plains of John Blair Third, in warrant by Eli P. Ashmun, Esq., that on Oct. 15 "the Said John did then and there with like force & arms beat bruise and illy treat and the Said John then and there with like force and arms the horse of the Said Barnard being thereon riding did whip frighten and Scare and did then and there threaten the Said Barnard with Great Bodily harm." Blair fined $3.00 and costs. (28) Assault case: Chester and Norwich parties. (29) "Hampshire Ss. 198 BEECH HILL "Be it Remembered that on the twentieth day of December in the Year of our Lord one Thousand Eight hundred and Six Joseph B Elmore Was Convicted Before me .... of Swearing Six profane Oaths and of Utter- ing four profane Curses Given under my hand the day and year aforesaid Jedediah Smith Justice of the Peace" "fined $1.75 twenty five for 9 others $2.25 4.00 Costs of Court and Paid Over Taxed at 6.00 10.00" Dr. Elmore, it may be remembered, was physician in the new village. (3 0) Similar to (29) , Harvey Peebles be- ing defendant. Charge, Swearing three pro- fane Oaths and uttering three profane Curses, "for the first Oath $2.00 for the second Oath 0.50 for the third Oath 0.25 199 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES for three Curses 2 5 Each 0.75 3.50 Costs of Court Taxed at 7.89 and Paid Over Jedediah Smith Justice of the Peace" (31) Omitted in docket. (32) March 16, 1807. Thomas Barnard of Blandford complains of assault by Harvey and Eunice Peebles, "to wit with Guns & pistols did beat bruise & Evil Treat to the Great Damage of the Said Thomas" etc. Bound in $60 to recognize in higher court. Declines, and is committed "to our Goal in Northampton." (33, 34, 35.) Bondsmen, witnesses etc. se- cured in case of Commonwealth vs. Harvey Peebles; Harvey bound in $2,000 and sure- ties in $1000 each. (36) Dec. 19, 1807. Suit between parties in Montgomery and Russell. (37) March 18, 1870. Duty Underwood "upon Oath Saith that Nathan Blair of Said Blandford Physician at Said Blandford on the Seventeenth day of March Current with force & arms to wit with shovels & knives 200 2 ffi -1 x 5 « BEECH HILL an assault did make in & upon the Body of the said Duty the Said Nathan did then & there with force and arms as aforesaid beat Strike bruise Stab & wound & illy treat & Other Enormities the Said Nathan then and there did & Committed against the peace and Dignity of this Commonwealth." De- fendant fined $3.00 and costs. Dr. Nathan Blair was one of the doctors of the old aris- tocracy. (38) April 16, 1808. Duty Underwood pleads guilty to an assault upon Reuben Blair, "with Stick and fists" and is fined $3.00 and costs. A memorandum of May 7, 1808, makes record of further offenses by Harvey Peebles, the complainants being John and Francis Peebles of Granville. Harvey Peebles had on divers occasions "Threatened the Said John and Francis that he would by fire Destroy them meaning as your Complainants Veryly believes that he would in the Night time burn the Houses of your complainants & burn them and their families therein." The court is asked to require "Securities of the Peace and good behaviour." He is re- 201 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES quired to recognize in the sum of $500 with two or more sureties in the same sum, to appear at the Supreme Judicial Court at Northampton. It may be of incidental interest to quote the "Bill of Cost in the Suit the Common- wealth vs Harvey Peebles" ' ' Justices f eese $1.25 Simeon Morgan Officer fees Service 30 Summoning five Witness 50 Travil 3 2 Keeping prisener 10 hours 62 Witness John Peebles attend one day 33 Travel 8 miles 32 Francis Peebles att one day 33 Travil 8 miles 32 Archibald Peebles att 1 day 33 Travil 8 miles 32 Rufus Peebles att 1 day 33 Travil 6 miles 24 Joel Peebles att 1 day 33 Travil 8 miles 32 6.16" There are other scattering notes in this book of entries, but these abundantly illus- 202 i BEECH HILL trate the character of the whole, so far as the criminal docket is concerned. As for civil suits, they very far outnumbered the criminal cases, and were almost uniformly for small sums, often for less than one dollar. In Jedediah Smith's account book there is a running account covering several years with Eli P. Ashmun, attorney. In the year 1803 there are no less than sixty-one entries rep- resenting as many suits with which this able attorney had to do as prosecutor, himself being plaintiff in eleven of the cases. There is a similar account with Alanson Knox in 1804. The universal liquor habit and the easy facilities for litigation were a combination readily provocative of quarrelsomeness. When the Butler family moved to Beech hill from Connecticut, a few years later than the legal entries just recounted, they had to con- front this condition of things. "The people were many of them ignorant and quarrel- some," wrote Rev. Daniel Butler in a private paper of family reminiscences, "jealous of strangers and regarding them as enemies or victims. For several years," he said, his 203 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES father "was subjected to petty lawsuits by the Smiths and Lloyds till they found they could not be driven. The character of the neighborhood gained for it the name of the Devil's Half-acre." Had this family located in a different neighborhood the special odium which the above remark seems to cast upon two honorable names in the town history might have attached to others instead, for the records as cited prove plainly enough that such a spirit was quite too common all over town. Some of the town physicians were chief fomentors of strife, as the above records bear witness. Among these petty — often amusing — neighborhood quarrels is the following, as of record : "I Alexander Lloyd of Blandford do hereby Certify that I have been the procurer and Publisher of a Libel against George Smith of Said Blandford and Said Libel is as follows Marriage Intended between Mr George Smith of Blandford & Mrs Janny Peebles of Granville January 4th 1804 D Card Town Clerk 204 BEECH HILL Which Publishment I Confess is A Libel and I am Sorry & A Shaimed of it, in Witness whereof I have Set my hand and will that this Should be made as Public as I made the Libel this 22 rf day of December AD 1803 Alexander Lloyd Orrin D. Squire" There is another tradition connected with the Devil's Half-acre. The name now at- taches only to a small plot of ground just below the old Butler house, to the east. There was a school- house on this half -acre, where Methodist meetings were often held. The unsanctified boys of the neighborhood contributed to these their offering— -of dis- turbance rather than devotion, and from the pranks of these boys arid youth the other tradition of the name of this locality has proceeded. It is recorded in the docket of Squire Smith, on complaint of Philip Phelps of Blandford, July 15, 1802, that Rhodolphus Bancroft of Granville, on the fourth day of the month then current, "with force and arms did willfully interrupt and disturb an assembly of people then and there meet for the public worship of God in Evil Example 205 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES to others in like mind to offend against the Peace and dignity of the Said Common- wealth." The glorious Fourth had no claims in extenuation of noise by young America, when others thought the day to be best observed by prayer and praise. Rhodolphus paid one dollar and costs for his indiscretion, the costs being listed on this wise : " Travel 12 miles at 4 Cents 48 Summoning one witness 10 officers attendance 4 hours 32" It is not said that this awful desecration oc- curred in the school-house on Devil's Half- acre, but the Bancrofts lived near there, and the witness may well have been, though living six miles away, like Bancroft himself, a devout Methodist who thought it worth while to bear witness to the superior sanctity of praise over powder on the Fourth of July. No neighborhood in the country round about is to-day more respectable than Beech hill. Even in the ancient time it certainly stood not alone in respect of occasional law- lessness and disturbance of the peace. Many an ancient cellar hole, now well-nigh concealed, or perchance with tall Lombardy poplars 206 BEECH HILL still standing near, bears witness to a once thrifty and populous condition on that high and wide table-land. Even to-day in its loneliness and isolation it is not without its well tilled fields while a wealth of memories join the living present with the silent past. Up beyond the Devil's Half-acre a mile or so, just across the town boundary in Gran- ville, is the spot, recently marked by a bronze tablet set in the face of a bowlder, whither, in the spring of 1797, Rev. Daniel Bromley drew the timbers for the Beech hill Methodist Episcopal church of the Granville circuit — that church famous in the annals of Massa- chusetts Methodism. Notable gatherings and preachers never to be forgotten were there, as decade after decade the house aged, the population waxed and waned, until the build- ing, having stood nigh unto a century, went down. Only a little way back across the town boundary, in Blandford, stands the house built in those old days by that doughty Presbyterian deacon, Robert Loughead, or Lloyd. His initials are cut in the imposing door-plate on which the latch turns, a mech- 207 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES anism wrought in iron, probably at the shop of his son John, who was a blacksmith first, then an innkeeper. The house looks young, and would bid fair to stand another century except for the fact that it occupies the fateful territory of Springfield's water system. It is a square, two-story house, the big chimney in the middle, and the inevitable box-like front hall, with crooked staircase, midway of the front, toward the street, while on the south end of the house, looking down toward the meeting-house, the corner door opens into the bar-room of yore,— for the house was a tavern. Under the paper coverings of the walls of this corner room, which is the living- room of the present occupants, are the marks of the old bar-room gate, or portcullis, and on either side of the chimney are the cup- boards where the various liquors were stored. The kitchen still has its great fireplace, nine feet wide, with brick oven and traditional paraphernalia still in well-nigh perfect preser- vation — almost the last relic of the kind left remaining in this old town of taverns. Here it was, in 1798, when the annual Methodist conference was convened in the 208 Front Stairway, Deacon Lloyd's House BEECH HILL as yet unfinished meeting-house near by, that Robert Lloyd, for want of convenient Methodist accommodations, boarded the Bishop and Rev. J. Lee. The good men felt as though they were among the Philistines. So on their departure the Rev. Lee, unwilling to have his blue Scotch Presbyterian host — and a deacon at that — knowing to the fact that his guests were paying their own way, took the silver money over to David Frost, who went and paid the bill. With such arts of worldly diplomacy was the simplicity of early Methodist piety mixed. Then the deacon's unregenerate boys were heard brag- ging over that good Methodist silver money — more acceptable by far than Methodist doc- trine. "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" To return for a moment to Benjamin Scott and his neighborhood, in the southwestern corner of the town, that gentleman headed a petition to the highway commission in 1804, a petition which was presently granted, to lay out "a new highway or Common road between the Counties of Hampshire and Berkshire near Benjamin Scotts in Blandford 209 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES & running near Jedediah Smiths in said Blandford so on by Elihu Stowes in Gran- ville to Westfield Academy." The three landmarks bulked large in the thoughts of the people. The road began "a little to the Northeast of Joseph Whitneys barn," thence proceeding, doubtless through the great swamp, in a southeasterly direction, "to the old Town road." The latter was without doubt one laid out in 1769, rather obscurely described in the town minutes, and naming "Jed'* Smith Esq" house," as a prominent landmark. The old road traverses a high table-land, with only one considerable break in the contour until Squire Smith's house is reached, a distance of about four miles from the town and county bound. From the little settlement at the westerly end of this road to the Smith house there is now but one per- manently inhabited dwelling, and the road, once swarming with busy and exciting life, is grass-grown and almost deserted. There is a little cemetery on the hill, a mile or so to the west of Beech hill, and just on the westerly borders of Beech hill itself are still standing the ancient Butler and Ripley houses, the 210 BEECH HILL latter the salt-box structure last occupied by that old veteran, Benjamin Harris. Between the houses last mentioned and the little cemetery beyond is a road running northerly at right angles to the one just described, on the dividing line between lots 26 and 29 and between 25 and 30, until it joins the old Berkshire road a quarter of a mile east of Blair pond. On the easterly side of this road John Lloyd bought a farm in 1800, and presently erected a small house which was in later years moved from its original location some rods to the north.* Other cellar holes besides the one thus left exposed are round about there, on both sides of the road, in pastures fast growing up to forest. A persistent tradition has it that John Lloyd aspired to cater to that part of the traveling public who were in search of health, and advertised as among the merits of the place a sulphur spring with healing qualities. It was said that a colored man who dug the well was cured of a sore on his leg by virtue of those waters. But the well, or spring, contained no mineral and no * It has been known of late as the Jefferson Moore place., 211 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES sulphur except what was imported into it. Traditions about John Lloyd as an innkeeper hover over various sections of Beech hill. That he did blacksmithing there is certified by sufficient and palpable records. The only license that I have discovered in his name dates from 1808 to 1811, when he had charge of the corner tavern in the village. In the olden days Blandford always had much to do with Connecticut. Both com- mercial and social attractions caused the people to gravitate southward rather than eastward or westward. On the southward journey from Blandford village Beech hill came first, then one or other of the Gran- villes. Like Blandford, that town was widely scattered, but unlike Blandford, there were three parishes in Granville, not reckoning the Beech hill Methodist church. There were the east, middle and west parishes, all Con- gregational. From the Devil's Half -acre directly southward, past Robert Lloyd's and the Beech hill Methodist meeting-house and down the southerly slope of the hill, turning westerly into a little valley, one comes to the head waters of the Granville branch of Little 212 BEECH HILL river. There is a wide-spreading meadow which the city of Springfield is about to flood with a reservoir, where stands one of Gran- ville's fine old brick residences, made of clay from the home farm. The house will soon be no more. Following down the brook once known by the classic name of Peebles' brook, but now for some unknown reason marked on the Government maps as Borden brook, one presently enters the territory of Bland- ford again. Rounding the curves of the brook, crossing the same northerly, crossing again pretty soon the other branch now known as Peebles' brook, one climbs up the steep hill to the South street heights. The old County lay-out of this road was described as crossing "Westfield little River," the second of the brooks just referred to; then climbing the hill, it passed "2 rods East of Silas Noble's," and "East on John Noble's;" "then the Causey" next, "2% rods west of Thompson's Door," by "Sinet's house" and "2 rods west of Wil m Lougheads Door." This was the East Granville road. Or the two streams may be crossed a little higher up, westerly, through similar chasms, 213 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES with a larger distance intervening between the two brooks. The ridges on either route are rugged and sightly. The upper road brings one into the village through the southernmost section of the westerly tier of first division home lots, while the other road crosses the. easterly tier. The lower route entered the village, a century ago and more, over what is now Sunset rock; the upper route connecting with the present village street just below the meeting-house hill. Both these highways were adopted as county roads as early as 1771, under the phraseology, "a County road from Granville to Blandford & from Blandford to Granville again." There was another and nearer route from Beech hill to the village. Starting again from Robert Lloyd's, coming directly down to the Devil's Half-acre, over a rolling plateau from which the meeting-house at the centre, the towering pines of the ten-acre lot and the present village including the Methodist church stand out against the sky line, the road runs along a fairly level country for nearly or quite a mile, when it dips suddenly down and yet downward to the brook which from 214 BEECH HILL the town's almost earliest existence turned out the grist and sawed the lumber of the fathers. Here in this hollow, some distance above the upper of the two other routes, the road crossed the bridge spanning the stream "near Frary's Mills," then turning to the north again, passed the mills themselves where the old Peebles' mill is now crumbling to ruin, awaiting the time when its waters shall be turned to quench the thirst and turn the motors of the "City of Homes." This too became a county road in 1802, terminating at "a stake and Stones about 30 rods South of Ashmuns barn," and was called, except that part of it lying north of Devil's Half- acre, the road "from the Meeting House in Middle Granville to the Meeting House in Blandford." It was this road, past Stowe's in Granville, past Squire Smith's and through the mill hollow, which became a part of the highway of the Eleventh Massachu- setts Turnpike Corporation.* * A part of this old road appears to be what is now remembered by some elderly people as "the skunk road." 215 Chapter Eight Social Functions of the Tavern f~\ ~~^HE tavern was the people's club. There they met together for the common exchanges of life as they assembled on Sunday for their religious exchange. There they discussed the topics of the neighborhood, chatted with strangers and travellers, asked of the stage driver the news, talked politics, and in fine did that which the modern citizen now does at the club and over his newspaper. The tavern was the common medium of exchange. Traditionally it was the general news vender. Public notices were there posted, of town meetings, of public "vandues" and everything else. Traditionally, this was so. It is a little puzzling to find the town of Blandford, in 1808, when directing its officers concerning the places where notices of town meeting should be posted, specifying only one such house, namely "at or near the house lately occupied by John Lloyd." That seems SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE TAVERN to have been on Beech hill, or at the little inn with the fake sulphur spring. The other places were the meeting-house— another tra- ditional location — the guide post near Cor- nelius Cochran in the second division, the brick school-house near Samuel C. Gibbs, and the blacksmith shop then occupied by Ezra Jackson in the west part. By 1830 the places for such notices were shifted, by public vote, to the town house, Pease's mill, the guide board in the second division near Mr. Nutt's, Lyman Gibbs's store in North Blandford, and the school-house near Mr. Eli Shepard's — not a public inn among them, though there was one licensed store. Blandford taverns had their full share of entertaining. The town was on a principal highway of through travel, whether in peace or war. There was a good deal of change going on in the population. Not a few re- turned, permanently or otherwise, to Hop- kinton. New settlers came. The town grew in population, business and wealth as soon as the wars were over. Many of the swains brought home their brides from abroad. Par- ticularly, there was a Scotch- Irish circuit of 217 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES towns throughout New England and Eastern New York, whose people had much to do with each other. They were more or less clannish, and were apt to intermarry within the limits of their own race. This combina- tion of conditions tended to keep Blandford true to her racial traditions at the same time that her people were brought into contact with the larger world. Neither Puritan New England nor that accretion of Scotch Presbyterianism which came in with the immigrants of 1718 was un- social, notwithstanding certain laws and tra- ditions seeming on the face of them to con- tradict such a statement. New England people had an ingrained hatred of pauperism, a deep-seated suspicion of vagrancy or irre- sponsibility, a strong respect for thrift and a sufficient appreciation of what it meant to pay taxes and support the institutions of civic life, to cement these qualities of mind thoroughly together. In pursuance of such sentiments and convictions, Massachusetts, as early as 1637, passed a law forbidding any town, under penalty of a heavy fine, enter- taining any stranger for a longer period than 218 SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE TAVERN three weeks. Allotment of land to strangers was furthermore carefully guarded. In pur- suance of this law it became the business of the constable, in behalf of the State, or county, or town, to repair to the house to which any stranger had come, and warn him out of town. This did not mean that the stranger must necessarily go right off, if at all. But it was at least a legal measure to free the town from liability for his mainten- ance should he prove himself incompetent of self-support. Sydney George Fisher* tells of a Virginian who had been much in New England, and who, as soon as he arrived at an inn, used always to summon the master and mistress and all the strangers who were about, and make a brief statement of his life and occupation, and having assured them that they could know no more, would then ask for his supper. Franklin, when he was travelling in New England, adopted a similar plan. The situation developed both humor and pathos. Somewhere on occasion, so Mr. Fisher tells, the sheriff appeared before a woe-begone intruder who failed to under- * In his "Men, Women and Manners in Colonial Times," p. 205. 219 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES stand the formality, and said, half -laughing, "I warn you off the face of the earth." The hapless innocent fled post haste. The law, however, was by no means a dead letter, as hosts of entries in the town records show.* As has been intimated, the warning was read in the presence of the stranger, then the official registry was made. So the tavern became the frequent scene of this serio-comic performance. The result was that many a stranger who by his or her circumstances or habits became known as a prospective public charge was conveyed away out of town, preferably to the presumed place of citizen- ship. A few samples of entries on the town records are transcribed: Nov. 10, 1760. "Granted Sixteen Shillings and Six pence for warning and Caring persons out of town to John Wilson Constabel." Sept. 9, 1775. "Granted to matthew Blair Six Shillings for Carriing two women out of town that was like to be a town Charge." March 3, 1779. "Granted to D K Samuel Boies and Judah Bement one Pound ten * The entries are left, some of them, in the town records. Some of them are within keeping of the clerk of courts of the county. 220 SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE TAVERN Shillings for Carrying two Sick Soldiers to Westfield." Aug. 16, 1779. "Granted to Samuel Fer- guson Three pound eight Shillings for going to Westfield to get a warrant to Carry Marg' How out of Town." "Granted to John Scott Six pound for Service done to the Town in Taking Marg' How with a Warrant and going to a Lawyer to take Advice about the same by order of the Select men" April 2, 1781. "Granted to Sam" Cannon Fifty pound Continental money for carrying a Woman from Blanford to Louden & from Blanford to Westfield By Order of the Select men." Nov. 8, 1781. "Granted William Crooks Constable ten Shillings* for Carrying a Negro to Westfield." Jan. 25, 1785. Granted to Samuel Boies 2 d Eight Shillings for Caryng Sary Brown & Children to Becket by Warrant" "Granted Samuel Sloper Six Shillings for Entertaining Sary Brown 3 Days" "Granted to John Cochran Six Shilling for * Hard money. 221 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES Transporting a family out of Town by warrant." ' Granted Reuben Boies four Shilling for Entertaining a poor family." "Granted John Cochran Eight Shilling for Caring a poor family out of Town Wlu n Constable" A document filed with the clerk of courts at Northampton, is of interest from several points of view. "Pursuant to a Warrant under the hands of the Select men of the Town of Blandford bearing date of the 24 th of December 1759 Daniel Murphy Eleanor Murphy his wife Edmund Murphy Daniel Murphey who came from Sambreey.* The widow Susannah Phelps Samuel Phelps Sus- anna Phelps jun r who came from the nine partners — The widow Katherine Kar William Kar James Kar Eleanor Kar Katherine Kar Junior Who came from Westfield George M c Murag who came from Kend( rhook and Mary Phelps who came from the nine partners and Frederick Murphey who came from Sam- breey on the Last day of the same December were warned forthwith to depart and leave said Town of Blandford by Glass Cochran * Simsbury, Ct. ? 222 SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE TAVERN Constable of said Blanford as pr Warrant and return on file appears. Feb. 12, 1760." There is a headstone in the old burying ground which bears this inscription : In Memory of Miss Eleanor Ker, who died March 27 AD 1778 aged 27 years. Daughte r of M" Katharine relict of M r William KER who was slain by the Indians at fort George in a morning scout August 4, 1757. Aged 46. band, There fell the parent by the savage hand, g Here I was snatched by deaths unerrin has done Now gentle reader see what death sertain doom. And humbly wait your own your This tells something of the story of the Ker family. They stayed in town and none ap- pears to have become a public charge. As for "Frederick Murphey," the following items from the town records will testify. Dec. 3, 1766 "Granted Cap' William 223 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES Carnahan Nine Shillings for keeping and Carring fradrack to westfleld "Granted to william Brown one Shilling & Six pence for hors to westfleld to Carry fradrack merphy."* The warrant seems to have held good for over a half a generation. Blandford landlords seem to have had some unusual antipathy to the office of constable — rather contrary to New England tavern traditions, — but a careful reader of these pages will find some familiar names, after all, among those who served their town as indicated in the above items. Certain wayfarers had proceeded to the town of Springfield in September, 1746. Forthwith, as the official records of the county set forth, they were warned to depart. "Pursuant to Warrant under the hands of the Selectmen of the Town of Springfield John McKinstry and Jinny his wife and John their Child .... Robert Hazzard and * Others who were "legally warned to depart" as found in the town records are the following: Robert Hamilton "and mary his wife," 1760; • "mary Loughead," wife of John Loughead, "mary Ross," "Agnes Welch and Elizabeth her Child," 1760; James Freeland, Aug. 24, 1761; John Hobbs, April, 1766; Jacob Parker, Aug. 22, 1766; William Peterson, Feb. 17, 1767; Grace Phelps, Dec. 7, 1771. she was from Westfleld "and is now residing at the house of James Bairds Junr. John Baird, Constable." The names are to be found chiefly in the files of the clerk of courts, and I have not collected them. 224 SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE TAVERN Margaret his Wife . . Transient persons, was by Caleb Ely Worned forthwith to depart and leave Said Town, as p r said War on file appears" Of this company at least John and "Jinny" McKinstry appear to have been on their way to Blandford, where they settled down. They had doubtless been found at the tavern. In the seventeenth century the regulations had been very strict. The Boston town records of 1723 required that, inasmuch as "great numbers have very lately been trans- ported from Ireland to this Province," in the fear that they might become chargeable, they should be registered. Even in the eighteenth century Boston was requiring notice to the town authorities on the part of any who desired to entertain strangers. "Harboring strangers, and even relatives, was a constant source of bickering between authorities and citizens, and between different towns. The purchaser of a slave was responsible to the town for maintenance. Householders did not let or hire without interference."* Bland- ford town records show several instances of the registry with the town clerk — possibly * These facts and excerpts are taken from "The Economic and Social History of New England," by William B. Weeden. 225 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES the same was published in the tavern — of visitors, hired help or tenants. Is it any wonder that the rural New Englander, who is true to his heritage, to this very day looks out of his window to see who passes his door, and in the evening, at "the store," pronounces judgment on his fellow men, stranger and homeborn alike? And is it not in the line of tradition also that the modernized local reporter, with all the arts of the inquisition except that of physical torture, discovers and spreads on record for all the curious world to read, who thou art and the words thou speakest in thy bedchamber ? The drinking habits of the people of all New England as well as of our little town were so centralized and represented by the tavern, and, as the years moved on, by the store so generally licensed to deal in liquors, as to merit some further notice than has yet been given to them in these pages. Cider drinking was universal, at home and abroad. The apple orchard was planted, pruned and thought of in this connection almost solely. Hence, the zeal of pastor Keep in his first and single-handed fight against the liquor habit 226 SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE TAVERN began with the parsonage orchard. Cider was drunk at home, was given to babies, was consumed by fine ladies and, with a brace of rum added to it, by farmers in the hay field. It was served to guests at the taverns regularly "with their vittles." Rum was also much used by the common people. Samuel Sloper sold immense quantities of it. This beverage reached the height of its popularity in the middle of the eighteenth century, when there were more than three- score distilleries in Massachusetts turning molasses into rum. It was the moving power in all commerce, and was the life of the West India trade.* Later brandy became popu- lar. This was made in large quantities in Blandford, notably by Jedediah Smith. Irish and Scotch settlers generally made whiskey from rye and wheat, barley and potatoes, even from corn. Of course this sort of thing could not go on for ever without some lurid consequences. I have been told by an old resident familiar with the family traditions that in a certain section of the town, now mostly deserted of * V. Economic and Social History of New England, p. 641. 227 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES inhabitants, it was hard to find a family that had not lost some member by death from delirium tremens. Says William H. Gibbs:* "Tradition informs us that in those days the man who could drink the most and walk the straightest was the best fellow. Indeed, some of our ministers were not entirely free from this habit. It is said that one of them was frequently so excited with ardent spirits that he would preach until sunset. This town was settled with 'Scotch- Irish' with increasing habits of intemperance, which elicited the following remark from a gentle- man residing in Springfield, while passing through the town. Looking at the old church, he said, 'You have a high church and a low steeple, a drunken priest and cursed people.' " Such traditions, once they have become fixed and passed along, have lost nothing in the progress of transmission. Rev. James Morton was convivial, but he was not drunken, if we may trust the findings of more than one ecclesiastical council con- vened to examine and pass upon his character and measures. Rev. H. L. Hastings, of more * Historical Address, p. 49. 228 SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE TAVERN than local fame, a native of Blandford, stated in an historical address about ten years ago: "I know an old cellar in the town of Blandford where I have been told that 200 barrels of cider have been stored in the fall, and rolled out in the spring and distilled into brandy, which was drank and sold; and the man who owned that cellar was a preacher of the gospel." That was undoubtedly "priest Morton." Now if all this were the only, or the chief thing which might be said of these times and these men and women, it would better be forgotten. The fact is, the town of Blandford was in those old days a shining example among almost countless towns whose illustrious sons and daughters and whose common folk, — unnamed and for- gotten as individuals by this generation, except as Colonial Dames and Sons and Daughters of the Revolution and what-not are bedecking themselves with honor be- cause of these self-same people of the olden time, — made New England to be what she has been. If now and then there was a Falstaff, there were also kings and queens 229 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES and princes and princesses among men. The point is, these people, some of whom have been named in these pages — and not to the shame or embarrassment of any right-spirited descendant — were men and women of strength and nobility as well as of occasional infirmity. For the most part, as we have observed, the chief exponent of this business, the taverner, and often his cousin, the licensed store keeper, were true builders of society. That passion and the trail of disaster and sorrow followed often upon their careers is so trite a fact as now to be taken almost for granted, and the more so as the decades multiplied and society passed from the primi- tive condition to the more complex life. Yet it becomes our quest to dwell a little more explicitly on this deepening shadow before we leave it. The story of mortgages and execution sales has been only hinted at. The detail of it all is too dry and infinitesimal for these pages. They count up by the score, and with a fatal tendency lead to the door of the tavern or licensed grocery. Perry Button had a farm and saddler's shop down in the 230 SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE TAVERN neighborhood where the Hatches and Blairs with Solomon Noble and Russell Attwater figured so prominently. This interesting in- dividual was ever in hot water with Ben- jamin Scott or some other landlord, until it became a question whether his whole estate would not slip out from under him. Archi- bald Black liquefied large acres in like manner at Capt. Pease's bar-room. Dr. Little suf- fered similarly for too much tarrying with Solomon Noble and Eleazer Slocum. Giles Dayton fell into the toils at Scott's and Bunnell's, but nobly retrieved himself for discipleship to Methodism and temperance reform. Simeon Morgan paid over too freely at the bar of Joseph Bull, and perhaps of others, to the extent of bankruptcy, having involved himself inextricably, if not criminally, with funds of the town and of the church. And so it went. The early Washingtonian move- ment and its succeeding phases of temper- ance reform produced history in Blandford as well as elsewhere, and the records of these societies throw some additional light on the conditions which the movement had to meet. Some statistics were gathered in 1834 under 231 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES direction of a county organization, and re- ported first to the local society as follows : "Population of the town, 1,600; members of the society, 400; number who have re- nounced the traffic in ardent spirits, 2; number, including taverns, still continuing the traffic, 3; quantity of ardent spirits sold last year, 700 gallons; expense thereof, $1,000; no paupers in town; criminals prosecuted the last year, 4; expense of prosecution, $40; two small distilleries in town." The next year the committee reported a membership of "about 450," and that there were four grocery stores in town, none of them selling liquor, with one inn, and one innholder dispensing the beverages. In 1844 the temperance organization re- ported these findings: Total number of public houses in Blandford, 17, Whole number of occupants 39, Number that lost all their property 18, Number that left no better as to property 18, Number that made property 3, Number that became intemperate 15, Number of wives that became intemperate 4, Number of sons " 26, Number of daughters that became intemperate 4 , 232 SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE TAVERN Number that died in the poor house 1 , Number who died of delirium tremens 3, all of which is a sufficiently gruesome show- ing. One may discount the figures a little for the sake of impartial truth, and have enough left to justify abundantly the reform movement whose organization had but fairly begun where the limits of our story have been reached. The Old Farmer s Almanac was in the field, widely circulated. In its sphere — and it was large — it yielded an immense influ- ence. It doubtless reflected, in all particu- lars touched upon, the true condition of rural society, when it made these sallies in its edition of 1812 : (April) ' 'Heigh-ho-hum! Here, John, take the jug and run down to 'Squire Plunket's and get a quart of new rum. Tell him to put it down with the rest and I'll pay him in rye, as I told him. Come, Eunice, hang on the tea-kettle and let us have some sling when John gets back. Wife, how long before breakfast?' 'Alas, husband, where is this to end? Our farm is mortgaged, you know; the mare and colt are both attached; last 233 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES week the oxen were sold; and yesterday the blue heifer was driven away; next goes our grain and at last, I suppose, I must give up my wedding suit, and all for sling! A plague on the shopkeepers — I wish there was not a glass of rum in the universe ! Now, husband, if you will only spruce round a little, like other men, and attend to business, I have no doubt we can get along. See Capt. Sprightly, he is up early and late, engaged in business. He lets no moment pass unimproved. See even now, while we are but just out of bed, he has been this hour with his boys in the field! Why can't we be as earnest, and as cheerful, and as prosperous as they? Come, come, hus, let us make an effort.' (July) " 'There, there! run, John, the hogs are in the cornfield;' cried old lady Lookout, as she stood slipshod over the cheese-tub. 'I told your father, John, that this would be the case; but he had rather go day after day up to 'Squire Plunket's to drink grog and swap horses, than to be at a little pains to stop the gap in the wall, by which he might prevent the destruction of our beautiful corn- field ; and then, Johnny, you know if we have 234 SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE TAVERN corn to sell we can afford to rig up a little and go and see your aunt Winnypucker's folks.' 'Aye, aye, mother, let us mind the main chance, as our minister told us the other day. You look to your cheese-tubs, I'll see to the hogs, and with a little good luck, by jinks, mother, we may be able to hold up our heads yet.' "* The forceful editor of the Old Farmer's Almanac might have come to Blandford as well as to any other town in the country for facts and incidents to write up the above quoted paragraphs. He would have found them in Jedediah Smith's records, and the records of mortgages and executions in the files in Springfield, as well as in neighborhood gossip. Sling was a modern drink having gin for its basis, and to a not inconsiderable extent it seems to have displaced flip, and not by way of improvement. Execution papers are now in evidence in the old Beech hill court-house, in which evidence is docu- mentary that sling abundantly paved the way to the sorrows of debt and insolvency. The fact hardly needs demonstration that * Quoted from George Lyman Kittredge's "The Old Farmer and His Almanac." 235 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES the tavern, important and necessary as it was, was far from sufficient in itself. The weakness was inherent. But it was incidental nevertheless. The positive contribution which this institution made to New England life was greater than the curse which shadowed it. There remains to be indicated something of the peculiarly facile part which the way- side inn, as illustrated in this little town of Blandford, took in the development and ex- pression of stratifications of old New England society. Speaking of the closing years of the seventeenth century and the period imme- diately following, William M. Weeden, al- ready quoted in these pages, says:* "New England society in this period was working through its English traditions of rank and prestige, and settling into new codes of manners Mark the change the New Englander made. He believed that whatever was general, public, social, belonged all to- gether, and he would have his share, be he poor or rich, high or low in estate. The tendency toward fixed ranks, and anything * Economic and Social History of New England," p. 281. 236 SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE TAVERN like nobility of person, to be acknowledged and confirmed by the community, was re- pudiated by the mass of the citizens. There were institutions of property, no institutions of rank." The deeds and the pew lists of the old New England town afford the chief bases of calculation as to the ancient ideas which obtained in respect of title and rank. But it is hard to find out all that one would like to know about it.* It should be recognized that old New England never had any considerable popula- tion which could rightly be called a peasantry. The rank and file aspired to the dignity of yeomanry and for the most part abundantly attained unto it. To write "yeoman" after one's name was to signify a degree of in- dependence, thrift and self-respect worthy to originate or perpetuate the best traditions of a State. It implied the fact of land owner- ship, and the probability, though not the necessity, of the cultivation of the soil by the * I have searched diligently for some monograph on the subject, but in vain. Almost every respectable writer on old Puritan times and customs in New England devotes a paragraph, or possibly a page or two to this subject, but that is all. I have inquired of public libra- rians, to be turned away with sympathy, yet with no substantial aid. I ventured to address a letter of inquiry to perhaps the most volumin- ous and distinguished writer on these and kindred matters. Rightly or wrongly I inferred from this author's silence that more knowledge of the subject is a desideratum for others as well as for myself. 237 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES freeholder bearing the distinction under con- sideration. There was an Act in Massachu- setts, passed in the seventeenth century, permitting a householder paying "rates" to the amount of ten shillings, to be admitted as a freeman. But it was represented that hardly three in one hundred paid that amount, and that a church member, "though he be a servant and pay not 2d., may be a freeman."* When, however, they all got inside the church, it was not piety chiefly that was the ranking principle, unless that had bestowed official or semi-official position. It is a curious fact that of the sixty-two names on the list 'of original settlers in Bland- ford, only three wrote the proud title of "yeoman" against their names as the deeds were passed. These three were the trustees of the church and ministerial lots, namely, Robert Huston, Benjamin Taylor and John Osborne. The matter is not quite easy to explain. One might suggest that it was be- cause they were just then wanderers, not substantially located, drawing lots of land as new settlers in a country where they were * ; Economic and Social History, etc., p. 269. 238 SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE TAVERN expected to buy farms, and where, as matter of fact, those who remained did buy farms. But in truth most of those men did not attain to the title of yeoman for long, long years. In many hundreds of deeds covering a period of a full generation, less than two score men in Blandford were ever written as yeomen. Nor can the fact be explained by the conjecture that it is mere coincidence or accident, for the deeds bear ample evidence that great care was used in these respects. With the exceptions noted, among that first company of emigrants from Hopkinton to New Glasgow, the men were simply character- ized by their trades. Of course the most of them by far were husbandmen, meaning in modern parlance simply farmer, which latter term also creeps into the deeds occasionally. The husbandman may or may not have owned his farm; but even if he did, there was lacking in the mere occupation and ownership some sentimental, traditional dignity and force of carriage to constitute him a yeoman. Perhaps he needed to prove his tenure and his worthiness by time. In the original instruments of conveyance of land to these 239 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES Glasgow men, David Boies was nominated a "Taylor," Josiah Rice a "House Wright," Alexander Osburn a "Weaver," Robert Hus- ton a "Tanner," William Carr a "Cord- wainer," etc. But the great majority were husbandmen. A very few had, or came to have, the title of "gentleman," like James Wark, who used to be called upon to draw up the legal documents of the new settlers, even when they were obliged to send back to Hopkinton for the purpose — for this gentle- man did not stay long in the new country. The next title, or grade, above that of yeoman, was that last named. Probably no definition suited to the democracy of historic New England can be nearer to the facts than this from the Century Dictionary: "Any man of breeding, education, occupation or income, above menial service or ordinary trade; a man of good breeding, courtesy, etc." That was exactly it. Whether wealth and nothing else would land a man in the sentimental rank of gentleman may be open to question. Cer- tainly a little added social prominence or acceptability would, and wealth might easily assist any man of ordinary gifts to that end. 240 SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE TAVERN Education was not absolutely necessary. I have seen the title appended to the name of a man who, when he made a signature, was obliged to denote the same by "his mark." The man of literary profession was a "clerk," or "dark," to use the characteristic spelling and pronunciation of the Scotch-Irish. That title was preferred to the more general one of "gentleman," while it practically included the latter. The next designation in the civil order of ascent was that of the squire— Esquire. This was an official title, indicating a justice of the peace. But in Blandford at least it was broadened sufficiently to include one practic- ing the profession of the law, whether a judge or not. After the first generation, yeoman became the common mark of the Blandford citizen. Military titles gained in actual war service or militia training adorned the addresses of many citizens. These were scrupulously observed in common speech, as the marks of rank or grade in civil relations were not, except the title of squire. Just how the balance was struck as between the various grades of civil 241 TAVERNS ANP rURNPIKES and of military rank, and what difficulties and embarrassments m isequent upon the responsibility to scat the meeting-house when snob seating included, as it usually did, the whole town, must be left with the im- agination. There are n rds which can yield sufficient evidence. The fact that the task had to be repeated at frequent intervals is significant testimony that it was no eas] one, and that the equilibrium was very un- stable. "Age, pay and dignity" were I elements which had to be combined in the judgment, and no t mined and pains-taki chemist ever analyzed a si its component parts. i r went to work to pr >duce delicate combinations with greater nicety and: regard to fundamental laws of nature than the Now England committee who, after the pews were "dignified," went to work to place in the >riate occupants. The writer so ily quoted, aln in this chapter remarks, very aptly:* "If we had the whole record of >ings of the con- greg ying and seating their meml ers, it would picture forth the social SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE TAVERN condition of New England in our period. Ar: edie t be nv - rtaining or instructive- E* be ■ ed, and circumi mu embodied in tl i e of 1 en the women! Court chamber- lains could not hi d all their subtile claii nrlicting ri Commits duly appointed, from time to time, worked out I lifficulti* tucL" The point to be hen ticularly empha- '1 is that to run a tavern fully for a series of years was a means of e' rtain pro- motion in social rank. Especially was this after the Revolution. Oi • at the county registry is irn: th the rise of the innki dignity of gentlemen, almost as following \ sion. The gradation is steady and it is strictly ob The candidate for wealth and honor who stood as proprietor of a public house might have been called, in the earlier of his ( an innkeeper, mere cften a yeoman. He mighl n a merchant, and so denominated. If he were quite suc- cessful, he was apt to be written down after a 243 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES time, as "trader," a mark apparently a grade above that of "merchant," since his increas- ing profits, or his multiplying risks from accumulating charges on his books, gave him larger scope for buying and selling, or neces- sitated his taking mortgages on real estate, and so entering the real estate market. By and by he became a gentleman. Once that, even the dignity of yeoman faded. Once or twice indeed I have seen a reversal from the higher to the lower rank. It was probably a clerical error. At any rate, the solitary instance or two may count as conspicuous and lonely exceptions. It would be tiresome to run through the list of Blandford inn- keepers who attained to the title of gentle- man. But here it is in part: Samuel Sloper, Nathaniel Pease, Abner Pease, Justus Ash- mun, Timothy Hatch, Solomon Noble, War- ham Parks, Russell Attwater, Reuben Boies, Aaron Baird, Jedediah Smith, Asa Smith, James Hazzard, Samuel Boies, etc. Among those who became squires were Samuel Sloper, Justus Ashmun, Reuben Boies, War- ham Parks, Rufus Boies, Russell Attwater, Orrin Sage. 244 SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE TAVERN The sure prominence to which the persis- tent and successful innkeeper was advanced is further marked by the seat he was given in the meeting-house. That seat was not bought nor hired, though it was paid for. The place was assigned. In the plan of 1796 the arrangement was like this. In the front seat before the pulpit, with Mrs. Rev. Joseph Badger and "wido Morton" were William Boies and Robert Blair, both deacons, and one, if not both, innkeepers. Across the broad aisle, the corresponding front seat con- tained Samuel Boies and Ephraim Gibbs, also both deacons and innkeepers. On either side the broad aisle next behind these were Samuel Boies 2nd, Reuben Boies, Justus Ashmun, Col. Sloper; in the next tier, Lieut. Abner Pease, Jedediah Smith and Capt. Timothy Hatch, all innkeepers or dealers in strong liquors. And so we might go on. Supported as it was by men of substance and character, the tavern became the social centre for the people so far as the church failed, or was not calculated, to realize for them that multifarious function. There seems not to have been in Blandford at any 245 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES time any instance of that old-fashioned New- England resort known as the noon-house. There were plenty of taverns near the meet- ing-house, and the landlord was as willing that the people should come as the people were willing to go. There the sermon was discussed, and there the great problems of the universe were pushed forward toward solution. When the time came for awakening upon the subject of temperance reform the church was prominent in it all. It was not afraid to go right into the broad aisle and rebuke the men of substance and dignity. And this it did. Rev. John Keep was a fearless and effective pioneer. Dr. Eli Hall, who himself sold liquor for some years, became his staunch helper. William H. Gibbs, in his Historical Address, mentions Amos M. Collins as also prominent. It was high time for reform, not alone in Blandford, but in all the country. Too many boys were being drawn into the whirlpool. Ordinations have been men- tioned in these pages, on occasions when ministers sat down to drink. The fathers had eaten sour grapes and the children's 246 SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE TAVERN teeth had been set on edge. Rev. Dorus Clarke was ordained to the ministry of the old church in Blandford, Feb. 5, 1823. Daniel Butler, son of the Beech hill man whose coming was for a time made so unwelcome, was one of the boys who were taking in the excitement of the incident. Dr. Moore, presi- dent of Williams college, preached the sermon. "It was a very big day," said Dr. Butler, in a reminiscence of it many years later. For the first time this boy "saw the live president of a college, and he wanted in some way to celebrate the occasion, so he treated two boys to a mug of flip." It seemed the proper thing to do. It was the first glass. This boy and another presently saw the new minister's fiancee on one of those early spring days. "She must be a good young lady, because she is going to marry a minister," said one of them; "and she must be good looking, because that is the kind the minister likes." "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise," said One higher than the high; and so it fell out that the boy told the truth. He it was who had treated the rest to flip. That 247 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES boy was not passing through the world with his eyes shut. The minister, not long after coming to Blandford, was taken seriously ill, and all were anxious. One morning this aforesaid Daniel and another boy "saw the daughter of the man with whom the minister boarded; so they together got up courage enough to go and ask her how he was. She stood and looked at them as if they were two interesting specimens of natural history, but never a word did she reply. But pretty soon a young man 'no better looking than we were,' ' put in Dr. Butler parenthetically, "came along and spoke to her and she an- swered him so that it pleased him." The young woman was Miss Sage, daughter of Blandford's most successful business man and benefactor of Williams college. The boys passed on, picking up more impressions, some good, some bad. But that drink of flip was Daniel Butler's first and his last. Rev. Dr. Butler became a shining light in the annals of Massachusetts history, full of humor withal, though to first appearance solemn in the extreme, much in demand as a captiva- ting after-dinner speaker, convulsing his 248 SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE TAVERN hearers by his wit. Not uncommonly he would grace the latter end of a festival pro- gram when the hour was late, and men could be seen looking him over, then quiet- ly stealing out to the door, when, if not too far beyond the sound of his voice, they would slink back again after the speech had begun, to join an audience already moved to hilarity and tears by his wit and eloquence. He cast it all on the side of righteousness and of the gospel of peace, and is not yet forgotten. Another of the boys in those early days was Cushing Eells, son of Joseph Eells whose home was at the foot of Birch hill, who for two or three years retailed liquors among the old aristocracy of the street. The boy Cushing became a pupil in a private school of Mr. Clarke in the winter of 1825-6, entered Williams college, from which he graduated, and became co-worker with Marcus Whitman, and the founder of Whitman college. Another of the boys was Samuel Knox, lovingly remembered by many now living, along with the other two just mentioned. Also a son of Williams, classmate of Cushing Eells, he became a learned judge, was inti- 249 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES mate with President Lincoln when the former was in Congress representing the State of Missouri, and at the outbreak of the Civil War was a power in turning the hearts of Blandford youth to enlist for their country's cause. He too was a man of faith and godliness. Many another youth who was turned in these early days of reform away from the baleful influences of the prevailing vice might here be named. It is because of these counter influences that to-day it is possible for us to pursue the study of the tavern with interest which is not chiefly painful. The tavern has meant much to New England, but it could never support itself without the strong help of the church, which ever exercised something of a visitorial power over it. The tavern and the saloon were never reformed from within, but from without . Note: — There is a considerable list of licensees, beginning with the very earliest generation, whom research has not availed to locate or satisfactorily identify. They are these : 250 SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE TAVERN Matthew Barber, 1742; Gad Stebbins, 1797; JohnS. Douglas, 1798; Eliphalet Lamb, 1799; Aaron Fish, 1802; Enos Alvord, 1817— possi- bly in the spot or neighborhood where Timothy Hatch first operated.* • Besides the above were these licensed retailers, in the same category of uncertainty: Elisha Buck Sheldon, 1783; Samuel Hopesby, 1785; William Stewart, 1793 ;f NoahShepard, "bb," 1797; Henry Wales, 1800; I. W. Knowlton, 1802; Robert Waterman, 1803-1806, appar- ently somewhere about the northeasterly skirts of Beech hill. The Blandford career of these men, so far as innkeeping or store- keeping was concerned, was short, and, it may be inferred, unimportant. * V. Registry, Vol. 56, p. 684. t He lived in a log house in the northeast corner of town, in the Murray- field district, but sold that in 1784. V. Registry, Vol. 24, p. 621. 251 Chapter Nine Turnpike Stories THE turnpike of 1829, known as the Hampden and Berkshire turnpike, marked an era in the social history of Blandford. The road enters the town from the east through the lower and easier way be- tween Tarrot and Birch hills, instead of over the top of the latter, which was the way of the fathers. Hugging the streams, particu- larly following up the banks and meadows sought out by Potash brook on its way to the West field river, it both shortens the distance and lessens the elevation to be climbed. In essentials it is the present road from the Dayton-Rowley neighborhood of yore up through the village, through North Blandford and on past the western boundary of the town to Lee. In part it is identical with the old post route, or Berkshire road; so far, that is, as it immediately approaches and passes through the central village. But from the Centre westward, it cut a new TURNPIKE STORIES course, crossing the old Gore lane about a mile below the village, proceeding through the "intervale" at the Gore, continuing thence directly to North Blandford, whence it pushed on westerly to Lee. It was the first direct connection which the two villages had ever had. But North Blandford was then in its youth. In his Historical Address* William H. Gibbs remarked that this road was laid out "through the poorest part of the town. Strangers passing over this road," he adds, "form an unfavorable opinion of our soil and enterprise. Soon after the completion of the road, an honest Shaker came along and called upon a blacksmith, and remarked that he supposed it was necessary to sharpen the noses of sheep to enable them to pick grass from among the rocks and stones. Stages ran (where it was level) upon this road, and carried the mail until the Western Railroad went into operation." There are some ex- cessively stony pastures and forest-covered drumlins along the way. But in sooth the road is not so bad as the lecturer just quoted * P. 47. 253 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES made it out to be. The hills are not so steep as in some other parts of town, the intervales are lovely, there are some superb mowing uplands in the Gore, and the outlook into the beautiful vale of North Blandford, as one rounds the hillside east of the village, is not easily forgotten, while the combination of brook, meadow, hill, and forest, as one pushes on westerly through "Number Three," be- stows on the sensitive beholder some- thing of the feeling of enchantment. This turnpike shortly revolutionized the traffic of the country hereabout. Two of the four daily stages which had run for years by the Boston and Albany road, up and down through the old town street, were transferred to this turnpike, while an immense and in- cessant traffic of business and pleasure de- veloped and continued until, gradually, the railroad brought quiet and solitude again. What commotion this new line of travel stirred within the town itself by way of re-adjustment to new conditions is dimly echoed in the county records. A network of crooked roads had pervaded the Gore; now there was a thoroughfare. The old post 254 TURNPIKE STORIES route itself was in large part side-tracked by the new turnpike. The selectmen of the town petitioned the court, in this year 1829, to discontinue some of these roads, or sec- tions thereof, a thing which was shortly accomplished. The committee in charge were ordered to meet at the house of Luther Laflin at eight o'clock on the ninth of Sep- tember, and notice, to meet the legal re- quirements , was given in the Springfield Re- publican. There was one toll-gate on this 'pike within the limits of the town, about a mile below the village. Later, there was another, suc- ceeding the first one, a little lower down. That house is still standing, familiarly known as the gate -house, at the junction of the old mountain road and the newer one under review. Thereon hangs a tale of local turmoil and ferment, altogether illustrative of the time and of the spirit of New England democracy. By what right, of nature or of heaven's law, was a citizen freeman of old New England to be stopped in the midst of the highway and demanded to pay toll for his passage? 255 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES Answer: The road is in the hands of an incorporated company who keep it in repair; the citizens are no longer taxed to maintain it, and by statute the company are author- ized to make themselves good by certain specified tolls. "Very well, then," said one of Blandford's proud and judicial citizens, "they must make that road down the moun- tain so smooth that I may take a glass tumbler and roll it down from top to bottom of the hill without breaking the glass!" A little knot of objecting wits got together to talk turnpike and the toll. "As for the turnpike," said they, "we will make a shun- pike; we'll tap the 'pike on one side of the gate, pass 'round and connect on the other; then where will their tolls be?" The shun- pike talk was the go for a time, and the scheme was actually carried into effect. But the General Court stepped in and levied fines on all shun-pikers far more tyrannous than toll- gate demands. At least one such shun-pike in Blandford was blockaded by force and judicial authority. So it went. A woman, when the usual toll was demanded of her, drove the keeper into the house with a horse whip, and a law suit resulted. 256 1 Gate House, Turnpike of 1829 2 Tavern at North Blandford, Built by Norton and Ely TURNPIKE STORIES Rhode Islanders objected to the toll-gates on this fashion, to quote a paragraph from President Dwighfs Travels* "that turnpikes and the establishment of religious worship had their origin in Great Britain : the govern- ment of which was a monarchy, and the inhabitants slaves; that the people of Massa- chusetts and Connecticut were obliged by law to support ministers, and pay the fare of turnpikes, and were therefore slaves also; that if they chose to be slaves, they un- doubtedly had a right to their choice; but that free born Rhode Islanders ought never submit to be priest-ridden, nor to pay for the privilege of travelling on the highway. This demonstrative reasoning prevailed." In 1805, however, even "free-born Rhode Islanders bowed their necks to the slavery of travelling on a good road." Massachusetts people yielded more easily than this to the spirit of progress, and turnpikes in Western Massa- chusetts became both numerous and popular. Toll-gates were placed at intervals of ten miles, and located under the authority of the highway commissioners. The tolls were grad- * Vol. II, pp. 37-38. 257 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES uated along a somewhat complicated scale, ranging from twenty-five cents for the passing of "each coach, chariot, phaeton, or other four-wheeled spring carriage, drawn by two horses," to "all sheep or swine, at the rate of three cents by the dozen." The regulations were embodied in the statutes in the years 1804, 1814 and 1817, and they reflect per- fectly the travelling conditions of the day for Blandford turnpikes as well as for those of other towns. The highest rate would very seldom be charged because only the very wealthy had vehicles that would occa- sion such toll. Wagons were a luxury and were licensed by the state. A precious docu- ment is now in the possession of John Noble's descendants which reads thus:* "This is to certify that John Noble of the town of Blandford in the County of Hampden in the seventeenth district of Massachusetts, has paid the duty of one dollar for the year to end on the thirty-first of December next for and upon a four wheel carriage called a waggon and the harness used therefor owned by him. This certificate to be of no avail any * Italics represent written words in printed blank. 258 TURNPIKE STORIES longer than the aforesaid carriage shall be owned by the said Noble unless the said certificate shall be produced to a collector, and an entry to be made thereon, specifying the name of the then owner of said carriage, and the time when he became possessed thereof. Given in conformity with the laws of the United States, this eleventh day of Jan v one thousand eight hundred and sixteen, Thomas Shepard, Collector for the 17th district of Massachusetts." Tradition adds that so great was the com- motion over John Noble's possession and two other wagons driven into town at the same time from the South street district, that action was taken in town meeting concerning the dangerous innovation. The town records, however, yield no such interesting material. The traditional seat of this wagon of John Noble's is a well preserved relic in possession of descendants to-day. There were several "first" wagons in town, of which this was one. An occasional wagon proudly occupied the highways long before this time. In 1794 Solomon Noble hired a horse and wagon of 259 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES Jedediah Smith to go to Williams town. Chaises were in use, but, so far as the hill country was concerned, no doubt they were confined to the more wealthy or privileged. When Rev. Dorus Clarke brought home with him from Longmeadow his bride, in May of 1824, they came in a new chaise. They were accompanied as far as Westfield by a long line of chaises, and were met by a de- tachment from Blandford, also in chaises. The minister "had a horse which he had been accustomed to drive in a sulky," to quote from the story of Mrs. Clarke to her grand- children many years after, "but when he got this new chaise, which was very heavy — a very nice chaise — there being two of us, too, the horse was disinclined to do his duty. He used to stop and rear on those steep roads. Our lives were wonderfully preserved. I often think of it." But Rev. John Keep, at least in the earlier years of his ministry, which began in 1805, rode a horse, and his wife rode behind him on a pillion — this on his own written testimony. There was a local proverb, he said, to the effect that a wagon would not stand anywhere in town unless it was blocked. 260 TURNPIKE STORIES It must not be supposed that the people of Blandford were behind the age. Wagons drawn by horses began to come into general use only after the nineteenth century had dawned. Country carts and wagons were generally drawn by oxen, from two to six in number according to the load to be drawn or the distance to be covered. The tradi- tional objection to the use of horse wagons — and the tradition is persistent, attaching generally to all the "first" wagons of the sort — was on account of the actual or pre- sumed fright of horses at so unusual a sight. The period of early turnpikes and toll-gates was that also of the great westward emi- gration. As railroads were yet to be, of course the ordinary highways of the towns received an enormous amount of traffic and travel. To get before us the picture of all this, no document or tradition could be more explicit, scarcely more vivid, than the law covering the imposition of toll. This, in addition to what has already been quoted, was, in part, as follows: "For every cart or wagon drawn by two horses, ten cents, and if drawn by more than two horses, two cents 261 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES for each additional horse; for every cart or wagon drawn by two oxen, ten cents, and if by more than two oxen, twelve and a half cents; for every cart or wagon drawn by more than four oxen or horses, two cents for each additional ox or horse; for every curricle, fifteen cents; for every chaise, chair, sulky or other two wheeled carriage for pleasure, drawn by one horse, six cents and one quarter of a cent; for each wagon or carriage, with four wheels, drawn by one horse only, according to the following rates of toll; that is to say, for every such carriage, the body or seats of which shall be placed on springs, and covered with cloth, canvas or leather, and used for the conveyance of persons and personal baggage only, twelve and a half cents; for every such carriage without springs, six cents; and for all other carriages of four wheels drawn by one horse, for the conveyance of persons and personal baggage, that rate of toll which is, or shall be, the nearest to the mean sum, in cents, between the two rates of toll above specified, as the same are or shall be established at each of such gates respectively; for every man and 262 TURNPIKE STORIES horse, four cents; for every sleigh or sled drawn by two oxen or horses, one cent for each additional ox or horse; for every sleigh or sled drawn by one horse, four cents; for all horses, mules or neat cattle led or driven, besides those in teams, one cent each." To discourage small tires which tended to cut the road and keep it rough and soft, regular tolls were halved for every vehicle having tires six or more inches wide. More than one aged Blandford resident has told me vivid stories of the life and traffic of the turnpikes. As compared with the modern country road, the turnpikes were rough and miry, "all chomped up," as one of them said who lived on this very turnpike. "You couldn't look out of the window, hardly," said she, "but you would see a team." Team after team of lime, drawn by four horses each, passed along from the Berkshire limekilns. Great droves of cattle, sheep and hogs were driven to the Brighton market Stages, here as everywhere throughout the country, were often getting stalled in the mire, when passengers had to evacuate, and the men, with the aid of neighbors, would 263 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES help the tired and over-burdened horses lift the vehicle up and on to more solid ground. For lively local traditions of turnpike travel in Blandford I am obliged to levy upon a period just following that of my story, namely, the middle of the nineteenth century. In most essential respects, probably, it is but the prolongation of that over which the curtain of forgetfulness has been drawn for- ever. It is said that the Miner house in the village of North Blandford was at one time a tavern run by one Harrington.* Drivers of swine used to stop at his house, and the herds would be cared for in the barn. Har- rington, so the story goes, had a trap door in the floor of this barn. This he would open suddenly, when occasion seemed to him to favor his too ardent avarice, and a good fat hog would be unaccountably missing. But he did it one time too many, like most of- fenders. The tavern which held the prestige of the neighborhood was that still standing on the four corners, built by Messrs. Norton and * This much is certain, namely, that there was a Herrinton in the north village, but whether identical with the landlord of the tradition I know not. 264 Long Hill, Turnpike of 1829 TURNPIKE STORIES Ely.* Of the doings at this house I am so fortunate as to have the reminiscences, de- livered to me at first hand, of an aged personal friend, who, only a dozen years or so after its first occupancy, became the efficient proprietress of the institution. These I transcribe as closely as may be, in her own picturesque language. f "How different everything is in 1902 from what it was in 1830, '40 and '50! In those days everyone had his own conveyance. Every kind of peddler and of peddler's wagon was going through the country. They sold whips, brooms, cigars, confectionery, etc. They always put up at some hotel at night. In those days hotels were only about eight or ten miles apart in the country. These peddlers would want a good supper, following which they would go into the bar-room and tell jolly stories. They were up betimes in the morning and on their way. "The hotel in this village was situated on the turnpike connecting Springfield and Al- bany. Over this turnpike four-horse stages * Now occupied by Mrs. Lee W. Higgins. t Copied from The Blandford Monthly, August. 1902 265 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES ran every day carrying the mail and passen- gers. People from the towns below, going to Lee, Pittsfield, Lenox and Albany, some with very handsome turnouts, used to stop here for dinner or for the night. "Blandford was quite noted for parties and weddings. There was always a ball on the Fourth of July, New Year's and Washington's Birthday, dancing commenc- ing at one o'clock and continuing until morn- ing. This was after a supper of roast turkey and roast pig, the latter standing on his four feet and an orange in his mouth. Other things in the bill of fare were of a sort to rank with those mentioned. Some of the ladies and gentlemen went on horseback to attend the dances. To light the ball-room home-made tallow dips were set in tin re- flectors. The old people used to have a turkey dinner once a year at the hotel. They stayed into the evening, sang, played games and ran around the chimney playing 'Catch me if you can,' having the very best time that ever was. Weddings were no uncommon thing. One man, after he was married, stepped up to the minister and said, 'How 266 TURNPIKE STORIES much shall I pay you, Sir?' The minister replied, 'Whatever you please.' 'There is a two dollar bill,' said the groom in proud dis- play of his munificence; and the married pair went on their way rejoicing. A great many parties used to come from the Armory Hill in Springfield. They would stop for a week at the hotel and go fishing. ' 'This old hostelry used to contain a picture gallery and different kinds of shows. One very nice set of people that used to stop at the hotel were the Lebanon and Hancock Shakers. They went to Enfield, Connecticut, every fall to visit a family there. They always rode in a long wagon, four women and two men. When these people eat, the men sit on one side of the table, the women on the other. When they come to the table, each drops on his knees by his chair, then each helps himself at the table. They never marry, and they do not eat together at home. When they are ready to go, one man holds the horses by the head, the other man holds the door open for the women to get into the wagon, with his face turned the other way. The women are very nice to visit with and 267 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES very nice in their dress. They always carry beautiful fruit with them to eat on the road, and which they take from their own home. "One family from New Orleans liked the place so well that they came to North Bland- ford to board year after year. They brought with them cages of beautiful birds — the parrot, the mocking bird, the bird of paradise and other birds. "There was a tailor's shop full of girls who boarded at the hotel." 268 Chapter Ten The East Part and Westfield River Branches THE northeast corner of the township, embracing a half-dozen lots of five hundred acres each — about five square miles — is very nearly cut off into a right- angled triangle by the easterly boundary of the second division home lots, this line forming the hypothenuse of the triangle. The extreme northerly part of this section has for a half century or so belonged to the town of Huntington, and constitutes a con- siderable part of the business section of that town. It lies on the banks of the Westfield river where the two branches thereof, the east and west, unite. This locality was early known as the "Westfield River Branches." A mile and a half to the south of the river is Black's brook, whose waters begin their course entirely within the triangle under review. On all these streams early and thriving settlements were made. Between TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES them and the heart of Blandford street was also the centre of life of the old second division, whose street ran a career of ridiculous independence of nature for many decades, then finally succumbed to the hopelessness of the task. In the midst of this second division was Cochran pond, sometimes called Second division pond, an insignificant pool, at the lower end of which was a mill. The story of it belongs elsewhere, and may not now detain us except to take notice of the fact that a nerve ganglion of social life was there and across -roads. I have not been able certainly to discover that the second division street ever had a tavern, which is far from saying that it never did have one; and the same statements may apply to the existence of a store there, for the old street was not unimportant or lifeless. It was well populated, and its existence bulked large in the thought and life of the town. In 1750 it was ordered that "ther be a road of two Rood wide to rune Betwen y e second Dcvision Loots and y" East end of y e first Devision Loots all along acros y e first Devision Loots," but I find no record 270 WESTFIELD RIVER BRANCHES of that order ever having been carried out, except north of the Northampton road, where such a highway still exists. For several generations following the middle of the eighteenth century, the Blairs — Matthew, Robert, Isaac, Jacob and others, — ran a saw mill down on Freeland brook in the eighth home lot, east side. Besides other Blair licensees already mentioned, Isaac was in the business as retailer for three years beginning 1783. Possibly there was a store in this vicinity.* As has been already stated, a centre of interest was close above Cochran pond, where the old Cochran house stands with broken back ready to tumble down into the cellar, the great chimney still doing its best to hold it up, while the little white school -house across the way is threatened with submer- gence by the fast growing saplings about it. This second division centre had to be con- nected with the village on the other street. Two or three ways were tried, crossing or bordering on Israel Gibbs's two lots, numbers 34 and 35, in each instance a short distance * The mill was not far from the bridge on the second division road below the second division school-house. 271 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES to the south of the present road to Hunting- ton. Bridle paths must have existed from the earliest times, connecting the various settlements, but I find no record of a regular road which would accommodate the com- munity at Westfield river branches until 1765. There were two early road surveys in this part, but it is almost impossible now to trace them out. All the roads passed the Cochran house and pond, or ran very near, and the earliest road, or roads, intersected the farm lot numbered 37. Here Jonas Henry ran a tavern for three years or more beginning in 1782. He had a farm overlooking the valley, where, let us hope, he and his guests fed their souls not altogether on the material things of the landlord's table and flowing bowl, but as well on the superb panorama of forest and stream, and hill and dale, which there the Creator has invited the eyes which see and the soul that comprehends, to behold and quaff the inspiration of. In the layout of a county road from Lenox to Becket, the committee for which, by the way, were Justus Ashmun, Samuel Sloper, Timothy Blair, sur- veyor, William Shepard and David Mack — 272 WESTFIELD RIVER BRANCHES three at least, Blandford men, and two of them taverners — allusion is made to "the high Way leading from West field to Partridge field between Jonas Henry House and Bridge," which might indicate that Henry was not very high up on the hill. At the foot of this hill, a little below the settlement, where the railroad crosses the north, or east, branch of the river, the two branches unite. The highway runs along the opposite, or south, side of the river. It is a most charming valley, the hills rising on either side in ever graceful convolutions, covered with verdure except where now and then a bare crag jutting out affords a pleasing contrast to the curvature of stream and mountain. On the two river branches above their junction are clustered the shops and homes of the village, upon which the pointed spires of two or three churches look peace- fully down. There was in the olden time a road running along the river bank, and one crossing it, as now, these roads proceeding on the one hand to the towns to the north, Norwich bridge being especially prominent. 273 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES and another leading southward up the hill to Blandford town. The settlement at Westfield river branches was by nature designed to be one by itself. Its jurisdiction unfortunately fell within the boundaries of several towns. In the 'sixties there was a tavern down there operated by one Mixer. That was some distance up the east branch of the river, in the town of Murray field, now Huntington. The burial ground used by this settlement lies near the river on this east branch, and contains many graves of Blandford people, some marked, but many more undesignated except by unhewn stones. John Bolton lived on the hither side of the Blandford town line, in the northeast corner farm lot, numbered 38, owning twenty-seven acres between the two branches of the river. The lot embraced, as I suppose, the present railroad station and a not inconsiderable section of the village. In 1770 a county road was laid from North- ampton to Blandford passing through Murray- field. It mentions Bolton's "old house" on the hill just above the "steep pitch," and "John Bolton begs Leave of y e honorable 274 WESTFIELD RIVER BRANCHES Court," the document continues, "to make Gates and Bars or he Cant fence his field because the flood carries away his fence." Bolton identified himself with the interests of Murrayfield. In the early nineteenth century there was a store at the cross-roads at the foot of the hill, kept by one Falley. The place was long known as Falley 's X (cross) roads. The propensity which some of the men who lived in this valley had for "taking their recreation in the river by swimming" on the Lord's day, has already been related. They had succeeded in getting themselves very much before public attention forty years before, in the very earliest period of settle- ment life down there. How many there were is not of record, nor why they were any more reluctant than the rest of the town to pay their "Provance tax." Tax-paying was not too eagerly indulged in by anyone. For some reason unrecorded and unknown the men of this neighborhood in 1762 refused to pay, or were slow in paying, the Province tax. Record of a town meeting held June 16, 1762, notes that "Insign W w Knox & 275 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES John Boies" were chosen a committee "to go to y e men at West field River Branches to see what Demands they" had "one the Town." William Boies was appointed at the same time to seek legal advice in case the committee of two desired it. Meantime the delinquents had been arrested and clapped into jail in Springfield, at the hands of Samuel Willson, constable. Presumably this was by higher authority than that of the town, which convened again June 28, and "voated the money Part of the Provance tax assessed" upon the imprisoned men "be Borrowed to Pay y e remainder" of the town's obligation. It was further "voated that In 5 Will m Boies be a Comeety to go to the men Living at Westfield River Branches that ware taken Prisoners by Samuel Willson Constable to Springfield for provance tax and to agree with them if they think proper or Carrey or Defend if prosecuted at the towns Coast." The amount of the aforesaid tax as borrowed is then given in twenty-five items, mostly of six shillings each, the largest sum being eight shillings. At a third meeting held August 24, eighteen shillings and five pence 276 WESTFIELD RIVER BRANCHES was granted to Samuel Boies "for a tending Court & seeing a Lawewar," and to William Boies ten shillings and fourteen pence for going to Northampton to secure counsel. The town appear to have lost their case, and gave a note upon interest for "one Pound Nine Shillings & four pence" borrowed of Samuel Boies to defray the charges in the affair. The itemized account is as follows: "Pay 1 * by In s Will m Knox to the men at Westfield River Branches for being taken Prisoners by Blandford Constable for province tax in behalf of the Town one Pound four Shillings & Eight pence "Pay d by John Knox in behalf of the Town one shilling six pence "Pay rf by John Boies in behalf of The Town two Shilling — "Pay d by James Willson in behalf of The Town twelve Shillings "Pay d by In 5 Will w Knox Seven Shillings in behalf of the Town the above S d Sums pay d to Defray the Charges for taking the men Prisoners for provance tax that Live at Westfield River Branches." 277 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES If one may trust all that has been written of New England innkeepers they were tra- ditionally prone to occupy the office of con- stable. Blandford innkeepers fought shy of the position, apparently because they did not incline to the delicate jobs which fell to such a functionary. But in this racket over the province tax, whatever it was, men who either were, or were to be, dispensers of public entertainment, were prominently active in defence of their fellow citizens down on the banks of the river. Meantime, without the shadow of a doubt, all the taverns in town were furnished with abundant topics of discussion the whole summer long. The task of climbing the mountain from the Westfield river valley to Blandford hilltop has ever appealed to those who have had it to do as the ascending of the hill Difficulty. Even to this day, after the Commonwealth has spent several thousand dollars grading the highway from Russell to Blandford, people open their eyes in wonder that the automobile club should choose this eyrie in their overland runs between Springfield and Lenox. But, as to learning, so in respect of 278 WESTFIELD RIVER BRANCHES the Berkshires, there is no royal road, unless indeed you take the railroad train, and that is confined to a narrow trail. The "terrible Glasgow or Westfield mountain" which Gen. Henry Knox so dreaded is even yet not easy to climb, and in the days of the pioneers it was far harder. The first route, the way of the settlers, was hardest of all, and note has already been taken of the Hampden and Berkshire turnpike of the nineteenth century. Before that was cut through, and while the choice seemed to be confined to the old Birch hill route or the way by the river and up the hill from Westfield river branches, another road was exploited in the year 1780, on petition "of a Number of Inhabitants of the Town of Blandford." The road asked for was to begin at "Wellers Mills in Westfield." Thence it was to proceed to "Whippernung," then crossing the river "by Lovewell Thomas's," wherever that may have been, it was to pass Titus Doolittle's. Just where Doolittle's was I cannot definitely say, but I strongly suspect it was not very far below the present village of Russell, on the river bank. From Doo- little's the road was asked for "the best way 279 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES the ground will admit untill it joins the Road from Murraysfield to Blandford, as hereby," the petitioners add, "the Road from Pitts- field & Albany to Westfield would be shortened and Westfield mountain avoided." The pro- posed entrance of this highway into Bland- ford from the east was about five miles in a bee line to the north of the old route. The commissioners granted the prayer of the petitioners, and the road was made to pass the house of Philemon Doolittle, no mention being made of Titus Doolittle of the petition. Now Philemon Doolittle had at this time a farm in the five-hundred-acre lot numbered 40, through which Black's brook runs, and which is bounded on the west by the settlement lots, and on the east by the town of Russell. Two roads enter this lot from the town last named; one from the river road a little west of the village, passing along up the north bank of Black's brook, which runs through a mighty gorge. The road takes the steep incline on the top of a bank of sand as fine as that of the sea, then through meadow and upland to the Hunt- ington, or old Murrayfield, road, a mile or 280 WESTFIELD RIVER BRANCHES two above John Bolton's old farm. The other road passes through the same farm lot on the south side of the brook, farther distant from it, and has been known in later time as the Stony gutter road, the upper part of which has in recent years been abandoned, and connection made with the other road. It used to run directly up the hill to the Cochran place. On one of these two roads Philemon Doolittle lived. This section of the town traversed by these two roads, midway between the Cochran place and the present village of Russell, was formerly known as the "East part." It was a busy, thriving community, with good farms. The upland mowings are even now far-stretching and attractive. There were shops along the brook, and a tavern or two offered hospitality to the traveller and afforded a rendezvous in leisure hours for the men of the neighborhood. Roger Parks had his tavern in 1783 apparently on the southerly of these roads, near to the extreme boundary of the town. The house stands there empty, on a marvellously beauti- ful plateau, imposing monument of a for- 281 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES gotten day. There are roomy and empty horse sheds in the rear. The old well- sweep and "moss-covered bucket" no longer inspire in boyish souls a store of "fond recollection" for later years, but are useless and dry except to entice the sentimental passer to focus his camera upon them or weave in his imagina- tion a fabric of story which no historian has ever transcribed. Warham Parks was also out there in 1784 and '85; and not improbably began his career as a landlord in this Parks homestead. The records tell not a tithe of what the curious seeker would like to know about this ancient community, and I have not discovered a soul that can tell me much of anything about it. But the registry of deeds reveals a surprising activity in this location after the county road just described was opened. Here were Parkses and Knoxes and Cooks and Days and Phelpses. Here Randall Nye came to settle. Here Logan Crosby rose from the low estate of "laborer" until he finally assumed the proud honor of "Gentleman," which latter title, almost of course, was won through some connection 282 WESTFIELD RIVER BRANCHES with the inn business. There were clothiers' shops in this community. William Knox had his "Cyder mill" and Sylvester and Son, who kept store in the centre of the town — the new village — got a foot-hold here through execu- tion processes, and not improbably opened a store, as has been recited in a previous chapter. William Knox had a retailer's license, and so, by inference, kept a store, in 1785 and 1787, and I know not how much longer. Plin Day was a hatter, operating hereabout, and had a license in 1816. I have been unable from the deeds satisfac- torily to locate the buildings of these men, and diligent inquiry among elderly men having general knowledge of local traditions has resulted only in fixing the initial ignor- ance. So successfully has oblivion laid its heavy hand on so much of this old town and the adjoining sections in respect of the silent past, that there are by very far many more things which the historian wants to know and cannot find out than are discernible. Houses that are left indicate a one-time thrift and success, a breadth of activity and a grasp of resource where now is emptiness or 283 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES the incoming of the very humble foreigner, or else of the non-resident land-holder who buys up large acres of sheep pasture, while the old homes for the most part stand deso- lated, the swift prey of wind, weather and decay. The other day a gentleman, losing his way and wandering off upon the road on which stands the tavern with the well-sweep near by, with curtainless windows and grass- grown paths, fetched up at last to report drearily that he had seen nothing but hills and abandoned school-houses, and could not discover where ever the children came from that might have filled those fountains of knowledge. There were three such institu- tions on the route of his solitary digression. The surveyed limit of the county road which pierced this interesting corner of the town was by one of these idle school- houses : "to Mr. Cochrans north Side of his House West 28 rods to a heap of Stones the Southerly side of the Highway by the School House be- tween Mr. John Crooks and Mr. Mitchells." "Ten miles three Quarters & Sixty six rods," the record runs, "from said (Weller's) Mills to the County Road in Blanford," meaning, 284 WESTFIELD RIVER BRANCHES as I suppose, from end to end, — Weller's in Westfield to Cochran's in Blandford. 285 Chapter Eleven The North End THE "North End" so called was an im- portant settlement of the town almost from the very first. The term is found in the town records as early as 1742, when Walter Steward was made road sur- veyor for that district. In 1760 the same gentleman was constable for that end of town. The northern part of the town street was not the part designated by the term under consideration. Above the home lot 23 there was no thoroughfare, only a local road. In the lot just named another road veered off to the northwest, crossing diago- nally several of the settlement lots; then it ran between the farm lots 20 and 21, into 17 and 2 and on to No. 4, or the town of Becket. It was early a town road, and became a county road by 1759, the farther extension of it being at Pontusuc, now Pittsfield. In 1801 it was made part of the Eleventh Massachusetts Turnpike. This road, be- THE NORTH END tween the home lots and the point at which it passed beyond the limits of the town, was the North end. When the turnpike was laid out, damages were awarded as follows: to Levi Boies, $10; "Wido" Jane Wallace, $12; Joseph Badger, $4; William Brown, $5; Isaac Gibbs, $26; Oliver Coe, $6; Ephraim Howe, $4; Samuel Thrall, $10; James Beard, $9; Ben- jamin Taggard (Taggart) , $2. Mr. Gibbs, in his Historical Address several times quoted in these pages, is probably right in the asser- tion that this extension of the town street was the first road over which stages passed through Blandford from Springfield to Albany, inasmuch as the old Berkshire road, the post road so called, was abandoned as the popular route before the time of stages came in. The lecturer just now quoted says, "Per- haps it will not be boasting for us to state, that for six miles on this road, there are better farms than on any other road for the same distance upon the mountains." It is indeed a most charming country of rolling plateau and meadow, with commanding land- scapes stretching far onward, north and west 287 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES to the hills of New Hampshire and Vermont, and to Greylock in the far northwest corner of the State looking down on the institution where so many of Blandford's early and dis- tinguished sons sat at the feet of the sages of Williams college. Fringing the westerly edge of this North end settlement, lay the Green woods which bulked so large in the itineraries of the stage lines and which, so far as this section of them is concerned, bear the name to this day. Ranged along this highway • was a con- siderable number of comfortable homes, some of which are now in the last stages of ruin, while others are still occupied. Signs of decrepitude multiply with the years. There was a bunch of taverns in this neighborhood. Except for the passing of the stages, the little community must have lived a life very much of its own, the Sunday meeting being pretty nearly the only occasion for mixing with the rest of the people. High and sightly, with wide-spreading fields and genial and inviting aspect, spite of now and then a crumbling ruin, the community, still with its school, appeals to the passer as substantial and 288 Harroun — Sinnet — Bruce Tavern and Bar-room THE NORTH END hospitable. Plenty of life was there, as tradition abundantly attests. Long years before the stages, came the taverns. When the stages at last arrived, a few years after the close of the Revolution, tavern business increased greatly. Then, within fifty miles of Albany there were as many taverns ranged along the turnpike to the Connecticut river, and these were not enough to accommodate the demand. Visitors to Blandford, learning something of the tavern story of the town, wonder at the tale. It is in fact but part of the larger story. A practical repetition of what went on in the street nearer the meeting-house might be told of the North end. Almost every house on the thoroughfare for a few miles was a tavern or looks as if it had been. Three of record still stand in consecutive order, while a fourth was a licensed house. The oldest building in this neighborhood is near the corner of the road leading to North Blandford, once known as the road to the mill. Decay has fast taken hold on it, a great tree has blown over upon it, and soon the old caravansary will be no more. This 289 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES corner lot was first disposed of by the pro- prietor, John Foye, to James Lumus, in 1759, who sold it to Ephraim Gibbs three years later. Ten years later still, Gibbs passed it on to Solomon Brown. There then stood on it "a Mansion House & a Barn." Without a reasonable doubt it is the same as that which now feebly survives. Deacon Ephraim Gibbs had a retailer's license in 1768, and for the years following until and including 1773. Just where he went to live and continue his store after selling out to Brown it is hard to say, but apparently in this near vicinity, where Abner Gibbs lived after him. Ebenezer Crocker was the next owner, 1776 to 1780. Then David Harroun bought the property and ran the house as a tavern. Crocker also may quite likely have been employed there in the same business. The records were kept only interruptedly during the war, or, if kept, they were not all preserved. A significant note is spread upon the town records, under date of January 16, 1781, following the record of an earlier meeting devoted to choosing commissioned officers, 290 THE NORTH END raising the town's quota of soldiers and pro- viding supplies. At the later meeting just referred to, it was resolved to borrow "500 silver dollars." It was also voted "Granted to David Herren (Harroun) Seventy two pounds for Transporting Two Hundred weight of powder from Boston for the Towns use." The landlord was quite a natural person to choose for such a purpose, as the nature of his business took him now and then to Boston, and he was always a man of affairs. When he returned from such a trip his bar-room would be neither empty nor silent. Two hundred pounds of powder in saddle bags was a delicate and responsible freight to carry at such a time, and stories of how the war was going, as well as incidents of the way, would make Harroun 's house for a time a popular place. Of course the lads were there to hear the fathers and in little groups by themselves to exchange ideas. Edward Field says,* "Nearly every one of the country taverns throughout the colonies bore some part in the revolutionary struggle. Its im- portance in the community made it the * In ThelColonial Tavern, p. 265. 291 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES rendezvous for the townspeople; within it the patriots of '76 bade their last farewell to friends and neighbors before joining the army; around the board in the dining-room the town authorities made provisions for supplying the army in the field and the dis- tressed families of those who were fighting for liberty, or had fallen in freedom's cause. Here was received the first news of victory or defeat, and when peace threw her mantle over the contending forces, the walls of the old taverns rang with the shouts of victory, and the returning victors were feted and feasted in the same familiar room wherein they had subscribed to their oaths of enlist- ment, and where had been laid the plans for the building of a new nation." David Harroun sold his tavern to Margaret Sinnet in 1783. Margaret married Ebenezer Bruce and sold the place to James Sinnet in 1787. The Sinnets had their homesteads at lot 23 of the first division, later owned by Samuel Knox, and the two properties became more or less interrelated on account of the intermarriage. The Sinnets and Bruces, in- cluding Jesse Bruce, apparently a son of 292 1 Taggart Tavern Capt. Abner Gibbs's House THE NORTH END Ebenezer, appear to have carried the license along well toward the end of the century or even past it, when the career of the place as a tavern ceased, and the North end at last added to its other distinctions that of having a resident physician in the person of Thomas Lucas, whose father bought this place. Nathaniel Taggart came to this part of town in 1759 from Second division street. He was a blacksmith. He sold his land in the second division in part to William Mitchel, who operated the mill, and, in 1765, to Rev. James Morton. It seemed always easy for a blacksmith in the olden days to become an innholder. There is record of Taggart 's license in 1769 and three years following, which is not saying he was not in the business much longer. The house is a little to the east of the one last described, was outwardly of the salt-box type, but the interior plan was essentially like that of its near neighbor to the west. It was not meanly appointed, if one may judge from the fact that its parlor walls were hand -frescoed. The house was built to stand for centuries, as all of those old house 3 were, and as all of them would 293 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES stand, if they had received the care of con- tinuous occupancy and thrift. The cellar underneath this old hostelry is well worthy of a visit, filled as of yore with all good things of farm and kitchen. One sees there the blackened and hardened stringers of quartered oak, tough as steel, and its stairway made of steps also quartered from the log and spiked upon heavy rails slanted to receive them. The first proprietor of the house died in 1787, in the sixty-first year of his age. His tomb- stone in the old burying-ground near to the street is a pretentious sandstone slab, with face to the sky, resting on four substantial pillars. It bears this appealing epitaph: Some hearty friend Shall drop a Tear On our dry Bones and say these once were strong as mine appear And mine must be as they Of the numerous conventions assembled to take counsel concerning matters of war, finance or general welfare, Nathaniel Taggart had represented the town at one, as the 294 THE NORTH END following minute of August 16, 1779, bears witness: "Granted to Nathaniel Taggart fifteen Pound for going to Northampton to Convention two days and a half." There was more discussion for tavern frequenters. The name of Taggart, albeit no family in Blandford now bears it, is more than a reminiscence. A school is still in the old North end, whose numbers have within two or three years past rivalled those of any other school in town. One might find many a citi- zen unable to tell the number of the district, but few who would not know it as that of the Taggart- school. In due course of time the mortal remains of Widow Taggart had followed those of her husband to their final resting place in the old burying- ground, where the curious visitor reads, carved on an upright sandstone slab, this inscription: In memory of M rs Jane Taggart: wife of Mr Nathaniel Tag gart, who died August 24th 1808, in the 80th year of her age. In her will she bequeathed to the 3 d school district in Blandford 295 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES 1200 Dolls. To commemorate her Charity & worth, this Monument is erected by said Destrict. Visitors have been seen to stand before this stone erected by the grateful "Destrict" in wonder and awe when they considered what a paradise of joy the girls of the olden time must have had with so many dolls. In truth, if the gift had been dolls instead of dollars, perhaps some uncomfortable history might have been saved to the people most concerned; for while the fund has promoted education, time has been when it also bred envy and discord. A prolonged and ex- pensive litigation grew out of its administra- tion, and neighborhood quarrels were pro- moted. There was at one time a brick school standing within the district on ground claimed in part by one individual, and in part by another. In the night the building was sawn clean in two from top to bottom. After that the school-house took fire. This fund has now increased to something near $5,000. It is still administered — no longer in strife — for the benefit of the district by a board of trustees annually elected. 296 THE NORTH END The Gibbs families were somewhat numer- ous in the North end. Deacon Ephraim Gibbs, who was a large dealer in real estate, and built him a house on the north side of the road, a little west of the Sanderson hill road, otherwise called the Smith road, in lot 20, carried a retailer's license from 1768 to 1773. The house, which is in good preserva- tion, bears the likeness of the traditional Blandford tavern — a substantial two-story house with gable roof, broad side to the street, and the bar-room door on the corner. The old Baird tavern, standing on the corner of the county road and the road to Chester, is a well preserved relic of the olden time whose history has been transmitted through an unbroken line of succession to the present generation. The house is very similar in plan to the Boies tavern, standing in the same relation to the street, and its corner bar-room door looking up the same toward the school-house. Samuel A. Barthol- omew, who went to his long home two or three winters ago at the ripe age of eighty, a worthy representative of the old country squire, passed on the precious traditions of 297 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES the house from memories of his boyhood and from the remembered stories of those whose lives were spent in the midst of turn- pike and tavern days in this old inn. The farm was bought by James Baird in 1768.* When the house was building a man labored two months with a yoke of oxen drawing and laying stone for the foundation and chimney. The timbers are still sound, and the house stands firmer probably than any house built in town for two generations. The original chimney and fire places are there still, some of the panels are left in the rooms, and the doors still swing on their home-made hinges. There was a wine cellar the only entrance to which was originally by a separate flight of stairs close to the bar. Mr. Bartholomew habitually spoke of the road which passes this house as a govern- ment road — "continental road" was the term he used. Our last acquaintance with it was as a turnpike. That learned and careful * Mr. Bartholomew gave the date as 1748, but the deed says 1768. Mr. Bartholomew also regarded the purchaser as the original settler of the name given, but he was probably the son, James, Jr. The license, according to the county record, was twenty years later still, viz., 178S. But as in the case of Colonel Sloper and Squire Jedediah Smith, not to mention others, so perhaps here also the actual business was entered upon much earlier than the accessible documents bear witness. 298 THE NORTH END historian, Dr. J. G. Holland, also wrote of a road from Fally's store "by the West Branch of the river through parts of Blandford and Chester, until it reached what was known as the Government road, by which it ran to Becket, connecting the road from Blandford to Pittsfield."* Such a road as this was exempt from all tolls, and obtained by so much an advantage over all others, f The idea was an important development of the history of travel and traffic in the period just preceding the railroads. My old friend of the one-time inn told me that the measured distance between his house and the post office was just four miles, while that between the village of North Blandford and the top of the hill overlooking the village by the house of the late William Bowers, at the westerly edge of the ten-acre lot, was three and a half miles. Notwithstanding this very slight difference in favor of the latter road, the turnpike of 1829 robbed the continental road of half its stage business, "the distance being shortened," said the old gentleman in * History of Western Massachusetts, Vol. I, p. 313. t I have not been able, as I would like, to get at the detailed facts about this national road. 299 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES fine irony, "by lengthening the miles." Of the old tavern, standing at the corner of two important thoroughfares, it might have been written, as James Whitcomb Riley wrote* of one other: "The upper story looked squarely down Upon the main street, and the main highway From East to West, — historic in its day, Known as- the National Road — old-timers, all Who linger yet, will happily recall It as the scene and handiwork, as well As property, of 'Uncle Sam,' and tell Of its importance, 'long and long afore Railroads wuz ever dreamp' of!' — Furthermore, The reminiscent first inhabitants Will make that old road blossom with romance Of snowy caravans, in long parade Of covered vehicles, of every grade From ox-cart of most primitive design, To Conestoga wagons, with their fine Deep-chested six-horse teams, in heavy gear, High names and chiming bells — to childish ear And eye entrancing as the glittering train Of some sun-smitten pageant of old Spain. And, in like spirit, haply they will tell You of the roadside forests, and the yell Of 'wolfs' and 'painters,' in the long night-ride, And 'screeching catamounts' on every side, — * In his "The Child World." 300 THE NORTH END Of stagecoach days, highwaymen, and strange crimes, And yet unriddled mysteries of the times Called 'Good Old.' 'And why "Good Old?" 'once a rare Old chronicler was asked, who brushed the hair Out of his twinkling eyes and said, — 'Well John, They're "good old times" because they're dead and gone!' " Of " 'wolfs' and 'painters,' in the long night ride, And 'screeching catamounts' on every side" there are traditions yet lingering among the elders of the old stock, handed down from generation to generation. It was in these very Green woods fringing the North end that John Noble found himself one evening a good deal later than he liked to be out. He was meeting an appointment with a friend in Becket, and had been detained from starting at as early an hour as he had intended. It was universally considered unsafe to be out alone of an evening. Out there in the woods he heard the wolves and hurried on. He had crossed an intersecting road and had passed beyond it a little way, when, looking back, he saw the whole pack crossing where 301 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES he had crossed a few minutes before, but at right angles to his path, the hungry and ravening brutes being too stupid and raging to take accurately the scent or look to one side. John Noble tarried not by the way and reached his destination to the relief of his friend as well as of himself. This same John Noble was on a marketing trip, so the story goes, when he was less fortunate. Having on a load of hams, he was compelled to dole them out one by one to a pack of wolves which this time found him out. He reached a place of safety just as he had de- livered the last ham. It was not very far away from the North end, in the quarter once called New state, where Warren Parks had an interview with a 'catamount.' This was early in the day, and the beast was in a challenging mood. Parks had no weapon, but he was a powerful man. When it came to a question between 'catamount' and Parks, that individual intended that the fight should not be altogether one-sided. The cat stripped all the clothes off him, and he was obliged to hang round the bushes until nightfall, when he could get home in his state of nature 302 THE NORTH END without a shock to his feelings and those of his neighbors. But the cat was no more. Of the personality of the man who was landlord of the Beard house for so many years, little is known. It is almost too bad to take that little from the quaint and melancholy chapters of church discipline. Such pro- ceeding seems to smack of indelicacy or ir- reverence, as though Beard were a sinner above all others, or as though nothing should be too sacred, or too private to be dragged out into the lime-light of a curious modern age. But perhaps it may be considered that in respect of self-indulgence on the Lord's day, a solitary sinner of a century and a quarter ago has a good deal of company in the time that now is, while as for the rest, it is not every offender who has either con- science or courage to make confession. Be- sides, such events must be told if one would really learn the spirit and manner of the time. It was made public then: why not now let it speak for a generation that is gone indeed, but which had its moulding power over the century which followed? So have I already spoken of others "of like passions as we are." 303 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES In the flush of spring, when the shad were running, James Beard along with other fellow mortals went fishing. No picture of the ancient times could ever be complete without the story of the shad season. Salmon was the fish of the aristocracy, who considered shad to be fit only for the vulgar. After 1750 the price of this latter fish dropped to a penny each. During and following the Revolution, the price rose to two or three coppers or more for each fish. Such prices brought them within the means of the poorest. So the plebeians ate shad, while the patricians feasted on salmon. Shad figure in the records of sales of Samuel Sloper, but no salmon, for it is hardly likely they found their way to the humble homes of Blandford. The shad season attracted crowds to the river, some coming as far as from the Berkshire towns, equipped with bags in which to bring home the catch. It was a gala time, and farmers' turnouts were to be seen on every hilltop and in every glade going and returning during the carnival season. And since fish do not keep as long in May or June as in December, and inasmuch as the shad chose the warmer 304 THE NORTH END months of spring to spawn, our friend Beard came to his downfall in the days of spring. It was Sunday, and Baird's catch of shad was far from the tavern at the North end. By Sunday night they were at "Sacket's," at the foot of the mountain, in Westfield. It has since been known as Washington's tavern, and is just where the original company of Blandford settlers stopped to rest over night before their memorable mountain climb. The next day, doubtless, the fish were on the table tempting the appetites of James Beard's family and guests. By the time they had reached Blandford heights the fish were aristocratic enough for any. James Beard hardened his heart against minister and elders who labored with him earnestly and long. It was more than a year before he came to a better mind; but come at last he did, and the Sunday before Christmas, 1789, his public confession was read "before the Church and congregation," the Rev. Joseph Badger presiding in the pulpit: "I James Beard under a sense of the sinfulness of violating the commands of God & of my own conduct in that particular, do 305 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES now humbly acknowledge that a year ago some time last spring I did exceeding sin- fully in performing my own business on the Lords day in bringing a load of shad fish from Connecticut river to sackets at the foot of the mountain." Then follows a further and explicit portrayal of his sin in violation "both of divine & human laws," and of his offence to his "christian brethren and reproach to the christian name," concluding with the expressed wish that henceforth he might be kept from "wandering out of the path of duty, and be more faithful" in his "christian walk." Thus was Beard's tavern given a practical application of its moral tutelage under the church, and the whole community reminded of the reign of a higher law. 306 Chapter Twelve Tales of Stage- Coach and Wayside Inn THE Bartholomews came into possession of the Baird tavern in 1810, and began to occupy it, though no longer as a public house, in 1814. It was the home for nearly eighty years of Samuel A. Bartholomew, mentioned in the preceding chapter. He remembered the stages well, two passing the house in either direction each day. Each coach was driven by four horses, and the vehicles were packed full. The stages con- tinued to stop at the old stand to take ad- vantage of a never-failing well of pure, cold water. Perhaps they prized the water more as the taverns became fewer. In any event the horses doubtless appreciated nature's original gift. With a genial twinkle in his blue eyes this octogenarian used to tell with relish the stories of his boyhood; how he remembered, when a small child, being daily tossed up by the driver of the stage to the TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES high boot of the coach to ride as far as to the next house, the one-time inn of David Har- roun and Ebenezer Bruce, and there was lowered down again gently to the ground to run back home — "hundreds of times," he said. He recalled the later stages, when they were run by relays of ten miles at a lap. The driver would blow his horn at the distance of about half a mile from the stopping place, where the men at the stable, hearing it, would harness fresh horses and have them all ready to continue the journey without delay. Then they would go on again their mad pace of ten miles an hour. These were the "express" stages. When these things were done Blandford was not in a corner. "Jerod" Cables was the stable boy — a negro — and Duty Underwood sold the rum at the Baird house. These worthies used to tell Mr. Bartholomew about the old tavern days, and how, in the busy season of the year , the house often entertained from forty to fifty teams in a night. In reply to the young listener's doubt of the truth of such a yarn, old "Jerod" would give his peculiar 308 1 The Baird Tavern 2 Bar-room — The Modern Living-Room STAGE-COACH AND WAYSIDE INN African laugh, and reply, "My boy, you don't know how we lived in them days. The barn was one hundred feet long, with an outside shed running the entire length of it, and stood where your garden is now. When teams began to stop for the night, we filled the barn with horses, then the shed. If others came, they had to hitch their horses out. We fed the horses hay; each teamster carried his own grain; the house furnished the men their food and rum; and when they wished to retire, they would bring in their buffalo robes, and camp on the floor — they would not have rested in a bed."* Incredulity at such a tale as this has not been confined to the boy listener. Scepticism of a similar sort has been provoked in other minds, not excepting the initiated in tavern service of a later generation. But the story bears the marks of authenticity. The railroad had not then come into being or imagination. A few years marked the passage from one world into another. Reference to the buffalo robes and the "busy season" easily places this rush * This story I have given almost exactly in the language of Mr. Bartholo- mew, who, though he had lost out of it the peculiar narrative flavor of the untutored African, had nevertheless retained the substance of the facts. 309 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES of tavern patronage and rustic travel in the heart of winter, the traditional season of trade for the agriculturist. So high an authority on these matters as Mrs. Earle puts this condition of winter bustle at the taverns among the veritable commonplaces of New England life, and Blandford was no exception: "The two-horse pung, or the single-horse pod, shod with steel shoes an inch thick, was closely packed with the accumulated farm wealth — whole pigs, fir- kins of butter, casks of cheese (four cheeses in a cask,) bags of beans, peas or corn, skins of mink, fox and fisher-cat that the boys had trapped, birch brooms that the boys had made, yarn that their sisters had spun, and stockings and mittens that they had knitted, — in short, anything that a New England farm could produce that would sell to any profit in a New England town." As for the sleeping room, "a great fire was built in the fireplace of either front room — the bedroom and parlor— and round it in a semi-circle, feet to the fire and heads on their rolled-up buffalo robes, slept the tired travellers. . . . It was certainly a gay winter scene as sleigh 310 STAGE-COACH AND WAYSIDE INN after sleigh dashed into the tavern barn or shed, and the stiffened driver, after 'putting up' his steed, walked quickly to the bar-room, where sat the host behind his cage-like counter, where ranged the inspiring barrels of old Medford or Jamaica rum and hard cider, and 'Where dozed a fire of beechen logs that bred Strange fancies in its embers golden-red, And nursed the loggerhead, whose hissing dip Timed by nice instinct, creamed the bowl of flip.' " The story of this writer of New England's by-gone customs is to all intents and pur- poses — except the one item of meals, wherein she makes the farmer carry his own, while the Baird tavern servants testified to their being served by the house — is the story of Blandford's farmers and Blandford's taverns a hundred and more years agone. The men did not always go in caravans, however, as the story of John Noble's encounter with wolves testifies, but the expediency of doing so is by this story well illustrated. When the traveler had got himself com- fortably housed in this tavern of James Baird, 311 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES no doubt he told stories and cracked jokes and drank flip and rum. He had other questionable employments besides the last named. The bar was in one corner of the southeast room, the floor of which was laid in hard maple, one and a quarter inches thick. The premises themselves have told the story, for the floor of this tap-room had to be re-laid by one of the elder Bartholomews shortly after the purchase, so worn had it become, es- pecially at the corners which were scooped out like saucers by the guests pitching coins. It was worn, in fact, to holes, for under- neath, when the work of repair was done, several silver coins of various denominations were picked up, including a Spanish milled dollar, of date 1806, bearing the legend, "CAROLUS III. DEI GRATII REX HIS- PANIA ET IND." The general trading centre for the people was Hartford, though something also was done in Westfield, possibly in Springfield. Connecticut, however, always appealed to the early resident of Blandford, and Hartford was the great trading mart. In his inimita- ble way Dr. Daniel Butler thus tells of a visit 312 STAGE-COACH AND WAYSIDE INN from his Beech hill home to that city. This was not, indeed, for the sole purpose of trad- ing, nor was it in winter. But it has this unique advantage, that it is a description of the trip with the memory of childhood's enthusiasm and imagination. "The journey we occasionally made from Blandford in my childhood will never be forgotten. Old Jack was brought from the pasture the day before, and trimmed, curried and fed — the wagon greased and all due preparation made for the journey. From the moment of leaving till we returned, I was in a world of romance — the first object that attracted my attention was Squire Stowe's two-storied white house — four miles from home. White houses were rare in those days, and two stories seldom indulged in on the Hill. East Granville dazzled my sight with its two stores, church, hotel, and es- pecially its Doves and Martins, giving evi- dence that we had reached a higher civiliza- tion. From that point the extreme and beautiful view to the east afforded a fore- taste of the wonders to be witnessed that day. Every man we met to my imagination 313 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES belonged to an elevated order of beings. The meadows and streams were surpassingly beautiful — the last populous with trout. At Case's tavern* fourteen miles from home we halted to feed and rest the horse. Here was a peacock, the first we had ever seen, and Guinea fowls discoursed wonderful music in an orchard bending with fruit fairer than that of the Hesperides. Salmon Brook and the Farmington river and the meadows through which they flowed added to the wonders of the day. At Griswold's Mills, now Tariff ville, we crossed the Farmington and passed over a spur of Talcott mountain, and the really beautiful prospect afforded us seemed to have its parallel only on that mountain from whence the great Lawgiver looked upon Canaan. Descending from this height we halted again at Benton's tavern, f refreshing Jack with the liberal quantity of two quarts of oats, and ourselves with a glass of sling — this was before the days of temper- ance. Thence for the space of five miles we rode over wide sand plains without fences, where fields of corn and rye pressed closely * In North Granby. t At Spoonville, called now North Bloomfield. 314 STAGE-COACH AND WAYSIDE INN upon our path and stretched out like a sea on every side. Soon after leaving the plain the indications of our approach to the city* began to increase. White palings began to appear about the house and wagons were met oftener. Three miles out of the city the spires of three out of the four churches — (the Episcopal, North and South Congrega- tional) came into view, and the rest of the ride was through a fairy land. We went quite through the town and over the little bridge out to Uncle Wells where a hospitable welcome always awaited us. Here every- thing was new and wonderful, — -the barn had a fragrance not imparted by mountain hay, and everything in and around the house had a glory all its own." This was in the main the same road as that traversed by the caravans of traders who stopped over night at Beard's, forty double teams in a night, for these all, so far as the city of Hartford may have been their destination, had to go by way of Beech hill, past Daniel Butler's house, after having traversed North meadow and over what was then known as the Step ♦At West Hartford. 315 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES hill road and past the little tavern once carried on by John Lloyd. It is too bad that no note or tradition of any kind has survived the lapse of years to tell of the shows and vaudevilles which in- variably chose the tavern for their operation. Such a house as Baird's must have seen many an exhibition of bear-dancing, minstrel or playwright. The memory of these has gone and left not a rack behind. But the vision of boys and girls, little and big, enjoying life with an added intensity for a brief moment, as these shows came and quickly vanished, requires the inspiration of no very rare fancy. The busy days are gone from the old caravansary where Jerod Cables and Duty Underwood did long service. Its tall lilacs, twisted and toughened by the storms of nearly a century, and high as the eaves of the house, gave it — until its new coat of paint was just laid on — a somnolent and reverent aspect of retrospection. The old chimney, solid and commodious, has looked down on the children passing to and fro these many years between their homes and school, as if to smile a silent and unappreciated 316 STAGE-COACH AND WAYSIDE INN blessing for the newer times when life is so changed in its outward aspect yet so like in its abiding essentials. No smoke now issues forth of a winter night to speak of cheer and temptation within, for it has become trans- formed into a bright and inviting summer home for dwellers in the town. The old volume is closed ; a new one has begun. In 1859, some years after the pristine glory of the stage-coach had departed, but when many a man who had made it the institution it had been was still in the flesh, a convention was held in Springfield which the Springfield Republican in its report called "The Gathering of Old Whips." Watson E. Boise of Bland- ford was there, having with him a contract from Postmaster-General Granger, bearing date of 1806, a document which was issued to his father, Enos Boise, who for twenty- two years held the contract for carrying the mails between Hartford and Stockbridge. "Enos Boise, grandfather of Enos Watson Boise, the present town clerk of Blandford, began in the staging business about 1800, and but 12 years were lacking to round out a century when his grandson finished out the 317 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES pending contracts which remained when Watson E. Boise, son of the elder Enos, died in 1892, after following stage-coaching almost 70 years. Old Enos Boise began to drive coach when he was about 24. Six years later, in 1806, Mr. Boise made his first con- tract with the government to carry mails. This first contract was for the old Hartford route, which went from Stockbridge, through Blandford to Granville, Granby, Simsbury and Hartford. Watson Boise, son of Enos, was born in 1808 and was literally brought up in the business. He drove stage as soon as he was old enough, and when he was 21 his father gave him the old Hartford route, and he continued it until it was given up. "The high water mark in the coaching days came under Watson Boise, and at one time he was interested in some 40 routes in Western Massachusetts, out of New Haven and Hartford and some in western Connecti- cut. He was one of the best known men following the picturesque calling and was familiar with most of the men at 'the gather- ing of old whips.' He had been in partner- ship with many men in the various lines in 318 STAGE-COACH AND WAYSIDE INN which he was interested. Chester W. Chapin was one of his partners, and he had also been in business with Lewis Chapman. A party to so many contracts with the government went occasionally to Washington. When there on one of these trips, somewhere about 1870, one of the assistant postmasters-gen- eral told him that he had been in the govern- ment mail service a longer continuous period than any other man living. For 20 years longer he remained in the service, so one might readily believe that at the time of his death his record was even more distinctive, although whether or not it has ever been equaled cannot now be said."* That Watson Boise knew something of "high water mark," is confirmed by a story of him at the time of a great flood. He had reached Little river on his return trip from Hartford, where he was told by the neighbors that the bridge was gone, and he could not get across. He had two powerful horses, and he himself was no tenderfoot. A detour meant going round by North Blandford, eight or ten miles farther, and this was en- * Quoted from an article in the Springfield Republican of March 8, 1908. 319 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES tirely unattractive to him. He had the mail and two lady passengers. He offered the ladies the choice of being left behind with some of the neighbors, or, if they had the courage, to ford the river with him. In vain the gathered bystanders tried to dissuade him from the perilous task. They told him it could not be done. He thought it could. The two ladies were loath to be left behind also, so they all essayed to cross. Deeper and deeper into the raging waters he went, until the horses were covered except their heads, and the driver was holding the lines aloft, while the ladies were appealing to him to return, for they did not want to drown "with all those people looking on," as though a greater seclusion might have reconciled them to a fate which the mail carrier for his part had no idea of meeting just then whether alone or in company. He got himself and his precious freight safely across. How the mail fared the story does not relate, but Mr. Boise could be trusted with the service under any conditions. A contract between the Government and Enos Boise in 1820 marks out this route and 320 *\>>K ^**L ■■•• *,%>£ ■<& "County Road from James Beard's to Barrington Road Toward Hartford STAGE-COACH AND WAYSIDE INN itinerary : ' ' from Hartford Ct by Wintonbury Simsbury Granby Granville Middle Gran- ville Blandford Fallys X Roads Chester and Middle field to Hinsdale once a week and back at the rate of sixty eight dollars & seventy five cents for every quarter of a year." "Leave Hartford every Tuesday at 2 PM Arrive at Granville Thursday by 1 PM & Arrive at Hinsdale on Thursday by 6 PM Leave Hinsdale every Friday at 6 AM and Arrive at Hartford on Tuesday by 9 AM" A later contract with Watson E. Boise, of date 1832, is more detailed and throws some light on the manner of carrying the mails and the comparative importance of the several posts along the route. This contract in- cludes "newspaper privilege," a little note of the widening reading habits of the people. The contract reads, in part : "1. To carry the mail of the United States, from (No. 359) Hartford Ct. by Wintonbury Tariff ville, Granby, North Granby, and East Granville Ms. Blandford, Fally's 4 Roads, Chester, Middlefield & Washington To Hins- dale & back once a week in stages between Hartford and Blandford & in a sulky between Blandford & Hinsdale, No. 437 From Hart- ford Ct. by Wintonbury, Simsbury, West 321 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES Granby, & Hartford, to Middle Granville Ms. & back twice a week in stages at the rate of One hundred and forty dollars for every quarter of a year." This was the itinerary: "No. 359. "Leave Hartford every Wednesday- Arrive at Blandford Same day Leave Blandford every Thursday Arrive at Hinsdale Same day Leave Hinsdale every Friday Arrive at Blandford Same day Leave Blandford every Tuesday Arrive at Hartford Same day No. 437 Leave Hartford Tuesday & Saturday Arrive at Middle Granville Same days Leave Middle Granville every Monday & Friday Arrive at Hartford Same days The earlier contract, and, with the excep- tion of some verbal changes, the later one also, contained this item: "9. That when the said mail goes by a stage wagon, it shall invariably be carried within the body of a comfortable stage, or in a secure and dry boot under the driver's feet, suitable for the accommodation of at least seven travellers, under a penalty of twenty dollars for each 322 at 6 A. M. by 4 P. M. at 6 A. M. by 6 P. M. at 6 A. M. by 5 P. M. at 6 A. M. by 4 P. M. at 6 A. M. at 2 P. M. at 10 A. M. by 5 P. M. STAGECOACH AND WAYSIDE INN offence; and when it is carried on horseback, or vehicle, other than a stage, it shall be covered securely, with an oilcloth or bear- skin, against rain or snow, under a penalty of twenty dollars for each time the mail is wet, without such covering; and when it stops at night, it shall be put in a secure place, and there be locked up, at the contractor's risque." The name and something of the history of Levi Pease have already entered as a component part of the chapter on the Corner tavern. In connection with our present story the following narrative is of interest:* "The first stage and mail route in New England and probably the first in the country began operation 100 years ago yesterday. Capt. Levi Pease of Somers, Ct., and Reuben Sikes of Sufneld, both blacksmiths, had pre- viously run a passenger conveyance between Somers and Hartford, a distance of 20 miles, and from this small beginning conceived a scheme of establishing a regular passenger and post route between Hartford and Boston. Sikes was some years younger than Pease * Taken from the Springfield Republican as already quoted, itself a clipping from an earlier number bearing date of October 21, 1883. 323 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES and his father stoutly opposed the enter- prise, telling his son that Pease was enticing him into a ruinous scheme that would soon lodge them both in jail as poor debtors. But young Sikes was not to be frightened, nor did the failure of an effort to start a similar line the year before between Worcester and Bos- ton deter him from joining forces with the dauntless captain. Two convenient wagons were secured, and on October 20, 1783, at 6 o'clock in the morning they left Boston and Hartford respectively. Capt. Pease drove the western-bound stage starting from 'the Sign of the Lamb,' stopped over night at Martin's in Northboro, passing through Worcester the next day and resting at Rice's in Brookfield. His route the third day took him through Palmer, and perhaps Wil- braham, to his home in Somers, and on the fourth day Hartford was reached. This route was followed through the winter and early spring, but in May, 1784, Springfield was made a station and the river was crossed either here or at Enfield. . . . The fare at this time was 'four pence per mile,' or about $10 324 Watson E. Boise (Courtesy of Springfield Republican) STAGE-COACH AND WAYSIDE INN for the trip from Boston to Hartford."* At last came the railroad. No landlord, stage driver or sage had vision of the fateful meaning of steam travel for the ancient town of the hills, or for society, whether of city or country. "Come, boys, the railroad is going through: let's go to work and raise potatoes." So said a father of dissipated habits and impoverished home to his strapping sons. He thereupon promised them that if they would work with him he would stop drink- ing, and they would soon be rich. He was as good as his word, and th^y cleared $1,000 a year from the potatoes sold to the workmen along the line of the road. The town was already at the parting of the ways when, in the early century, "New Connecticut" loomed big on New England's horizon, and New York, Pennsylvania and the Northwest Territory were claiming the sons and daughters of the New England hills by twos and threes, by families and colonies, when Rev. Joseph Badger went out to pioneer a path for the Western civilization, taking * Further details of the enterprising career of Capt. Levi Pease, including mention of his residence in Blandford "for six years before the war," are given in the article quoted. Reference may also be had to the book already referred to in the chapter on the Corner Tavern, q. v. 325 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES his family and effects in a big canvas- cove red wagon, when the Scioto company went and numberless others from Blandford and all New England. But when at last the railroad came, then began to come the grassing over of the ways and the settling down to a new regime. Not all at once, to be sure, but with the resistless movement of the decades. It spelled "West" to many a lad and lass and many a hitherto established family whom the prairie schooner had failed to attract. It also spelled "City" whether West or East, until now the hilltop is once more, for a brief annual season at least, the refuge of throngs wearied and distraught by the feverish stress of urban life. The people of Blandford generally believed in the railroad, as a favorable resolution passed in town meeting bears witness. But the favoring sentiment was not unanimous. Down at Chester Factories the road was building, and the enterpise proceeded not without the onlooking of many curious visit- ors, among them the lad of the old Beard tavern, who used to have his daily ride on the stage. When he returned home again, 326 STAGE-COACH AND WAYSIDE INN he found an intelligent old gentleman at his father's house, who listened attentively to the young man's description of what he had seen, to all of which the old gentleman re- plied, "Well, my boy, the building of that road is a visionary idea; if they ever get it done, it will make a beautiful thoroughfare from Boston to Albany, but you will never see the day when vehicles will be drawn by any other power than horses or cattle." To-day the sub-marine and the flying machine are less of a novelty than the railroad was to our forbears. When at last the road invited the patronage of the countryside, this same young man of the old tavern was among the first to try its merits. This is his story: "The cars were like the old stage-coach, with doors on both sides, and three seats in each car, each seat accommodating three persons. The con- ductor did not enter the car to collect tickets, but came on a rod of iron that ran the length of the car below the door; holding on to another rod above, he let down the window in the door to take up the tickets. The wheels of the cars ran on timbers laid length- 327 TAVERNS AND TURNPIKES wise of the railroad. On these were spiked bars of iron. Twice the train was stopped, and on looking out of the car the conductor and trainmen were to be seen ahead of the train, spiking down what they called snake- heads. The train ran about fifteen miles an hour." The old has been rung out; the new has been rung in. There is progress not alone in railroading and in the arts of entertainment and business. These have been and are but the vehicles of humors and passions, of loves and hates, of ideals and struggles, of faiths or wrecks of faith of the serge of human life with its inner realities. Something not to be run in material moulds has come forth. The story of the old is not all entertainment, not all memory, not all dead past. The page is turned over, if by a real man, not without meditation and soberness. "Long ago at the end of its route, The stage pulled up and the folks stepped out. They have all passed under the tavern door, The youth and his bride and the gray three- score. Their eyes were weary with the dust and gleam; 328 ■ Hk . ^. 1 vV8jjfc**rf^-_ r = ^fcss©%£; IIM^ ~"^^W IK.' - «• •• ^JE^ ' --**.W.-. J -. f^ EJF--- - "* Little River STAGE-COACH AND WAYSIDE INN The day had gone like an empty dream. Soft may they slumber, and trouble no more For their eager journey, its jolt and roar, On the old road over the mountain."* * Quoted by Edward Field, in The Colonial Tavern. 329 Appendix I LIST OF LICENSEES THE following list is copied from the record of the Court of General Sessions of old Hampshire County, Northampton, Mass.: In all the earlier years of this record the names of licensees are given without order or tabulation in the midst of other material. It is not easy picking them out, and absolute perfectness is not claimed tor this copy. Other peculiarities connected with the listing of those licensed are commented on in the text. Inn. — Innholder. Ret. — Retailer. An innholder 's license is to be understood where no special indication is given. 1. Joseph Pixley, Jr., summer or fall of 1733. "Joseph Pixley, Jun r Living on M r Ch r Jacob Lawton Land between Westfield and Sheffield to be an Inholder Taverner & Common Victualer at s d Place is by this Court admitted and ap- proved as a Suitable Person agreeable to the order of the Gen' Court Respecting the Same — " He came from "Upper Houseatunnick," or Great Barrington. 2. Robert Huston of Glascow. Ausgust, 1736, 1739, 1740. Robert Hewson of Glascow. August, 1737. Robert Huston of Glasko. August, 1738. 3. John Huston of Blandford. August, 1740. "License is Granted to John Huston of Blandford To be an Inholder Taverner & 'Common Victualler in s d Town for the Year Ensuing for Selling Strong Drink by Retail & Recognized as the Law Directs for keeping Good Rule and Order and Duly paying the Excise: As p r Recognizance on file." 1741. 4. Armour Hamilton — "exercising his License only in the House where he now dwells." 1 742-1 749 5. Agnes Hamilton. 1749-1751. Widow of Armour. 6. Matthew Barber — "in his house." 1742. 7. William Huston. 1752-1755 — "in his house." | 8. Hewet Root. 1756-1758 — "in his house." 9. John Nox. 1757 — "in his house." John Knox. 1758-1771. Ret., 1772, 1773. 10. Nathanael Pease — "in y e House Where he now dwells." 1759-1769. At least a part of the time he was also retailer and common victualer. 11. Samuel Stewart — "in y e House Where he now dwells." 12. Matthew Blair. Ret., 1760-1762— "out of his dwelling house there to be spent out of Doors." 13. Joseph Clark — "in his house there." 1761, 1762. 14. William Carnahan. Ret., 1763, 1765-1767. 15. Ephraim Gibbs. Ret., 1768-1773. 16. Nathaniel Taggart. 1769-1773. 17. Levi Pease. 1771-1773. 18. Samuel Sloper. Ret., 1778, 1781; Inn., 1784; Ret., 1787. 19. D" William Boies. 1779, 1780; William Boyce, 1781. William Boies. Ret., 1783. 20. Warham Parks. Ret. 1779, 1780, 1783. War- ham Parks, Esq., 1781. 21. Justus Ashmun. 1778, 1781-1784-1797. He probably had a continuous license. 22. Tim Hatch. 1781-1784; Ret., 1788, 1790; Inn., 1793-1800. cf. No. 23. 23. David Herren, 1781; Timothy Hatch and David Herren, 1782; 1783 (Herren alone) . 24. Reuben Boyes. 1781,1784. 25. James Moore. 1782. 26. Jonas Henry. 1782-1785. 27. Samuel Boies. Ret., 1782; Inn., 1783-1785. 28. Samuel Boies, or Samuel Boies 2nd, the two names being apparently used indiscriminately, 1787, 1788; 1790, 1791; 1794-1809; 1813-1815. Probably a continuous license. 29. Roger Parks. Ret., 1783— "to be a Retailer of Spirituous Liquors out of his House there to be spent out of Doors only." 30. Isaac Blair. Ret., 1783-1785. 31. Robert Montgomery. Ret., 1783-1785. 32. Elisha Buck Sheldon. 1783. 33. James Baird Jun r . 1784. 34. James Baird. 1788-1801. Ret., 1800, 1801. 35. Robert Blair Jm/. 1784, 1785, 1790-1793. 36. Robert Blair. 1787. Robert Blair by Sam" Boies 2 d 1788. 37. John Watson. Ret., 1784, 1785. 38. James Wallis. Ret., 1784. 39. William Knox. Ret., 1784, 1785, 1787. 40. Sam" Hopesby. Ret., 1785. 41. John Gibbs. Ret., 1785, 1788. 42. Rufus Blair. Ret., 1785. Inn., 1791-1794. 43. William Thompson by Rufus Blair. Ret., 1785. 44. Ebenezer Bruce. 1788, 1790, 1791, 1793. 45. William Hannon. Ret., 1788. 46. James Sinnet. Ret., 1788. 47. John & Russel Atwater. Ret., 1788. 48. Russel Atwater. Ret., 1790-1794, 1798. 49. Abner Pease. 1793-1799. 50. William Stewart. Ret., 1793. 51. Jesse Bruce. 1794. 52. Sam' Porter, bbD. 1795-1797. 53. Russel Watkins. 1796. 54. Gad Stebbins. 1797. 55. Noah Shepard, bb. Ret., 1797. 56. John S. Douglass. 1798. 57. Titus Ashmun. 1798. 58. Eliphalet Lamb. 1799. 59. Solomon Noble. 1800, 1801, 1803-1807, 1809. 60. Henry Wales. Ret., 1800. 61. Reuben Ashmun. 1801-1804. Ret., 1802. 62. I. W. Knowlton. Ret., 1802. 63. Aaron Fish. 1802. 64. Robert Waterman. Ret., 1803-1806. 65. James Hazard. Ret., 1804, 1805. 66. Paul and Barnabas Whitney. Ret., 1804. 67. Paul Whitney. Ret., 1805. 68. Moses A. Bunnell. Ret., 1804, 1805. 69. Keziah Ashmun. 1805. Widow of Justus. 70. Benjamin Scott. 1806, 1807, 1809. 71. Joseph Bull. Ret., 1806-1808. 72. Job Almy. Ret., 1807-1809, 1811; Inn., 1812- 1826. 73. John Lloyd. 1808-1811. 74. Isaac Harding. 1810. 75. Margaret Scott. 1810. Widow of Benjamin Scott. 76. Eli Hall. Ret., 1810, 1811. Physician. 77. Amos M Collins. Ret., 1810-1817. 78. Sam / Blair. Ret., 1810. 79. Joseph Eells. Ret., 1810, 1811. 80. Eleazer Slocumb. 1811. 81. Jedediah Smith. Ret., 1811. 82. Oren Sage. Ret., 1811-1833, except 1825 and 1828. 1833, Retailer of wines — no duty. 83. Luke Hall. 1812. 84. Jabez Goodell. 1813. 85. Asa Smith. 1814, 1815. 86. Plin Day. 1816. 87. Enos Alvord. 1817. 88. Isaac Lloyd. 1818. 89. Fordyce Sylvester. Ret., 1818. 90. George Bradley. 1820-1822. 91. Lyman Gibbs. Ret., 1821-1824, 1826-1829,1833. 92. Luther Laflin. Ret. 1822-1824; 1828, 1829, 1831-1833; Inn., 1826-1829; 1832— "at his now dwelling house," 1833 — "in his Store situated near his Tavern." 93. Sergius W. Lloyd. 1823. 94. Justin Loomis. 1830, 1831. 95. Thomas Bradley. 1832. 96. Linus B. Barnes. 1832, Retailer of wine at the Store of Laflin and Barnes. Appendix II LOCAL DESIGNATIONS, NOT OCCURRING IN THE TEXT, OF CERTAIN MAIN THOR- OUGHFARES OF THE TOWN, WITH AN ADDITIONAL NOTE ON THE TURNPIKES. These designations are found in the lay-outs of county roads, on record in the county archives at Northampton or Springfield, or in local deeds. The date appended indicates the date of the county lay-out, or of the deed, as the case may be. Falls road to West Granville: Road from Blanford meeting House to Granville middle Society. Direct road from Bland ford village to East Otis: High Way from Blanford Street to ye Green woods Road. Present — not the ancient — Gore road: County road, 1770. County road to Greenwoods road at Northwest corner of Walnut hill, 1773. Highway from Blan- ford Street to ye Greenwoods Road. 1773. The county road leading from the Street west- ward, 1787. Gore road, 1820. North Street, and road to Becket: County road to Becket. (Northerly end of Street) Road from Isaac Gibbs to Ephraim Gibbs commonly called Pittsfield road 1791. Road from Taggart district through North Blandford to Otis road, and thence to Beech hill: County road from Westerly part of Blanford to the Northeasterly part of Granville, 1791. County road from Middlefield to Granville, 1828. (In part) County road from James Beard's to Barrington road., 1808. Gibbs road, past the Uhl estate, from Nigger hill road to Jackson hill: Road from County road near the pond Called Long pond, 1785. Road from East Otis to Beach hill, past the Beech hill school- house etc.: County road from Otis to Granville East parish by the house of Jedediah Smith. Road from Blandford over Peebles hill and Beech hill: West middle road from Blanford to Granville, 1791. ADDITIONAL NOTES ON THE TURNPIKES gleaned from Holland's "History of Western Mass- achusetts," Vol. I, Chap. XIX. The Eleventh Massachusetts Turnpike Corpo- ration's route (1801) was as follows: "To begin atthe south line of Massachusetts, at or near the ending of the turnpike road lately established by the leg- islature of the State of Connecticut; thence into and through the East parish of Granville to Blandford meeting house, and from thence through the town street in Blandford, by the usual Pittsfield road, so called, and into the town of Becket by the same road, until it connects with the road of the Eighth Turn- pike Corporation." This latter road was what is now known as the state road from Westfield, along the the river to Chester, past "Falley's store" of a century ago. The Blandford and Russell Turnpike Corporation was established somewhat later, and while impor- tant as opening a convenient thoroughfare to the valley towns, and to the railroad when that came in, had no tavern history, and in general pursued a career so ordinary and quiet as to have furnished little or nothing for the historian to make particular record of. Appendix III Certain things which those interested would very much like to know about the old Housatonic road and Pixley's tavern are provokingly obscure. Con- tinued study of the matter since the earlier part of the book was printed seems pretty certainly to yield these results, some of which are old, and some new. (1 ) The first path, or road, was that on which Pixley's tavern was located. This is certain. (2 ) A well defined and uncontradicted tradition locates Pixley's at, or close by, the house of N. C. Julien, as stated in chapter I. The conjectural continuation of this road is indicated on the map. (3 ) The original log tavern never fully complied with the legislative condition laid down for it. (4 ) In 1738 (see page 1 1 ) , a new house was ordered on a new location, to carry on the tavern business. This new house was "To stand near the new Road at the North end of the granted premises;" that is, at the north end of the farm. The traditional site of the log tavern was near the centre of the farm. This is all so plain, I wonder I had not discovered it before. (5 ) I have not been able to find any lay-out of this "new road," but beyond a doubt the present "Otis road," coinciding very closely with the "Shef- field road," indicated by the dotted line of the map, from Blair pond westward, is the one in question. (6 ) This road last mentioned must be, in general, with possible minor variations, that referred to in the county lay-out of 1754, as "ye old path." The lapse of some sixteen years would be enough for the "new" to become "old". See page 91. (7 ) Now this road passed Carrier's, that gentle- man having been a successor of Pixley. The house, then, had been re-built according to legislative order. (8 ) Statements on page 93 are correct, except that the "new road" preceded the road of 1754, instead of following it, and the dotted line did, after all, belong in the early plan. Furthermore, the description of the commissioners of 1754, which is vague in many particulars, comports with the in- terpretation here given. (9 ) This road, as matter of fact, cuts athwart the extreme northerly end of Pixley's farm, which was bought by Jonathan Shepard (see page 93 ) . On this road and farm stands the house referred to in pages 93 and 94. It is very ancient, very tavern- like and large, with the wide-spread and persistent tavern tradition connected with it. Was this house Pixley's second tavern building? I incline to believe it. Index Abbreviations: f., following page, ff., following pages, n., note A Adams, John, 29. Adultery, 196. Adventurer, 5, 18, 31. Albany, 16f , 34, 70, 75, 77, 95, 97, 266, 289. road, v. Road. Allyn, David, 159. Almanac, 15, 70, 233, 233. Almy, Job, 136, 143, 145, 190f. Alvord, Enos, 251. America, 112, 122. Amherst, Gen., 75. Aristocracy, Chaps V. and VI:, 304. Aristophanes, 243. Armory hill, 267. Army, 13, 34, 75, 78f , 117. Army life, 122. Ashley, Wm., 154, 173. Ashmun, Eli P., 35, 53ff., 156, 160, 189, 194, 197ff., 203 George, 34, 57f. John Hooker, 57f. Justus, 33ff., Chap. V; 100, 148, 166, 176, 184, 244f , 272. Keziah, (Widow) 54. Reuben, 60. Titus, 60n. Widow v. Keziah. Ashmun's, 100, 215. Assault, 193ff. Atkins, Mr. 48. Attwater, Russell, 38, 53, 149, 154, 164ff, 169n, 173, 176, 193, 231, 244. Automobile club, 17, 278. B Babcock, James, 142. Bacon, Dr. Leonard, 121. Bacons, John, 196. Badger, Rev. Joseph, 38, 122, 143f, 158, 287, 305, 325. Mrs. 245. Baggwell, 138. Baird, Beard, 138. Aaron, 244. James, 138, 287, 298. confession of, 305f James, Jr., 138, 224n., 298n., 304ff. John, 224n., Baird lot, 138, 142. tavern, 129, 196, 297, 303, 306ff., 326. Ball, 161f. Balow, Jas., 195. Bancroft, Rhodolphus, 205f. Bancrofts, the, 206. Barber, Matt., 251. Barkhampstead, 95. Barnard, Thomas, 200. Barnes, Linus B., 174 Barthomomew, Samuel A , 297ff., 307ff. house, 196. Bartholomews, the, 307ff. Bay path, 13. Beach, Samuel, 159. Beard, v. Baird. Becket, 15, 32, 82, 95, 98, 221, 301. Beech hill, 47, 55, 62, 181, chap. VII; 217, 235, 247, 251, 313, 315. Bement, Judah, 32, 167, 169, 220. Bements, the, 169. Bennett, E. W. 69n. Berkshire, 35, 263. county, 22, 56, 79. hills, 279. towns, 304. Bethlehem, 95. Beulah-land, 99. Bill of rights, 143. Birch hill, 47, 69, 83, 133, 249, 252, 279. Bishop, M. E., 209. Black, Archibald, 231. David, 99. Hugh, 180. Robert, 99f., 104. Blacksmith, 169ff„ 197, 212, 253, 293, 323. v. innholder. shop, 152, 217. Blair, Blier, Asa, 117, 159. Dolly, 141. Isaac, 271. Jacob 271. John, 3rd, 197f. Matt., 103f„ 128, 142, 163, 271. Matt., Jr., 104. Dr. Nathan, 144, 191, 200f. Reuben, 117, 201. Robert, 128, 162f., 167, 245, 271. Jr, 163ff. Sr., 163f. 2nd, 163. 3rd, 163. 4th, 163, 165. Rufus, 141, !67f. Samuel, 141f. Timothy, 272 Blair homestead, 105. pond, 92f. Blairs, the, 10S, 129, 166, 170, 184, 231, 271. Blandford Monthly, 265n. Blockhouse, 10. Boies, Boys, Boyce, Boise. Anson, 197. Betsey, 139. David, 123, 130, 190, 240. Elizabeth, 139. Enos, Sr., 317f. Enos W., 149n., 317. John, 26n., 71ff., 148, 163, 276, 277. John, Jr., 72. farm of, 151, 154. house of, 152. Landlord, 134. Levi, 287. Milton, 64. Reuben, 39, 86, 88, 90, 117, 222, 244f. Rufus, 244. Samuel, 36, 39, 123, 130, 137, 142, 159, 191, 220L, 244f., 277. Samuel 2nd. 139, 221. 245. Watson E., 317f. Wm., 28n., 36, 142f., 159, 195, 244, 276f. Boies tavern, 134, 136f., 143ff., 297. Boieses, the, 87, 128, 139, 143. Bolton, John, 274ff., 281. Boniface, 28. Bondsmen, 200. Books, v. library. Boston, 12, 31, 74ff., 103, 179, 225, 291, 324f. and Albany, v. road. and Hartford, v. road. and Worcester, v. road. bank, 133. Boundary, disputes, 5. Bowers, Wm., 299. Bowles, Samuel, 34, 57, 59n , 60n Boys, 21, 99, 246ff. Bradley, Geo., 160, 174. James, 174. John, 174. Thomas, 174, 176. Bradley business, 174. Brandy, 63, 112, 188f, 227, 229. book, 189. in the spirit, 188. Brewer, John, 92. Brewer, Josiah, 82. Brewer place, 75. Brewster, Jonathan, 82. Dr. Joseph Wadsworth, 144. Bridge, 37. Bridle path, 13, 18, 272. Brighton, 263. Bristol, 95. Bromley, Rev. Daniel, 207. Brook, 84, 86, 177. Bedlam, 128. Birch meadow, 47. Black's, 269, 280. Borden, 213. Branch, 128. Freeland, 271. North Meadow, 98. Peebles', 37, 180, 213. Pond, 85. Potash, 252. Salmon, 314. Brookfield, 324. Brooks, late James S., 10 n Brown, Sarah, Sary, 22 1. Dr. Plumb, 172n. Solomon, 38, 78, 191, 290. Wm., 78, 138, 224, 287. Brown lot, 138. Bruce, Ebenezer, 292f., 308. Jesse, 292. Buffalo robes, 44. Bull, James, 80. Joseph, 153, 173, 190f., 2 31. Samuel, 196. Bunnel, Bunnell, Enos, 193. Moses A., 172. Moses and Enos, 172. Bunnell's, 231. Burgoyne, 34, 75, 88. Burlington, 95. Burying-yard, -ground, 32, 73, 84, 104, 116, 223, 274, 195. Butler, Rev. Daniel, 47, 203 247 f ., 312ff. Butler family, 203. house, 205, 210. Button, Perry, 230. C Cables, Jared, Jerod, 129, 308, 316. Caldwell, James, 17 7f. Campbell, Campbl, Widow, 182. Campbell lane, 181. Cannon, Carnahan, Martin, 193. Robert, 197. Samuel, 24, 133, 135, 221. Stephen, 197. William, 126, 128, 223. Cannon farm, 171. Canton, 95. Card, D., 204. Card-board maker, 165. Carr, v. Kar. Carriage, 258f., 262. Cart, 26 If. Catamount, 300ff. Cattle, 263. Cellar hole, 2, 17, 69, 130, 185, 211 229. Cemetery, 89, 99, 21 Of. Century dictionary, 240. Chair, 262. Chaise, 260f. Chapin, Chester W v 319 Chapman, Benjamin, 117. Chief Justice, 59. Lewis, 319. Chariot, 258. Chelsea, 13. Chester, 198, 321, 326. Chesterfield, 159. Chicago, 66. Child sworn, 196. Children, v. boys, girls. Christmas, 305. Church, 4 102f, 116, 246, 250. American, 122. discipline, 157, 303ff. members, 238. v. minister, meeting-house, etc. Churches of Hartford, 315. Cider, cyder, Sider, 23, 39, 112, 120, 188, 226ff, 283. City of Homes, 215. Civil, claim, 203ff. War, 250. Clapp, Parsons, 156. Clark, Chester, 197. Joseph, 12f. Clarke, Rev. Dorus, 158, 172, 247ff, 260. Mrs. 260. Clerk, as title, 241. of town, v. town clerk. Clock-maker, 165. Clothier, 283. Coach, 258, v. Stage, stage-coach. Cochran, Cornelius, 217. Glass, 222. John, 22 If. John, Jr., 193. Cochran house, 271f., 281, 284f. pond, v. pond. Coe, Oliver, 287. Collector, 259. of taxes, 37, 259. College, 45. f Harvard, 57. Oberlin, 120. IS Robert, 118. Whitman, 133, 249. Williams, 247ft!., 288. Yale, 40, 122, 186. Collester, John, 123. Collins, David, Jr., 160. Amos M., 173, 246. Colonial Dames, 229. Committee, of inspection and safety 35. on pulpit supply, 36. to seat meeting-house, v. inn- holder. Common, v. ten-acre lot. Commonwealth, 13, 18, 278. Concord, 36. Congress, 55n., 250. Connecticut, 5, 27, 257, 318. river, 9, 289. State, 156, 203, 212, 312. valley, 42, 131. Continental road, v. road. Cook, Prentice B., 161. Cooks, the, 282. Cordwainer, 240. Corner tavern, v. tavern. Council, ecclesiastical, 22, 24, 38, Counterfeiting, 196. County,. commissioners, 88. road, v. road. Court, Beech Hill, chap. VII. of common pleas, 41, 160. General, 5, 7, 9, 11, 14, 74, 108. 188, 256. of general sessions, 8, 9, 21. Supreme Judicial, 202. Crawford, Joseph, 193. Crawford, Mary Caroline, 29. Criminal docket, 188. suit, 19 Iff. Crocker, Ebenezer, 290. Crooks, John, 284. Wm., 221. Crosby, Rev. Aaron, 141. Logan, 160, 282. Culver, Asa, 90. Curricle, 262. Curse, 198. D Daughters of American Revo- lution, 229. Day, Plin, 283. Samuel, 65. Days, the, 282. Dayton, Giles, 231, 252. Deacon, 103. Blair, 103, 128, 142. ' Boies, 142f., 220. '■' Gibbs, v. Ephraim, Israel. ''• Knox, 69. f Lloyd, 207. Dearing place, 94n. Deer warden, 2 1 . Delehanty, Mrs, lOln. Delirium tremens, 228. Devil's half-acre, 181, 204ff., 212, 214f. Dexter, W. H., 11 In. Distiller, 12, 188. Disturbing an assembly, 205. Docket, 123, 188ff. Doctor, v. Joseph Wadsworth Brewster, Joseph B. Elmore. Eli Hall, Robert King, Nath- aniel Little, Thomas Lucas, John White. "Dolls, 1200," 296. Donaghy, Wm., 131. Doolittle, Philemon, 280f. Titus, 279f. Douglas, John B. John S., 251. Stephen A., 59f. Dray, 84. Drinking habits, v. tavern. Drunkeness, 119, v. Tavern. Dunlap, Edward, 148n. Dwight, James Scott, 156. Jonathan, 150, 156. Pres. Timothy, 40, 44, 94257. E Earle, Mrs. Alice Morse, 44, 112,310. East part, 28 Iff. Eells, Cushing, 133, 249. Joseph, 133f„ 249. Eells hill, 134. home, 134. Egremont, 71. Elder, 142f., 305. Elevations, 84ff , 95, 252. Elmore, Dr. Toseph., 156, 172, 199. Ely, Caleb, 225. Ely's, 70. Emerson, Charles Chauncy, 57. Emigration, 261, 325f . Enfield, Conn., 28, 267, 324. England, 112. Episcopal, society, 143, 145, 17b, Epitaph, 139, 223, 294. Esquire, 241. Europe, 122. Excise, 8, 12. Execution, papers, 189. sale, 139, 156, 230£E. v. sheriff. F Fairchild, Pres., 161. Falley's cross-roads, 275, 321. store, 299. Falls road, v. road. FalstafT, 229. Farmer, 188. Farmington, 95. river, 92, 95, 314. Farnum, Noah 2nd, 193. Ferguson, John, 143. Samuel, 2 21-: Field. Edward, 25, 113, 291, 329n Firet division, 71n., 99, 127, 214, 292 Fish, Aaron, 194, 251. Fisher, Sydney George, 219. Flip, 39, 112. Flood, 319f. Follet, John, 152. Foreclosure, 101, 109. Foreigner, 284. Forgery, 196. Fort, 144. George, 76, 78, 223. at Pixley's, 10. Ticonderoga, v. Ticonderoga. Foye, John, 290. Franklin, Benj., 122, 219. Frary, Jno., 37. Frary's mills, 37, 215. Freeland, James, 224n. Freeman, 238. Frost, David, 209. G Gageborough, 15. Gate-house, 255. General Assembly, Hartford, 29. Gentleman, 18, 188, 240ff., 282. Gibbs, Abner, 290. Ephraim, 245, 290, 297. Isaac, 135f.. 140, 287. Israel, 24, 135, 141, 271. John, 134, 141. Lyman, 217. Samuel, 138, 217. Wm H., 9, 23, 83, 228, 246, 253, 287. Gibbs families, 297. Glasgow, Scotland, 69. Glasgow, Glasgo, Glascow Glasgow lands, New Glasgow, etc., 2, 5,. 9, 10, 13f., 20ff., 239. hall, 169n., 175n. mountain, 77, 79, 279. Goodell Jabez, 62. Gore, Mr., 56. Gore, the, 127ff., 253f. Granby, Conn., 318, 321. Grand jury, jurors, 73. Granger, 317. Granville, 13, 95, 186L, 193ff., 212, 318, 321. East, 313, 321. Middle, 32 If. West, 85n., 132. Great Barrington, 15, 70, 77, 79 £., 84, 129. v. road. Britain, 257. Green, mountains, 95. Woods, 15f., 70, 77, 79, 98, 288, 301. v. road. Greylock, 288. Griffin, Wm., 195. Griswold's mill, 314. H Hadley, 121. Haley, Nathaniel, 194. Half-way house, 16. Hall, Dr. Eli, 175, 246. Luke, 175. Luke Hall's inn, 175. Hamilton, Agnes, 178. Armour, 178. Francis, 96. John, 28n. Mary, 224n. Robert, 224n. Widow, 177f. Hamlin. Rev. Cyrus, 118. Hampden, Co., 258. Hampshire, county, 8, 56, 73, 83, 124, 198. Gazette, 34n., 54nff. Hancock, 29, 267. Hannon, Wm., Harding Isaac, Harrington, Herrmton, 264. Harris, Benjamin, 211. Harrison, Horace, 193. Harroun, Herren, David, 290ff., 308 Hartford, 31, 97, 148, 312, 319, 321ff v. road. Hartland, 95. Hastings, Rev. H. L„ 228. Hatch, Timothy, 36, 148ff., 162, 167, 170, 184, 244f., 251. Timothy L., 153ff. Hatches, the, 62, 167, 231. Hatch, house, 166, 172. tavern, 165n., 170, 172. Hatter, 152, 283. Hatter's shop, 150f., 153, 156. Hayden, Elias, 191. Hazzard, James, 133. 244. Margaret, 225. Robert, 224. Hazzard pond, 133. Heath, Gen., 79. Henry, James, 123ff. Jonas, 2721'. Myron E., 7 In. Robert, 26n., 8Sf., 104. Herren, v. Harroun, Herrick, H. K., 181n. Herrinton, v. Harrington. Hewson, v. Huston. Highway commission, v. county, and road. Higgins, Mrs. L. W., 26Sn. Hillard, Geo. H., 58. Hills, Joseph, 123. Hinds, Henry, 194. Hinsdale, 15, 32n., 321f. Hobbs, John, 224n. Holland, J. G., 14n., 299. Home-lots, 21, 32, 69n., 98f . 103f., Ill, 127, 132, 135, 148, 152, 184, 214, 269, 286. Honey, 107. Hopesby, Samuel, 251. Hopkinton, 20, 217, 239f. Horn, driver's, 308. Horseback, 5, 102f., 144, 260, 266. Hosier, 47. Housatunnack, Houssatanick, Housatonic etc., 6, 9, 15, 22. v. road and Tunock. Householder, 225. Housewright, 240. How, Margaret, 221. Howe, Ephraim, 287. Hudson river, 34, 79. Huntington, 269ff. Husbandman, 239f. Huston, John, 20f., 25. Mr., 23f. Robert, 21, 25, 26n., 32n.,238. Wm., 21, 25. Hustons, the, 25f. Hutchin's almanac, 15. I Indians, 118, 130, 223. Ingersoll, David, 1 1 . Inn, v. tavern. Innholder, as blacksmith, 28, 114. as business man,' 25, 95, 103f., 106, 141, 147, 151. as candidate for rank, 243ff. as committee of inspection and safety,^ 35, 106. as committee on pulpit supply, 35. as committee on roads, 82. as committee to seat meeting- house, 27, 36, 141, 151. as constable, 224, 278. credentials of, 41. as deacon, v. deacon. as farmer, 53. as gentleman, 123, 244. library of, 46, 47. Inholder, Continued as militia officer, 123, 150. as moderator of town meeting, 28, 35, 106, 140, 150. as politician, v. Tavern. as postmaster, 151. seat of, in meeting-house, 245. as selectman, 25, 28, 35, 73, 102, 106, 140, 150. as sexton, 36, 100. as squire, 123, 244. Stowe, squire, 313. traditional career of, 35, 61. v. also under Almy, Job, Ashmun, Justus; Keziah, Alvord, Enos, Baird, James; James, Jr., Barber, Matt., Blair, Robert; Robert, Jr., Rufus. Boies, Samuel; Samuel 2nd; Reuben; Wm., Bruce, Ebenezer; Jesse, Clark, Joseph, Day, Plin, Douglas, John S., Goodell, Jabez, Hall, Luke Hamilton, Agnes; Armour, Harding, Isaac, Harroun, Herren, David, Hatch, Timothy, Henry, Jonas. Huston, John; Robert; Wm., Knox, John, Laflin, Luther, Lamb, Eliphalet, Lloyd, Issac; John; Sergius W., Loomis, Justin, Noble, Solomon, Parks, Roger; Warham, Pease, Abner; Levi; Nathaniel, Pixley, Joseph, Jr., Porter Samuel, bbD., Reece, Root, Hewet, Scott, Benjamin, Margaret, Sheldon, Elisha Buck, Slocum, Eleazer, Sloper, Samuel, Smith, Asa, Stebbins, Gad, Stewart, Samuel, Taggart, Nathaniel, Watkins, Russel, Intemperance, 122, 155ff. Inventory, of Justus Ashmun, 45f., SOff. Armour Hamilton, 179. Samuel Sloper, 108. Ireland, 87, 225. Irish, 227. Irishman, 102. Itinerary, 15, 70, 288, 321f. J Jackson, Ezra, 217. Jefferson, Thomas, 122. Jerod bars, 129. Johnson, Capt. John, 78. Jonas, 124. Johonnot, Zechariah, 12. Judge, v. Justice, squire, court, etc. Julien, N. C, lOn. July 4, 205, 266. Justice of the peace, 36, 124, 160. K Kar, Karr, Ker, Carr, etc. Eleanor, 222f. James, 222. Katherine, Jr., 222. Widow Katherine, 222f. Wm., 222f., 240. Kattlen, Mr., 27, 104. Keep, Mrs., 161f. Rev. John, 120f., 149, 159, 161f„ 172, 175, 226, 246, 260. Kennedy, Ebenezer, 193. Henry, 194. Kinderhook, 16, 71, 77, 222. King, James, 196. John, 124. Dr. Robert, 176, 181. Kittredge, Geo. Lyman, 235n. Knox, 70. Knox, Adam, 69, 71. Alanson, 63, 160. Curtis, 196. David, 115. Elijah, 48, 69n. Gen. Henry, 74, 76, 78, 279. John, 28n., 69, and n., 159, 277 Samuel, 55n., 65f., 117, 135n., 249 292. Titus,' 197. Wm., 36, 39, 48, 69, 159,, 275, 277, 283. Wm., Jr., 149. Knoxes, the, 282. Knowlton, I. W., 251. Jared, 196. Wm., 196. L Laflin, Luther, 139, 174, 255. Laflin elm, 174. Lake George, 78. Lamb, Eliphalet, 251. Land allotment, 219. Land grant, 6ff. Land ownership, 5, 23 7f. Landlord, v. innholder, tavern. Lathrop, Thos., 110. Law, Roy all professor of, 5 7. Law school, 57. Lawlessness, 206. Lawton, C. J., 6ff., 20. Lawyer, 55ff., 62. Lebanon, 267. Ledger, Sloper's, 29, 105, 109, 113. Lee, Rev. J., 209. town of, 252, 266. Legislature, 6, 1 Iff. , 18, 56, 59, 79. committee of, 39. v. General Court. Lenox, 17, 95, 266, 278. Leonard, Heman, 191. Martin, Co., 115. Libel, 204. Library, 47f., 50. License, 9, 12, 20, 39, 41, 47, 64, 70 72, 85f., 100, 103, 105, 133, 137 139, 145, 173. v. Innholder, Retailer, Tavern. Lilacs, 2. Lime, 263. Lincoln, Pres., 55n., 59, 250. Liquor, amount sold, 112f., 120. Liquor habit, v. tavern. Little, Dr. Chas. H., 144, 231. Nathaniel P., 173, 176. Little river, 72, 128, 180, 212f. Lloyd, Loyd, Loughead, etc., Alexander, 204f. Isaac, 61, 63, 90, 139. James, 195. James 2nd, 195. John, 190, 194, 208, 211f., 216, 224n. John Lloyd tavern, 316. Mary, 224n. Rachel, 96. Robert 159 207, 209, 212, 214. Sergius W., 61. Wm., 90, 213. Lloyds, the, 204. Log house, 26, 186. Lombardy poplars, 2, 206. Long pond, v. pond. Longmeadow, 260. Loomis, Lumus, Amos, 134n. Enos, 115. James, 290. Justin, 64. Lord's day, 193, 275, 303ff. Lottery, 80f. Louden, 38, 74f., 93, 95, 115, 221. Lumberman, 188. Lucas, Thos., 293. Lumus, v. Loomis. Lyman, Asahel, 190f. Lyman and Collins, 173f. M Mack, David, 272. Mail, U. S., 317ff., v. Stage, Road. Mansion house, 26, 135, 140, 144, 290. Mark, his, 241. Marshal, Jonas Nut Dwight, 150. Massachusetts, 5, 35, 41f., 95, 218, 227, 248, 257. Western, 22, 75n., 257, 318. McClenachan, Rev. Wm., 11. McConoughey, David, 28n., 37, 130f. McKinstry, Jenny, Jinnv, 224f. John, 224f. John, Jr., 224. McMurag, Geo., 222. Meeting-house, 20f., 27, 33, 72, 82, 89, 98ff., 104, 117, 124f., 13 If. 140f., 144, 171, 177, 182, 187. 214, 217, 289. and tavern, v. tavern. Merchant, 61, 172, 244. Merit, Asa, 48. Merphy, v. Murphy. Methodism, Mass.' 207, 231. Methodist Episcopal, church, 32n., 160, 207fL, 214. conference, 208. meetings, 20Sff. Middlefield, 15, 321. Middletown, 190. Mill,104, 128, 181, 217, 283. v. saw-mill. Military duty, 117ff. parade, 117ff., 144. titles, 120, ISO, 166, 241. Militia, 120ff. Miner house, 264. Minister, 18, 26, 114, 235, 257. first, 1 Iff., 15. v. Joseph Badger. Daniel Bromley. Daniel Butler. Dorus Clarke. Aaron Crosby. H. L. Hastings. John Keep. J. Lee. Wm. McClenachan. James Morton. Joseph Patrick. Jedediah Smith, the elder. Minor, Cyrus, 197. Missouri, 55n., 250. Mitchel, Wm, 159, 284, 293. Mixer, 274. Moderator of town meeting, v. inn- holder. Monterey, 75. Montgomery, James, 177, 180f. Robert, 177, 180f. Wm., 48. town 200. Moor, Moore, James, 91. Jefferson, 21 In. President, 247. Thomas, 194. Moral state of country, 121, 226ff. Morgan, Simeon, 202, 231. Mortgage, 149, 156, 230ff., 244. "Mortal Fuddy", 102. Morton, Mrs. Elizabeth H., 34n. Rev. James, 22, 24, 26n., 32, 74, 85f., 103f., 173n., 176ff., 182, 188, 228f., 293. Wido, Widow, 245. Mountain house, 19n. Mt. Gomery, v. Montgomery. Murphy, Merphy, Daniel, 222 Edward, 222. Eleanor, 222. Frederick, fradrach, 222ff. Murrayfield, 108, 25 In., 274. N Natchez, 186. New Connecticut, 325. New England, 4, 20, 28, 31,40ff., Ill 113, 218f., 226, 236f., 240ff. 255, 278. development of, 236, 311. Historical and Genealogical Reg- ister, 76n. town, 187, 237, 310. travel, 94, 31 Off. New Englanders, 187, 226, 236. New Glasgow, v. Glasgow. New Hampshire, 41, 288. New Hartford, 95. New Haven, 318. New Orleans, 268. New York, 35, 218, 325. Newbury, Roger, 22. Newspaper privilege, 321. "Nigger hill", 129. Nine Partners 222. Noble, (Capt.) John, 160, 213, 258f., 301f., 311. Silas, 213. Solomon, 48, 111, 152, 155f., 164. 170f., 193, 231, 244, 259. Noble's Tavern, 170, 172. Noble hill, 75, 92, 114. Nobletown, 16, 71. North Blandford, 85, 89, 127, 129. 217, 252, 254, 264, 268, 289. 299, 319. North Bloomfield, 314n. North end, 98; chap. 11. North Granby, 314n., 321. North meadow, 315. North meadow brook, v. brook. North meadow pond, v. pond. North street, v. Road. Northboro, 324. Northampton, 9, 21, 56, 58, 200, 222, 295. Northwest Territory, 325. Norton, 82. Norton and Ely, 264. Norwich, 108, 198. Bridge, 273. Number One, town, 15, 77, 83, 86, 93. Two, 15. Three, 15. Four, 15, 98, 286. Three, farm-lot, 254. Nutt, Wm., 217. Nye, James P., 128n. L. C. and Son, 178n. Randall, 282. O Oath, v. swearing. Ohio, 116, 176. Old Northwest, 116. "Old Rorum," 155. "Old whips", 317. Orchard, 172, 226f. Ordination, 246ff. Joseph Badger. Dorus Clarke. John Keep. James Morton. Osborn, Osborne, Osburn. Alexander, 240. John, 238. Mr., 48. Osborne place, 180n Osbornes, the, 128. Otis, 38n., 76, 127. East, 84, 94. Harrison Gray, 56. P Paine, Tom, 122. Palmer, 321. Parade, 117, 123, 130, 171, 184. Parker, Jacob, 224n. Parks, Elisha, 26n., 138. Lewis, 169n. Reuben, 191. Roger, 281. Warham, 36f., 82, 135, 137ff, 244, 282. Warren, 302. Parks homestead, 282. Parkses, the, 137, 282. Parliament, 29. Parlor, v tavern appointments etc. Parsons, Seth, 123f. Parsonage, 149, 155, 172, 174. Parties 267. Partridgefield, 15. Patrick, Rev. Joseph, 99. Pauperism, 218. Peasantry, 237. Pease, pees, 184, 217. Abner, 33, 38, 100f., 231, 244. Alphaeus, 33, lOOf. Levi, 28ff., Ill, 323. Mr., 104. Nathaniel, 27, 32n., 244. Robert, 32f„ 100. Pease's 33, 100, 103. Pease farm, 26f., 148f. mill, 217. Peddler, 265. Peebles, Archibald, 202. Eunice, 200. Francis, 20 If. Harvey, 199ff. Jenny, Janny, 204. Joel, 202. John, 201f. Rufus, 202. S. H., 69n. Peebles' mill, 191, 215. Pelham, 28, 30n. Pelton, Thomas, 194. Stephen. 96. Pennsylvania, 325. Perkins, Wm., 196. Peru, IS. Peterson, Wm., 224n., Phelps, Grace, 224n. John, 197. Marv, 222. Philip, 205. Samuel 222. Susanna, Jr., 222. Widow Susanna, 222. Phelpses, the, 282. Physician, v. Doctor. Pig, story of, 107. Pioneer, 10, 17, 28, 110, 173, 176 185. Pitching, coins, 312. Pittsfield, 22, 95, 132, 266, 286. Pixley, Joseph, Jr., Chap. I; 26. Pixley's, 73, 91. Pixley 's farm, Chap. I; 93. Plaintiff, 190ff. "Plunket, Squire", 233. Pod, 310. Politics, v. innholder and tavern. Pond Blair, 92f., 211. Cochran, 2 7 Off. Hazzard, 133. Long, 85 North meadow, 85. Second division, 270. Twenty-mile, 91. Pontusuc, 22, 98, 286. Population, 232. Porter, estate of Mrs. J. S., 128n Porter, Samuel, 167fT. Porter's inn, 168. Post office, 64, 187. rider, 16. road, 16, 18, 69, 94. route, 15, 252ff. Postal star route, 17. Postmaster, General, 317. Potash works, 15 Of. Pound, 130, 144, 184. Powder, 291. Presbyterian, 207. Presbyterianism, Scotch, 209, 218. Presbytery, 104. Prisoner, 88, 202, 277. Proprietor, 5f., 18. 37, 84, 127, 166. Prosecution, 62, 191ff. Prospect hill, 144. Provin, Provan, James, 181. Widow Mercy, 181. Wm., 177. Province, of Mass. Bay, 7f., llff,. 74, 225. Province tax, 275ff. Pulpit, 104. Pung, 310. "Pun'kin", 107. Puritan, 23 7n. v. New England. U Quebec, 70. Quimby, Irving A., 155n. R Railroad, 3, 65, 145, 253ff., 261. 273, 309, 325ff. station, 274. Redfield, Frederick J., 190. Reece, 24. Reform, v. temperance. Reporter, 226. Reporter, 226. Retailer, 12, 69f,. 85, 103, 105, 126, 140ff., 147, 150, 166f., 172, 174f. 131, 230, 290. v. under Almy, Job, Attwater, John and Russell, Baird, James, Barnes, Linus B., Retailer, Continued Blair, Matt., Blair, Samuel, Bull, Joseph, Bunnell, Moses A., Eells, Joseph, Gibbs, Ephraim, Gibbs, John, Gibbs, Lyman, Hall, Eli, Hannon, Wm., Hatch, Timothy, Hazzard, James, Knox, John, Knox, Wm., Knowlton.I. W.,j Laflin, Luther, Montgomery, Robert, Parks, Roger, Parks, Warham, Pease, Nathaniel, Sage, Orrin, Oren, Shepard, Noah, bb., Sinnet, James, Sloper, Samuel, Smith, Jedediah, Stewart, Wm., Sylvester, Fordyce, Wales, Henry, Wallace, Wallis, James, Waterman, Robert, Watson, John, Whitney, Paul and Barnabas, Revolution, Revolutionary, etc., 31, 45, 68, 75, 85L, 91, 105f., 114. 117, 119, 126, 147, 243, 289, 304. Rhode Islander, 257. Rice, Josiah, 240. Richards, Davis E., 123ff. Rickley's, 91. Riley, J. Whitcomb, 300. Ripley house, 210. Ripley, Roscoe, 136. Road, Abandoned, 1, 3, 17, 69, 128, 135n. 281 Albany, 15, 68, 147ff., 154, 184. Berkshire, 83, 128, 182, 211, 252, 287, Appendix III. between first and second di- visions, 177. between Hampshire and Berk- shire counties, Chap. IV., 209. Blandfrod to Becket, 140, 183, 299. East Granville, 154, 163, 213. Blandford to Green- woods road, 68, 82, 129, 144. Huntington, 280. No. Four, 184. Northampton, 136, 271, 274. Pittsfield, 299. West Granville, 173. Birch hill, 213. Boston and Albany, 135, 254, 326 Boston to meeting-house in Bland- ford, 183. Continental, 298 Road — Continued. County, 68, 98, 129, 131, 140, 144, 180, 183, 209, 213. from Granville to Blandford and Blandford to Granville again, 214. from meeting-house in Middle Granville to meeting-house in Blandford, 215 from Russell to Blandford, Ap- pendix II. from Wellers mills to County road in Blandford, 284. Falley's cross-roads, v. Falley. Falls, 177. Gore road, or lane, 144, 171, 253. Government, 298. Granville to Blandford, 165, 180. Great, 14, 98. Great, from Blandford to West- field, 183. r Great Barrington, 68. Hartford and Albany, 94. old Hartford route, 318. Housatonic, 7, 14, 19, 32n., 68, 82. importance of, If. Lenox to Becket, 272. to Lee, 252f. Loudon to Granville, 94. middle, 82. to mill, 176, 181. Murrayfield to Blandford, 274, 280. North Blandford, 253. Old town, 99, 183, 210. Otis, 94. Pittsfield and Albany to West- field, 280. rival, 81. river, 299. Russell, 32n., 55n. Russell to Blandford, Appendix II Sanderson hill, 297. Second division (road or street) 149f. 154, 163, 293, 270. Sheffield, 32n., 68, 83. Skunk, 215n. Smith, 297. South (road or street) 82, 213, 259. Springfield to Albany, 287. Step hill, 89. to Stockbridge, 68. Stony gutter, 281. Sunset rock, 154. Westfield to Albany, 7, 14. Westfield to Blandford meeting- house, 163. Westfield to Great Barrington, 79f., 149. Westfield mountain to Blandford, 83 Westfield to Partridgefield, 273. Town, 132, v. Appendix II. Robbins, Benjamin, W., 196. John, 149, 163. Robinson, Charles, 194. Howard P. 148n. Root Eli, 82 Hewet, 23, 26n. Mr., 23. Ross, Mary, 224n. Rowe's wharf, 29. Rowley, 252. Rum, 12, 18, 24, 38f., S3. 109ff., 227, 233, 311. Russell, mountain, 69, 133. pond, v. pond. town, Mass., 133, 197, 200, 278ff town, N. Y., 166. Rye, 111. S Sabbath, 40. Sacket's, 305. Saddle-bags, 31. Saddler's shop, 230. Sage, Orrin, Oren, 19, 63, 64, 102, 174, 176, 244. Miss, 248. Salmon, 304ff. brook, v. brook. Salt-box house, 211, 293. Sambreey, v. Simsbury. Sandisfield, 15, 75. Saratoga, 77. Saw-mill, 104. School, 4, 15, 54, 66, 92, 288, 295. School-house, 20, 84, 93f., 143f., 187, 205f., 217, 284. Scioto, company, 173, 326. valley, 116. Scotch, 227. Scotch-Irish, 20, 28, 42, 119, 217, 228, 241. Scott, Benjamin, 60„ 93ff. 176, 190, 209, 231. Henry W., 61. John, 221. Widow Margaret, 61. Scott's, 95, 231. Seating meeting-house, 237fL, v. innholder. Second division, 26n., 7 In., 154, 269ff., 293. Secretary of War, 76. Sedgwick, Judge, 35, 55. Selectman, 22 If,. 255, v. innholder. Senate, Mass., 59. U. S., 56. Settlers, 238, 240. Settling lot, v. home lot. Shad, 304ff. Shaker, 253, 267. Sheep, 263 f. Sheffield, 9, 14ff. Sheldon, Elisha Buck, 251. Shepard, Barnard. 198, Eli, 217. Mrs. Elisha, 173n. Jonathan, 16, 93. Mrs. Joseph, 93. Noah, 111, 251. Thomas, 259. Walter, 152f., 163. Widow, 152f. William, 111, 272. Sheriff, 109, 155ff. 219. deputy, 142, 156. sale, v. execution sale. Shop, 144. hatter's v. Hatter. Shrewsbury, 29. "Shun-pike", 256f. Sibley, John, 160. Sign of the Lamb, 324. Sikes, Reuben, 323f. Simsbury, 222, 318, 321. Sinnet , James, 116, 133, 292. Margaret, 292. Sinnet house, 213. Sinnets, the, 292. Sled, 263,310. Sleigh, 263. Sling, 233f. Slocum, Slocumb, Eleazer, 62, 142 190f., 231. Sloper, Samuel, Colonel, 29, 36ff., 70, 104ff., 221, 227, 244, 272, 298n. 304. Samuel, Jr., 116. Sloper, house, 171. lot, 103. farm, 171. Smith, Asa, 62, 142, 190, 244. late A. J., lOln. George, 204. Jedediah (Jr.,) 36, 47, 55, 62, 70, 96, 109,. 112, 123 f., chap. VII;, 227, 235, 244f., 260, 298n. the elder, 186. account book of, 188. Smiths, the, 204. Social stratifications, 236ff., v. husbandman, yeoman, gentle- man, squire, military titles, seating meeting-house etc. Soldier, 12, 18, 26, 39, 7 5, 106f., 117. Somers, 32, 100, 323. Sons of American Revolution, 229. South street, v. road. Spanish milled dollar, 312. Speaker, Mass. Legislature, 59. Spirits, ardent, v. brandy, cider, flip, rum, sling, whiskey, etc. Spoon ville, 314n. Springfield, 6, 15, 17, 59, 70, 76f., 142, 150, 208, 213, 224, 228, 235, 267,276, 278, 312, 324. Republican, 34, 58n., 59n, 60n., 255, 317ff. Squire, 24 Iff. Squire, Orrin, D., 205. • Stage, 16, 31, 40, 63, 66, 70, 97, 135, 145, 253, 263, 26Sff., 289, 299, Chap. XII. coaching, 40, Chap. XII. driver, 66, 216, 307. fare, 324f. Stage Con'd first, and mail route, 32 Iff. Chap. XII. Stamp act, 29. Stebbins, Gad, 251. Steep hill, 86, 315. Stephens, Darias, 125. Steward, Stewart, Dea. A. L., 136. Samuel, 181. Walter, 286. William, 251. Stillwater, 75. Stockbridge, 318. Indians, 14. Stonehole, 71 Stone House, 16, 33. Store, 29, 64, 95, 116, 133f. 141, 145, 161, 165, 172f. 184. 217, 226, 283, 290. new, 133. Store house, 32f., 116, 217. keeper, 106, 230. Stranger, 218ff. Strong drink, 13, 23, v. Ardent spirits. Suffield, 6f., 323. Suffield Equivalent, 5, 14. Sulky, 144, 260, 262, 321. Sulphur spring, 21 Iff., 217. Sumter, Fort, 59. Sunday, 100, 288, 305. Sunset rock, 71, 214. Surveyor, 5, 7, 22, 83, 103. Swamp, black spruce, 95. great, 92, 94, 210. red ash, 95. on street, 130, 132, 144. Swearing, 193ff. Swine, 263f. Sylvester, Fordyce, 159f. George H., 159f. George H. and Son, 283. T Tablet, 207. Taggard, Taggart, Benjamin, 287. Nathaniel, 293ff. Widow Jane, 295. Taggard's, 82. Taggart school, 295. Tailor, taylor, 240, 268. Talcot mountain, 314. Tanner, 240. Tannery hill, 71n., 85. Tarriffville, Tarriffeville, 314. Tarrot hill, 252. Tavern, 144. appointments, 9, 42, 50, 87, 207f., 293f., 298. Benton's, 314. Carrier's 91. Case's, 314. and church, 306. competive conditions of, 63, 101, 134, Tavern Con'd: corner, Chaps. II. and III; 93, 100f., 119, 126, 139, 142, 212, 325n. and court house, chap. VII. dialogue in, 29. and drinking habits, 38, 72, 101 , 112, 119, 154, 203, 226ff. fare, 42f., 65, 209, 308ff. first, 6ff., 13, Appendix III. fun and business of, 75, 101, 145, 176, 309ff. Harrington's, 264. Hatch, 164. influence of , for evil, 154, 164. insufficiency of, 250. and litigation, 189ff. log book, 27. lotteries, 80f. Martin's, 324. and meeting-house, 20f., 100, 184, 245f. Mixer's, 2 74. as neighborhood resort, 39, 291f. North Blandford, 264ff. Norton and Ely's, 264. number of taverns, 142, 289. and ordinations, 22f. and politics, 25, 37, 122f. 182, 216, 291f. provision for first, 6ff . race of, 133ff. Rice's 324. Sacket's, 305. seamy side of, 97, 101, 192, 230ff. sheriff' s sales at, v. sheriff, and, execution sales. shows, 267, 316. sign, 168, 171. social atmosphere of, 4f., 10, 19, 39ff., 50, 78, 97, 109ff., 142, 178f., 216, Chap. VIII. social power of, 2, 4, 19, 33, 88, 116, 142, 182, 184, Chap. VIII. statistcs of, 23 Iff. and store, 29, 166. Stowe's, 210, 215, 313. and training days, v. parade, training, etc. three taverns, 133ff. town meeting adjournments to 24, 38, 180. vendues, v. Vendue. in war, 126, v. War. Washington's, 305. Wayside (inn, ) 4, 11, 236. winter business of, Chap. XII. v. also innholder etc. Tavlor, Benjamin, 238. Eldad, 74. Team, 80. Temperance, reform, 119ff., 15", 231ff. society, 158, 23 Iff. Temple, J. H„ 30. Ten- acre lot, 32, 104, 117. Tenant, 226. Thomas, Gen., 30. Lovewell, 279. \ Thompson, Eliphalet, 116. Win., 48f., 166. Thrall, Samuel, 287. Threatening, 201. "Three cakes," 65. Ticonderoga, 74, 76, 78. Tithingman, 170. Toll, 2S7ff., 299. Toll-gate, 255ff. Tolland, 94. Tory, 126, 186. Town, clerk, 108, 204, 225. Election, 183. house, 217. meeting, 20, 24, 63, 100, 123, 216. street, 20, 29, 69, 85 and n., 90, Chaps. V. and VI, 128, 131, 270, 286f. Township, No. 1, 2, 3, 4, v. Number. Trader, 61, 142, 161, 172, 190, 244. Tradition, 9f., 54, 61, 72, 94, 105, 107, 126, 135f., 138, 146, 165, 183 188, 211,' 216f. 218 228, 259, 261, 264, 283, 297f. Traffic, 92, 254, 299. Training, v. parade. Training field, 32. Travel, 31, 40, 64, 77, 94, 104, 195, 202, 219, 254, 299, 309ff. Tunock, v. Housatonic. Turnpike, 95, 129, Chap. IX., 286. First Mass., 31. Eleventh Mass., 132, 215, 286. Hampden and Berkshire, v. Ap- pendix II. 252, 279. of 1829, Appendix II. between Springfield and Albanv, 265. Twenty-mile pond, v. Pond. Tyringham, 15, 70. U. Underwood, Duty, 195, 200f., 308, 316. Unimproved lands, 37. United States, 259, 321. University, v. College. Upsan, Upson. Daniel, 196f. John J., 196. Shubael, 96. Upson Farm, 171. V. Vehicle, 300, v. carriage, chaise, chair, chariot, conveyance, cur- ricle, horseback, pod, pung, prairie schooner, sled, sleigh, spring, sulky, wagon. Vendue, 37, 61, 159ff. Vermont, 288. Veterinary,, 115. Virginian, 2 i9. Visitor, 226. W Wadsworth, commissary, 31. Wagon, waggon, 31, 87, 115, 121. 258ff. Wales, Henry, 251. Wallace, Wallis, James, 47f. Widow Jane, 287. Walnut hill, 129. War, 3, 10, 12, 26, 30, 39, 55n., 73, 106, 109, 117, 250, 217, 290ff. census, 109. Wark, James, 240. Warning out of town, 219ff. Washington, D. C, Mass., 319, 321. Gen., 74, 76, 88, 266. tavern, v. Tavern. Washingtonian movement, 231. Waterman, Asahel, 159. Robert, 251, Zebede, 96, Watson, Miss Electa B., 149n. James, 176. John, 48, 85. Wm., 63, 176. Watson house, 85, 93. Watts, Samuel, 12f. 16. Wealth, 240ff. Weddings, 266. Weeden, W. B. 225n. 236n. Welch, Agnes, 224n. Elizabeth, 224n. Well-sweep, 282. Weller's mills, 279, 284. West, 45, 110, 326. West Granby, 321. West Hartford, 315n. West India trade, 227. Western 193. Westfield, 6, 9, 11, 14, 69n., 70, 75, 78f., 83, 98, 129, 135, 137, 141, 160, 194, 196, 221ff., 279, 305. 312. academy, 210. bounds, 86. Little river, 84, 213. v. Little river. Mountain, 77, 79, 279f., River, 252. Westfield River Branches, 269ff Westfield Valley, 278. Wheaton, Chipman, 119. Wheeler, Trueman, 82. Whippernung, 279. Whiskey, 227. White, Dr. John, 7 In., 164. Vassal, 164, 165n. White House, 59. Whitman, Marcus, 133, 249. Whitney, Ajax, 198. Barnabas, 135, 196. Joseph, 210. Paul and Barnabas, 172. Wilbraham, 324. Wild cat, v. catamount. Williams, Dudley, 196. Williamstown, 115, 260. Wilson, Willson, James, 277. John, 220. John G. 197. Samuel, 276. Windsor, 15. Wine, 38. Worcester, 31, 65, 324. cellar, 298. Woronoco valley, 131. Wintonbury, 321. Worthington, 108. Wolves, 300ff. - Wyman, 69n. Women, 232, 243, 256, 267. Y Wood, John Waldo, 111, 115. Yeoman, yeomanry, 6 1 , 100, 237ff. The Plymouth Press, Springfield, Mass. DEC SC y