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LUmV 1913

OCjUL

Papers and Proceedings

OF THE

CONNECTICUT VALLEY
Historical Society

1904-1907

VOL UM E I V.

SPRINGFIELD, MASS.
Published by the Society
I 9 I 2

Copyright 1912 by
Connecticut Valley Historical
Society

CK i.^

Q

4-

Press of
THE F. A. BASSETTE COMPANY
Springfield, Massachusetts

Prefatory Note

This volume contains an abstract of the proceedings
of the Connecticut Valley Historical Society, beginning
with its meeting, December 19, 1903, ending January
15, 1907. It also contains all of the papers read at
the meetings of the Society that have been furnished
by their authors for publication. Other valuable
papers have been read from time to time, as will be
seen by reference to the proceedings, which have not
come into possession of the Society.

William F. Adams
Rev. John H. Lockwood
Edward A. Hall
J. Brewer Corcoran
Charles H. Barrows

Committee of
Publication.

Springfield, Mass., 1912.

Contents
Prefatory Note
Officers of the Society, 1904
Description of the gift of the Daniel B. Wesson Mansion to
the Connecticut Valley Historical Society
Proceedings of the Society
MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS

Page

Address Delivered to the Gentlemen of Hampshire, Franklin
and Hampden Bars by the Hon. George Bliss of Spring
field. Read by Judge A. M. Copeland i
The Fort at "Number Four." By Rev. Thomas D. Howard 34
Old Howard Street. By James H. Osgood . 41
The Two Captives. By Miss C. Alice Baker 58
Snapshots at Longmeadow Precinct. By Rev. Henry L.
Bailey . . . 79
Old Springfield in England. By Mary Louise Dunbar 93
Sketch of Col. John Worthington. By Rev. Thomas D.
Howard ...... . . loi
Springfield in Retrospect and in Prospect. By Nehemiah
Hawkins . . . . 108
Some Members of the Bonaparte Family as Exiles in this
Vicinity. By John A. Callahan. . . . . .125
A Recent Visit to the Battlefield at Saratoga. By Rev.
Thomas D. Howard . . . . . 151
Witchcraft in New England. By Mrs. Mabel Loomis Todd 165
Old State Street; Its Residences and the People who Lived
in Them. By Frank G. Tobey . . 184
The North End of Main Street. By Rev. Thomas D. Howard 203
Old Coaching Days. By Mrs. Lucy H. Smith 213
Lot Once Owned by the Catholics and Now a Part of the
Armory grounds. By E. A. Hall . . . .217

Illustrations

Daniel B. Wesson Mansion
Daniel B. Wesson Mansion
Daniel B. Wesson Mansion, main doorway
Daniel B. Wesson Mansion, carriage doorway
Daniel B. Wesson Mansion, main hall
Daniel B. Wesson Mansion, third landing, main hall
Daniel B. Wesson Mansion, Library
Daniel B. Wesson Mansion, Dining Room
Daniel B. Wesson Mansion, southwest chamber
N. Hawkins, Portrait
Victoria Memorial, London
The Campanile of the "Giralda," Seville, Spain
Municipal Group, Springfield, Massachusetts
Piazza, San Marco
The old Dwight Store, corner Main and State Streets

Officers of the
Connecticut Valley Historical Society
1904

President, William F. Adams.
Vice-Presidents, John West, Andrew J. Flanagan,
J. Stuart Kirkham.
Clerk, Henry A. Booth.
Corresponding Secretary, Henry A. Booth.
Treasurer, William C. Stone.
Curator, William C. Stone.
Executive Committee, Edward A. Hall, Frank G.
Tobey, Alfred M. Copeland, Albert H. Kirk
ham, Lewis F. Carr, Rev. Thomas D. Howard.

THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY
HISTORICAL SOCIETY

SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS

Connecticut Valley
Historical Society
Springfield ^ Massachusetts

A Maintenance Fund
of
One Hundred Thousand Dollars
to be Established by
Members and Friends of the
Society

Committee

W, F. Adams, President of the Society
Edward S. Brewer
Oscar B. Ireland
Charles H. Barrows
Col. John L. Rice
William G. Wheat
J. Brewer Corcoran
Clifford B. Potter
H. Curtis Rowley
Col. Stanhope E. Blunt

Col. Stanhope E. Blunt, Secretary
Oscar B. Ireland, Treasurer

Springfield Republican a
Springfield Union b
Springfield Homestead , c
Springfield Daily News d

Wesson $1,000,000 Gift
TO
The CONNECTICUT VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
MAPLE STREET MANSION OFFERED

J. PIERPONT MORGAN CONTRIBUTES ^10,000

Provision That the Society Raise Endowment Fund of $100,000
for Maintenance — Finest Home in the Country
for Such an Organization

THE imposing residence of the late Daniel B. Wesson at
50 Maple street has been given to the Connecticut Valley
Historical Society, according to an announcement made at
the meeting of the directors of the association at the Union
Trust Company's building yesterday afternoon. The gift is
provisional to the raising by the society of a permanent fund
of $100,000, the income of which is to be used for maintenance.
J, Pierpont Morgan has already offered to give $10,000 toward
this fund and the gift of the general committee of the 275th
anniversary, amounting to $250, is also available. The com
mittee appointed to raise the fund consists of William F.
Adams, president of the society, Edward S. Brewer, Oscar B,
Ireland, Charles H, Barrows, Col, John L. Rice, William
G, Wheat, James Brewer Corcoran, Clifford B. Potter, H,
Curtis Rowley and Col, Stanhope E, Blunt.
According to the president of the society, the building is
splendidly adapted for exhibiting the valuable collections that
are now in possession of the society, or have been promised
as soon as suitable accommodations could be provided. The
recent exhibit in connection with the anniversary shows some
thing of the wealth of material available. No changes will

be made in the building as none are needed. With the large
number of rooms available the collections can be housed prac
tically by themselves and in places ideally suited for them.
This is a source of satisfaction to the Wesson heirs as well as
to the society as the permanence of the house in its present
form is assured for all time. The building will be by far the
most costly owned by a historical society in the country. At
Worcester the society there has just completed a new building
that cost $300,000. The Wesson house cost approximately
$1,000,000. The society will have no burden of taxes to meet,
as buildings for such purposes come within the exempted list.
The house was built by the late D. B. Wesson, the noted
manufacturer of the Smith & Wesson revolver. It is much the
most expensive residence in the city and on the finest resi
dential street, yet also so close to the center, the city library
and the art museum, that it is very convenient for the pur
pose to which it is to be put. The building was about 10 years
under construction and in every particular was the best that
could be secured at any price. Bruce Price of New York was
the architect. The material is Milford pink granite, the most
durable stone that could be found.
The historical society was organized in 1876 and has a
membership now of about 300. J. Pierpont Morgan is one
of the life members. It was organized "to procure and pre
serve whatever may relate to the natural, civil, military,
ecclesiastical and genealogical history of the country, and
especially of the territory in the Connecticut valley, and also
to prepare and preserve correct reports of annals of passing
events of importance." The home of the society has been
somewhat uncertain for years. At present it is using part of
the art museum for some of its collections. It has a vast
amount of material, however, that it has never had room to
make available to the public. There are scores of people also
who have said that they would be glad to contribute if there
was a place suitable for their gifts. The society has issued

Main Doorway

Carriage Doorway

three volumes of "Papers and Proceedings." The first of
325 pages covers the years 1876 to 1881. The second of 309
pages covers the years 1882 to 1893. The third, covering
1894 to 191 1, is now in press. It also issued in 1907 "Poets
and Poetry of Springfield," and in 1909, "History of Spring
field in Massachusetts for the Young," by Charles H. Barrows.
The public gifts of the Wessons to the city now amount
to more than $2,000,000. The Wesson memorial hospital cost
$400,000. The Wesson maternity hospital cost $200,000.
The two have also been endowed in the sum of $450,000.
This latest gift of the costly residence completes the list to
date. Costly and Magnificent Interior
The house, which was built in 1898, is set in spacious
grounds and the interior corresponds in magnificence and
costliness to the outside. The rooms throughout are high and
large and finished with rare and beautiful woods. Mr. Wesson
was a lover of beautiful woods and filled his home with rich
specimens of native and foreign varieties. Beautiful tapes
tries and paintings enhance the richness of the rooms and the
furniture is made to correspond with the woodwork. The
walls above the wainscoting are covered with tapestries,
frescoes or figured satin and there are lovely marble mantles
and beautifully colored hangings. The floors are of quartered
oak, with the exception of the salon, which has a floor of white
mahogany. The house is built in the style of Louis XIV, Passing
through the massive outer door and through the vestibule
flanked with silver lamps, one enters a large hall, 20 by 30 feet.
This hall is floored, wainscoted and ceiled with oak, except
for small spaces near the ceiling, where tapestries are hung.
A great fireplace with a mantel of Verde antique marble is on
the right, and a heavy carved mirror hangs at the left. From
the main hall extend side halls ornamented with carved oak

wainscotings and tapestry like the main hall. At the north of
the hall is the reception room, finished in Greek style and
wainscoted in satinwood. The walls are covered with green
satin and the mantel is of rose aurora marble with an overman
tel of satinwood. At the south of the main hall is the salon,
finished in the style of Louis XV, with panels of white enameled
cherry ornamented with gilt, and a floor of white mahogany.
The ceiling is decorated with a beautiful figure painting by
the artist Tojetti of New York, and there is a mantel of rose
aurora marble. The salon and reception rooms are the same
size, 19 by 22 feet, and each has a tower 15 feet in diameter
at the corner farthest from the hall.
The large library, done in colonial style, is at the south
west corner of the first floor. The high wainscotings here are
of oak and tapestry,' and the north wall is covered with oak
bookcases. The mantel is of Sienna marble and the ceiling
is decorated with paintings and supported by oak beams.
The dining-room leads out of a side hall at the right of the
main staircase and is one of the richest rooms on the floor.
It is flnished in San Domingo mahogany and has a wainscoting
of red wood about eight feet high, with the beautiful grain of
the wood showing in long, smooth panels. A sideboard is
built into the wall at the north end of the room and on the east
side is a handsome table. The mantel, of mahogany and
Verde antique marble, stands at the south side of the room.
The predominating colors in the tapestry and hangings is
green and this color is also brought out in the painting on the
ceiling. The L-shaped butler's pantry is north of the dining-
room and north of this is a large kitchen with coal and gas
ranges, the former having a huge hood of glazed brick sup
ported by iron beams in the ceiling. The storeroom and a
pantry with a refrigerator built into the wall are east of the
kitchen. The beautiful staircase which leads from the head of
the main hdll has balustrades of heavy carving, and ascends

with several landings to the second floor. The staircase is
surrounded with windows of art glass, and is arched with a
skylight of the same on the third floor. On the second floor
there are six spacious sleeping-rooms and four bathrooms,
besides the upper hall. All the rooms are wainscoted, and the
furniture of each room matches the woodwork of the room.
Some of the most lovely woods in the house are to be seen on
this floor. The hall is done in oak, and the north room is in
Circassian walnut, a dark wood with a rich grain something
like our black walnut. Above the wainscot the wall is covered
here with golden bronze satin. The mantel is of Japanese
marble. The west chamber is in bird's-eye maple, the door
panels being especially handsome. The mantel is of pink
Italian marble, and the walls are done in blue satin.
There are two chambers on the east side, one finished in
white mahogany and old rose satin with a mantel of pink
Sienna marble and the other finished in Circassian walnut
with red satin and a Verde antique mantel. The room at the
southeast corner is done in satinwood with green satin for a
wall covering and a mantel of Mexican onyx. The room at
the southwest corner contains one of the richest displays of
rare wood in the house. It is finished in East Indian ma
hogany, a lovely wood with a pronounced grain and a varied
color. The walls and hangings are of gold-colored satin and
the mantel is of Sienna marble. The largest bathroom on
the floor is situated between the two last-mentioned rooms.
It is 12 feet by 12 and, like the others, is floored with mosaic
and wainscoted with Sienna marble. The woodwork is of
satinwood and the fittings are of silver.
The rooms on the third floor comprise six sleeping-rooms,
a bathroom, a sitting-room, a storeroom and a linen closet,
13 feet square. The wainscoting here is of quartered oak and
the rooms are larger than those in an ordinary house. Above
the third floor hall, which is large, there is a garret which has
been finished. The great basement of the house contains a

laundry, servants' bathroom and a vegetable closet of Mr.
Wesson's own devising, in which the temperature is regulated
by thermostat. The house is furnished with every modern
convenience. It is heated with hot water from a furnace in
the stables and fresh air is supplied from a large duct running
down the front of the house, passing ii feet under the base
ment floor and connecting with air shafts for the radiators,
which are in the walls of the house except in the third floor,
where they are inclosed in oak panels. The house is lighted
with both gas and electricity and there are 30 buttons on the
switchboard in the main hall which controls the system.
There is a hydraulic elevator running from the basement to
the third floor to complete the equipment.

Third Landing, Main Hah.

Another Wesson Benevolence

The gift of the Wesson mansion in Maple street to the
Connecticut Valley Historical Society, announcement of
which was made yesterday by President W. F. Adams of the
society, adds one more to the long list of benevolences to be
credited to the estate of the late Daniel B. Wesson. This
gift is from the surviving children of Mr. Wesson, the direct
heirs to this property, and is in keeping with the philanthropic
provisions made by their father before his death and in his
will. The mansion, a very palace in design and construction,
costing a round million dollars, with its spacious grounds, an
acre in extent, is ideally adapted to the purposes of an his
torical library and museum in which may be preserved the
priceless records and relics of the early history of the Connecti
cut valley and the no less important historical data of later
periods. It is a gift not only to the society, but to the entire popu
lation of the valley, and its value will be more and more real
ized with the lapse of years. The society is requested to raise
$100,000 for the maintenance of the property, and has already
received from J. Pierpont Morgan a contribution of $10,000
toward this fund. Mr. Morgan, whose ancestors were among
the early settlers in the Connecticut valley, is a member of
the society, and has manifested a keen interest in its object
and work. The task of raising the remaining $90,000 ought
not to be difficult. Indeed, the public spirit which inspired
the gift of this $1,000,000 estate to so worthy a cause ought
to be reflected in an immediate and generous response to the
society's appeal for contributions to the maintenance fund.
Springfield will be especially proud of this new addition
to its public institutions, and with Springfield the cities and
towns of the Connecticut valley will unite in a feeling of
gratitude to the Wesson heirs for this munificent benefaction.

Building Better Than He Knew

The good fortune of the Connecticut Valley Historical
Society in receiving the gift of the magnificent Wesson house
is generally pleasing. It is recognized as a peculiarly suitable
disposition of an edifice which stands in a peculiar relation
to the recent history of the city and which is peculiarly adapted
to the purposes for which the historical society designs it.
The general approval of the gift should leave no question as to
the carrying out of the conditions or the understanding which
is that the society raise a fund of $100,000 for maintenance
and care. The object is recognized as being so worthy of
support that it is doubtful if a strong appeal has to be made
to the public spirited people of the city and vicinity who are
interested in the good work of the historical society and in its
possibilities. This disposition of the Wesson house is also a rather im
pressive example of the unexpected manner in which things
often work out even in the brief history of a generation or
two. The shrewdest and wisest men never know as they are
planning and studying what is to be the ultimate development
of that to which they are giving so much of their time and
study. We may imagine that to the construction of this
splendid dwelling the late Mr. Wesson gave much of the strong
mental powers and of the keen business ability for which he
was noted. We can fancy how the project grew in his mind,
how carefully the details were worked out, and how at every
step the plans were made with the consciousness that it was
a home making. It was the working out of one of. the most
elevating of ambitions and a man puts much of his personality
and of his feelings into a house which he is building for his
home. In many ways it is often the most intelligible index
to his character and to his nature.

In the building few men stop to think of what is to ulti
mately become of the work In which they are engaged, but,
even if there Is a dream or a vision or an ambition, its uncer
tainties can not fail to be Impressive. The purpose of even the
greatest minds do not reach clearly beyond the grave. There
is no telling how the ideas of one generation may adapt them
selves to the conditions of another.
It is thus that sometimes men build better than they
know at the time. Whether there is a Providence that works
in the affairs of men or not It is a fact often noted that the
results of individual endeavor are vastly greater than could
be imagined and very much different. It is hardly possible
that the late Mr, Wesson could have dreamed as he planned
and carried to completion his beautiful residence that he was
really providing a future home for the historical society. He
knew that he was at least building well, and there Is the lesson
for the men of any generation. Good work is never lost. On
the other hand, the results of it are always better than can
be realized by him who works.

Wesson Home is Bestowed
$1,000,000
MANSION ON MAPLE STREET GIVEN TO
CONNECTICUT VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

MORGAN GIVES ^10,000

Only Condition Is That Organization Shall Raise
$100,000 for Maintenance
AT a meeting of the directors of the Connecticut Valley His
torical Society held in the Union Trust Company building
yesterday afternoon, W. F. Adams, president, announced
the gift to the society by the heirs of the late Daniel B. Wesson
of the residence, 50 Maple street. The property was the home
of Mr. Wesson, the Inventor and manufacturer of the Smith &
Wesson pistol, and was his home at the time of his decease.
It is located on Maple street, the finest residence street in
this city, and at the same time it is near the business center.
The lot includes about one acre of ground. The building was
about lo years in process of construction and was built by
day work. The architect was Bruce Price of New York City.
The material Is Milford pink granite — the best that could be
secured. The workmanship throughout the construction was
as perfect as could be m.alntained. The building when finished
and furnished and as now offered as a gift to the society cost
the sum of about $1,000,000. The only request made by the
heirs is that the society raise the sum of $100,000, the income
to be used to maintain the property or estate intact and place
beyond question the ability of the society to care for It. A
gift of $10,000 already toward this fund has been made by
J. Pierpont Morgan of New York City, a member of the
society.

Door, Soulhurst Chamber

The society was organized in 1876. It has a membership
of about 300. The objects of the society are to procure and
preserve whatever may relate to the natural, civil, military,
ecclesiastical and genealogical history of the country, and
especially of the territory In the Connecticut valley, and also
to prepare and preserve correct reports of annals of passing
events of importance.
The gifts of the late D. B. Wesson to the city are as follows :
Wesson Memorial Hospital, which cost $400,000; Wesson
Maternity Hospital, which cost $200,000; both endowed for
$450,000. The sons of Mr. Wesson, Walter H. Wesson and Joseph H.
Wesson, have beautiful homes which were built before the
decease of D. B. Wesson and the residence Is not desired by
either of them. Mrs. Bull, the daughter, has recently built a
home which is much more to her liking, so that the princely
gift is made to the Connecticut Valley Hlstorlqal Society, the
requirement being only a fund of $100,000 to secure the per
fect maintenance of the property.
The Messrs. Wesson have been great benefactors to the
city of Springfield and. Including the present proposition,
their gifts will mount into the millions.
The home of the Connecticut Valley Historical Society
has been rather uncertain for a number of years and the society
has used by sufferance, as it were, a part of the Art Museum
building, which contains the magnificent George Walter
Vincent Smith art collection.
The plan Is particularly pleasing to the heirs of Mr.
Wesson, as several propositions have been made for the final
disposition of the property, and, when this plan Is completed,
It will assure to Springfield for an Indefinite time, one of the
most beautiful buildings in Springfield, If not In all New Eng
land, and will provide a home for the Connecticut Valley
Historical Society, not equaled in this country. There will
be no changes made, and none will be necessary.

PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS

Papers and Proceedings

Quarterly Meeting December 19, 1903
Paper read by Judge A. M. Copeland
Address delivered to the gentlemen of Hampshire, Frank
lin and Hampden Bars by the Hon. George Bliss of Spring
field. Address by Hon, Geo. Bliss
THE influence which the interpreters of law, advocates by
profession, have had upon society has always been great.
This has been the case in the old world as well as in the
new, in ancient as well as modern times. In every civ
ilized nation the relations which attorneys and counsellors sustain to
the community are important. In no country can this class of men
be likely to produce more eifect than in our own. Lawyers will of
course be selected for judges. Upon them, therefore, must depend
life, liberty and property. A considerable portion of them also will
be legislators and though at times, great clamors have been raised
against having so many of them in our federal and state legislatures,
yet it will ordinarily be true either that the laws will be made or at
least draughted by professional men or they will be incorrect. But
besides this there is a more important, because more general, every
day influence which persons of this profession in the performance of
their ordinary duties exert upon society at large. For whatever some
visionaries may have imagined, there will, in all tolerably free govern
ments, be a class of agents taking the place of advocates. Fortunate
is it for society that it is so, for in this way contending parties are

2 JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS
more nearly on a level. The difference between advocates will not
generally be so great as between the parties themselves.
Such being the influence exerted on society, the desire of know
ing what part our predecessors have acted, is both a natural and
an interesting one. It is to be regretted that the laudable desire
of knowing more of those to whose places you have succeeded,
which is the occasion of this address, cannot be more extensively
gratified. Such a history of the Hampshire bar as I am able to give,
will now be laid before you. In gathering up fragments and putting
them together, partly from personal knowledge, partly from the
information of others and partly from periodical publications and
records, I have no doubt there will be facts and circumstances either
omitted or introduced which might materially vary the statement.
This history will naturally divide itself into four periods. The
first extending from the earliest settlement in the county in 1636 to
First 55 yrs. the year 1691 when the Province charter was
Second 52 yrs. given. The second from 1691 to 1743. The
Third 31 yrs. third embracing only a short term of about
Fourth 52 yrs. thirty years till the commencement of the Revo-
 lution in 1774, and the fourth extending from
190 yrs. that to the present time, making in the whole
about 190 years. This division is made not so much from regard
to any great political changes as because at these epochs important
changes took place in the bar and in their practice.
FIRST PERIOD, 1636-169I
The first settlers of this colony were by no means destitute
either of talents or literary acquirements. Some of them were
distinguished in our profession. The first Governor Winthrop was
a lawyer and the son of a lawyer. His grandfather also had been
an eminent counsellor. His posterity in Massachusetts and Con
necticut were very much distinguished. Governor Bellingham and
many others were also lawyers. But, the spirit of the times in
which they lived, the special object of their emigration and the
business in which they were incessantly engaged, after they came
here, would, of course, prevent the first settlers from devoting much
attention to the forms of legal proceedings. The practice of law in
England as exhibited especially in some of its departments, in the
time of James the First, or the first Charles, had no charms to

JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS 3
recommend it to the Puritans in general or to the emigrants to
this country in particular.
An extensive examination of the earliest records of Plymouth
and Massachusetts colonies induces me to believe that our ancestors
were not so ignorant of the principles, upon which justice had been
administered in the mother country, as some have asserted. But
it has also satisfied me that they were either in a great degree
ignorant of the forins of proceeding or considered them of no im
portance. In our first period but very little can be said either of
the reputation of the lawyers or of their practice. The first settle
ment within the limits of the old county of Hampshire, was made
in May, 1636, at Springfield, then called Agwaam or Agawam,
though a house had been built the year before. William Pynchon,
Esq., one of the original patentees under the Massachusetts charter,
a man of respectable talents and acquirements, with his son, John
Pynchon, and his son-in-law, Henry Smith, with some others re
moved that year from Roxbury and formed this settlement. The
father with his son-in-law returned to England in 1652, but John
Pynchon, the son, remained. He was an assistant, an active magis
trate, and a renowned warrior. For several years the administration
of justice was vested in William Pynchon, at first under the original
provision and general authority given him and others by Massa
chusetts when license was granted to emigrate to Connecticut river
and form settlements there; afterwards by the consent of the
people themselves; and again by a special appointment from the
General Court of Massachusetts. When he went to England in
1652, authority was given by the General Court to certain commis
sioners, to hold courts and to have a jury of six men, if no more
could be had. This reserved a right of appeal to the court of assist
ants in Boston in matters of weight and difficulty.
After Northampton was settled, commissioners were appointed,
who were directed to hold courts alternately at Springfield and
Northampton; but instead of appealing to the court of assistants
the appeal was to be made to the county court holden at Boston.
The records of the Pynchons, father and son, are preserved, and they
are probably the only memorials in existence in this part of the
state of the early administration of justice. I have examined them.
They show that the forms of law were not always greatly regarded.
They evidently undertook to act as chancellors as well as judges,

4 ADDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS
and in some instances as arbitrators. I have in my possession some
of their forms, but there is no time to read them now. It appears
that trials were generally by a jury under oath; and that processes
were issued in his majesty's name as early as 1640. Some have
supposed this form was not used so early. After the establishment
of the county of Hampshire, in 1662, county courts were holden
alternately at Springfield and Northampton. But the court of
assistants, which was holden only at Boston, had appellate juris
diction in civil causes over an original jurisdiction in all criminal
cases which extended to life, member or banishment.
This county then contained all the western part of Massachusetts,
extending eastward as far as the east line of Brookfield. The towns
of Somers, Enfield and Suffield, which were very early settlements,
now in Connecticut, were also then a part of it. The county limits
were lessened in 1 73 1 by the incorporation of the county of Worces
ter and again in 1749 by the secession of the three towns last men
tioned and in 1761 still more by Berkshire becoming a separate
county. But the Superior Courts as well for Berkshire as Hamp
shire were holden at Springfield till 1771, and at Springfield and
Northampton from that time till after the Revolution. While all
the Superior Courts under the colonial government were holden
at Boston there were but very small inducements to persons re
siding in this county to devote much time to legal study. A journey
to the Bay, as it was termed, was an arduous undertaking. So far
as the records give the history of the proceedings in the county
courts, the practice appears to be open to the remarks made by
Stearns, Sullivan and others, in the central part of the colony.
The forms are incorrect and indeed such might well be presumed
to be the case from the state of the country. But an ordinance
of the General Court made in 1663 not only shows what the rank
of the profession was, but it had an evident tendency to keep it
down and to degrade it lower. By this it was provided that no
person who is an usual and common attorney in any inferior court
should be admitted to sit as a deputy in that court. This regulation
remained in force as long as the charter continued. There were,
it ought to be recollected, some duties to be performed by the mem
bers of the General Court which might have induced this regulation.
They were to try cases in the last resort between party and party,
and might be called upon to decide in cases of life and death. The

JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS s
deputies took a very solemn oath as judges as well as legislators.
But the effect upon the respectability of the profession in those
parts of the country, when all the courts were of the description
that common attorneys were excluded from them, cannot be doubted.
Under the colony laws, I have not been able to find any special
authority to the courts to regulate the admission of attorneys, or
their practice. But between the time when judgment was given
upon the Quo Warranto in the year 1684 and before the grant of
the Province Charter, it seems that some regulations were made
on this subject, which are not published, for I find on the records
of the courts that at the County Court or Court of Pleas in Sep
tember, 1686, holden under authority of the president and council
the following entry was made: "John King of Northampton,
Samuel Marshfield and Jonathan Burt, Sen. of Springfield were
allowed by this Court to be attorneys for this County's Courts and
they took the oath of attorneys for the faithful performance of their
office." This is the earliest record of a regular formal admission
which I have found. June 18, 1684. Judgment on Quo War.
Province Charter Oct. 17, 1691.
By a law passed in 1641 they were authorized to tax the whole
cost of the suit to the party whom they found delinquent. What
regulations, if any, were made in regard to attorneys, I have not
been able to find. It is clear, however, that there was early such an
order of men. This the above law of 1663 plainly implies. I find
by the General Court records that in 1649 an order passed that all
plaintiffs or their attorneys in civil actions should draw up a declara
tion in a fair and legible hand (a rule which courts and clerks in after
times would be glad to have observed) and deliver the same to the
recorder or clerk three days, at least, before the same court, whereby
the defendant might have time to put in his answer also and summon
witnesses, etc., and by a clause in the law regulating jury trials
made in 1672, it was provided in the quaint language of the times,
that "if any plaintiff he or shee have entered an action and do not
by him or her self or by their attornies make their appearance, etc.,
after they have been three times called, they shall be nonsuited."
I find some names mentioned as attorneys in the County Court
but know nothing of their characters or acquirements.
There is a difficulty in finding and examining the ancient records
and processes in this county, which it may be as proper for you

6 JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS
perhaps as for any other body to take measures to remedy. The
records before 1728, and the writs and files I beheve to a later
period, are not in the clerk's office. Some of them are in the probate
office, as the County Court was the Court of Probate; but I be
lieve some of them have remained with the former clerks. I shall be
excused for making the suggestion if it has no good effect.
I have now given all that I have learned of the practice till the
Province Charter was granted in 1696. There is one regulation
respecting the taxation of costs giving courts, when a party has been
grossly in fault, a power to compel him to pay all the expenses.
This is more equitable than the present regulation, when a party,
however meritorious, can receive, either when his dues are withheld,
or he is compelled to defend against an unjust claim, but a pitiful
sum towards remunerating him. It may be well that no litigant
should be fully indemnified but in many instances our law of rates
is a denial of right. Second Period, 1691-1743
After the new charter went into operation during our second
period we are not quite so much in the dark, for a portion of it,
indeed, the records are defective, but it is very certain that the
practice of the law in this county, and probably through the Prov
ince, very greatly improved. Courts of Common Pleas were sub
stituted for the County Courts and by a law of 1692 they were
authorized to establish necessary rules and regulations for the more
orderly practicing in said courts. Superior Courts were at the same
time substituted for the court of assistants. At first no time was
fixed for holding the Superior Courts in Hampshire, but it was left
to the governor and council to fix as occasion should require, but
in 1699 a Superior Court was ordered to be holden at Springfield,
which continued till the year 1771, when one was directed to be
holden at Northampton. In the year 1701 the attorney's oath in
the form now used was prescribed. I have not been able to ascer
tain that the Courts of Common Pleas during this second period,
under the authority given them, made any regulations for practice
in that court except those which regarded attorneys who lived
out of the province, practicing in our courts. In the year 1727 they
laid some restraint upon them and regulated the costs they should
tax. For as the trade of the county was down the river, it was very

JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS 7
common for attorneys from Hartford and Windsor in Connecticut
to appear in our courts to collect debts for their clients and they
were permitted to take either travel or attorney's fees, but were
not allowed both.
In the former part of this period the names of John Huggins and
Christopher Jacob Lawton of Springfield, Samuel Partridge of
Hadley and Timothy Dwight of Northampton, are frequently
found on our records; and in the latter part of it William Pynchon,
Josiah Dwight and Cornelius Jones of Springfield, Joseph Dwight
of Brookfield and Oliver Partridge of Hatfield. Some of these were
men who had extensive public confidence. Huggins was long an
attorney in this county. He removed to lower Housatonuck, now
Sheffield, and there continued in practice and was succeeded by
his son. Some specimens I have seen of his declarations made in
1728 in actions on notes, were as correct as many that are now used.
He died in 1732.
In actions for the recovery of possession of land about that time
there are many declarations, some of them on mortgages. The
actions are styled trespass and ejectment and when on mortgage
the deed is declared on in the form of the English ejectment declaring
on the mortgage deed instead of a demise. The plea of the defendant
is informal, that he ought not to be ejected, because he has a right
to hold the demanded premises, and this he is ready to verify and
prays it may be enquired of by the county. The issue does not
appear by the record to have been joined. Actions of debt were
frequently brought during the first and second period of our his
tory. Debt was brought on notes as well as on book accounts and
a profert made of the note or book. This was general through the
government and was in conformity with the Connecticut practice.
To this the general issue of nil debit was pleaded. ' But in the pre
cedents of Huggins before alluded to, the declaration is in case, in
the form now used.
Of most of the other persons named I am unable to gain any
information. The three Dwights mentioned were afterwards judges
of the Court of Common Pleas and all at the same time. Timothy
Dwight, before he was a judge, was many years an attorney and
counsellor at Northampton, of reputable standing. Though suits
were very much multiplied, yet it is recorded by Mr. Dwight, to the
honor of Northampton, that during the eighteen years he was in
full practice, no inhabitant of that town was sued.

8 JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS
It is very evident that much more attention was paid to the
forms of proceeding than had been before given, from the fact that
the records abound with pleas in abatement. Almost every liti
gated case commenced with such a plea, some of which were suc
cessful, and others were overruled. Justice was frequently en
tangled in the net of forms. The maxim was. Qui cadit in litera,
cadit in causa. Cornelius Jones was a famous champion in this war.
I presume that he began practice without having had any advantage
for acquiring a knowledge of the profession. It has been said he
was at first a mechanic. He had been in full practice more than
twenty years when he was formally admitted as an attorney. He
continued to do considerable business till several years after his
admission. I have frequently heard it alleged that when employed
for defendant he was accustomed to make his entries on his docket
under each case in the following manner: i abate 2 demur 3 contin
4 appeal and sometimes 5 plead to the action. Some eminent
lawyers have thought that a more strict practice than has been of
late adopted would prevent lax and slovenly pleading and would
introduce a wholesome severity. But aside from the unpleasant
feelings which would arise, it ought to be considered that the most
careful man may sometimes make a mistake which might, in its
consequences, produce the ruin either of counsel or client. So that
it would be very improper to revive the old practice. Liberality,
however, ought not to degenerate into licentiousness. In medio
tutissime ibis. From these considerations it is evident that one part
of special pleading, that in relation to abatement was, in those
times better understood than it now is.
What means of information on legal subjects were enjoyed in
the county during the first half of the last century, I have not been
able to ascertain. I cannot learn that there were many law books,
nor if there were, what became of them. There are in the county
but a very few and those not important, which appear to have been
owned by them. Third Period, 1743-1774
Before the year 1743 practice must have been in many respects
incorrect and knowledge of legal principles imperfect, but from
that time both were very much improved. This ought to be at-

JDDRBSS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS g
tributed principally to three men, Phinehas Lyman of Suffield,
John Worthington of Springfield and Joseph Hawley of Northamp
ton. Of the first, as his connection with this county did not long
continue, I shall say now what I have to observe. The others
remained members of this bar through the third period. General
Lyman was born in 1716 at Durham in Connecticut, was a graduate
of Yale College in 1738, was three years a tutor there and left that
office in 1742. After having studied law, as I presume at New
Haven, he came to Suffield, then in this county, and commenced
practice in the year 1743. His business soon became extensive.
He was a distinguished advocate and afterwards an able politician
and renowned military officer. He has found an eloquent biog
rapher in D. Dwight, who in his travels has feelingly portrayed his
sufferings and misfortunes, and I have frequently heard him spoken
of by others who were contemporary with him, as an able lawyer.
President Dwight attributes to him in a good degree the plan of
separating Suffield and the other towns from Massachusetts and
uniting them with Connecticut. If this be true, and he was hkely
to know how it was, a surmise may be made that he was not pleased
with the growing fame of Worthington, and was apprehensive that
they could not move harmoniously in the same orbit, and therefore
took measures, in which he finally succeeded, to induce those towns
to revolt from Massachusetts; by which she was deprived of a
jurisdiction, to which she was most equitably, as well as legally,
entitled. General Lyman, no longer belonging to this county,
probably withdrew from practice here. He was, indeed, afterwards
principally engaged in public business; and not many years after
undertook a most unfortunate settlement on the Mississippi.
Colonel Worthington commenced practice in 1744 and Major
Hawley some years later, probably in 1749.
From the time that Worthington and Hawley flourished, the
practice has not very essentially changed. Precedents which can be
ascertained to have had their sanction might be safely followed
unless statutes have made some alteration. Contemporary with
them in the early part of their practice were Charles Phelps of
Hadley and Oliver Partridge of Hatfield and Cornelius Jones, who
continued in practice till about 1765, when he died. I believe
Colonel Partridge had an appointment and left practice early in
life.

10 JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE Bf.ISS
I have made a list of the attorneys practising at this bar in the
year 1774, when the courts were stopped, having arranged them
according to seniority as far as I have been able to ascertain and
have added the places of their residence.
John Worthington, Springfield Daniel Hitchcock, Northampton, 1771
Joseph Hawley, Northampton Caleb Strong, Northampton
Charles Phelps, Hadley Theodore Sedgwick, Sheffield
Moses Bliss, Springfield Woodbridge Little, Pittsfield
Simeon Strong, Amherst John Chester Williams, Hadley
Thomas Williams, Stockbridge Justin Ely, West Springfield
Timothy Danielson, Brimfield William Billings, Sunderland
Mark Hopkins, Great Barrington Samuel Fowler, Westfield
John Phelps, Westfield Samuel Barnard, Deerfield
Jonathan Bliss, Springfield Samuel Field, Deerfield
Elisha Porter, Hadley David Noble, Williamstown
Making twenty-two in all. I believe, however, three of these
did not practice in this county, Charles Phelps, T. Williams and
T. Danielson, to any extent.
It may be noticed that four of those in the above list, resided
in the county of Berkshire; but as that territory was then part of
this county for a considerable time and the Superior Courts were
all holden here and the attorneys practiced together indiscrimin
ately in each, I have thought it proper to notice them here. As I
have already observed, when Worthington and Hawley came to the
bar, the practice was extremely contracted. It continued so in
some degree for a considerable time, but gradually became more
liberal. While Worthington and Hawley were at the head of the
profession in this county, the bar adopted a number of rules of
practice and among others the important one requiring three years'
study before admission to practice. From the first institution of
courts there seems to have been no rule, no settled uniform practice
on this subject, till this rule was adopted a short time before the
revolution. I believe a year was all that had been required and
probably many were admitted after studying for a much less period.
These regulations originated with the Essex bar. That county
has long stood among the foremost in improvement in the knowledge
and practice of law. I have seen the original propositions from that
county to this bar which were adopted here. I have heard some of
those who were then in full practice say, that they at first doubted
whether the term of clerkship was not too long, but after practicing
upon the rule, they became fully satisfied with it.

JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS ii
One of the Essex bar, contemporary with Worthington and Haw
ley, WilUam Pynchon, Esq., of Salem, I personally knew. I have
tried to claim him for Hampshire, but find that, though a native
of this county, he neither studied nor practiced here. I believe he
stood high, even at that bar, as an eminent lawyer and was pe
culiarly skilled in the science of special pleading. His learning was
not, however, confined to Rastell, Coke and the year books. He was
a complete scholar, and an accomplished gentleman. His colloquial
powers were very superior, as I had frequent opportunity to hear
during his visits to his native place. He went to Salem in 1745 and
read law and died about 1790. If he was a fair specimen of the Essex
bar, we need not wonder if we find Lowell, Parsons and many
others, some of whom still survive, emanating from that county.
I have frequently heard it observed that Pynchon did much to give
the bar of Essex its high standing. These observations will not be
understood as depreciating the practice in Suffolk or other counties.
I have stated that there were rules of the bar, but none of the
courts. These seem to have been sometimes confounded, though
there is an obvious distinction. The rules of the bar are the volun
tary agreement of the attorneys practicing in a court as to their
code of practice, depending for their validity on individual agree
ment. The rules of court are imperative upon all who do business
in it. An illustration of this difference may be given in a case
respecting the right of attorneys to appear without producing
warrant of attorney from their clients. The Superior Court of
the United States seems to suppose this to be a general rule of
courts in favor of their own attorneys. This may be so now, but I
well recollect the time when it was not the case in Massachusetts.
In all cases a power of attorney was to be produced and a very
short concise form was devised and adopted, specimens of which
I have. To obviate the necessity for this power, the bar in this
county adopted a rule not to claim proof of it from brother attorneys
in regular standing. It, however, not infrequently happened that
questions were made to the court, and they always decided the case
upon common law principles, and required the proof, if insisted
upon, giving time, however, to produce it, if no previous notice had
been given of the exception. Many points in our practice might be
traced to this general rule of the court, though in process of time
the rule was seldom if ever enforced, and doubts are entertained
whether it was ever part of our system.

12 JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS
During the period of thirty years previous to 1774 counsel of
eminence attended the Superior Court on the circuit from Boston.
Gridley was frequently here.
The appearance of the Superior Court of that day was calculated
to fill the mind with respect. It came into the county but once a
year till the year 1771 and was ushered into it by the sheriff with
his posse. When on the bench, their robes and wigs added to the
majesty of their appearance.
I saw them when a boy for the last time and after making great
allowance for the effect upon a child, I am sure no earthly tribunal
or body of men could inspire greater reverence than they did on
my mind. I must believe there was much in their appearance and
deportment well adapted to command veneration and respect.
The lawyers were obliged to dress in black. The barristers all wore
black gowns in court. To me it has always been a subject of regret
that no peculiar costume has been retained or adopted by the bench
or the bar. It appeared to me out of character to see as I once did
a chief justice of the United States, who really was very respectable
and would appear so everywhere, dressed while on the bench in a
plain dress or russet mixed suit. I know that such men as Chief
Justice Jay and Parsons will extort and always command respect
and veneration. But that is rather in despite of any irregularity in
dress; and it does not follow that, even in them, attention to it
might not have insured more. Certainly exceptions in their favor
furnish no general rules. I know that a person destitute of talents,
clothe him as you will, must appear contemptible, but still I believe
that as long as flesh and blood compose so large a part of human
nature, the senses cannot fail to influence the opinion of every
individual and especially of the great mass of the community, in
the judgments they form of others.
After Worthington and Hawley came to the bar, they were com
monly employed in all important trials. Associated with them,
though much their juniors, were Simeon Strong, Moses Bliss and
Jonathan Bliss, and in the latter part of their practice Mark Hop
kins, Theodore Sedgwick and Caleb Strong. The northern section
of the county comprising the present county of Franklin, was more
recently settled than the southern and middle ones. Many of the
present towns were entirely unsettled. For a short time before the
Revolution, Ashley and Barnard were at Deerfield, Billings and

JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS 13
Field at Conway. Daniel Jones of Hinsdale generally attended
our courts. I believe there were attorneys in the present county
of Hampshire only in Northampton, Amherst and Hadley; and
in the county of Hampden there were none except in what was
then Springfield and Westfield. Timothy Danielson, however,
was in the profession at Brimfield, but gradually relinquished it
for trade. The practice in pleading was, in this period, very much
the same as it is now. In real acti6ns, so far as I have been able
to discover, precedents were generally as correct as they have ever
been since. A precedent I have where entry in the son was brought
on disseisin done to the ancestor, where the judgment is deduced
and title stated in a correct manner and the plea and judgment are
in good form. I have examined the proceedings in many common
recoveries which appear to be in all respects correct. Probably in
these cases the business was done by those who had more than or
dinary skill, but in proportion to its numbers this bar has, at no
period, had more men of, superior legal ability than those imme
diately preceding the Revolution.
Perhaps I ought not, with so little knowledge as I have, to speak
of Worthington and Hawley, never having known anything of them
at the bar. But their great eminence may excuse the attempt to
gather some portions of their history. Of the former, I know much
more than of the latter, for with the former as far as my junior
standing would permit, I was many years conversant. Colonel
Worthington was a native of Springfield, educated at Yale College,
where he graduated in the year 1740, and where he was for some
time a tutor. He left there in 1743, read law a short time with
General Lyman at Suffield and commenced practice in 1744. I
do not find any more of his admission to the bar or of that of Lyman
and Hawley. His legal attainments were highly respectable. He
had a good, and for that period, an extensive library. His practice
was extensive. He commonly attended the courts in Worcester
and, after Berkshire was made a separate county, attended the
Common Pleas there. He was public prosecutor or King's attorney
for this county. I never heard him argue a case to a jury; but
from what I have seen of his mode of managing controversies, I
have no doubt he was an able advocate. His mind was ardent,
his imagination lively, his feelings strong. His ideas were apt to
flow in torrents for he had great command of language. He was

14 JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS
many times very powerful. If he had any fault it was this, that
being sometimes too forcibly impressed with the subject, he forgot
that his hearers had not his feelings and would press his subject
farther than it would bear. His style was nervous and forcible and
uncommonly correct. He had a taste for general science and his
knowledge was not confined to law and politics.
Though he made a conspicuous figure in the political arena of
that day, I shall in regard to him, as well as all others to whom I
shall allude, say nothing of their political course. He was capable
of communicating much legal information, while his health and
ability to converse continued, and was very free to do it. I had
frequently the pleasure and benefit of his instructions, though
never under his tuition. From the interruptions of the courts in
August, 1774, to the time of his death in April, 1800, he lived re
tired from professional and all public business; and as he had many
years been in a conspicuous station, and lived to a good old age, he
had many of his acquaintances and friends to visit him and enjoy
his society and conversation. He died in his eighty-second year.
He had a manuscript book of forms which has been many times
copied. Many of the precedents were noted as Reads.
Of Major Hawley I know much less than of Colonel Worthington
and the little information I have is derived from those who were
long associated with him in practice before his juridical science was
profound. He was peculiarly attached to the old English black
letter law and had an uncommonly extensive library of ancient
law books, which he studied attentively. Many of the most valu
able of these books were afterwards owned by Governor Strong and
were destroyed by fire. He was very attentive to forms and tena
cious of the ancient English precedents. As an advocate he was
powerful and successful. He was strictly conscientious and up
right. He abhorred everything approaching to deceit or chicanery.
Juries believed him to be an honest man. Their opinion of his stern
integrity made them listen to him very readily. His opinions and
assertions had great weight. It was said of him, that he would
not engage in a cause unless he was fully persuaded right and justice
were on his client's side, and if, after he had engaged, he discovered,
as he believed, that he was not on the side of justice, he would in
any stage of the case, abandon it. Sometimes he would prematurely
give up a cause. It is not always easy to perceive at the moment

JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS 15
the duty of an advocate. Counsel are sufficiently prone to exercise
fidelity to a client, but it ought always to be remembered, that
their obligations to fidelity to the court and to truth and righteous
ness are at least as strong as those they owe to their clients. When
Hawley was convinced he had justice and right on his side, he would
argue very powerfully and successfully. When a point of law was
to be taken before the court he would meet the case fairly and reason
upon it as a sound logician. He was at times subject to great de
pression of spirits, generally grave in his deportment, a very zealous
active magistrate. The general tenor of his manners made him
more in favor with the people than with the court. Hawley and
Worthington were most commonly engaged on opposite sides and
when united they usually succeeded. They were both good special
pleaders and could not endure to have legal proceedings in any other
than appropriate technical language. This character I have always
heard of Hawley and know it was true of Worthington. He could
not bear the loose story telling manner which sometimes prevailed
in Connecticut pleadings, but which I believe has there been much
corrected of late. Hawley had the honor of numbering many among
his pupils who would be ornaments to any bar. He never practiced
after the year 1774; but occasionally presided in the Court of
Sessions with great dignity as the oldest magistrate in the county.
He died in March, 1788, aged sixty-four years.
That these men should, with the means afforded them, acquire
such eminence, is a mark of great industry and talent; and is evi
dence that a thorough knowledge of the law, as derived from its
ancient sources, will make a man respectable, without reading every
modern publication.
Hawley, after he left college, studied divinity and was several
years a preacher, though he was never settled in the ministry. He
officiated as a chaplain in the Provincial army and was at the siege
in Louisburgh. He studied law with General Lyman at Suffield;
how long, I have not ascertained. The earliest notice of him I find
in practice is in the year 1749, at May term.
One who knew Hawley well, who had often heard him and was a
competent judge, says, "many men have spoken with more ele
gance and grace, I never heard one speak with more force. His
mind, like his eloquence, was grave, austere and powerful."
I have said that Worthington and Hawley had good libraries.
This must be understood with reference to the time and place.

1 6 JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS
I have been informed in such a way that I am satisfied of its
truth, that General Lyman's library, when Worthington and Haw
ley studied with him, was very limited indeed. Worthington, as
he had opportunity, after he came into practice, proceeded to pur
chase a law library and enlarged it from time to time.
Major Hawley, in the year 1767 or 1768 fell under the censure
of the Supreme Court and was suspended from practice at the bar.
At the next term he was restored, at the motion of Colonel Worthing
ton. I have always understood that there was no imputation on
Hawley's character in this affair. The precise state of the case I
cannot give. He was counsel for some persons in the county of
Berkshire who had been concerned in a mob and made some ob
servations which the court thought had too much of the spirit of
liberty. Whether this originated from the stamp act or some other
cause, I am not informed.
Upon the character of the next in seniority it will not be ex
pected that I should enlarge. I believe he was generally esteemed a
sound lawyer and a skillful special pleader. His contemporaries
generally valued his legal opinions. He graduated at Yale College
in I7SS- Hs first studied divinity and preached several years.
He then read law with Colonel Worthington, was admitted to the
bar in November, 1761, and left it in the year 1798. He was in
practice several months before his admission. Very nearly con
temporary with him was Simeon Strong. He was born at Northamp
ton in the year 1735, graduated at Yale College in 1756 and for
several years devoted himself to preaching. He was quite a meta
physician and always fond of theology. Pulmonary affections
induced him to relinquish preaching, not having been settled in
the ministry. He studied law with Colonel Worthington, com
menced practice at Amherst in 1762 and after practicing some
months was regularly admitted to the bar at the November term
of that year. From the time the courts were stopped in 1774 there
was an interval of several years before he returned to practice.
He did very little business in court till the year 1780. From that
time until he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court in 1800,
his practice was extensive and his attendance in court regular,
with very few interruptions. It was said that he spent the interval
of his retirement from the bar in extensively revising and examining
his law books. He had before been well indoctrinated; but this

JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS 17
thorough revision gave him great advantage in the whole learning
of real estates and particularly in regard to real actions. With
those subjects he appeared perfectly familiar. There were some
traits in his character worthy of particular notice. He was very
modest and unassuming in his whole deportment and always and
on all occasions treated the court before whom he appeared with
great deference and respect. Whatever he might think of the man,
he always revered the judge. In a person of his acquirements, and
with a wit of such caustic powers as he sometimes exhibited, and
before judges, for whom, aside from the office, no very high claims
would be advanced, this was a feature of character rarely to be
found. Possibly a part of this might be derived from the respect
accustomed to be shown to the old Superior Court, but I have no
doubt it was principally personal, and that he lost nothing by it.
If his course in this respect were generally followed by the bar,
instead of diminishing, it would add to their weight of character.
Perhaps an angry client may, at the moment, be better pleased
with a rude or angry reply; but indifferent, disinterested auditors
would never be of that opinion. I have known him frequently to
acquire great advantages by the course he pursued. Another trait
not always in the character of eminent and distinguished advocates,
was the perfect fairness with which he was accustomed to treat
his antagonist. He was as astute to discover mistakes as any man,
but did not take unreasonable advantage of them. In his remarks
to the jury, the client or the case might feel the keen point of his
satire, but towards his brother at the bar, he was always civil and
courteous. He was eminently skilled in the whole science of plead
ing. He generally attended the courts in Worcester as well as
Hampshire and in the former part of his practice frequently in
Berkshire. After deducting the interval in his practice, he was
nearly a third of a century at the bar. As he was more than five
years on the bench, the soundness of his legal opinions will appear
from the reports. He died December 14, 1805.
Among the distinguished members of the bar before the Revolu
tion was Jonathan Bliss of Springfield. He graduated at Cam
bridge in 1763, read law with Judge Trowbridge and was con
temporary with Chief Justice Dana, with whom he long corre
sponded. He was in good practice and esteemed an able advocate
and counsellor. At the approach of the Revolutionary contest.

1 8 JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS
having no family, in August, 1774, he went to England and never
afterwards resided in the United States. He had a very good law
library which remained at Springfield till some years after the close
of the Revolutionary War. He was successively attorney general
and chief justice of the Province of New Brunswick, and died in the
last office at an advanced age. Those five whom I have particularly
referred to were all the barristers in this county before the Revolu
tion. Sedgwick and C. Strong were made barristers after the peace.
One other distinguished man read law and was admitted to the
bar in this county, though I do not learn that he ever practiced
here. Pierpont Edwards was of Northampton and was admitted
in the year 1 771. He soon removed to New Haven where he ac
quired great professional celebrity, though his eloquence, as much
as that of any other man, appeared to be strictly extemporaneous,
yet I had the opportunity of knowing that no man took more pains
to study a case before hand and to have it thoroughly prepared.
He was wont to examine all points likely to arise in the case. Here
I may be permitted to make the general remark that so far as my
limited observation in the course of a protracted professional life
extends, those great men who have charmed by their eloquence,
or convinced by their arguments, were men of deep study. Even
when they appeared most impromptu they did not come to the sub
ject unprepared. Whatever natural powers one may have, you
know that no man can be an able counsellor without long and
laborious study. However it may be with poets, no man is born a
lawyer. Whatever vulgar errors may be entertained, no lawyer can
be well qualified to manage a cause without previous preparation.
Whatever the appearance might be in the forum, the excellence
exhibited there must be much indebted to midnight study. The
particular circumstance of each case, as well as general principles
must be thoroughly investigated. It is true some would require less
time than others. But even a Parsons or an Edwards would be
found closely engaged in their libraries. There must be much of
what one of the old lawyers in his account charged the town of
Northampton for in his broad language — laboured study and pillow
rising. Though the charge is not very frequent it is, when made,
more complained of than any other.
If I am right in my opinion much encouragement may be given
to laborious study even though one may think he has not great

JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS 19
genius. Industry throughout the civilized world makes much more
difference between persons than the difference of natural ability,
unless we include in that a capacity for unremitting application.
I have observed that three of those I have particularized studied
divinity and were preachers before they practiced law. This was
the case also with several others in the general list. It cannot be
necessary in addressing you to vindicate this course of proceeding.
Eminent jurists, and among the rest. Professor Hoffman, have
prescribed such a course of study, in the beginning of the study of
law, as would be very proper and suitable for a student of divinity.
But, without taking this into consideration, we may say that the
purity and integrity of such men as Hawley and Simeon Strong,
cannot, without violating all sound rules of judging, be for a moment
questioned. When the illiberal speak of such a course as selfish
and avaricious, if any answer is deemed proper, refer them to Hawley
and the elder Strong.
If any one entitled to an answer speaks of making shipwreck of
a good conscience by leaving the business of a preacher and pursu
ing the practice of law, turn them to Hawley and till he is convicted
of corruption, they must be silent.
It has not been within the scope of my plan to speak of political
events, but there was one effect of the stamp act of which I do not
recollect to have heard. It appears by our records that the ad
ministration of justice was suspended during 1765 and 1766 because
the court declined using stamp paper for their jury process, and it
is stated that this was general throughout the province.
We have now arrived at an important era in our jurisprudence.
There may have been others who were eminent lawyers during our
third period, but having no information respecting them I shall
be excused for not attempting any statement. There are some
who, though they came to the bar in this period, yet, having
acquired their distinction since, a particular notice of them may
be reserved for a future period. It may perhaps not be amiss
here to state some things which more properly come in before
the closing period. Having mentioned that General Lyman's
law library was small and Worthington and Hawley having been
dependent on that for their law knowledge before they went into
practice, it may not be amiss to mention that they very early took
measures to purchase law books. They had good collections for that

20 JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS
day when they left practice. So that they had the means of ac
quiring information themselves and communicating it to their
students. Most of Hawley's law library was not many years since
destroyed by fire. Jonathan Bliss had also an extensive library
which remained in the county till the year 1786.
Fourth Period
At the time the courts were stopped there were probably in
Hampshire and Berkshire about twenty persons who paid some
attention to professional business, but the principal part of it was
done by a much less number. Worthington and Hawley never
returned to practice; Jonathan Bliss removed as I have stated.
Three of the barristers ceased to practice entirely. Many of the
other lawyers retired and either never came to the bar again, or
did very little business. The courts of justice were closed in August,
1774, and no Court of Common Pleas was appointed till May, 1778.
The Superior Court might have been holden once or twice in
that interval, but very little professional business was to be done
till the close of the Revolutionary War. Governor Strong and John
Chester Williams, at that period, did most of what was done.
Judge Strong for several years did not regularly attend the courts.
There was almost an entirely new state of things in the adminis
tration of justice at the beginning of the fourth and last period of
our history. Very few of the lawyers attended courts; those who
had taken the lead and were commonly looked up to for direction
were gone. Three of the judges were not professional men and were
not conversant with legal proceedings. The chief justice had been
in practice as a lawyer, but had turned his principal attention for
several years to trade.
Perhaps this county was as favorably situated as most of those
throughout the state; one of the whole number of the profession
has left the county.
At the close of the Revolutionary War business in our courts
very greatly increased. The fountains of justice which had been
closed were suddenly opened, the obstructions removed, and the
torrents seemed likely to overwhelm everything in their course.
But this was soon checked. Barriers of various kinds were set up
and the gates of justice but partially opened. At this time the
people in this county were greatly in debt. The merchants in

JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS 21
Boston and New York had been accustomed to give the country'
traders extensive credit. They, in their turn, generally sold their
goods on credit. Those debts which had escaped the blast of paper
money, and there were many in this condition, had accumulated
to a large amount. In addition to this, public burdens pressed
very heavily on the people. Their debts increased for living and
supporting soldiers, as well as the direct taxes, were great in pro
portion to their means. There was no market for their produce and
its price was greatly reduced. Distressed and driven almost to
desperation, instead of imputing their sufferings to the real causes,
the people looked only at the immediate instruments, the law
yers, sheriffs and constables, who collected their debts and taxes
and considered them as nuisances in society.
From the latter part of the year 1784 to 1789 the practice of
the law in this country was under a cloud. Mobs obstructed the
courts of justice. Great pains were taken by publications in the
newspapers and by various other means, to fasten popular odium
on the profession and for a time these efforts were successful.
However it might have been in some parts of the common
wealth, there was, in this county, no ground for accusing the lawyers
for unreasonable charges, or excessive multiplication of suits.
The bar, in this county, as a body, took measures to avert this
odium and determined to discourage suits when it could be safely
done. They adopted a practice, which has since become extensive,
of continuing actions for final judgment, instead of appealing from
defaults or carrying cases to the Supreme Court; thereby greatly
diminishing the expense and giving the parties equal advantages
with an appeal. But all the expedients they adopted were ineffect
ual. After various attempts to stop the course of justice, which
were partially successful, an armed force was resorted to and the
insurrection of 1786 took place. Silent leges inter arma. Many of
those concerned in this insurrection very fully believed that the
war of the Revolution had entirely cancelled their debts and were
much chagrined and vexed to find them reviving and in full force
against them. This insurrection was quelled in the course of the
year 1787. But though open resistance was effectually put down,
the enemy of justice assumed a new shape and if not quite as terri
fic, it was fully as destructive. Having the sanction of government
it was more pernicious. In addition to tender and suspension laws

22 JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS
it came in the form of a process act, commonly called a see cause,
and had the flattering title of an act for rendering processes in law
less expensive.
This act which passed November 15, 1786, gave every justice
of the peace jurisdiction in all actions of every description wherein
the title to real estate was not brought in question, and to an un
limited amount it was made the duty of every justice, upon demand,
and the exhibition of a claim to him, to issue a process; by which it
was evident that the intention was to supersede the agency of
lawyer in the suit. This course of proceeding, which may here
after be as much an object of curiosity as the trial by ordeal or
battle, unquestionably in its commencement was meant to leave
courts or lawyers very little, if anything, to do. The writ required
the defendant to appear and confess the plaintiff's demand if he
should see cause, which gave it the name of a see cause action. If
the defendant did not appear, judgment was to be rendered for the
amount of the plaintiff's claim and execution to issue thereon after
a considerable delay. If he appeared and disputed the claim, and
the justice could not induce the parties to agree to a reference,
the cause was to be carried to the Court of Common Pleas.
As the whole proceeding depended upon the skill and care with
which the justices' records were made, great perplexity and diffi
culty has occurred in attempting to trace a title to real estate under
the levy of an execution issued by a justice in such a case. Justices
have removed or kept no records, their papers are lost and in some
instances, persons acting as justices have been found to have had
no authority. I have known very valuable estates lost through the
carelessness of a justice under this act. The junior part of the pro
fession have probably not known much of this heterogeneous course
of proceeding. It may be that I have dwelt too long upon it but as
it began when I commenced my professional course, I felt the evil
of it very sorely. It operated very extensively to prevent the col
lection of debts and increased the expense in all litigated cases. It
was several years and nearly to the close of the last century before
business had returned to its regular channels. It is true that after
June, 1790, actions were generally brought to the Common Pleas
directly, a law of February, 1789, having given a plaintiff an alterna
tive either to sue at court or before a justice. From the year 1800
to the present time, the business of the profession has met with no

JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS 23
extraordinary embarrassment; and the profession itself has had
its full share of public confidence.
I must beg your indulgence for protracting this address to such a
degree but there remain two persons who have been eminent at our
bar whom it would be unpardonable to pass in silence, — ^Governor
Strong and Judge Sedgwick. The character of Governor Strong
has been so well known that I may be brief. His political character
will require a more powerful and skilful hand, but as it is twenty-six
years since he left practice, and most of those who hear me have per
sonally known nothing of him as a lawyer, I will attempt to portray
his professioftal character and history. He was a graduate of
Cambridge College in 1764, and studied law with Major Hawley.
After he left college his health was very feeble and his eyes so weak
that he was not able to read himself and was obliged to depend on
others to read to him. He was compelled to spend much time in
journeying to regain his health. I do not find any record of his
admission as an attorney; it is possible I may have overlooked it.
It has been said that he began to practice in 1772, and the first no
tice I find of him in court is of that date. It is very apparent that
the court did not pursue any fixed rule as to admitting attorneys
to practice and it is very probable that the names of many who were
in fact admitted are not to be found on record. As he practiced
but a little more than two years before the courts were closed it is
probable Governor Strong's practice before the war was very limited.
But after they were established during the war, and for years after
its close, his practice was much more extensive than that of any
other person in the county. His aid and counsel was usually as
much sought after and relied on as those of any one. He regularly
attended the courts in Hampshire, Worcester and Berkshire.
Though he was much engaged in public business he generally at
tended to his professional engagements as well as his pubhc duties.
That forecast which was so remarkable a trait in his character
was employed to great advantage in making his arrangements
to attend the courts. Without deserting public business, when at
Boston or even at Congress at New York or Philadelphia, he would
come and attend a court and perhaps not be missed at all. He was
one of the most diligent, industrious men I ever knew. He was
very fond of reading and always had a book at hand to improve
every moment. His mind was uncommonly versatile and interrup-

24 JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS
tion, while engaged in any business, did not seem to break the course
of it. His knowledge of law was very respectable and it was more
diffused through all its branches than that of any of his seniors,
yet he was not so pre-eminently skilled in the doctrines in regard
to real actions as was Judge Strong. His drafts and forms were
uncommonly accurate. It was rare indeed that any defects were
found in his forms. He was much employed in public as well as in
private life. Not a few of the statutes of the Commonwealth and
of the United States went through his hands. His pleading was
generally considered as good authority but was rather less in the
English style than that of his master or Judge Strong. But his
characteristic prudence appeared in this as well as in other things.
An instance or two occurs to my recollection. It was long and
warmly disputed not only with words but almost with fists and
clubs in other parts of the state, whether in entry or disseisin, not
guilty was a good plea. It had, during the Revolution, crept into
practice. Governor Strong pleaded not guilty of the disseisin
instead of not guilty generally. Another case occurred in regard to
the proper conclusion of an indictment founded on a statute. The
authorities were clear that saying it was contrary to law was bad,
but Strong alleged it to be contrary to the law and held that if
there was a statute it referred to statute. This has since been de
termined to be improper. I mention it as indicating legal astutia.
Governor Strong was a very successful advocate to a jury, but his
manner was very diverse from that of his great master. His address
was insinuating. He commonly began in a low tone of voice, talking
to the jury in a very familiar way; but so as to gain their attention.
Whether others heard or not he was not concerned. Many times,
before those whom he addressed, or any one else was aware of it,
he had gained his point. I have frequently heard it said by one who
had practiced in every county in the state, that there was no man
he so much dreaded as closing counsel as Caleb Strong. It was well
understood that he was twice offered a seat on the bench of the
Supreme Court but utterly declined it. The public had great con
fidence in him. Juries placed the utmost reliance on his assertions.
Though his eloquence was not destitute of force, yet his manner was
that of persuasion. He united in a very uncommon degree great
prudence and discretion with great simplicity and integrity of
character. He was the favorite advocate when the rights of human
ity were to be defended.

JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS 25
The only other member of the bar to which I ask your attention
for a few moments is Judge Sedgwick. He was a native of Connecti
cut and a graduate of Yale College in the year 1765. After reading
law he removed into Sheffield in the county of Berkshire and began
his practice there. He was fast rising into eminence when the Revo
lution interrupted the regular administration of justice. But from
the beginning of his practice until the year 1802, when he was
appointed a judge of the Supreme Court, he regularly attended
our courts and constantly practiced at our bar. His practice, how
ever, was subject to many interruptions by public business. As he
was many years a judge and those who never saw him may by the
reports learn how profound his knowledge of law was, it is needless
for me to give his character in this respect and might be deemed
arrogant. His character and talents as an advocate and counsellor
may not be so generally known. His eloquence was forcible and
commanding. What he gained was by fair means. His attacks were
open and above board. He always gave warning and put his ad
versary on his guard. His aid was usually sought in important
cases and he was frequently successful. He seemed to have an
instinctive abhorrence of deceit and duplicity. He was well versed
in the science of pleading, had a great deference for English Law
and was a strenuous advocate for an adherence to the old forms.
Perhaps no two equally great men and eminent advocates can be
found whose general manner was more dissimilar than that of
Governor Strong and Judge Sedgwick. They were very commonly
engaged in the same causes in this county and in Berkshire, and
were each in his own way pre-eminent. From these examples, as
well as from other instances I have named, it may be inferred that
to be an eminent and successful advocate, there is no peculiar mode
of speaking which is exclusively necessary to insure success. While
gross improprieties are avoided, each may adopt the method most
easy and natural to himself.
I may be pardoned here in repeating a remark made by others,
that Judge Sedgwick's manner on the bench while it was dignified,
was always courteous and that his efforts in a good degree contribu
ted to establish and promote urbanity on the bench, and a cordial
good understanding between the court and bar. He died in the
year 1813.
There is one thing which ought to be mentioned to his honor.

26 JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS
He stood many years at the head of the profession in Berkshire.
During a long professional life he had many students and paid much
attention to them. His students through his attention, and that
of a gentleman long associated with him, came into practice much
better indoctrinated than many of those who served a clerkship
in this county. It is certainly not to the honor of our bar, that for
many years so little attention was paid to the instruction of students.
It was quite as much as could be said in some cases, of a person
admitted to practice, that he read law in such an office. The almost
utter neglect to afford any information or instruction would seem
to be unaccountable. It was not confined to those whose ability
to instruct was very limited, but extending to some who had every
requisite, except a disposition, to perform this important duty.
Since attention has been drawn to the subject, it is probable the
evil will be effectually cured. The eminent law schools established
in different parts of our country will be likely to insure more atten
tion to a knowledge of law, at least in its theory. Experience must
decide how far and how much practice must be combined with
theory, in order to give the best chance for success. Various efforts
have been made by the bar of this county, and some by the courts,
to establish some other test of professional acquirements than the
time a person has been in an office, but they seem as yet not to have
succeeded. Perhaps too much was expected, perhaps there were
some defects in the plan pursued not necessarily inherent in the
system. Having been nearly forty years in practice, I think I can
say I know that time alone is not an infallible test of eminence.
I hope some mode will be devised of having thorough examinations
to entitle a person to be recommended by the bar and the court as
worthy of public confidence as a counsellor and advocate, but on
this subject I may not enlarge. From present appearances that
branch of professional duty which relates to the collection of debts
will very much diminish. Attention must, therefore, by those
who devote themselves to this profession, be turned to the other
more arduous and important branches of knowledge.
I have given an account of some of the members of the bar who
have filled a large space and exerted an extensive influence and were
contemporary with some, shall I say, of us? Alas! my brothers,
the great destroyer will hardly allow me to use the plural number.
But the reflection how much I stand alone here, will justify me

JDDRESS BY HON, GEORGE BLISS 27
in turning out of my course and bringing to your recollection one
with whom I was longer and more frequently associated as an ad
vocate than with any other person. The Hon. Eli P. Ashmun had
not the advantages of a public education. He read law with Judge
Sedgwick. He was a bright example to what eminence in spite of
the want of a thorough classical education, in spite of great feeble
ness of elocution, a person may arrive. I shall not attempt to give
his character. He was too well known to most of you to render this
necessary. It will be no disparagement to any one to say that he
stood at the head of the profession in this county: I knew him
intimately and think I knew him thoroughly. He was an eminent
advocate and sage counsellor, but he was more and very much more
than these epithets imply.
This brief sketch will show that for nearly a century our bar has
not been destitute of men of eminent talents. Such men as Worth
ington and Hawley, the Strongs and Sedgwick would do honor
to any bar. I say nothing of those who are still alive, whether they
have retired from practice or are still devoted to its duties. Omit
ting to reckon Pynchon of Salem, Edwards or President Dwight,
who studied law here, it has produced those who would be an honor
to the profession and who have had a full share of public honor and
the confidence of their fellow citizens. We cannot, indeed, vie with
the list given in the excellent address to the Suffolk bar, but ours
is by no means contemptible. It has given one governor to the
state, two judges to the Supreme Court, two members of the old
Congress, four senators in the Congress of the United States, one
speaker of the House of Representatives in Congress, one member
of the convention that formed the United States Constitution,
three members of the state convention that formed the Constitution,
seven representatives in Congress, two state senators, six state
counsellors. The office of president of the senate has been once and
that of speaker of the house twice filled by men from this bar.
Eight judges of the Common Pleas and Circuit Court, five judges of
Probate, four sheriffs, besides many other officers have been filled
by our bar.
If the profession is to be estimated by the property acquired by
it, perhaps no class of the community has labored more unsuccess
fully. Whatever else it may be, the practice of law is not the road
to wealth. Most of those lawyers who have acquired property have
acquired it by means distinct from the profession.

28 JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS
Within the last forty years there have been in practice about
170 members of the bar. Of these thirty-two have deceased; two,
who have had public confidence, the Hon. Jonathan Lyman and
the Hon. Elihu Lyman, have been cut off recently in the midst of
their days; eighteen have removed from these counties and the
like number have retired from business or are attending to other
pursuits. About 100 still remain in practice in these counties.
Permit me here to look back to the beginning of the forty years.
There were then only fourteen residing in this county in practice,
two of them retiring to mercantile pursuits and one declining busi
ness. Only four of those survive and not one of them is in practice.
Very few of the profession have manifested themselves unworthy
of public confidence. Would that it could be said there had not
been one. In so numerous a body it is most important that the bar,
standing in their highly responsible relation which they sustain to
the community, should exhibit a marked and pointed reprobation
of every corrupt and dishonorable practice and should exercise a
watchful vigilance over its members, so that malpractice may be
brought to light and every offender may be expelled.
When mistakes are made, that liberality which has so long been
exercised will undoubtedly be manifested; but fraud and corruption
cannot be overlooked without violation of the oath of office. Far
be it from me to excite suspicion or to suggest anything disparaging
to our bar. But the confidence necessarily placed in professional
men, and the influence their character and conduct has, not only
on the b^r, but on the administration of justice, and the respecta
bility of our courts, render it proper that we should at all times feel
our responsibility.
The men of whose character I have spoken had not the advant
ages which students now have. Probably a copy of Blackstone's
Commentaries was not to be found in the county before the year
1770. They had Hale and Gilbert, and a short time before the
Revolution, Bacon's Abridgment, Coke, and Littleton's Works,
as well as Rastell & Fitzherbert were here; but there was not in
the county a copy of Comyn's Digest. There is one thing, however,
to be remembered — that what they had was in a narrow compass.
They were not obliged, in acquiring the language of legal science,
to search for it in hundreds of detached volumes, or to examine
where it was spread out so thin, or the thread drawn so fine that

JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS 29
a person would require extraordinary optics to discover whether
there was any gold there. One who was apt to learn might sooner
get all their books by heart, than read all the modern publications.
Hundreds of volumes of reports were not then annually published.
Digests and treatises upon all the branches of law were not then so
multiplied as to require the treasures of the Indies to purchase
them, and the age of Methuselah to read them. Besides this, it was
not necessary that a treatise in order to their studying it, should be . . .
wrought up with all the elegance of a Waverly novel. As, when
children, they were obliged to eat black broth, or go hungry, so if
they were too fastidious to read black-letter, they must starve.
To obviate some of the evils which are felt or fancied in acquiring
a knowledge of law various expedients have been devised. Codifica
tion is to work wonders in this respect. Perhaps it may not be long
before a patent will be taken out for some royal or democratic road
to legal science, by which a person can be made a lawyer by a kind
of legerdemain. But more serious objections have been raised and from very
respectable quarters against the study of the common law. The
English common law is to be discarded. But such were not the
sentiments of our venerable predecessors. Several of them had
certainly no very strong predilection for anything of British origin,
or sanctioned by the British government.
On this subject there is no time for observation, but I fear that
if efforts should be made to build up a system without recourse to
the common law, it will prove like the attempts to frame a system
of theology while revelation is professedly discarded, as in the latter
case, either the system would be useless or even pernicious, or much
must be derived from the Bible.
So our legal system will be either very imperfect, or much, very
much must be derived from the common law.
It is with pleasure we can look back upon the character of Worth
ington, Hawley, the Strongs and Sedgwick, men who have been the
ornament and glory of our bar. When we inquire into the founda
tion of their eminence we shall find the basis of all their distinction
in their sterling integrity. In order to gain public confidence, it is
necessary a person should be esteemed worthy of it, but in order to
hold this esteem, it is absolutely necessary that he should be what
he professes. Eminent talents and acquirements may, without

30 JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS
integrity dazzle for a time, but honesty and integrity are essential
to the success of an advocate. We have heard in other countries
and in other parts of our own, of those who had great abilities and
most eminent acquirements, but the public voice decided that they
were devoid of honesty. However high such persons have risen
and some have been very high, they have fallen into absolute con
tempt, — the wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind. While we fol
low the examples of our illustrious predecessors, we shall not be
likely to err and the influence of our profession will be extensively
felt. As long as there are injuries to be redressed and rights to be
enforced, I say to it "Esto perpetua."

Letter from Hon. Perez Morton. Attorney General from 1810 to 1832.
Dorchester, June 6th, 1827
Hon. George Bliss:
Sir: I have read with great satisfaction your excellent address to the bar of
Old Hampshire. I consider it an historical document of great value to shew to
posterity the simple origin, gradual progress and constant improvement in the
juridical proceedings in our Couits of law. Had I the same patience and capacity
for research with yourself, I should delight in tracing a similar origin and improve
ment in the judicial proceedings in Suffolk. I remember, hqwever, that it was
said by the great James Otis, that Mr. Reed, afterwards one of the Judges of the
Common Pleas, had more science in special pleading and contributed more to its
perfection in practice than any other man at the bar in his time.
I was also highly pleased with your description of the character of the great men
who were formerly the ornament of your bar. Two of them I well remember.
Colonel Worthington and Major Hawley, not, however, as advocates at the bar,
but as rival politicians in the Legislature in the times of our greatest political
controversies, previous to the Revolution.
The former of these gentlemen was denominated the leader of the government
party; and young as I then was, I felt your character of him as an advocate was
equally appropriate to him in deliberative debate; "his mind was ardent, his
imagination lively, and his feelings strong," that "his style was nervous, forcible
and uncommonly correct" and although on the unpopular side of every question,
"he was many times very powerful." On the other hand his rival, Major Hawley,
was at that time denominated by Samuel Adams and others, the leading member
of the country Whig interest; and as you have described him at the bar, so in the
Legislature; "he was grave and solemn in his demeanour;" and the popular
branch of the Legislature, as well as "juries," had confidence in his assertions

JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS 31
"and his stern and undeviating integrity" commanded the attention of the mem
bers and "his opinions with them had great weight." I might add greater than
any other man's in the house of representatives.
Your pamphlet has brought to my mind the important reminiscences of those
former times. And especially, I remember it to have been then remarked that
the two gentlemen above alluded to were perfect models for rival politicians in
conducting their debates; for that they scarcely ever rose in opposition to each
other without mutually paying some tribute of respect to the talents and motives
of each other. But I am running too far into politics — but as it is the only character
in which I knew them, you will therefore excuse it. And I have only to thank
you for the just delineation of character which you have given them, and for the
great pleasure your address had afforded me in every part of it.
And am with great respect and consideration Your hu Servt. Perez Morton

Letter from Hon. Joseph D. Story. Salem, June 21, 1827
Sir: I beg to return you my sincere thanks for the copy of your late address
to the members of the bar of the counties of Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden,
which you have obligingly sent me. It is a very interesting and instructive dis
course and I should rejoice if a like example should be followed by the other coun
ties of the Commonwealth. Of most of the distinguished lawyers of whom you
have spoken, I had no personal knowledge, but Mr. Pynchon has left behind him
in Essex a very high reputation for legal sagacity and learning and blameless
integrity. I had the good fortune to know Judges Sedgwick and Strong and none
of us can have forgotten their talents and learning, or that of the late Governour
Strong. I can bear a willing testimony to the accuracy of your sketches of their
characters. You have performed a most acceptable service, for which the whole
profession owes you many grateful acknowledgments; and I beg to add my
sincere wishes that, as a senior of the bar, you may long continue to illustrate
and confirm its dignity.
I am with the highest respect Your obliged Servant,
Joseph D. Story
The Honble George Bliss

Letter from Jn. Davis. Boston, June 26, 1827
Dear Sir:
I thank you for a copy of your address to the members of the bar in the counties
of Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden. I have perused it with much satisfaction.
It is gratifying to contemplate the portraits of our departed worthies and every
jurist and every lover of good and able men must be pleased that you have had
leisure and opportunity to give the delineations that afford us a more distinct
apprehension of the character, acquirements and habits of the distinguished pro-

32 JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS
fessional men who so faithfully and honorably pursued and finished their course,
in your vicinity, and who were so justly endeared to the whole community. It
is a privilege which I doubt not you duly estimate to stand in immediate connexion
by birth, residence, education and acquaintance with such characters. May you
long continue a revered ornament of a profession to which you have offered this
dutiful and acceptable tribute, and have the satisfaction to behold the good fruits
of the sound principles of morality and jurisprudence which you have inculcated.
Your obedient friend and servt. Jn. Davis
Hon. George Bliss

Letter of John W. Ames. Dedham, Sept. 19th, 1826
Dear Sir:
I recollect with no little mortification that some days since I received a letter
from you containing enquiries respecting my grandfather Worthington and that
I have neglected to reply to it. My only excuse is that I have been engaged in
business for some weeks past that has exercised to an uncommon degree both
body and mind. I have been absent from home almost the whole time and confess
that though greatly interested in the subject of your letter, my obligation to reply
to it entirely escaped my memory. The arrival of my aunt Dwight in Springfield
renders a communication of the facts which were the object of your enquiries
now unnecessary as I obtained them from her entirely and not from my mother.
You therefore can now obtain them from the same source more to your satisfaction
than from a letter of mine. But though my letter cannot now be useful to you I feel
that it is important to myself to assure you that my negligence has not been the
effect of design but of accident. Permit me as a relative of Col. Worthington and
as a member of the profession to express my satisfaction that the task of giving
to the public historical sketches of the Hampshire bar has been allotted to one
whose ability to execute it is so well known and is highly estimated.
I am with the greatest respect John W. Ames
Hon. George Bliss

Letter from Samuel F. Merrick.
Sir: I have read your address to the bar with great pleasure, but your account
of Major Hawley's expulsion from the bar is not sufficiently related. I think I
could be of some service to you; the fact as far as you have related was true and
had the Major left it then no notice would have been taken of it. I was not present
when the expulsion took place but my father was, who told this story. As soon
as the Court was opened, Gov. Hutchinson, who then presided, handed a news
paper to the Major in which was inserted an account of the trial in which the
Court and particularly the Chief Justice was highly reprobated, signed by his
name, and asked him if he was the author; he said he was. The Govr. said be
thought the piece highly censurable but as he was principally aimed at he should
say the less. Judge Trowbridge then rose and said that he could speak freely

JDDRESS BY HON. GEORGE BLISS 33
as he was not then of the Court. Such conduct was not to be borne with and after
forcibly reprimanding him, moved that his name be struck from the list of attorneys.
The Chief Justice then asked the other Judges and they all consented; his name
was then ordered to be struck from the list. It don't appear the Major was called
for a defense; to be sure he made none. At the next term he came in and made
a very humble confession and shed many tears. I don't know who I had this from,
but it was common report. This was characteristic of the man; his life was full
of sinning and repenting. He came out so often into the broad aisle to make his
confession, that it became proverbial if he did anything supposed to be remiss,
*we shall have him in the broad aisle again.' You say the Major's character did
not suffer by the means, but you must remember he was on the popular side, be
sides there was no doubt but he was right in his definitions of riots and the Court
wrong. This is not to be wondered at as I believe we had no statute upon the
subject and the Court tho' good men were not lawyers. I believe none of them,
certainly Hutchinson and Peter Oliver were not, whether Lynde and Cushing
were I know not. I said the Court were good men, they were preeminently so.
Tho they were hostile to Revolution, I believe they acted from as good motives
as James Otis did who unquestionably laid the first egg, because his father was
not made Chief Justice, in the stand for Govr. Hutchinson, when he made this
memorable speech; — T will now raise such a fire as many waters can't quench,
tho' I get burnt up in it myself,' which almost literally came to pass, for as soon
as the war began it so altered him that he turned maniac and died in the street
crying woe to Boston. I certainly do not impeach the motives of the Court. Had
they lived to see Andrew Jackson our President, which God grant you nor I may
never see, they certainly would exhort; and well they might, for there has not
been a prince upon the British throne since the Stuarts with whom the liberties
of the people would not have been safer than in his hands, — but enough of politics.
There is one thing in your address wants explanation. You say Joseph Clark
of Northampton is the oldest attorney now living. I never knew a man of that
name an attorney and I cannot find it in your list.
Am, Sr. yours with esteem,Saml F. Merrick
Wilbraham
April 28th, 1828
Honble. George Bliss Esqr.

34 THE FORT JT "NUMBER FOUR"
Quarterly Meeting February 26, 1904
Rev. Thomas D. Howard read a paper on "An Old Fort
in the Connecticut Valley."
The Fort at "Number Foxir"
THE central point of what I propose to set forth is the
successful defense of the fort in question, but, as pre
liminary, it is proper to tell where and what was the
structure.
It stood in Charlestown, N. H., although at the time of the event
described the township was within the limits of Massachusetts and
was called "Number Four," being the fourth of a series of town
ships extending northward. It lies ninety-two miles north of Spring
field, thirty-two miles from Brattleboro and eight above Bellows
Falls. Its local claim is that it is the most beautiful of Connecticut
River streets; not indeed vying in breadth with Northfield or
Deerfield, but of ample width as an avenue, and arched in part of
its extent, which is three-quarters of a mile, with the interlacing
branches of its double row of elms, and studded with well-kept man
sions and grounds. Local pride is supported by the warm praise of
many visitors. The late Judge Shurtleff, when he passed through
the town, was enthusiastic in his admiration. "When I go home,"
he said, "I shall preach the gospel of Charlestown." After a resi
dence in the town of nearly twenty-two years, I can indorse his
encomiums. How did the fort come into being.? The settlement in Number
Four was in 1740, and, as will be seen, was made by men at once
brave and prudent. This was the northernmost community of white
men on the Connecticut river; all beyond, west of the river, was
unbroken forest, roamed by a tribe of Indians whose rendezvous
was the village of St. Francis in the province of that name, next
north of the Canada line. These Indians are characterized by
Saunderson in his excellent "History of Charlestown, N. H.," as
"a compound of the basest qualities of the American Indian, with
all that they could gather of greater baseness from the Canadian
French of that period."
From 1740 to 1743 inclusive there was an intermittence of the
wars which constituted the prolonged contention between France

THE FORT JT "NUMBER FOUR" 35
and Great Britain, during which brief period there was no appre
hension of attack. But in the autumn of the third year, with fresh
hostilities threatening, measures were taken for defense. The action
looking toward fortification taken by the little community, and the
description of the fort which was its outcome, are drawn from Park-
man, the exhaustive historian of the century and a half of France
in North America. I make these extracts from "A Half Century
of Conflict":—
In 1743 when war seemed imminent and it was clear that neither Massa
chusetts nor New Hampshire would lend a helping hand, the settlers of Number
Four, seeing that their only resource was in themselves, called a meeting to con
sider the situation and determine what should be done. The meeting was held
at the home of John Spafford, Jr., and being duly called to order, the following
resolutions were adopted: That a fort be built at the charge of the proprietors
of said township of Number Four; that John Hastings, John Spafford and John
Avery be a committee to direct the building; that the proprietors of the town
ship be taxed £300, old tenor, for building the fort; and to the end that their fort
should be a good and creditable one, they are said to have engaged the services
of John Stoddard, accounted the foremost man of Western Massachusetts, super
intendent of defense, colonel of militia, judge of probate, chief justice of the court
of common pleas, a reputed authority in the construction of backwoods fortifi
cations, — and the admired owner of the only gold watch in Northampton.
Timber was abundant and could be had for the asking. The only cost was the
labor. The fort rose rapidly. It was a square inclosing about three-fourths of an
acre, each side measuring 180 feet. The wall was not of palisades, as was more
usual, but of squared logs laid one upon another, and interlocked at the corners
after the fashion of a log cabin. Within were several houses, which had been built
close together, for mutual protection, and which belonged to Stevens, Spafford
and other settlers. Apparently they were small log cabins; for they were valued
at only from £8 to £35 each, in old tenor currency, woefully attenuated by de
preciation; and these sums being paid to the owners out of the £300 collected for
building the fort, the cabins became public property. Either they were built in
a straight line, or they were moved to form one, for when the fort was finished,
they all backed against the outer wall, so that their low roofs served to fire from.
The usual flankers completed the work, and the settlers of Number Four were so
well pleased with it that they proudly declared their fort to be a better one than
Fort Dummer, its nearest neighbor, which had been built by public authority at
the charge of the province.
The anticipated war came in the following year, — 1744. During
that time and for two years afterward all who were outside the fort
taking care of their fields were in danger of being slain, or taken and
carried into captivity, and their only place of safety was within the
walls of the fort; and the five protected houses were the residences
of people who were in constant fear of their lives.

36 THE FORT JT "NUMBER FOUR"
In 1746 the times became so terrifying that the people decided
to return to their old homes in Massachusetts, mostly in Groton,
Lunenburg and Leominster. They left six men, who were to guard
the fort until winter set in (for after that there was no danger from
the enemy), when they also departed, and the settlement was de
serted. There were, indeed, left behind in the fort, probably from
difficulty of transportation, a dog and a cat, which animals are men
tioned, as they will subsequently reappear.
Among those who had taken refuge in Massachusetts was Capt.
Phineas Stevens, the hero of my story. He addressed a memorial
to Governor Shirley, setting forth the importance of placing a gar
rison in the fort at Number Four, in view of the probability of an
attack in the early spring. His high reputation as a resourceful and
capable officer gave weight to the representations advanced, and
he himself, with thirty men, was ordered to repair to the fort and
take possession. The history of Charlestown supplies me with a
narration of the events which followed this order, and a copy of the
commander's report to Governor Shirley. This last is preserved in
Hoyt's "History of Indian Wars in the Country Bordering on the
Connecticut River and Parts Adjacent."
Stevens marched through the wilderness and arrived at Number
Four on the 27th of March, to find the fort in good condition; but
what was his surprise, on entering it, to find himself and company
heartily welcomed by an old spaniel and a cat, which had been left
behind at its desertion, and had remained in it during the winter,
as its sole defenders and occupants.
Captain Stevens and company had been in possession of the fort
only a few days before they were led to surmise the presence of an
enemy. Their suspicions were first aroused by the uneasy appear
ance of the dogs, and their continual barking. These indications
of something that was not right induced them to keep the gate
closely barred. But here we must let Captain Stevens tell his own
story. In his report to Governor Shirley, dated April 9, 1747,
he says: —
Our dogs being very much disturbed, which gave us reason to think that the
enemy were about, occasioned us not to open the gate at the usual time; but one
of our men, being desirous to know the certainty, ventured out privately to set
on the dogs, about nine o'clock in the morning, and went about twenty rods from
the fort, firing off his gun and saying, Choboy! to the dogs. Whereupon, the
enemy, being within a few rods, immediately arose from behind a log and fired;

THE FORT AT "NUMBER FOUR'' 37
but through the goodness of God, the man got into the fort with only d slight
wound. The enemy being then discovered, immediately arose from their ambush-
ments and attacked us on all sides. The wind being very high, and everything
exceedingly dry, they set fire to all the old fences, and also to a log house about
forty rods distant from the fort to the windward; so that within a few moments
we were entirely surrounded with fire — all of which was performed with the most
hideous shouting and firing, from all quarters, which they continued, in a very
terrible manner, until the next day at ten o'clock at night, without intermission;
during which time we had no opportunity to eat or sleep. But notwithstanding
all their shoutings and threatenings, our men seemed not to be in the least daunted,
but fought with great resolution: which doubtless gave the enemy reason to think
we had determined to stand it out to the last degree. The enemy had provided
themselves with a sort of fortification, which they had determined to push before
them and bring fuel to the side of the fort, in order to burn it down. But instead
of performing what they threatened, and seemed to be immediately going to under
take, they called to us and desired a cessation of arms until sunrise the next morn
ing, which was granted; at which time they would come to a parley. Accordingly
the French General Debeline came with about sixty of his men, with a flag of
truce, and stuck it down within about twenty rods of the fort, in plain sight of the
same, and said if we would send three men to him he would send as many to us,
to which we complied. The General sent in a French lieutenant with a French
soldier and an Indian.
Upon our men going to Monsieur, he made the following proposals: viz. —
that in case we would immediately resign up the fort, we should all have our lives
and liberty to put on all the clothes we had, and also to take a sufficient quantity
of provisions to carry us to Montreal, and bind up our provisions and blankets,
lay down our arms and march out of the fort.
Upon our men returning, he desired that the Captain of the fort would meet
him halfway, and give answer to the above proposal, which I did; and upon meet
ing the Monsieur, he did not wait for me to give an answer, but went on in the fol
lowing manner: viz. — that what had been promised he was ready to perform;
but upon refusal he would immediately set the fort on fire, and run over the top;
for he had 700 men with him, and if we made any further resistance, or should
happen to kill one Indian, we might expect all to be put to the sword. "The fort,"
said he, "I am resolved to have, or die. Now do what you please; for I am as
easy to have you fight as to give up.'' I told the General that in case of extremity
his proposal would do; but inasmuch as I was sent here by my master, the Captain-
General, to defend this fort, it would not be consistent with my orders to give it
up, unless I was better satisfied that he was- able to perform what he had threatened;
and, furthermore, I told him that it was poor encouragement to resign into the
hands of the enemy, that upon one of their number being killed, they would put all
to the sword, when it was probable that we had killed some of them already.
"Well," said he, ''go into the fort and see whether your men dare fight any more
or not, and give me an answer quick, for my men want to be fighting." Whereupon
I came into the fort and called all the men together, and informed them what the
French General said, and then put it to vote, which they chose, either to fight on
or resign; and they voted to a man to stand it out as long as they had life. Upon
this, I returned the answer, that we had determined to fight it out. Upon which

38 THE FORT JT "NUMBER FOUR"
they gave a shout, and then fired, and so continued firing and shouting until day
light the next morning.
About noon they called to us and said, "Good morning,'' and desired a cessa
tion of arms for two hours that they might come to a parley; which was granted.
The General did not come himself but sent two Indians, who came within about
eight rods of the fort and struck down their flag, and desired that I would send
out two men to them, which I did, and the Indians made the following proposal:
viz. — that in case we would sell them provisions, they would leave and not fight
any more, and desired my answer; which was that selling them provisions for
money was contrary to the laws of nations, but if they would send in a captive
for every five bushels of corn, I would supply them. Upon the Indians returning
the General this answer, four or five guns were fired against the fort, and they
withdrew, as we supposed, for we heard no more of them.
In all this time we had scarce opportunity to eat or sleep. The cessation of
arms gave us no matter of rest, for we suspected they did it to obtain an advantage
against us. I believe men were never known to hold out with better resolution,
for they did not seem to sit or lie still one moment. There were about thirty men
in the fort, and although we had some thousands of guns fired at us, there were
but two men slightly wounded: viz. — John Brown and Joseph Ely.
By the above account you may form some idea of the distressed circumstances
we were under, to have such an army of starved creatures around us, whose neces
sity obliged them to be the more earnest. They seemed .every minute as if they
were going to swallow us up; using all the threatening language they could invent,
and shouting and firing as if the heavens and the earth were coming together.
But notwithstanding all this our courage held out to the last. We were in
formed by the French that came into the fort, that our captives (which they say
are about 300 in number) were removed from Quebec to Montreal by reason of
sickness which is in Quebec; and that they were well and in good health, except
three, who were left sick, and that about three captives had died who were said
to be Dutchmen. They also informed us that John Norton had liberty to preach
to the captives.
The news of this checkmate of the enemy on the frontier was
dispatched to Boston, and was received with liveliest satisfaction.
The importance of the victory was recognized by Governor Shirley,
in distinguished commendation of the conduct of Captain Stevens.
Commodore Sir Charles Knowles, who was in naval command at
Boston, showed his appreciation by the gift of an elegant sword, the
compliment being later responded to, when, in 1753 the settlement
became a town, by placing in the forefront of the appellation the
first name of the donor. It must be added that the town was long
specifically designated as "Charlestown Number Four," which
descriptive title has not gone entirely out of use.
One other episode in the life of the fort remains to be told. Seven
teen years had passed since hostilities were ended, by the triumphant

THE FORT JT "NUMBER FOUR" 39
conquest secured by Wolfe on the plains of Abraham, September 13,
1759. At the close of this period of innocuous desuetude the fort,
and the town as well, became the scene of active preparation for a
brief but brilliant campaign under the command of one of the
soldierly men to whom, as to Washington, the French War had been
a school preparatory to the War of the Revolution.
Stark had been colonel of a regiment at Bunker Hill, and with
Washington at Princeton and Trenton. But the time was at hand
for his masterpiece of warfare. In July, 1777, he was in retirement
from the army, resenting a slight which had been passed upon him
by the Continental Congress. But when summons with a commis
sion came to him from the military government of his own state, to
meet the enemy which was nearing its frontiers, it found him cheer
fully obedient.
Charlestown, which had been made by the state a depository of
military stores, was the appointed place of rendezvous. The first
paragraph of a letter to the committee of safety, dated Charlestown
Number Four, July 30, 1777, — seventeen days before Bennington —
reveals the military promptness of the commander, as well as the
difficulties under which he labored: —
I received yours of the 22d inst., with the enclosed informing me of the situation
of the enemy; and of our Frontiers; but previous to your letter, I had received
an Express from Col. Warner, informing me of their situation, and I forwarded
250 men to their relief on the 28th. I sent another detachment off this day, and as
fast as they come in will send them. I expect to march myself to-morrow or next
day; we are detained a good deal by want of Bullet molds, as there is but one
pair in town, and the few Balls you sent goes but little way in supplying the whole.
Except in the matter of balls, a good outfit for New Hampshire's
contingent of soldiers for Bennington would seem to have been
furnished at Charlestown. Beside ammunition and equipments
from the quartermaster's department, there was great activity in
the commissariat. A very long epic, which is in print, bristling
with names and details, says: —
And Col. Hunt seemed everywhere,
To see that all were fed;
And every girl made cartridges
Who was not making bread.
Indeed, it may not be presumptuous to name as among the possi
bilities, that if it had not been for the generous send-off from the
old fort the victory at Bennington might not have been achieved.

40 THE FORT JT "NUMBER FOUR"
It would be interesting to know the manner of the taking off of
the battered and time-worn structure, after its days of usefulness
were past. It was not by fire, surely, as such an event would be
handed down from vivid memory. It is only certain that not a
vestige remains. The exact location of the fort will never be known.
Approximate information, however, has been furnished. At one of
the annual meetings of the local historical society, Abram Hull, an
aged man, told us that, when a boy, he was with his father, who was
engaged in gathering apples in the orchard of Dr. Taylor, and that
the aged owner came to the place and said, "Where these trees stand
was the old fort." Dr. Taylor, it must be explained, was, when a
very young man, — nineteen years of age according to the record, —
surgeon of the garrison, and subsequently settled in Charlestown.
His orchard was located as due west from the stone blacksmith-
shop, — a widely-known landmark.
This tradition, received at such close range, accords with the pre
vailing local opinion. The information it conveys will be inscribed
on the marker, for which preparations are being made, to stand by
the driveway in Charlestown street. The name of Phineas Stevens
may well have place thereon. It will, surely, ever be recalled in
connection with the sturdy defense of the northern frontier of the
valley of the Connecticut.

OLD HOWJRD STREET 41
Quarterly Meeting March 15, 1904
James H. Osgood of Chicago read a paper on " Old Howard
Street," and in addition gave several anecdotes of his father.
Rev. Dr. Samuel Osgood. Old Howard Street
This is the first time in my life that I ever attempted to speak
before an audience, and I might say,
You'd scarce expect one of my age
To speak in public on the stage
I may have occasion to use a term which might be called slang,
but I want you to understand that it is not original with me, and I
will tell you where it came from. I got it out of a paper. There
were two young ladies who were discussing their lovers and Maud
says to Blanche, "You had a call from Mr.  yesterday.^" "Yes."
"Was it a pleasant call.'"' "Yes." She was not very responsive,
so her friend suspected that all was not right, so she said, "He made
a proposition to you, didn't he — he made a proposal.^" "Yes."
"And you refused him.?" "Yes." "Well, that's where you dropped
your watermelon!" I may have occasion to use that phrase, and
I want you to know where it came from. After I consented to speak
here I thought perhaps that might be where I dropped my
watermelon. When Mr. Adams asked me to address you, I felt a good deal
as the school girl did who was asked to make a rhyme — several
verses of poetry — in order to avoid being whipped. She had given
to her for a subject the turnip, and she thought it was a pretty
small subject to make a rhyme upon. However, she succeeded so
well that she was not whipped. She went on something hke this: —
Mr. Finney had a turnip and it grew behind the barn;
It grew and grew, but it didn't do no harm.
It grew and it grew till it couldn't grow no taller;
Mr. Finney pulled it up and put it in the cellar.
It lay and it lay till it began to rot;
His daughter Susie washed it up and put it in the pot.
It boiled and it boiled all that it was able;
His daughter Mary took it up and put it on the table.
Mr. Finney and his wife then sat down to sup.
And they ate and they ate till they ate the turnip up.
I shall be satisfied if I succeed as well as the girl did.

42 OLD HOWJRD STREET
Old Howard street, I thought when I was asked about it, was
opened in the '30's, but on going to the records I find it was opened
in 1829 by Colonel Solomon Warriner, Mr. John Howard and Mr.
Charles Howard. They were the heirs to the Josiah Dwight estate
and it was opened on this land, principally, but it seems that Colonel
Warriner had the disposal of the lots. It was accepted by the town
in 1829. The first lot was sold to Mr. Franklin Taylor and he built
a brick house upon it which, in 1836, he sold to the Hon. John Mills.
I believe the next lot was bought by Mr. Simon Smith and he built
a brick house upon that which he afterward sold to Mr. Daniel
Lombard. There was another house built there by Mr. Gideon
Gardner who was a carpenter by trade, but he built a brick house
there which he sold to Mr. Charles Merriam some time in the '30's
I guess, probably '36.
Now as I remember Howard street more especially, it was after
'39. I went away from Springfield to New York in '36, but I was
back and forth until I returned in '39. I remember most of the
people that were in Howard street at that time and lived there for
years — until '55 — when I left again, and then there was a period
when I knew very little about the transactions and special changes
here. In 1839 the old Josiah Dwight house stood facing Main street
on the north corner of Howard. In 1840 or '42 it was turned around
and moved in the place where it now stands. It is plain enough to
me that it is the old Josiah Dwight house. The house that Colonel
Warriner occupied, and Deacon Bontecou, is the Pitt Bliss house.
Colonel Warriner is in some way connected with that family and
he lived there until he moved down to the corner of Water street
in the late 40's, when he died there.
In 1839 or '40 Mr. Shurtleff came here from Vermont. He built
the house which is now standing on Howard street next to Uncle
Daniel Lombard — he was always spoken of as Uncle Daniel until
he left.
Take the north side: The Josiah Dwight house formerly stood
on Main street and in the early 40's it was turned around to where
it now stands back of the brick block. Next came the house built
by James W. Hale, which was afterwards sold to Colonel Thompson.
Next was the James Brewer house, built by Frankhn Taylor, now
standing. Then Henry Brewer built a house next his brother.

OLD HOWARD STREET 43
which is now standing. The next house was a double brick house
built by David A. Bush; that is standing. The next house was
built by Roswell Shurtleff some time in the early '40's. He after
wards sold it to Ezra Boody. It is now standing. Next came
Uncle Daniel Lombard's house. Next came the house where Dr.
Buckingham lived; I do not know who built the house. Next was
the house built by Mr. S. B. Spooner, of brick, on the corner of
Water street — still standing. There were no houses beyond that
until you go to the river on this side of the street. Then you come
to Mr. Bliss's lumber yard. That completes the north side so far
as I remember it.
Beginning on the south side, the first house on the corner of Main
street was the Pitt Bliss house, afterward owned and occupied by
Colonel Solomon Warriner. Later it came into the possession of
Deacon Daniel Bontecou and was occupied by him for several
years. I think Deacon Bontecou died there; I am not certain, but
I think so. There was a large garden that ran from the house down
as far as the Richard Bliss house, built about 1840 or '41. That
house was afterwards sold by Mr. Bliss to Dr. Adams, and by Dr.
Adams to Ralph Day. That house has been moved and now stands
in the alley back of the Jerry Warriner house, where Jenny Lind
stayed while she was in Springfield. She did not stop at the hotel,
but went straight to Uncle Jerry's with her assistants. It was given
up to her while she was in the city. She sang here in 185 1, and on
that occasion the church was full — there was not a space left. She
made this statement about the old church — that it was the easiest
room she ever sang in — it cost her less effort to fill the house. Some
society had a number of partially crippled children here and she
wanted to go and sing to them, and she did so. Next to Mr. Bliss's
house Lewis Warriner built in 1843; that house now stands and is
occupied by his widow who is eighty-seven years old. Next to
Lewis Warriner's house stood the barn owned by Daniel Lombard
which was purchased by my father. We took it down and carried
it up to what we called the North End once, it is now North street,
I think. I looked for the barn, but I couldn't find it, and I looked
for the house I lived in. The old barn was taken down and it is now
in some of those new houses in that part of the city. We bought
the barn and carried it up there in '43 or '44, and that is where I
made hay and fed cattle and produced milk which I sold for several

44 OLD HOWJRD STREET
years to Uncle Jerry and to the Massasoit House. The first house
that Uncle Jerry Warriner built was of wood, and it burned down
in the 'so's. It was built on the lot which he bought from Uncle
Daniel Lombard after the barn was moved away. He was keeping
the Union House at that time, and was the proprietor of it. I was a
member of the Niagara Fire Company then, and I remember going
there and trying to extinguish the fire; but there was so much inside
to burn that it didn't do much good. We worked away upon it,
however. We were treated by Miss Elsie Lombard and her sister
to hot coffee, which we enjoyed very much. He then built a house
of brick which stands on the same spot on the lot which he purchased
of Uncle Daniel Lombard. Next to Uncle Jerry's house was Mr.
Charles Merriam's which now stands, as well as the Jerry Warriner
house. Next to Mr. Merriam's was the John Mills house and I
think that is now standing. Next to Mr. Mills was the house owned
and occupied for a while by Rev. Sanford Lawton. After Mr.
Lawton's came the house built by Mr. Samuel Hills. When I left
Springfield the house was occupied by Deacon Solomon Warriner.
He died there. We are now down to Water street. After you passed
Water street was a house occupied by Pilot Allen who was pilot of
the steamers that used to run from here to Hartford. Beyond that
were the two Bakers — father and son. Mr. Otis Baker, I think,
was at one time a partner of Mr. Graves — Baker and Graves; both
were masons by trade. I believe they have all gone.
At one time Mr. Bliss — Mr. Theodore Bliss had a lumber yard
at the foot of Howard street, of which I have spoken, which oc
cupied quite a considerable space of ground from Water street
down to the river. I had teams that worked and I used to haul
lumber from the river to his yard. I think Mr. Frederick Harris
was at one time associated with him in that business.
There is only one person now living on Howard street who lived
there in 1845, and that is Mrs. Lewis Warriner. There is not an
other soul there that I have any recollection of or know anything
about. The changes in Springfield are of very much the same character
as those on Howard street. I came here a year ago last fall, and
if I had been set down anywhere in the town except in front of the
old church, I could not have told where I was, and I used to know
almost every man, woman and child in town. There are a few before

OLD HOWJRD STREET 45
me that I have known for a good many years. All my old compan
ions except one, are gone — the Bonds, the Pynchons, the Hatches,
all the Mills boys — so that I feel alone in my native home. But the
changes have been as great in other parts of the city. Go up to the
hill where there was nothing but scrub oaks and pine woods. You
could have bought acres there for $500 forty years ago, and less
than that. I once sold twenty acres of mine to a man up there for
^200. Now it is a city up there.
I was looking over a pamphlet that was published bythe Cemetery
Association in 1878, I think. There are 133 burials recorded there,
all men, there is not a woman's name among those published. Out
of that number there were only four of my age, or older than my
self — only four. I knew every one of them but twenty-one. Do
you think it is strange that I feel lost here.' That pamphlet was
published in 1878.
I do not think I can tell you anything more about Howard street
because I do not know anyone that lives there but Mrs. Warriner.
I saw her yesterday and had a very pleasant call with her. You
know it is very hard to converse with her, but I made out through
the aid of the woman who is so kind to her and she understood me.
Well, I grew up here as a boy. In 1827 the high school was built
on School street; I think the house now stands. It has been changed,
of course, but I think I recognize the front end of it. Well, it was
a question with us boys who was going to get into the high school.
There was no grammar school thought of. You went from the com
mon school right to the high school. We discussed who was going
to get in, and one would say, "You won't,'' and another would say,
"You won't," and one of my companions said, "You'll get in, be
cause you're Dr. Osgood's son." But I didn't go in on that account,
but I had to pass the examination. The high school was then quite
a prominent place. We had for the first instructor, Mr. Story
Hebart. He had rooms with Mrs. Colonel Trask in the house that
is now occupied by Mrs. Alexander — her daughter. He had rooms
there. He was a most lovely man, and he taught the school then.
He gave us all good instruction. Some profited by it and others
didn't, perhaps. He was there four years, and when he left, I had
been sent up to South Hadley for a time to a school there called
Woodbridge School. I got uneasy about staying here, and my
father, after a while, was persuaded to send me up there. In the

46 OLD HOWJRD STREET
spring of '32 Mr. Hebart left and went on the mission. The next
teacher was Mr. Lusk from Enfield and the boys soon got the upper
hand of him and virtually turned him out of the house. Next came
Mr. Sheldon, and he liked discipline the same as Mr. Lusk, and he
had to leave. The committee were at a standstill. They had a lot
of boys that wanted instruction, but they wanted fun more and
they were bound to have it. The committee heard of Mr. Calhoun
who graduated at Williamstown. They waited on him and told
him the conditions of things. He was very frank. "Well, if you
let me have my own way with them, I'll come and teach them."
"Very well, do what you've a mind to." Corporal punishment
then was not prohibited. He came. The first morning that he was
in the school he let the boys do as they had a mind to — just as they
pleased. They raised Old Hobbs, so to speak. When he came to
his desk in the afternoon he stood up with his tall form six feet high
— a powerfully built man, and said, "Boys, I am going to be
master here. If you are mild with me, I shall be mild with you;
but if you are harsh with me, I shall be harsh with you." They
thought it was all "bluff," as the term goes now. He waited for a
few moments, and he saw a boy and he said, "Come out here" —
calling him by name. He came out and he got a good thrashing.
"Go back to your studies." He looked over the field again and he
saw another — that was my brother, and he said, "Come out here."
(I didn't tell you who the first one was.) He got thrashed and back
he went. Mr. Calhoun had rooms with my sister, Mrs. Hunt, on
Bliss street, at that time. He came into the house in his quick way:
"Ha, ha, flogged twenty-two this afternoon." Next day when he
came home to dinner, "Well," he said, "I flogged sixteen." That
ended the quarrel. They didn't have any more flogging. He taught
that school, and the boys, after he had been there two months,
would have done anything in the world for that man. He won them
completely over. When he left — he went on the mission also, some
of you knew him probably, Simeon H. Calhoun, he was one of the
finest men that this city ever knew.
Well, when I came here, instead of finding the fathers, I found
the children. I have been most kindly received by the children of
my old companions and I love to speak of it. The Bond family are
all gone but one. I believe Mr. Edward Bond is living in New York;
he was a few years ago. I have lost all trace of him, but have heard

OLD HOWJRD STREET 47
of him there. The Stebbins family, Festus Stebbins' family, are all
gone. They have relatives here. Mr. John B. Stebbins married
the daughter of Mr. Festus Stebbins and his daughters live on
Crescent Hill. I called to see them and was kindly received.
I want to tell you one little story about the old poorhouse. It
was the first poorhouse that was built here that I remember of, and
I guess it was the first one. It stood just above Auburn street, and
the town at that time thought — I don't know what caused them
to do it, but they thought it wise to build a fence ten feet high all
around on the front and side towards Mr. Stebbins', and down to
the river. It offended some of the occupants of the poorhouse very
much and I think it was in the year '31, the poorhouse barn burned
one night. It was burned down. My father had at that time living
with him, a man from Hawley, who worked on his land. I cannot
remember when my father did not have land, more or less, and I
remember when the barn burned, it had been filled with hay, and
those of you who have seen hay burn know how the sparks fly. We
were living where the John Goodrich block now stands and the
sparks came like a cloud. The man from Hawley went to the side
door and looked up, and he thought the house was afire. Without
saying anything to any one he went to the room where my two
youngest sisters were sleeping and got them out of bed; he put one
under one arm and one under the other and then he came down
stairs with them. My mother met him in the hall. "Why, Robin
son, what are you doing!" "Where are the boys.? "Where are
the boys?" "What is the matter, Robinson.?" "The house is
afire! Where are the boys?" She said, "The house is not on fire."
He won my mother's heart by that transaction. Ever after that
there was nothing too good for Robinson to have. You know the
old adage is, "The way to a woman's heart is through her child."
The story that is told in some of the publications about Zebina
Stebbins' old horse is true. He was harnessed one Sunday morning
for church, and Mr. Stebbins didn't come out as soon as the horse
thought he ought to, so he went to the church and stood by the door
long enough for a man to get out, then he went over and stood by
the fence until the people began to come out, when he walked up to
the door, waited long enough for his driver to enter the carriage,
turned around and went home.
Time was when we boys in Springfield didn't always agree. We

48 OLD HOWJRD STREET
were divided up into parties designated as the streeters, the hillers
and the water shops boys. The hillers and water shops boys trained
together. At one time we got into a dispute and we were going to
fight it out. We didn't dare have it in the street, because we were
afraid of Mr. Elijah Blake. We didn't dare have it in the lots, for
we were afraid of Dr. Osgood, so it was agreed that we would go up
to Ferry street — this place was called Ferry street when I was a boy —
and have the fight. It was all planned out. Two of the boys were
to be pitted for battle, after one was whipped someone else was to
take his place, when another was whipped someone else •was to take
his place, and so on. They began to square off, and pretty soon we
heard a report like a pistol, and we saw a man running out of a
house with a big black whip with a lash two feet long, and he said,
"Scatter, boys, scatter, or I'll scatter you." We did scatter and the
fight ended. There was no bloodshed. We didn't know anything
about the Marquis of Queensbury rules — it was knock down and
drag out, as they used to say. That ended the fight.
There are several stories told about my father; some of them I
know to be true. The story about the man with the squeaking boots
occurred in the old church. I was present. The man came in after
my father had commenced his sermon, named his text and was going
on. This man came upstairs in a slow way, — creak, creak, creak
went the boots, and pretty soon the man appeared in the door of
the south gallery, a tall man, six feet or more, and he started to come
up the south aisle and father said, "My friend, will you please take
the first seat you come to?" He paid no attention to him, but he
kept on and went clear into the pew at the end of the aisle and into
the further corner of the pew and sat down. Dr. Osgood went on
with his sermon. Very soon — probably the man sat there ten min
utes — he got up — squeak, squeak, squeak, and he went down that
long aisle — the church is about seventy feet deep. As soon as he
started to go, father turned about and sat down. He waited quietly
until he had got through, and then went on with his sermon.
I could tell you stories about Springfield all night and not repeat,
but they don't all come to me at once.
I want to say right here that there are three things I am proud
of: My parentage, the city I was born in, and my native state. I
love the city — I love it as a city and I loved it as a town. I shall
never forget it. I have spent a great many happy days here.

OLD HOWJRD STREET 49
I will tell you a story about my father which shows how ready
he was to reply. He was on the way home from Enfield and he had
got into Longmeadow street one very dark night, and as he was
riding along in his gig, a man called out, "Halloo!" My father
answered, "Halloo." "Where the devil am I," said the man. "I
don't know any such man around here," said my father. "Well,
can you tell me where Lam?" "Yes, you are in the middle of Long
meadow street." If you have ever been there, you know it is pretty
wide. "Well, I want to go to Springfield; can you tell me how?"
"Yes, follow me and you'll get there." He led and the man followed.
Here is a story that was never published about my father. Sev
eral years ago, I think in '45, a gentleman came here to lecture upon
colonization, telling what the Colonization Society had done for
emancipating slaves. The lecture was held in Dr. Peabody's old
church. Dr. Peabody was then living. The gentleman probably
knew some of the audience that were on the platform. Among them
were Judge Morris, Judge Chapman, Dr. Pejibody, Mr. Foot, my
father and some others that you know. When the lecturer com
menced, he said he did not wish to be interrupted while he was
speaking, "But," he said, "if I do not make it plain to you, at the
end of my discourse I will answer any questions that anyone in the
audience wishes to ask." He went on with his discourse and he
didn't wind up until ten o'clock. I remember my mother was a
good deal disturbed because father was not at home; he was seldom
out at ten o'clock. Well, when he came home he told us this story.
When the lecturer got through with his lecture he said, "If there is
anything you wish to ask me — any questions, I will try to answer."
My father said to Dr. Peabody, "Ask him the question." Dr.
Peabody said, "I can't; you ask him." My father said, "Ask him
the question. You are in your own church." He said, "I can't."
"Well," said father, "I am not going to let this thing go." So he
turned to him and addressed him as a brother and asked him this
question: "How many slaves have been manumitted by the Amer
ican Colonization Society since its organization?" "I have an
swered that question once, sir," said the man. "Not to my satis
faction," said father. "Well, you can't expect a man is going to
furnish facts and arguments as well as brains too." "Well, it is not
the subject under consideration whether I have brains or not. I
concede that question, if necessary. But these gentlemen on the

so OLD HOWJRD STREET
platform, whom everybody concedes have brains, are as much in
the dark as I am." He didn't answer the question. I told you that
story to show you the perfect control my father had of his temper.
Very few men would have answered calmly and coolly under that
insult. I will close by simply repeating to you a little poem that I learned.
When I first read it it did not make much of an impression on me,
but I afterwards learned it by heart, and it tells just my condition
where I stand now. It is entitled, "After the Life Battle." I have
had a life battle. I can repeat it.
Do you think that I fear you, Goodman Death.'
Then, Sire, you do not know.
For your grim white face, and your frosty breath
And your dark eyes browed with snow
Bring naught to me but a signal of love.
My Father sent you, He dwelleth above.
And I am ready to go.
The battle is o'er and we have won.
Perhaps you didn't know
That just to-night the setting sun
Saw the turning of the foe.
If you had come in the thick of the fray,
I might not have wanted to turn away;
Now I am ready to go.
Please steady me into your little boat.
Your arm, — yes, thank you, there.
I think when we are well afloat
I'll sleep, if you do not care.
If I'm not awake when we reach the shore,
Tell Father I stayed till the battle was o'er
And tried to do my share.

I was once in the express office here. I knew John Brown per
sonally. I used to do business with him. A draft at one time came
through the Agawam Bank — it didn't come through the express
office. The draft was for $2,500, payable to the order of John Brown.
He could take $2,500 by writing his name on the back of that draft.
It had been accepted and gone all through and it was worth $2,500
with his name on the back of it. The cashier at that time was Mr.
Bailey. Mr. Bailey said, "Indorse that, Mr. Brown, and I will pay
you the money." He said, "No, sir; I am not going to indorse any-

OLD HOWJRD STREET 51
body's paper." "But it is for your own good." "No, I'm not going
to put my name on the back of that. I never did such a thing."
Mr. Bailey couldn't persuade him. Chester Chapin was at that
time president of the bank. He labored with him two hours, but
he couldn't get him to put his name on the back of that draft and
they had to return it to New York and have it made payable to
Mr. Chapin's order. Mr. Chapin indorsed it and gave the money to
Mr. Brown.
My father went into the bank one day and asked Mr. John
Howard for $100. Mr. Howard said, "Yes, sir." Father wrote a
note and handed it to Mr. Howard, who said, "Well, it really calls
for an indorser." "I don't know anybody that I want to ask to
indorse it." Mr. Howard said, "We must obey the rules." Mr.
Howard took the note, wrote his name on the back and handed him
the money.
I have seen nine fugitive slaves in my father's house at one time,
over night. In the morning father said, "James, you must pilot
these men up to Mr. Daniel Harris." Well, I piloted the nine men
up there. They stepped aboard a Connecticut River train and went
to Bellows Falls, and they were turned over to the next conductor
and sent to Canada. Mr. Harris was as strong in that line as my
father was.
I remember very well when Worthington's tavern stood where
Worthington street now is. I remember when Mr. Stearns opened
that street. He couldn't agree with Mr. Pynchon about the matter,
so the street was all opened on the Worthington lot. We will say
here is the line of Worthington street (illustrating), well, there was
a foot of ground left along here and Mr. Pynchon's lot was inside of
it. That strip represents a foot of ground from Main street to Water
street. Well, Mr. Pynchon says, "I wonder what in the world
Charles Stearns has left that foot of ground there for?" My father
said, "Don't you understand?" "No." "It is so you cannot use
your lots for building." "Well, it's pretty mean business." "You
know Mr. Stearns opened the street entirely on his own land; he
is going to protect himself. You would do the same thing, wouldn't
you?" Well, he didn't understand why it was done, but he finally
found it out.
Question — Can you tell us about the alley a few rods north of
State street, from Main to Market streets?

52 OLD HOWJRD STREET
Jnswer — ^That is where we used to go to school. The old town
school house stood in back there.
Question — Did it have a name?
Jnswer — I never knew it to have a name. One of Deacon
Justin Lombard's daughters. Miss Eliza Lombard, taught school
there for years, and every boy and girl went to school to Eliza
Lombard. She taught afterwards in the Widow Pynchon's house,
and some of us went there.
One very sad thing occurred here in town one winter. An old
lady lived with Mrs. Edward Pynchon as her companion, a Miss
BHss, and she and Mrs. Pynchon were going out to ride one after
noon and they sent to Fuller's stable for a sleigh and driver. Mr.
Benjamin Fuller harnessed a horse to a single sleigh, which was sent
to take them out to ride. Miss Bliss got into the sleigh; the man
stood holding the horse, the horse was not quiet, he was rather am
bitious. In a few minutes a horse came running down Main street
with a pair of shafts and a cross bar — he came dashing down like
lightning, and as a horse will do — they will always run to where
there is a horse — he bounded for this horse, and as he got up to the
sleigh he made a jump, threw the cross bar up, and at the same
time the horse Mr. Fuller had sent out, broke away and the shafts
struck Miss Bliss and knocked her from the seat she was on. The
Fuller horse started and ran past the Hampden House. He bounded
intogoontothesidewalk,andthesleigh struck a tree — it doesn't stand
there now, it has been cut down— and killed the woman instantly.
Question — Was Mrs. Ranney's school ahead of your time?
Jnswer — No, sir; I remember her. She afterwards married
John Avery. I knew her son, John Ranney. He went up to Canada
and lived there a while. I think he has passed away.
Only one of my old companions now lives in Springfield, Mr.
E. D. Chapin. He was in Dr. Edwards' store when I was in Bon
tecou and Hunt's. Old Springfield is a very interesting place to old
people.

APPENDIX 53
Appendix
The old Pynchon fort was torn down in 183 1. William Pynchon built a new
house on the site, very near where the old fort stood. The brick for that fort
was brought here from Holland and history records that there were only two houses
left here that the Indians did not burn and one was this fort and the other was
on Pecousic Hill.
Just a few rods below the entrance of the Foot block, the main entrance upstairs,
stood in Main street a watering trough. It was made from a log cut out and was
probably two feet wide by fourteen or fifteen feet long and was always full of
water supplied by an aqueduct which ran through Jonathan Dwight's garden
down to the watering trough, from a spring on the corner where they are now
building the Fire and Marine block. A man in town had a grudge against Doctor
Osgood, and he told a man who worked about here that if he would put Doctor
Osgood into the watering trough he would give him a dollar. The man replied,
"I don't know him." The other said, "I will show him to you," and he stepped
to the door of the Dwight store and said, "There he is on the opposite side of the
street." The man went out, crossed over the street, walked down by the side of
Doctor Osgood, looking him up and down, preparing to enter into the contest
of putting him into the watering trough. Evidently he changed his mind after
he had seen the object he had to encounter, for he returned to the store. The
man said to him, "Why didn't you put him into the watering trough? You haven't
earned your dollar!" "No," was the reply, "I haven't." "Well, why didn't you
put him into the watering trough?" " I don't believe he would let me." My father,
in college, was the champion wrestler in his class and he would not be put into a
watering trough very easily.
Mr. Thomas Blanchard, who was an inventor, either in 1833 or 1834 started
from his house just below Wilcox street, to run a carriage by steam up to the Carew
corner. He succeeded between eight o'clock in the morning and four o'clock in
the afternoon, in getting up to the Carew corner and back. That was probably
the first street car that ever ran in this town. It was simply on four wheels, and
he had his little engine on the platform which he had made. I remember very
well seeing it, because he got stalled, as they say, in front of the store where I
was a clerk.
Question — ^Was he twitted a little about the experience?
Answer — ^Yes.
Question — He claimed that he did all he said he would do?
Answer — ^Yes; he did all he said he would do. I saw him when he went up
and when he went back. The fire got extinguished in front of the store and he
stopped and got it up and raised steam again, got into his wagon and went up
and back.
Question — ^All he claimed was that he would go up to the Carew corner and back?
Answer — Yes.
We had some very quaint people here as far back as 1830. I will tell you a
story about two of them. There were two Stebbins who were cousins; the one
had land which he let his cousin take upon shares to plant tobacco. The tobacco
was planted and harvested and the owner of the land said to his cousin, "Have

54 JPFENDIX
you harvested your tobacco yet.'" "Yes." "Well, what have you done with
it.'" "Put it into my barn." "Where is my part.' Didn't you agree that I was
to have half.'" "Your part didn't grow." "Well, didn't you agree to take it on
halves and give me half the crop.'" "Oh, yes." "Then where is my part.'" "I
told you it didn't grow, there was but half a crop and that belonged to me."
Question — Did John Brown belong to the old First Church? You say he
attended there.
Jnswer — I think he was a member of the church. I think he joined the church
by letter from somewhere. Elba, N. Y., was his home. I won't say he was a mem
ber of Doctor Osgood's church, but my impression is that he was.
Question — Do you remember where his pew was.'
Answer — I cannot tell you about the pew.
Question — He certainly attended church there, did he?
Answer — Oh, yes. He and father were very warm friends.
Question— Another thing as to the old First Church, was Pres. John Adams'
body brought there after his death?
Answer — He was brought here and laid in the old church.
Question — Do you remember anything about the circumstances?
Answer — -He was simply brought here and laid there over night. The body
was brought here from Washington. He lay in the vestibule of the church. This
was in 1848.
Question — That was before railway trains?
Answer — No; I do not think so.
Question — ^The body remained in state?
Answer — ^The body was there over night, guarded by members of the Spring
field guards. They volunteered to guard the body over night, and they did. It
was held there until the next afternoon, I think; it went down on the noon train.
It certainly was after the railroad. The body was viewed by all who chose to go in.
Question — Jenny Lind was here?
Answer — In 185 1.
Question — You remember her?
Answer — Oh, yes; the church was full. There was not a space left. She went
from here to Northampton and sang there. I couldn't get away, I stayed and took
care of the ofiice the night she was here. The next night I went up to Northampton
and heard her sing. She made this statement about the old church — that it was
the easiest room she ever sang in — it was less effort for her to fill the house.
Question — She stopped at Uncle Jerry Warriner's?
Answer — She stopped at the house down on Howard street which was the
home of Uncle Warriner. I didn't state the other night that the first house that
Uncle Jerry built on Howard street was of wood and burned down. I asked Uncle
Jerry after that fire, "Are you going to build again?" "Yes, James, I am going
to build again, but I am going to build one that won't burn down so quick."
My remembrance is that there were some feeble children here — I don't remember
what society had them in charge — but she wanted to go and sing to them — quite
a number of partially crippled children — and she did.
Question — She created quite a furore?
Answer — Yes, she was brought here by Barnum for one hundred thousand
dollars. She sang here a while and Barnum made quite a good deal of money out

APPENDIX SS
of her singing. They made a second deal, but Barnum released her from her con
tract. This is hearsay, but I think it is so.
Question — She didn't sing but once here?
Answer — Only one evening. I don't think she visited any families here.
Question — She was rather quiet at Warriner's?
Answer — Yes.
Question — She didn't stop at the hotel?
Answer — She went right to that house on Howard street, with her assistants.
They gave up the house to her.
I could tell a story about John Brown. He once went to see a young woman
who was subject to mesmerism, and she was under the influence to such an extent
that she was perfectly unconscious. Brown didn't believe it, and he suggested
to the persons who knew the girl that If they would allow him to make a test,
if she bore the test, he then would believe she was under mesmeric influence.
They agreed to it on condition that he should not do her any harm. He promised
that it would not be permanent harm. It was consented to. He came into the
room with a paper which contained cowhage which, when pulverized and thrown
upon the person, not only burned, but itched almost beyond the power of endurance.
He came up and opened the neck of her dress and threw some on her person. She
made no movement, but sat through it. "Well," said Brown, "I shall have to
give in that she is under mesmeric influence when that herb does not disturb her."
Then he opened his vest and his woolen shirt which he wore. "Now," he said.
"throw it on." They took a handful and threw it right into his bosom. He but
toned up his coat and marched out. They put a preparation of oil on the girl, so
that she was relieved from the pain, but he never put anything on his person.
It goes to show the nerve of the man. He was without exception a man of the most
determined will that ever came into Springfield. It was said by Governor Wise
that he was the most plucky man that he ever met in his life. History shows
that he was not afraid of anything. His home was in Elba, N. Y.
Question — Where was he located here?
Answer — On Franklin street, soon after Franklin street was opened.
Question — On the south side?
Answer — I do not know.
Question — You are not certain that he was in business on Sanford street?
Answer — No, I am not certain. He was in business with John L. King — in
the wool business, — King and Harding were interested with him in the wool busi
ness. That was Brown's business, dealing in wool.
Question — Do you remember when the old fort was torn down?
Answer — In the old fort there were timbers of solid oak sixteen inches square,
and many mementos were made from it, such as canes, chairs, etc.
Question — Did it retain its original form and shape and characteristics down
. to that time?
Answer — No, there was an arrangement in front that was taken off. It came
out from under the eaves; the roof projected so that there was probably four or
five feet of projection. It was built that way so that the arrows of the Indians
could not enter the house and injure the occupants. It protected the windows.
It projected and came down slanting. Underneath at the front door there was

56 JPFENDIX
at one time a porch which is represented in that picture of the old fort, but that
porch was taken away before I recollect. Mr. William Pynchon or some one took
it off. AU the timbers of the fort were solid oak and the main timbers were sixteen
inches square and some twenty-five, thirty or forty feet long, and perfectly sound
when they came out. If that oak was living to-day it would bring three hundred
dollars a thousand.
In the cold and long winters there was a man who ran a team from Feeding
Hills to Boston. He would go down once or twice during the winter. He called
once upon Doctor Osgood and asked him If he had any freight in Boston that he
wished brought to him. The reply was, "Not bad enough to pay winter trans
portation; but if you are not fully loaded and will bring it up to me for what it
would cost in summer to bring It around by the sloop and up the river, you may
bring it. It is right on your way, you won't have to go out of your way at all."
The man consented to bring it to him on those terms. On his return he came to
the doctor's one night and left the freight. The doctor said, "How much do I
owe you?" He mentioned the price. "Well, that Is not according to agreement.
Is it.f"' "Well, I couldn't afford to bring it for any less." "You agreed to bring
it to me for the cost of transportation in summer — I am willing to pay that."
"That won't pay me; I won't take that." "I will not pay the other price." The
man went away quite angry. The second morning after the doctor's wife missed
him from the bedroom and was anxious to know what had become of him. He
got up about three o'clock in the morning, harnessed his horse, drove to Feeding
HUls — six miles, and met the man as he was going out to the barn to fodder his
cattle. The man said, "Why, what has brought you over here so early?" "To
pay you this money, sir." When he returned his wife said, "Where have you
been?" "To Feeding Hills." "For what?" "To pay Mr.  the money."
"You didn't owe it; why did you do it?" "If I had exchanged with my Brother
Hazen, as I got up in the pulpit to perform the service, had that man been in the
congregation he would say: 'There stands a man in the pulpit trying to show me
what is right. He owes me ten dollars that he won't pay.' " I told you that story
because it goes to show that my father was determined to be a minister always,
rather than a speculator or business man.
Question — Charles Stearns constructed the first steamboat here?
Answer — No, Thomas Blanchard. The first steamboat that attempted to run
up the river made the attempt in 1826. We were called upon in school once to
mention some circumstance that was remarkable and Bryant Hatch got up and
said, "In 1826 the steamboat Barnett attempted to come over the falls."
Question — Didn't Alex Bliss give the land for the high school house?
Answer — I don't know. Of the steamboats that used to run up the river,
Blanchard built a boat called the Blanchard, and ran it for some time. There
were two boats that were owned by this company that ran the boats, the Agawam
and the Massachusetts; the Agawam could get through the canal, but the Massa
chusetts always had to go over the falls because it was too long to go the other way.
Charles Stearns built a boat called the Springfield, to run in opposition. He was
once on board the boat — it came through the canal; it didn't have power enough
to go over the falls — they were all scow-bottomed, not keeled. He got out of
patience with his pilot and he went to the wheel, and just as they were coming
out of the canal and striking into the river Stearns turned the wheel the wrong

APPENDIX c^y
way and it threw the boat Into the faUs. Fortunately they got over without stav
ing it to pieces. That was in 1842 or 1843.
I don't know whether anybody has recorded as to the effigies in Court Square
in February, 1851. It was the time that George Thompson, the English phUan-
thropist, came here to lecture, and some one for some purpose or other, caused
two pair of pantaloons to be stuffed and hung on to the big tree that now stands
on Court Square. They were cut down after church was dismissed Sunday morn
ing by Elijah Blake, Ex-Governor Trask and James H. Osgood.
The old Springfield bank looks very much as it used to. It has a Mansard
roof which was put on by the bank when they removed. This is where John W.
Wilder's store now is. I remember old Mr. Jonathan Dwight as well as can be.
He was the first president of the bank, and then his son, Jonathan, Jr., that lived
on the corner of Maple and State streets. His estate ran down from Maple street
to where the old Unitarian church used to stand, with an elegant garden filled with
flowers In summer and everything that was desirable. The old gentleman had
the bank. That is about as good a specimen of an old New England banking house
as there is in existence today. The history that goes with it especially, is about
as interesting as anything that I know of.
That old fort was erected in 1659. It was there when I came into the world.
It retained practically its original form up to the time it was torn down with the
exception of what I told you. You see it in the picture as it originally was, with
the portico-vestibule, you might call it. The Indians got underneath it and piled
up brush under the house and set fire to it, but they didn't succeed in burning it.
The inmates escaped without any injury whatever. When they found they couldn't
get the house down, they went away.
There was a certain man in town who stood on the corner while we were cutting
down the effigies (John L. King). He called out, "O, let 'em hang!" Mr. Elijah
Blake turned around, shook his hand and said, "I wish to God you hung by the
side of them."

58 THE TWO CAPTIVES
Quarterly Meeting April 19, 1904
Miss C. Alice Baker of Cambridge, Mass., read a paper
describing her journeys and researches in the towns and
parishes on the St. Lawrence River to find records of the
Deerfield captives. The Two Captives
THE name of Somers Islands, corrupted in our time to
"Summer Islands," was given to the Bermudas, not, as
many suppose, on account of their genial climate, but
because of the shipwreck there in 1610 of Sir George
Somers and his companions on a voyage to Virginia. Up to that
time, doubtless because of their dangerous coast, the "still vexed
Bermoothes," had been known to the English as the "lie of Divels,
and reputed a most prodigious and inchanted place ....
never inhabited by any Christian or Heathen people."
The report of the shipwrecked men who dwelt nine months upon
the islands, enjoying the balmy air, and finding the soil "abundantly
fruitful of all fit necessaries for the sustentation and preservation
of man's life," removed all fears of the lie of Divels from the minds
of the venturous youth of England.
Sir George Somers sold his claim to the Bermudas, to a company
of 120, who got a charter for their settlement and in 1612, sent out
sixty settlers. During the civil war in England, and immediately
after, many persons took refuge there. The poet Waller invested
money in Bermuda land, and Mr. Edmund Gosse thinks that he
wrote his poem of the "Battle of the Summer Islands" as an adver
tisement of his plantation to his rich and noble friends. In exchange
for the products of the Islands England sent cloth, which, says
the poet. Not for warmth, but ornament is worn
Such is the mould, that the blest tenant feeds.
On precious fruits, — and pays his rent in weeds;
With candy'd plantain, and the juicy pine,
On choicest melons, and sweet grapes they dine.
And with potatoes feed their wanton swine.
Tobacco is the worst of weeds which they
To English landlords as their tribute pay.

THE TWO CAPTIVES 59
So sweet the air, — so moderate the clime.
None sickly lies, or dies before his time;
For the kind spring, which but salutes us here.
Inhabits there, and courts them all the year.
Dear to the student of New England genealogies is a book en
titled, "Original Lists of Persons of Quality, Emigrants, Religious
Exiles, Political Rebels, Serving men sold for a term of years.
Apprentices, Children Stolen, Maidens pressed and others, who
went from Great Britain to the American Plantations from 1600
to 1700." According to this book, on the 13th day of September,
1635, the good ship Dorset, John Flower, master, weighed anchor
at London "bound for ye Bermudas." Aboard her was a motley
company, ninety-five passengers all told. Full half were lads under
eighteen. Eight had already reached that important age. The rest
were mostly young men under thirty-five, half a dozen of whom
were accompanied by their wives. Among the passengers were
two ministers. Rev. George Turk and Rev. Daniel Wite or White.
Two linger longest at the stern, as the ship slowly leaves her moor
ings, Judith Bagley, a lone, lorn woman of fifty-eight, apparently
with no kith nor kin to keep her company, and James Rising, a
resolute stripling of eighteen, — the only one of his name discoverable
among the founders of New England.
To which of the afore-mentioned lists shall we refer this ship's
company? "What sought they thus afar?" For lack of present
knowledge, I shall assume that love of adventure led James Rising
to seek his fortune in the New World, and that he came, apprenticed
for a term of years to labor in the Bermudas. Of his life there, we
have as yet no details. Sugar and molasses became important
exports from the islands, and New England offered a good market
for the latter article, being then largely engaged in the distillation
of rum from molasses.
"Att a general town meeting held at Salem on the 20th day of
the 4th month of the year 1657 James Rising is received an Inhab
itant into this Towne." About three weeks later on, on the 7th of
July, 1657, he married at Boston, Elizabeth, daughter of Robert
Hinsdell, the sturdy pioneer of Dedham, Medfield and Deerfield.
I conclude that he probably chose Salem as his home in New Eng
land, as being a port of entry for ships, freighted with the products
of the islands. He was admitted as a member of the First Church

6o THE TWO CAPTIVES
of Salem on the 22d day of the i ith month, 1661 (January 20, O. S.),
by a letter from his Pastor Wite or White of the church in Bermuda.
On the 20th day of the second month, 1663 (April 20, O. S.),his
daughter Hannah was baptized in the First Church of Salem.
Whether his two sons, James and John, were older or younger than
their sister, is unknown.
Windsor, Connecticut, was at that time a leading commercial
town, and carried on an extensive trade with the West Indies and
adjacent islands. There was no bridge at Hartford, and Windsor
became a noted port of entry, not only for coasters and West India
vessels, but for English ships. The river was at all times full of
vessels loading and unloading there, and "Windsor green, often
heaped with goods" awaiting storage or transportation, "was lively
with jovial sea captains" and sunburned sailors. Making and
shipping pipe-staves was an important industry of this vicinity,
and James Rising may have wished to add this branch of trade to
his business. However this may be he was "voted an inhabitant
of Windsor," on March 11, 1668, and the next year he was formally
dismissed by letter from the church of Salem to that of Windsor.
There his wife died on the nth of August, 1669. Four years later
he married the Widow Martha Bartlett, who died in less than a
year after her marriage. It is said that he kept the ferry at Windsor.
To the contribution made by that town to the sufferers from Philip's
war in other colonies, James Rising gave five shillings, his son John
one shilling and sixpence, and his daughter Hannah, one and three
pence. The same year a grant of fifty acres was allotted to him in Suf
field, and in 1682 as a proprietor he voted at the organization of
that town. There in 1688 at the age of seventy-one he died.
Of his daughter Hannah nothing more appears. His son James
died unmarried two years after the father's death, being taken care
of in his last illness by his brother John, who inherited his estate.
John Rising lived at Suffield. His first wife was Sarah, daughter
of Timothy Hale of Windsor. By her he had nine children. Josiah,
their seventh child, was born February 2, 1694. His mother died
when he was but four years old, and his father soon married again.
The stepmother, burdened with the care of a house full of children,
the eldest of whom was but fourteen, probably found little Josiah,
a robust boy of five, a trial to her patience. At some unknown

THE TWO CAPTIVES 6i
period, probably on the birth of a new baby in 1702, he was sent to
Deerfield to stay with his father's cousin, Mehuman Hinsdell.
Leaving little Josiah Rising with his cousins in Deerfield, we
must go back and take up another thread of our story.
It is the morning of the 24th of September, 1667: The day when
the County Court begins its fall session at Springfield. A crowd is
already gathering at the ordinary, so the inn of the olden times was
called, a room being always set apart there for the holding of the
court. Men with pointed beards and close cropped hair, in tall
steeple-crowned hats, short jerkins of a sad color with wide white
wristbands turned back over the sleeves; leather belts, broad fall
ing collars stiffly starched, tied with a cord and tassel at the throat,
hanging down on the breast and extending round on the back and
shoulders; full trousers reaching the knee, where they are fastened
with a bow; long, gray woolen stockings, and stout leather shoes,
broad, low and well oiled, complete the costume. Some of the
younger men are in great boots rolled over at the top, and slouching
in wrinkles about the leg.
The women are in steeple hats, not unlike those of the men, —
and Mother Hubbard cloaks. Some are bareheaded or wear a
handkerchief over the head, with white kerchief pinned straight down
from the throat to the waist, white cuffs and long, white aprons
covering the front of their gray or black woolen gowns. The boys
and girls, miniature copies of their elders, except that the boys
wear woolen caps with visors, and the girls, close fitting hoods of
the same material.
A constable armed with a long, black staff tipped with brass,
having three youths in charge, forces his way through the crowd.
They have been sent by the commissioners at Northampton, to be
tried and sentenced at Springfield. The culprits are pale and evi
dently frightened. The face of the youngest, a mere child, is swollen
with weeping. The others, who are perhaps sixteen and seventeen
years old, affect an indifference to their situation which their pallor
belies. It is easy to see that the eldest is the most hardened of the
three. "In sooth they are not ill looking lads," said a gossip, "I marvel
of what evil they are accused." "The little one is the son of Good
man John Stebbins our former neighbor," said another. "He num
bers scarce twelve summers, yet methinks he is old in sin, for they

62 THE TWO CAPTIVES
say he hath entered the house of his stepmother's father, with
intent to steal." "One Godfrey Nims is the ringleader of these
villainies," put in a third. "He hath conspired with the others to
run away to Canady, under the guidance of a drunken Indian varlet,
who hath been hanging about Northampton of late." "It is be
lieved that Goodman Hutchinson will intercede with the Court in
behalf of Benitt," added the last speaker, "he hath lately taken the
lad's mother to wife." "Poor boys," said a young mother, who led
her little son by the hand, " I hope our Worshipful magistrate will
mercifully consider their youth, and the shame to their parents."
"Our magistrate is a God-fearing man," replied a stern Puritan
father at her elbow. "He will deal justly with the malefactors, but
it behooves him not to be merciful overmuch. Our young men are
getting overbold in their carriage. Our maidens wear silk in a
flaunting manner, and indulge in excess of apparill to the offence
of sober people. They must be taught to fear God, to obey the law
and honor their parents."
"Ay, verily, it were better if they were more often admonished
and scourged," interrupted a hard-faced woman, "and for my part
I should like to see a score of lashes well laid on to the backs of these
knaves. I misdoubt if they get off with less."
The entrance of the magistrates and jurors put a stop to the talk,
and the trial proceeded. The story is told in the records far better
than I could tell it: —
"Sept. 24, 1667. Att the County Court holden at Springfield, Capt. John
Pynchon one of the Honored Assistants of this Colony presiding, "James Bennett,
Godfrey Nims and Benoni Stebbins, young lads of Northampton being by North
ampton Commissioners bound over to this Court to answere for diverse crimes
and misdeeds comitted by them, were brought to this court by ye constable of
yt towne, wch 3 lads are accufed by Robert Bartlett, for that they gott into his
house two Sabbath days, when all the family were at the Publike Meeting, on ye
first of which tymes, they, viz Nims and Stebbins did ransack about the house,
and took away out of 'diverse places of the house viz, 24 shillings in silver and 7 sh.
in Wampum, with intention to run away to the ffrench, all wch is by them con
fessed; wch wickedness of theirs hath allso been accompanyed with frequent lying
to excuse and justify themselves especially on Nims his part, who it sems hath
been a ringleader in the villanyes; ffor all which their crimes and misdemeands
this corte doth judge yt the said 3 lads shall bee well whipt on their naked bodies, viz
Nims and Bennett with 25 lashes apeece and Benoni Stebbyngs with 11 lashes;
and the said Nims and Stebbins are to pay Robert Bartlett the Summe of 4£
being accounted treble damage, according to law for what goods he hath lost by
their means. AIlso those persons that have received any money of any of the

THE TWO CAPTIVES 63
said lads, are to restore it to the sd Robert Bartlett. But their being made to the
Corte an earnefit pitition & request by Ralph Hutchinson, father in law to ye said
Bennet, and diverse other considerable persons, that the said Bennett's corporali
punishment might be released, by reason of his mother's weaknese, who it seemed
may suffer much inconvenience thereby, that punishment was remitted upon his
father in law his engaging to this corte, to pat ffive pounds to ye County, as a fyne
for the said Benitts effence; which 5£ is to be paid to ye county Treasurer for
ye use of Sd county. Allso John Stebbins Junior, being much suspected to have
had some hand in their plotting to run away. This Corte doth order ye Commis
sioners of Northampton to call him before ym, & to examine him about that, or
any other thing wherein he is supposed to be guilty with ye said lads and to act
therein according to their discretion attending law. Also they are to call the Indian
called Onequelat, who had a hand with ym in their plott, and to deal with him
according as they fynd."
The three thoroughly scared boys were sent back the next day
to Northampton. There let us hope that little Benoni was taken
from the grasp of the law, and put into his father's hands for chastise
ment. Bennett's fine was paid by his stepfather. As for Godfrey
Nims he paid the penalty of his misdeeds at the whipping post in
front of the meeting house. Alas for poor Godfrey! he lived in the
age when a spade was called a spade. Lying was lying in good old
colony days. Nobody thought of applying to the wild boy the soft
impeachment of being an imaginative youth. The luckless wight
had no indulgent friends to plead for him that "boys must be boys"
and that wild oats must be sown. Wild oats were an expensive
luxury in those days, as poor Godfrey found to his cost. Doubtless
he was a disorderly fellow, yet without wishing to palliate his offence,
I may say that he was without the good influences of a home life.
There is no evidence of his having father or mother, kith or kin at
Northampton. An active and excitable lad, with no legitimate
scope under Puritan rule for his surplus energy, he fell in with the
Indian vagrant, by whose tales of bush-ranging, his soul was fired
to daring and reckless deeds. It is of such stuff that pioneers and
heroes are often made.
Another turn of the kaleidoscope gives us a better picture of
these impulsive youths.
It is the l8th of May, 1676. The sun, sinking behind the western
hills, throws a golden glow over meadow and river. The Holyoke
range is already in shadow. A force of about 144 men is gathered
at Hatfield, awaiting the order to march against Philip's horde, for
it was now the "general voyce of the people" that "it was time to

64 THE TWO CAPTIVES
distress the enemy and drive them from their fishing at Peskeomp-
skut," which was the Indian name for our Turners Falls. Nearly
all are mounted; a few on foot. Among the volunteers from North
ampton are Godfrey Nims and James Bennett, comrades to-day in
a righteous cause, Nims as usual with a dare-devil look in his eyes,
resolute, careless and ready for any fate; Bennett more serious and
subdued. The Reverend Hope Atherton, chaplin of the expedi
tion, pours out his soul in prayer for the little army, and the caval
cade moves northward. Who at that moment remembered the
youthful escapade of Godfrey Nims and James Bennett? Surely
not Mary Broughton, who stood sobbing among the women that
watched their departure. She had married Bennett in 1674, i^ot
long after she herself had had a brush with the magistrates. At the
March Court of 1673, held at Northampton by Worshipful John
Pynchon, Captain Holyoke and Deacon Chapin, Maid Mary
Broughton had been severely admonished, and fined ten shillings
for wearing a silk hood or scarf contrary to law. A sympathetic
revolt against Puritan discipline may have attracted Bennett and
Mary Broughton to each other. Their happiness was short-lived.
On Saturday Nims brought her the sad news that Bennett had been
killed in the Falls fight. In the spring of 1677, the young widow
married Benoni Stebbins, her husband's dearest friend, another of
the trio of bad boys of Northampton. Soon after his marriage
Benoni Stebbins joined Quentin Stockwell and several other bold
men who returned to Deerfield two years after the massacre at
Bloody Brook, to begin a new settlement. There Stebbins worked
early and late at the house to which he fondly hoped to bring his
bride before winter should set in. At the end of their day's work on
the 19th of September, 1677, they were surprised by twenty-six
Indians from Canada under Ashpelon. Hurrying up from the clear
ing to the mountain, they found there seventeen people from Hat
field who had been seized the same day, and with them, began the
weary march to Canada. They were the first to follow that woeful
road, travelled later by so many New England captives. Crossing
and recrossing the Connecticut they journeyed rapidly by day. At
night they lay stretched on their backs upon the ground, a rope
about their necks, arms and legs extended and tied to "stakes so
that they could stir nowayes." Halting thirty miles above North-
field, Ashpelon sent Benoni Stebbins back towards Lancaster, to

THE TWO CAPTIVES 65
notify a part of his band to join him on the Connecticut. On the
return, Stebbins escaped on the 2d of October and reached Hadley
in safety. His own account taken down in writing on the 6th day
by the postmaster of Northampton, says that "being sent out with
two squaws and a mare to pick huckleberries, he "got upon the
mare and rid till he tired the mare, then ran on foot, and so escaped,
being two days and a half without victuals."
Notwithstanding the sorrows and perils that so beset the life of
Mary Broughton, her high spirit seems not to have been crushed.
The following from the Court Records of March 26, 1678, shows
that she never yielded a woman's right to make herself look as
pretty as she could, and that she was upheld in her resistance by
her admiring husband.
"Mary wife of Benoni Stebbins being presented to this Court for wearing
silk contrary to law, and for that she agravates it by persisting in it, when as she
was once presented before: This court considering the agravation, and how unfit
such things are in this day of trouble, did adjudge her to pay a fine of lo shillings:
As also Benoni Stebbins, openly affronting the court in saying he would not pay
the money due for fees to the clerk of the Court; this Court adjudged him to pay
as a fine to the County lo sh. forthwith, and committed him to the constable
for the payment of the aforesaid fines."
Benoni Stebbins returned to Deerfield at its permanent settle
ment in 1682, becoming a prominent citizen there, and filling the
highest town offices creditably to himself and acceptably to his
neighbors. Mary, his wife, died in 1689.
About the time of Benoni Stebbins' marriage, Godfrey Nims had
wedded the widow Mary WiUiams and become the guardian of her
little boy. He owned land in Deerfield in 1674, and if he were not,
as tradition declares, one of the first three inhabitants, he and
Benoni Stebbins with their families, were certainly among the earli
est permanent settlers. Godfrey Nims, cordwainer, appears to have
been an industrious. God-fearing and law-abiding citizen. He was
the first constable of Deerfield, being chosen in 1689, and later held
other town offices.
In 1692 on his marriage to his second wife, Mehitable Smead,
widow of Jeremiah Hull, he bought the lot on which the second
church, the town house and Memorial Hall now stand, and built a
house which was burned January 4, 1693-4. H'S little stepson,
Jeremiah Hull, perished in the flames. The same year he bought the
adjoining lot, building again on the site which has ever since been

66 THE TWO CAPTIVES
held by his descendants. The Misses Miller, who are prominent
in the blue and white industry, indeed I think they were the origin
ators of that industry, now live in this house. When Joseph Barnard
was wounded at Indian Bridge, and his horse killed under him,
Godfrey Nims bravely took the helpless man upon his own horse,
which being soon shot down, he was forced to mount behind Philip
Mattoon, and "so got safely home."
Immediately upon Queen Anne's accession, the people of Deer
field began to make ready to meet the tempest from the north which
they felt to be impending. The fort was "righted up," the school
master was asked to help the selectmen "in wording a petition to
the governor for help in the distress occasioned by a prospect of
war." In the summer of 1703, Peter Schuyler warned the people
of Deerfield that an expedition against them was fitting out in
Canada. Those who had settled at a distance from Meeting House
Hill, began to seek shelter within the palisade. Twenty soldiers
were sent as a garrison to the settlement. On the 8th of October,
John Nims and Zebediah Williams, son and stepson of Godfrey
Nims, while looking after their cows in the meadow, were captured
by Indians, and carried to Canada. Such was the alarm and dis
tress of the people, that they urged their minister to address the
government in their behalf. The letter is a credit to pastor and
people. In asking for relief from taxation as the fortification must
be rebuilt, Mr. Williams says: "I never found the people unwilling
to do, when they had the ability, yea they have often done above
their ability." He speaks of the "sorrowful parents and distressed
widow of the poor captives taken" from them, as requesting the
governor "to endeavor that there may be an exchange of prisoners
to their release." Parson Stoddard of Northampton also wrote to
Governor Dudley in behalf of Deerfield. He tells him that the
people are much depressed and discouraged by the captivity of two
of their young men, and asks that dogs may be trained to hunt the
Indians, "who act like wolves and are to be dealt withall as wolves."
To this letter dated Northampton, October 22, 1703, the following
postscript is added: "Since I wrote, the father of the two captives
(Godfrey Nims) belonging to Deerfield has importunately desired
me to write to your Ex'cy that you vi^ endeavor the Redemption
of his children."
Notwithstanding the general uneasiness, private affairs went

THE TWO CAPTIVES 67
on as usual. Birth, marriage, death, like time and tide, stay for
naught. Winter wore to spring. The soldiers were still billeted in
the homes of the people. The minds of all were tense with anxiety.
The air was thick with omens. Sounds were heard in the night as
of the tramping of men around the fort. March came in like a lion.
The village lay buried in the snow, the people in sleep. In that hour
before dawn when night is darkest and slumber deepest, the long-
dreaded storm burst; unexpected at the last, like all long-expected
events. On what a wreck the morning broke! Benoni Stebbins,
after fighting for hours like a tiger at bay, lay dead in his house.
In the southeast angle of the fort, Godfrey Nims' house was still
burning, three of his little girls somewhere dead among the embers.
His daughter, Rebecca Mattoon, and her baby, slain by the toma
hawk. Ebenezer, his seventeen year old son, his stepdaughter,
Elizabeth Hull, aged sixteen; his wife with Abigail, their youngest
child, about four years old, already on the march to Canada.
His opposite neighbor, Mehuman Hinsdale, bereft of wife and
child by the same blow, — also a captive, with the boy Josiah Rising,
his little Suffield cousin, whom he had taken into his home and heart.
Did Godfrey Nims and Benoni Stebbins in those hours of horror,
remember how in their boyhood, they had "plotted together to
run away to the ffrench" with Onequelatt the Indian?
How Thankful Nims and her family were saved by a snowdrift;
how Godfrey's wife was killed on the march; how Zebediah Wil
liams died at Quebec, firm in the Protestant faith; how John Nims
escaped from captivity, and was finally married in Deerfield to his
stepsister, Elizabeth Hull; how Ebenezer Nims contrived to out
wit the good priests, who were faithfully trying to secure his sweet
heart's conversion by marrying her to a Frenchman; how Mehuman
Hinsdale came back to Deerfield, and was again "captivated by
ye Indian Savages," are matters of history. But what of Abigail
Nims and Josiah Rising?
Up to this moment, from the hour when cruelly roused from the
innocent sleep of childhood, they were dragged towards the North,
over the snowbound meadows and icy river, this question has been
asked in vain. Thanks to the careful records made at the time by
Canadian priest and nun, and thanks again to the kind help given
me by Canadian priest and nun of to-day we can now follow the
fortunes of the two captives, so rudely torn from home and kin.

68 THE TWO CAPTIVES
In the history of New France there is no more interesting and
romantic chapter, than that of the life and labors of Marguerite
Bourgeois. To bring about the conversion of savages by giving to
their children a Christian education, was her dearest wish. Not
only literally but figuratively did she plant the cross on the moun
tain of Montreal. In 1676, the priests of Saint-Sulpice built a
chapel on the mountain and founded there a mission for such
Iroquois and others, as wished to settle on the island of Montreal.
In 1680, soon after the school for Indian boys was begun at the mis
sion of the mountain. Marguerite Bourgeois sent two nuns of the
congregation there to teach the girls.
In 1685 forty Indian girls were in training at this school. It
takes but a moment to tell the story, but the pain, peril and priva
tion, the self-abnegation, the devotion by which this result was
achieved, cannot be estimated. This Indian village, palisaded to
protect the Christianized Iroquois from the attacks of their savage
brethren, who were incensed against the converts, was an outpost
of defence for Montreal itself. Destroyed by fire in 1694, through
the carelessness of a drunken Indian, the fort was rebuilt of stone,
with rude towers at each angle, two of which were set apart for the
nuns and their school.
In 1701, disturbed by the opportunity afforded the Indians, by
their nearness to the town, of obtaining strong liquors, yet unwilling
to deprive Montreal of their help in case of attack from their enemies
the priests removed the mission to the other side of the mountain,
to a picturesque spot called Sault au RecoUet, on the bank of the
Riviere des Prairies. There they built a church, modelled after the
Chapel de Notre Dame de Lorette in Italy, and a house for them
selves and their school. The Sisters of the Congregation also erected
there a building for themselves and for a school for girls. (It is an
interesting fact that Sceur Marie des Agnes, the Lady Superior of
this mission school, was herself a New England captive. She was
Marie Genevieve Sayward, taken from her mother and sister Feb
ruary 5, 1692, at York, Maine.) The village and mission building
were enclosed by a palisade with three bastions.
It was to the Sault au RecoUet fort that our two captives, doubt
less with others from Deerfield, were carried at once on their arrival
in Canada. The squaw Ganastarsi, probably the wife or mother of
her captor, gladly took little Abigail into her bark wigwam, and

THE TWO CAPTIVES 69
Josiah Rising was led to that of his Macqua master. There they
lived in true Indian fashion, rolling in the dirt with the papooses
and puppies with which the village was swarming, and quickly
catching the Iroquois language. To Josiah, the savages gave the
name of ShoentakSanni of which the French equivalent is // lui a
ote son village. — "He has taken away his viUage." Abigail was
known as T8atog8ach, which rendered into French is Elle retire de
I'eau. — "She picks something out of the water."
The little four year old English girl, with her uncouth name, her
pale face and her yellow hair, did not long escape the notice of the
holy sisters of the mission. The following is a translation of her
French record of baptism: —
"On the 15th day of June of the year 1704, the rites of baptism have been ad
ministered by me, the undersigned, to a little English girl, named in her own
country Abigail, and now Mary Elizabeth; born in Dearfielde, in New England
the 31st of May, of the year 1700, of the marriage of Geoffrey Nims cordwainer,
and of Meetable Smeed also deceased. The child, taken at the said place the
eleventh of March last, and living in the wigwam of a squaw of the Mountain,
named Ganastarsi. The god-mother was Demoiselle Elizabeth Le Moine, daughter
of Monsieur Charles Le Moine esquire, Baron de Longueuil, chevalier of the order
of Saint-Louis, and captain of a company, — with Francois Bonnet who says that
he cannot sign.
Signed, Marie Elizabeth Longueuil. Meriel, pretre."
What the nuns of the Congregation did for little Abigail, was
done for Josiah Rising by the good priests of Saint-Sulpice at the
Sault au RecoUet Mission. He was baptized on the 23d of Decem
ber, 1706, being then about eleven years old. The name Ignace was
given him, and it was as Ignace Raizenne on Canadian records, that
I recognized Josiah Rising.
Picture the life of these children at the Indian fort. The dark,
cold, smoky wigwam; the scanty clothing in which they had been
snatched from home aU rags and dirt, replaced at last by a blanket
which was their dress by day, their bed at night; coarse and un
palatable food; corn pounded, soaked and boiled in unsavory pot
tage; roasted pumpkin a rare luxury. Better times came for the
poor waifs when they could go to school. There they were decently
clad, for Marguerite Bourgeois knew that the first step towards
Christianizing any people, is to make them dress decently and to
inspire them with a love of work. " If you can introduce petticoats
and drawers into your mission," wrote Monsieur Tronson, "you

70 THE TWO CAPTIVES
will make yourself famous; nothing would be more useful, or
fraught with better results."
At school they learned to sing and chant, to read and write and
to speak French. The catechism and creed were taught in French,
as weU as in EngHsh and Indian. The girls learned to sew and knit,
to spin and make lace. The boys were instructed in carpentry,
shoemaking, mason work and other trades.
But Sunday, so gloomy to the children of Puritan households,
was the day of days to the girls and boys of the mission. Then
Abigail went in procession with the other girls to mass and saw the
gorgeous altar cloths and vestments, and the candles burning
brightly, and the pictures of the saints, and little Jesus and his
mother looking kindly down upon her. She sat close to Sister des
Agnes, and crossed herself and said her prayers, and felt very good
and very happy; only she wished that ShoentakSanni would just
look at her; but he sat among the choir boys and sang away and
never lifted his eyes from his book.
I like to think of the busy school days and cheerful Sundays of
the little New England captives, thus cared for by gentle nun and
kindly priest. We must not forget, however, that the "Oso" fort,
as the New England captives called the fort at Sault au RecoUet,
had its sadder pictures. The etymology of "Oso" fort is interesting.
The French doubtless spoke of visiting this mission as going "au
Sault," (pronounced O-so), hence the English naturally called it
"Oso Fort."
Sometimes an Indian would come back from the town, enraged
by the white man's fire-water, bringing the news that some "Bas-
tonnais" had arrived in Montreal. Every messenger from our
government, no matter how far from Boston his home might be,
was a "Bastonnais" in Canada. This term is still in use there.
The first time I was in Canada a priest told me that his old father
was very anxious to see me indeed, as he wanted to see a
"Bastonnais." Then Abigail's master would threaten to carry her into the woods,
and Ganastarsi would be very cross, and call her Kanaskwa, the
slave, and possibly give the child a slap in the face, — for she had
grown fond of T8atog8ach and did not mean to give her up to the
Bastonnais if she could help it. Sister des Agnes and the other nuns
would seem distressed and anxious, and kept the little girl day and

THE TWO CAPTIVES 71
night at the convent, out of sight of any possible English visitors.
Abigail was too young to mind much about any of this, but Josiah
knew, and I dare say, asked the school master if he might not go
home with the messengers. At this the priest would frown and speak
sharply to the lad, reproaching him with ingratitude to the Indian
who had saved his life. No doubt he would tell the boy what he
himself sincerely believed, that if he went back to Protestant New
England, his soul would be damned eternally. When Josiah's
master heard about this, he beat the boy and sent him off to the
woods with a hunting party.
Deacon Sheldon came back from his embassy in 1705 with but
five captives, not having even seen his boys, who, he was told, had
"gone a honten." Shortly after this, bitterly disappointed at not
being allowed to go home with Deacon Sheldon, John Nims, Martin
Kellogg, Joseph Petty and Thomas Baker ran away. It went harder
with Josiah and the rest after this. Ensign Sheldon must have kept
the Sault au RecoUet mission ip a stir in the first years of the captiv
ity. He was certainly there twice in the spring of 1706. Among his
accounts is an item of 12 livres paid "for a carriall to goe to see the
captives at the Mohawk fort," and "4 livres more for a second
visit." What "carriall" could be used in mid-winter in Canada
puzzled me, until I learned that a carriole is a Canadian sleigh. He
probably saw Josiah and Abigail at this time, but they were not
among those whom he brought home. Grim and direful scenes our
two captives saw, when the war parties returned with scalps and
prisoners. Then two long rows of savages armed with clubs and
hatchets, were formed at the gate of the fort. Between these the
weary and footsore captives ran for nearly three-quarters of a mile,
the savages mocking and striking at them as they ran. Then came
the dreadful powwow, when the poor sufferers were made to sing
and dance around a great fire, while their tormentors yelled and
shrieked. The chUdren saw many of their Deerfield neighbors
brought into the fort in this way. Martin Kellogg in the fall of 1 708,
Josiah's cousin, Mehuman HinsdeU the next spring, and Joseph
Clesson and John Arms in June, 1709, all ran the gauntlet at the
Oso Fort.
After John Sheldon's third journey to Canada in 1707 there had
been no general exchange of prisoners. In the summer of 1712, the
Canadian governor proposed that the English captives in Canada

72 ' THE TWO CAPTIVES
should be "brought into or near Deerfield, and that the French
prisoners should be sent home from thence." Governor Dudley
ordered Colonel Partridge to collect the French captives at Deerfield.
There must have been some excitement in the usuaUy quiet
town of Deerfield when it was known that the French captives were
mustering there, especially when the dogged refusal of some to
return to Canada was noised abroad. That Colonel Partridge met
with some unexpected obstacles in dispatching the French captives
is shown by the following extract from his letter to Governor
Dudley: — "Hatfield, July I, 1712.
"I begg yor Excellency's excuse & tender resentment. Off our repeated demur
& delay of moveing towards Canada by the Frentchmen & Or Messengers, which
is wholie by the indisposition of the Frentchmen, Especially two of them, who will
not be persuaded to go, neither by pruasions nor force, except they be carried,
viz. Cosset & Laffever. The Capt. hath used all means with them, especially
Cosset, in so much that I believe if they go into the woods together, they will
murder one another before they get to Canada. Cosset positively refusing to go,
Chuseing rather to remayne a prison' all his days, as he saith, rather than go
home with him. The Captaine vehemently mad with him, as he saith, will kill
him & it is thought by their violent tieatmt one towards another, that murder
had been done if or men had not prvented itt. They cannot speak together but
some fall to blows. Laffever has been oposlte of goeing all a
Long & now it comes too positively opposes it, except he be foret. Yesterday I
went up to Derefd & two of the Frentchmen orderd him & the Frentchman to
attend me in order to their goeing immediately away."
When it was known that an escort was to be sent from Deerfield
with the French captives, there was no lack of volunteers. Colonel
Partridge continues: —
"As to Messengers, severall offer themselves to go. We had pitcht
upon Ltt. Williams, with the consent of his ffather, who hath the Frentch tongue,
Jonath Wells, Jno Nims & Eliezer Warner, but haveing in yor last letter a forbidd
to any of Baker's Company, we pitcht on Lt. Wells, Sergt. Taylor, John Nims
& Thomas Frentch, who also hath the Frentch tongue, but think the former
most apt.
I have had no small fategue in this matter, but ye disappointment hath been
on ye Frentchman's pt as aforesaid."
On the above letter was the following endorsement: —
"Co'U Partridg: Honnd Sir, I have all along been much against returning
home: to Canada: but am now come to a Resolution that I will not go, except
the Governor with yourself, doe compell me to return; which I hope you will

THE TWO CAPTIVES 73
not do; I have an Affection for the people and Countery; and therefore do not
intend to lieue it until there be a Peace; and then only for to give my Parents
a vissitt and Returne againe. from your humble serv't to command; this is
La ffeveres words."
The party under command of Lieut. Samuel Williams, a youth
of twenty-three, started from Deerfield on the loth of July, return
ing in September with nine English captives.
Godfrey Nims had died some years before. Ebenezer was still
in captivity and John Nims evidently went as the head of the family,
hoping to effect the release of his brother and sister. I judge that
in urging Abigail's return, John made the most of the provision for
her in his father's will, as the story goes in Canada, that the rela
tives of the young Elizabeth, who were Protestants, and ' were
amply provided with this world's goods, knowing that she had been
carried to the Sault au RecoUet, went there .... and
offered a considerable sum for her ransom; and the savages would
willingly have given her up, if she herself had shown any desire to
go with her relatives. To her brother's entreaties that she would
return with him she replied that she would rather be a poor captive
among Catholics, than to become the rich heiress of a Protestant
family, — and John came back without his sister and brother. About
this time came Abigail's first communion. She walked up the aisle
dressed in white, with a veil on her head, and all the people looked
at her, and a bad Indian girl muttered, "Kanaskwa," the slave.
Shoentak8anni, in his white surplice, swinging the censer, ring
ing the bell and holding up the priest's robe, seemed almost as grand
as the priest himself, and it was all very solemn and very beautiful
to the child. That was the summer when Hannah Hurst of Deer
field was married. Marie Kaiennoni, she was called at the mission.
She was seventeen and Michel Amenharison, a widower of thirty-
two. T8atog8ach heard them caUed in church. She wondered at
Marie. Shoentak8anni was ever so much nicer than Michel. I
think Father Quere had his doubts about this match. He urged
Marie to leave the Indians altogether, but she declared she wished
to live and die among them. Sister des Agnes heard her say this
often. Father Quere asked Monsieur Belmont what he ought to do
about marrying them, and Monsieur Belmont said she must be
treated as if she were really an Indian girl. Then Father Quere told
Thomas Hurst and Father Meriel, and as they did not forbid the
banns, he married them.

74 THE TWO CAPTIVES
A year passed. The treaty of Utrecht had been signed. Peace
was proclaimed in London, and a grand Te Deum sung to Handel's
music in St. Paul's Cathedral. In this interval of peace, renewed
efforts were made by our government for the recovery of the English
captives in Canada. Nothing daunted by the ill success of John
Schuyler's mission, Capt. John Stoddard and Parson Williams, with
Martin Kellogg and Thomas Baker as pilots and interpreters, and
commissioned by the government to negotiate for the release of the
remaining captives, arrived in Canada the middle of February, 1714.
It is a long and tedious business. De Vaudreuil is vacillating and
contradictory in his promises. He shirks the responsibility alter
nately upon the captives who have been formally naturalized; upon
his king whom he fears to offend; upon the savages who claim the
ownership of many and who he says are his allies, and not his sub
jects to command. Finally he says that he "can just as easUy alter
the course of the rivers, as prevent the priests' endeavors to keep
the children."
The long sojourn of this embassy, its influence and dignity un
doubtedly made a profound impression at the Sault au RecoUet
Mission. What more natural than that Abigail Nim's captor, know
ing that the EngUsh envoys were insisting on the return of minors
and children, and fearing to lose his reward if general terms of re
lease were agreed upon, should have fled with his prize to the Boston
government, to secure the money for her ransom before Stoddard's
return. This he could have done without knowledge or consent of
mission priest or nun. Moreover, had they known his purpose, they
would have been powerless to prevent its fulfilment.
Whether this theory be correct or not it was before the return of
the envoys that Colonel Partridge on the 28th of July, 1714, wrote
to the Council at Boston, giving an account of an "outrage in the
country of Hampshire," a Macqua Indian having brought to West-
field and offered for sale, a girl "supposed to be an English captive
carried from Deerfield, it appearing so by her own relation and
diverse circumstances concurring." The Council at once advised
that Capt. John Sheldon, then living at Hartford, should be the
bearer of a letter to the Indian commissioners at Albany, demanding
a strict examination of this matter. The result of Captain Sheldon's
mission is told in the Council Record.
"In Council Aug. 22, 1714. Upon reading a letter from the Commissioners of
the Indian affairs at Albany by Capt. John Sheldon, messenger thither, to make

THE TWO CAPTIVES 75
inquiries concerning a young Maid or Girle, brought thither into Westfield by a
Macqua and offered for sale, very probably supposed to be English and daughter
of one (Godfrey) Nims, late of Deerfield, and carried away captive, the Com
missioners insisting upon it that she is an Indian:
Ordered, that Samuel Partridge Esq. treat with Macqua, her pretended Master,
and agree with him on the reasonablest terms he can for her release and then dis
pose her to some good family near the sea side, without charge, for the present to
prevent her fears; unless Capt. Sheldon will be prevailed with to take her home
with him.
Paid John Sheldon for journey to Boston, from Northampton and back to
Albany and back with his son, 17 £, l6s, 7d for time and expenses.
In Council, Sept. 20, 1714. Ordered, that the sum of £25. be paid to Elewa-
camb, the Albany Indian now attending with letters and papers from thence,
who claims the English girl in the hands of the English and her Relations at Deer
field, and that a Warrant be made to the Treasurer accordingly. Also that a
coat and shirt begiven sd Indian."
"Here," says Mr. Sheldon in his history of Deerfield, "the cur
tain dropped. After this not the slightest trace of Abigail Nims
was found."
Had the story ended here, it would have been romantic enough;
but truth is stranger than fiction.
An interval of eight months elapses, and the curtain rises again: —
ACT I.
Scene /..
A marriage in the church of Notre Dame de Lorette, at the Sault au
RecoUet fort, on the Island of Montreal.
Dramatis Personse.
AbigaU Nims, aged fifteen.
Josiah Rising, aged about twenty-four.
Soeur des Agnes, and other nuns of the Congregation.
Pere Quere, a mission priest.
Iroquois Indians.
The ceremony is soon ended. Father Quere records it on the
parish register where it stands fair and clear to-day. Here is the
translation: —
"This 29th day of July 171S, I have married Ignace ShoentakSanni and Eliza
beth T8atog8ach, both English, who wish to remain with the Christian Indians,
not only renouncing their nation, but even wishing to live en sawvages, Ignace
aged about twenty-three or twenty-four years, — Elizabeth about fifteen. Both
were taken at Dierfile about thirteen years ago. Signed M. Quere, pretre S. S."

76 THE TWO CJPTIVES
How Abigail Nims got back again to the Sault au RecoUet from
Deerfield, is the missing link in the story of her long life. But what
more probable than that she should have run away. There is of
course a shadow of doubt as to the identity of the captive bought
of Elewacamb, with Abigail Nims, and had satisfied the governor
and council that she was. They had bought her of Elewacamb, paid
for her in lawful money and given him a bonus besides. It was not
strange that the commissioners at Albany "insisted that she was an
Indian." From her babyhood, for eleven years she had lived among
the savages, and had become one. An orphan, a stranger, not know
ing or caring for her Deerfield relatives, bred a Roman Catholic and
irked by the straight-laced customs of the Puritan town and church,
hating the restraints of civilized life, homesick and unhappy, pining
for the nuns and for her free life in the wigwam of Ganastarsi, fear
less and fleet of foot, she may have betaken herself to the woods,
and somehow got back to the Macqua fort.
Fancy the joy at the mission, when the stray lamb returned to
the true fold. It was then, as I believe, that the priests, to settle
the question forever, with much difficulty obtained the release of
T8atog8ach and ShoentakSanni from their Indian masters. "They
deserved this favor," says the historian, "for the odor of virtue
which they shed abroad over the mission of which they were the
edification and the model." • Their speedy marriage and the em
phasis laid in the record upon their wish to conform to the Indian
mode of life, was to protect them from future importunities for their
return to New England.
John Rising of Suffield died December n, 1719. In his will he
bequeaths to his "weU-beloved son Josiah, now in captivity, the
sum of five pounds in money to be paid out of my estate within
three years after my decease, provided he return from captivity."
Josiah Rising and Abigail Nims, his wife, never returned. When in
1 72 1 the mission was transferred to the Lake of the Two Mountains,
the priests, charmed with the edifying conduct of Ignace and Eliza
beth, with their industry and inteUigence in domestic affairs, for
their advantage and as an example to the mission at large, resolved
to establish them in a permanent home of their own, and accordingly
gave them a large domain about half a league from the fort.
There, they served as a pattern to the savages and to all the
people round about, of patriarchal life and virtue, by their care in

THE TWO CAPTIVES 77
training their children in the fear of God, and in the faithful per
formance of their religious duties.
Abigail Nims, wife of Josiah Rising, died February 19, 1748.
In her last illness, she refused to leave off the hair skirt which she
had always worn as penance. She left eight children, six daughters
and two sons. Her eldest, Marie Madeleine, was a nun of the Con
gregation by the name of Sister Saint-Herman. Having learned in
childhood the Iroquois language, she was sent as missionary to the
Lake of the Two Mountains and there taught Indian girls for twenty-
five years. When about ninety, she died in the convent at Montreal.
Four of the daughters of Ignace and Elizabeth Raizenne, married
and reared families, many of whose members filled high positions
in the Roman Catholic church. I learn from one of the ladies of the
Congregation, who was the pupil of one of Abigail Nims's grand
daughters, that she has often heard from this teacher the story of
her grandmother's life and that she always laid particular stress on
the fact that she refused to return to Deerfield when sent for.
The eldest son of Ignace and Elizabeth was a priest and cur^ of
excellent character and ability. Jean Baptiste Jerome, their younger
son, unable to carry out his wish to take orders, married and settled
on the domain originally granted to his father. His house was a
refuge for the poor, the orphan and the unfortunate. He regulated
his household as if it were a religious community. The father and
mother rose early and prayed together. Then both went to their
respective labor, he to his fields, — she to her ten children. The
hours for study, for conversation, for silence and for recreation were
fixed by the clock. All the family, parents, children and servants,
ate at the same table and while eating, the lives of the Saints were
read. After tea the father explained some doctrinal point to chil
dren and servants. Then followed prayers and all went silently
to bed. Marie Raizenne, born in 1736, was the most distinguished of
Abigail Nims's children. She entered the Community of the Congre
gation at the age of sixteen, and in 1778, under the name of Mother
Saint-Ignace, attained the honor of being its thirteenth Lady Su
perior. She was deeply religious, full of energy and courage, of
extraordinary talents and fine education. She is said to have pos
sessed in a remarkable degree, the real spirit and zeal of Marguerite
Bourgeois, and to have sought untiringly to revive this spirit in the

78 THE TWO CAPTIVES
community of which she was the head. She died at the age of
seventy-six. Thus again did the blood of the martyrs of Deerfield become the
seed of the church of Canada.

SNAPSHOTS AT LONGMEADOW PRECINCT 79
Annual Meeting June 6, 1904
Officers elected —
President, William F. Adams. Vice-Presidents, John West, Andrew J.
Flanagan, J. Stuart Kirkham. C/frjfe, Henry A. Booth. Corresponding
Secretary, Henry A. Booth.
Treasurer, William C. Stone.
Curator, William C. Stone.
Executive Committee, Edward A. Hall, Frank G. Tobey, Alfred M.
Copeland, Albert H. Kirkham, Lewis F. Carr, Rev. Thomas D. Howard.

Quarterly Meeting October 19, 1904
Rev. Henry Lincoln Bailey of Longmeadow read a
paper on "Snapshots at Longmeadow Precinct."
Snapshots at Longmeadow Precinct
IT took the early settlers of Springfield very little time to dis
cover the value of the long meadow upon the east river bank
south of their first location. The sixth article of agreement
between Pynchon and his associates read thus:
"The long meddowe, called Massacksick, lying in the way to Dorchester
that is, Windsor, Conn.], shall be distributed to every man as we shall think meete."
In 1644 the first settlement was made on the meadow, and there
for two generations an increasing population dwelt, undisturbed by
occasional high water, until in 1695 a freshet of unusual proportions
demonstrated the desirability of removal to higher ground. A town
meeting having acted favorably to the petition for privilege of
removal, the broad street, twenty rods from fence to fence, and four
miles long from Pecowsic to Enfield bounds, was laid out on the
plateau above the meadow in 1703, and one by one for half a dozen
years the families climbed the hill.
The earliest Longmeadow settler was Quartermaster George
Colton, quickly followed by Benjamin Cooley and John Keep, with
the ancestors of the BHss and Burt families not far behind. The
ramifications of these five genealogical trees are so interwoven as to
become an impenetrable thicket for any but the most discriminating
of expert genealogists. Civil and ecclesiastical history are also so
intertwined that the untwisting would be the undoing of both.
Indeed, in the colonial period of New England, church and state
were but two aspects of one body. Longmeadow owes its initial

So SNAPSHOTS AT LONGMEADOW PRECINCT
division from the First Parish of Springfield to the desire of its
citizens for a home church, the establishment of a separate precinct
for the gospel ministry; and it is safe to say that no names stand
higher on its roll for worth and influence than those of the three men
who for 148 years were connected with the church as its pastors.
It is singular that the history of the town falls naturaUy into
periods of about seventy years each, although the fourth lacks yet
a dozen years of completion: The meadow period, 1644-1713, when
we belonged to Springfield, body and soul; the precinct period,
1713-1783, when we were still of your body but had a soul of our
own; the early town period to 1850, when body and soul were both
ours; and the modern, wherein, if we mistake not, the city would
like to absorb us again, and has already pushed its line from Pecowsic
to the top of the hill southward. In each of these periods, except
the first which is wholly Springfield's, one leading personality is
found. Stephen Williams came the year after the precinct was
formed, and for sixty-eight years was a part of Longmeadow, dying
in office the year before the precinct became the town. In the early
town period Richard Salter Storrs, father and grandfather of equally
famous doctors of divinity of the same name, was the commanding
presence and the foremost citizen, pastor for thirty-four of the sixty-
seven years. The modern period of sixty-six years, which will end
with the bicentennial of the church in 1916, needs no greater dis
tinction than the pastorate of John Wheeler Harding, forty-two
years in active service and four as pastor emeritus, a member from
the beginning of this Society, known widely as the Bishop of Long
meadow, who, "traveHng on life's common way in cheerful godli
ness," passed to his eternal home but a few years since.
There is a special fascination in studying the first of these men.
I have long wanted to write about him, and here is my opportunity.
Imagine my dismay, then, when this paper was well under way and
there was no time to choose another theme, to learn by chance that
you have already heard, and have published in your first volume, a
paper on Dr. Stephen WUliams by John W. Harding. I might have
known his facile pen and historical imagination, reinforced by an
intimate acquaintance with the WiUiams diary, could not resist the
attractive theme. But Stephen WiUiams was too great a man for
even John Harding to dispose of in a single evening. We like to
have photographs of our friends in different poses; the magazines

SNAPSHOTS AT LONGMEADOW PRECINCT 8i
are continuaUy presenting some hitherto unpublished portrait of
Washington or Lincoln; I too, wiU venture to point a camera at the
minister of the Longmeadow Precinct. After all, biography is but
literary photography. The man continues unchanged. One por
trait reveals all the lines of character in his face; the next by care
ful retouching has smoothed out every wrinkle; then comes another
artist, so called, who, in the interests of realism, shows you a wart
on your hero's nose, or a wen on his cheek, carefully concealed
hitherto by profile posing. Mr. Harding has given us a sketch
which cannot be improved. It is as if the dignified Dr. WiUiams
had been sitting for his portrait to an able and sympathetic artist.
You see the minister, a true bishop as Paul described him to Tim
othy and Titus, showing forth in character and doctrine the majesty
of the law and the tenderness of the gospel. It is a portrait which
needs no rival. But I can give you snapshots of the boy and man that
have not been painted into that canvas. Be it mine to supplement
the former sketch, not with warts or wrinkles, but with side lights.
The success of the meadow petition, as it is called, evidently
emboldened the petitioners to strike again. They were weary of
traveling from four to six miles to church. Some of them had been
killed by the Indians while attempting it. They addressed the
Great and General Court, setting forth the inconvenience of the
present arrangement and declaring their ability, in spite of census
limitations, to maintain local worship. February lo, 1713, the
Court granted their request and set them off as a precinct, their
release from the old church to take effect when they were provided
with a Learned and Orthodox Minister at a minimum salary of
fifty pounds. The first concern of the new precinct was to have a
meeting house, and it was September of the next year before any
move seems to have been made about the pastorate. Then they
voted to caU a Learned and Orthodox Minister to dispense the word
of God to them that winter in order to a settlement among them,
and the committee was ordered to proceed forthwith to find a suitable
man, and to take advice of the elders in their search. The suitable
man had been preparing for them for a century in accordance with
Oliver Wendell Holmes's recipe. Of his four great-grandfathers,
two were ministers and one a deacon, and his grandfathers were a
deacon and a minister. On his paternal side he was son of the
Deerfield pastor, and member of that illustrious Williams family

82 SNAPSHOTS AT LONGMEADOW PRECINCT
that founded WUliams College and fiUs whole pages in Harvard and
Yale catalogues. On his mother's side he claimed aflfinity with the
Mathers. Her grandfather, Richard Mather, was the Dorchester
pastor; her father, Eleazar, the Northampton minister; and she
was niece and cousin respectively to the great Increase Mather and
his greater son Cotton.
Born in Deerfield, May 14, 1693, Stephen WiUiams lived much
as any other boy of the times for ten years. It was a decade full of
Indian trouble for Deerfield, with slight assaults almost every year.
Then came the dreadful morning of February 29, 1704, when the
enemy burst in Hke a flood upon the sleeping town, and, after two
hours of carnage and plunder, departed with a hundred prisoners
on the long trail to Canada. The crashing of the front door under
the blows of tomahawks aroused the WiUiams family; resistance
was impossible; all were bound. Two of the children and a negro
servant were butchered at the door, but the rest were spared to be
the victims of threat and insult and to begin the wintry march in
snow knee deep. The house and barn were fired as they were led
away. The father has recorded the horrors of that 300 mile journey
and of his sojourn in Canada in a Httle volume, "The Redeemed
Captive Returning to Zion." Of the hundred who started, nineteen
were tomahawked on the way, including Mrs. WUliams. It was an
experience burned into the memory of the boy, and often in later
years as the anniversary recurred, he mentioned in his diary his
gratitude for the Divine goodness in preserving him. For a year he
lived among the Indians, and for six months more with his father
at Chateauriche below Quebec. In the "Redeemed Captive" we
read: "I implored Captain de Beauville, who had always been very
friendly, to intercede with the governor for the return of my eldest
daughter; and for his purchasing my son Stephen from the Indians
at St. Franjois fort; and for liberty to go up and see my children
and neighbors at Montreal. Divine providence appeared to the
moderating my affliction, in that five English persons of our town
were permitted to return with Captain Livingston, among whom
went my eldest daughter. And my son Stephen was redeemed and
sent to live with me. He was almost quite naked, and very poor;
he had suffered much among the Indians. One of the Jesuits took
upon him to come to the wigwam and whip him, on some complaint
that the squaws had made, that he did not work enough for them."

SNAPSHOTS AT LONGMEADOW PRECINCT 83
The hardest feature of the captivity to Mr. Williams and many
others was the constant effort of the Jesuits to convert their prison
ers, by persuasion, stratagem, and persecution. Most of them were
too strongly Protestant to yield to any of these devices. The
superior of the priests came to Mr. Williams one day and commented
on his being ragged. " 'But,' says he, 'your obstinacy against our
religion discourages from providing better clothes.' I told him it
was better going in a ragged coat than with a ragged conscience."
And this sturdy spirit of fearing God rather than man was one of
the traits of character his son Stephen inherited and used to good
effect in Longmeadow. With profound gratitude Mr. WUliams
obtained leave to send Stephen home in the first exchange of
prisoners. The boy reached Boston November 21, 1705; that same
day next year his father and two brothers landed there. They
found Stephen cared for and being educated by relatives in Roxbury
where he remained another year. Then he was at Deerfield for a
season, for his father had a new house and a new wife. But the
town was full of soldiers, and buildings were so scarce that another
family shared the Williams house. It was no place to study, so he
was sent to his uncle's at Hatfield, going up ere long to a university
career at Harvard, where he was graduated in 1713. This, with a
year of teaching school at Hadley, was the discipline of the youth.
By lineage, experience and culture, or by heredity, hardship and Har
vard, he had been fitted to become the strong leader of a strong peo
ple. What he lacked in discipline his parish would presently supply.
The Longmeadow committee, asking advice of the elders, were
directed to this young schoolmaster just licensed to preach, and at
their invitation he came to his future parish November 26, 1714, as
a candidate for settlement, at the age of twenty-one years and six
months. Eleven weeks sufficed to demonstrate his acceptabUity,
and it was voted to call a special precinct meeting to extend a formal
call. On March 7th this was given, and the salary was named as
fifty-five pounds, to be increased as their ability and his necessity
might dictate. This was too indefinite to suit the candidate. Two
months later another vote added a settlement of 200 pounds to be
paid in four annual instalments. This was satisfactory for the
moment, and the salary dated from that day. May 4, 1715. StUl, he
was not yet the pastor, and as summer wore away into winter, the
thrifty youngster held out for better terms. He had had his land

84 SNAPSHOTS AT LONGMEADOW PRECINCT
broken up and fenced, but he wanted more money. In January it
was voted that after five years, the precinct then being relieved of
the settlement instalments, the salary should be increased five pounds
a year till it reached seventy pounds; and six weeks later that was
extended to seventy-five pounds, the final decision, and the precinct
committee was sent to "treat with Mr. Williams concerning his
settling heer in the Ministry." Was he then ready to be ordained?
Oh, no. He must have a house. True, he built it at his own expense,
but he was not ordained until he had a place of his. own. The fact
that he didn't use it tUl two years later affected not a bit his de
termination to have the house. And it was spacious, in anticipa
tion of the eight children and the servants and the nights when half
a dozen chance guests might lodge there; and stately for the times,
causing tongues to wag in criticism of his extravagance and pride.
But the house was built. Twenty-three months have run swiftly
by since he came to this people, and at last there is no farther hin
drance to their ecclesiastical wedding. There is as yet no church, so
the precinct issues invitations to the councU. October 17, 1716,
Stephen WiUiams and eight other men bind themselves in covenant
as the First Church of Christ in Longmeadow, and the same day
he is set apart to the ministry by the laying on of hands, and formaUy
inducted into the pastorate of the infant church, a pastorate almost
unequalled for length in ecclesiastical annals. Do not think him
mercenary, serving simply for the largest sum he could wring from
the parish. Such a thought is farthest from the truth. If ever a
minister gave himself "in labors more abundant," this man did.
In heartfelt devotion he waited upon God for spiritual guidance and
strength. But he was no recluse. He knew how to handle men and
things. He was the shrewder for having shrewd men to deal with.
The parish was quite as thrifty as the parson. Witness these quota
tions from his diary of 1756-7. Mr. Williams had been absent some
months on military duty, and the people thought to save something
by a proportionate deduction from the salary.
"Dec. 10. Ye inhabitants of ye Precinct met to grant money. They are
desirous that I remit a part of my salary, because I had (they apprehend) good
wages when abroad. I can't see it ray duty, since they were so well provided for
in my absence. They have adjourned the meeting and made no grant to me. I
pray God to keep them calm and give me prudence and meekness, and prevent
confusion among us.
"Dec. 14. I don't know but people will get into a heat about my salary. I pray
that they may be kept from wrong measures.

SNAPSHOTS AT LONGMEADOW PRECINCT 85
"Dec. 23. The conversation among the neighbors is yet about my salary.
Their spirits are evidently raised. The Lord be pleased to calm and quiet their
spirits and keep mine calm and composed.
"Jan. 6. I have signified my mind to the Clerk of the precinct in writing
respecting my salary.
"Jan. 25. Neighbors sledded wood for me, and shewed a Good Humour.
I rejoice at it. The Lord bless them that are out of humour and brot no wood.
"Feb. 24. Long talk with Capt. S. Colton and Sergt. D. Burt (two of precinct
Committee) about ye affair of my salary. I am in fear people's spirits and tempers
are too much raised; and so mine may be. The Lord keep us from dishonoring
his great name.
"Feb. 26. Sabbath. I found myself more composed than at some times and
somewhat enlarged. I have been concerned lest I become ruffled and discomposed
because of ye conduct of my people. Oh, Lord, don't leave me to myself and
my own counsels."
Since this subject of Dr. Williams' salary has been made so prom
inent, let us look at it once more, in the last year of the Revolution
and the last time but one that the precinct had occasion to vote him
an annual allowance.
"8th of December, 1780. Granted to the Revd Dr. Williams for his salary
the Present year £4500-0-0 Old Continental Currency. Voted to raise the sum
of £500-0-0 for contingant charges, out of which the services Done to the Meeting-
House. as Ringing Bell, sweeping and Tending Clock are to be paid."
The present pastor does not expect a salary of ^15,000 when
eighty-nine years old, and our sexton would be overwhelmed at the
thought of $140 a month, but those were days when the modern
scare of dollar wheat would have been like manna in the wilderness;
wheat in 1780 was eighty-four doUars a bushel!
It was nearly two years after his installation when Mr. WUliams
became a married man. The bride was of equally iUustrious lineage;
Abigail Davenport was a minister's daughter from Stamford, Conn.,
and great-granddaughter of the Rev. John Davenport, founder of
the New Haven Colony. They enjoyed forty-eight years of wedded
life, and in all that time lost only one of their six sons and two
daughters; Davenport, a stirring young fellow, deputy sheriff of
the county, was in the disastrous Lake George campaign of 1758
and his young life went out at twenty-seven. Three of the boys
became ministers. They were reared in an atmosphere of Puritan
theology, as witness a letter written by Mrs. Williams to her youngest
son. I know not the circumstances, but the letter is preserved, a docu
ment of twenty closely written pages to little Nathan, ten or eleven
years old. Just a brief extract, for the whole is as long as a sermon.

86 SNAPSHOTS AT LONGMEADOW PRECINCT
"0 my dear Child. Can I bear the thoughts that the Son that was given me
in answer to my Prayers, that I bore with so much pain, that I have nursed and
brought up with So much care and tenderness night and day. The Son that I have
so many Thousand Times prayed and wept over and counselled and warned.
That this beloved Son, I say, Should be the possession and property of the devil.
Should serve him all his Days and be miserable as he is and be with him in hell
fire forever, how can I bear to think of ye dreadful day when I shall See my poor
undone Child if he turn not Speedily and thoroughly. Stand trembling before the
Judgment Seat of Christ his face gathering blackness horror and anguish, and
despair Staring through his Eyelids to hear ye Amazing Sentence pronounced on
him depart ye cursed henceforth, to See him Seized by mighty Angels, bound
hand and foot in everlasting Chains and cast Into ye dreadful lake of Fire, and
the adamant Gates shut and barred by him that Shuts and no man opens. Such
thoughts as these are ready to tear my heart in pieces. . . I know
if I be so happy as to find mercy of the Lord in that day I shall have no painful
Sympathy with you but Shall rather rejoice that God's Justice and power will
be forever glorified in your Condemnation; but how will your heart Endure,
how can your hands be strong."
O Spartan mother! How deeply this impressed the Httle fellow
at the moment is uncertain. He drew pictures over the title page,
but he preserved it and came to realize the yearning of the mother
heart for her boy's salvation.
Longmeadow always bore its part in the colonial wars. Three
times its pastor marched with the troops as chaplain. The first
campaign was at Cape Breton in 1745. One cannot help wondering
if the captive lad of the second French and Indian War did not exult
over the denouement of the third, when he saw Sir WiUiam Pep-
perell's raw colonials capture the strong French fortress of Louis-
burg which Benjamin Franklin had declared too hard a nut for their
teeth to crack.
In 1755 he was invited to share in the expedition against Crown
Point, which got no farther than Lake George ere it met defeat.
Letters and personal invitations came to him. Parishioners showed
him the other side of the matter. Mr. Breck came from town to
deliver the weekly lecture, shrewdly touching upon pubHc affairs,
and at the close asked the congregation to give its consent to letting
Mr. WUliams go. Even that failed to clear his mind. He took a
trip to Boston for ministerial advice, and at last, having prayed
much over it, consented. The next year he went again, though sixty-
three years old; but after that he pleaded his age and infirmities,
though often urged.
His attitude on the Indian question shows how Christian a

SNAPSHOTS AT LONGMEADOW PRECINCT 87
temper he had. It would not have been strange, considering his
early experience, and the fact that one of his sisters had been kept
in Canada and trained in the Roman church, if he had subscribed
to the modern heresy that "there is no good Indian but a dead
one." But no; he did what he could for their uplift. He was em
ployed by Governor Belcher and the commissioners to treat with
the Housatonic Indians about receiving the Gospel. He was in
fluential in starting and maintaining the Stockbridge mission. He
even had Indian boys in his own household as students. Thus did
he avenge the Deerfield tragedy by heaping coals of fire on their
heads. Dr. Williams not only served his own day and generation faith
fully and well; he has served ours by his diary in which for more
than sixty-six years he recorded in detail not only his spiritual medi
tations and aspirations, but household and parish matters and events
of wider interest of which the times were full. It is a faithful picture
of eighteenth century life. Do you want the local history of the
Great Awakening of 1742, and a spectator's account of Jonathan
Edwards' famous Enfield sermon? It is in the diary. Do you want
to know how a quiet little New England community thought and
acted in the stirring scenes of the Revolution? It is portrayed in
the diary. Do you want proof that human nature was the same
then as now? The evidence is there. Pastoral problems have not
altogether changed in the century and a half since he made such
entries as these:
"Sabbath. Some rain, and many people absent from the public worship.
We need resolution."
Two weeks later: "Sabbath. Very stormy. Had prepared a new sermon
but preached an old one because the assembly was small, and not able to write
new sermons sometimes. Hope I did not indulge sloth."
"March ii, Thursday. I attended the Weekly Lecture, but many were absent.
I fear they are tired with the service. I don't know but it will be best to lay down
the Lecture for a season.'' This is 148 years in advance of recent editorials con
cerning the decline of the prayer meeting.
The reading from the Bible seems so necessary a part of public
worship that it is hard to believe there was a time when it was not
practiced. Yet Dr. Williams endeavored to establish the custom
and failed. "March 30, 1755. This day I began to read ye Scrip
tures publickly in ye congregation; wish and pray it may be ser
viceable and a means to promote Scripture knowledge among us."

88 SNAPSHOTS AT LONGMEADOW PRECINCT
Was this in the good old days when we think everybody knew the
Bible from cover to cover? Six years later he writes: "April 12,
1761. I have been preaching about publick reading of the Scrip
tures. I hope people may be convinced of ye duty and yt we may
attend it with seriousness and reverence." So the next Sabbath he
tries again to establish the custom. It was forty-seven years later
that the church had its first pulpit Bible. Let us hope the congre
gation took more kindly to this than to the new style of singing
which he*had introduced many years before, amid such open opposi
tion that he had rebuked from the pulpit two men who interrupted
the singing.
Dr. WUliams was not afraid to differ from his parish and speak
his mind very plainly on all sorts of questions. Perhaps the people
took it kindly, perhaps they rebelled; sometimes they prevaUed
against him. Yet it used to be said that the people of Longmeadow
regarded him as their Maker, with the exception of one rather
skeptical fellow who alone questioned it. He was not deterred by
prudential reasons from preaching against any evil, whoever the
sinner might be. His only thought was to have a conscience void
of offense toward both God and man. And to make the people
better, he sought to be a good man himself. "Jan. 12. I have been
at some pains to get some Sassafras roots, hoping that they may be
serviceable to purify the blood. O that God would purify my heart."
Seeking thus to make body and soul both fit for the Master's use,
he is able at the age of seventy-three to say that sickness has pre
vented him only twice in more than fifty years from preaching to his
congregation, two sermons one day and one sermon the other; and
that never had the sacramental service been omitted. If he were
absent with the army, some brother minister served for him on such
occasions. He was eighty-two when the Revolution broke out, too old a man,
perhaps, to adapt himself to the new ideas, or fearful that the effort
of the colonists would be in vain. AU his life he had been loyal to
the king, and it was hard to leave off praying for him. A week after
Concord and Lexington, he writes:
"I learn the people are very ready to misrepresent my words even in prayer.
The Lord be pleased to direct and assist me and keep me from doing anything
displeasing to His Majesty." Next day; "I perceive the people are out of humor
with me for things that I have said and done. My own conscience don't upbraid
me for what they pretend to be uneasy at."

SNAPSHOTS AT LONGMEADOW PRECINCT 89
A fortnight later the Stafford minister came to preach for him.
"He appears a bold and daring man, was very popular and doubt
less greatly pleased our warm people. Some of his notions I could
not join in with. I myself shamefully fell on sleep in the time of the
forenoon sermon. The Lord be pleased to humble me."
But the loyal old gentleman continued to pray for the king until
his patriotic but discourteous parishioners showed their disapproval
by sitting down noisily when he began that petition. And you can
see by his language that the Declaration of Independence evoked no
enthusiasm in his breast. "August 11, 1776. This day I read pub
lickly, being required thereto by the Provincial Council, the Declara
tion of the Continental Congress for Independency."
Let me take one snapshot of the first March meeting of the town
of Longmeadow, after the precinct days were ended.
"March 23, 1784. Voted to raise a monument over the grave of Rev. Dr.
Williams on the Town's cost, and that the selectmen be desired to see the same
effected." They did, and upon the old-fashioned table in the quiet church
yard you may read this epitome of a long and useful life: —
In Memory of
The Rev. Stephen Williams, D.D.
who was a prudent and Laborious Minister,
a sound and evangelical Preacher,
a pious and exemplary Christian,
a sincere and faithful Friend,
a tender and affectionate Father and
Consort, a polite and hospitable
Gentleman, and a real and disinterested
Lover of mankind; departed this life
with humble and cheerful hope of a
better, June loth 1782, in the 90th year
of his age, and 66th of his ministry.
Softly his fainting head he lay
Upon his Maker's breast;
His Maker kissed his soul away
And laid his flesh to rest.

90 REMARKS
Remarks of Mr. J. A. Callahan and others at the meet
ing of the Connecticut Valley Historical Society held
October 19, 1904. Remarks
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: —
Mr. Callahan — I did not intend to say anything when I came in,
but the Speaker asked me to say a few words, and I feel like it,
because I have been so much interested this evening. I did not
know what the subjects were to be until I came in here.
I think we need these local historical societies very much, espe
cially when we come to realize how Httle attention our nation itself
sometimes pays to historical subjects.
A few years ago I investigated somewhat Burgoyne's surrender
and I tried to learn what became of the troops which were captured
at that time and I found to my surprise that the war department had
no history as to what became of the prisoners. At the time that
our representatives went to France to get aid, that nation was very
much afraid that we were going into a losing cause. Our history has
said that two ships were waiting in Boston harbor to learn the result
of the battle of Saratoga, and if we were successful in that, France
would form an alliance with our country. France had promised
before this event to help this country in case it was successful.
When I was a boy, in Worcester County, I got interested in Bur
goyne's surrender, because I went to the old farm in Rutland where
they were taking down the barracks where 1,600 soldiers were kept.
After the surrender the troops were started for Boston and from
there they were to sail at once for England, as General Gates had
promised; but Congress refused to sanction those terms, and sent
word to those men that they could not be shipped across the water
as Gates had made a strange arrangement with Burgoyne, and if
they were sent to England, others would be immediately sent over
to take their places. When they received this message, a part of the
armies were kept in the town of Rutland one winter. The town
clerk there has written a great many letters to people who inquired
about the occurrences of that time and the number of soldiers kept
there. In Boston in the archives there is a plan of the forts and the
barracks which were taken down twenty-five years ago. The

REMARKS 91
materials of which the barracks were built are now stored in some
farmer's barn in the town of Rutland.
A large part of Burgoyne's army marched through Springfield
and the rest through Hadley. I have been greatly interested in
this paper on Burgoyne's surrender. Of the four paintings that
Congress had Trumbull paint, one was the surrender of Burgoyne.
These pictures — The Declaration of Independence, the Surrender
of Burgoyne, the Surrender of CornwaUis and the Resignation of
General Washington — were painted by TrumbuU and are kept as
national pictures in the Capitol at Washington.
There are a large number of people in New England who are
descendants of the Hessian soldiers of Burgoyne's army. A Hessian
soldier named Hatstaat was a prisoner in Rutland and he petitioned
the government for leave to become an American citizen. The
petition was allowed and he went out amongst the people and mar
ried Miss Martin and they had fifteen children. I understand there
are a great many hundred people living here now who are descended
from Hatstaat, — some live in New Salem and Mr. Cook, of Orange,
is himself a descendant of this young man who left the prison and
went to work in the town of Paxton.
Mr. Barrows — In reference to the surrender of Burgoyne, my
great-grandfather said the day of his surrender was a beautiful day —
I speak because history has spoken of that fact with apparent
accuracy. I would like to ask Mr. Bailey a question. He tells us that Mr.
Williams was a descendant of various ministers and he evidently
belonged to a family of ministers. He told us Mr. Williams had
eight chUdren. I would like to know whether his descendants are
living here, and whether there are ministers among them?
Mr. Bailey — There are certainly some of the descendants of
Dr. WiUiams in the Connecticut VaUey. George C. Reynolds of
Van, Turkey, is a grandson of Dr. WiUiams, and Mrs. Calhoun, who
has been a missionary in Turkey and is now in Zulu is one of his
descendants. I do not know as to the Williams descent very much.
Three of the sons became ministers, and that little Nathan who
received such a harrowing letter when ten or twelve years old, became
a doctor of divinity. Some of the granddaughters married ministers.
A granddaughter married Dr. Storrs, his successor.

92 REMARKS
In regard to the Burgoyne surrender anniversary on the 17th —
that is the anniversary of the organization of our church under
Dr. WiUiams and the granting of the town charter — the first charter
issued by Massachusetts immediately after the peace of October 17,
1773. We then ceased to be a precinct and set up in business for
ourselves. It is quite a day of anniversary.
Mr. Howard — Who was the immediate successor of Dr. Williams?
Mr. Bailey — Dr. Storrs, who ministered from 1785 to 1819. He
had a thirty-four years' pastorate. He died at the untimely age of
fifty-seven. An epidemic swept through the town and carried off
the minister among others. But his son was pastor for sixty-two
years at Braintree and his grandson for thirty-four years in Brooklyn.
Mr. Howard — Three years ago I went to Braintree, to look back
upon a time that I spent there — six months — upon a farm in '43 ,
and I recall Dr. Storrs who was a minister there. His ministry there
was very like the ministry of Dr. Storrs in Longmeadow. That was
a time when the minister ruled the town with a pretty stern hand.
He was just giving up when I was there — it was in his latter years.
The Center, where his house stood, was opposite the church, and I
saw one place called Storrs' Square, so that the name is being kept
up from one generation to another. The more briUiant Storrs lived
and died in Brooklyn — or at any rate, the more accomplished one.
Mr. Callahan — Speaking of the Williamses, a nephew of the
great Napoleon married a Miss WiUiams and a younger brother
married Betsey Patterson who is the mother of Charles J. Bonaporte
of Baltimore.

OLD SPRINGFIELD IN ENGLAND

93

Quarterly Meeting December 9, 1904
Miss Mary Louise Dunbar read a paper on "William
Pynchon and the English Springfield."
Miss Dunbar in her paper suggested the advisability of
erecting a statue of the founder of Springfield, on the lawn in
front of the high school, and the society voted unanimously
to exercise its best endeavor to further the project.
Rev. Thomas D. Howard read a paper on "Col. John
Worthington." Old Springfield in England
MUCH of pleasure and of profit for us is found in looking
back to the beginnings of New England, and foUowing
those lines across the sea which lead us to our earlier
ancestors and their English, French, or Scotch homes.
Happy are we in our inheritance of strength, industry, courage and
conscience. We know that the development of New England in the
great ideas in which it had its origin is connected closely with the
men who were identified with those ideas.
The source of much of the progress of modern times, came
through their firm belief in the right and duty of individual judg
ment in all matters of truth and justice, and the testing of all prin
ciples by the Bible teaching, reason and conscience. If these heroic
men failed of carrying out their highest ideals, we do not dwell upon
their defects and inconsistencies, but upon their honest intentions
and their services. Many a time in a larger outlook into the world,
we are led to thank God, for the inheritance they left us. It was in
Touraine last winter, that a French lady said to me: "The Ameri
cans are less prejudiced against and more courteous to our religion
than some English Protestants." Was I not glad to answer: "Our
ancestors came to America to establish reHgious toleration."
While France with ideals of liberty is a republic, may we not
remember that our way to the establishment of a republic was easier
because of that compact in the cabin of the Mayflower which ar
ranged for public schools at that early date, and better prepared the
people for liberty, and the education of the masses. Looking into
the face of the portrait of WiUiam Pynchon, the leader of the Spring-

94 OLD SPRINGFIELD IN ENGLAND
field Colony, and its first magistrate, we are satisfied that great as
was his official part in the affairs of the early settlement, his in
fluence was greatest in what he was as a man.
I fancy that his mind was occupied with the grand ideas of the
Reformation, rather than controversy as to vestments and forms of
worship. He was, I am sure, of the Puritans, who desired to return
to the simple faith of the primitive church and a purer morality, to
an unrestricted study of the Bible, and the exaltation of preaching
and Christian instruction, with no terrible animosity against
liturgies and antiphonal chants. So strong was his influence, that
in our city, we naturally think of him first, of all the brave men who
made of an Indian trail through the forests, the Bay path, which led
from the eastern settlement to the one they founded upon the banks
of the great river, and which he afterwards named for his old home
in England. There are many shrines over the sea, for the pilgrimage of Ameri
can feet, and after the great historic places, there can be none more
interesting to us than the little village of Springfield, a suburb of
Chelmsford. 1 could but smile at the solicitude of a kind English lady on the
steamer when we told her we were bound for that Httle nook in the
byways of Essex. "But, you know," she said, "tourists do not go
into Essex; it is a flat uninteresting country." Earnestly she urged
the superior charms of the English lakes: Devonshire, Kent, and
Surrey and blossoming Warwick. Apart from our interesting asso
ciations with Springfield, she could hardly understand how weary
the traveler's feet sometimes become of beaten tracks, and how glad
one is to wander into some quiet corner, where the world is almost
shut out and a flavor of the past preserved. It is true that Essex
is less known than the rest of England. Yet it is second to no
country in historic interest, and has many a picturesque nook and
old world town hidden within its borders. Its green meadows with
their lines of willows marking the little streams, its undulating and
wooded slopes, its cottage homes nestling among thick trees, give it
a beauty all its own. Its fresh verdure is good for tired eyes. We
must go to Springfield by the Great Eastern Railway, taking it at
Fen Church Street, for the County of Essex touches the East of Lon
don, and the first glimpses from the car window are not cheerful.
Yet they can well be called interesting to one who has read

OLD SPRINGFIELD IN ENGLAND 95
Walter Besant's "All Sorts and Conditions of Men," and can see that
Mile End, Spitalfields and Bow have a greater air of respectability
than before the "People's Palace" tried to realize the dream of the
author, and the brave slum workers, and the Salvation Army pene
trated with their blessed help into crowded streets and reeking
alleys. In Bethnal Green and Stepney forests of chimney pots rise
above roofs that almost touch each other; but the blocks of cottages
speak of comfort, and there are little gardens at the back of them
with scarlet beans and hollyhocks flaunting above the high fences.
Since the days of Eden a garden has been associated with human
happiness. Surely the work people of the cottages amid their brick
and mortar must get near to the great heart of nature, in these bits
of blossoming soil.
We pass next the picturesque glades of what is still left of the
old Essex forests with trees unfamiliar to American eyes: English
oaks, blackthorn, hawthorn, beeches and the hornbeam. Essex is
a fat land, as well as a flat land, and the well watered farms speak
of prosperity.
The green distance takes on a softer hue; here and there rise
mounds of chalk; under the rich soil of Essex is also a thick bed of
London clay from which bricks of such a somber, depressing hue are
made. There is no cathedral in the county; it belongs to the See
of Canterbury, but its Abbeys and religious houses were many and
wealthy. A flavor of antiquity lingers about many a farm house by
the way. There are touches of old time life that appeal to the im
agination. Nor is the romance of history lacking in green and quiet Essex.
It derives its name from the Saxon Conquest, a combination and
abbreviation of East Saxon. In the heart of the forest the British
Queen Boadicea took her brave stand and met defeat in the year
61. Chelmsford and Colchester have some Roman relics. Helen,
the mother of Constantine, is said to have been born in Colchester,
which was a town 2,000 years ago. Edward the Confessor had his
favorite residence at Havering Atte Bower. The first abiding place
in England of WiUiam the Conqueror was at Barking Abbey. Wat
Tyler's insurrection began in the county, because of grievous taxes
for foreign wars.
Henry VIII had several residences here; and the old embattled
turreted tower of Anne Boleyn's Castle still stands at East Ham.

96 OLD SPRINGFIELD IN ENGLAND
Elizabeth made frequent visits to old halls and manor houses here,
and when England rejoiced madly over .the defeat of the Spanish
Armada, reviewed her troops at Tilbury. Chelmsford was originaUy
the ford of the Chelmer. Its suburb of Springfield, a mile from the
center, gave us our name through the thought of WiUiam Pynchon
for the old home he left there. I was wrongly told in my childhood
that our city was named from its many Springs, but that is UteraUy
true of its forbear over the sea. As we wandered on, we wondered if
the name of Springfield was given by its founder in some moment of
longing for his early home; or did he see a likeness in sloping hill,
soft meadows, the drooping branches of great trees, and the water
courses, which even now suggest a resemblance, though the English
Springfield is still very rural.
At the station in Chelmsford one recognizes an old English town.
It was brightened here and there by the scarlet coats of wanderers
from the Essex Rifles. The Shire Hall (pronounced for some mys
terious reason, "Shireau") erected in 1792 is rather imposing;
the old fountain is good; there is a statue of Sir Nicholas Tyndall,
born in Chelmsford in 1776. No tramcars rumbled, clashed and
clattered along the streets, yet it was the first city in England to be
lighted by electricity. Chelmsford is evidently not entirely behind
the times, since we saw a horrible shrieking motor cycle fastened to
a little carriage in which sat a good sized yearling baby, serene, rosy
and dimpled like most English babies. Chelmsford, however, seems
to disport itself generally on horseback, or in two wheeled chaises.
No doubt the town has greatly changed since William Pynchon
walked its streets more than 274 years ago; but he must have seen
Guy Hartings, a building of great antiquity in New street, for it
was erected soon after the conquest; and there are other old halls
and mansions, other tipping, queer roofed buUdings which stood in
his day. There is a grammar school here founded by Edward VI.
The Springfield road as it is called crosses two picturesque
branches of the Chelmer, and leads into a peaceful calm, as great as
any fabled Lotus Land. It is one of the quietest nooks in England.
Within grim and grewsome walls the county gaol occupies five acres
at the brow of the hill, the only discordant note in the whole pastoral.
The bird songs at "Meadow Side" opposite were entrancing. I am
sure that the constant association in our minds of this sweet village
with our own dear Springfield so far away increased the pathos and

OLD SPRINGFIELD IN ENGLAND 97
ravishing tenderness of a song which we heard here at nightfall.
We were told it must have been that of a goldfinch, for we were too
late in the season for the nightingale; yet their dearest haunts are
in these byways of Essex, though they are exceptionally rare in the
park of the pleasant vUlage of Havering Atte Bower, where Edward
the Confessor once had a castle. According to a legend, the pious
Saxon King prayed for their removal because they disturbed his
even song. I am sure that the throngs of them in Springfield help
rather than hinder the devotions of the people.
Beyond the hill are modern villas which copy the old buildings
in style, within hedges, waUs and flowering gardens. Then there
are more quaint old ivy draped buildings with bulging walls and age
crumbling roofs. Turning a corner from the Springfield road, we
pass down a grass bordered street to the green at the side of the
church where also is an old ivy draped mansion. A flock of sheep,
tended by a small boy, spread themselves out in quiet content,
crossing and recrossing the road at their own sweet will, while the
little shepherd modeUed from the clay which he had taken from the
brook close by, a sheep which in this incipient condition would
never have prompted a Cimabue to adopt a Giotto. Our desire for
some tangible association with William Pynchon was gratified in the
vestry of the quaint old Norman church of "All Saints" where is a
tablet inscribed with his name as one of the wardens. And I am
told that his name is also written high up in the old tower in con
nection with figures relating to the renovating of the church; but
this we did not see. If one goes back 300 years in the history of a
family which came to England with the Conqueror, it is rare to find
the record of a name which is more than that which can be read
between the lines written on uneven marble slabs in footworn church
floors, or on mossy old stones in kirk yards. The preeminence of
William Pynchon in character, inteUect, activity and usefulness is
emphasized by the fact that, meagre as the account may seem we
can say so much about him. There was a haunting thought of the
man in all the roads and lanes of his birthplace. We knew him from
the record of his active Hfe in America, not as an austere and gloomy
Puritan, but a gentleman, large minded, wise and just, one who had
the lofty virtues and severe self-restraint of the honest Puritan, but
who could be conscientious without being too severe.
We entered the green church yard of "AU Saints," through the

98 OLD SPRINGFIELD IN ENGLAND
Lych Gate, very rarely left in these old Norman churches, and in the
first place a Saxon addition to them, Lych meaning corpse or body.
(Our English word likeness is said to be derived from it, that is,
bodily resemblance.) Under the slanting roof of this gate, the dead
were placed for a prayer and some ceremonies before borne to the
church or last resting place. "The dusky shroud of death" seemed
emphasized on either side of the narrow path through the church
yard, for there were many graves covered between two mossy old
upright stones with stone representations of coffins. Hoary and
tree embowered, the old church stands as the embodiment of the
faith of ages. There is something left of the old Romish atmos
phere in the interior, which like that of all the old Norman churches
in England was influenced by Saxon simplicity. One can mark the
places where Protestant hands have removed emblems of the old
form of worship. At the end of the nave is a mortuary chapel.
Font and carvings, chancel screen and brasses are well worth seeing
in themselves. Underneath the battlements outside of the low
square tower is written: "Prayse God for all ye good benefactors."
The tree embowered rectory with its high hedge, nearly opposite
the tower of the church, is as old worldly as one could wish.
Springfield is said by the people of the hamlet to have been the
"Deserted Village" of Goldsmith. It is proved that he lived in a
house near the church for two years. It is asserted positively that
in that house he wrote his poem. I find that Howitt in his "Homes
of the Poets," in speaking of Lissoy, the home of the poet's childhood
and the place generaUy accepted as the Deserted VUlage of Auburn,
says: "In all Goldsmith's description of his Auburn, he has closely
blended the Doric charm of an English Village with the fond boyish
memories of his actual native place." Howitt does not seem to
know of the poet's residence in Springfield, though he speaks of his
ten years' wanderings in England; but it is interesting to find such
indirect sanction of the traditions of the people, who assert just
this: that he combined Lissoy and Springfield in his Auburn.
It was, however, Lissoy which was really destroyed, and although
a Mr. Hogan rebuilt "TheThree Jolly Pigeons" there, to reproduce
the ale house of the poem from the description, and in his zeal
ludicrously embedded in the mortar for safekeeping:
The broken teacups wisely kept for show
Ranged o'er the chimney glistening in a row

OLD SPRINGFIELD IN ENGLAND 99
the still standing "Three Cups" of the Springfield road, honestly
and much more perfectly represents the inn of the poem.
The people whom we met were most kindly and courteous; very
much interested to hear of the thriving great daughter of their
little village over the sea. Generally they had the usual astonish
ment of the rural people of England, that Americans should speak
so much like themselves, and expressed the inevitable wonder that
we had not the American accent, their impression of that probably
derived from Josh Billings and the stage Yankee. It is a relief some
times to remember the brightness of a young American girl who
responded to such patronizing praise of her speech from a young
Englishman: "Oh well you know it isn't strange, for an English
clergyman once preached to my tribe." Springfield, by the way, is
the only place in England where we met no Americans. There were,
however, treasured traditions of a few who had been there, and Mrs.
Overman of our city lived there a little while. Everything of a
business nature was very primitive. The postmistress of Spring
field HiU opened her vine wreathed back door as we knocked at a bit
of a house perhaps nine feet square, whose lettering denoted it the
office. It is set down among the flower beds of the pretty garden,
flanked by great tree trunks twined thickly with ivy, and trellises
of climbing roses. She herself was rosy and golden-haired, but she
had very vague ideas of the present place of two letters, which she
remembered came to us two weeks before. William Pynchon,
gentleman, lived in this quiet village because as a younger son his
father received an estate here, which belonged to his mother's
dowry. One must go to Writtle, two miles and a half west, the
ancestral home of the Pynchons, for closer association with
them. Let the drive be through the Margaretting woods, a part of
the old Epping and Hainault forests, which once covered Essex;
now deep in bosky shades, now out in the sunlight which slants over
shimmering meadows and farms. The happiness of the world seems
printed on the fair landscape. Passing into the cool green shadow
again you come out by some old haU with queer gables rising above
secluding waUs, where joy and sorrow alternated as now, "a long
while since, a long, long time ago." Writtle is very ancient, said to
have been of note, when Chelmsford was unknown. The old battle
mented Norman church in which the Pynchons worshipped for
generations, has not the hoary appearance of All Saints in Spring-

loo OLD SPRINGFIELD IN ENGLAND
field. Its tower fell in 1802 and it has been rebuilt, but in the old
lines. It has many interesting memorials, monuments and brasses,
but to us there is the attraction of the chancel, which is nearly filled
with the monuments and memorial brasses of the honored Pynchon
family. (Mrs. Powers' paper upon William Pynchon contains the
results of the careful research of Dr. Pynchon of Hartford here.)
It is said that so deeply rooted was the esteem and regard that
the Indians felt for Mr. Pynchon and his family, that 100 years after
the settlement of Springfield, the tribe desired to do special honor
to his descendants. It remains to be seen what this thriving city
will do to commemorate its founder, its noble magistrate and wise
leader, who chose this beautiful spot by the Connecticut, and named
It in tender memory after his old home in England. America has
reason to be proud of her sculptors, who rank with the best in the
world. One of the greatest geniuses of them all has given us the
stern, strong Puritan, stalking away from the Episcopal church.
(So unintentionally historically correct, for that is exactly what
good Dea. Samuel Chapin did in his lifetime!) Should there not
be an equally worthy memorial to William Pynchon, gentleman and
scholar, to whom we owe the beginning of the existence of our fair
city? Purses long and generous have opened nobly for the good and
embellishment of Springfield. Would that one were ready for this
object! Yet the history of Florence the Beautiful proves to us the
gain where many share in such an undertaking. The Tuscan city
was no doubt helped to her preeminence in art by the general love
and knowledge of it, which grew among the people, because her
statues and churches were not always the gift of grand dukes and
princes, but more often of the trade guilds. When an artist was
chosen by the people to put his ideal into the subject they had
selected, each mind and heart followed him in the work, and appre
ciation of art and beauty became universal. Who shall say that
special inspiration did not come to her artists from the sympathy
of the people and their ability to criticize? Is it not possible that
Springfield may give and receive in this way, beginning with a
tribute to its founder, William Pynchon, gentleman?

COL. fOHN WORTHINGTON lai
Mr. Howard's paper:
Col. John Worthington
DR. Judson Worthington Hastings of Agawam, in answer
to my letter of inquiry , kindly gives this genealogical
and local information:
"Nicolas, the emigrant ancestor of the Worthingtons,
is said to have come in the year 1649 or 1650 from the south part of
Lancashire, near Liverpool, England. He came from Hatfield, then
part of Hadley, to Agawam. His residence was where the old
tavern, which I remember, stood. It is in the south part of the town,
on the car line. There is a sign, 'Worthington Corner', on the spot.
He was twice married. By his second wife he had two sons, Jona
than and John, the latter called Lieutenant John. Jonathan and
his descendants have, except for a few years, owned and occupied
the homestead. The present owner is Mrs. EUen Worthington
Woodsum; a brother, Albert E. Worthington, lives on it."
Sprague's Annals contains a memorandum (in connection with a
notice of Rev. William Worthington), of his grandfather, Nicolas:
"He was wounded in the Cromwellian wars; lost the whole or part
of his estate by confiscation, and came to this country about 1656."
Lieut. John Worthington is styled in deeds recorded at the registry
office, in 1729 as "innholder"; in 1736 as "shopkeeper;" and in
1738, six years before his decease, as "gentleman" April 16, 1812,
he bought of the widow and heirs of Elizur Holyoke three tracts of
land, the second and third lying on the east side of Main Street,
between the present Bridge and Worthington Streets. The first
tract, seven and a half acres, is described as bounded north by John
Pynchon and south by land of the Parsons's. This became the
Worthington homestead.
Thomas B. Warren, who, surrounded by bulky tomes, seems at
home in Springfield's past, and who has furnished me with all the
knowledge of conveyances that I shall impart, appends this interest
ing note regarding the parties from whom this property was bought:
"William Pynchon's daughter, Mary, married Elizur Holyoke, and
these are her heirs." This link connects the first with the second
century of Springfield.
John, the subject of my paper, was born November 20, 1719.

102 COL. fOHN WORTHINGTON
There were two other children, Samuel, who died in his thirty-sixth
year, and Sarah, who married Rev. John Hooker. Grandsons of
John and Mary Hooker were John Hooker Ashmun, RoyaU professor
of law in the Harvard law school, whose death at the age of thirty-
two was mourned as a distinct loss to legal science, and Hon. George
Ashmun. Three divisions in the life I propose to sketch suggest themselves:
the first is twenty-five years, preparatory; the second, thirty years
of work; and the third, twenty-five of retirement.
In the first period there was the preparation for college. Of this
we have no record, nor of his college course. That, "he graduated
at Yale college in the year 1 740, where he was some time tutor, and
left there in 1743, and read law, as is supposed about a year, with
Gen. Lyman at Suffield," we have on the authority of Mr. Bliss's
historical address. As four years elapsed between his graduation
and admission to the bar, it would seem probable that law reading
went along with his work as instructor, details being learned in the
law office mentioned.
Second, the busy years. The practice of law was entered on in
1744. This is the year in which Lieutenant Worthington, the
father, died. The terms of his will show with what pecuniary ad
vantages the young man started on his business career. After pro
vision made for the support out of the estate of Mrs. Worthington
during her widowhood, it was directed that the sons, John and
Samuel, should receive equal shares of the real and personal prop
erty. To the daughter, Sarah, was bequeathed out of the estate,
one-half as much as had been given to either of the sons, to be paid
her by them. With the discharge of this obligation, the two brothers
came into possession of the homestead and the entire landed prop
erty. But the young practitioner evidently had no intention to
subsist on his patrimony. Robert O. Morris, who has rendered me
very valuable assistance, showed me three books which contain the
private docket of Colonel Worthington. Closely written, two lines
naming plaintiff and defendant being the description of each case,
are many crowded pages. Many of these were doubtless small, but
for each one some preparation must have been made. Not a few
concerned large interests. It would seem that in practically all the
more important trials in Hampshire County, Colonel Worthington
was counsel for one of the parties, with Major Hawley of Northamp-

COL. JOHN WORTHINGTON 103
ton as his opponent. As regards the territorial extent of his practice,
Mr. Bliss says- "Colonel Worthington usually attended the courts
in Worcester and after Berkshire was made a county, the court of
common pleas there. "
That the emoluments from his law business were considerable
appears from successive acquisitions of real property. In January,
1750, he bought out Samuel, thus coming into full possession of the
paternal landed estate. The number of deeds to both the John
Worthingtons are found by Mr. Warren to be about two hundred
and fifty. The scriptural proverb may truthfully be applied to
Colonel Worthington: "The hand of the diligent maketh rich."
To the acquisitions of land in Springfield and West Springfield
must be added a large interest in another part of the county. A
recorded deed shows that Aaron Willard, Jr., of Lancaster, bought
June 2, 1762, of a committee of the General Assembly of the Prov
ince of Massachusetts Bay, the new township No. 3, for the joint
interest of himself and four others, who are named. According to
General Rice's history of the town of Worthington, two members of
this syndicate, John Worthington and Selah Barnard, subseqeuntly
became sole proprietors. The enterprise was successful. The
sections into which the tract was divided were rapidly bought and
occupied. In six years after the original purchase the plantation was
incorporated as a town. The town history says: "In honor of
Colonel Worthington, who liberally induced the early settlers to
occupy the land, by the erection of a church and a grist-mill at his
own expense, together with a generous assignment of ministerial and
school lots for the use of the town, the town was called Worthing
ton." (The gifts named in this paragraph are elsewhere in the
volume ascribed to the two proprietors jointly.
Colonel Worthington was a frequent representative of the town
in the General Assembly of the province. Of his standing and his
eloquence we have the testimony of one who wrote from personal
knowledge; in a letter preserved by Mr. Morris, from Percy Morton,
who had been attorney-general, to Mr. Bliss. Acknowledging re
ceipt of a copy of the historical address, the writer says:
"Two of the great men you describe who were formerly the orna
ment of your bar I well remember, Colonel Worthington and Major
Hawley; not, however, as advocates at the bar, but as rival politi
cians in the Legislature in the times of our greatest political con-

I04 COL. JOHN WORTHINGTON
troversies, previous to the Revolution. The former of these gentle
men was denominated the leader of the government party; and,
young as I then was, I felt that your character of him as an advocate
was equaUy appropriate to him in deliberate debate: 'his mind was
ardent, his imagination lively and his feelings strong,' that, 'his
style was nervous, forcible and uncommonly correct,' and, 'although
on the unpopular side of every question, he was many times very
powerful. ' "
It would seem to be in place here to attempt some estimate of the
native disposition and the character of the subject of my sketch.
Of the first it may be said in brief that he was born to rule. He was
endowed with a will power which enabled him almost always to
dominate — almost always. In a plot in the Springfield cemetery,
about twenty rods southerly from the Pine Street entrance, in which
six generations are represented, there is a range of three headstones
which mark children's graves. The first is inscribed, "John, son of
John Worthington, Esq., and Mrs. Hannah Worthington, was born
August lo, 1762, and died August 30, 1763," having Hved, it will be
seen, one year and twenty days. The other two headstones are
inscribed respectively, John, second son, and John, third son, with
dates showing that each lived but a few months. A remark has been
preserved (people will make remarks) that Colonel Worthington
strove with the Almighty, he himself contending that a John Wor
thington should continue on the face of the earth. If failure was the
outcome of this contest, mastery was generally gained in other rela
tions. Captain Ferrel's indignant outburst, "Colonel Worthington
rules this town with a rod of iron," was not without justification in
fact. Even difference of opinion received but scant toleration. A con
versation is related between my grandfather and himself, in which
the former said that he expected to live to see a bridge across the
Connecticut River. The reply was, "Parson Howard, you talk like
a fool. " The event predicted fell far within my grandfather's time.
In the autobiography of Rev. Dr. Joseph Lathrop there is this
memorandum: —
In October, 1805, the great bridge between Springfield and West Springfield, which
is nearly 70 rods long and cost about ^37,000 was completed, and the 30th day of
that month appointed for opening it, Mr. Howard, the minister of Springfield, being
infirm, application was made to me to deliver a discourse on that day. The day was
fine, the assembly numerous and profoundly attentive.

COL. JOHN WORTHINGTON 105
The character of Colonel Worthington, the native qualities devel
oped under the discipline of cherished principles, commanded
respect. The sternness with which he dominated over others seems
to have been brought to bear on his own conduct. It does not
appear that even the hostility excited by his political opinions called
forth reproaches impugning his uprightness. His influence was
exerted in favor of the proprieties of life and good morals. He was
doubtless a terror to evil doers.
A member of the church of the First Parish, he was active in its
affairs. His name appears as serving on important committees.
His religion was more of the type of the previous century than that
of his own time. He was a strict Sabbatarian. There is a tradition
that by his express command, which in domestic affairs closely
resembled the laws of the Medes and Persians, the beds of the house
hold which were risen from on Sunday morning were left unmade
until after the sun-setting. Colonel Worthington remained a
bachelor until he had reached the age of forty years. He was mar
ried January 10, 1759, to Hannah Hopkins, daughter of Rev. Samuel
Hopkins of West Springfield and Esther Edwards, sister of Jonathan
Edwards. Mrs. Worthington died November 25, 1766, at the age
of thirty-five, leaving four young children, daughters. Her brief
characterization in the Genealogy is, "Remarkable for her benevo
lence." A second marriage, December 7, 1768, was with Mary Stoddard,
daughter of Col. John Stoddard of Northampton and Prudence
Chester. She died July 12, 1812. That motherly love and care was
bestowed on the children and gratefully remembered, was attested
by the name, Mary Stoddard, given to the first-born child of one of
her step-daughters.
The twenty-five years named as the third period began in 1775.
The occasion was the parting of the ways respectively chosen by the
patriots and the royalists. Judge Henry Morris in his contribution
to King's handbook, treats Colonel Worthington's toryism very
gently. After stating that he was king's attorney in Hampshire
County and could have been attorney-general for the state if he had
chosen to accept the office. Judge Morris says: "His relations with
the government and his associations with its officers kept him from
sympathy with the popular cause."
It seems to me that more fundamental than this influence or.

io6 COL. JOHN WORTHINGTON
indeed, any prompting from without, was his inborn conservatism
With him, "Whatever is" was not only right but ought to be unin-
terruptibly continuous. His contemptuous reply to the suggestion
of a bridge would seem to say, "There will not be a bridge and ought
not to be; the ferry and ice-bridge are established and should not
be superseded."
The monarchial system of government, too, was most in accord
ance with the temper of his mind. Like the extreme federalists of
the years immediately following the close of the War of the Revolu
tion, he believed in the centralization of governmental authority.
The honesty with which he held to his convictions can hardly be
doubted; but the result was complete severance from affairs of
state, in which he had taken so prominent a part.
To one whose temperament was such as to crave action, this
enforced idleness must have been a sore trial. It may well have been
during this period that he selected or composed the pessimistic lines,
inscribed over his grave: —
There's not a day but to the man of thought
Betrays some secret and throws new reproach
On life, and makes him sick of seeing more.
Then welcome death.
Death of all pain the period, not of joy.
His last prolonged illness was attended by mental failure which
culminated in the condition of second childhood. To this loss of
mind Mr. Bliss alludes, when he says of Colonel Worthington, that
"he was capable of communicating much legal information, while
his health and ability to converse continued. " He died AprU 25,
1800, in the eighty-first year of his age.
I will close with a thought which has taken form in my mind while
seeking for material preparatory to this attempted sketch. The
reflection was suggested by the paucity of memorials of its subject.
There is no diary, and, I presume, no regular correspondence pre
served. There was no Boswell by, with note-book in hand. Inscrip
tions on sepulchral tables and headstones furnish almost the only
indubitable testimony. The opening stanza of a standard didactic
hymn was brought to mind: —
Wherefore should man, frail child of clay.
Who from the cradle to the shroud
Lives but the insect of a day.
Oh, why should mortal man be proud?

COL. JOHN WORTHINGTON 107
The reasoning pursued in these lines is sound, and the answer
proceeding from any well-regulated mind to the question proposed
is, " Sure enough, why should he ? "
The implied argument presented in the stanza, based on the
brevity of human life, would seem to be sufficient, but I will venture
to add another, namely, the brevity of fame. Here was a man pre
eminent in town, and of high standing among the great men of
county and state. His name was spoken with general admiration,
and yet only a scrap remains in the annals of his time, "The sum,
the abstract of the historian's page."
But there is another side to this. If this outlook into the future
seems to discourage rightful ambition and to dissuade from the
output of vigorous effort, a promise is held forth which may serve
as an antidote. There is what has been aptly termed "unrecorded
history". In this volume (the register of society's weU-being and
progress), there is written out in indelible characters the narrative
of every life-work. Colonel Worthington, for the space of nearly a
full generation, was a power preservative of good order. Whether
as moderator of the town-meeting, or as censor of public morals, the
potency of his stern sway was controlling for regularity. A con
servative certainly, but for safe advance conservatives are essential,
brakemen on the moving train. Always on the unpopular side at
the state capitol, according to the testimony of Attorney-General
Morton; but stalwart defenders of unpopular causes are always
requisite. A vigorous opposition is the price of purity and safety in
state and nation. The unrecorded history of the subject of this
sketch is faithfully preserved in the steps of progress by which our
municipality has advanced, even as the successive strata of rock
testify to the formation of the solid earth.
The moral, if one need be drawn, is, that each one will devote to
the common weal his individuality, controlled by a sense of duty,
guided by a conscience illumined by the fullest enlightenment
attainable, if the record can be that, "in simplicity and godly sin
cerity we have had our conversation in the world," there need be no
fear that it will fail of registration.

io8 SPRINGFIELD IN RETROSPECT
Quarterly Meeting February 8, 1905
It was voted that a committee of three be appointed by
the President with full power to solicit funds and to take all
necessary measures for the erection of a statue of William
Pynchon, the founder of Springfield, on the lawn in front of
the high school, or in any other suitable location, which in the
opinion of the committee may seem more desirable. Charles
H. Barrows, Robert O. Morris and Henry A. Booth were
appointed. Nehemiah Hawkins of New York City read a paper on
"Springfield in Retrospect and in Prospect."
Springfield in Retrospect and in Prospect
I WISH I knew who it was and the circumstances relating to
its bringing that planted the first rose in Springfield. I am
sure it was a gentlewoman — one perchance in the storied
form of Mary Pynchon — possibly by one like Margaret Bliss,
whom many still remember so well, with her soft dark eyes and
wUlowy form, passing in and out during a long life of unselfish
devotion, loving and beloved.
Consider! there was certainly the first time when the Royal
Red Rose of far-away Persia bloomed upon the banks of the Con
necticut. Was it during the year 1636, the first of the settlement? Prob
ably, yes! However that may be, this superb flower has shed its
fragrance upon the willing air and delighted the eyes of uncounted
thousands from that distant time until now; the flowering time,
as well as the seed time, have never failed.
In a letter written to my dear mother by myself, June 6, 1902,
just as she was entering the last half of her hundredth year, occur
these words, "This is the month of roses in Springfield and I recall
how glorious they show in the good old town. I trust you are having
your share of them in your room and will remember me when you
enjoy their heaven-sent perfume." This letter was returned to
me after my mother's death, which took place lacking only thirty-
five days of the century mark, and by mere accident I note what I
then wrote in the letter, and now quote as above.

AND IN PROSPECT 109
We have in New York, the presence, most of the year, of a
kindly Scot, of whom this is told: "At Skibo Castle, Mr. Carnegie
has, during the summer, a beautiful rose garden. There are thou
sands of red and white and yellow roses blooming there, and the
villagers are free to saunter in the garden paths to their hearts'
content. One day the head gardener waited upon Mr. Carnegie.
" 'Sir,' he said, 'I wish to lodge a complaint.'
" 'Well?' said the master.
" 'Well, sir,' the gardener began, 'I wish to inform you that
the village folk are plucking the roses in your rose garden. They
are denuding your rose trees, sir.'
" 'Ah,' said Mr. Carnegie, gently, 'my people are fond of flowers,
are they, Donald? Then you must plant more.' "
Do you know that David, across three thousand years, still
speaks to us in holy writ of "the glory of the grass and the splendor
of the flower"? He does.
I well remember the day I fell in love with Springfield — such a
love as I have for no other — " Sweet Auburn, lovliest village of the
plain," and it was the red rose that enchanted me; the enchantment
still holds after more than fifty years. I had been away, and on my
return, a boy of twelve, perhaps, the June flowers had come and I
saw them in a new light; the town was buried in verdure and bloom,
and from that time to me it has been the city of roses. Now, year
by year, as the June time comes, my heart yearns for a renewal of
the emotions of that never-to-be-forgotten season. There were
other flowers in abundance. May I name some of them — the pink,
the hyacinth, the marigold, the chrysanthemum, the violet, the
hollyhock, the larkspur, the narcissus, the tulip, the aster, the wall
flower, the dahlia, the white lily. These were, and are, still to be
found in Old as well as New England.
And again the fruits, which at times and in their seasons gratified
my boy appetite; they are, too, too many to name, except perhaps
the chestnuts, the walnuts and the melons. Of these, I may add that
I am confident that none of our parents planted any walnut trees,
nor chestnut trees — nor melon vines! and yet "we boys" never
lacked for a generous proportion of what thefertile grounds produced.
Thus it became easy for me to write in those early years spent
on the verge of civilization, in the great treeless plains of the West —
largely destitute of fruits and flowers, —

no SPRINGFIELD IN RETROSPECT
Where'er I go, whatever climes to see
My heart untraveled turns to thee;
To thee, my brother, turns with endless pain
And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.
Of one thing I was proud and thankful — that of being a high
school boy. In my time of 1850-1852 there were probably six or
eight of these schools ; but in 1 900 the extraordinary number of 6,005 •
"There was once a philanthropist who ate up all the chowder
in a Bowery restaurant. 'There,' he said, 'the next fellow will get
something fresh.' " Unlike this humble philanthropist, I find that
the board has been already swept quite clean and dry in the way of
personal experience and "historical remains," leaving but little
of interest to be added by me, hence, the main part of this paper
will deal, all too briefly, with Springfield in prospect.
Still I may reminisce a Httle — thus —
In the year 1839 I remember standing, with my father, who was
at that time master mechanic of the Western raUroad, and being
interested in the building of the railroad bridge across the Con
necticut river. At that moment it was constructed but little more
than half the distance across. Just before this I recall coming by
the railroad to Springfield in "a day coach." This should be written
in the plural, for the cars were of the "platform" style — each
arranged with several stagecoach bodies so that they were entered
on the side. This is the very earliest form of passenger cars shown
in old engravings, for it was in the very, very earliest days of railroad
building, that year, 1839.
Upon the arrival of our family we put up at the railroad hotel
kept and owned by John Goodrich in the northwest corner of Main
and Hampden streets. This was a wooden building standing fifty
feet back from Main street and about fifty feet from Hampden
street. The lot adjoined the Massasoit lot and upon its rear end
Mr. Goodrich "prepared" Canadian horses, for the West Indies,
and for plantation use in the South. He also trained trotting horses
for the Boston market. It was a brave sight to see the high-stepping,
bob-tailed horses being driven up and down Main street; a favorite
exercise ground being the road to Round Hill and return.
After a winter's sojourn on High street, during which my brother
Frank was born, who has, as he wrote this month, just "passed
safely" his sixty-fifth birthday, the family settled for some years

AND IN PROSPECT m
on Main street, on the southwest corner of Hampden street and
opposite the Goodrich hotel. We were living there in 1840 and from
that time on, I saw nearly everything that was "doing" and could
fill a small volume with the events of happy busy days that ended
in 1852, when, as a boy of eighteen, I went West with a party of
railroad contractors at a wage of $12.00 per month and expenses.
The house in which the family lived on Main street adjoined
the Pynchon place, where dwelt the aged Mr. Pynchon, his wife
and children. Among the latter, there were WiUiam, the farmer;
Daniel, the West Point cadet; two daughters — one, Mary, a lovely
and fragile girl, who died in early womanhood; and John Pynchon,
in my eyes, a great and noble fellow of twenty.
The Pynchon place was a home of abundance, — horses, cattle,
lands, houses and withal, honor were among their possessions. The
two families became very intimate and it is pleasant to remember
that in 1S64 and thereabouts, a quarter of a century afterwards,
that my John Pynchon was operating a steam car axle factory
within half a mile of my own steam flour mills, with the old friend
ship still surviving.
It is worth recording that the Pynchon family and the Hawkins
family, thus living kindly neighbors, were representatives and
descendants in 1840 of their noble ancestors, who in the same year,
1636, 204 years before, founded the towns of Providence, R. I., and
of Springfield, Mass., an'd who exactly 200 years before, were the
busiest and among the most prosperous men of New England.
Between the lives of the founder, William Pynchon, and of
Roger Williams there were some curious analogies, i. Their
arrival from England about the same year — Roger landed in Bos
ton, February 5, 163 1, "a young minister, godly and zealous, and
having precious gifts, and accompanied by his wife Mary." 2. They
both found it convenient to leave Boston, the same autumn, for
conscience's sake, for the cold and bleak wilderness. 3. The next
spring they founded their new towns, each with less than ten fami
lies and afterwards with no more than thirty or forty. 4. They
each wrote books which were condemned as heretical. 5. They
were intimate with, friendly and much trusted by the Indians of
whom they bought, like honest men, their lands. 6. In after life
they were in England again, at the same time, and finally they
were most prosperous and honored in their advanced age, having

112 SPRINGFIELD IN RETROSPECT
Hved down by pure and good lives the Ul words spoken of them in
the early days of the Colonies; again each in his dwelling had
preached the kindly gospel in the early days.
My own remembrances of this lovely Pynchon family are most
vivid and most pleasant. I could fill these pages most easily with
my boyish recollections of events and places which will always be
dear to me, but if I may be forgiven, I avail myself of the words —
whafs the use? — and pass along to the ever fascinating Future.
The German language has furnished the Anglo-Saxon a word
with a widely accepted meaning — Wanderlust — a lust for travelling.
At an early year this seized me, and, during a life in which I have out
lived nearly all my early companions, I have wandered in the home
land and abroad, from city to city, and from town to town, and
one scene of nature and art to another, but always as I said before,
with my untravelled heart ever turning to the dear old town.
When I have visited a new scene, I have often come to feel
enriched by what I have seen. I have sometimes used the term
"bouquet of cities;" thus it came that after an absence in Europe
for some months, my own two dear daughters greeted me with the
words, "Papa, we have added thirty-two cities to our bouquet."
Hence in choosing the theme "Springfield in Retrospect and in
Prospect," I designedly added the latter that I might bring to my
lifelong loved city some suggestions gathered from my acquaintance
with other growing places, although none are more admirable or
beautiful than that founded by William Pynchon.
Springfield entered the century with a population of 2,312.
"Court Square" was deeded to Hampden county in April, 1 82 1.
The names of Daniel Bontecou, Justice Willard, Edward Pynchon,
etc., are honorably mentioned in subscribing towards this public
gift and it has been truly said that Modern Springfield begins from
this time. In 1820 the population was 3,914 and in 1843, 10,985,
These are interesting figures in view of its present number.
In April, A.D. 1830, the townsfolk saw for the first time a
schooner under full sail — The Eagle — on the river. It had come
up through the Enfield canal. The Blanchard and Vermont steam
boats happened to be both lying at the wharf and the excited people
dreamed of a metropolis at once, but "the human heart ever longs
for the impossible — for the joy that lasts 'forever after;' for the
loveliness that never fades; for the purse that is never exhausted;

AND IN PROSPECT 113
for the friend that is always true; for the device thai will do away
with all the conveniences of time and space.^^
The time arrives when the "master of the feast," told of in the
parable, cries out in stentorian tones, "Friend, come up higher,"
and the advancing population and increasing wealth calls also in
trumpet tones. Come up Higher,
There is such a thing as "making history" and it is before the
present generation of this beautiful town to make in large part its
future history. Springfield has outgrown itself and must be un
comfortable until it adjusts itself to new and larger conditions. It
is the main thought of the writer to indicate the path and method
of advancement; in two words the thought can be expressed —
Rebuilding and Consolidation. In a humble spirit, the writer is
prepared to argue that these express the logic of the situation in
which Springfield now finds itself.
The wise old philosopher Demosthenes declared that "the end
of wisdom is consultation." Thinking it might be an aid to Spring
field's committee and of general interest, I take pleasure in reading —
by permission — a few paragraphs transcribed from the advance
sheets of the Report of the New York City Improvement Commis
sion to Mayor McCleUan, and to his board of aldermen. All
cities, I have observed, are, broadly speaking, alike; our Saviour
loved the city of Jerusalem and wept over it; "Dear Old London"
is the term used by Englishmen over the wide world; "Little Old
New York is good enough for me" is a common phrase among its
citizens at home and abroad; a city man is a civil man; an urbane
man is an inhabitant of urban, a city. Hence! these suggestions
relating primarily to my own "Little Old New York," which has
served me weU, are extracted and read for the use of the good city
"Springfield of the Future" — the Greater Springfield.
By the terms of the ordinance it was provided that the commis
sion should, make a report on or before the first day of January,
1905. I have with me this report not yet made public, hence not
to be given out until it is officially delivered to the mayor of New
York and its aldermen.
Knowing the use to which I was to put this report the young
architect said, "So fuU am I of 'City Improvement after working
with the Commission' that I would willingly, upon invitation, go
over in person, free of cost except to myself, the city of Springfield
and its environs."

114 SPRINGFIELD IN RETROSPECT
I quote:
" A comprehensive plan for the city's development must necessarily anticipate
the future growth of the city for many years to come and be so framed as to meet
all possible future requirements so far, at least, as they can be reasonably foreseen,
and be so designed that all its parts shall be consistent, the one with the other, and
form a homogeneous whole, in order that any improvements hereafter made may be
entered upon with reference to the accomplishment of a definite purpose and along
definite lines and not as has been too often the case, without reference to any general
plan or regard to the bearing of the particular Improvement proposed or its connec
tion with other improvements already made or which thereafter may be deemed
advisable. Such a plan necessarily involves not only the laying out of parks, streets
and highways, the location of city buildings. Improvement of water fronts, etc.,
but also questions of more or less detail, relating to pavements, sidewalks, appro
priate house numbers, gas and electric fixtures, manner of indicating the streets,
location of statues and monuments commemorating historical events, tree planting,
and a countless number of other matters, all important and essential. No plan that
fails to take into consideration all the above subject matters can be deemed a com
prehensive one.
" It is manifest that the subject is one of large and extended scope and necessarily
requires the examination and consideration of many important questions, and the
commission feels that there is not sufficient time within the period limited by the
ordinance, to enable it to make a complete report which would do justice either to
the subject matter involved or to the commission itself. The commission deems it,
however, proper and incumbent on it at this time, in view of the provisions of the
ordinance to make a preliminary report as to its proceedings and the progress made
by It in effectuating the purposes for which it was created.
** It must be recognized at the outset and will be by all who give any careful
consideration to the subject, that any proper and comprehensive plan of municipal
improvement must, of necessity, involve large and heavy expenditures. Such ex
penditures have, however, been found In other large cities to be not entirely without
return. Apart from the convenience to its own citizens, municipal improvement
and adornment tends to attract strangers and directly contribute to a city^s material
prosperity. The commission fully realizes that considerations of expense must
necessarily and properly enter into the consideration of any proposed changes or
improvements, at the same time It does not conceive it to be its duty to select or
recommend the cheapest possible make-shifts. While it proposes, therefore, to
ultimately recommend a plan fully accomplishing, in its judgment, the object
desired, it will, nevertheless, be controlled by the consideration that the ultimate
benefit must always be commensurate with the expense entailed — in other words,
that while essentials are not to be sacrificed to a question of cost, any plan to be of
practical value must be framed with due regard to proper considerations of economy.
" In this connection, it is desirable to remember that it is not the intentionof the
commission, either now or hereafter, to recommend the carrying out at once, or
even within any definite period of time, of all the various changes or improvements
it may propose. On the contrary, many of them will be neither immediately neces
sary nor advisable. As above pointed out, the province of the commission is to
formulate a general plan to be adopted for the future — the improvements and

A Beauty Spot— Example of what can be accomplished above Round Hill— It is the Victoria AlemorLiI in London

AND IN PROSPECT 115
changes themselves can manifestly not be made at once. Considerations of expense,
if nothing else, would render such course impracticable. They are only intended
to be undertaken as and when made necessary and advisable by the continued
growth of the city. This fact must be borne in mind In considering the amount
of the possible expenditures involved.
"Although, as above said, the expenditures necessarily required by any proper
plan must be large, they can in many instances be greatly reduced, if the city had
the power exercised in many European cities of condemning more than the area
actually required, so that the city might reap the benefit to be derived from the
enhanced value of neighboring property, and in the judgment of the commission
steps should be taken to secure such changes in the constitution and legislative
enactments as may be necessary for the purpose. This method of taking more land
than required, with the object of resale at an advance of recouping part of the ex
pense, has been applied in various large cities of Great Britain and the continent
where extensive alterations have been undertaken for securing architectural effects,
remedying sanitary conditions or improving the city generally, and it is questionable
whether many of the improvements would have been otherwise accomplished.
Objection to giving the city such power has sometimes been raised on the ground
that it might be abused or injudiciously exercised. In these times, however, of
increasing municipal activities when so many more extensive powers are constantly
being entrusted to those charged with the administration of the city's affairs, such
objection can scarcely be considered necessarily fatal or conclusive, if proper safe
guards and limitations are Imposed."
Other cities besides New York are extending their borders, are
opening new streets, etc. In the January number of the Century
is an article on the "remaking of London," from which I now quote:
"Chief among the vast undertakings of the London County Council are the
widening and extending of old streets, the opening of new ones, the laying of electric
tramways and the rehousing of the poor. Most radical of the many changes now
in progress in London's streets is that which comprehends the widening of the
Strand between Welling street and St. Clement Danes (Dr. Johnson's church);
the creation of a new street in the form of a crescent with one of its horns resting
on the Strand at each of the points referred to; and the opening of a wide avenue
straight through from the apex of this crescent to High Holborn at a point opposite
Southampton Row, which in turn is being widened so as to afford (with the new
street to the south of it and its present continuation, under different names, to the
north) a main thoroughfare from the neighborhood of the Thames Embankment,
through the Drury Lane region and Bloomsbury, to Hampstead Heath, four or five
miles from its starting-point.
"It is expected to cost about $25,000,000; but as the value of the contiguous land
will be greatly enhanced by the improvement, and as much of this land has been ac
quired by the county council, the sale of eighty-year leases will go far to lighten
the taxpayers* burden. To insure an adequate architectural effect for the buildings
lo occupy the newly created sites in the Strand, the council invited eight architects
of standing to submit elevations, and called in Mr. Norman Shaw, R. A,, to pass upon
them.

1x6 SPRINGFIELD IN RETROSPECT
"The Wesleyan Methodist Church, having paid $1,650,000 for the Royal Aqua
rium, near Westminster Abbey, spent the year 1903 in pulling down that enormous
structure, and in its place will erect a denominational church house, one of the two
halls of which will hold three thousand people."
There is a city in Spain dating far back beyond old Roman
times — SeviUe, situated on the banks of the Guadalquivir, of
which Lord Byron wrote:
"Fair is proud Seville; let her country boast
Her strength, her wealth, her site of ancient days.''
The rich architectural monuments of a people who loved beauty
in all its forms are there to be found. The history of the city is full
of interest and rich with the ancient lore and romance of Spain.
The Sevillians are proud of the old motto, "Who has not seen
Seville has not seen a marvel." A young artist friend, WiUiam
Young, has furnished me with a drawing showing one of the finest
specimens of architecture of all times — "The Tower or Campi-
nella." I qu6te from a book, "Historic Buildings of the World,"
the following description, for a purpose which will appear later:
" The Giralda, which serves as a campanile to the cathedral, and rises above all
the spires of the town, is an old Moorish tower, erected by an Arabian architect,
named Geber or Guever, who invented algebra, which was called after him. The
appearance of the tower is charming, and very original; the rose-coloured bricks
and the white stone of which it is built, give it an air of gaiety and youth, which
extends as far back as the year 1000, a very respectable age, at which a tower may
well be allowed to have a wrinkle or two and be excused for not being remarkable
for a fresh complexion. The Giralda in its present state is not less than three hun
dred and fifty feet high, while each side is fifty feet broad. Up to a certain height
the walls are perfectly even; there are then rows of Moorish windows with balconies,
trefoils and small white marble columns, surrounded by large lozenge-shaped brick
panels. The tower formerly ended in a roof of variously coloured varnished tiles,
on which was an iron bar, ornamented with four gilt metal balls of a prodigious size.
This roof was removed in 1568, by the architect, Francisco Ruiz, who raised the
daughter of the Moor Guever one hundred feet higher in the pure air of heaven, so
that his bronze statue might overlook the Sierras, and speak with the angels who
passed. The feat of building a belfry on a tower was in perfect keeping, with the
intentions of the members composing that admirable chapter who wished posterity
to imagine they were mad. The additions of Francisco Ruiz consist of three stories;
the first of these is pierced with windows, in whose embrasures are hung bells; the
second, surrounded by an open balustrade, bears on the cornice of each of its sides,
these words — Turris fortissima nomen Domini; and the third is a kind of cupola or
lantern, on which turns a gigantic gilt bronze figure of Faith, holding a palm in one
hand and a standard in the other, and serving as a weathercock, thereby justifying
the name of Giralda, given to the tower. This statue is by Bartholomew Morel.

'n' h'l

The Campanile of the "Giralda'
Seville, Spain.

AND IN PROSPECT 117
It can be seen at a very great distance; and when it glitters through the azure at
mosphere, really looks like a seraph lounging in the air.
"You ascend the Giralda by a series of Inclined ramps, so easy and gentle, that
two men on horseback could very well ride up to the summit, whence you enjoy an
admirable view. At your feet lies Seville, brilliantly white, with its spires and
towers, endeavoring, but In vain, to reach the rose-coloured brick girdle of the
Giralda. Beyond these stretches the plain, through which the Guadalquivir flows,
like a piece of watered silk, and scattered around are Santiponce, Algaba and other
villages. Quite in the background is the Sierra Morena, with its outlines sharply
marked, in spite of the distance, so great is the transparency of the air In this ad
mirable country. On the opposite side, the Sierras de Gibram, Zaara and Moron
raise their bristling forms, tinged with the richest hues of lapis lazuli and amethyst,
and completing this magnificent panorama, which is inundated with light, sunshine
and dazzling splendour."
Still keeping in mind an ultimate purpose to which I have
alluded, I take the time to read a description of one of the most
famous edifices in Italy — the Bell Tower or Campanile of Venice:
"The great campanile of St. Mark in the square at the west of the church was
founded about 900 by Doge Pietro Tribuno and finished in 113 1 or soon after. It
is a very massive square tower of brick, 325 feet high by 42 square, on a stone base,
simply decorated with slight pilasters. The ascent to the top is made by a series of
inclined planes instead of stairs. The upper part, an open lantern with a pyramidal
roof, was added in the l6th century; on the apex is a fine colossal statue of an angel,
formed of plates of gilt bronze on a wooden core, — a work of the end of the 15th
century. " Throughout the Middle Ages the main walling of Venetian buildings was always
of fine brick, usually a rich red in colour, made and fired in the kilns of Murano.
In spite of its beautiful colour the brick work was seldom left visible, the whole wall-
surface being lined with thin slabs of marble in the more magnificent buildings,
or else coated with stucco, on which decorative patterns were painted.
" One of the chief glories of Venice depends on its extensive use of the most beau
tiful and costly marbles and porphyries, which give a wealth of magnificent colour
such as is to be seen in no other city in the world. In early times none of these seem
to have been obtained direct from the quarries, but from older buildings, either of
Roman or early Byzantine date. Immense quantities of rich marbles were brought
from the ruined cities of Heraclea, Ravenna, Altlnum, and especially Aquileia.
Under the Roman empire, Aquileia contained great numbers of magnificent build
ings, decorated with marbles and porphyries from Greece, Numidia, Egypt and
Arabia. The gorgeous churches and palaces of the Byzantine emperors, enriched
with rare marbles stolen from Greek and Roman buildings of classic times, were in
their turn stripped of their costly columns and wall-linings by the victorious Vene
tians. Thus Venice became a magnificent storehouse in which were heaped the rich
treasures accumulated throughout many previous centuries by various peoples.
The principal varieties used in the palaces of Venice are the red porphyry of Egypt
and the green porphyry of Mount Taygetus, red and grey Egyptian granites. Oriental
alabaster from Numidia and Arabia, the Phrygian pavonazzetto with its purple

ii8 SPRINGFIELD IN RETROSPECT
mottlings, and, in great quantities, the alabaster-like Proconnesian marble with
bluish and amber-coloured striations. Till the 14th or 15th century the white
marbles used in Venice were from. Greek quarries — Parian or Pentelic — being all
(like the coloured marbles) stolen from older buildings, while in later times the native
marble of Carrara was imported. Large quantities of red Verona marble were used
to form moulded frames round panels of white sculptured marble. The greater part
of these costly marbles seem to have been imported in the form of columns, immense
numbers of which were sawn up lengthways into long thin slabs for use as wall-
facings. "The facades of the chief palaces of Venice down to the end of the isth century
were wholly covered with these magnificently coloured marbles. But that was not
all; a still greater splendour of effect was given by the lavish use of gold and colour,
especially the costly ultramarine blue. Very frequently the whole of the sculpture,
whether on capitals, archivolts, or frieze-like bands, was thickly covered with gold
leaf, the flat grounds being coloured a deep ultramarine so as to throw the reliefs
into brilliant prominence. The less magnificent palaces were decorated in a simpler
way. The brick surfaces between the windows and other arches were covered with
fine hard stucco, made, like that of the ancient Romans, of a mixture of lime and
marble dust. The whole of this was then decorated with minute diapers or other
geometrical ornament in two or three earth colours, especially red, yellow, and brown
ochres." The wave of civilization which is next to flood the world is to take
the shape of magnificent architecture, I give a single example of
hundreds of these buildings as now planned.
" One of the most notable of the group of buildings which has
been designed for the new Naval Academy at Annapolis is the
chapel. Although all of the structures are of impressive size and
architecture, the great height of the chapel and its other dimensions
will make it one of the most imposing religious edifices in the United
States when it is completed. From the ground to the top of the
"lantern," which is to surmount it, the distance is 210 feet, while
the extreme width of the structure is 130 feet.
" The appropriation of $400,000 for the chapel gave the architect
an opportunity to design not only a spacious, but a very ornate
edifice. ReaUzing the efltect of a large dome, one was planned which
extends to a height of nearly 150 feet above the roof of the main
building, with a diameter of sixty-nine feet at its base. The base
of the dome is thirteen feet smaller than the circle formed by the
center of the main building, consequently the construction of the
chapel has been attended by some unusually interesting engineering
features- If the great weight of the superstructure had been sup
ported by the exterior walls, it would have been necessary to make

Municipal Group
Springfield, Massachusetts

AND IN PROSPECT 119
these of extraordinary thickness or to utilize columns in the in
terior, which was not considered desirable. As a substitute for
interior columns and what might be termed wall support, a some
what novel method of carrying the load of the dome has been
adopted. In it the material known as ferro-concrete has been
utilized in a framework, which relieves the exterior walls of prac
tically aU stress except that due to their own weight and that of the
dome." A present view of Springfield, no matter how transient and
limited, teUs, in its admirable structures, the existence here of the
artistic gift. The new Armory, the City Hospital and scores of
other buildings delight the eye with their true proportions and
graceful outlines and the employment of local artistic skUl. May
I quote from Ruskin, the greatest of critics, a few paragraphs —
in view of the remaking of this already artistically adorned town:
" Great art is the expression of the mind of a great man, and mean art, that of the
want of mind in a mean man. A foolish person builds foolishly, and a wise one,
sensibly; a virtuous one, beautifully; and a vicious one, basely. If stone-work is
well put together, it means that a thoughtful man planned it, and a careful man cut
it, and an honest man cemented it. If it has too much ornament, it means that its
carver was too greedy of pleasure; if too little, that he was rude and insensitive, or
stupid and the like. So that, when once you have learned to spell these most precious
of all legends, pictures and buildings, you may read the character of men and of
nations, in their art; — nay, as in a microscope, and magnified a hundred-fold; for
the character becomes passionate in the art, — and intensifies itself, in all its noblest
or meanest delights. Nay, not only as in a microscope, but as under a scalpel, and
in dissection; for a man may hide himself from you, or misrepresent himself to you,
every other way; but he cannot in his work; there, be sure, you have him in the
utmost. All that he likes, all that he sees, all that he can do, — his imagination, his
affections, his perseverance, his impatience, his clumsiness, cleverness, everything
is there. If the work is a cobweb, you know it was made by a spider; if a honey
comb, by a bee; a worm-cast is thrown up by a worm, and a nest wreathed by a bird;
and a house built by a man, worthily, if he is always, from the least to the greatest,
as the made thing is good or bad, so is the maker of it.
" The secret of art and the secret of nature are one — the slow, patient, absorbing,
generous process of love — sustaining itself everywhere on loveliness and life, and
remanifesting itself afresh in ever new forms of vitality and loveliness. It is be
cause of this quality and in proportion to this quality that we value every shred of
art and are at such pains to preserve it. By the simplest natural law, humanity
cares for those things which ameliorate its lot, and lets go in the long run everything
that hurts or retards it.
In view of the inevitable merging of the adjacent towns with the
original, making Greater Springfield, a center for the whole should

120 SPRINGFIELD IN RETROSPECT
be wisely selected, convenient and central at the present to all
and yet so chosen that in the future it may focus the stiU
greater city, arising from consolidation and natural growth. Such
a central point I suggest exists at Round Hill, and vicinity.
I remember hearing Daniel Webster speak in iS44or thereabouts
on the level ground just beyond the slope of the hill. Now, upon
the northern end of the eminence I propose — and yet most modestly,
as most disinterestedly — the erection of
An electric tower to be built of steel and concrete, faced with
enameled brick; that the height, exclusive of the hill, shall be 450
to 600 feet; that nightly the tower be lighted with electricity, one
feature of which should be a searchlight strong enough to throw
its beams north, south, east and west to all the adjacent mountains
and all between, a section distinct to form the boundaries of the
New Springfield.
I propose that another feature of this tower should be a ramp or
climbing way, winding about a central cylinder equipped with an
elevator. A model for this ramp has existed for a thousand years in
the famous and most beautiful Campanile of Venice, a description
of which has been read. Napoleon is said to have ridden to the top of
the Campanile on horseback and the idea would be that the rise
should be so gentle that men, women and children could easily
walk, singly and ifi groups, to the top; the way being enlivened
by views from balconies, on the sides of the tower, opening at
intervals. In the daytime the view from its pinnacle, even at very great
distances would be greatly enhanced by its glittering enameled
surface, inspiring the utmost civic pride, or perchance poetic lines
as these I quote: "She whom I love, at present is in China
She dwells with her aged parents
In a tower of white porcelain."
From the tower as a center I propose that a new town with every
possible modern convenience should be "plotted," with streets,
avenues and boulevards, with a view to a population of half a
million. This is no new idea, for Napoleon the Third erected the
Arc de Triomphe on new ground at Paris and it is now the center of
twelve magnificent avenues stretching out from it like the spokes
of a wheel with scores of connecting streets. The city of Washington

AND IN PROSPECT 121
was thus laid out with the capitol as its center and many cities
which were outgrowing their bounds have wisely established new
centers of population. This procedure will cost only time and skill
and no money, for the large increase in the value of the taxable
property would more than compensate for the outlay. No less
than twelve or fifteen years should be allowed to execute the pro
jected rebuilding of the city and the charge upon the assessed
property could even be carried for fifty or one hundred years by
bonded debt. I would propose, also, the construction of a mag
nificent Merchants' Exchange and the erection of an immense
Cooperative Food and Produce Exchange embodying the thought
of a flower, fruit, meat and produce market; in connection with
the latter, bearing in mind the Cooperative feature, I would sug
gest the turning of Hampden Park into a shelter harbor for pleasure
and industrial craft, whence waterways of the world could be
brought into profitable and happy connection with the new center.
I have in mind a music and assembly hall, a structure for a
meeting place and headquarters for every working men's society,
which may desire a forum for the finest and most eloquent expres
sion of thought; a gallery of the arts of sculpture, painting and
design and an aggregation of public and semi-public offices arising
from a widely extended community, such as the police, military,
fire, water, gas, local transportation, the courts and others, all of
which for convenience should be near the center of affairs in the
center of the Greater Springfield.
Not to be too prolix and my point in writing this paper being
now disclosed I hasten to its end. I present with this a drawing of
two noble twin towers built in Munich in 1 468-1 488 (twenty years)
and carefully restored in 1 858-1 868 (ten years). Its two heavy
spires dominate the landscape in whatever direction you go and
their effect is heightened by the two caplike domes.
In another engraving I present a view of the tower forming part
of the New Westminster Roman Catholic Cathedral just completed
in London. 1 myself marked its noble proportions before it was
finished. It is modelled after the Campanile of Venice and is dis
tinguished by its vivid and alluring coloring. It is the only Catholic
Cathedral in England. I also present a view of the Victoria Memo
rial. The great outpouring of money upon the death of the Great
Queen has provided the immense sum necessary to make this

122 SPRINGFIELD IN RETROSPECT
adornment to the old city of London. It is to be a world model and
one which Springfield in its remaking will wisely follow. A little
imagination transfers it to the north of Round Hill with its broad
avenues reaching out towards Holyoke and Chicopee.
To these I add a view of a tower of a new armory now building
in New York City and also of a splendid structure replacing the
old Newgate prison which carries, to my mind, an image of the
limit of improvement; for I have often gazed upon the dreadful,
dark, dank prison which it has displaced. Now a word as to the
merging of Springfield with its neighboring towns.
It is almost incredible that Springfield and West Springfield are
two separate communities. As I write I have in mind the River
Seine which flows for seven miles (taking five hours) through Paris,
with any number of artistic bridges uniting the two parts. I recall
the Thames winding through London — its bridges being a joy to
think of. I see "in my mind's eye Horatio" more beautiful than
all, the city of Florence in Italy, with the Amo, very like the Con
necticut, twisting and bubbling along, spanned by many bridges.
I may now add that Brooklyn and New York with the East river
between, found that they could not exist one without the other.
When I say that Springfield and West Springfield need each other I
have said it all.
The same truth applies to Chicopee, Chicopee Falls, Indian
Orchard, Agawam, Westfield, etc.; and what shall I say of Hol
yoke? That is a more difficult problem and grows more difficult,
but the fact wUl remain that they are One — with a capital O.
With a view to the question of merging with Holyoke, I have
requested my young relative, John Torrey Hawkins, to gather
some figures relating to population and taxable property. I quote
that the population of the territory of which Springfield is now the
natural center numbers 225,000; the property interests of these
counts up to $200,000,000 or very nearly $1,000 to each man,
woman and child resident in the territory.
Springfield also needs these outlying places for the trolley lines
are carrying away its people to live in them and things are so chang
ing that in a brief space of time ten miles away will mean perhaps a
quarter of an hour of time. The subway in New York is an aston
ishing success and lines of subways wiU work in Springfield the ready

AND IN PROSPECT

123

answer — yes! to the question of a common merger of all these
community interests. "In Union" there is convenience and safety
as well as "strength."
There can be no legal objection or other to a merger, for Boston
has accomplished the feat; Philadelphia, Chicago, New York
have enlarged their borders and there are none to regret the step.
"Friend, Come up Higher" are the best words now for Springfield
and its environs.
We shrink naturally from undertaking the plainest duties but
they must be met. To rebuild Springfield is no small task; how to
succeed in its accomplishment is indicated in the following words
of Taine: "Success in life depends upon knowing how to be patient, how to endure drudgery,
how to make and remake, how to recommence and continue without allowing the
tide of anger or the flight of the imagination to arrest or divert the daily effort."
— H. Taine

Piazza San Marco
This view represents the Campanile at Venice. The arrow points to my "home"
in 1901, a few weeks before the fall of the tower.

124 TO THE UNBORN PEOPLES
The following poem accompanied the N. Hawkins paper:
To the Unborn Peoples
Ye Peoples of the future years.
We you salute. To you we fling
From these revolving hemispheres
A greeting glad. While yet we cling
To earth's old rim, we think of you;
A watch we keep by day and night
As plain, in Heaven's unfathomed Blue,
Your great battalions sweep in sight.
Ye Peoples of the future years,
Keep faith with us, the older ones.
Wipe out the causes of our fears,
Climb nearer to the central Suns.
We go our way, our names will die,
Ye shall not find them near or far,
Our highest spans in dust will lie
As low as Karnac's pillars are.
Hail! Hail! ye Peoples yet unborn.
We leave you all that Love bequeaths;
Our gems and mines and fields of corn.
Traditions, arts, and Valor's wreaths.
New voices call. We disappear.
Above our dust your songs will swell;
Your banners float, — Our Kinsmen dear,
Hail! Hail! and then, — Farewell, Farewell.
Ellen M. H. Gates.
November 20th, 1906.

THE BONAPARTE EXILES 125
September 17, 1905
Annual Meeting adjourned to October 17, 1905.

Adjourned Annual Meeting October 17, 1905
Ofiicers elected —
President, William F. Adams. Vice-Presidents, John West, Andrew
J. Flanagan, J. Stuart Kirkham. Clerk and Corresponding Secretary,
Henry A. Booth. Treasurer and Curator, William C. Stone.
Executive Committee: Edward A. Hall, Frank G. Tobey, Alfred M.
Copeland, Albert H. Kirkham, Lewis F. Carr, Rev. Thomas D. Howard.
John A. Callahan of Holyoke read a paper on "Some
Members of the Bonaparte Family as Exiles in this Vicinity. "
The Bonaparte Exiles in the
Connecticut Valley
THIS subject has at first a strange sound to most people;
for we generally associate the name of Bonaparte with
great events across the sea; with the rise and fall of
kingdoms; with marching armies and fleeing royalty;
with conquest and military glory; with the Alps and the pyramids,
with the "hiUs of haughty Spain where his mighty armies shouted;"
with Jena and Marengo; with Waterloo and Helena, with a
tomb on the banks of the Seine.
To change the scene from the banks of the Danube and the Rhine
and the Seine, to the banks of the Connecticut; and to change the
work and events from empire building to love making and weddings,
is a transition quite marked and impressive; yet we all wUl be able
to stand the shock.
In the above subject I refer to visits in this region in 1804 and
in 1824. During the former year, Jerome, the youngest brother of Napo
leon Bonaparte went a number of times through this valley with
his Baltimore bride whom he had married near the close of 1803.
They may truthfully be called "exiles," as they had been informed
that they would not be allowed to land in France as man and wife.
The American girl by her marriage belonged in France — the home

126 THE BONAPARTE EXILES
of her husband, and her exclusion made her an exile. Jerome was
an exile only on condition that he attempted to bring his American
wife with him to his native country, and as he refused to desert
his bride he became an exile by this act.
In 1824, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, a boy of nineteen years,
son of Jerome and the American wife, passed through this section
with his mother after she had been deserted by her husband. This
boy, or young man, was an exile, as the Bonapartes had been over
thrown at Waterloo in 181 5, and the old Bourbon kings were re
stored to the throne of France. The law of 18 16 prescribed death
as the penalty for any person, male or female, of Bonaparte blood
found on French soil. This boy, of course, came under the law and
was therefore an exile of France. The title to this lecture is, there
fore, historically justified, I think.
Since reading the paper before the society in Springfield, I have
given it before a number of societies and clubs. I have found that
the interest was mainly in the Baltimore bride, and therefore I have
used the title "America's Uncrowned Queen." This title is not used
in a figurative, but in a legal sense. Her husband, Jerome, was
made king of Westphalia and she was his only lawful wife, if we
overlook the divorce decree of the French senate — a decree which
was granted without cause and against international law.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Bonaparte family into which our American girl married
was a product of the French Revolution. That most singular
period in the world's history followed closely upon the American
Revolution, and had a close relation to it. The treaty of alliance
between the two countries in 1778, and the resulting union of arms
for nearly four years aroused an intense interest in France as to the
meaning of the American conflict. When our war was a success, and
a new nation was organized on the basis of popular sovereignty, a
form of government then almost unknown in the world, this success
intensified the interest in France, and provoked further discussion
and study among her statesmen as to the rightful origin and basis
of governments. These statesmen could not but be interested in a
form of government that they themselves had helped to establish.
The French asked themselves the direct and sensible question:
Why should we sacrifice lives and much treasure in establishing a

IN THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY 127
republic in America, and wildly cheer the American representa
tives when they come to Paris, and at the same time maintain an
absolute government in France, with no legislature for nearly 200
years ?
An attempt to convene this old legislature on May 5, 1789,
brought disorder, and the French Revolution was started on that
day — made ever historic. There soon followed the downfall of the
old French monarchy, the execution of the king and his wife, with
other members of the royal family, and the proclamation of the first
French republic in 1792, a few months before the execution of
Louis XVI.
In the terrible confusion that followed for years, there came gradu
ally to the front a young hero, known in history as Napoleon Bona
parte. He had no connection with royalty, but was the son of a
lawyer and a widowed mother with seven other children living.
So powerful did he become through his great military achievements,
that he was soon the leading man in France, and in 1800 was made
First Consul, or civic head of the French nation. Four years later
he was so strong that he had himself proclaimed emperor and was
later crowned amidst scenes of the wildest enthusiasm.
VISIT OF JEROME TO THIS COUNTRY
It was during the consulship that Jerome, the youngest member
of the large family of five brothers and three sisters, made a journey
along the coast of the United States, and visited New York and
Baltimore in the fall of 1803. WhUe in that southern city, he saw at
the races, Ehzabeth Patterson, daughter of WiUiam Patterson, a
wealthy merchant of that city, who had come to America from Ire
land as a boy of fourteen years, a short time before the Revolution
in the colonies.
In a few days Jerome Bonaparte was introduced to Miss Patter
son at the house of Hon. Samuel Chase, one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence, and later a justice of the nation's
Supreme Court.
The two young people were in love with each other in a short
time and decided to be married. A certificate was procured Octo
ber 29, and arrangements were made for the wedding on November 7.
So strong was the protest from her father, that the event was post
poned. It was soon learned that the marriage would be disagreeable

128 THE BONAPARTE EXILES
to the First Consul. France was still a republic in form and it
would be supposed that a marriage between a French gentleman
and an American girl would meet with no objection from the French
Consul. But he was then arranging to establish his empire and
imperial family, and wanted his brothers to form alliances in Europe
and thus help to make his own power more secure.
In spite of the objections from both families, the young couple'
were married in Baltimore on Christmas Eve, 1803, by Rt. Rev.
John Carroll, bishop of the Roman CathoUc church. The Patter
sons were Protestants and the Bonapartes were Catholics.
As the couple would not be received in France, they spent a good
part of 1804 in travel, visiting the principal cities along the coast.
It was then the custom for many visitors to New England to come
to Hartford by water and journey to Springfield, the Brookfields,
and through Worcester to Boston. There is a record that Jerome
Bonaparte and his wife stayed at the old tavern in West Brookfield,
a hostelry now standing, and of much historic prestige.
It is very probable that the couple stopped in Springfield, as a
journey from West Brookfield to Hartford would be too long to
make in their slow mode of travel without resting. West Brookfield
is about thirty miles east of this city and Hartford about three
quarters of that distance to the south.
While the married pair were having this extended wedding
journey, efforts were made to reconcile Napoleon to the marriage.
At Mr. Patterson's request, President Jefferson wrote to our minis
ter in France, Robert R. Livingston, to use his influence in the in
terest of the bride. Later, her brother Robert went abroad on this
mission, but his efforts bore no fruit. Napoleon soon showed where
he stood by the orders that he issued. These were that no French
vessel should bring to France, Miss Patterson^, the pretended wife
of Jerome Bonaparte, nor should any public recorder receive or
place on record a pretended marriage between Miss Patterson
and Jerome Bonaparte. EMPIRE AND ROYAL FAMILY ESTABLISHED
While these matters were being considered, a far greater event
took place in Europe; an event that filled all the crowned heads
^The groom was 19 and the bride 18.
'Her maiden name was used in all official documents in France. The
marriage was called illegal, as Jerome was a minor.

IN THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY 129
with amazement. On the 1 8th of May, 1804, the French
republic was changed to an empire and the First Consul became
emperor. He was later crowned with great ceremony in the Cathe
dral by the Pope, who went to Paris for the purpose. A new royal
family was established, composed of some of the members of the
Bonaparte family and their connections. Two of Napoleon's
brothers, Joseph and Louis, were made princes. Jerome and Lucien
were excluded from the royal family.
¦JOURNEY ABROAD. BIRTH OF SON
As no ship would carry Jerome and his wife to Europe, her father
sent one of his vessels. The Erin. They reached Lisbon, Portugal, April
2, 1805. An agent of Napoleon came on the boat and addressed her
as Miss Patterson. She replied that she was Madame Bonaparte
and would demand her rights as a member of the Imperial Family
of France. She was not allowed to land. Her husband promised
to go to Paris and endeavor to reconcile the emperor. He left her
on the vessel at Lisbon and she sailed northerly and came to the coast
of Holland. She was not allowed to land, and after waiting eight days,
she sailed for England and landed at Dover about April 15, or 20.
She went at once to London and took apartments. Her baby was
born on July 7, 1805, at Camberwell, in London, not far from where
Robert Browning was born seven years later. She named her baby
Jerome Napoleon, in honor of his father, and the emperor. About
November 14, when her child was a little over four months old, she
sailed for America and reached Baltimore a short time before
Christmas, 1805. So she came back to her father's home, a de
serted wife, with a baby son that his father had never seen. She
must have fully realized before she left England that she would lose
her husband; for she had not seen him since they parted on the boat
at Lisbon, the first week in April. During the seven months that
she was abroad, Jerome was only a short distance from her, and
could probably have made a number of trips across the channel to
give her comfort in her exile if he had wished to do so. He did
write her a few letters with strong claims of fidelity. One of them,
written in October, contains this language: "My dear and well
beloved wife: Life is nothing to me without thee and my son; be
tranquil, thy husband wiU not desert thee." Her sailing for home
soon after receiving this letter is proof that she had smaU hope of

I30 THE BONAPARTE EXILES
being reunited with him again. The Christmas of 1805 at her
father's home with her babe must have been in strong contrast to
the Christmas day in 1803 — the day foUowing her triumphant
marriage to the brother of the first man in Europe.
TEN YEARS OF EXILE. WATCHING AND WAITING
1805-1815
Madam Bonaparte spent the next ten years in Baltimore watching
over her growing son, but watching still more intently the movements
of her illustrious brother-in-law, as he was changing the map of West
ern Europe, overturning thrones, and establishing new governments
on the ruins of the old. She learned before she left Europe that
divorce proceedings had been started by her husband, and she now
learned that a decree of separation had been passed by the French
council of state. This separated her from her husband so far as
French law had power to do so. She read in 1806 that her hus
band was made king of Westphalia, and the following year that
he had married Frederica Catharine, daughter of the king of
Wurtemberg. Their marriage had great significance when looked
at from the standpoint of Napoleon's ambitions, and created great
interest in England; for the mother of Frederica, the second wife
of Jerome, was a granddaughter of the Duchess of Brunswick who
was a sister to George III, the then ruling king of England. This
made any child born of the marriage heir to England's throne,
according to the laws of English royalty.* The first child, a son
born in 1814, was recognized as such and reveals more clearly the
ambitious plans of the Emperor Napoleon. It can easily be seen
why the second wife of his brother Jerome would count more in his
imperial program than the daughter of the Baltimore business man.
She watched from her home in Maryland the rise of a great empire,
and saw her connections placed on many thrones. She saw her
brother-in-law, Louis, made king of Holland and another king of
Naples and later king of Spain. She saw her sister-in-law Caroline,
queen of Naples. She read of the divorce of Josephine by
Napoleon, his marriage to the Austrian duchess, Marie Louise,
in 1810, and the birth of a son the following year. She read also
of events when the tide turned; how Louis left the throne of Hol
land; the flight of Joseph from Spain, and her own husband's fall
'England has not recognized the salic law which excluded females from the
throne.

IN THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY 131
in Westphalia; the Russian campaign, and at last Napoleon's
defeat and downfaU at Waterloo in June, 181 5.
HER SECOND JOURNEY TO EUROPE
Within two months after the fall of Napoleon, she placed her
son in a private school, Mt. St. Mary's, Emmitsburg, Maryland,
and sailed for England. She went to Cheltenham, about ninety
mUes northwest of London, a place of fashion because of its springs.
She is delighted with her reception there and writes home that she
longs for the presence of Americans that they may see for them
selves the esteem in which she is held. Her father, in reply, under
date of December 15, 1815, writes her a strong letter, rebuking
her for the un-American spirit that she shows in her letters. She
replies warmly in a series of letters and defends her position. In
one of these she says: "I am surprised that you wonder at my
resembling every woman who has left America. I never heard of
one who wanted to return there." In another letter: "These people
who talk of me are envious of your fortune and my situation.
Look how they themselves run after every sprig of nobility. . . .
If people do not approbate my conduct in America, why did they
pay me so much attention ? What other American woman was
ever attended to as I have been there? Who ever had better offers
of marriage.? I confess it would have been perhaps a blessing if I
could have vegetated as the wife of some respectable man in busi
ness, but you know that Nature never intended me for obscurity."
She went to France after a short stay in England and was well
received there. She refused an invitation to call upon the restored
Louis XVIII, as she was yet drawing the pension of one thousand
doUars per month granted by Napoleon after the divorce in France.
She soon hastened home and applied for a divorce from her hus
band in this country and it was granted by the Maryland legis
lature. Jerome had fallen from power and it was held by some
that he might be able to secure a part of her fortune, unless a
divorce was procured in Maryland. He was badly in need, as he
was living on an allowance which he would not have had but for
the exertions and influence of his second wife, who refused to desert
him, although strongly urged to do so by her father, the king of
Wurtemberg. Madame Bonaparte stayed in Baltimore for three
years and then became restless. She longed for European life and

132 THE BONAPARTE EXILES
society, but realized that her future success there must come
through her son who was of Bonaparte blood and name. She
believed that Waterloo had not ended the rule of the illustrious
family; that it would some day come back to power and that her
son should have in part, at least, a European education, to fit him
for a life which would probably be European.
THIRD JOURNEY ABROAD
In 1819 she went to Europe with her son, then fourteen years
old. They settled in Geneva where the boy had a tutor and began
a course of study. The venerable mother of Napoleon, and his sister
Pauline were living together in Rome, and each family was anxious
to see the other. John Jacob Astor was in Rome and wrote Ma
dame Bonaparte in Geneva that her mother-in-law and sister-in-law
in Rome would be glad to see them. A correspondence opened with
the result that she and her son went to Rome in the fall of 1821, and
for the first time were received into the family into .which she was
married eighteen years before.
IN WITH THE BONAPARTES
At this time the Bonaparte spirit was at its lowest ebb. The
fallen emperor had died a prisoner at St. Helena on May 5, and the
news had gradually spread over Europe a few months before, and
the family felt with deep sorrow the loss of the man who had made
them all illustrious. Their Bourbon enemies now ruled France and
death was the penalty for anyone of Bonaparte blood, male or
female, who stepped on her soil. A letter left by Napoleon at
his death urges his family to stand together, and claims that if
they do this, they wiU again rule France. He advises that the
cousins marry, as far as possible, as was the custom in royalty,
so as to keep the members of the family together.
MARRIAGE ARRANGEMENTS
When this matter was considered it seemed agreeable to some
of the family that the Baltimore boy should marry Charlotte, the
daughter of Joseph, former king of Spain. He lived from 18 15 tUl
1830 in the United States as an exile, and his two daughters were
with him for a visit at this time in Philadelphia. This arrangement
was extremely agreeable to Madame Bonaparte. The next spring

IN THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY 133
the boy started for America to handle the question with his cousin.
He was kindly received by her and so wrote to his mother. A second
visit did not find quite the same cordiality; or, at least, he so
claimed, while the mother suspected that her own father, Mr.
Patterson, was interfering with her plans. She wrote to him when
the marriage was first proposed a strong letter in which she used
these words: "This match is the idol of my heart and whoever
opposes it is either an idiot or an enemy and will ever be treated
as such by me."
It had been arranged between mother and son that if the mar
riage plan did not succeed, he was to enter Harvard college. It was
found that his preparation was not complete and he attended a
preparatory school at Lancaster, Mass., for eight months and en
tered Harvard in 1823. The following year she came to America
to study conditions. She was surprised to learn on her arrival that
her son had been suspended from Harvard and was living at Lan
caster, under discipline. He met her at New York and they went
through this valley and the Brookfields to that town near Fitchburg,
where she stayed two months with her son in the fall of 1824. She
was very anxious about the marriage and there was much ground
for hope on her side, as the son had received a letter from Charlotte
while in Harvard, asking him to spend his vacation with her family.
This he had declined on the ground that he had no time to travel
from Boston to Philadelphia.
In June the next year (1825) Madame Bonaparte returned to
Italy. She was much grieved on her arrival to learn that her sister-
in-law, Pauline Bonaparte, who had helped to entertain her at
Rome, had just died. Yet she was greatly pleased when the will
was made public, for her son had been left $4,000. This gave him
recognition in the family — a recognition which up to this time had
been confined to visits and correspondence. Her hopes for her son's
marriage were now greatly increased, and she felt more than before
the very great advantages of the marriage to this Charlotte.
ADVANTAGES OF THE MARRIAGE
The ex-king Joseph (Charlotte's father) was the oldest brother
of Napoleon and represented the family. After the death of the
emperor, if the Bonapartes were restored to power he would prob
ably be king or emperor of France. Napoleon's son had been

134 THE BONAPARTE EXILES
brought up an Austrian by his mother when she deserted her
fallen husband, and he would not find very strong support in
France. Besides, ex-king Joseph was quite wealthy. He had
been king of two countries, Naples and Spain, of the latter country
four years. He had married Julie Cleary, daughter of a wealthy
capitalist of Marseilles.
But if the Bonapartes were not restored to power, she would
be sure o| a royal connection, if her son's marriage to the daughter
of Joseph took place. The then ruling king of Sweden (who was
formerly Bernadotte, one of Napoleon's generals) had married a
Miss Cleary, a sister of Joseph's wife. Charlotte was therefore her
niece, and Madame Bonaparte's son would therefore be married to
a niece of the queen of Sweden (and Norway). This royal family
was firmly established on the throne, as it had been endorsed by
the "allied powers" in 1815, when Europe was reorganized after
Waterloo. It is no wonder that this marriage was the "idol" of
Madame Bonaparte's heart, as she had told her father in the strong
letter above mentioned.
charlotte's MARRIAGE TO ANOTHER COUSIN
Madame now wrote to her son to come to Europe after his
graduation at Harvard, and he sailed in 1826. She had suspected
that Charlotte was to marry her cousin, the son of Napoleon's
sister Caroline, once the wife of Murat, king of Naples. She met
her son in Switzerland on his arrival and traveled with him to Flor
ence. When they arrived in that city she was surprised to learn that
the coveted lady was married in her absence to another cousin —
son of Louis, former king of Holland. This was a severe blow to
Madame Bonaparte's ambitions, and she felt it keenly.
"bo" sees HIS FATHER
Her son, however, (called "Bo" in her letters), had a singular
experience through his visit abroad in 1826. He saw his father for
the first time, although he was twenty-one years old. He saw also
his two half-brothers, aged twelve and four years, and his half-
sister, six years old — known in history as the Princess Mathilda —
tiU her death in 1905. He spent five months with his father's
family and wrote many letters to his grandfather in America on the
life of this faUen royalty. In one of them he says that no food

IN THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY 135
has ever tasted so good to him as the beefsteak at his grand
father's table in Baltimore. He expressed a desire to return to
America as he was getting expensive habits that he ought not to
cultivate. He returned in 1827, while his mother stayed in Florence.
This return voyage has more than ordinary significance, as it
marked the parting of the ways in the plans of the mother and her
son on the marriage question, which was then the ruling issue in
her mind. The son now passes under the influence of his grand
father, and his own inclinations concerning his future career. This
time ( 1 826-1 827) also marks an epoch in her own life, and her im
perial hopes are approaching their sunset. She now forms a new
program and decides to live no more in Italy, but in England. The
reasons for this are many and substantial.
REASONS FOR A CHANGE IN ABODE. SHE PLANS TO
LIVE IN ENGLAND
The object of her trip abroad in 18 19 was in part successful, as
she had been received by her husband's family in Rome and with
much consideration by the mother and sister of the emperor; her
son was remembered substantially in the will of Pauline in 1825.
Yet in the far greater problem of marriage, there was a complete
failure and disappointment. Charlotte's marriage in 1826 took
away the last Bonaparte girl whom "Bo" might marry. The others
had formed alliances. Zenaide, the other daughter of ex-king Joseph,
married in 1822, her cousin Charles Lucien, son of Lucien Bonaparte.
Louis, king of Holland, never had a daughter. The great emperor
had an only child, a son. Lucien had daughters by both wives,
but those of the first wife were all married at this time, and, I think,
those of the second wife. Yet, this matter of Lucien's daughters is
not important as he had not generally been considered a member of
the royal family. Any project for a marriage of "Bo" with a Bona
parte girl after this time was either impossible, or too remote for
serious consideration. Madame Bonaparte knew this and now
decided to change her dwelling place from Italy to some other coun
try in Europe. For a number of reasons she preferred England.
First, she had been received there with great honor when she went
abroad after Waterloo, in 181 5. Her reception in Cheltenham was
always remembered with the greatest pleasure, and referred to
with pride. In the second place, three sisters in Baltimore, who

136 THE BONAPARTE EXILES
were her connections by marriage had gone abroad recently and
married with much distinction. One of them, her sister-in-law
(widow of her brother Robert who had gone abroad in her interest
the year after marriage), married the Marquis of Wellesley, Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland, and brother of the Duke of Wellington.
A second sister (nee Caton) married the Duke of Leeds, and a third,
Baron Stafford. Furthermore, England was on very friendly
terms with Sweden, and the queen of Sweden was closely connected
with the Bonapartes, as she was formerly a Miss Cleary, sister of
the wife of Joseph Bonaparte, ex-king of Spain. All these reasons
made her see a good future in England. She felt, however, that
it would give her a start in England if her son was there also, and
in some official position. She wrote to her father to see Andrew
Jackson, then approaching the height of his great power, and ask
him to use his influence to have her son connected with the American
embassy in London. This could not be done, as the son was legally
an Englishman, having been born in England when his mother was
driven from the shores of France. Our government would be slow
to appoint an Englishman to represent the nation in any capacity.
Besides, if "Bo" became a citizen here it would spoil his connection
with the imperial family of France, if it should be reorganized as an
Empire under the Bonapartes. These matters annoyed her greatly
and caused her to delay her program and remain in Florence.
THE son's MARRIAGE
For about a year there was a lull in the excitement of events —
a rest from her labors, as if she were waiting to get her bearings and
wondering what to do. But the stillness is of the kind that precedes
the storm; and is suddenly broken when she learns that her son
is engaged to marry an American girl. She had noticed the son's
drift away from her for several years, but consoled herself with the
feeling, so often expressed in her letters, that while he remained
single there might arise some opportunity for him in Europe to
help her in her ambition. The son was of age after 1826 and there
fore beyond her legal control. Nothing is left to her but a mother's
power of persuasion, and now even this has failed. Her father and
her son are both against her. The former was strongly against any
European marriage for his grandson, but was less vigorous in his
opposition while the young man was under the legal control of his

IN THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY 137
mother. On August 14, 1825, he wrote this note to "Bo," then in
Harvard college: "Your education and habits are not suitable for
the kind of life you must lead if you marry in Europe; nor would
it answer to bring a wife to this country, for she would never be
satisfied, or reconciled to our manners and customs. If you remain
in this country and make use of your time and talents, you may
come to something, but you would come to nothing in Europe.
My opinions I give fully and freely, and hope you will consider them
well before you take any step that might interfere with your future
happiness." This was during the boy's minority, in 1825, but now in 1828-
1829, the grandfather is more positive. Arrangements are being
made and carried out for "Bo's" marriage with an American girl,
against the most vigorous protest of his mother, writing from
her home in Florence, Italy.
JEROME Bonaparte's marriage
On November 3, 1829, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte was married
in Baltimore to Susan May Williams, a native of that city, whose
father, Benjamin Williams, had moved there from Roxbury, Mass.
The marriage was an event of much importance in the region and
attended by the learned and substantial people. One of the grooms
men was Mr. Pierce Butler, who three years later married Fannie
Kemble, the English actress, who spent many summers in this re
gion, mainly at Lenox, in the Berkshire Hills. The groom received
letters of congratulation from his father, his uncles Joseph and
Louis, Countess Julie, wife of Joseph, the Princess Charlotte, his
cousin, the one intended for him by his mother, and from his pater
nal grandmother in Rome.
The letters from his own mother were of an opposite tone. In
one letter she shows her feeling in this way: "It would be fair in my
family and a justice they owe me and my reputation for pride and
sense, to say that this marriage was contracted without my knowl
edge, and in the most decided opposition to the opinions and wishes
I had ever expressed respecting my son's interests. I think I would
sooner have begged my bread from door to door, than have de
graded myself by entering into such a connection. My son by his
birth was a much greater person than I have become by marriage,
and therefore had to stoop much lower than I should have done if

138 THE BONAPARTE EXILES
any sordid consideration ever could have induced me to forget
the respect that I owed to my place in society."
In a very few months there took place in Europe a great event
that was the beginning of the restoration of the Bonapartes to
power. This was
THE DOWNFALL OF THE BOURBON KINGDOM
This took place in the summer of 1830, and then followed the
flight of Charles X and his royal household from France. The
Bonapartes were in exile according to the Bourbon law of 1816, and
therefore were at a great disadvantage in handling their cause
in the struggle for the throne. A cousin line of the Bourbons, the
Orleans branch, was placed on the throne, without the white flag,
and the government went on.
TIDE TURNS TOWARDS THE BONAPARTES
There began at once to occur in France a series of important
events which plainly showed that the tide was rising and was surely
to bring back to power the Bonaparte family upon its bosom.
General La Marque died at this time and was buried with the great
est honor, yet his main claim to distinction was that he had been
a general under Napoleon. In 1833, the statue of the emperor
which had been taken down by the Bourbons after Waterloo, was
restored to its place on the Vendome Column with the cheers of
acres of humanity. In 1836, the Arch of Triumph, started by
Napoleon in 1806, was now finished in his honor. In the same
year, his nephew (son of Louis, former king of Holland), landed
in France and made an unsuccessful dash for control. In 1840, the
highest point of the fever was nearly reached when the body of
Napoleon, in fulfillment of his last wish, was brought from St.
Helena, and placed under the dome of the Soldiers' Home, "on
the banks of the Seine among the French people whom he loved
so well." In the same year the nephew made a second dash for the
throne but was no more successful than in 1836. He was sentenced
to prison where he remained until his escape, in disguise, six years
later. THEIR ENEMIES OR COMPETITORS PASSING AWAY
Not only did many events directly favor the Bonaparte family,
but also their opponents for the throne began to pass away.

IN THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY 139
Napoleon II, the only child of the emperor, died in 1832 in man
hood's prime, at his Austrian home. He had been brought up as
an alien to the family of his father; yet if he appeared in an
emergency at Paris, there would have been many cheers for him in
the city of his birth and the scene of so much of his father's glory.
His death settled this question.
The fallen Bourbons made an effort to recover their lost power
by a dash into France, with the grandson of the exUed king as
claimant for the throne but it ended in a dismal failure. La Fayette
was not seeking power against the will of the nation, yet if he
were offered the presidency of France without too much opposition,
he might have accepted the honor as a proper ending to a long and
patriotic life. But he died in 1834 and his death settled another
question for the Bonapartes.
These many events show how fortune in this decade favored the
illustrious family into which the former Miss Patterson was married.
HER RETURN TO AMERICA
From 1819, when she went abroad to educate her son, till 1834,
she lived in Europe, except the ten months spent in America in
1824 and 1825. She now abandons Europe for good — Europe that
she so praised and loved — the scene of her triumphs and the source
of her glory. This must have been an eventful year for her, the year
that ended her European career. The past and present must have
risen up before her. She returned to a lonesome city of changed
population and increased size; for it was a third of a century since
the days of herhappy marriage in Baltimore on Christmas eve in 1 803 .
Her mother and sisters are long since dead. The brother who
journeyed abroad in her interest in 1804, died in 1822, and his widow
went abroad and married the Marquis of WeUesley. Her son
is Hving with his American wife and child four years old. Her
former husband is Hving in peace with his second wife Frederica
Catharina and their three chUdren on the shores of the Adriatic.
The Princess Charlotte is now a widow by the death of her husband
in 183 1, and had Jerome remained single, as his mother had urged,
the match which failed in 1826 might now be arranged with the
widow, and put her son in close alliance with the rising Bonaparte
power. Her father, WiUiam Patterson, with whom she had not been

I40 THE BONAPARTE EXILES
on friendly terms, is very old (eighty-two) and about to dispose
of his large property. Last but not least, she hears that her hus
band is trying to arrange a marriage between his daughter Mathilda
(by his second wife) and Louis Napoleon, who was being considered
as the representative of the Bonaparte claims on power and who
later became Napoleon III. These were the conditions as she
returned to her Baltimore home. She was in her fiftieth year and
she realized it. She had lost in the two great battles of her
life, — the retaining of her husband, and the marriage of her son
into the new royal family of Europe.
There was another recognition of her son in the Bonaparte
family at this time when Cardinal Fesch, maternal uncle of the
emperor, left by will $10,000 to him. She and the son went abroad
for this in 1839 and returned in 1840.
DOWNFALL OF ORLEANS KINGDOM. BONAPARTES RESTORED
IN FRANCE
Soon there came the year 1848, that year of terror in Europe.
The "Citizen King" as Louis Philippe was called, fled across the
channel to England, there to find a home, and before two years a
grave. The Revolution is complete. The Bonapartes rush into
France from their exile homes in many lands — from America, from
Italy and from England, and the nation receives them with the
wildest enthusiasm. The prophecy of the fallen emperor before
his death on his prison island — that his family would come back to
power — is fulfilled. Madame Bonaparte looked with quiet serenity
on the restoration of the illustrious famUy whose name her own son
bore. They dispute no longer with their enemies for leadership,
but dispute among themselves for power and place.
The emperor is dead twenty-seven years; his three sisters are
dead and all his brothers, except Jerome, the former husband of the
Baltimore woman. It was thought for a while that the other mem
bers would turn to him as the only surviving brother of the great
Emperor, and place him at the head of the French nation. And if
this were done, there might come to pass another event that would
bring to Madame Bonaparte the realization of aU her hopes, and
make her rule in the palace of the Tuileries. Her former husband
was now a widower; for Frederica Catharina had died in 1835, and
Jerome was free to marry again. He had been mellowed by sorrow;

IN THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY 141
his only daughter* had married a Russian count, but was divorced
from her cruel husband and had seen a broken life. His older son
by the second marriage had died in 1846, only two years before
this time. This son was heir to England's throne, through his
mother who was grandniece of George IH. It was thought that
Jerome would now in the days of his sorrow, when his family was
broken, turn to his first love, the mother of his first born child, and
bring her to France and make her the first lady in the land from
which she had been cruelly driven in her early life through no fault
of her own. But it was destined not to be. He was now sixty-four
years old and the younger relatives, his nephews, were ready to show
him that they were more capable of upholding the family cause.
There were four nephews of the emperor at that time in Paris.
Lucien Charles Murat, son of Caroline, sister of Napoleon;
Pierre, son of Lucien; Napoleon Bonaparte, son of Jerome (and
half brother of the Baltimore Jerome); and Louis Napoleon, son
of Louis, former king of Holland. The latter was looked upon
with some suspicion on account of his leaning towards imperialism;
but the tide soon turned in his favor and he was elected president
of the French Republic by an overwhelming majority. He was
a bachelor till his marriage in 1853 to the one who became on her
marriage. Empress Eugenie, now living in England. During a part
of this time he had for the Lady of the Tuileries Palace, the Princess
Mathilda, daughter of Jerome Bonaparte by his second wife. She
was about thirty years old, and of course a half sister to the Balti
more Jerome. Unpleasant must this have been for the Baltimore
queen — the palace in Paris governed by the daughter of the woman
who had taken her place in her husband's affections.
FAME AND EMPIRE
In 1852 France was made an empire with the former president as
emperor. He assumed the title of Napoleon III, thus leaving room
for the deceased son of Napoleon I to be honored as Napoleon II.
With his marriage the next year to the Spanish countess, the im
perial family in France seemed quite complete and firmly estab
lished. About this time there was born, 1851, a second son to Mr.
Bonaparte of Baltimore, the first son having been born twenty-one
years before. This son, born in 1851, is the present distinguished
*Princess Mathilda (1820-1905).

142 THE BONAPARTE EXILES
citizen of the nation, Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte, who served as secre
tary of the navy and later as attorney general in Roosevelt's cabinet.
In 1854, Jerome Bonaparte of Baltimore went to France and
asked to be recognized in the royal family. He was met at the door
of the palace by his cousin, the emperor, who handed him a letter
which said that there had been a decision by the Council of State
to consider him a legitimate child of France. Jerome thanked the
emperor and felt most grateful. Later, however, he received a
letter from the emperor which informed him that his father,
Jerome, would never consent to have this American son live in
France. He was offered the title of Duke of Sartene, but as that
meant that he should use the title and give up his own name, he
looked upon the proposition as a device to side track him and de
clined the honor. Very soon the king of Wurtemberg, representing
the family of the second wjfe, made much trouble and noise about
the reflection on his family if the first marriage question was re
vived. Jerome's half brother, seventeen years younger than him
self, made a severe attack on him and protested against Jerome
Patterson* using the name Bonaparte. The emperor soon sent a
letter to Jerome telling him that it would be impossible to recognize
him as a member of the imperial family. He did this with very
great sorrow, as the two cousins had been friends since they first
met at Rome in 1826, when Jerome went abroad after his graduation
from Harvard. Tihe emperor had also visited Mr. Bonaparte in
Baltimore in 1837, when he was set free after his trial for attempting
to capture the government of France.
Mr. Bonaparte replied to the emperor in a letter of much
strength, dignity and courtesy and returned to his Baltimore home.
It may, at first, seem surprising, after reading of the aversion
of Jerome in his early life to Europeanism, that he should care for
admission to an imperial family. But it should be remembered that
his early manhood was developed under the watchful eye of his
sternly American grandfather; that he was too young to appreciate
the great conquests of his uncle at their time, as he was a boy of
nine when the great hero went down to defeat in Belgium's rolling
plains, and made Waterloo immortal and symbolic of disaster.
His grandfather was now dead for nearly twenty years and it is
not surprising that he came to sympathize with his mother, and to
*His mother's maiden name, on the theory that the marriage in 1803 was not
legal as Jerome was a minor.

IN THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY 143
see that she was being deprived of her dearest personal and legal
rights as a woman. He could not but have felt great pride in the
family whose name he bore, and desired recognition with those
who were of his blood. He must have read in his mature years,
of the almost unprecedented chapter that his uncle made in the
history of Europe. That this family should come back to power a
third of a century after Waterloo, and with the almost unanimous
voice of the French nation, must have stirred his pride, and in
creased his desire to assume in the family the part that belonged
to him by law and nature.
JEROME NEAR THE IMPERIAL THRONE
A glance at the male heirs to the throne at this time will plainly
show that the Baltimore Jerome was not far from the throne if his
rights were recognized. He was the oldest son of his father by a
lawful marriage. The half brother who was against his living in
France was the son of a German woman, and it was felt that the
revolutionists in France in 1848 had far more sympathy for Ameri
can than for German ideas and principles. The two brothers of
Napoleon III were dead and had no descendants. The emperor
himself, at this time, had no child. The son of Napoleon I was dead
since 1832. The sons of Lucien had no great influence on account
of the hostile attitude of their father towards his illustrious brother.
Joseph, oldest brother of Napoleon I, had no sons, and the sons of
his daughter Zenaide could not inherit the right to rule, according
to the policy that hadi governed royalty in France for centuries.
Therefore, if the emperor died at this time, and if there was a fair
adjustment of the claims made by the Bonaparte men, Mr. Bona
parte of Baltimore might be asked to sit on the imperial throne.
Does it seem surprising then that the American nephew of the great
emperor went abroad to ascertain what were his rights when his
own cousin is sitting on that imperial throne.' In 1856, however,
there was born to Napoleon III a son, known as the Prince Imperial
until his tragic death in the English army in 1879.
DEATH OF JEROME BONAPARTE, EX-KING OF WESTPHALIA
In June, i860, Madame Bonaparte's former husband died in
Paris. This brought before her mind a history of fifty-seven years,
filled with events of great interest to her.

144 THE BONAPARTE EXILES
She went abroad to contest his will and secure her rights accord
ing to the marriage contract of 1803. That contract was drawn by
Hon. Alexander J. DaUas (later in Madison's cabinet), and it was
stipulated that in case the French nation should separate her hus
band from her, she should receive one-third of the property that
he possessed at his death. She wanted that contract executed and
employed the great Berryer, who had appeared in two other legal
battles for the American Bonapartes. He presented the case with
great eloquence and feeling before the tribunal, but the decision was
against her. Justice and law were on her side, but the power was
with the tribunal. A decision in her favor would have annoyed the
family of the second marriage. France was an empire, not a re
public, at this time, and people of royal tradition had more influence
than people with republican traditions. Her husband left his only
living son by the second marriage sole heir to his possessions, and
sanctioned a portion for his daughter Mathilda. His first wife is
not mentioned in the will, nor is her son. They are treated as if
they had no existence — as if he did not know them. She is again
cast down, when she is in her seventy-sixth year. She has now
been severely hurt by two wills — wills of persons near to her,
— father and husband; for William Patterson's will, filed in 1835,
the year after she abandoned Europe, left her little or no property
in fee, but the income and use of nine houses. She returns to
America, and finished her sixth round trip, or twelfth voyage across
the Atlantic. The first voyage was made with her young husband
in 1805, and the last, fifty-five years later, only to learn that neither
herself nor her son is mentioned in the will of that husband of her
early days. They never spoke to each other after the parting on
the boat at Lisbon in April, 1805. They once met by accident
in 1822, at the art gallery of the Pi tti Palace in Florence, but
they did not speak. Jerome had with him his second wife at the
time. It may seem quite consistent, therefore, that she would not
be mentioned in the wiU of a husband whose desertion had been
so complete and of such long duration.
SUMMER OF 1870
The year i860 was eventful for Madame Bonaparte, as it brought
the death of her husband and the memories that must have been
revived. But the year 1870 was more eventful stUl. It brought

IN THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY 145
first, the death of her son — on June 17 — the same month in which
his father had died ten years before. This was the son who was
born to her when she was deserted by her husband and living
among strangers in a foreign land, the son that as a small babe
she had brought across the sea in those days before steam was used
in ocean travel; the son, who, when he had reached manhood,
refused to follow her advice on the question of a royal marriage and
then helped to drive her back again into an obscurity from which
she claimed he might have redeemed her.
DOWNFALL OF THE EMPIRE
She hardly had time to realize the fullness of her sorrow when
there burst suddenly upon the world in that same year, the Franco-
German war, the defeat of the French at Sedan, the downfall of
the Second Empire, the flight of the emperor to England, there to
find, like the Orleans king, a home and a grave. The Baltimore
queen saw now for the second time the downfall of the most illus
trious family that Europe has produced. Sedan came and the
empire fell and she realized that it could never rise again. The
republic was established in France, and she saw it develop for over
eight years. She died the fourth of April, 1879, and was buried in a
plot by herself in Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore. She was
buried from the home of the daughter-in-law whose marriage to her
son she had so vigorously opposed a half century before, in 1829.
She was in her ninety-fifth year.
Some accounts say that she was worth about $1,500,000 when
she died. Some of this came from the pension of $1,000 per month
which the emperor allowed her after the separation. This was
continued for ten years, and during this time she lived quietly
with her father in Baltimore. Her son received $4,000 from
his aunt, Pauline Bonaparte, in 1825, and later $10,000 from his
grand-uncle. Cardinal Fesch, maternal uncle of the first emperor.
William Patterson passed much of his property over her head to
her son, but this son died before his mother, and she may have in
herited from him a part of what her father refused to leave her.
Her struggle for a large part of her life was for recognition in the
family of her marriage, and inspired by the just belief of a woman
that she was wronged. She had married her husband according
to the forms and ceremony of his religion, and by a high dignitary

146 THE BONAPARTE EXILES
of his church. She had her son brought up in the religion of his
father, although she and the Patterson family were Protestants.
She had some correspondence with Harvard College on this matter
when her son was a student there, as he was attending exercises
which she thought were not necessary. On this subject she was a
diplomat; her family represented two systems of religion, yet in
her many letters she rarely mentions the subject of religion.
She not only lived in a time when "new" families were being
established in Europe, but she was closely connected with them.
She had been a sister-in-law to the king of Holland, to the king of
Naples, and later the king of Spain; sister-in-law also to queen
Caroline of Naples, and to the emperor himself, and her lawful
husband was king of Westphalia.
She was as much royal as the one who was queen of Sweden
after 1818, for the latter was the daughter of a French business man,
and her husband, king of Sweden, was simply one of Napoleon's
generals, while the husband of the Baltimore queen was the brother
of the Emperor Napoleon I.
Her life covered nearly a century — a century most eventful in
the history of the world, but especially in the country which became
hers by marriage.
When she was born in 1785, the Bourbons were slumbering in
apparent security on a quaking throne. When she was a girl of
seven, that throne was gone, and soon the head of Louis XVI
fell before the shining blade. As a girl of eighteen she was married
in her own city to a brother of the greatest man in Europe. At
twenty she was deserted by that husband and gave birth to a son
among strangers in a foreign land. At thirty she read of the fall
of the great Bonaparte family at Waterloo, and saw the exiled
Bourbons restored to the throne. At forty-five she learned of the
second downfall and the folding forever of the white Bourbon flag.
At sixty-three she saw her illustrious family returned to power
in their own land and commence a reign that lasted nearly a
quarter of a century.
At seventy-five, she learned of her husband's death, and his
failure to remember in his will that she ever existed. At eighty-five
she lost her son, and in a few months saw the downfall of the Second
Empire at Sedan. She now had seen in her life two great empires
fall, two empires of her family — she had seen two Waterloos,

IN THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY 147
fifty-five years apart; and the second Waterloo — Sedan in 1870,
was the greater. The first Waterloo was not what we are made to
feel; the word was given a meaning before history had time to
pass on the result. The battle was to put down Bonaparte and
restore the Bourbons. It restored the Bourbons, but they did not
stay in power; they soon fell, and fell forever. It put down the
first Bonaparte, but not his cause, nor even his family. They came
back after a third of a century and ruled the land of their uncle.
But Sedan ended that rule forever, and was a worse Waterloo
than the former. At the first Waterloo Madame Bonaparte was
thirty, in the springtime of life, when the pulse of youth was strong
and its hopes were high. But in 1 870, the year of Sedan, life for
her had reached its chill December. Appropriate, indeed, is the
inscription on her simple monument in Greenmount:
"After life's fitful fever, she sleeps well."
She has a number of descendants now living, and when their
high standing, character and connections are considered, it can be
said that Madame Bonaparte's ambition to be the mother of an
illustrious family has been realized quite fully, even if not in the way
she had marked on life's program.
Her grandsons have attained high distinction, one on each side
of the Atlantic. The elder, Colonel Jerome Bonaparte, born In
1830, graduated from West Point in 1852 and served as lieutenant
in the army until he resigned to enter the service of the Second
Empire of his cousin. He served in the Crimean War against
Russia, and received a Crimean Medal from the queen of England.
He fought in the Vatican Campaign against Austria in 1859 and
was given special marks of honor by the king of Sardinia. He died
at his summer home in our state — Beverly Farms, in September,
1893. His brother, born twenty-one years later, is a graduate of Har
vard CoUege, and was a member of Roosevelt's cabinet. He is
known as the Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte of Baltimore, and has
been a national figure since his civil service work for good govern
ment in Maryland and in the nation. Colonel Jerome married the
granddaughter of Daniel Webster, and they had several children.
A son Is now in a bank in Washington, D. C. A daughter was
married September 29, 1896, to Count Adam de Moltke Huitfeldt

148 THE BONAPARTE EXILES
of Denmark, whose father had been Danish Ambassador to France.
The married couple went to live in St. Petersburg, Russia and
now have three or four children.
DESCENDANTS OF JEROME AND HIS SECOND WIFE
He left his first wife in 1805 and married Frederica Catharina,
daughter of the king, of Wurtemburg, on August 12, 1807. Three
children were born of this union — two sons and a daughter. The
first child was a son, born in 1814, about seven years after the mar
riage. Great Interest was felt In England as it had been known that
any issue of their marriage would be a distant heir to the English
throne, as the German princess, whom Jerome married, was a
granddaughter to the Duchess of Brunswick, who was a sister to
George III, king of England. He died a bachelor at thirty-two,
in 1846, two years before the Bonapartes were returned to France.
The second child was a daughter, born in 1820, and has been known
in history as the Princess Mathilda. For a while she was the first
lady of France In a social way, as she was housekeeper for Napoleon
III before his marriage to Eugenie In 1853. She married Count
Demidoff of Russia in 1840, but was divorced from him five years
later. There was no chUd of this union. She died in 1905, having
spent a large part of her Hfe in Paris in the study of painting and
the fine arts.
The third child of Jerome by his second wife was a son, born in
1822, and named for his father. He married in 1859, Clothilde,
daughter of Victor Emmanuel I, and sister of the late King Humbert.
Three children were born of this union — two sons and a daughter,
as was the case In the previous generation. The older son, born
In 1862, was married in 1910, to Princess Clementine, daughter of
the king of Belgium, recently deceased. The second son, born in
1864, has not been married, and is now, or has been, connected
with the Russian army. The daughter, Letitia, was married In 1888,
to her own uncle, the brother of her mother, the Duke of Aosta.
They had one chUd, a son, born in 1889. These three children
of Clothilde and Jerome's son are now living. Their father (who
married the sister of King Humbert) died in Rome in 1891. It Is
singular that the descendants of Jerome by his two wives — the
Baltimore lady and the German princess, are the representatives
of the Bonaparte family on both sides of the Atlantic ocean.
No elaborate argument is needed to show that Madame Bona-

IN THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY 149
parte's cause was justice, and that her many battles were fought
to secure her personal rights. In the time of her youth, many of
the daughters of the leading American families were educated
abroad, and became much interested in marriages with nobility.
According to letters from the families of our embassadors a century
ago, large numbers of American girls were abroad for this purpose.
This was not the case with Miss Patterson. She was discovered in
her own city and sought in her own home by Jerome Bonaparte.
She was married according to forms and ceremony that satisfied
the laws of her country and also the rules of her husband's church.
When her father learned that the marriage was certain to take place,
he consulted able lawyers, and took all means to secure a legal
marriage from the standpoint of both state and church. There
was no possible loophole left open for attack. The property con
tract was drawn by one of the best lawyers in the country.
The objection raised by Napoleon, then First Consul of France,
was that Jerome was a minor, and as his father was dead, he should
have received the consent of his oldest brother Joseph (later king
of Naples and Spain). But it was not necessary to have the mar
riage conform to French law, but to American law where the cere
mony took place.
According to international law, by the comity of nations, each
country recognizes the official acts and records of other nations on
a variety of questions, including marriage. This settled the ques
tion from a legal standpoint and made Miss Patterson the lawful
"wife of Jerome Bonaparte" as is written on her single headstone
In Baltimore. Her husband was king of WestphaHa for about seven
years, and she was, therefore, the de jure, if not the de facto queen
of that kingdom.
She was the lawful sister-in-law of an emperor, yet she was denied
admission to the royal family. She became by her marriage a
daughter of France, yet she was refused the right to put her foot
on its soil. Large numbers of her connections lived in palaces,
yet she was forbidden to cross their threshold. Her own son bore
the name of Bonaparte, yet he was denied the right to use it in
France, and was given his mother's maiden name in the land and
household of his father.
Her son's half-brother was heir to England's throne (through the
German Princess) and her brother-in-law, Joseph (king of Naples

ISO THE BONAPARTE EXILES
and Spain), was a brother-in-law to the queen of Sweden, yet all
these things could not draw her close to royalty.
She passed through a long series of trials, disappointments,
humiliations and insults — such as have fallen to the lot of few
women, and are believed to shorten the lives of most people who
experience them, yet she lived to be nearly a century.
She was a woman of deep and strong feelings In every way and
had an intense love for her son. In one of her letters she said that
even if he should try to kill her and failed in the attempt, she would
not disinherit him as it was "not natural for a mother to do so."
When she returned from Europe she had labels on the large number
of garments so that she could tell which one she wore when she met
different notables at court or social functions in her long career In
Europe. She kept also, well into later life, the silk coat that her
husband wore at their wedding in 1803.
I visited her grave In the spring of 1909, a short distance from the
Pennsylvania R. R. Station in Baltimore, and it came to me as I
stood there that the date was April 2, the anniversary of the date
(April 2, 1805) when she parted (or was about to part) from her
young husband forever at Lisbon, and Hved seventy-four years a
widow. As I stood In silence before her tomb there came to my mind a
few of the lines that have made Gray and Stoke-Pogis immortal :
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power.
And aU that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave.
Await alike the inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

ON SARATOGA'S BATTLEFIELDS 151
Quarterly Meeting December 8, 1905
Rev. Thomas D. Hov^^ard read a paper on "A Recent
Visit to the Battlefield at Saratoga. "
Henry A. Booth gave a talk on "The Battle of Saratoga."
On Saratoga's Battlefields
ON the map of the state of New York, against the name
"Bemis Heights," is the battle-mark with two dates,
September 19 and October 7, 1777, indicating two en
gagements instead of a single battle. The fighting took
place on the heights named, which are, and were In 1777, within the
limits of the township of Stillwater. The name Saratoga is given
to the entire campaign as Indicating the place of the capitulation,
the grand outcome.
The scene of this memorable conflict has probably been less
visited than any other of the chief battle grounds of the Revolution,
being off the line of any railroad. It Is now, however, made acces
sible by the trolly from MechanicvIUe, a station on the Boston and
Maine railroad, and from Saratoga Springs, by rail to SchuylervIUe
and thence by trolly. Moreover, its attractiveness has been en
hanced by the information furnished by suitably-inscribed markers
at points of special interest. These pillars are of Quincy granite,
grounded, I was told, to the depth of four feet; and standing about
three and one half; the chiseled lettering on the smoothed face is
painted black so as to be easily read from the carriage road.
By each of the routes I have mentioned the stopping place is
Bemis Heights, a small post-office village. There Is a nicely-kept
tavern, where a conveyance and guide were furnished me for the
tour, which occupied two hours.
Our itinerary was first to the north by the river road. The
Hudson was on our right. A hight termed Willard mountain, evi
dently of upheaved rock, rises sharply from the opposite bank. This
was an Important holding of the American army, furnishing as It
did a point of observation Into the British camp. On the left is
Bemis Heights. This elevation is a deposit largely of clay. It rises
from the river about seventy-five feet as a bluff, from which there
extends inward a table land pierced by deep ravines which have been

152 ON SARATOGA'S BATTLEFIELDS
worn through the yielding material. This plain, thus broken, was
the scene of the conflicts of September 19 and October 7, 1777.
The first roadside marker reached bears the inscription "Bemus
Tavern," the proper name spelt with a "u." Here, previous to the
second engagement were the headquarters of General Gates. This
was the east limit of the American fortified camp. The next stone
indicated the western terminus of the floating bridge which con
nected the American camp with Willard mountain. The first marker
beyond the American lines is at the site of the house of Nicholas
Fish, in which General Frazer, who was mortally wounded in the
second battle, died.
The river road is now left by a turn to the west. A sharp ascent
brings us to the elevated plain. The line of the British entrench
ments, three-quarters of a mile in extent, is now followed. The first
stone marks the place where General Arnold made his seemingly
desperate but brilliantly successful attack on the British artillery.
The next indicates the ground where Frazer was attacked by Captain
Morgan. The third, the ravine where in both battles the contend
ing forces surged back and forth In hand-to-hand fighting. "Free
man's Farm," a small clearing in 1777, well-cultivated acres now,
its soil teeming with bullets, tells the story of the fierce encounters
that there had place. The roughly-curbed well, the possession of
which was violently contested, remains now as then.
There is next traversed, southward, the interval between the
two camps — a space of about two miles. The first marker en
countered on the American side bears the inscription "Fort Neil-
son." This structure was originally a barn in the clearing of the
settler whose name it bears. It must be observed that the American
lines were in their general direction parallel with those of the British.
But at this point a curve northward formed a salient angle including
this barn, which was strengthened by a double coating of logs. It
formed a redoubt well advanced toward the enemy, and was manned
by Captain Morgan's riflemen. Its site is of special interest, be
cause thence went forth this sturdy corps to initiate each of the
battles which brought about the final victory.
The expedition which received its check at Bemis Heights set
forth from St. John, Canada, June 16, 1777, under the command of
Gen. John Burgoyne. Its purpose and the expectations based on its
success is stated by Irving, speaking from the British point of view:

ON SARATOGA'S BATTLEFIELDS • 153
"The junction of the two armies, that in Canada and that under
General Howe in New York, was considered the speediest way of
quelling the rebeUion." It does indeed seem probable that such
complete severance of New England from the rest of the confed
erated states might have resulted In the ultimate suppression of the
revolt against British tyranny. To borrow a phrase applied by a
recent historian to the effect of the conquest of the Mississippi by
the Union army and navy, the confederacy of 1777 would have been
"broken in half."
For the narrative of the preparation and the battle I am largely
indebted to a history, the title of which indicates its local flavor,
"The Story of Old Saratoga, by John Henry Brandon, M. A., some
time pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church of SchuylervIUe, N. Y."
SchuylervIUe, it is to be observed, is Old Saratoga. The place chosen
to receive the British attack was the narrowest part of the river
valley, closely hemmed in by Willard mountain on the east and
Bemis Heights on the west, leaving but a strait defile to be defended.
This excellent strategic position was selected by Kosciusko, the
Polish patriot, who in 1776 came to America, joined the army, and
had been assigned to General Gates's command not long before the
battle. A line of entrenchments was thrown up, beginning at the river
and continuing three-quarters of a mile west; not, however, in a
straight line; although irregular, it may be described as a semicircle
convexing to the north. There was also toward the western limit
the angle and redoubt already described.
The right wing of the defensive army occupied the hillside near
the river, protected by a marshy ravine and an abbatis. The left
wing in command of General Arnold, the hight on "the west." Can
non were planted on Willard mountain across the Hudson, and
Colonel Colburn's regiment held that commanding position. The
preparation was substantially complete when, September i6th.
General Burgoyne, having crossed the Hudson by a bridge of boats,
encamped about five miles distant. For the next two days there
were no signs of his further progress southward. But on the morn
ing of the 19th Colonel Colburn's men, perched on treetops, spied
a movement of the enemy, indicating an advance. Report was im
mediately made to headquarters.
General Gates planned to meet the enemy within the entrench-

154 ¦ ON SARATOGA'S BATTLEFIELDS
ments. General Arnold, however, persuaded the commander, though
with much difficulty, to allow himself and Morgan to attack the
advancing force before it could reach the camp. With this permis
sion he went forth In command of Captain Morgan's 500 riflemen
and General Dearborn's rangers and riflemen. Their route was to
the west and north, toward the extreme right of the British line,
where was General Frazer's command. At I o'clock they met Bur
goyne's Indians and Canadians, scouting near the cottage on Free
man's farm; a skirmish occurred. Meanwhile General Frazer
wheeled to the left for the purpose of flanking Morgan and Dearborn,
when he encountered Arnold, now reinforced by New York and New
Hampshire troops. His purpose was to separate Frazer from Bur
goyne. At about 3 o'clock the action became general. The struggle
of the contestants was for the possession of the clearing. Freeman's
homestead, hemmed In by thick woods. Burgoyne, for he was him
self at the front, hard pressed by the spirited attack, sent to his left
for reinforcements, and by the numerical superiority thus acquired
compelled the patriots to retire. There was no pursuit.
This was the entirety of the first battle. It was all comprised in
but little more than three hours of desperate fighting, ending with
the obscuring darkness of nightfall. It was not a victory for the
Americans, they being finally repulsed, but it was a defeat for the
British, since Burgoyne was foiled of the object he had in view. He
intended to pass through or over the entrenchments he approached
on his way to junction with General Clinton. He was halted and
as the event proved, permanently. The losses sustained in the
battle were on the British side 500 or 600 killed and wounded; of
the Americans, about 300.
In the British camp orders were immediately issued for the
renewal of the confiict in the morning, but Burgoyne, with his in
veterate habit of delay, changed the time to the day foUowing. In
the intervening night a dispatch came from Sir Henry CHnton that
he was about to move up the Hudson to his aid. On this it was
decided to await events. A happy postponement for the American
cause! The supply of ammunition had been almost entirely ex
pended on the 19th, and an attack on the entrenchments could
hardly have been repulsed. Each day was clear gain to the patriots.
Ammunition was soon sent from Albany to the camp, and the army
was daily augmented by the militia, who reported for duty from the
whole countryside, generaUy bringing their supplies with them.

ON SARATOGA'S BATTLEFIELDS 155
It will be remembered that General Burgoyne held the ground
on which he was attacked September 19th. In the interval of quiet
he threw up breastworks and erected forts which transformed the
line into an entrenched camp. Its length westward from the river
was the same as that of the Americans, and at nearly all points its
breastworks were directly opposite those of the American camp.
For sixteen days there were no indications of hostile activity. It Is
now known that on the evening of October 5th General Burgoyne
laid before his officers the situation, namely, that his commissariat
was running low, and that nothing had been heard from Clinton;
and that on this presentation the advice he received was so opposed
to offensive operations and in favor of a retreat to Fort Edward,
that he decided on a middle course, — to make a reconnoissance in
force to ascertain the position of the enemy, and if an attack should
be found unwise, to retreat.
Now, to comprehend the origin and course of the battle of which
the carrying out of this plan was the occasion, it must be noticed
that this was a reconnoissance in force, that is, while its prime ob
ject was to view the enemy in order to ascertain the advisability
of an attack, there was full preparation for fighting. The organized
force was a body of 1,500 picked men and ten pieces of artillery.
There was the right, left and center; in detail, the light infantry
under General Balcarres was stationed on the right. General Rle-
desel with the German troops held the center. Majors Ackland and
Williams with the grenadiers were posted on the left. Meantime,
General Frazer with 500 grenadiers had occupied a hight In advance,
with the intention of stealing around the left of the American ranks
and holding their attention, while the main body could gain the
high ground.
That immediate hostilities were Inferred from this disposition
of the British troops Is evident from the conversation reported as
taking place In the American camp. Adjutant-General Wilkinson,
having from an eminence observed the enemy in array, reported
to General Gates that Burgoyne apparently offered battle.
"What do you suggest.?" asked Gates.
"I would Indulge him," was the reply.
"Then," said Gates, "order out Morgan." Obedient to this
command was the Initiation of the battle.
UnHke the previous engagement, which was a fight for the pos-

156 ON SARATOGA'S BATTLEFIELDS
session of a space of small dimensions, the attack of October 7 was
planned for a combined assault on the entire line of the organized
threatening force. Morgan's riflemen were to make a wide circuit
northwesterly to outflank General Frazer with his grenadiers.
Time being allowed for Morgan to reach the enemy. General Poor
with his brigade was to assail the extreme left of the British line
and Learned's brigade and Dearborn's riflemen the center and left.
At about half past two began the combined attack. Morgan, gain
ing a ridge west of Frazer, fell upon his detached force and compeUed
a retreat to the main body with the aid of Major Dearborn who
made a counter attack. He struck the British right, making a
change of front a necessity; while this change was in process or
shortly after its completion, the riflemen enforced a disorderly
retreat. Almost simultaneous with this success was General Poor's
charge on the British left, where were Majors Ackland and Williams
with their commands and a battery of 12-pounders. For the por
trayal of this brilliant achievement I quote the animated description
in the "History of Old Saratoga:" —
Poor's men descended into the ravine and ascended the opposite bank with
the coolness of veterans. They were well up and were nearing the enemy before
a shot was fired, when a tremendous volley of musketry and cannon thundered
forth, but the pieces being too much elevated, the missiles harmed only the tree-
tops in their rear. At once they marched forward in open order, and, forming
again on their flanks, they literally mowed down the grenadiers with their accu
rately aimed volleys. Then charging, they closed with the enemy and a desperate
hand-to-hand conflict ensued, the combatants surging back and forth as each for
the moment gained advantage. The most furious contest, however, raged around
Williams's battery. One of the 12-pounders was taken and retaken no less than
six times, till finally Major Williams was taken prisoner and Major Ackland of
the grenadiers was seriously wounded, when the men, seized with panic through
the loss of their leaders, abandoned the contest and fled.
The spot where the achievement thus described had place is
marked by a stone bearing the inscription, "Where the Americans
caused the British to retreat."
There remains for narration the other part of the movement on
the enemy — the most sensational of the three, because Arnold,
whose actions were full of contrasts and surprises, is its hero. For
the attack on the British center General Learned had selected a
part of the line which seemed the least sufficiently manned, and
was advancing thither, when General Arnold appeared on the scene
and putting himself at the head of the brigade (he being superior

ON SARATOGA'S BATTLEFIELDS 157
officer, though deprived of his command, his authority was ac
knowledged), led the assault.
The story is familiar of Arnold's chafing under restraint at
headquarters, and at last taking horse and spurring to the field,
pursued but not overtaken by the mounted messenger with an order
for his Instant return, "lest he should do some rash thing."
The charge led by Arnold on the entrenchments was successful,
the defenders being put to flight. Arnold followed up his advantage,
razed the breastworks, rushed with his men through the opening
into the enemy's fortified camp. Once within, he gained entrance
into an important redoubt, of which he speedily possessed himself.
With this advantage gained by their foe, the British, attacked from
their own stronghold, were compelled to huddle, as it were, into a
part of their breastworks which remained intact. Night again put
an end to the contest, the Americans marching to their camp with
shouts of victory.
The statistics of relative losses in the engagement as given by
WInsor are: Americans, 50 killed and 150 wounded; British, 176
killed, about 250 wounded, and some 270 prisoners.
The night following the battle the Americans lay on their arms,
prepared to renew the attack on the following morning. But during
the night General Burgoyne had removed his army to the part
of the entrenchments which lay near the river.
Nine days elapsed before the doomed surrender. The first two
of these were occupied by the retreat of the British army, closely
followed by Gates, to Saratoga-on-the-Hudson, ten miles north of
the battlefield, the original Saratoga. The fearful week there spent,
cannonaded by the besiegers, is vividly portrayed In the memoirs
of Baroness Reidesel, wife of the commander of the German con
tingent of Burgoyne's army. The house in which she took shelter
Is still standing. It served at once as a place of refuge for women
and children, and a hospital.
General Burgoyne seemed almost to the last to have cherished
hope of escape. But during the fateful Interval of delay he was
surrounded. Crossing the Hudson eastward in the close proximity
of the enemy was out of the question. General Fellows, who had
been posted on WUlard mountain, occupied with 1,300 men the
bights north of Saratoga. Captain Morgan with his riflemen who
were at the west, flanked by the Impassable wilderness, while General

158 ON SARATOGA'S BATTLEFIELDS
Stark with New Hampshire and Vermont troops erected a battery
which commanded the only gap by which the road to Canada could
be reached. An attempt to make terms with the nationals had
become a necessity.
October 13, General Burgoyne called a council of officers, who
unanimously recommended the opening of negotiations with Gen
eral Gates. During the next three days propositions and counter
propositions were exchanged, and on the l6th the treaty of con
vention was signed. In accordance with its terms there were sur
rendered, October 17, as prisoners, 4,640 men; also, 5,000 muskets,
a train of brass artillery consisting of forty-two guns and a large
supply of ammunition.
An incident connected with the German part (nearly one-half
of the surrendered army being Hessians), has a certain local
interest. The first date of the inscribed record I am about to quote
is just fourteen days after that of the convention, during which time
the prisoners had marched, under guard of General Heath, from
Saratoga by way of Albany to West Springfield common. The
inscription is: "Here encamped, October 30 and 31, 1777, General
Reidesel and his Hessian soldiers, on their way to Boston, after
Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga."
The exact spot on which the treaty was signed is indicated by a
tablet on a dwelling-house in the main street of SchuylervIUe.
But, grandly commemorative of the decisive battle, there rises
from the summit of the ridge which flanks the village, an imposing
and beautiful monument. The structure Is of granite. On the
ample base is a chamber fourteen feet square. Its walls support a
second base from which a shaft of obelisk form ascends, reaching
the hight of 155 feet. From the look-out, reached by stairs, the
southward view includes the entire expanse made memorable by
the conflict and triumph of which it was the scene.
Of the participants in the events I have described, three stand
forth in special prominence. The two commanders-in-chief are not
included in the trio. Of these I offer Winsor's characterization of
Burgoyne, "he was not only slow, but he was irresolute;" and it
is added as iUustrative of his dilatory vacillation, "After his disas
trous defeat at Bemis Heights, he lost five precious days in fatal
Indecision whUe retreat was possible." Of Gates, "He had no
fitness for command, and wanted personal courage." Gates is

ON SARATOGA'S BATTLEFIELDS 159
chiefly remembered for his insidious plotting to supplant Washing
ton In the chief command.
I. The name of Benedict Arnold was to become a synonym
for archtreason. But let It be remembered, that the morning of
September 18, 1777, it was General Arnold's project to stem the
progress of the British army toward the American breastworks,
and his insistence which secured for him permission to take the
field; and, that, through his conduct and valor in the battle that
ensued, the threatening advance of a powerful enemy was called
to a halt. It was this action that saved the day and, in the event,
secured the victory. In the second battle he crowned the victory
which had already been practically gained, by his fiery charge into
the very citadel of the enemy. Wounded, he was at the close of
the battle borne from the field. I quote a remark which has re
ceived wide circulation, "Well would it have been for Arnold's
reputation If the wound had proved fatal."
2. Capt. Daniel Morgan, in July, 1775, after a march of
twenty-one days from Virginia, joined Washington at Cambridge
with his company of ninety-six picked riflemen. It is said that, on
their arrival. General Washington, usually undemonstrative, shook
hands with every man in the ranks. At Saratoga, Morgan is relied
on to open each engagement, and appears at every point where
daring, swift execution and sound judgment are required. Loyal
to his country's cause, he was equally devoted to his chief. This
is the record of his chilling response to a suggestion of disloyalty:
"At the close of the second day's battle, Gates approached
Morgan with a proposition to desert Washington and support his
own pretensions to the chief command. The reply was, 'Under
no other man as commander-in-chief than Washington would I
ever serve.' "
3. The name of General Frazer of the British staff is, with a
certain tenderness, associated with the battle ground of Bemis
Heights. On a hill-top within its limits is his grave. When the
spot was pointed out to me I was asked if it was generally thought
that the body was disinterred and carried to England. I was able
to reply that not only was such removal improbable, but that the
statement was pronounced by good authority to be entirely without
foundation. The question, and the satisfaction with which the
answer was received, showed that, to those familiar with the place.

i6o ON SARATOGA'S BATTLEFIELDS
a sort of consecration was imparted by the ashes which were mingled
with the dust. For General Frazer was highly regarded by foes as
weU as by friends. In efficiency and in every martial quality greatly
the superior of his chief, he was Implicitly relied on by General
Burgoyne. A characterization given in a proposed epitaph may
serve for a description of the man : —
His walk was free and bold, and his decided movements showed his military
impetuosity: a man of the people, a man of war and action; the frank cordiality
of his address invited friendliness and sympathy.
The historical record of his death Is that while protecting a wing
of the British army, he was mortally wounded by one of Morgan's
sharpshooters. It Is also told, and the story Is Illustrative of the
qualities of the two men, that when Morgan perceived the effective
work of General Frazer in rallying disordered ranks, he called two
or three of his best marksmen, pointed out the officer named and
said, "That gallant officer Is General Frazer. I admire and respect
him, but it Is necessary for our good that he should die. Take your
station In that cluster of bushes and do your duty." Shortly after
the order was given Frazer fell, and died on the following morning.
A last request was that at 6 o'clock. In the evening, he should be
buried in the " Great Redoubt," which had been the chief fortification
of the British camp. At the hour named there assembled around
the open grave those of his fellow-officers who could be spared from
their posts, to join in the burial service. During the reading cannon
balls fired from the opposite camp plowed up the earth around, and
covered those assembled with dust; but with steady attitude and
unaltered voice the chaplain read the service to its completion.
It should be stated that the cannonading was directed under the
apprehension that the gathering was with hostile intent, and that
General Gates afterward said that, had he known what was going
on, he should have stopped the firing immediately.
The story of the funeral scene, with the resemblance of situation,
the new-made grave to be hastily abandoned, soon to be trodden
underfoot by the enemy in close pursuit, and the grief and regrets
which fiUed the hearts of the participants "as they bitterly thought
of the morrow," might have place along with the stately lines which
portray "The Burial of Sir John Moore." But to the visitor of the
present time, the grave which was closed on the evening of that
autumn day sheds a mellow light on the peaceful scene, in the
valley to which the gentle flow of the Hudson has given the name of
Stillwater.

THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA i6i
The Battle of Saratoga
Remarks by Henry A. Booth
I DID not know until the day before yesterday that I was to
say anything here on this subject or on any other subject,
and in justice to the members of the society, as well as in
justice to myself, I feel that I ought not to attempt it, for I
believe that a person should be thoroughly prepared on his subject
when speaking before such an audience as this. I understand I am
limited to five or ten minutes, and perhaps you will bear with me
for that length of time for the reason that In so short a space I
cannot and could not be expected to say very much.
There are In the history of this nation, many days and many
events which well deserve recognition and remembrance at the hands
of patriotic American citizens; but I do not believe that there is
any day which so much deserves remembrance as the anniversary
of the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga on October 17, 1777. I
believe practically all the historians concede that to have been the
decisive battle of the war, and Creasy, in his fifteen decisive battles
of the world, includes this among the number.
In the spring of 1777 the Americans were engaged in a life and
death struggle with the largest, richest and most powerful nation
in the world. The whole population was less than three millions —
less than are today in the city of New York — engaged in such a
struggle as they were; and these people were spread out over a
territory reaching from Maine to Georgia. Even under the best
of conditions, and with everything favorable, they would have had
a tremendous undertaking on their hands. The army had been
defeated again and again in open battle. The British were in
possession of Philadelphia, New York and Newport; and the army
itself was demoralized, half clad and half fed. The troops were In
no condition to cope with their enemies. The commander-in-chief
had encountered the most severe criticism because of what was
claimed to be his inability to wage the war, and many of the wealthy
colonists were opposed to the war. Besides, in the whole world,
there was no friend to hold out a helping hand, no friend to advise.
It was under such a condition of affairs as this that Great Britain
determined to strike a still stronger blow and crush forever any

1 62 THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA
tinge of American liberty that still prevailed. In furtherance of
these plans, a large army was raised and sent into Canada. This
army was to march down from Canada to Albany where it was to
meet another army from New York and establish a chain of forts
from Canada to New York City, thus separating the New England
colonies from the colonies on the other side of this line. General
Gage said New England was the hotbed of rebellion, and it was
thought if these colonies could be separated from the other colonies,
the war would soon be ended. Great Britain placed her army,
composed of four or five thousand Hessians and an equal number of
British under control of experienced generals, at the head of whom
was General Burgoyne and to these were added two or three
thousand Canadians, and several hundred Indians bent on murder
and robbery, and with this army of ten or twelve thousand men,
Burgoyne started south from Canada. The patriots had no army
In front to oppose him and none in the rear to harrass him. It is no
wonder that the patriots became alarmed as they did. General
Arnold, fresh from his laurels won at the siege of Quebec, was sent
to assist General Schuyler, and Morgan with his famous sharp
shooters was also sent to check the advance; but with the small
force at their command, they were able to effect but Httle. The
huge force moved to the south — I say huge force advisedly, because
at that time it was a large force, considering the condition of the
country. They passed on and Crown Point fell into their hands
without a struggle; then they pressed on to Ticonderoga, which gave
up with scarcely a struggle, as they were utterly unable to compete
with the British army, and so this force passed on to the Hudson
river. During this time one or two things happened which affected
the final outcome. After leaving Canada, Burgoyne sent out a
party for the purpose of capturing Fort Stanwix in the Mohawk
valley. General Arnold was sent to defend Fort Stanwix, and he
did it successfully in this manner: He took a half-witted boy and sent
him to the English force with the story that the Americans were
more numerous than the leaves on the trees, and the British being
frightened retired without stopping to ascertain as to the truth or
falsity of the statements made by the boy.
At the same time that he sent a force to capture Fort Stanwix,
General Burgoyne also sent another force eastward Into Vermont,
for the purpose of capturing the town of Bennington, at which place

THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA 163
were a large amount of stores, provisions, etc. General Stark de
fended this place as successfully as did General Arnold Fort Stanwix.
He not only compelled the British to retreat, but he at the same time
captured several hundred prisoners. Both of these forces then fell
back upon the main body.
General Schuyler was forced at this time to resign. The example
of Schuyler might well be followed by any and all office-holders at
the present day. Instead of leaving the army In anger and jealousy,
he generously divulged to General Gates all his plans of campaign
and he also generously assisted him in their execution. And General
Gates accepted and carried out the plans given him by General
Schuyler. The army crossed the river at Fort Edwards, where the Ameri
cans had fortified themselves at Saratoga. The first battle of
Saratoga was fought on September 19, 1777, but neither side
seemed to have gained a decisive victory. Both armies remained there
until the 7th of October in the same year. In the meantime. General
Burgoyne saw his army was being depleted and the forces of the
Americans continually augmented by new recruits who came in from
every direction and from every one of the colonies. Accordingly on
this day he attacked again. Arnold had been displaced, perhaps
because of jealousy, on General Gates' account; nevertheless he
rushed in at the head of his old command where he was received
with cheers, and ordered a charge on the British line, and though he
was wounded, and borne from the field, it was through his efforts the
battle was won. I have thought many times that the services of
General Arnold during that dayj did much for the cause of American
liberty, and far offset any injury that he afterwards did in favor
of the British crown. The army of Burgoyne, however, did not
surrender on this day. It remained somewhere near its old position
until the 17th day of October, when, with starvation staring it in
the face, it surrendered to the American forces.
Now while the effect of this battle may not have been electrical,
at the same time the spark there Ignited; did electrify the whole
of the colonies; it made them more of a unit In the future and con
vinced them that final victory was possible (and stirred the whole of
continental Europe. It hastened along the French Revolution and
made possible a freer government in every country of Europe, and
I believe the people of Europe to-day are enjoying a greater amount

1 64 THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA
of liberty than they would have done were it not for the Battle of
Saratoga. Not only that, but France recognized the liberty of the thirteen
colonies and sent over an able admiral of her own navy with a power
ful fleet, and an army under one of her own marshals. Spain and
Holland also soon followed the example of France and recognized
the independence of the colonies, thus giving to the colonies several
powerful friends, while before this battle they had not one.
Besides that it taught us a lesson and that lesson is this: That
we should respect the rights of weaker nations who are struggling
for their independence, and I believe that since then we have not
only preached it, but practiced it also. In 1820 we held out a help
ing hand to each and every one of the South American republics
when they were endeavoring to win their independence from Spain,
We also held out a helping hand to the Grecians when they were
endeavoring to win their independence from Turkish tyranny.
We held out a helping hand to the Mexicans when they were strug
gling under the domination of Maximilian. And I hope the time
will never come when we will forget that we were once in a position
where we needed the assistance of foreign nations.

Mr. Howard — ^The first Williams, from whom I descended, was
Robert Williams who came to Roxbury and is buried in the burying
ground on Eustis setter, which is near the old Roxbury line, be
tween Boston and Roxbury. We could not find Robert's grave,
nor his son Deacon Samuel Williams' grave; but Mrs. Samuel
Williams' grave is there. Deacon Samuel stayed in Roxbury and
his descendants were numerous. Isaac went west — to Newton —
that was west at that time, and then his sons came to Worcester,
Massachusetts, and to Deerfield and also to Connecticut and that
is where my grandmother came from — that branch in Wethersfield.

WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND 165
Quarterly Meeting January 12, 1906
Mrs. Mabel Loomis Todd of Amherst read a paper on
"Witchcraft." "Witchcraft in New England
AS a child spending summers in Hampton, New Hamp
shire, I became intensely interested in the legends and
stories connected with the old Moulton house. The
story that the General had sold his soul to the devil
for a large bootful of gold was strangely fascinating to me, scarcely
less so the story that the canny gentleman had cut the sole from his
boot, and the innocent devil continued to pour In the precious metal
until the room was full.
Shortly after the death of his first wife he married again, a young
woman of simpler family, who used to feel ghostly fingers, on her
wedding ring during the night. The story is told by Whittier in
"The New Wife and the Old." When he died, the story goes that
instead of a corpse in his coffin, it was found to be full of gold, or
stones as some used to aver. At all events, a strange black cat leaped
out of the window shortly after his death, and his body disappeared.
Years afterward Col. Oliver Whipple bought the house, bring
ing his slaves and his chariot from Rhode Island with Pomp and
Dick In a rumble behind, holding the tassels. His arrival caused a
great celebration, and lunch was served to all the surrounding
country; but the family could never rest quietly in this haunted
house. In the words of an old nurse for many years employed by
them, she often heard the General's cane "thump, thumping down
the stairs, his wife's lute-string dress a-rustling. " At last three elderly
clergymen were invited to the house, who stood at the foot of the
stairs and begged these uncanny inhabitants to leave the house in
peace. No ghostly sounds are reported after that.
Hampton witchcraft was rife before that of Salem. In 1673,
Goody Cole was burled at the crossroads with a stake through her
body. "They buried them deep, but they wouldn't lie still.
For cats and witches are hard to kill."
Who does not remember the strange shivers running over him
when first seeing the witch scene In Macbeth, typical witches,

i66 WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND
"those grey old wives," bent and brown and shriveled, nose and
chin grewsomely meeting, wild white locks straggling over their
burning eyes as they leaned above the stewing toads and snakes in
their dreadful brew. "Double, double toil and trouble,
Fire burn; and cauldron bubble."
I can see it now, as the genius of Shakespeare brought it before us,
and splendid Charlotte Cushman, old but glorious, as she vivified
the play, and gave her pregnant interpretation. The witches'
croon has always fascinated me, and a study of that strange belief
In them, as old as time.
The witchcraft delusion and persecution is one of the saddest
passages in our history, when men had so recently come to escape
persecution, and so soon began to practice it. There was much in
tolerance In religious matters, as evidenced among other things by
the cruelty to Quakers. By the time of the great witchcraft out
burst in 1692, Quakers had been placed more on an equality with
other sects, and actual persecution had ceased; but even later many
of them complained bitterly of the treatment they received, and the
unkind attitude of those who should have been friendly.
Many persons think that the greatest development of the twen
tieth century wUl not be so much in mechanical things as along
psychological lines. Personal magnetism and telepathy are investi
gated, mesmerism, mental healing and hypnotism. Psychical
societies are looking into all mysteries; the occultism of India and
Japan are studied, and books which bring in, never so little, communi
cation with the dead, or unusual power of divination or influence,
are sure to sell. It is the great underlying, but burning, present
Interest. The borderland of two worlds is limltlessly attractive;
all have lost some friend, all long to know. We are not as ignorant
now as four or flve centuries ago, and are not In such terror of super
natural influence. We know more of natural laws, but mysteries
continue to attract.
It is hardly to be wondered at that the newness of natural phe
nomena and their unexplainable character should have inspired fear
in early times. One has only to study the history of astronomy to
see the tremendous hold such beliefs of uncanny influence had upon
the ancients.

WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND 167
Comets brought evU by the shaking of their "horrid hair."
Eclipses presaged disaster. Even Kepler was a zealous advocate of
astrology, whUe Tycho Brahe kept a mumbling idiot about him as
mediator and interpreter for higher powers. It is even asserted by
a recent writer In The Century that four-fifths of humanity today
believe in witchcraft.
One of the most absorbingly Interesting studies Is to trace the
history of preternatural beliefs from the twilight of fear and tradi
tion to present day sunlight, — a sunlight, however, which sane and
open and bright and normal as it is, still holds the possibUity of
belief In that which cannot be explained by natural law, the germ of
other-worldliness. A certain sort of spiritism, magic in various
forms, sorcery, necromancy, enchantments, fetlchism, witchcraft —
all have had their day and power, their nations pecuUarly suscep
tible, their victims.
Numa, an early Roman law giver, caused the people to believe
that he had access to a divinity who told him what to do.
Pliny tells us of a Roman farmer, Furius Creslnus, who was
accused of magic because he was uniformly successful. In reply he
merely showed his better plows and other implements, and pointed
to his sunburned daughters — his only witchcraft.
Zoroaster was also accused of magic, probably and simply because
he had peculiar and unusual acquirements.
Others pretended to superior powers — which being regarded with
awe, necessarily kept the people in a state of submissive fear. They
called themselves variously — soothsayers, diviners, sorcerers, as
trologers and oracles.
They were chiefly persons who had discovered some secret of
nature, and instead of proclaiming it as now Is done, held it in re
serve as a secret power to be used upon the credulous.
Naturally they became priests. In this class are Chaldean priests
of Assyria, Brahmins of India, Magi of Persia, Oracles of Greece,
Augurs of Italy, Druids of Britain, Powwows (medicine men) of
Indians. Their procedure was more in the line of mysteries, charms, and
the like, than actual witchcraft.
The Witch of Endor (Samuel I, Ch. 28) was probably an Imposter,
but the story is most interesting.
The anonymous authors of Old Testament books, as in this chap-

1 68 WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND
ter, dating to lOOO b. c, were fond of putting laws, commands, senti
ments for greater force, into the mouths of long-dead prophets and
seers. In those far-away Biblical days the laws against witchcraft were
profoundly stringent (Deut. XVIII, 9-14), uncanny practices being
pronounced " an abomination unto the Lord. "
It was even commanded (Deut. XVII, 5) "Thou shalt stone
them with stones till they die. "
Two witnesses were required to be sure, but In that cruel fashion
" So thou shalt put the evil away from among you, " (Isaiah VIII, 19).
"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," (Exodus XXII, 18):
LiteraUy, "Thou shalt not keep alive one who uses charms" (or
spells). Leviticus XIX, 26: "Neither shall you use enchantments or deal
in soothsaying."
Leviticus XIX, 3 1 : "Regard not them that have familiar spirits,
neither seek after wizards. "
Leviticus XX, 27: "A man also or woman that has a familiar
spirit or that is a wizard shall surely be put to death; thou shalt
stone them with stones."
Taking all these Hebrew denunciations in their most cruel and
literal meaning, they proceeded to carry out provisions which seem
to us worse than barbarous In atrocity.
, Demonology, as a general word, means an entire class of ideas
relating to supernatural interference in mundane things, and was
not originally necessarily applicable to evil spirits. Such Inter
communication was at first regarded as innocent, even creditable,
as during the classic times of mythology.
One peculiarity of Hebrew belief was, as we have seen, that it
denounced such communications as unholy, even criminal. In the
beginning, Christianity said that God only was to be sought in
prayer. About the opening of the Christian era we can trace outlines of
the more modern witchcraft beliefs. As the twilight of the dark
ages of Christianity came on and settled heavily, superstition spread.
The early observations of nature in the East had seemed to show
that two great powers were in command over the world, and con
tinuaUy warring. The two mighty antagonists used men as puppets
and played with and upon them.

WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND 169
Even Christianity allowed that perhaps the devil was at the head,
and that it was possible for persons to join him for the overthrow of
the church.
In this belief lay the kernel of all subsequent action upon the
crime of witchcraft.
Still later, things of strange import not classified before as neces
sarily bad, were increasingly attributed to an Intimacy with the
devil. After that, learned men. Instead of concealing their dis
coveries, proclaimed them abroad and showed their naturalness and
freedom from the uncanny. All this tended enormously to the
spread of knowledge, and the dispersing of the mists of that twi
light time.
Christian Thomasius, who died in 1728 and did his university
work at Halle, wrote treatises and plunged constantly Into great
and living questions, in which he rendered more direct service to
mankind than any other German from Luther to Lessing. First of
these subjects was witchcraft, and his work finally destroyed this
widespread, noxious, tenacious growth.
But witchcraft as a crime had been punished with wide carnage
as early as the century when the Roman- Empire became Christian.
All Christendom believed that some persons were possessed of
supernatural powers, of advantage to themselves, and evil and
confusion to their enemies. It was a capital crime by the laws of
many European nations.
In the thirteenth century, Roger Bacon found out so much of
optics, chemistry and astronomy that he was charged with witch
craft. Papal denunciation followed and he was twice imprisoned.
In 1305, Arnold de Villa Nova was burned by inquisitors at
Padua, on the charge of witchcraft.
The Earl of Bedford put Joan of Arc to death on this charge.
Even Martin Luther actually believed that he talked with the
devil. In 1484 came the famous BuU of Pope Innocent VIII which gave
new fury to the persecution of those possessing occult powers, and
enormously hastened the unrelenting pursuit of witchcraft. Hun
dreds perished, not only Protestants, but some Roman Catholics as
weU, these horrible transactions often sanctioned by theological
hatred and rancor. It was easy to clear the church of heretics by

170 WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND
hanging and burning, and quite as easy to accuse and condemn as
witches in the first place.
The fury raged in both Protestant and Catholic countries. His
tory reports that agents of the Pope burned over nine hundred.
During our colonial era six hundred a year perished In Germany,
and a state of things almost as bad prevailed in Italy, Switzerland
and Sweden.
In 1541, the Earl of Hungerford was beheaded for asking of a
reputed witch how long Henry VIII might be expected to Hve.
One inquisitor, or so-called judge, Regius, condemned and burned
over nine hundred in fifteen years. In Lorraine, and as many more
fled the country, in desperate fear of their lives. He practiced the
most awful tortures, remarking that otheiwlse he could not get them
to confess. Most InteUigent persons believed that witches com
municated with Satan.
Most of the sufferers were Innocent, but some were undoubtedly
evil, and knew they had been imposing on the world. Still others
had taught magic, and really believed they had covenanted with
the devil.
In the sixteenth century, continental Europe sacrificed one hun
dred thousand lives In this mad fanaticism. In the sixteenth century
one thousand perished in Como in Lombardy, one hundred a year,
after. The statute of Queen Elizabeth against witchcraft and sorcerers,
in 1562 began practlcaUy the persecutions In England, which reached
their height In the seventeenth century. King James I was the
great persecutor, and the Act of Parliament in England In 1603
caused the fury to break out like wildfire. It was In the same year
that parsons were forbidden to cast out deyUs in England without
a license. In a period more than covered by John Alden's life, forty thousand
"witches" were murdered in England. For a hundred and twenty-
five years a sermon was annually preached on a foundation of £40
confiscated In this same fateful year, 1603, as the property of three
witches. The English statutes against witchcraft were repealed only forty
years before the American Colonies ceased to be a part of the British
Empire. About 161 5, more than five hundred were put to death In
Geneva, the home of Calvin. During the reign of King James VI,

WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND 171
thousands of "witches" were executed in Scotland, and In 1645 a
hundred in Essex and Sussex alone.
King James of Scotland was a firm believer In the occult. Ail
mysteries found ready credulity in his mind, and to flatter his weak
ness Parliament passed truly terrible laws against witches. The
worst tortures were practiced at this time, and in England as well —
and were indulged in with a spirit of unmitigated cruelty and vin
dictiveness. Mercy and compassion seemed strangled in the hearts
of the persecutors, as later they seemed also absent from the Salem
judges. A flend in human shape went about, not only to extort confessions
from innocent people, but to entrap and confuse everyone upon
whom he could lay hands. His own name was Matthew Hopkins,
his title " Witchfinder General. " This monster operated in England
in 1646, his expenses paid liberally to prick, cut, torture, drag in
water, tie up and mutilate all suspects, and as I have said, to extort
confessions which could be later used against them. In one year and
one county he alone had sixty killed. People — and we are filled with
amazement that such was the case — looked not only complacently,
but with admiration upon him, believing that he had stolen Satan's
list of confederates, his "book of names." Even good men like
Richard Baxter and Edmund Calamy believed In him. But then,
Baxter always believed in ghosts and other uncanny manifestations.
One of Hopkins' pet methods was to tie his victims' limbs to
gether, double the body over and tie hands to feet and so foith, and
then throw them into water. If they floated they were proved and
convicted witches, and dealt with accordingly. If they sank they
were innocent — but being by that time drowned It did not do them
personally much good.
He was finally suspected of not acting in good faith, and some
persons tied him into a bundle and threw him into the water. He
floated. Nobody, however, dared to deny the reality of witchcraft, though
error never being absolutely universal, there were people who took
no real share In these beliefs.
Thus It wUl be seen that Christianity did not stamp out certainties
as to witches. Not a viUage in England but had its ghost; church
yards were haunted; every common had its "circle" of fairies, and
hardly a shepherd lived but had seen spirits. The Rev. Joseph

172 WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND
Glanville, Vicar of Frome, Chaplain to Charles II, and a member of
the Royal Society, wrote distinctly in favor of the undoubted exist
ence of witches, witchcraft and apparitions. His books were cer
tainly read in New England before we began to publish such litera
ture here.
Spiders were always intimately associated with strange powers
and incantations; and witches were supposed to be able, at will, to
turn themselves into dogs, cats, hogs, rats, mice, toads — and into
the yellow birds which flew adroitly to their victims.
We remember Holmes's famous picture of the "midnight hags"
sailing off "On their well-trained broomsticks mounted high.
Seen like shadows against the sky;
Crossing the track of owls and bats,
Hugging before them their coal-black cats."
How it brings the whole weird scene before us, as also his descrip
tion of "Dusky nooks in the Essex woods.
Dark, dim, Dante-like solitudes.
Where the tree-toad watches the sinuous snake
Glide through his forests of fern and brake."
Witches could operate from a distance, however, by means of their
own "apparitions" even from a hundred miles away; so that an
alibi could never be urged — as was tragically shown in Salem later on.
Enough has been said to show that the belief in witchcraft was
neither confined to America nor indigenous to New England, but
was legitimately Imported by the first settlers.
In many important lespects, Massachusetts was peculiarly ready
for just the sort of delusion which descended upon it with such
crushing force. Her people believed In the reality of these mani
festations. In common with other Christian countries, although
one of its most singular features to us, now, is the sort of people who
firmly held to Its reality — the burning belief of eminent, even godly
men. It should not be forgotten that their experience in a new and
savage country bad been sad and tragic rather than happy. Their
homes must all have been tinged with melancholy, and "Thou
shalt not suffer a witch to live" was a Bible command.
They felt that here in bleak New England they were especially
called upon to defeat the devil. It Is interesting to find that more

WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND 173
than seventy years after the last witch was executed in New England
Sir William Blackstone wrote in all simplicity:
"To deny the possibility, nay, actual existence of witchcraft and
sorcery is at once flatly to contradict the revealed word of God in
various passages in both the Old and New Testament."
A few sporadic cases of trial and execution for witchcraft occurred
before 1650, but the strong feeling hardly began until about 165 1.
Altogether there were only four executions for that crime in Boston:
Margaret Jones, June, 1648; Mary Parsons, 1651; Ann Hibbins,
1656; Goody Glover, 1688. The fever never raged with great vio
lence in western Massachusetts, the region of Hampshire County
particularly being then as now slow to stir in radical causes.
The first execution In New England for witchcraft, was in Con
necticut in 1647. The "crime" probably showed Itself first among
the Springfield planters. In December, 1648, a ceitain Mary John
son confessed to familiarity with Satan in Hartford and was exe
cuted. About 165 1 John Eliot writes, supposedly to Edward
Winslow in London, of four witches being detected In Springfield,
one executed for the murder of her own child, another condemned, a
third under trial, a fourth under suspicion.
The first case in Hampshire County was at Springfield (then in
that county) in the spring of 1651.
The same Mary Parsons already aUuded to as one of the four to
perish in Boston, was accused not only of murdering her child, but
of bewitching the two children of Rev. George Moxon. Subse
quently it was shown that she was quite deranged, though too late
to save her.
In 1656 a suit and trial for slander in Northampton, originating
in neighborhood gossip, stirred the county to its depths. One
Joseph Parsons, charged Goodwife Bridgman with slander, in accus
ing his wife Mary of witchcraft. Being persons of good position and
property, the case was pushed with much energy, and resulted In a
conviction for Goody Sarah Bridgman. Her family cherished the
grudge for eighteen years, and in 1674 it flamed out again, using as a
basis the general belief In personal dealing with the devil, by which
they averred that Mary Parsons had murdered by witchcraft Mary
Bridgman, married to Samuel Bartlett. It Is consoHng to find that
the accused came off with flying colors.
During King PhUip's War in 1675, as the men marched to the

174 WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND
attack, an eclipse of the sun Is said to have occurred In which they
saw the outlines of an Indian scalp. While the accounts of me
diaeval eclipses are in a sense historic, no one would claim for them
scientific fullness or precision. In these forgotten coronas almost
any strange forms might have been imagined. Learned persons
believed all these portents as wholly as the Illiterate. It is not to be
wondered at, then, that witchcraft was a capital offence in every
civilized country.
The scanty literature of the time teems with weird tales, many of
which would be ludicrous had they not led to such tragic endings.
Certain depositions describing mysterious attacks are curiously
humorous in themselves, — though humor was antipodal to the
deluded people who gave them. Noah Strong in Northampton
suspected a pigeon-hawk of sinister designs and motives, and he
accordingly shot it, with his silver sleeve button, and broke Its wing.
At that moment a woman he had displeased had her arm broken.
Any peculiar sickness or accident was almost invariably ascribed to
witchcraft, and people began to look about for those through whom
Satan would operate. They talked of "fascinations," and tried to
collect facts for "strange apparitions. "
Not much real excitement prevailed before 1680, nor were there
many convictions In New England.
In 1684, Increase Mather wrote his famous book, "Illustrious
Providences," In which he told many stories of persons in league
with the devil.
The most noteworthy witch In Hampshire County was Mary
Webster of Hadley, a poor, and probably bad-tempered, woman.
Many stories until comparatively recent years were still told in the
vicinity — of her stopping cattle or horses from going by her house,
tipping off loads of hay and putting them on again; while mysterious
scalds and all sorts of maUcious performances were ascribed to her
as a result of her familiarity with the devil. Brought before the
court in 1683, she was acquitted at Boston. She was afterward
accused of bewitching Lieut. Philip Smith, so that he died
pecuHarly, with flashes of fire about his head and strange noises.
During the time that his friends "disturbed" the old woman (as it
was politely called), hanging her up, rolling her in the snow, tem
porarily burying her, and other pleasant exercises, he had much ease
and comfort, and slept peacefully. In spite of this terrible treat-

WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND 175
ment the poor old woman lived, quietly enough, for eleven years
longer. One affair, as leading perhaps directly to the wild Salem horrors
of 1692, must be mentioned.
A young girl named Goodwin In Boston had a quarrel with her
Irish washerwoman about some missing linen. Probably the woman
retaliated with Irish warmth. At all events the child had her re
venge by "crying out" upon her as a witch. Such fun did this be
come, especially as persons listened and seemed to be impressed
(several other children flocking to her standard crying that they,
too, were bewitched), that the bad child went on in vehemence, and
pretended to all sorts of afflictions, in which the other children
joined. They mewed, barked, lost their hearing, sight, speech, their
jaws would lock like a vise, or open until dislocated, they could read
In Popish or Quaker books, but not in the Westminster Catechism
or in the Bible.
It seems incredible that such performances could impose upon
scholarly men, but Cotton Mather implicitly believed they were
bewitched, and they actually had five ministers praying with them
at one time. The washerwoman was requested to repeat the Lord's
prayer as a proof of innocence. Never having learned It in English
she made several bad, stumbling blunders, and was forthwith con
victed and sent to the gallows. When she was actually hung, the
children immediately recovered.
In 1691, Mary Randall in Springfield was complained of, though
not prosecuted; and hers was the last case in Hampshire County.
But now was to begin in far-away Essex a wild, fanatical delusion
which the world has hardly seen equalled — not in the number of
victims, for they were only twenty, but a carnival of ferocious
cruelty and suffering, which, from surrounding circumstances, at
tained a world-wide celebrity beyond even those similar periods in
Europe where hundreds were slain.
But twelve had suffered death in New England before the craze
at Salem in 1692, that "storm of terror and death." Curiously,
twenty-five years before, some mischievous children in Sweden had
played tricks very much like those performed by the young girls
who started Salem flres, and eighty-eight in the cold Scandinavian
peninsula had died In consequence. In Amsterdam, too. In 1560,

176 WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND
twenty or thirty boys pretended to be bewitched, and had strange
fits, in which they threw up needles and pins and broken glass.
Ninety years before, or more, William Perkins of Cambridge
(England) had written a book with the emphatic title, "Discourse
of the Damned Art of Witchcraft, " and it has been shown that Rev.
Mr. Parris, In whose house the Salem fires were kindled, had a copy
at hand. He was perhaps a learned, but exceedingly disagreeable
and unpopular man, and his subsequent conduct adds an element
of execration to memories of him.
Spirits were said to have been seen already near Gloucester, and
had been fired upon by people, but apparently never hit, and the
marksmen retired to the garrison for safety. Everyone believed at
that time that Satan was waging war upon Jehovah, and was operat
ing extensively through persons who had pledged their souls to him.
By their training, habits of mind, experience and character, the
Salem people were well adapted for the events now rapidly approach
ing. The excitement began to work its way, and bringing in the
supernatural so clearly, precipitated the final explosion.
The story of the Goodwin children, and of their relief when tbeir
"tormentor" was hung, had been told everywhere. Arrests had
begun for trivial things, and in Mr. Parris's house the spiritual
torch was applied.
A party of young girls and a West Indian slave, Tituba, servant
in his family, had acquired a truly unholy curiosity about super
natural matters. Wildly interested in sorceries and magic, they met
to practice rites and incantations they had read of, or heard from
the old negress. They finaUy acquired the power to produce cata
lepsy, to cry real tears, or to perspire profusely at will, to fall in
grotesque postures, and show cramps and spasms, until their fam
ilies were at their wits' end, neighbors alarmed and distressed, and
physicians baffled. Witchcraft, of course, was adduced as the cause
of it all. Kinsfolk of these "afflicted children" as they were uni
versally caUed, assembled for prayer. We can imagine the naughty
satisfaction with which these highly accomplished young persons
regarded the storm which they had evoked. More ministers were
sent for, and a prayer-meeting lasting all day was held. The
children (aged nine, eleven, twelve, two or three of seventeen and
two of eighteen, with three married women) were made to perform
for the awe-struck company.

WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND 177
So far we can see the absurdity — the bad taste and deception, if
you will — but now the scene becomes criminal. They were asked
what ailed them — who had bewitched them. So they "cried out
upon" three names, and the unfortunate trio were at. once taken
into custody, arraigned In Salem meeting house, and sent to jail.
Later on Martha Corey, Rebecca Nourse, and others were added until
over one hundred were In jail. Their examinations, as we read them
today, were farcical in the extreme. Questions were silly and ridicu
lous. The accused were not aUowed to have lawyers, and must
conduct their own defence. Their bewilderment at the charges was
often pathetic to the last degree. Some of them did not know the
"children" even by sight, but that made no difference. They were
prejudged guilty before a word had been spoken. It was believed
that witches could not cry, and their stupor of amazement at the
charges was put down to an evil presence of mind, especially as the
"children" often exclaimed In court that they saw the "black man"
standing beside to counsel and comfort his puppets. It was believed
that the witches made dolls and small figures which they called by
the names of those they wished to torment, and then scalded them,
stuck pins In them, or simUar pleasantries, whereby at the identical
moment the living victim would be scalded, pricked or pinched as
the case might be. Their houses were often searched for these
wicked toys, in solemn faith. Also their bodies were scrutinized for
"witch marks" or callous spots, which old people often have. And
the finding of such a spot was practically conviction.
The trials were extremely irregular, people speaking out as dam
aging thoughts occurred to them, whispering to the judges, and
otherwise bringing obloquy upon the whole court, if any had been
sufficiently unprejudiced to appreciate it.
Cotton Mather is said by the best historians to be largely the
originator of these outrages; and he seems to have taken a leading
part in the persecutions, with apparently great satisfaction and
comfort in fomenting the excitement.
As for the "children," they were manifestly intoxicated by their
overwhelming success, the terrible perfection of their selfish scheme
to become of wide importance, and were swept along in a sort of
frenzy. Rigid and often cataleptic In court, they were instanta
neously "cured" by a touch from the person they had accused of

178 WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND
bewitching them, the theory being that the evil fluid flowed back
to Its source, out of the girls to the witch.
It is singular that no one should have observed that the girls never
accused their friends, but always those against whom they had some
spite or animosity. They said an "evil hand" was against them.
Whose was It.'
As they had acquired supposable powers of divination they be
came very important, even exalted to the position of prophetesses,
which spoiled therri, and dried up all natural pity and compassion
in their hearts, leaving only the burning intoxication of power and
notoriety. It seems unbelievable now, but all writers about the
period agree in this point, often reiterating that "the fun of the
thing" led them on.
One of the most picturesque characters of that fatal year seems to
have been Bridget Bishop. Entirely free from the sanctimonious
ness which so disagreeably tinged even the best meaning persons In
those days, she was too free and easy to be popular in the sober
community. Her costumes were showy for the time and place, she
played shovel board and other worldly games, and altogether was
not quite approved of, even at the best of times. But there is no
insinuation whatever against her moral character. It was natural,
however, that she should have been speedily "cried out against" in
such an era. She became a victim of gross misrepresentation. She
was farcically tried, and hanged after eight days. Her death warrant
is the only one preserved.
The accused protested their innocence, but to no avail. Every
possible inducement was given them to confess, and many did, which
although it led to their subsequent pardon, only added fuel to the
fire of hatred toward those brave ones refusing to confess a lie.
Six women were hung during one day, eight on another. To the
credit be it said of the unjust judges and the packed juries, that at
least they never but once delivered over their victims to torture.
That was in the case of the venerable Giles Corey, who refused to
answer or plead, thereby saving his estate to will as he chose. To
make him speak he was squeezed between great weights, and so
killed, refusing to the last to say a word in his own defence. His
tortures still make Essex County black.
At Andover a woman was ill In a peculiar way, not understood by
the simple physicians of the day, so a Salem "witch detector" was

WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND 179
sent for, and fifty Andover people were accused, a few weaker ones
confessing Injuries to neighbors which they could not have com
mitted, and acknowledging that they rode a variety of animals and
sticks through the air at night.
"Mount and be quick,
A broom or a stick.
Goat, pitchfork —
We're all in a flurry.
We'll leave behind
The swiftest wind
As off to the Brocken we hurry.
We'll madly bound,
While dancing around.
Great Beelzebub,
He is our master;
Sometimes we'll pause.
Kiss his old claws,
Then faster we'll caper and faster."
By the latter part of 1692 twenty had been killed, all of whom had
nobly refused to confess something they were not guilty of. Fifty
had been pardoned because they did confess, one hundred and fifty
were awaiting trial, two hundred had charges against them. There
seemed but one way to avoid being "cried out upon" and that was
to cry out first and accuse somebody. That generally brought Im
munity to the accuser. The community was practically insane on
the subject, enveloped in a weird and consuming flame which all the
blood of the innocent victims could not yet quench.
It was believed that locks would neither keep a witch out, nor in,
unless doors were each double locked; and in general suspected
witches were also manacled. The body could be watched, but the
"apparition" might be off choking or strangling somebody to death,
or otherwise working evil.
So far as remote and rustic communities were concerned, this was
undoubtedly the most benighted period in our history. The educa
tion which had come over with the first settlers had largely dis
appeared when they died, and nothing had yet come In America to
take its place. These proceedings against "witches" were instigated
by all sorts of personal grudges and pique, and free rein was given to
all maliciousness. Those "cried out upon" were not of the lower
classes — rather the reverse.

i8o WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND
Even Capt. John Alden, son of John of Mayflower fame, was
accused, cried out upon and for fifteen weeks imprisoned. He was a
leading and distinguished man, and for over thirty years a resident
of Boston. He commanded the armed vessel belonging to the
colony, a most efficient officer, and naval commander. He was
seventy years old, and very wealthy. All this did not save him.
But he was nearly four months in prison before he could be prevailed
upon by friends to make his escape. "Outraged innocence will not
save your life, " they urged, and at length he broke out, and appeared
before his amazed relatives in Duxbury, who sheltered him. When
the craze subsided no charges of any definite character could be
proved against him, and no accuser appeared, so all judicial pro
ceedings ceased. But to the day of his death this doughty navigator
could never hear a word about that experience without a high-
flaming wrath that broke out into many nautical remarks not strictly
appropriate to the drawing-room.
ChUdren were induced by awful fear to give evidence against their
parents; brothers against sisters; wives, husbands, dearest of
friends — no ties were respected. Some replied to the outrageous
charges in wrath, like Sarah Good, who answered back with much
spirit, "You are a liar. I am no more a witch than you are a wizard;
and if you take away my life, God will give you blood to drink. "
You will remember that this is the fatal sentence which Haw
thorne, that modern wizard, puts into the mouth of Maule, in "The
House of Seven Gables." Charges were liable to be exceedinglv
frivolous, but that made no difference in the result. While some
retaliated thus, in words, others bore the obloquy in gentle sweet
ness, like Elizabeth How.
Rebecca Nourse called forth more evidence in her favor than any
of the others condemned. She was once acquitted, and there is
reason to believe that Cotton Mather used his influence to^have her
re-tried. It is certain that had the verdict in her case rested with
the people, she would have been triumphantly released. Thirty-
nine leading citizens signed a petition for her, dangerous as such
favorable words were to those who dared use them; but there was
evidently an organized association of individuals to persecute and
condemn suspects, and they followed her mercilessly, by a definite
effort of tbe magistrates. Then a wave of furious fanaticism broke,
with Parris pressing it on, and they not only murderedlRebecca

WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND i8i
Nourse, but excommunicated her before her death. The hideous
cruelty of that can be appreciated only by remembering that they
thought they were forever shutting her out of heaven by it, as
well as wrecking the earthly life of the noble, venerable woman,
who for forty years had only done kindnesses to her community.
The persecution of Rev. George Burroughs was similarly and
criminally absurd. He was, and had been, at Casco Bay when he
was alleged to have committed his witchcraft spells, but he was
sought out and imprisoned. He was a popular rival to Mr. Parris
and must be removed. His chief sins, according to his accusers,
were, that being a small man, he was still able to perform remark
able muscular feats. Cotton Mather was loud In denunciations
of him.
But John Proctor saw through the true inwardness of much of
this wild orgy, and spoke out freely — which cost him his own life.
No one could breathe "conspiracy and delusion" safely in those
days. He was so bold that it was necessary to get him out of the
way. His splendid deportment in dying seems to have opened a few
eyes, and to have been something of a blow to the delusion. But
persons behind the scene urged on more horrors for purposes of their
own. Still the worst of it all was practically confined to Essex County.
Then, at last, these "afflicted children" whom It is a wonder an
avenging heaven did not fall upon or crush months before, grew
over-confident. They had become so skilful in their diabolical arts
as to deceive the elect, and they overestimated their temporary
power, due to a frenzy of persecution bound, in the nature of things,
to die out sometime. They cried out upon persons in very high
stations, though from the beginning this had been dangerous.
The Rev. S. Willard, pastor of the Old South Church and subse
quently Harvard's president, was accused — for which the girls were
rebuked by the court; then upon some members of Increase
Mather's family, because he was not so ardent in denunciations as
his more violent son; then whispers began to be circulated about
Lady Phips, the Governor's wife, and a few persons caUed a halt in
the carnage. When Mrs. Hall, wife of the minister at Beverly, was
accused, the committee decided that they had probably peijured
themselves, and so their power came to a sudden and unexpected
end, and a close was put to one of the most terrible tragedies of

i82 WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND
earth. The revulsion was enormous and rapid, hastened no doubt
by several suits for slander and defamation of character. It is said
that Andover recovered and gained its poise first.
Two years later, however, Harvard CoUege issued "Proposals to
the Reverend Ministers of the Gospel" for a collection of "appari
tions, possessions and enchantments." But it was abortive. The
fury had passed. People and juries repented in sorrow for their acts.
In 1696, January 14, Judge Sewall rose in his Old South pew, and
handed a paper of humiliation and remorse to the pulpit, where it
was read, the judge standing till it was finished. Every year be
kept a private day of humiliation and prayer for bis part in the
tremendous wrong.
Thirteen years later Ann Putnam, one of the three wilful beginners
of all the horrors, confessed her false part, and it is now on record in
the books of the Danvers church.
Twenty years after, in 1710, the General Court made grants to
tbe heirs of the sufferers, and annulled their convictions.
Seventy years later Governor Hutchinson scorns the whole affair
publicly as fraud and imposture begun by irresponsible girls. And
certainly personal spite had much to do with all the later accusa
tions. It is certain that depositions of an incriminating character to the
accused were taken and surreptitiously added to the papers in the
case many years after their murder, to bolster up the case for the
shamefaced judges and instigators.
But beliefs were not all changed thus in the twinkling of an eye,
even if conscience did awake at the enormities committed. As late
as 1712, South Carolina adopted the act of King James I, "against
conjuration, witchcraft and dealing with evil and wicked spirits;"
and Rhode Island stiU later, in 1728, called such affairs felony, and
ordered persons convicted to be kUled.
Mankind is prone to sudden and inexplicable furies, for we re
member that in 1741 a story became rife in New York that the
blacks had conspired to murder all the whites. The result of this
was eleven negroes burned at the stake, eighteen huhg, and fifty
sent South into slavery. It was a panic not dissimilar to the witch-
fever, and as fatal to its victims.
It Is humiliating to reflect upon, and makes the cheek burn even
now. There were sweet-natured, godly men in 1692, but the stern-

WITCHCRAFT IN NEW ENGLAND 183
ness of religion generally was but slightly mitigated by tenderness,
and in its name horrors and atrocities were committed all the more
ghastly because supposedly perpetrated In the name of an accusing
God. Perhaps Imagination, denied its legitimate outlet In music, paint
ing and love of the beautiful, vented Itself in these orgies; even
dissipation in novel reading might not be indulged, and so an ab
normal and repressed Imagination, distorted, twisted, almost un
recognizable, found illegitimate food in these unspeakable horrors.
I never see the splendid sunsets burning behind Witch Hill In
Salem without a quicker breathing — the tribute of a sigh, mental at
least, to its ghastly memories. And yet It is more profitable in
recalling this shameful outbreak, to remember what superb qualities
it unveiled In the patient victims — how steadfastly they clung to
their fatal statement of Innocence — how clearly burned their steady
spirit, despite all the wild surrounding hurricane. This is better
than to dwell on the cruelty and wickedness, the blindness and
fanaticism of their accusers and judges.
Emily Dickinson says:
" I had no time to hate, because
The grave would hinder me;
And life was not so ample
I could finish enmity."
And so we must leave them to their repose. After two hundred
years the grass grows with equal luxuriance over accusers and
accused, over judge and prisoner, over persecutor and victim; the
splendid nightly flrmament stiU arches its silent but pregnant im
mensity above the same earth which saw that long-gone tragedy.
Nature may be pitUess, and mankind may reek of cruelty and
injustice, but "Still the pensive spring returns,
And still the punctual snow;"
and through all its mistakes and crimes we cannot but know that
humanity is making its way, though by slow and halting stages, to
its great, its superb birthright, to take up its heritage of the ages as
a part of the joy and strength of the Creator, "a spark of the glad
ness of God" which shall yet become the illumination of the world.

1 84 OLD STATE STREET
Quarterly Meeting May 15, 1906
Frank G. Tobey read a paper on "Old State Street, its
Residences and the People who Lived in Them."
Old State Street ; Its Residences and the People
Who Lived in Them
STATE street in the early part of the last century, was, next to
Main street, the principal highway of the town, as perhaps it
is today. It was the beginning of the old stage route to Bos
ton, and at that time was known as the Old Bay Road, the
road to the Bay. It was opened in 1640 through what was known as
"Hasseky Marsh," which extended several rods east of Main street,
and the road-bed through this marsh was composed of logs laid cross
wise. I am told that workmen have unearthed parts of these old logs
within very recent years. State street at this point was about two
rods wide, but very much wider as it ascended the hill.
I am unable to find any record of the exact date that the street
was given its name. A bit of my family history, may, in this con
nection throw a little light on this point, to which, if you will pardon
me, I will refer. My grandfather, Elisha Tobey, came to Springfield
from Conway, Mass., In the latter part of the eighteenth century,
and it is largely from memoranda, left by him and by my father,
that I am enabled to prepare this paper. My grandfather was an
iron-worker by trade, making old-fashioned shovels and tongs.
He was one of the first armorers at the establishment of the Armory
in 1794, and for over thirty years was Inspector of arms for the
United States government, fire-warden in 1808, deputy sheriff in
1 81 2 and the first Junior Warden of Hampden Lodge of Masons
in 1 81 7. His home was on Maple street opposite the present South
Church, later in the old Blake house, which stood just east of the
present city library, and still later he moved to the Armory grounds,
where the officers' quarters are now located. In 1813 he bought of
James Russell for $650 what became the Tobey homestead on
State street, the present site of George W. Tapley's residence. It
was a story and a half house, standing back from the road. My
father and myself were born there. The deed, dated 1813, refers
to State street as "The Road" and another deed from Roswell Lee

OLD STATE STREET 185
superintendent at the Armory, dated 1826, for a strip of land ad
joining the first, refers to State street as the "Bay Road," from which
I Infer that up to 1826 the street had not received Its present name.
But, whatever the date of its christening. State street has always
been, and is today, one of the finest avenues in this naturally beau
tiful city, of which we are all so proud. And when our new library
building is an accomplished fact, and our Catholic neighbors carry
out their plans for the erection of a new cathedral, which I under
stand they are considering. State street in this immediate vicinity,
will, it seems to me, present as attractive a picture as any city in
the Commonwealth can offer.
Now, if you will bear with me, we will start at the corner of
State and Main streets on the south side, and. In our minds, take a
stroll up State street as far as Walnut street, while we discuss the
different buildings, and some of the people who occupied them at
the beginning of the last century, and later, — afterwards we will
take the north side. None of the descriptions are very exhaustive,
and I know there must be many interesting facts with which some
of you are familiar, relating to these different places, that are not
down on this paper, and if you can supplement it with any incident
that may suggest itself, it will add greatly to the Interest, and I
shall certainly be very grateful.
My position here tonight, reminds me of a story told by Presi
dent Slocum of Colorado College, whom I met at Mt. Desert one
summer. The Doctor is a very interesting and forceful speaker,
and when I congratulated him after the sermon he told this story:
He and his wife while traveHng through the West stopped at a
small town over night and attended an evening meeting. The
speaker of the occasion failing to appear, they caUed upon the Doc
tor, who spoke to them about fifteen minutes and sat down. He
said he congratulated himself that he had done very weU under the
circumstances, but his conceit all disappeared at the close of the
meeting, when one of the deacons came forward, and shaking his
hand very cordially, remarked that "they were always glad to hear
from strangers even If they didn't have much of anything to say."
AT THE corner OF MAIN AND STATE STREETS
On the corner of Main and State streets, where the Masonic
building now stands, was the old hardware store of Jas. Brewer.

1 86 OLD STATE STREET
About 1825 Mr. Brewer was a partner In the old Dwight store with
Jas. Scutt Dwight and Benj. Day, but a few years later he retired
from the firm and started In business alone on the opposite corner.
Later his son, Jas. D. Brewer succeeded to the business. Mr.
Brewer was a director in the Chicopee Bank (now the Chicopee
National Bank) at its organization in 1836. He was the father of
Mrs. Eunice Brewer Smith of Maple street and the grandfather of
Mrs. Dr. Corcoran. The land and buildings belonged in the early
days to Capt. Jos. Carew, and later to Philo F. Wilcox.
Previous to the beginning of the last century, a two story brown
house, the residence of Luke Bliss, stood on this corner facing State
street, and in front was an ancient watering-trough, around which
the farmers hitched their horses on market days. The street was
much narrower than at the present time and there was always a
blockade of teams at that point.
Adjoining the Brewer store and extending nearly to the old
Springfield Bank was a block of stores that previous to 1855 was
the fashionable mlUInery center, not only of the town, but of the
surrounding country. There were three different stores devoted
to this business. They were owned by Gardner Adams, O. W.
Wilcox and D. J. Bartlett; the last two afterwards moved to Main
street. The ladles' hats In those days were delivered in what was
known as a band box, a round box about eighteen inches deep and
covered with wall paper. They were necessarily large to contain
the "creations" of that period. The hats of the ladies of today
are much smaUer In size but the price does not seem to have grown
perceptibly less. The earlier occupants of this block were D. W.
Willard, Edmund Rowland, Draper & Bailey and M. & E.
Pomeroy. Later WUlard Elmer carried on the shoe business there.
On the second floor was a school for girls and A. G. Tannatt's
printing office. The Springfield Gazette was pubHshed there. East
of this was a brick block owned and occupied by Elam Stock-
bridge who carried on the taUoring business.
We now come to the old Springfield Bank (untU recently the
Second National) organized in 1814. This was the first discount
bank in Springfield. The population of the town at that time was
3,000, and the country was engaged in a war with Great Britain.
The corporators met in Uncle Jerry Warriner's Tavern and or
ganized the bank with a capital of $200,000. The old bank building

OLD STATE STREET 187
Is still standing, but has been remodeled and the lower part is at
present occupied by Wilder's grain store and a barber shop. Jona
than Dwight was the first president and Edward Pynchon the first
cashier. Other presidents were Judge John Hooker, Jas. Byers and
Hon. John Howard (the latter an uncle of Rev. Thos. Dwight
Howard, a director of this society). The bank was reorganized in
1863 under the National Bank Act and Hon. Henry Alexander was
for many years its president. The veteran banker, Edmund Chapin,
late president of the John Hancock National Bank, when a young
man was one of the clerks.
THE BURNING OF THE OLD UNITARIAN CHURCH
On the spot where the Kirkham and Olmstead block now stands
was the first house of worship of the Unitarian, or Third Congre
gational Society, the corner stone of which was laid May 20, 1819.
It was a fine old wooden structure, and was destroyed by fire on
the night of October 12, 1873. It was built and presented to the
society by Hon. Jonathan Dwight. Rev. W. B. O. Peabody was
the first pastor. Many of us can remember the night it burned,
when the flames enveloped the spire, and the old bell came clanging
to the basement. This old bell has quite a history. It was the only
fire alarm bell of the town for several years, and after its destruction
the late Colonel Thompson sent parts of it to the Ames Company
at Chicopee and had them cast into a flower vase which was placed
in the new church, where it is in use today. In February, 1869, the
society dedicated its present handsome edifice opposite the city
library. H. H. Richardson, who designed Trinity Church, Boston,
was the architect. It is now, and I think wIU always be, one of the
architecturally beautiful buildings in the city.
This takes us to the present corner of Willow street (which at this
time had not been opened) and from here to Maple street, the land
now covered by dwelling houses and shops, and the State Street
Baptist Church, was, at the beginning of the last century, the home
of Hon. Jonathan Dwight, 2nd, son of Hon. Jonathan Dwight, Sr.
(to whom I shall refer later), and the house was occupied, within
my memory, by Frederick Dwight. The house stood near the Maple
street corner and the grounds which extended down to Willow
street were filled with flowers and vegetables in their season and
always in fine condition.

i88 OLD STATE STREET
dale's corner
We now cross Maple street to what was known in the early
days as "Dale's Corner," for a description of which I am indebted
to Rev. Thos. Dwight Howard of this city — and Mr. Howard's
sketch is so much clearer than anything that I can write, that I will
give it in his own words. He says:
The route to my first school which was kept by Miss Mary Foot in a building
presently to be described, lay around what was then (about the year 1832) known
as "Dale's Corner," the southeast corner of State and Maple streets. The name
came from Mr. Thos. Dale, Sr. The aged man could be seen almost daily in his
yard viewing, as I recall him, the pile of cord wood which seemed to be a fixture
there. He lived about ten years beyond the year above named, as will be seen
from the following sketch drawn from Chapin's "Old Springfield." Thos. Dale,
Sr., born in Sheffield, England, was a cutler by trade. He was drafted into the
British Army and was with Burgoyne when he surrendered to General Gates at
Saratoga, Oct. 17, 1777. On his way to Boston as a prisoner of war, he was given
his choice to return to England or remain in this country. He chose the latter and
stopped in Springfield. Upon the establishment of the Armory in 1794 he was
one of the first men to be employed there. Mr. Dale died Oct. 14, 1843, aged 92.
Next east of the Dale lot stood a two-story house which was occupied at the
time of my earliest recollection by Mr. Smith, one of the early dancing masters
of Springfield; subsequently by Dr. Matthew Baker; for a time by Doctor Grey
and later by Deputy Sheriff Kingsley. The house was afterwards removed to the
extreme corner and in the modern period sheltered the Variety store. Next east
was the diminutive structure which bore the sign "John Hooker" and was his
business office. In the east corner of Mr. Hooker's property stood a one-story
house, originally the tin shop of Dennis Cook and Philip Wilcox. In the early
thirties it was a kindergarten and at a later period the office of the Aliis Dye House.
The space between these two buildings was shaded by the wide spreading branches
of a gigantic buttonwood tree.
The first marked change in the State street front was wrought by Mr. Tilly
Haynes who built of brick his ample double house on lots east of the corner property.
The purchase of land for its site was effected according to the Registry Oct. 9,
1855. There remains for narration the mutations, which meanwhile had their initi
ation in the eastern portion of the John Hooker property. This plot extended
to the line of the county land on the east and to that of Hon. Oliver B. Morris on
the south. The southern portion of this space was from my earliest recollection,
occupied by the Springfield Brewery, a large ill-shaped structure; its principal
attraction to the children was the rotary horse that furnished the power. This
architectural deformity was to disappear from the face of the earth. Under date
of March fourth John Hooker made a contract with Zephaniah Hunt and George
Hunt to convert the building lately improved by him as a brewery into four dwell
ing houses according to plans drawn by H. A. Sykes, architect. The work to be
done under the direction of John or Simon Sanborn and to the satisfaction of said

OLD STATE STREET 189
Sanborn. It is scarcely necessary to say that for this and most of my well founded
statements, I am indebted to Thos. B. Warren.
The brick block fronting towards State street with the cleared space inter
vening will be remembered by persons in mid-life. Names of occupants of these
attractive houses are Samuel Bigelow, Tilly Haynes, Ariel Parish, Mrs. George
Frost, Mrs. Bush, Mrs. Evans, Elisha Leonard and Edmund Bigelow. These
houses remained in place about eighteen years. The land they occupied was bought
by the Third Congregational Society, June 30, 1866. The corner stone of Unity
Church was laid May 20, 1867 and the building dedicated Feb. 17, 1869. The
parsonage was built during the pastorate of Rev. John Cuckson. The transforma
tion, the process of which I have endeavored to portray has been completed by the
erection of the elegant and stately edifice of the Springfield Fire & Marine Insur
ance Company. This, however, is so closely contemporary with the present
writing that it is only necessary for the historian to say that the angle formed
by the convergence of its north and west walls, marks the point which in olden
times was known as "Dale's Corner."THE COUNTY JAIL
Mr. Howard's interesting paper leaves us near the western end
of the new high school. This property was bought of Joseph Hop
kins by the county In 1 8 13 for the county jaU. The building was
erected in 1815 and was in use until the present jail was completed
a few years since. Col. Ebenezer Russell was the first jailor, later
Col. Harvey Chapin, Elihu Adams and still later Sheriffs Bradley
and Bush. Col. Emery B. Clark Is the present incumbent In the
the York street institution. The jail was a brick structure and stood
quite close to the street extending back to what is now Temple
street. I remember an incident that occurred here when I was a
lad. A man named Jones who was confined there for murder
eluded his keepers one day and made a dash for liberty. I happened
to be passing at the time and saw him rush across State street in his
prison garb and climb into the thick foHage of a tree in the Alex
ander yard. The house dog treed him and his barking guided the
officers and he was captured and taken back to his ceU. I am not
sure, but I think he was afterwards executed by hanging in the
jail yard.
Next to the old jail stood the soap factory of James and Michael
Lee, the only Irishmen in Springfield at that time. It stood back
from the street with a small wooden dwelling in front. Mr. R. M.
Cooley subsequently bought the property and erected a brick house
on the east end of the lot for his own occupancy. This place was
purchased a few years since by Jas. W. Kirkham and remodeled

1 90 OLD STATE STREET
into a fine residence. Mr. Kirkham later sold It to Robert W. Day,
who moved It to its present location.
On the lot where the house of Mr. Day now stands, was the old
Kirkham homestead owned and occupied by Mr. John B. Kirkham
(father of Albert H. Kirkham). Mr. Kirkham was an armorer.
At the organization of the Springfield Institution for Savings in
1827 be was a member of the first board of trustees. In later years
this was the home of the late James Kirkham, President of the
First National Bank, recently absorbed by the Union Trust Com
pany, and father of Jas. W. Kirkham. The grounds of nearly all
these places between Maple and School streets extended back to
the old Morris estates or to what is now Temple street.
I am unable to gather many facts regarding the next two or three
residences to the east. The first was owned by John C. Stebbins
and later by Sheldon Webster. It was afterwards bought and
remodeled by the late Elisha Morgan, and is now the home of his
widow. The second, at the commencement of the last century
was the house of Joseph Hopkins and I am told was built by him.
It was afterwards bought by Jas. W. Hale. Mr. Hale came to
Springfield in 1836 and was afterwards engaged in the grocery
business with John West under the firm name of J. W. Hale & Co.
Mr. Hale was one of the typical old time merchants and a very
benevolent man. He provided in his will for the establishment of a
fund which is known as the "Hale Fund," the principal amounting
to over $30,000, the income to be used for the purchase of coal,
flour, etc., for the poor of the town. After the death of his son,
George N. Hale, in 1870 the place was sold to the late Emery Meekins
and is now the home of his widow and daughter. The third house,
at the corner of State and School streets, was owned by Charles
Wood and later by Dea. W. H. Bowdoin. Deacon Bowdoin carried
on the grocery and dry goods business on the hill and was also a
manufacturer of cards. He was one of the directors of the John
Hancock Bank at its organization in 1850 and one of the founders
of Olivet Church In 1833. The Bowdoin house is still standing
although not in its original shape and is owned by Deacon Bowdoin's
daughter. Miss Caroline Bowdoin.
We now cross School street (which was opened in 1826) to the
John Stebbins homestead. Mr. Stebbins was the father of the late

OLD STATE STREET 191
John B. Stebbins of Crescent HiU (who at the time of his death was
president of the Springfleld Institution for Savings). Mr. John
Stebbins, I understand, lived and died here; subsequently it was
the home of his daughter, who married the late R. T. Safford,
father of Jas. D. and Henry S. Safford of this city. T. M. Walker
afterwards purchased the property and erected the brick house now
standing on the corner; subsequently his son, Wm. B. Walker, built
upon the eastern portion of the lot his present residence.
THE OLD HAMPDEN BREWERY
In the rear of the next lot stood the old Hampden brewery of
Mr. Warriner. This and the Springfield brewery already described,
manufactured what was known as "Cream Ale." This was before
the Germans had taught us the art of brewing lager beer. There
were two breweries and one distillery in Springfield at this time.
The latter was at Sixteen Acres. I understand that liquors were
stored in the basement of the old First Church in those days and
it excited no comment. There is a story that a wag posted one
night the foUowing lines on the door of the old cburch, but I will
not vouch for it: There are spirits above and spirits below.
There are spirits of joy, and spirits of woe;
The spirits above are the spirits divine.
The spirits below are the spirits of wine.
Myrtle street was not opened at this time and the brewery stood
in the rear of the lot where the brick house of E. C. Barr now stands.
The next three lots are now covered by the big apartment house
at the corner of State and Myrtle streets. The buildings were aU
wooden structures, the first occupied by Solomon Ferre, the
second by Noah Ferre and later by Mr. Gay, and the third by Mr.
Dale, father of the late Lombard Dale. Ezra Richmond, who
married the widow of Mr. Dale was the next occupant. Mr. Rich
mond was the father of F. & J. M. Richmond, the old Sanford
street stablemen. Mrs. Taylor, widow of the late Varnum N.
Taylor, was the last owner. In recent years the Methodist Society
erected a church on the Myrtle street corner which was taken down
when the apartment house was built.
The brick building, now standing, next above the apartment
house was remodeled by Dr. George C. McClean and is now his

192 OLD STATE STREET
home. This was the old Cyrus Foot house, built by B. O. Tyler of
Washington and is with one exception, the only one of the old
residences now standing on that side of State street between School
street and the top of the hill. It was a double house and Mr. Foot
occupied the east side. The tenement on the west side was the home
of T. D. Beach, the old time auctioneer of Springfleld, and father
of Mrs. Newrie D. Winter of this city.
Two small wooden structures come next. The first owned by
Martin White, and later by "Mother" Stevenson. The second by
Carlos Smith on the present site of Wm. H. Parsons' residence.
The place adjoining these on the east was my own birthplace and
the home of my paternal grandparents, which I have already de
scribed. Geo. W. Tapley's residence now stands on the lot.
"skunk's misery"
Back of these old homesteads, was a wide deep dingle through
which ran an open brook, and the gardens and orchards ran down
to it in terraces. This has all been filled, but I think the brook still
runs under ground as far down as Temple street or farther, but am
not sure. This valley was known as "Skunk's Misery." Why it
was given this euphonious name I cannot understand. To me, with
its abundance of lawn, its old fashioned gardens, and grand old
maples and chestnuts. It was anything but that.
We now come to the homes of E. S. Bradford and George A.
Russell. These two lots were formerly in one and extended back into
the dingle and up to High street. The first owner of which I have
any record was Mr. Broad. Later Col. Roswell Lee, superintendent
at the Armory, built upon the site and it was occupied by John B.
Eldridge, editor of the Hampden Whig, Afterwards It was bought
by F. M. Carew, a partner of tbe late John L. King, and was the
home of Adonijah Foot, father of the late Col. Homer Foot. In
my boyhood It was owned by Phllos B. Tyler, mayor of Springfield
in 1854, and subsequently by Homer Merriam of the firm of G. & C.
Merriam, publishers of "Webster's Dictionary." The grounds were
quite extensive, even for those days, and the hillside extending up
to High street was a forest of chestnut trees. This part was pur
chased by D. B. Wesson and is now the site of the fine new hospital,
the gift of Mr. Wesson.
Coming back to State street the next place to engage our atten-

OLD STATE STREET 193
tion is the Weatherhead house, which was built about the year 1845,
Chauncy Shepard being the architect, and was tbe home of Joseph
Weatherhead. Mr. Weatherhead came to Springfield about 181 5
and for over thirty years was in the service of the United States
government at the Armory, eight years of the time as master ar
morer. He was a member of the first board of trustees of the Spring
field Cemetery Association In 1841. Mr. Weatherhead died in
1 871. His daughter, who married the late Daniel D. Warren, to
gether with her family, occupied the house since my earliest recol
lections and it was known as the Warren homestead until bought
a few years since by the late Wm. H. Wright. It is now owned by
his son, Horace P. Wright. Mrs. Geo. R. Estabrook and Mr. Thos.
B. Warren are grandchildren of Mr. Weatherhead.
Where the next two houses now stand was formerly one lot, and
owned by Martin Sykes, father of Martin L. Sykes, Vice-President
of the Chicago & Northwestern R. R.* I can just remember the
low, unpainted, weather-stained house that stood there. Later Mr.
Hubbard, father of Mrs. E. D. Beach, built the present brick
structure, which was afterwards bought and remodeled by Justice
M. P. Knowlton, the present owner. The other house on this lot is
now standing. It was originaUy a plain octagon shaped structure
and was at one time the home of Dr. Otis, one of our city physicians.
ANCIENT houses ON STATE STREET
The late A. B. Forbes of the firm of Forbes & Wallace owned and
lived in the next residence until he moved to his country home at
Byfield. This is one of the very old houses on the street. Mr. Sable
Rogers (or Commodore Rogers, as he was called), who came to
this town in 1 81 5 lived there. Mr. Rogers was the only butcher In
Springfield at the time. He was treasurer of the Springfield Mutual
Fire Assurance Company and director of the Chicopee Bank in
1836. Edwin Booth built the next house In 1827 but it has been com
pletely changed In shape in recent years. Mr. Booth was a hatter
and furrier. I have heard my father say that he was a strong anti-
slavery man, and greatly opposed to the use of tobacco. He was one
of the founders of the Olivet Church. Mr. Booth died in 1865.

*Mr. Sykes sold it in 1844 to Samuel R. Crane, father of Frank S. Crane, chair
man of board of assessors, who in 1847 sold it to Thomas J. Shepard.

194 OLD STATE STREET
My memoranda says that Mr. Perkins lived on the present site
of the OUvet Church but nothing is said about the man or any de
scription of the house. Olivet Church was built In 1834 and re
modeled and dedicated in 1855. The society was organized in
1833 as the Fourth Congregational Society, but the name Olivet
was not used until its dedication.
The house next east of Olivet Church was the home of Zebina
Walker and is now an apartment house. The next was that of Elisha
Curtis. From this point to Walnut street I have nothing definite
left me, but from the following memorandum, contributed from
memory by Mr. John West, a member of this society, I am enabled
to give the names of the occupants of the shops, and the business
they were engaged in about the year 1840, and I will read them in
theorder they were given: John Kilbon, shoe store; Austin Stewart,
shoemaker; E. & S. Woodworth, jewelry; F. M. Carew, dry goods
and groceries; Roderick Norton, hat store; G. W. Harrison (or
General Harrison, as he was called), groceries; E. D. Stocking
(later Nathaniel Cate), groceries; Jonathan Bangs, groceries;
Holt & Brown, merchant tailors, and on the corner of Walnut
street, Elisha Gunn. This must have been quite a business center
for those days as the John Hancock Bank started there in 1850.
State street from School street to the top of the hill when first
laid out ran farther to the north, and took in the large trees that
are now inside the Armory fence. The ancient milestone that
stands today at the foot of the large elm, in front of the middle
arsenal, indicates the northerly line of the street. Later, in order to
avoid the steep grade, the path was changed and ran from Myrtle
street to Walnut up through "Skunk's Misery," back of the Olivet
Church. Afterwards this was discontinued and the present location
established. The grade has been several times lowered, once at
least within my own recollection.
THE DAYS OF THE SIMPLE LIFE
It Is interesting in this connection to "hark back" forty years
or so and. contrast the old omnibus and its single pair of horses
toiling up State street hiU, once an hour, with the present electric
cars passing every three minutes, and if they are a minute or so
behind the schedule, or run in bunches, we enter a protest. Max
O'Rell in commenting on American customs said, "The Americans

OLD STATE STREET 195
require from five to six minutes for lunch but they hope soon to
accomplish it In less time than this." We certainly lived the "Sim
ple life" In those days and probably none of us would care to return
to them; if we are getting with our present rapid pace all that
we think we are, is another question.
In taking the north side of State street from Federal street to
Main, the United States Armory Is the first to engage our attention.
This, however. Is a history in itself, and the subject was so ably
treated last winter. In a paper written by Major Clark of the United
States Army, and read before one of our Men's Clubs, that I will
not enlarge upon it here. This paper was an admirable description
of the Armory, and part of it together with some early drawings
was published in one of the Sunday issues of the Republican, An
other remarkably good article on the Armory Is contained In King's
Hand Book of Springfield by Mr. Albert H. Kirkham, an old and
valued member of this society. AT BYERS STREET
Just above Byers street upon what is now government ground
stood the old Starkey house. Of the man and his family I have no
record beyond the fact that he was killed by lightning during a
terrific thunder storm, while standing In his front doorway, one
Sunday morning. I understand that there was a small yellow
painted building known as the "Pay-master's Office" that stood
just east of this house, but of this I have also no record.
West of the Starkey house at the present entrance to Byers
street (before that street was opened) was the home of .Hon. James
Byers, known as "Hillside Cottage." The house is still standing
on Byers street, the first from the corner. Mr. Byers built it in 183 1
and occupied it for many years, afterwards selling it to Col. Roswell
Shurtleff, father of Judge Wm. S. Shurtleff and RosweU G. Shurtleff
of this city. Here Mr. Byers entertained many prominent men of
his day, Daniel Webster among the number. Mr. Byers was a
merchant and for several years postmaster of Springfield. He was
also paymaster and military storekeeper at the Armory for eight
years from 1803, and commissary of the United States Army during
the war of 1812, also one of the Incorporators of the old Springfield
bank in 1814. He was one of a number of citizens who bought the
freedom of the slave woman "Jenny" In 1808. Many of you are

196 OLD STATE STREET
probably familiar with the history of this woman. She had run
away from her Dutch master in New York state and the good people
here took her in. During her stay she made such a good impression
that a number of citizens contributed and bought her freedom from
her owner when he finally located her here. I can remember hearing
my father speak of buying cakes and spruce beer of "Aunt Jenny"
at her little hut near "Goose Pond." Mrs. Jas. L. Egbert and Mrs.
Walter H. Wesson are grand-nieces and Nathan Adams a grand-
nephew of Mr. Byers. Some of the old residents who have occupied
the Byers cottage are Henry Seymour, General Barnes, Elisha
Gunn, Hon. John Mills, John B. Stebbins, Rodolphus Kinsley and
D. E. Taylor.
West of the Byers cottage where the house of Dr. Pomeroy
stands lived a Mr. Potter, but of this man and his family I have no
record. On the present site of the First Baptist Church was the
home of William Child, father of Mrs. IngersoU, wife of Maj. Ed
ward IngersoU, for many years paymaster at the Armory. Mr.
ChUd was a distiller at Sixteen Acres, coming to Springfield in 1830.
He was a representative to the Legislature in 1828 and one of the
original trustees of the Springfield Institution for Savings. Dr.
Alfred Lambert afterwards bought the property, built a new house
and occupied it for many years. He had his office there. It was a
brick house painted a dark grey color. The lot extended up to Byers
street and before his death Dr. Lambert built the present brick
house on the Byers street corner for his own occupancy. It is now
the home of Dr. Pomeroy. I understand that a wooden house
stood on the Spring street corner before Dr. Lambert built there,
and was owned and occupied by John Rice, grandfather of Frank C.
and Walter Rice of this city.
NEAR SPRING STREET
On the northwest corner of State and Spring streets stood the
old Dr. Frost house. Dr. Frost was a man highly esteemed in the
community and a physician of marked ability. After Spring street
was opened the old house was moved to the rear, fronting on Spring
street, and a new one was built which is now standing. The prop
erty afterwards came Into the possession of Edmund Palmer,
grandfather of the Misses Mills of Crescent HIU. Mr. Palmer re-

OLD STATE STREET 197
modeled the whole structure. The late Chas. O. Chapin was the
last purchaser and it Is now occupied by his son, Chas. L.
Chapin. We now come to one of the fine old Colonial mansions of early
Springfield, best known today perhaps as the Alexander house, the
home of Colonel and Mrs. H. M. Phillips and Miss Alexander. It
was built nearly a century ago by Hon. James Byers. The architect
was Asher Benjamin of Boston, grandfather of Mrs. H. A. Gould
of this city. Simon Sanborn was the contractor, the man who built
the George Bliss house, now the Episcopal rectory. Mr. Byers
built it in 1816 and in 1821 sold it to Col. Israel Trask. Colonel
Trask was a lawyer of distinction, a graduate of Harvard CoUege
and at one time a captain in the Sixteenth U. S. Infantry. He was
the owner of a plantation near Natchez, Miss., where he spent most
of his winters, making Springfield his summer home. From 1830
to 1832 the place was owned and occupied by Chester Harding,
the artist, but was afterwards conveyed back to Colonel Trask, in
whose family it remained until sold to Hon. Henry Alexander,
Jr., in 1862. Gen. James Barnes, superintendent of the old Western
Railroad, lived here at one time. The house in my boyhood stood
nearer the corner of EUiot street (which was not open at that time)
and was subsequently moved to its present location.
A notable occupant of this old mansion was Chester Harding,
considered I believe by good critics to be one of the finest portrait
painters this country has ever produced. There is a little volume
in our city library compUed by his daughter Margaret which is
well worth the reading. It is made up largely of correspondence
between Mr. Harding and members of his family, and shows the
early struggles of the man and his phenomenal success in the face
of great obstacles. It is much more interesting than the average
biography. Mr. Harding was a personal friend of Daniel Webster,
and his portraits of that statesman are considered the best In ex
istence. There are many specimens of his work in our city library
and in private residences here. A portrait of my grandfather which
I have in my home and prize very highly was painted by Mr.
Harding In 1830 after his return from Europe.
Before Elliot street was opened and on the present site of the
bishop's residence stood the house of Maj. Lewis Foster. Major
Foster was an officer In the Massachusetts militia. In 18*15 he

198 OLD STATE STREET
was appointed overseer in the United States watershops by Col.
Benj. Prescott, superintendent at the Armory. Major Foster died
In Springfield in 1849.
WHERE THE CATHEDRAL NOW STANDS
On the lot now occupied by the Catholic cathedral were the
homes of Edmund Allen and Elijah Goodrich. Mr. AUen bought
his home of Luther White in 181 5 and occupied it untU sold to the
CathoUcs in 1861. Mr. AUen was a mechanic at the United States
Armory and at one time agent of the old Springfield brewery.
For several years he was chorister at the Unitarian Church. Elijah
Goodrich owned the other half of the cathedral lot where he lived
and carried on the livery business. Mr. Goodrich was a great
horse trainer in his day.
After Rev. Dr. Osgood and his neighbor, Samuel Reynolds, had
opened Hampden street from Main to Water street through their
property, John Goodrich bought of Dr. Osgood the land on the
north side and erected Goodrich block on the corner, now the
Nelson Hotel and theatre. I am told that a brick house stood on
this State street lot in later years and was occupied by Daniel
Gay. Subsequently the late T. M. Walker bought the property
and lived there until he sold it to Rev. Mr. Gallagher of St. Mi
chael's Cathedral.
The next house is still standing but has been so completely made
over that those of us who remember the imposing white structure
would hardly recognize it today. This was the home of Rev. Dr.
W. B. O. Peabody, the beloved pastor of the old Unitarian Church
from 1820 until his death in 1847. It is to Dr. Peabody that we
are in a large measure indebted for our beautiful cemetery. He was
the first to suggest its location, was its first president and together
with Chester Harding and others contributed largely to laying out
and beautifying the grounds. From my earliest boyhood I have
been accustomed to hear of the many virtues of this kindly man.
Perhaps because my grandparents were Unitarians, but I suspect
he was loved and revered In his day very much as our good Dr.
Buckingham was in later years. Dr. Peabody died In 1847 leaving
one daughter and four sons. The oldest. Col. Everett Peabody,
was killed at the battle of Pittsburg Landing in 1862. W. B. O.

OLD STATE STREET 199
Peabody, Jr., was an architect and Frank H. and Oliver W. were
bankers of Kidder-Peabody & Co. of Boston.
Mr. Bailey of Draper & Bailey occupied this house for many
years, also Calvin Loomis and Dr. Grey. Subsequently it was
owned and occupied by the late Emerson Wight, Nathan D. Bill
and Dr. H. E. Rice. It finally passed into the hands of the Catholic
society and has been converted into a private hospital. (The fine
old residence on Maple street now owned by James T. Abbe and
for many years known as the RumrlU house was afterwards built
by Dr. Peabody and he lived and died there.)
Until very recently there stood in the rear of the Y. M. C. A.
building on Dwight street a low one-story house with a gambrel
roof and occupied by colored families. It was moved there from
the present site of the Art Museum, and was built in 1760 (by
whom I do not know). My grandfather lived there in the early
part of the last century, and it was afterwards owned by Elijah
Blake, who came to Springfield in 1808. After its removal Mr.
Blake built In 1839 a new house on the lot which he occupied until
his death. This was afterwards moved to the rear and is now the
property of the City Library Association and used as a club house
by the Springfield Women's Club. Mr. Blake was engaged In the
shoe and leather business, which he sold in 1855 to the late John R.
Hixon. Mr. Blake was one of the selectmen and represented this
district in the legislature of 1838. He was also for many years chief
engineer of the fire department, first treasurer of the Cemetery
Association and a director in the Springfield Mutual Fire Associa
tion. Many of us can remember his venerable figure on the street
twenty-five or thirty years ago. He died In 1880 at ninety-six
years of age. ON THE SITE OF THE LIBRARY
West of the Blake house was the Solomon Hatch place, which
stood on the site of the city library. Mr. Hatch was a merchant,
starting as a clerk for Hon. Jas. Byers. He succeeded Mr. Byers
in the business and later retired and engaged in farming. He was
town treasurer in 1824 and senator from Hampden district in
1824-25. On the corner of State and Chestnut streets (now Merrick Park)
was the George Bliss estate, the house standing at the top of the

200 OLD STATE STREET
hUl on the present site of the Episcopal Church and fronting on
Chestnut street, the grounds extending down to State street. It
now stands in the rear of the church and is used as the rectory. I
am unable to find any record to show that a building of any kind
was ever erected upon the site of Merrick Park.
From Chestnut street to Dwight street I have no record of any
buUding until the first Episcopal Church was erected in 1840, but
this may not be correct. The rectory stood on the corner where the
Washburn block now stands and the church just above It. The
latter is still standing and forms the rear of a brick business block,
since built. Rev. Henry Lee, afterwards Bishop of Iowa and son
of Col. Roswell Lee, was the first rector. Later this property was
sold and in 1876 the present handsome edifice on Chestnut street
was completed.
This brings us to the historic old house which stood on the corner
of State and Dwight streets, the present site of the Y. M. C. A.
building. This was the home of James Scutt Dwight who died in
1822 and to whom I shall refer later. A plain two-story wooden
house with its wide Colonial window in the second story front, and
its old fashioned door, it was a pretty good type of the substantial
home of that period. A double wedding of considerable local in
terest occurred here in 1 83 4, when the late Col. Homer Foot and
William W. Orne were married by Rev. Dr. Peabody to daughters
of Mr. Dwight. After Mr. Dwight's death his widow occupied the
home for several years. Later the widow of Dr. Samuel Kingsbury
bought it. A small ell with a door opening on Dwight street was
the law office of Hon. Wm. B. Calhoun, who married Margaret,
daughter of Dr. Kingsbury. The property has changed hands
several times, WiUiam W. Lee, Elam Stockbridge, William H. Par
sons and James E. Russell being some of the owners. In recent
years monitor stores were attached to the old house which was used
for commercial purposes.
I have no record of the places between here and the old town
hall, but they are down on the old maps as belonging to Widow
Robinson, Widow Lyman, M. D. Graves and P. F. WUcox, in the
order named. An Interesting fact came to my notice a few days
ago in connection with the building that stands next east of the
town hall and which is being fitted up for Lewis J. BaU's grocery
store. It seems that this was at one time (about 1849) a hotel.

OLD STATE STREET 201
and kept by Mr. Earle, father of the Earles of New York, once the
proprietors of the old Earle's Hotel at Canal and Center streets and
of the Hotel Normandie at Broadway and 38th streets. Later I
understood it was used as a restaurant.
The old town hall Is worthy of more than a passing notice. It
was built about the year 1826 or 1827 and the entrance to the second
and third stories was on Market street. At that time the three
stores were owned by Dr. Elisha Edwards and Charles Stearns. In
1832 the one on the Market street corner was bought by Phillip
Wilcox for a stove and tin shop, the middle one by Henry L. Bunker
for a grocery store and the third was Mr. Pomeroy's millinery store.
The hall was on the second floor and the third or top floor was
occupied by the Hampden Lodge of Masons. On the evening of
the day of the national election, during the "Tippecanoe and Tyler
too" Campaign, there was a ball held in the old hall which was
considered a grand affair for those days.
In the rear of the hall and before Market street was opened, in
fact before the hall was built, was a little red brick school house for
which many of the older residents seem to entertain very tender
recollections. James Osgood of Chicago, a son of Rev. Dr. Osgood
of the First Church (and to whom I am indebted for many valuable
suggestions) refers to it in a letter and names Miss Eunice Brewer,
daughter of Dr. Chauncy Brewer and Miss Eliza Lombard, daughter
of Dea. Justin Lombard as the teachers. There have been three
different school houses upon this very spot, and the open lot in the
rear, which is now covered with business blocks was the school
playground. THE OLD DWIGHT CORNER
I cannot close this paper without reference to the Old Dwight
Corner, the present home of the Springfield Institution for Savings,
for while the entrance was on Main street, the building extended
back nearly to Market street. There was a small wooden structure
in the rear in which the post office was at one time located, and in
later years Capron & Son had a grocery store there. "The Dwights
were planted on Springfield soil long before the Revolution," I now
quote from Greene's History. "Col. Josiah Dwight, son of Captain
Henry and Sarah Pynchon Dwight, was a man of note, dying in
Springfield In 1768. His brother, Edward Dwight of Halifax, sent

202 OLD STATE STREET
his ten years' old son to the colonel in Springfield in 1753. The
lad's name was Jonathan. He grew up In his uncle's store, suc
ceeded to his business, managed his estate and perfected the foun
dation upon which the Dwight family in Springfield have since
builded. "Jonathan Dwight was of medium size, engaging in his manners,
a great smoker, a fine business man and thoroughly honorable, up
right and church-going in his habits. His old red house at the
corner of Main and State streets Hves in storied memory. Here used
to gather for converse, and to smoke and trade, people of all classes
and conditions."
In 1799 this red buUding was removed and a more commodious
brick one was built (which many of us can remember), and at this
old corner resided the spirit of Theology, Politics and Business.
About 1790 Jonathan Dwight's son, James Scutt Dwight, was
taken in as a partner where he remained through the various changes
in the firm for over thirty years. The firm had branches throughout
Western Massachusetts and also at Boston. About 183 1 Hon.
George Dwight and Col. Homer Foot purchased the various in
terests and later took into the firm John B. Stebbins, who had been
a clerk In the old Dwight store with Colonel Foot. This, I suppose,
was the beginning of the well known firm of Homer Foot & Co.
In 1847 they bought Uncle Jerry Warriner's Tavern and built what
Is known as Foot's Block, recently purchased by the Massachusetts
Mutual Life Insurance Company, and moved the hardware business
there. With this the glory of the old Dwight Corner departed.
During the next twenty years the grocery and confectionery business
was carried on here by different parties, Cicero Simons and Mr.
Hudson among the number. In 1867 the Springfield Institution
for Savings buUt their present banking house, which they are soon
to vacate. In going back over the history of "Old Springfield" one cannot
fail to be impressed by the enterprise and courage exhibited by a
score or more of the early business men of the town, in laying the
foundation that made possible the present beautiful "City of
Homes."

THE NORTH END OF MAIN STREET 203
September 17, 1906
Annual Meeting adjourned to November 20, 1906.
Adjourned Annual Meeting November 20, 1906
Officers elected —
President, William F. Adams. Vice-Presidents, John West, Andrew
J. Flanagan, J. Stuart Kirkham. Clerk and Corresponding Secretary,
Henry A. Booth. Treasurer and Curator, William C. Stone.
Executive Committee: Edward A. Hall, Frank G. Tobey, Alfred M.
Copeland, Albert H. Kirkham, Lewis F. Carr, Rev. Thomas D. Howard.

Rev. Thomas D. Howard read a paper on "Main Street,
from Carew Street to the Arch. "
The North End of Main Street
THE section to which your attention is invited Is that
bounded by Carew street on the north and the railroad
arch on the south. The period brought to view is that of
the youthtime of those who are now old; it may be
proximately defined as the years between 1836 and 1842, that being
the time In which my most vivid memories have place. Essential
to the success of my undertaking was the assistance of Richard
Stebbins, M.D., of Omaha, Neb., my special friend from boy
hood, and who knew every foot of the ground covered. This aid has
been cheerfully rendered. It is proper, however, to say that all the
information furnished has been given in response to specific Inquiries
and requests, and that I am alone responsible for the use made of it
in this paper.
The Carew mansion, built in 1800 by Capt. Joseph Carew, was at
the head of Main street, and was well suited to its commanding
situation. Its outlook was down the broad avenue shaded by its
central row of elms. Within was a home of gracious hospitality.
In this connection one inmate should be mentioned, if faithful
service is worthy of praise. Harriet Wood, colored, lived with this
family in cheerful ministration, with cooking as her specialty, from
the age of fourteen until her death at that of seventy, and the kindly
regard of those who knew her was attested by the large attendance
at her funeral. East of the house was a finely-kept flower and vege
table garden, and beyond this the famous tannery. South, along the

204 THE NORTH END OF MAIN STREET
line of Main street, was a meadow of two acres. Besides this prop
erty there was (the name Indicating ownership of the brick building
at the southeast corner of Main and State street) Carew hall, the
precursor of Stockbridge's hall. Sons of Captain Carew weie active
in business in Springfield and South Hadley Falls. Of the third
generation Miss Carrie E. Spencer, daughter of Capt. Luther and
Caroline Carew Spencer, Is resident in Springfleld.
East of the Carew property was the house of Mr. Alexander Rum
rlU. Although this home was not on Main street. It was an integral
part of the north end community, as have been James B. and James
A. RumrlU, successively, of the larger munlcIpaUty of Springfield.
I am told of the house of Darius Wright, a revolutionary pensioner,
which cornered on the Caiew house at the northwest. Both of my
informants tell of a leaden sun-dial, which unusual indicator would
seem to have been the distinguishing feature of this domicile. Miss
Spencer writes, " I have heard my mother say that she often went
over there to see the time of day. "
We now begin on the line of residences on the west side of Main
street, with a historic buUding erected in 1774 by Maj. Joseph
Stebbins; a tavern during the Revolutionary period and for many
years afterward. In 1827 the house with the valuable farm was
bought by Thomas Bond, previously of West Brookfield. In 1842,
Mr. Bond changed his residence to the corner of Main and Bridge
streets, and became identified with the business Interests of Spring
fleld, as were also his sons, George T. and Ephraim W., the latter
having graduated as first scholar in the class of 1841, Amherst
College, and received the degree of LL.B. from the Harvard Uni-
veisity law school In 1845. He died December 5, 1891.
The purchaser of the Bond property was Horatio Sargeant, whose
name appeared on the stagecoaches of the Connecticut valley. Mr.
Sargeant resided here until his decease in 1864 at the age of seventy-
two. His son. Rev. Horatio Lester Sargeant, after a few years of
service in his chosen profession, died July 25, 1864, at the age of
thirty-two. Next south was the only brick structure that will come under our
notice, built by and the residence of Silas Potter. Mr. Potter owned
and can led on a brick-yard about the corner of Bridge and Chestnut
streets. He took pait In the erection in Armory square of "the new
arsenal," as it was caUed up to the 40's. The place was bought In

THE NORTH END OF MAIN STREET 205
1835 by H. H. Buckland. His law oflice was on the corner of Main
and Sanford streets. Mr. Buckland sold to Mr. Colby (who came to
Springfield from Salem) and built on Water street. He died August
25, 1846, at the age of forty. Surviving in Springfield Is Miss A.
Sophia Buckland, 736 State street; In Philadelphia, Dr. E. H. Buck-
land. The respected patriarch of the neighborhood, Walter
Stebbins, occupied during a long life the next house, which was
built by his father. At a later period a modern house was built by
Miss Angelina Stebbins, which she bequeathed to the Springfield
Home for Aged Women.
The Ill-shaped structure which had been the town poor-house next
comes to view. It stood wheie Auburn street opens from Main.
The property was owned by James Byers ; the house was occupied and
the farm carried on by Seneca Cooley. Theie follow three weather-
stained houses flanked by well-sweeps, all occupied by families bear
ing the name of Stebbins. Of these homes I can recall only one
family, which consisted of George Stebbins, who carried on the
ancestral farm, his aged mother, Mrs. Moses B. Stebbins, and a
widowed sister, Mrs. Peck, with her four children. Vine street was
subsequently opened nearly where the old house stood. The fact
that, of some twenty families I have occasion to mention, nine bear
the name of Stebbins, is my excuse for an excursion at this point
in the realm of genealogy.
Rowland Stebbins came to Springfield from Roxbury, according
to the genealogy preserved in the Stebbins family, with William
Pynchon in 1636. In Burt's Memoranda the date of his arrival Is
given as 1639. It Is in favor of the latter date that the name does
not appear In the records as preserved until 1640, while In subse
quent years it frequently occurs until 1653, when he removed to
Nonotuck, now Northampton, where he died in 1677. In the grave
yard on Bridge street at Northampton stands a monument near the
supposed spot of his burial, elected by Dr. Daniel Stebbins, to the
memory of Rowland Stebbins, "the supposed ancestor," so the
inscription reads, "of all the Stebbinses in America." That may
have been true a hundred years ago, but it is highly probable that
other Stebbinses have arrived since. But it Is certain that his son,
Thomas, who came with his father at the age of fourteen, is the
ancestor of the Springfield branch. I wiU give the 01 der of succession
as represented by the head of each generation, — a typical New

2o6 THE NORTH END OF MAIN STREET
England genealogy: thousands could furnish, with names changed,
its counterpart: Rowland, Thomas, Joseph, Joseph, Joseph, Joseph,
Festus. The house built by Festus Stebbins is still standing, numbered
114. It was the center of well conducted farming operations. The
farm consisted largely of meadow land; the home lot (through the
center of which Is Clinton street) extending to the river and Including
the south half of Franklin park. It was my impression that farming
operations were carried on here when they had been mainly dis
continued elsewhere. In answer to my request for dates. Dr. Steb
bins writes: —
The old farm was practically turned to other uses by the march of improvement
and advance in the price of real estate soon after 1849, except the land on the plain
and the Agawam meadows in West Springfield. A "Farm Book" containing an
account of sales of hay was kept up to 1870. In the home, where I spent many happy
days, were twelve children. Two died before reaching their majority; ten filled
their respective places in business and domestic life. I have the register of births
which extends from 1800 to 1824, ending with Richard, the sole survivor. Three of
the brothers, — ^Theodore, Joel and William, after having been engaged in business in
New York, returned to the old home. Resident in Springfield of the third generation
are Mrs. William T. Parker, Miss Anne C. Stebbins, Miss M. Louise Stebbins, Mrs.
George B. Joslyn and Mrs. Charles B. Atwater.
The premises of the house occupied by Eli Bates joined the
Stebbins garden on the south. There were four stalwart boys. Eli,
Jr., went to Cleveland where he engaged in the lumber business, and
afterward to Chicago. The heroic statue of Abraham Lincoln which
faces the main entrance to Lincoln park was his gift to the latter city.
We have now to notice a new, or rather reconstructed, house the
first innovation in that neighborhood for a period of forty years.
It was buUt by Capt. Charles Emery, son of Robert and Mary
Lyman Emery, who had given up seafaring and become a resident
of Springfield, but in 1845 removed to Dorchester. The northern
part was occupied by John B. Stebbins and afterward by Nathan
Foster and his sister, Mrs. Hyde; the southern pait by Captain
Emery. Joshua Childs resided next. His blacksmith shop, with Its oaken
frame in which oxen were suspended preparatory to shoeing, stood
opposite where Franklin street joins Main. Of this family were the
late Otis, who was city marshal of Springfield in 1862-3, and Charles,
a carriage maker on Sanford and Market streets until 1856, when

THE NORTH END OF MAIN STREET 207
he removed to Omaha, Neb. Rev. Thomas Childs, D.D., is rector
of a church in Chevy Chase, Washington, D. C. In the earliest
years I attempt to cover, Henry Comstock lived in the house south
of Mr. Childs. Mr. Comstock removed in the early 40's to Illinois.
About the year 1843 Joshua B. Vinton, well known as a landlord
and in business circles, was in possession and resident there.
South of the junction of Emery street with Main was the house of
John B. M. Stebbins; previous owner, Pelatiah Bliss. Mr. Stebbins
was a member of the firm of John Cooley & Co., river transportation
company between Springfield and Hartford. He died June 30,
1869, at the age of seventy-two. For these and many other state
ments of fact I am indebted to Charles W. Chapin's "Old Spring
field," a volume which preserves valuable details that could only
have been obtained by thorough and painstaking research. The
house, now 148 Main street, reconstructed and elegantly flnished
within, and which has been the residence of J. F. Bidwell for thirty-
five years, was the subject of a descriptive article in a former number
of the The Republican.
The lots below the original premises were, at the time under
review, vacant as fai as Ferry lane, now Cypress street. Pausing at
its head, I ask you to look down the lane as it was sixty years ago.
A lane it was in the old EngHsh sense, skirted only by fields and the
ruins of an old miU. It had not been always so. We have some data
for the rehabilitation of the once busy street. First, in a contract
published in Burt's First Century, Thomas Stebbins, Jr., binds him
self to furnish material, build and finish a schoolhouse twenty-two
feet long and seventeen feet wide, the consideration being £14, unless
the buUder should have a hard bargain, and in that event he was to
have " 10 shillings more of the town. " The site of the buUding was
on "the lane to the upper wharf." This was four years before the
ferry. The school-house I venture to locate near the head of the lane
(since Main street must have furnished the scholars) and on the
north side, the Lyman estate being the southern line.
In 1683 a ferry was established and an agreement entered into
with John Dorchester to attend same, he having liberty to sell drink,
be freed from military service and to take nine pence per horse and
man. His dwelling must have been near the river. There was also
near the river the Brewer mansion, historical; between these houses
and the schoolhouse were Deacon Henderson's hat shop, traditional.

2o8 THE NORTH END OF MAIN STREET
and Edward Boylston's wheelwright shop, also traditional, but with
the specification that excellent work was done there; much later the
factory for making woolen cloth and the rope walk, to be further
mentioned, and, finally, the dry goods store of Zebina Stebbins on
the corner, afterward removed across Main street. A business street
was Ferry lane, a thoroughfare for western-bound travelers.
Its prosperity was continuous for over a century and until the
opening of Springfield bridge in October, 1805. The running of the
ferry and the general use of the lane must then have ceased. There
is the material for a pathetic story of the abandoned highway, the
road that leads nowhere, but it must suffice to say that in the time
of my youth there remained beside the Hving green of adjacent
fields, only the ruins of the long, one-story woolen mill.
My friend has furnished me with a list, complete to the best of
his recollection, of the dwelling-houses which have had place on the
east side of Main street. "On the north corner of Ferry street was
the dweUing of Zebina Stebbins; adjoining on the north, a house
occupied by two families, named Chapin and King. About where
Sharon street joins Main was the house of John Rice, a carpenter,
and near by a shop and dwelling occupied by John Lloyd, a cabinet
maker; on the site of the old shop was built the residence of Wait-
still Hastings; on the north corner of Main and Sharon was the
house of J. Linus Briggs, and on a corner of Congress street one
built by Conductor James Parker. On the southeast corner of
Franklin street was the house, of long standing, of Amasa Parsons,
and on a corner of Greenwood street that of Samuel Greene. At the
junction of Main and Essex streets was a one-story house which had
been moved from the line of the Boston & Albany railroad and was
known as the Sanderson House." Doctor Stebbins adds, "North
of the Sanderson house to Carew street were vacant lots when I
lived in Springfield."
Nearly all of these buildings were of later date than the period of
my sketch. Only two houses on the east side were familiar to me.
The first went by the name of Zebina Stebbins, who had died in
1835. Mr. Stebbins had been the enterprising man of the North
end. All the manufacturing there carried on had its inception in his
brain, and was prosecuted by his energy. The initial undeitaking
must have been entered on In his early manhood. This infant,
unprotected industry is graphically described in the manuscript

THE NORTH END OF MAIN STREET 209
reminiscences of Mrs. Eunice Stebbins Adams: "Zebina Stebbins's
pottery stood on the lot of his father, Thomas Stebbins, nearly oppo
site Walter Stebbins's house. He made all kinds of useful articles,
such as mugs and pitchers, which were much used for cider and
beer, and milk pans; also teapots and cups, some of these being
highly glazed and figured. All his trading was done by barter.
Money was not seen by many in those days, just after the Revolu
tion. When I was a chUd I spent many an hour seeing Mr. Stebbins
work the clay into shape with his hands, with his foot on the step
which turned the wheel."
The factory and rope walk on Ferrv lane were owned and managed
by Mr. Stebbins, and with all the rest he reserved time and strength
for the oversight of his dry goods store on the corner. There will be
remembered by the eldeis the sons, James, Christopher and John
B. M. I lecall Christopher when he was in the staging business.
He was a bachelor, with the evident determination to remain single
in spite of all temptation. He drove to my fathei's house one morn
ing to receive a passenger bound for Hartford by the steamboat
Agawam, Capt. Richard Peck. The passenger was a somewhat
eccentric maiden lady, and while talking with Mr. Stebbins laid her
hand on his arm, as was her custom in order to emphasize her words;
but he interrupted her with' "Hands off!" The other dwelling-house
recalled is that of Amasa Parsons, which stood on what is now the
southeast corner of Franklin street. Mr. Parsons must have been
sworn in as constable during a long period of time, for he had become
the embodiment of repressive law In the eyes of all the youth of the
North end.
We now return to the west side of Main street. The extensive
Lyman estate had Ferry lane for its northern boundary. The man
sion was distinguished as having been the residence of Judge Samuel
Lyman, who was a member of Congress during the closing years of
Washington's presidency. A very Interesting and appreciative
sketch of Mr. Lyman is reprinted in Mr. Chapin's volume, with
extracts from letters affording glimpses of men in cabinet and Con
gress, and indicating, as well, the character of the writer, which is
described as "both noble and genial." He died June 6, 1802, in the
fifty-third year of his age. By his will the landed property was
divided between Samuel, Jr., who was afterward a member of Con
gress, and the daughter, Mary. The house at the time of which I

210 THE NORTH END OF MAIN STREET
write was the home of Mr. Lyman. No descendants In the third
generation have lived in Springfield since 1845.
Capt. Robert Emery's holdings, which adjoined the Lyman estate,
reached the southern limits of the district reviewed. The house,
relatively modern, had an air of elegance from its style and finish,
and also because of its being painted In color, in contrast to the pre
vailing white. The piazza, which was on the south side, and from
which was the main entrance, as well as the ample grounds orna
mented with shrubbery, added to the effect. For a sketch of the
owner and the extensive property I borrow Mr. Chapin's succinct
statement. It is especially suggestive In the enumeration of streets
which intersect the old farm: "Capt. Robert Emery was born in
Newburyport, Mass., September 20, 1773. In his early manhood he
followed the sea. He was master of vessels at various times engaged
in the East India trade. Retiring early from maritime life, he
removed to Springfield, and about the year 1815 married for a second
wife Mary Lyman, daughter of Samuel Lyman, Esq. Mrs. Emery
died August 8, 1826. From her he inherited the estate which she
had received from her father, which consisted of about a hundred
and thirty acres, and is now covered by the Boston & Albany
railroad, Lyman, Liberty, Chestnut, Charles, Cass and Webster
streets, and the adjacent lands thereto. "
Special mention should be made In annals of Springfield of Miss
Margaret Emery. A daughter by a former marriage, she was, at the
time of which I write, the head of her father's household, and in
place of mother to her half-brother and sister, John and Mary. The
death of the former in his senior year at Harvard CoUege she deeply
lamented. He was looking forward to the ministry, and her fond
hopes rested on him. In the community Miss Emery was held in
high esteem for, to quote from a published characterization, "her
uncommon intellect, rare learning and racy wit. " Possessed of a
valuable library, she was well acquainted with the English classics,
for the reading of which, under her guidance, young people used to
meet at her home. But her special study was that of Hebrew his
tory, and successive classes profited by her aptness as a teacher.
Miss Emery's home in her latest years was at Hartford, where she
died, August 8, 1865, aged sixty-nine.
With reference to the portion of our city which I have brought to
view the nineteenth century may, with a little trimming and fitting.

THE NORTH END OF MAIN STREET 2ix
be divided into two equal parts, one of which may be termed the
half century of quiescence, and the other that of rapid, onward
motion. About the year 1800 were erected most ot the houses which
stood conspicuous among the ancient dwellings; but, with only the
modifications incident to wear and tear, both the old and the new
remained in statu quo for the space of flfty years. During the next
fifty a transformation practically complete was wrought; only two
houses remain In place. Where dwelling-houses had place, stand
buildings which minister to business interests. The buUding ma
terial is changed. The conqueror found the houses of wood and
replaced them by red brick. The extent of the alteration, though it
can hardly be surpassed, is equalled In many municipalities, and Is
part of the general trend. I quote a succinct statement of an
acknowledged verity: "No other fifty years of life for which known
records have shown such progress in almost every department of
life as the half century 1800-1850. "
In this connection a question suggests itself: Is this advance to be
uninterruptedly continuous.'' An article in the Atlantic Monthly
which takes note of the rapid strides that have been recently made
in the realm of applied science, brings its wonder-exciting contribu
tions to the enrichment of life, corrects what the writer deems a
popular error. The forecast is often indulged in, he says, of a future
in which the pace now attained will be constant, or the only change
to be expected acceleration gained by momentum. This expecta
tion, he avers, is controverted by the clear testimony of history, —
which records periods of rapid advancement, always followed by
seasons in which the benefits bequeathed are enjoyed, but with
cessation for the time being of activity, and, in a review of the past,
specific instances are brought to view in proof of the assertion.
The implication to be drawn from this survey may not be welcome
but Is not the intermittency which is shown to be probable whole
some.'' I confess to a preference for a river which is not rapid
through Its entire course, but which has its reaches of "still waters"
(the marginal reading is "waters of rest").
But, be this as it may. Inasmuch as obscurity rests on the past in
its contrast to the brilliancy of the present, it Is Important that
there should be gathered up memories and mementoes. In order that
bygone years may be placed in their true perspective. Gratitude,
too, may well evoke the acknowledgment of our debt to those who

212 THE NORTH END OF MAIN STREET
laid the firm foundations for the fair abodes prepared for us. The
task which was reverently assumed by the ancient Hebrew, to hand
down to future generations the details of divinely directed events:
"Which in our younger years we saw,
And which our fathers told"
is the legitimate province of our association. Its call is general, as
it invites all who can contribute to this end heartily to cooperate
in this pious work.

OLD COACHING DAYS 213
Quarterly Meeting December ii, 1906
Mrs. Lucy H. Smith of Northampton read a paper on
"Old Coaching Days." Old Coaching Days
THE Connecticut Valley Historical Society held a meeting
at the Art Museum Tuesday evening, at which Mrs.
Lucy Hunt Smith of Noithampton read a delightful
paper on "Old Coaching Days" which made everyone
present regret that coaching days were over, in this part of the world
at least. After a brief historical review of coaching In other countries,
Mrs. Smith told of the private coaches owned by Governors Brad
ford and Winthrop.
The first coaches had seats for twelve persons. The back seat was
regarded as the best and usually given to women. Concord coaches
were first built in 1827 and by some are considered the most perfect
passenger vehicle ever built. They are used down to the present
time. Buffalo Bill had the famous Deadwood stage built in Concord
in 1863 and it has been In constant use. Queen Victoria and most
of the royalty of Europe have ridden In it.
Few pieces of mechanical work are now done so carefully as were
the parts of a stage. The choicest ash, elm and cedar were used in
its construction, as well a^ the finest metals, leathers and plushes,
also special coach lace. The wheels had tires two inches thick,
which were worn out every two months, and the painting was an
elaborate process.
The term stage coach applies only to coaches going long distances
by stages and to call a Fifth avenue bus a stage Is a misnomer. The
splendid turnpikes aided in making coaching popular. One great
test was the time which It took to carry the President's message.
Once it was carried five hundred miles in twelve and a half hours.
There was competition and prices varied. At one place where the
fare was $3.00 it was cut to $2.00 and lower, until one company
would carry passengers for nothing. The rival line carried free and
gave a dinner. When the other line added a bottle of wine to the
free transportation and dinner, the limit was reached. In a curious
old magazine, called the Stage Register, printed in 183 1, stages,
steamboats and canal packets were advertised, giving full par-

214 OLD COACHING DAYS
ticulars. Out of three hundred and fifty-nine stage lines, ninety
were from Boston.
The bustle Incident to the arrival of a stage coach, changing of
horses and its departure was vividly pictured. The driver was
always an exceedingly popular man and deservedly so, for he did
all sorts of errands for everybody along his route. One driver
boasted that he bought all the bonnets for the women on his route
in Boston and pleased them all, as he never bought two alike. From
1830 to 1846, a driver by the name of Twitchell ran flve lines of
stages from Northampton. Each coach carried twenty outside and
twelve Inside passengers. He afterwards became a member of
Congress. One driver, receiving a legacy, retired to a farm, where
he stayed a week and then returned to drive again and left a record
of 135,000 miles he had driven a coach.
There are a few stage lines left in the White Mountains and it is
an ideal way to travel. Mrs. Smith related the story of how, when
on a coaching trip there, the driver pointed out a rock by the road
where he had overturned the coach just a week before and many
passengers were injured, especiaUy a young lady sitting in her place.
She breathed more freely after that spot was passed. Two North
ampton people, who were accustomed to take the trip to Boston
annually, were besieged by their friends with errands and messages,
so that after packing their own trunks, they packed an extra one
with articles sent by them.
The coach always started early and it was customary to take
breakfast at Belchertown. At Ware many othei stages met them
and more passengers were taken aboard. Many stories are told of
the pleasant acquaintances and romantic matches made in these
journeys. It took eighteen hours to go to Boston from Northamp
ton. There were milestones on all of the post roads. These long
journeys were a serious undertaking and not all pleasure, especially
in the south where the bridges were often miserable affairs. One
time when the mud was up to the hubs, the coach refused to move,
so the driver asked the passengers to get out. They did not under
stand their plight, so declined. He then sat down by the road and
composed himself as for a nap, with his hat over his eyes, when
some one enquired when they were going on. "When the mud
dries up," was his answer, so they thought better of the matter and
alighted.

OLD COACHING DAYS 215
For some reason, no matter in what direction one was going, the
stage always started just before daylight, when the earth offers the
least to the human soul to tempt it to remain here. In those days
of candle light it was especially dreary. There was nothing to fear
from highway robbery in this part of the country In those early
times, although there Is a record of a robbery between Baltimore and
Philadelphia. When the steam cars began to run there were many
absurd reasons against their use. Horses would have to be killed,
for they would be needless; hens would not lay their eggs; people
would go insane If they traveled that way; trains would not be able
to make any headway against the wind and the like. Stage drivers
worked on the trains and became everything, excepting engineers.
Chester W. Chapin drove a stage between Hartford and Spring
fleld and afterwards was president of the Boston & Albany railroad.
Efforts were made to restrict drunkenness in taverns and tobacco
was forbidden In public. Two men could not smoke together or
within two miles of a meeting house. The signs on the old taverns
were curious. One where Moody's school now is had two little pine
trees and a large rabbit. There were plenty of Washington taverns.
At the Warner tavern In Northampton, General Lafayette made a
speech and some are now living who remember scattering flowers
at that time, also being present at the laying of the corner stone of
Bunker HiU monument, where the father chartered a coach and
took his family and some friends to Boston. The last stage line out
of Northampton was given up twenty years ago. It ran to Amherst
and it was a pleasant sight to see the college boys drive into town.
Remarks followed, when different members told what they re
membered of coaching days. Mr. W. F. Adams told how it was
customary when there were banknotes to be sent to Boston to be
redeemed to go to the stage and give the package of notes, amount
ing sometimes to $5000, to some passenger, often a stranger, to take
to Boston. The Thompson express grew out of this business. Rev.
T. D. Howard told of going by stage to Brattleboro, when he enjoyed
the trip very much, as everything was as If arranged for his own
pleasure alone. Also, of an evening when his Uncle John had just
returned from Boston, having gone to Worcester by stage and pro
ceeded by the (then new) steam cars, and described the cars to his
wondering listeners. Mr. Fuller told of Washington's visit to
Springfield In 1789 when he arrived at Parsons' tavern in the rain at

2i6 OLD COACHING DAYS
4 o'clock and stayed over night. It is said that he gave a Long
meadow youth a silver dollar. The next day he took dinner at West
Brookfield and Intended to spend the night at Brookfield, but the
landlady, not understanding who it was, pleaded a headache and he
stayed at Jenks' tavern, at Spencer, where he complimented Mrs.
Jenks on her good bread. He was provided a white horse to ride
in Boston and there is a letter a young lady wrote her lover in
Springfield about seeing President Washington in church.

THE CATHOLIC LOT 217
Quarterly Meeting January 15, 1907
Edward A. Hall read a paper on the "Lot Once Owned
by the Catholics and Now a Part of the Armory Grounds."
The Catholic Lot on the Armory Grounds
THE United States Armory is first among the most promi
nent points of interest in Springfield and the citizens have
always taken great pride In this great national institution
in their midst. To aU visitors, the Armory buildings are
the first to claim attention. As one approaches the city from any dis
tance, the arsenal, the largest buUding in the city and the tower with
its tall flag staff with Old Glory flying in the breeze, is the most con
spicuous sight in view. Situated on the highest ground in the city
and bounded in a mammoth square by State, Federal, Pearl and
Byers streets, with Federal Square and Benton Park to the east. The
Springfield Armory is the oldest gun manufactory In the country. Its
site having been selected by Gen. George Washington as early as 1 777,
when he ordered Col. David Mason of Boston to make the selection
of a site for the founding of works for the manufacturing of such
arms and ammunition as may be needed. In 1 794 the General Court
of Massachusetts passed an act authorizing the purchase by the
United States Government of a tract of land of Springfield of sixty-
four acres, and the Armory was established in 1795 by Act of Con
gress, although small arms were made In shops there as early as
1775. The grounds of the United States Armory are in a measure
and always have been sacred to the citizens of Springfield. They
have been set apart for a government purpose, placed aside for a
specific design, guarded by soldiers of the regular army, under the
control of an army officer, who has It In his power to say just how
far the claims of the people of the city shall trespass within its
boundary. The inhabitants of the Armory grounds have no legal
residence in the city, and cannot vote at any election here, not
being assessed for taxes. The Armory grounds are famous in
Springfield history for a few events of more than local importance.
In January, 1777, Capt. Daniel Shays, who had fought with the
Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, led an insurgent
army of 1,500 men to Springfield to prevent the holding of the
courts here. To protect the courts and surpress the insurrection.

2i8 THE CATHOLIC LOT
an army of 4,400 men was raised by order of the government.
They were commanded by General Shepherd of Westfield and
ordered to Springfield to meet the insurgents. A battle of short
duration was fought, not far from the corner of State and Federal
streets; the insurgents dispersing, which ended the war. This
battle between General Shepherd and his regular troops and Captain
Shays and his ex-revolutionary soldiers, might be termed a stately
minuet as compared to the long continued series of ructions as to
whether the United States Armory should be under civil or military
control. During the superintendency of David Ames, the armorers
were enlisted Hke regular soldiers, and untU the appointment of
Col. Roswell Lee in 181 5, the workmen drew their rations like
common soldiers, many of them living in houses on the government
grounds. In 1841, Maj. James Wolfe Ripley, a mUitary officer in
the ordnance department, of Kennebec Arsenal at Augusta,
Maine, was appointed commandant of the Springfield Armory,
with Maj. Edward IngersoU as paymaster and storekeeper.
In 1842, the Armory was placed under miHtary control and the
appointment of Major, afterwards General, Ripley, chief of ord
nance, was confirmed. Many of the sklUed workmen and others
who had worked under General Ripley at the Kennebec Arsenal in
Maine, foUowed him to Springfield, and were given employment
in the Armory and at the Watershops. Among these newcomers
were several Irish Catholic families. The Catholics of Springfield
are entitled to much praise for their good judgment in the selection
of the sites for their churches. This is shown from the first location
selected by them, about 1843, on the present grounds of the United
States Armory, on the westerly brow of the hill, a few rods from the
residence of Colonel Phipps, Commandant of the Armory, over
looking one of the most beautiful views to be found in New England.
Rev. John Brady, during his visits to Springfield, negotiated the
purchase of this property of the owner, Charles Stearns, before
Pearl street went beyond Spring, and Byers street was open as far
as Frost street. The sale of this property to the Catholics created
a war between the parties interested and their friends which lasted
for years, and resulted In the financial embarrassment of Charles
Stearns, the retirement of Colonel Ripley as commandant of the
Armory, the suspension of the Daily Post newspaper, owned by
David Ashley, and edited by WiUiam L. Smith, afterwards mayor

'ON THE ARMORY GROUNDS 219
of Springfield, on account of suits for libel brought for publishing
letters of Stearns and others, about the management of the Armory
and its official, and finally, the fight was carried to Washington by a
petition to Congress, praying that the management of the United
States Armory at Springfield be placed In charge of civil authorities,
which was done, and E. S. AUen was appointed acting superintend
ent of the Armory, August 17, 1854, and remained untU Gen. James
Whitney took charge. Hon. Charles Stearns, who sold this lot to the
Catholics, was the most enterprising man In Springfield, seventy-
five years ago, and was one of the chief promoters of all the leading
enterprises connected with the construction of railroads and fac
tories, in the building and construction of which he was usually
the contractor, employing hundreds of men In various occupations,
incidental to the rapid increase of the population from villages of a
few hundred to towns and cities of several thousand. With Con
tractor William McCleUan, he erected the cotton mUls at Chicopee
and Chicopee Falls, also the Dwight Mfg. Co., Ames Mfg. Co., the
mills at Indian Orchard and Ludlow, the Hampden and Lyman
Mills at Holyoke, and the Glasgow Mills at South Hadley Falls,
and many of the tenement houses for the families employed in
those mills, -factories and railroads from 1825 to 1850. Mr. Stearns
was one of the largest property owners in Springfield seventy-five
years ago. He owned a stone quarry, a large lumber yard and saw
mill, and had a brick yard on Spring street, a little west of the
Armory property, and a fine residence for those days on the corner
of High and Maple streets. He presented the ground between
Worthington and Bridge streets to the city, now known as Stearns
Park, and was one of our most public spirited and liberal minded
men of the time. In all of his enterprises, Mr. Stearns employed
large numbers of Irishmen and provided them with homes to live
In when necessary.
The population of Springfield in 1840 was 10,935, in 1845 it had
increased to 14,073, — this included Chicopee, which left us In 1848,
reducing our population to 11,766 in 1850. Two streets. Liberty
and Prospect streets, now discontinued, ran from State street into
the present territory of the Armory grounds in 1845. Prospect
street was opened through land owned by Samuel H. Stebbins,
with land of the United States Government on the east, and land
owned by several private citizens on the west; the entrance was

220 THE CATHOLIC LOT
on State street, about twenty rods east of Byers street, on a line
running to the front of the commandant's residence. Charles
Stearns was the owner as far back as 1828, of a tract of ground on
this street, bordering on the westerly line of the United States
Government territory. He had held peaceable and undisputed
possession of this property up to the early part of 1845, a period of
seventeen years, and could distinctly trace his title back to a period
long anterior to the ownership by the United States Government
of any land in Springfield, Indeed for more than a century. The
precise boundary between the parties was well defined and ac
quiesced in, manifested by the United States authorities, as the
Government originally built and afterwards maintained the divid
ing fence from the time they became owners of land in that locality.
In process of time Mr. Stearns and the others, owning land along
side of him, opened a street parallel to and bordering on the United
States land, which was called Prospect street, and this was done in
concert with the superintendent of the Armory at the time, and he
at the same time, opened a short street at right angles with Pros
pect street, through the Armory grounds leading from the work
shops. The owners of those lands bordering on Prospect street,
sold off building lots to various individuals, mostly armorers, and
several good houses were erected on them, — the fee and rights in
the street remaining in the original owners. The lot owners on
Prospect street were Samuel Currier, George Bliss, Persls Taylor,
Walter H. Bowdoin, Bishop Fenwick, Samuel H. Stebbins, Samuel
Dale, J. Willard, George T. Bond, James Brewer, C. B. Stebbins
and Charles Stearns. Other property in the Immediate vicinity
for which the Government paid $30,000 was bought from John
MiUs, J. D. Brewer, W. H. Bowdoin, Samuel and James Endicot,
James W. Crooks and Roswell Shurtleff.
Mr. Stearns had, previous to the autumn of 1843, sold all of
his land bordering on Prospect street, except one lot, which in
November, 1843, he conveyed to Timothy Hayes, a member of the
"Roman Catholic Congregation" of Springfield, for the known
purpose of erecting a church upon it, and he sold the lot at a price
far below its value to encourage the Catholics in their enterprise.
This individual member of the church directly conveyed the same
interest and title to Bishop Fenwick, as Is usual in such cases.
The Catholic society being few in number and short of means,

ON THE ARMORY GROUNDS 221
did not immediately commence building, but early in the spring of
1845, having prepared plans and specifications, they made con
tracts with the expectation of being able to buUd and worship in
their own church In the course of a year. No sooner had Contractor
John B. Vincent commenced excavating for the cellar, than an
unlooked for obstacle interfered and prevented the continuance of
the work. The commandant of the Armory suddenly laid claim
to a large portion of the street in front of the Catholic lot, and with
out giving notice to anyone, removed the dividing fence, built by
his predecessors upon the heretofore undisturbed and unquestioned
line, and took possession of the principal part of the street in front of
the Catholic lot, and effectually shut out aU access by teams to it.
The Catholics, very properly, called upon their grantor to remove
the obstruction from the street, and make good the access and rights
warranted to them, — they knew their rights but declined to have
any trouble with the commandant about the matter. Mr. Stearns
immediately laid the matter before the Secretary of War, who
happened to be visiting in Springfield at the time, and Secretary
Macey promised to take measures to have the difficulty adjusted,
but evidently failed to do so. In the meantime the operations of
the building of a new church were indefinitely postponed and never
resumed on that spot. The Catholic congregation in Springfield at
that time were few in number and recognizing discretion to be the
better part of valor, they were easily Induced to withdraw from
the controversy. Not so, however, with Mr. Stearns, — he was a
born fighter, and not only brought the war into Africa, here at
home, but into Washington, and through four administrations of
the National Government, those of President James K. Polk,
Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore and Franklin Pierce, — covering
a period of eleven years, 1843 to 1854.
Mr. Stearns felt in duty bound to defend the rights of the owner,
as the grantor and warrantor of the right to use this lot to the
Catholic congregation, and that is just what he did. With the
aid of several men in his employ, he proceeded to remove the fence
and other obstructions placed upon his ground. Instead of the
orderly and customary mode of settling disputes of titles, — of
bringing action for trespass In the civil courts, where Mr. Stearns
expected to meet the commandant, — that officer chose the des
perate course of bringing a man who was contesting for rights most

222 THE CATHOLIC LOT
dear to him before a criminal court on the charge of riot. The
first intimation that Mr. Stearns had that any measures were in
preparation was about forty-eight hours after the removal of the
fence on the grounds. He was arrested by the United States mar
shal, and together with his men, seven in number, transported
to Boston, one hundred mUes from home, for examination, and
afterwards for trial. Three of the men who were first arrested were
taken from their beds at midnight and lodged in the county jaU
opposite the present cathedral. The trial took place in Boston on
Monday morning, before the circuit court of the United States.
The prisoners were: Charles Stearns, Thomas S. Frost, John W.
Brown, CaUahan McCarthy, Robert Madden and Daniel O'Brien.
The witnesses for the Government were: Edward IngersoU, John D.
Lord, Roswell Shurtleff, Rev. Edward Russell, Luke Jones, Dennis
Donavan, John Miles and Edward Child. The witnesses for the
accused were: Charles Howard, O. A. Seamans, William Bryant,
J. D. Smith, George Gardner, J. M. Goodman, John B. Kirkham
and Timothy Hayes. The Indictment charged the defendant with
riotously taking away a fence and tearing down an old buUding on
land belonging to the United States Armory at Springfleld. The
indictment was in two counts, — first In trespassing on property of
the United States Government, and second, in creating a riot.
The trial was before Judge Sprague with District Attorney Rantoul
and Hon. George Ashmun of Springfield for the United States, and
B. R. Curtis, E. D. Sohier and Henry Morris for the defendants.
Judge Sprague, in his charge to the jury, ruled out a deed of land
from George BHss to the United States, under which the Govern
ment claimed to own the land, — the purchase being made without
the authority of Congress and conferring no jurisdiction on the
Government. The one important principle to settle In the ruling
of the court was that the purchase of land by the superintendent,
being made without the authority of Congress, conferred no juris
diction on the United States, even if it conveyed the soil.
The trial was a tedious and expensive one, and the contest so
far as the means were concerned, was a very unequal one. On the
one side was a citizen of Massachusetts, with limited resources,
and on the other a military officer of the United States Government,
with a free and unsparing use of the money in its treasury to back
him. Surely the citizen ought to have a good cause in such a con-

ON THE ARMORY GROUNDS 223
test, and so the result proved. The jury had no hesitation In ren
dering a verdict for the defendant, nor no reluctance in saying that
there was no evidence in the case that would justify a prosecution,
all the witnesses testifying that there was no attempt at a riot.
This decision, however, did not settle matters. The commandant
had the fence rebuilt and held possession until Mr. Stearns sued
him on an action of trespass and got judgment in the common court
of pleas, which took two years. The defendant's counsel carried
the case to the Supreme Court on exceptions, which affirmed the
decision of the lower court, — this took a year and a half more, — all
with the evident hope that Stearns would break down before a
final decision could be arrived at. In this, however, they were
mistaken. The highest tribunal in the state of Massachusetts most
signally rebuked the high handed operation of this military officer
and placed Mr. Stearns in possession of his property.
Colonel Ripley, having in the meantime located his elegant new
quarters directly abreast the disputed grounds, and anticipating
the decision of the courts, manifested his anxiety to possess the
property in a straightforward and honest way. Mr. Stearns con
sented to sell it to the Government at the appraisal of three trustees.
The referees agreed upon were WiUis Phelps, Chairman of the
County Commissioners, William Rice, Register of Deeds for the
County of Hampden, and Elijah Blake, a prominent and active
citizen of Springfield. The result of the award was that Mr. Stearns
received for his property $1,400. The size of the territory in ques
tion was about fourteen square rods. The Springfield Republican
on July 19, 1845, published a map of the disputed territory and the
surrounding ground with designations of lots which they issued to
their subscribers on that day. The thirty-first Congress appro
priated $5,000 to defray the expenses incurred by Colonel Ripley
in the suits growing out of the attempt to take Mr. Stearns' prop
erty. The counsels in the case were Ashmun, Chapman and Norton.
The sending of several petitions to the Secretary of War signed
by men who had been employed at the Armory and the Water-
shops and memorials to the Congressional Committee on Military
Affairs, signed by a number of citizens, accompanied by delegations
to Washington, making charges of extravagance and mismanage
ment at the Springfield Armory, resulted in the sending of a Military
Commission to Springfield, to examine the state of conditions here.

224 THE CATHOLIC LOT
This court of inquiry was commenced at the Springfield Armory,
February 14, 1846, with Brig. John E. Wool presiding, Lieut. S. S.
Clark and Lieut. Brevet Maj. S. Cooper as officers of the court, and
Capt. E. Sepriver, recorder of courts; B. H. Dustin was counsel of
complainant and R. H. Chapman for the accused. The investiga
tion was ordered by James K. Polk, President of the United States,
in consequence of a memorial of the citizens of Springfield, charging
Col. James W. Ripley, commandant at the Armory, with mal
administration. Among the prominent witnesses were Charles
Stearns, George Bliss, Congressmen W. C. Calhoun and George
Ashmun, John C. Stebbins, Calvin Stebbins, T. D. Beach, H. Q.
Sanderson, Charles McCleUan, WiUiam Dwight, Rev. G. D. Rear-
don, John D. Lord, Samuel McNary, John HaU, and several others
who were discharged from the army because they subscribed for
the independent democratic newspaper, and Michael Ryan, Timo
thy Sullivan, Michael Kervick, James and John McClintock, —
the latter swore that he was in the city seven years, and employed
in the Armory, and John Bannon swore that "he had learned the
mason's trade in Dublin, Ireland, in 1792, that after taking part
under Robert Emmet, he escaped to this country, served under
Capt. E. A. Clary in the War of 1812 against England, and had
worked at the Armory ever since." The court listened to the testi
monies of over 100 witnesses for twenty-flve days. The indictment
against Colonel Ripley was in thirteen counts, only one of them with
which we have to do; this was the eleventh charge, "that he has
committed oppression and wrong on an Individual citizen uncon
nected with the Armory, procuring his arrest and trial before a
distant tribunal, on a pretended criminal charge, thereby subject
ing said citizen to great expense in defending himself In said suit,
also that he has committed oppression and wrong on seven other
citizens by similar vexatious prosecution, obliging them to defend
themselves before a distant tribunal on a charge of pretended
criminal act, at a cost which said Individuals are wholly unable
to meet, also that he has committed oppression and wrong on a re
ligious society which had purchased a lot on which to erect a church
by taking measures manifestly and avowedly to drive said society
to a necessity of abandoning their design of erecting a church on said
lot." To this charge Colonel Ripley made reply: "When this
charge was made it was well known to Mr. Stearns that I had pur-

ON THE ARMORY GROUNDS 225
chased the lot and paid its fair value, and that my relations to the
Catholics were of the friendly character, expressed In the deposition
of Bishops Fenwick and Fitzpatrick. They do not complain that
I have wronged them, nor will they thank him for his officious
meddling in their behalf. That I deemed it undesirable that a
building should be erected so near the line of the United States
land may easily be imagined, but I took no unlawful means to pre
vent it, and since they are satisfied with our mutual agreements,
my accusers would have best consulted their own credit by omitting
this charge against me." The court submitted their reports to the
President on the 19th of April, 1846, exonerating General Ripley
on all of the counts in the indictment. The witnesses comprised
most of the prominent men In public and political life in Springfield
at the time. Mr. Stearns swore at the trial, "that his expenses for
himself and his men at the trial before the United States court in
Boston were about $2,000, and that Bishop Fenwick had been paid
$500 for the property known as the Catholic lot, — that the Catho
lics bought of Chester W. Chapin through Roswell Shurtleff, for
this money, a lot on the corner of Chestnut and Emory, now Liberty
street." After Mr. Chapin sold this property to the CathoUcs for
a church site, and when questioned for doing so, he replied that,
"the Catholics had as good a right to have a church and needed
one just as much as the party who objected to the transaction."
This property on Liberty street was sold in 1848 to T. W. Wason,
Levi Parks and Thomas Beaven for about $1,200, — the money
finally going toward the purchase of the site of St. Michael's Cathe
dral, which for beauty of location, with its religious and educational
surroundings, is not excelled arlywhere in New England.
"There is a Providence which shapes our ends, rough hew them
as we may." Mr. Beaven built a house on the Liberty street prop
erty and there the present Bishop of Springfield, Rt. Rev. Thos. D.
Beaven, was born March i, 185 1.
Charles Stearns began as early as 1843 to agitate the question
of supplying Springfield with water from springs instead of by the
"old oaken bucket." After investing about $25,000 in what was
known as the "Van Horn Reservoir," he concluded to apply to the
Legislature for an act of Incorporation.
In February, 1848, he sent a petition to the Legislature, in favor
of this project, bearing the signatures of eighty-three citizens of

2 26 THE CATHOLIC LOT
the town, and here again, came a renewal and continuation of the
bitter and fierce conflict begun over the Catholic lot. Colonel
Ripley of the United States Armory instituted a remonstrance
signed by seventy-five men, mostly officers and workmen of the
Armory. This petition was presented to the Legislature, and re
ferred to the Committee on MercantUe Affairs, and two meetings
were held at the State House In Boston, but this not satisfying the
remonstrants, they asked for another hearing. The committee
appointed a day and came to Springfield, that all sides might be
heard. The hearing was held in the town hall, and lasted two days.
Much feeling was manifested and a large number of citizens were
in attendance. Charles Stearns and his party carried the day, —
in fact they won out, as the legislative committee on their return
to Beacon Hill reported in favor of the project, and the bill became
a law May lo, 1848. The last scrimmage of this warfare was as
late as 1856, when a number of people on Armory Hill started a
movement in favor of separating from Springfleld and forming a
new town to be called Delano, out of the territory comprising the
Armory HIU, the Watershops district and Indian Orchard.
A petition for that purpose was circulated by E. A. Fuller and
several public meetings were held in Gunn's HaU, corner of State
and Walnut streets. The enthusiastic promoters of this scheme
appointed committees to carry on the agitation, but better judgment
prevailed, and the movement to separate from Mother Springfield
died in its infancy.
From this time onward, the great agitation of the anti-slavery
movement and the breaking out of the Civil War caused the people
to sink all other issues in the one grand and paramount issue, —
the support of the Government by all classes and creeds in its deter
mination to preserve the Union. Nearly all of the actors In the
scenes described have long since gone hence, and Gen. James W.
Ripley and Hon. Charles Stearns are sleeping peacefully in our
beautiful Springfield Cemetery. Let us close with that beautiful
Catholic expression, "Requiescat in pace."

REMARKS 227
Remarks following the paper by Mr. Edward A. Hall:
Remarks
Mr. Howard: The events which have been spoken of with such
clear-cut expression and in such a good historical paper have been so
fully described that little further need be said of them. The con
ditions of which I wish to speak are a Httle in advance, in point of
time, to where I am going for I am about to speak of sixty-five
years ago. I am going to try to tell, so far as my memory will
help me, just how those grounds lay and how they were divided
by streets at that time, when I was fifteen years old, and I go back
of that, to my childhood and early boyhood when my home was on
those grounds.
Perhaps some people here will remember where Major IngersoU
resided when he was paymaster of the Springfield Armory — there
may be some, but they all look too young for such memory. I will
begin with Major IngersoU's house — that will help me to indicate
the lay of the grounds and I wiU start there. The roadway that
entered into the United States grounds began about opposite Mr.
Tobey's home, but he is too young to remember that, I suppose.
Mr. Tobey: I remember that.
Mr. Howard: The street started In a few houses above what Is
now Dr. McClean's house which is the only one of those houses now
standing. The roadway went in past Major IngersoU's house, the
house of Colonel Robb who had been with Jackson at New Orleans
in January, 181 5; the next house was that of the Master Armorer,
Warner. Then it turned a square corner and passed by the clerks'
houses, two of which were occupied by Mr. Wolcott and William
W. Lee and the occupants of the two others I do not remember,
passed by the old forging house and came out at Armory Street, I
think It was then called. West of that and about half way between
that and Byers Street was what was known as Prospect Street. As
I remember, it was a roadway with houses on it but It could hardly
be dignified by the name of street. It was well grown up with
bushes on one side and residences on the other, the first of which was
Mr. Storkey's house on the pitch that rises above the level ground.
That ascent was quite well covered with bushes, and beyond them

228 REMARKS
Mr. Storkey's house. Some of us remember that morning In August
when, as he was looking out on his finely kept grounds, he was
struck by lightning. Next came Mr. Sexton's, his son's, J. Q. A.
Sexton, next the house occupied by Dr. Ezekiel Russel, long pastor
of the Olivet Church, next, Mr. Stebbins' grandfather of Marshal
Stebbins. One of these houses has been moved down for the Wo
man's Club, others have been moved down to Spring Street.
Prospect Street was a playground for the children. On the side
of the Armory grounds there was a good growth of bushes, especially
choke cherries, which we ate with great avidity, knowing well of the
puckered mouths to come afterwards. At the northwest corner
were blueberry bushes scant and poorly grown, and at that point
the roadway turned and entered the one which I have spoken of as
passing by the clerks' houses. That is the way the land lay accord
ing to my recollection.
If the children had been the voters in regard to any alterations
there, I think they would have been unanimous to leave things as
they were for they were very enjoyable and they enjoyed them very
much. Mr. Adams: I well remember as a youth, of my mother speaking
of the feeling which ran very high against the Major at that time,
so much so that as he visited her home, to and from the Armory,
the opportunity was improved and stones were cast at him. The
feeling was rather intense. Of course I was not old enough to take
interest with one side or the other of the board fence question, but
evidently the fence was there and as It came down finally everybody
felt good-natured.
We are very proud of the Armory as it stands today.
Possibly young Major Ripley had as much to do with the im
provement at the Armory as any officer. He was the first military
oflScer In command, and as he took possession he found things in a
crude state In many ways. In the workshops the men were allowed,
previous to the coming of Major Ripley, to do practically as they
chose. If the fish man came, down would go their tools and out
they would go and take their time from the government to do the
purchasing of their fish, or whatever it might happen to be from the
groceryman or the butcher. The men had been accustomed for a
number of years to this method of doing business, and were rather

REMARKS 229
dissatisfied that a military officer should make a change in the pro
gram. That was the condition of things all along the line.
General Ripley had five daughters and all have died with the
exception of one who Is now living In New York City. There are
grandchildren in Boston, but there are no other relatives, aside from
my own family, in this vicinity. There was a nephew In Hartford,
Mr. Rowland Swift, but he recently died. Before going on to the
Armory grounds. Major Ripley lived in the house at the corner of
Edwards and Chestnut Streets, the north corner, now occupied by
Mrs. Ward. As Mr. Hall stated, he was burled In our Springfield
cemetery. He became Chief of Ordinance at Washington before
his death and he was Chief of Ordinance at the time the war broke
out. He was in Japanese waters and was ordered home at the com
mencement of the war and lived but a short time afterward.
Mr. Barrows: You have made mention of the wooden fence.
After the wooden fence came the Iron fence and we scarcely realize
what that means. That stone foundation and mass of iron is really
a beautiful fence. Major IngersoU tells me It came about in this
way: after the limits of the Armory grounds were accepted It,
seemed to him that they might have a reasonable fence. Major
IngersoU spoke to Major Ripley and later to the government. They
had large quantities of scrap iron which they sold as junk, and his
suggestion was that instead of selling it, it should be kept for the
Armory grounds' fence. It was not sold here, but in other places.
If you have noticed that fence you will see that It Is built of a stone
foundation with posts so far apart, with pickets between. All the
pickets are spears and the posts are sceptres. The sceptre was the
symbol of sovereignty.
Question: Where does the old church now on Union Street come
in.? Mr. Hall: I omitted that for this reason. This matter was not
settled untU after that old church on Union Street was built and
occupied in the spring of 1846; this matter was not finished until the
fall of 1846, and the five hundred dollars given for the Catholic lot
and a bonus of two hundred doUars went to buy the lot on the site of
which Bishop Beaven was born, and when that was sold to Mr.
Beaven, Mr. Wason and Mr. Parks, the church on Union Street was
established and occupied.

230 REMARKS
When Father Galligher came here in 1856 he took this money and
placed It in the bank on interest until i860. The first of January,
i860, he bought the site of the present cathedral with the seven
hundred doUars saved from the purchase and sale of the lot on which
Bishop Beaven was born. Our present church property cost thirty-
four thousand doUars and in a little while. Father Galligher, who
was quite a financier, had sold off thirty-five thousand dollars' worth
of the property and had all the property that we have now and a
thousand dollars to the good.
I thought Mr. Barrows might be going to say what I heard. I do
not know whether it is true, but I have heard that the pickets and
posts of that fence were made from the iron of the muskets and
cannon used in the War of 1812 and the Revolutionary War.
I was not born early enough to remember all the personages I
speak of. Colonel Ripley and Charles Stearns I remember very well.
I heard Mr. Stearns use the word — so foreign to us now — "ructions"
when he was relating the trouble I spoke of, to Mr. T. W. Wason,
founder of the Wason Company, one day in 1859.
I remember Major IngersoU and Colonel Ripley very well. I
remember some of the men who were arrested very well — Callahan
McCarthy, Dennis Donohoe, and other Catholics, among them an
uncle of Dr. Flanagan.
Father Galligher was the first settled priest here. Father Brady,
who was mentioned, came here from Hartford one month and Father
Fenton came from Worcester the next month to hold services, and
the Rev. Father Blinkinsop sometimes came from Chicopee to
minister to us. Bishop Beaven had to be brought from Springfield
to Chicopee to be baptized. Many persons were brought from Long
meadow to Chicopee to be baptized.
Col. John L. Rice: There are a great many matters of historical
interest connected with the establishment and early years of the
United States Armory in Springfield. As I listened to Mr. Hall's
interesting paper, I was reminded of one very curious fact which it
Is safe to say scarcely anyone at all knows of — anyone outside of
the members of the legal profession, and probably very few of them
remember it; and that fact is that one of the very Important pro
visions of the Constitution of the United States, involving the ques
tion of state rights, which has been the cause of infinite controversy
ever since the government was established, had its first judicial

REMARKS 231
interpretation In a case which arose out of the sale of one pint of rum
on the watershops grounds in this city. It arose In this way: Mr.
Hall spoke in his paper of the fact that the government had no juris
diction over the land claimed by the United States because the pur
chase of that land was not authorized by Congress. There is a pro
vision of the federal constitution that Congress shaU have power to
exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over matters
embraced in the District of Columbia, and in like manner over all
purchases made by the consent of the legislature of the state in which
the same shall be, for the erection of forts, arsenals, magazines, dock
yards and other needful buildings.
Now In the latter part of the eighteenth century, soon after the
Government was organized. Congress authorized the purchase of
the Armory grounds on State Street, and preliminary to that act
the consent of the Legislature of Massachusetts was secured in order
that Congress might have the exclusive jurisdiction over the
grounds, because the Government purchasing it without title from
the Legislature, would have the soil, but no jurisdiction over it. In
1 801 the land on Mill River where the watershops are, was pur
chased in the same way. The act of Congress authorizing that pur
chase was for the erection of an armory and not of an arsenal, or
fort, or magazine. The government erected the shops for the manu
facture of arms and also some dwelling houses. The dweUing houses
might have been there on the land, but the government used the
houses for the occupancy of the officers and possibly some of the
workmen. There was at that time a statute of this commonwealth
prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors except by persons licensed
thereto. Mr. Ethan A. Clary was a man of much consequence here
then. Some of his descendants Hved here until recent years and
some of them distinguished themselves In naval affairs. Ethan
Clary lived in one of those houses and in 1809 he was indicted in the
Court of Common Pleas in this county, for selling liquor, and haled
before the court, charged with selling one pint of rum to a person
named in the indictment; and being a man of consequence and
presumably of some means, he set up a pretty vigorous defense, as
persons charged with that offense have been known to do since that
time. He employed as counsel to defend him, Ely P. Ashman.
Mr Stearns contested the case, but it was proved very conclu
sively before a jury that he did sell the rum and that he had no

232 REMARKS
license to sell it; but his counsel. Ashman, was careful to show that
the sale took place on the land of the watershops owned by the
government and nowhere else, and thereupon he asked the court to
instruct the jury that the liquor law of Massachusetts did not extend
to that ground and that Mr. Clary was therefore not guilty of any
violation of the law and that the jury should be instructed to find a
verdict of not guilty. The presiding justice did not take much stock
in that defense, for at that time lawyers In this country had not
begun to invoke the federal constitution. It was a new law then.
There had been no cases of any Importance, involving an Interpreta
tion of the federal constitution and Mr. Ashman's defense was
quickly passed over and the jury were instructed that if Mr. Clary
sold the rum, to find him guilty. This was done. Mr. Ashman
appealed to the supreme judicial court. The case was argued at
Northampton by Mr. Ashman for the defendant and George Bliss —
Master George, as he was called affectionately — the leading lawyer
of this county, for Mr. Clary. Mr. Bliss realized the force and the
substantial character of the defense set up, and his argument was
exceedingly technical and did not take hold of the fundamental
principles of the constitution and statutes. He simply argued this :
That the Constitution provided that Congress should have exclu
sive jurisdiction over places purchased for forts, dock yards, arsenals
and magazines, and that an armory, for which this land was pur
chased, was not an arsenal. He argued that an arsenal is a place for
storing arms and an armory is a place for manufacturing arms.
This case was considered by Chief Justice Parsons, Mr. Sedgwick,
Judge Sewall and Judge Parker. It was nearly a year before the
court rendered a decision In the case, and then they took the view of
Mr. Ashman, that Congress had exclusive legislation over the terri
tory purchased, and although it was purchased for an armory and
not an arsenal, they called attention to the concluding clause, "and
other needful buildings," and the court called attention to another
clause of the Constitution which empowered Congress to raise and
equip an army, and a convenient way to furnish an army with arms
was to manufacture them and a building was needful for their manu
facture and therefore these buildings were needful. This was the
first decision on this point rendered by any court in this country —
and it all grew out of the sale of a pint of rum over at the watershops.
The decision in this case was followed in all subsequent cases. Five

REMARKS 233
years afterwards the same question was raised in Rhode Island when
a soldier in Fort Adams, Rhode Island, was tried and indicted in the
United States Circuit Court and Judge Story, then of the Supreme
Court of the United States, charged the jury. The defense set up
was that the soldier was not amenable to the United States court,
because the crime was committed in Rhode Island. Judge Story
went into a long explanation of that provision of the Constitution,
in which he cited with approval the decision of the Massachusetts
court and characterized the court, as I remember, as a very eminent
tribunal. Dr. Flanagan: We would naturally suppose that in a controversy
such as Mr. Hall has told us about, between Major Ripley and a
people who believed in their church, loved it and were anxious to
erect a place of worship, but who felt that Major Ripley had stepped
in and made trouble, that the people would naturally side with our
friend, Mr. Stearns. But if you look back and investigate, you will
find it was about six of one and half a dozen of the other. Major
Ripley had been a great friend to the early Irish coming here. Mr.
Hall speaks of the McClintocks who were summoned into that trial.
They lived on the property now owned by the Stebbins family, at
the foot of Hancock Street, known at that time as East Street.
Directly opposite that is the cellar of the first house that was used by
Catholics here. That house was owned by the Sullivan family. It
was formerly owned by the Lombards and came to them from the
Birnies, who owned a paper mill or a manufactory of some kind at
the foot of what is now Hancock Street.
As to the question of the market man and the fish man and the
butcher who used to go to the Armory — there was another kind of
people who used to go there. I remember of seeing in some of the
old collections In this city and elsewhere a certain brown article
large In the middle, tapering at both ends and having a handle — a
jug, commonly called. Major Ripley had more trouble with the
men who kept their jugs near their work than with any others.
These men went to the corner of Walnut and State Streets where
they sold West India groceries — rum. Major Ripley interfered with
that privilege and that was the beginning of the trouble.
Mr. Hall speaks of A. O. Seaman, called Judge Seaman. He it
was to whom many Irish people went for legal services. He had

234 REMARKS
offices at the corner of State and Walnut Streets and was the legal
adviser of the majority of people at the Armory. Many of these
people could neither read nor write, and when they wished -to buy
property, or had legal transactions of any kind, or were In such
matters, they always went to Mr. Seaman. Mr. Stearns was a man
who would also advise and guide these people and Mr. Stearns was
in this fight for principle. If we could look back at the doings in the
political field at that time, we might gain new light. Mr. Stearns
had a grove just beyond Stearns Park, where the Elks' Club and
Chester Chapin's home Is, and In that grove many political meetings
were held, as well as picnics. When we stop and look back, we can
only remember that the people who took part in that affair were
actuated from their own standpoint.
When local authority clashes with the United States government.
It is a good deal like the case of a fellow you may have seen at a
country fair. He has a penny he wants to pitch up. He says,
"Heads I win, tails you lose." When they went against the United
States government in those days, it was a good deal like, "Heads I
win, tails you lose."
Mr. Adams: I think the feeling was of a good-natured kind be
tween Major Ripley and the Catholics at the time the purchase of
the lot was consummated. Is that correct?
Mr. Hall: Yes, I think so.
Mr. Adams: I think Major Ripley at that time paid, in addition
to the value of the lot, quite a little sum to pacify the disappointed
ones and smooth matters a little and the outcome was that there
were pleasant feelings all around.
The feeling of the workmen In the buildings was intense. I ought
not, possibly, to speak of this, but Colonel Clark in conversation,
spoke of it in a casual way. He said it was almost impossible for
Major Ripley to go up and down through the shops with safety and
he had to be guarded, — the workmen had such a strong feeling that
he was meddling with their affairs because he brought them up to
the method he was accustomed to.
The State Street side of the iron fence was built in 1852, the Pearl
Street side In 1857.

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IS