Springfield City (part 2 of 8)

The quaint old meeting-house, which antedated the incorporation of Longmeadow as a town a hundred years ago, was not long since removed from its place in the centre of the green to the adjacent front of the ancient cemetery, and thoroughly renovated : the only apparent reminders of the old structure being the massive beams (wrought by the recent architect into forms of beauty), the venerable weathercock, and the ancient bell. There i> a tradition that this bell, remarkable for its sweet tones, was intended by Lord Somers for the neighbor town, which was named after him, but found its way, by some cross-purpose, into the Longmeadow belfry of the still more ancient meeting-house reared in 1716. "Thirty eight feet square.'" the old specifications describe it, "if the timber that is already gotten will allow it; or, if the timber be too scant, to make it something less." For a century and a half it has magnified its office, ringing out the old and ringing in the new. Until a recent date it tolled off the age of every person in the village who had died, rang a merry peal at noon, and again at nine o'clock at night the curfew chimes. It rang the Lexington alarm, and echoed the Declaration of Independence. It rang so furiously at the joyful news of the peace that concluded the war of 181 2, that it was cracked, and had to be recast. It tolled the funeral knell for Washington and for Lincoln, and has celebrated all the decisive victories, from the surrender of Cornwallis to that of Lee. It has called to united worship an undivided people, who, since their separation from the mother church in Springfield. have retained their original and unsectarian name, " The First Church of Christ in Longmeadow."

The cemetery in the rear of the church is remarkable for its serried ranks of primitive gravestones, monumental tablets, and quaint inscriptions, calling to mind an English churchyard. The chapel which stands adjacent to the church has been long familiar to Springfield and its surroundings as the place of a popular annual festivity, " The Longmeadow May Breakfast." Always closely allied with Springfield, Longmeadow promises to become yet more intimately connected by reason of its local attractions as a suburban place of residence. Its broad and level streets, stretching three miles from the Springfield line to that of Enfield, and elevated ninety feet upon the plateau which commands the "long meddowe " and the river, so beautiful as well as healthy for situation, will continue to attract the lookers-out for roomy sites and rural homes. Its manufacturing interests in buttons, spectacles, and thimbles, once considerable, have, since the civil war, departed to Springfield, save one belonging to William W. Coomes, who continues the thimble and spectacle manufacture.

If we continue our southern route, the thriving factories of Thompsonville soon appear ; and next, Enfield with its wide and handsome street, in the former days allied to Springfield before Connecticut claimed its jurisdiction.

If we turn now from the main southern highway to the left, we shall strike into the Longmeadow forest, which began from Pecousic Hill. It extends from that point eastward, as well as southward, for several miles, and with such an adaptation of soil that it will probably continue indefinitely to be a forest. A few years ago a wild boar, imported when young from Smyrna into Longmeadow, escaped from its owner, Francis T. Cordis ; and such were the wild and intricate recesses of this forest, that a band of expert hunters with their dogs pursued him for many clays without success. Captured at last, though not alive, his effigy may be seen, and further inquiries

This forest is traversed by a labyrinth of roads, some of them in their winding mystery leading into open fields or cleared wood-lots ; and others debouching at Enfield, or the Shaker villages, or East Longmeadow. One attractive terminus is at the Shaker Pond, a little gem of a lake skirted by a lovely grove, and well provided by its proprietor with all conveniences for a picnic-dav of rare enjoyment. At the terminus of another road, is the former site of a hermit's residence, one of Longmeadow's eccentric characters, who, in the depths of this forest, trained a number of domestic animals to follow him about in dumb procession, while he preached in stentorian tones his warnings to the Longmeadow people on the village green. Near his cave was a clearing watered by a brook, from which by skilful care he produced luscious fruits. This Longmeadow forest, already attractive to the inhabitants of Springfield for the natural beauty of its secluded and shady drives, promises to be far more so if Pecousic valley shall by and by be utilized as a public park. In that case, the system of park-roads, which should connect all the environs of Springfield in circuits unsurpassed for variety and beauty of natural scenery, will connect also Pecousic valley with the labyrinth of roads already traversing this widely extended forest, and which, with advantage to its proprietors, as well as to the public, and the adjoining towns, might without much extra cost be widened and variously improved, and still leave intact that peculiar charm of the wild woods which no artificial care can equal.

Among the surroundings of Springfield, the quaint establishments of the Enfield Shakers must not be forgotten. In their plain living, combined in such an unworldly way with large wealth, their exquisite domestic neatness, their broad and well-tilled acres, their hospitable welcome to the stranger, and the singular repose of their unambitious life, they illustrate the only permanent success of the communistic theory.

East Longmeadow is a thrifty section of the old town, separated from the parent village by several miles of the intervening forest. It promises to outstrip the elder settlement in material wealth, through the increasing enterprise of its quarries of the red sandstone, a beautiful building-material, already famous in many of our American cities. From early times the outcroppings of surface-stone have been quarried more or less by many small proprietors; but during recent years the capital and machinery needful for more extensive operations have been supplied, and especially by the firms of Norcross Brothers, and James & Mara. In agriculture, too. the inhabitants of East Longmeadow are moving on, as is apparent by the neat and thrifty look of its farmhouses and their outlying grounds.

farming district, Wilbraham and Hampden - the latter recently set off from Wilbraham - are well worthy of a detour. The '-Springfield Mountains" draw nigh, distinguished for their quiet, rounded woodland beauty, and also as the dwelling-place of that " likely youth nigh twenty-one, Leftenant Mirick's onley son," whose untimely death by "a pisin sarpent at his heal" is celebrated in famous song.

While the staple occupation of Wilbraham and Hampden is farming, which has been productive and remunerative, the cloth-mills at Hampden, and the extensive paper and grain mills at North Wilbraham, or Collinsville, lend to these towns the stir of active business. Although, at this distance from Springfield, there is wanting the peculiar charm of the "great river" and its characteristic valley scenery, yet the diversified surface of hill and vale, and stream and grove, has everywhere its own charms; and these are enhanced by worthy historical associations, the high-toned character of society, and the special literary culture centred in the Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham Centre, it being the oldest institution under the patronage of the Methodist-Episcopal Church, and one of the best.

We enter Ludlow - once, like Wilbraham, the "outward commons''1 of Springfield - at Jenksville, where the falls of Wallamanumps recall the legend of the " Indian Leap," in the old war times, of a party of Indians surprised and hemmed in upon the little peninsula elevated 80 feet above the dashing stream, who, finding no escape, sprang, in their desperation, over the precipice, into the foaming waters.

It is more credibly handed down, that here King Philip encamped with 600 of his warriors the night after the burning of Springfield in 1675. In this vicinity, and, indeed, all along the Chicopee River, a favorite hunting and fishing ground of the Indians, have been found abundant specimens of their arrow-heads, hatchets, mortars, and other implements of domestic or warlike use.

Ludlow, a thriving and intelligent agricultural community, is chiefly interesting to the inhabitants of Springfield for its water, of which it has abundance in numerous ponds and brooks, two of which, Higher and Broad Brooks, main affluents of the Chicopee River, flood the reservoir of 445 acres, upon which Springfield depends for its supply. The main industry

1 The " commons," variously designated as the " outward" and " inward commons," were large tracts of undivided lands, used, under certain restrictions, for pasturage and other common uses. These lands were owned by the town of Springfield, remaining after individual proprietors had received their "grants," or "allotments." When Gov. Edmund Andros, among his other tyrannical extortions, began in some parts of the Province to sequestrate those " commons," and the danger impended that they would all revert to the Crown, Springfield took quick advantage of a saving clause which would except from this operation the private ownership of individual estates, by extending the town jurisdii rion several miles eastward and westward of the original town boundary, which extension was called the " outward commons," and then distributing both the outward and inward undivided lands among the individual inhabitants according to their several polls and ratable estates.

King'S Hand Boo A' Of Springfield

We follow down the Chicopee River, as useful for its vast water-power as it is beautiful in its winding and impetuous flow, to Chicopee, a territory of about 25 square miles, and three miles north of Springfield. A dense wilderness two centuries ago, when Japhet and Henry, the sons of Deacon William Chapin of Springfield, made the first settlement, it is now the seat of many prosperous manufactures, and the home of mechanics distinguished for their skill and their inventions. The Chicopee Manufacturing Company, the Lamb Knitting-machine Manufacturing Company, the J. Stevens & Company, B. & J. W. Belcher, the Chicopee Falls Screw Company, the Massachusetts Arms Company, the Belcher & Taylor Agricultural Tool Company, and the bleachery of Anderton & Dunn, are located at Chicopee Falls.

In Chicopee proper, formerly known as Cabotville, the Dwight Manufacturing Company presents, with its seven five-storied mills, a front extending a third of a mile. The Ames Manufacturing Company, founders of arms and works in bronze and other metals, has long been famous, both at home and in foreign countries, for its skilled and artistic work. Besides these are the Ames Sword Company, the Blaisdell Cotton Waste Company, the bobbin-factory of Edwin Wood, and the new Southworth Mill, all testifying to the vast amount of manufacturing capital and enterprise employed in this portion of Chicopee. The old street on the Connecticut River, with its ample breadth, fertile meadows, and ancient and comfortable homesteads, bears much the same relation to Springfield as do the similar farming communities of Longmeadow, West Springfield, and Agawam. As a manufacturing town, Chicopee is unsurpassed in its educational facilities, in the generous and stanch support of its various churches, in the general intelligence of its people, in the varieties of its skilled labor, in the number of its prominent and influential citizens, - our Governor, George D. Robinson, being among them. - in the general look of domestic comfort and taste that characterizes its homes, and in the remarkable diversity of its natural scenery, having, as it does, the peculiar advantages of two such rivers as the Chicopee and the Connecticut.

Holyoke will hardly permit itself to be numbered among the environs ol Springfield; and vet it is near enough to be included in the general landscape, and close enough by various ties of daily intercourse to rejoice in the friendly rivalry of mutual advantages, and the reciprocities of a common interdependence.

Our brief survey of Springfield's surroundings will be completed U crossing the Connecticut-river bridge at Chicopee to return to our startingpoint, - the West Springfield common, - by wa\ of Ashleyville and the river's western bank. Again the shining river and the fertile meads, and the old white meeting-house on the hill keeping guard. " The pastures are clothed with flocks ; the valleys also are covered over with corn ; they shout for joy, they also sing." Here is the country, that God made, while man made the town.

Here Miles Morgan, whose statue adorns Court Square in Springfield, tilled his original "allotment.1' Here the Ashleys, Baggs, Elys, Smiths, and other notable farmers, throughout their generations, have "tickled the earth with hoes till it has laughed with harvests." No better farms nor market-gardens than here ; and no such barn anywhere as belongs to our fellow-citizen Warren H. Wilkinson, the profits of whose manufactures enable him to become a public benefactor in farming experiments, which may serve for general instruction free of cost. Could we all farm it in his way, the temptation would be to leave Springfield for such surroundings, and to adopt Virgil's motto without the " if," -

With such surroundings and such antecedents, Springfield is peculiarly rus in urbe, - a rural city. It stands in the relation of a foster-parent to its neighbor towns. They all originally belonged to its jurisdiction, and only as they became of age were they set off upon adjacent homesteads to take care of themselves. With no divisive interests, springing from the same ancestral stock, pervaded by the same general intelligence, sharing the enjoyment of that natural scenery - the rare combination of hill and stream, mountain and meadow - which distinguishes the Connecticut Valley, favored by a sheltered situation and a comparatively even and healthy climate, braced by the moral helpfulness of good principles and steady habits, prospered by the mutual helpfulness of a thrifty agriculture and diversified manufactures. Springfield and its surroundings may well rejoice together in the prospect of an increasing population which shall combine the best elements of society, and in an outlook altogether worthy of the prestige established by the historic past, and replete with encouragement and hope for coming times.

John Wheeler Harding Bridges. Brooks, And Horse-Cars

EVERY one who gets an opportunity of seeing the streets of Springfield, at once notices that there are many of unusual beauty. The irregular picturesqueness of State Street, winding broadly up the hill, with its gigantic elms, its grass-plats, and elegant residences, churches, and public buildings. would be hard to surpass anywhere. Chestnut and Pearl and Maple Streets are lined with the homes and villas of the well-to-do, the cultured and oldtime residents. The immense elms of North Main Street, combined with its ample width and its strips of verdure, make it particularly noticeable. And along the streets the passer-by will here and there be attracted by an old-time house, and may be led to conjecture whether its history would not be an interesting one by reason of its age. It would make a unique collection, to get together views of these reminders of past days, such as. for example, the Rockingham House, the Washington Tavern, the Ely Ordinary, and many others shown elsewhere in this volume: and the Lombard House, and the old house on Hillman Street, shown in this chapter.

While it is not possible here to go into a description of the attractions along the streets, it will be found that a brief account of the streets and their nomenclatures alone will afford considerable entertainment. Long ago in the year 1635, when the white man left the Massachusetts Bay, and on horseback wended his way through Nature's trackless forest, inhabited only by Indians and wild beasts, his wanderings towards the setting sun brought him to a halt at the eastern shore of the " Ouinetticutt " River, his journey thither having brought him over the hitherto untrodden "Bay Path." The trail" along the westerly edge of a marshy fen. - in those days called "marish," - which served as a frog-pond in the spring, a skimpy cowpasture in the summer, and a skating-rink in the winter, served the settlers as a horse-path ; and after the introduction of cattle it was widened for a cartpath, which with sundry improvements has become what might lie called the "Broadway "of Springfield, - that is. our Main Street. The settlers mutually agreed to appropriate four rods of land for the width of the road, measuring westerly from the little brook running near the edge oi the marsh. This was the only highway constructed for a long time: the Bay Path, although never surveyed, was used for travel to and from the Bay.

This Indian trail, after a vast amount of filling-in and grading-up, and with considerable paving, has become the main artery of the town, and is kept in excellent condition. The settlers divided the land between the marsh and the river into narrow strips of various widths, and assigned a house lot or strip to ever y n e wcomer, who, by custom, const r u c t ed the front line of his house even with the west line of the street. Some having appropriated part of the highway for the erection of shops, barns, and pig-pens, in 1759 a commission from the Court of Sessions, authorizing a survey and location, resulted in the imposition of fines, amounting in the whole to eight pounds, fourteen shillings, eleven pence,

Note. - The map on the opposite page shows the main part of Springfield in 1883. The letters are explained as follows: Churches. - A. First Baptist; B. First Congregational; C. Memorial; D. North Congregational; E. Episcopal; F.St. Paul's Universalist; G. Trinity Methodist; H. Church of Sacred Heart; I St. Joseph's French Catholic; J. Grace Methodist; K. South Congregational; L. State-street Baptist; M. Church of the Unity; N. St. Michael's Roman Catholic; O. Olivet Congregational; P. State-street Methodist. PUBLIC BUILDINGS. - R.

and three farthings, upon thirty-six of the abutters on the west side : one of the victims being the parson of the parish. These fines were imposed because the parties had trespassed on the highway with certain buildings : but it does not appear that the fines were ever paid, or that the buildings were moved off during the last century. More than a century ago Major Joseph Stebbins, who kept a tavern on what is now the south corner of Main and Sargeant Streets, assisted by his sons, Festus and Ouartus, brought from the West-Springfield meadows a score or more of thrifty young trees, and planted them in a row in the middle of the ''town street," against the Stebbins premises, which then extended from the Morgan Road to Ferry Lane. Some of these trees are still standing, and afford a goodly shade. Another row of large elm-trees once stood on the easterly side of Main Street, northerly and southerly of Hillman Street, one of which, felled in 1825, is said to have measured twelve feet in diameter at the axe-man's point of attack. Main Street was once studded with trees on each side, some of which attained large size ; but nearly all have given way to the -- march of modern civilization."

To afford easy access to the river, three lanes were opened from the " town street.'' The northern one, popularly called the upper landing, led to the ferry where travellers going to " Waronoco,'' and beyond, crossed the river: it was known as Ferry Lane, - the present Cypress Street. It was originally one rod wide, and was designed more particularly to afford a crossing to the meadows on the other side. The lower landing, of the same width, - now called York Street, - was opened for a ferry to the meadows south of the mouth of Agawam River. The middle landing, also one rod wide, was instituted for ferriage to the meadows on the other side, and also to receive freight which came up the river in flatboats. It ran straight to the river from the " town street," and afforded a passage to the first burialground on the north side of the lane along the bank of the river, and also to the " training-ground " on the south side, - two acres then owned by the town and afterwards used as a second burial-ground. It was called Meeting-house Lane, because the meeting-house stood on the northerly side, two hundred feet from the "town street." The lane has since been widened to forty feet ; and in the hedge on the old south line, sprang up an elm-tree which grew and spread itself extensively, so that sixty years ago it was looked upon as a very large tree, and was so represented on a map of the town made at that time. This tree is still in a good state of preservation. Its circumference at the smallest diameter of its trunk is twenty feet, and its height is over ninety-seven feet. Its age is not known, but long ago it caused the name of the old meeting-house lane to be changed to Elm Street.

In course of time it became necessary to make a passage across the marsh. The first efforts to that end proved ineffectual; but the settlers

Plan Of Town Of Springfield In 1827

Hit upon the expedient of offering the privilege to capitalists, of constructing a causeway, and of taking ''four pence a load of any person crossing there with a team who had not joined in the enterprise." This causeway, between Main Street and the old town-hall, was two rods wide. The old foundation put in there in 1648 was so well put in that it is there to-day. It consisted of large logs, trunks of large trees laid crosswise; and successive layers furnished a foundation for the earth-filling, which is five or six feet below the present pavement. This crossing furnished an outlet to the high land east of the town street, and was the beginning of the Boston Road, which was at first the old Bay Path. It extended up the hill, near where the most southerly of the Armory buildings now stand ; and the row of trees beside them still indicates its location. The town having appropriated twenty rods for the width of the road after reaching the present Spring and School Streets, and the old Bay Path as travelled being very steep, a new path was sought farther south. It turned to the right above Myrtle Street, and, following the edge of the dingle south of State Street, passed through the region of " Skunk's Misery," back of the Olivet Church, and brought up on the plain a little west of Walnut Street. This route was discontinued about fifty years ago, and the hill graded to the present track of State Street. The Boston Road was from time to time extended to the east, and in 1822 the county made a complete survey and location into the town of Wilbraham.

After the comj:>letion of the causeway, new enterprises sprang up. A winding path was made from the Boston Road, near the mouth of Maple Street, and along the brow of the highlands. It passed through the lands now owned by Col. H. N. Case, William Merrick, George B. Holbrook. Lombard Dale, William Gunn, and James B. Rumrill ; and occupied mainly the veritable sites of the present beautiful dwellings as the path followed the brow of the steep hill. This serpentine path was called - the road to Charles Brewer's," and was continued to near the Springfield Cemetery gate, - a region known as Thompson's Dingle. Charles Brewer's house stood on the site of William Gunn's house, and overlooked the valley. About sixty years ago this road was surveyed and straightened, leaving the houses standing between the old road and the new; but the old houses have succumbed to time, and new and comely ones have been erected in their places.

It is said that Charles Brewer in early days brought from Thompson's Dingle several maple-trees which he set out by the wayside; giving the old path the name of Maple Street, which adheres to it and to several extensions of the same in later years. Other roads were afterwards located: the road over Long Hill to Pecowsic Brook was laid out in 1754; Wilbraham Road, starting from the Boston Road at "Goose Pond," in 1769; and Plum-tree Road in the same year. Pine Street formerly included Oak Street, and was laid out in 1764. It took its name from a huge, wide-spreading white-pine tree, standing in the dooryard of the home of John Stevenson, on the easterly side of the street, about half way between State and Union Streets. In hot weather Stevenson was in the habit of resting himself on a couch he had constructed high up among the branches of the tree. A road leading from the fivemile school - house easterly, passing near " Peggy's Dippinglb ilc," was laid out about the same time ; and also a road, two rods wide, " beginning at the corner of - Murphy's field,' and running by marked pine-trees to a pine standing a little north of the house where Experience Hancock lately lived." No surveyor's compass was used in Springfield until 1670 : hence the absence of field-notes in locating roads previous to this time. One road began at ;' Kibbee's fence," another at a " white-birch bush," another was bounded by a white-oak bush ; all showing inefficiency as well as indefiniteness.

extending easterly : it was known as the X road, because its crossing another road resembled a X- It is now called Sumner Avenue. Hickory Street received its name in honor of Andrew Jackson's heroic cognomen "Old Hickory."

St. James Avenue was opened in 1770; and the town many years after voted to call it Factory Street, because it led to the cotton-factories at Chicopee Falls, or Skipmuck. Carew Street, named in remembrance of the Carew family living at the north end of Main Street, was laid out in 1770, and called the Morgan Road, because it passed by the house of one Morgan. Parker Street, running from Longmeadow line, through Sixteen Acres, to Eli Putnam's bridge across Chicopee River at Ludlow, was laid out in 1796, and named after Zenas Parker, who assisted in the locating survey, and in i860 was still living in his wayside cottage at the age of 84 years. Mill Street, running near the edge of Mill River, took its name from the mills on the stream. Walnut Street, first opened in 181 1 to accommodate the United-States Armory in transporting their gun-materials from the water-shop to the shop on the hill, was named by Ethan A. Clary for a walnut-tree which formerly served as a monument for the west line of the street. Blake Street derives its name from an ancient family who once lived on the westerly side of the street, not far from an old Indian Fort. The old Blake house, still standing, and owned and occupied by J. G. Chase of this city, is situated near the foot of "Blake's Hill," and is the locality of mysterious surroundings, which furnished the basis of a goodsized and readable novel written by Frederick A. Packard, a resident here, about 50 years ago. Blake's Hill and Long Hill, both together, were known as Fort Hill after the conflagration. White Street was named from a physician of that name, who lived near the southern extremity of the street; Allen Street, from Joel Allen, whose house constituted almost the only remaining monument of the location of the street in i860; and Benton Street, from the Benton family, through whose farm the street was laid in 1789. State Street was the name voted by the town to be applied to that part of Boston Road between Main Street and Factory Street. Bliss Street derived its name from the Bliss family, who opened the street through their own land ; and Howard Street, from the family of Rev. Bezaleel Howard. Union Street received its name from the fact that it was opened by Charles Stearns and others, unitedly, across their respective lands. Wilcox Street was opened by Philip and Philo F. Wilcox through their own land, and named by them. Margaret Street was opened through the homestead allotted to widow Margaret Bliss, who came from Hartford with so many children that the town, more than a century ago, granted her a lot with extra width, reaching from the town street to the river. Her heirs, in 1850, opened a street through the middle of it: and the surveyor gave to it her name. Loring Street was opened through land once owned by the Loring family, and named for Joshua Loring, a surviving bachelor of the same. Lombard Street was opened across land purchased of the heirs of Justin Lombard. Stockbridge Street was laid out in part through land of Elam Stockbridge. Cross Street was opened by Abraham G. Tannatt through his homestead : and being very narrow, unwrought, and crude, it soon acquired the cognomen of " Pig Alley ; " but the name has now fallen into disuse. On it now stands the oldest house extant in Springfield, noticed and illustrated in a preceding chapter. Emery Street was laid out in 1844, by the heirs of Capt. Robert Emery, who had been the owner of the land. School Street was opened by the town in 1827, from State to Union, for the purpose of access to the high-school house that the town had built on the corner of Union and the new street. The building is now owned and occupied by J. S. Marsh and Lyman King as their residence.

Spring Street was laid out at the foot of the first slope from the high plain, in the vicinity of the numerous springs which ooze out of the ground on that plateau. Byers Street was laid out across the homestead of the Hon. James Byers. Worthington Street was opened by Charles Stearns across his own land, from Connecticut River to Spring Street, and was named after its former owner, Col. John Worthington. Butler Street was an old road without name, and in i860 was re-surveyed and straightened, and named for James H. Butler, who contributed to the straightening. Stebbins Street was named for Ithamar Stebbins, who lived near by. Armory Street, laid out in 1822, leading to Chicopee from the United-States Armory, was dubbed " Toddy Road," because the workmen in the Armory used to go over this road to Japhet Chapin's tavern in Chicopee to drink toddy. Andrew Street was laid out in 1868, and named in honor of Gov. John A. Andrew of

Av Jvc'S Handbook Of Sprincfield

Massachusetts ; Ashley Street in 1847, receiving its name from John Ashley, through whose land part of the street was laid; and Bancroft Street in 1863' by Wells P. Hodgett, who named it after his admired political friend, George Bancroft the historian. Calhoun Street was laid out in i860, on land of the city, and named for William B. Calhoun, whose residence was near by.

Dickinson Street was an old, nameless road, re-laid and straightened in i860, and then named after Isaac P. Dickinson, through whose land the straightening was partly made. Dwight Street has its name from having been laid across the homestead of James Dwight; Edwards Street, from having been laid out across the homestead of Col. Elisha Edwards ; and Gardner Street, from Gideon Gardner, one of the proprietors of the land through which it passes. Greenwood Street was laid out by Samuel Green, who intended to call it by his own name, but was prevented from so doing because another street bore the name. Grovener Street was laid out by Grovener B. Bowers, and thus named by the engineer who surveyed the property. Harrison Avenue was named for President William H. Harrison. Hillman Street gets its name from Seth Hillman Barnes, one of the owners of the land through which it was laid ; and Magazine Street, because it runs past the old magazine of the colonial army. Just as indicated above, many streets have been named for persons who were at some time owners of the whole or a part of the property through which the street passes. Among other streets so named are: Marion Street, opened in 1883, for the late Marion D. Tapley; Mattoon Street, opened in 1872, for William Mattoon: Morgan Street, for Albert Morgan; Morris Street, for Hon. Oliver 11. Morris ; Pynchon Street, opened in 1842, for the Pynchon family; Sargeant Street, for Horatio Sargeant, etc. Osgood Street was opened by Dunham & Sleeper, across land formerly owned by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Osgood, Ringgold Street was opened by George S. Lewis, and named in memory of Major Ringgold, who was slain in the Mexican War. Sherman Street was opened across land of the Tapley family, and named after Major-Gen. Sherman of the United-States Army. Thompson Street was formerly the north erly part of Hancock Street; and Haynes & McKnight, having purchased a large tract of land bordering on the street, re-named it in honor of Col. James M. Thompson. Water Street gets its name from its contiguity to the river, and was laid out piecemeal during a period of thirty years. Court Street is coeval with the first court-house of Hampden County, and was laid out by the side of the court-house grounds in 1822. Everett Street, the first north of Linden, was named in honor of Edward Everett.

Garden Brook is a contribution of springs issuing from the several slopes of the sandy plain forming the highest table-land of the city east of Main Street. It formerly ran down a deep ravine which extended far into the level plain ; and, reaching the marshy meadow, the channel extended across the marsh to the western edge, disposing of itself in a singular manner by an equal division of its waters, one-half going north, and in a circuitous, or serpentine manner, finding its way into the "Great River" above Round Hill. The other division, forming a channel, ran down the westerly edge of the swamp, and, constituting the easterly line of the " town street," found its outlet in the Connecticut, just above the mouth of Mill River, two and a half miles below the outlet of the northern branch. This division took place near the east line of Main Street, at its junction with Worthington Street, and still continues, although the bed of each branch has been considerably lowered, of late years, for the purpose of drainage ; and the same, being known as the " Town Brook," performs duty as a common sewer. Sixty years ago tin's rivulet of clean water, running in the little channel by the side of Main Street, was used for domestic purposes ; and the little belt of hard land between it and the marsh afforded room for an occasional store or other building ; and by crossing the stream on a plank, and climbing up a flight of a half-dozen steps, or stairs, the flooring of the one-story buildings was reached, as they stood on tall posts, like the houses in Siam.

The Ferries were once the highways for crossing the Connecticut River: and hand-power boats were the first vehicles of conveyance, the smallest being canoes, made by scooping out the trunks of large trees, and shaping them like a skiff. Rude flatboats carried over the horses, cattle, and carts.

The ferry at the upper landing was most used, it being the main highway from the Massachusetts Bay to the Hudson River. When the people who had settled on the west side of the river became so numerous that the flatboat was not able to carry them across in time for sabbath service, thev petitioned the town, in 1674, to furnish them with free ferriage on Sundays. At that time the only meeting-house in the vicinity was on the east side, and all the people were required to attend. It does not appear that their wish was granted: but 22 years afterward they obtained permission of the " Create and General Courte " to organize a parish of their own, and thus get relief from Sunday ferriage. It is supposed that several persons were drowned in returning from church, March 18, 1683 ; as the names of two men and one woman are recorded as drowned on that day. Gen. George Washington was ferried across the river at this place as he travelled up from Hartford on the west side, fording the Agawam River a little below the Agawam Bridge in his private two-horse carriage, led by his colored coachman, when he made his only tour into New England during his Presidency. West-India rum and other army supplies, drawn by oxen from Boston to the Hudson River, when New York was in the hands of the British, were often carried over. No steam or horse power was ever used at this ferry. This ferry-privilege was annihilated by the city in i860, by permitting the Connecticut-river Railroad to erect buildings on the landing.

It is said that the middle ferry, at the foot of Elm Street, was used mostly for crossing over into the West-Springfield meadows. One autumn day, as the story goes, several families crossed on the boat in the morning to spend the day in harvesting corn, and at night returned. But a young maiden and her lover, having strolled over the meadow and out of sight. were forgotten. They were surrounded by water, and had no means of escape, and of necessity remained over night under the shelter of a deserted building. When they returned the next day to the east side, on being questioned about their absence, they were complained of to the magistrate, and subjected to a fine for breach of the law forbidding an unmarried couple to occupy a house together over night without the intervention of a third party.

Another private ferry was used, starting from the lower landing at the foot of York Street, which afforded access to what is now termed the Island, and is still in use. The usual manner of urging boats of large size across the water was by the use of " setting-poles." In later years another ferry furnishing a public highway between Springfield and West Springfield was ordered by the county commissioners, and was located farther down the river, below the several mouths of the Agawam. This ferry was called the "South End" or Agawam Ferry; and, as "setting-poles'" could not grapple with the amount of travel, a horse-power boat was placed on the river by a company, and after many years a steam ferry-boat took its place. Later the ferry-privilege was used by Springfield and the town of Agawam, by steam-power, until the building of the present " South End " iron bridge.

The Bridges. - At the beginning of the present century frequent discussions took place between the people of Springfield and West Springfield about the feasibility of constructing a bridge across the Connecticut River. The business-men and middle-aged people had faith in the project; but the old men wagged their heads in opposition, one prominent rich man saying, "Gentlemen, you might as well undertake to bridge the Atlantic Ocean." Finally, after much hesitation, the seemingly ponderous job was undertaken. The planting and rearing of the sub-structure was difficult : the two abutments and five piers had to be embedded in the river, and that without previous experience, or the use of modern appliances. Pile-driving was clone by horse-power, as steam hammers were not then known to the world. A large floating platform was constructed, and anchored in the river near the site fixed for a pier; on it was placed the necessary machinery for raising the hammer: this was operated by a horse winding a rope around a drum, or cylinder. This horse " swung around the circle " from morning till night, from Monday till Saturday, and from spring till early winter; but no man has numbered the revolutions he performed, nor the thousands of miles he travelled during the process. On the platform was a stable for his shelter and repose at night; for he slept on the "bosom of the deep," not being taken ashore till the close of work for winter. Verily his memory is entitled to a monument. The site of the bridge did not occupy the place of any ferry, nor was it within 50 rods of any road or highway. The bridge company bought land on each side of the river for their approaches, the location being where the old toll, or wooden, bridge now stands.

The first bridge was opened for travel Oct. 30, 1S05. It was 1,234 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 40 feet above low-water mark, and cost *36.27o. It was uncovered, and painted red; and consisted of six arches supported by two abutments and five piers, each 21 feet wide and 62 feet long. Up the river, in the vicinity of the present railroad-bridge, were built three "icebreakers,"' or piers like the bridge-piers, with the up-stream sides sloping down to the water, designed to allow the immense sheets of ice in the spring to slide up into the air, and by their own weight fall down in smaller p thus preventing the choking of ice under the bridge. The name of the designer or builder of this bridge is not now known. During the construe- tion, by an accident several of the workmen were injured, and one kiiied: and also, in the month of March, several of the armorers crossed on the timbers of the framework, to the west side, on a spree, and in returning, late at night, one of them lost his balance, and was drowned.

The bridge was opened with imposing dedicatory exercises, - a proces" sion, prayer, sermon by the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lathrop of West Springfield, music, and the ringing of bells. When the procession reached the bridge, a national salute of 17 guns was fired three times; and 3,000 people, standing on the uncovered bridge, gave three rousing cheers.

This bridge was a vast accommodation to many towns on either side of the river, and was duly appreciated. But after nine years effective service it showed signs of weakening; and, after the spring freshets of 1814 had subsided, the company began strengthening the arches, and set up "horses " under the eastern span to support it while undergoing repairs. But on the 14th of July a heavy Pennsylvania wagon, heavily laden with army supplies from the east, attempted to cross. When the team had got well on to the bridge, the first span crippled and went down ; but the " horses," or trusses, being equal to the pressure, held up bridge and team, so that the load was saved, and nobody killed. This ended travel across the bridge ; and it was soon taken down, having become too much weather-beaten to endure longer service. It was mongrel in style, the travel being on neither the bottom nor top of the chord, but ascending and descending with the curve of the arches of eacli span.

The present bridge was constructed in 1816; the builder being Capt. Isaac Damon of Northampton, a man of great capacity for construction and superior workmanship, his work having stood the test of 67 years of strain as a bridge, and is now likely to stand 40 or 50 years longer. It was partially carried off by the spring freshet of 1818, and the lost portions supplied in 1820; but never since has it suffered by ice or water. At the last fracture in 181 8 Gen. Bliss, one of the directors, thought to save the east end of the bridge, by securing an immense cable or rope to the main timbers, and fastening the rope to a large tree on the bank of the river above the bridge ; but the next large sheet of ice that struck the bridge hardly straightened the sag of the cable before it parted, and away went the eastern span of Capt. Damon's superstructure.

The present is the second bridge, and was covered at the time of building. The travel is on an even plane at the bottom of the chord. The heavy pine timber of the arches was cut far up the river, rafted down, and hewed out by hand. Tolls were taken until July 1, 1872, when it was made free by Act of the Legislature.

The next bridge was that of the Western Railroad, completed July 1, 1 84 1, made of wood, on the " Howe " plan, and uncovered. This was taken down in 1855, and replaced by another; the trains all the while continuing their usual trips. The second bridge was covered, and continued in use until the erection of the present iron bridge in 1S73.

The North-End iron bridge was completed Sept. 1, 1877, and dedicated by a large concourse of people on the West-Springfield side. Dinner-tables were placed in the goodly shade of a row of maple-trees, refreshments offered to the crowd, and speeches made by the friends of the enterprise; William Chapman of West Springfield leading off with much enthusiasm. It affords the centre of that town an additional and more convenient privilege of access to the Union Railway Station. It is one of the handsomest highway bridges in the United States.

The South-End iron bridge, connecting the city with Agawam, was built in 1878, and completed and opened for travel Feb. 1, 1879. It takes the place of the old steam-ferry, and is a great advantage to the towns of Agawam, Suffield, Southwick, and Granby. From the above it will be seen that there are now four bridges across the Connecticut within the space of two miles and a half.

The Springfield Street-Railway Company was organized in 1869, with a capital of $50,000. The first board of directors included G. M. Atwater. Homer Foot, C. L. Covell. Gurdon Bill, and Willis Phelps. The first officers were : G. M. Atwater, president and treasurer ; J. E. Smith, superintendent ; and Gideon Wells, clerk of the corporation. The station and stables were built at the corner of Main and Hooker Streets ; and the first trip was made on March 10, 1870. Since then the company has made a gradual development. It carried during the first year, 257,280 passengers; and now it carries about 1,100,000. At its opening, the total length of track was 2.7 miles; now it is i\ miles. Then the track extended from Hooker Street to Oak Street; in 1873 it was extended from the corner of Main and State Streets to Mill River, and also from Oak Street to the Boston Road ; and in 1874 it was again extended from Hooker Street to Wason Avenue. In 1879 the capital stock was increased to $100,000, and the track again extended from the corner of State and Maple Streets to the United-States Water- Shops. It was then found necessary to enlarge the old buildings, and to erect a new stable and station at the corner of Main and Carew Streets. In 1882 the capital stock was increased to $125,000, and a second track was laid, making a double track on Main Street, from State .Street to Carew Street, and also on parts of State Street. The equipment consisted, in 1870, of 4 cars and 25 horses; in 1883, of 22 cars and 96 horses. The president is John Olmsted; the treasurer, A. E. Smith; the superintendent, F. E. King; and the clerk of the corporation, Gideon Wells.

Steam-Railroads

THE advantageous location of Springfield gave it, from the start, a pioneer place in the development of inland commerce and transportation. The Connecticut River became the first great north-and-south highway of the country. Palfrey, in his " History of New England," shows how it became the singular fortune of Springfield, as the first town upon a river in a jurisdiction foreign to that which controlled its mouth, to assert the principles of free trade, and of the free navigation of rivers by all the communities upon their banks, - principles which finally reached their perfection in the complete freedom of the internal commerce of the United States. Springfield had been established less than ten years (1645) when the Connecticut Colony attempted to collect an export-duty upon goods descending the river from Springfield, for the purpose, as was alleged, of paying for a fort at Saybrook. Springfield resisted this imposition upon her commerce, and carried her grievances to the General Court of Massachusetts, which appealed to the commissioners of all the New-England Colonies, then constituting the germ of the American Union. The case was decided against Springfield ; but the infant town refused to submit, and effectually maintained the freedom of the river through a long controversy.

For the first two centuries the river-navigation by primitive flatboats - poled up the stream, and floating down - bore the burden of freight to the interior. The river, however, was of inferior navigability, and made a place for roads rather than a substitute. Early in this century the valley-roads were in comparatively good order. President Dwight of Yale College, speaking of the Connecticut Valley in 1803, praises its roads and inns, and says, "The time has not been long passed since the roads on the hills were almost universally too rough to be travelled for pleasure. At that time the roads in this valley were generally good throughout a great extent. Hence the inhabitants were allured to a much more extensive intercourse with each other than those in any other part of New England, except along the eastern coast. For the same reasons a multitude of strangers have at all times been induced to make this valley the scene of their pleasurable travelling. The effect of this intercourse on the minds and manners of the inhabitants needs no explanation."

Professor Silliman, who made his trip to Quebec, coming home through this valley, in 1819, says, " We found the inns, almost without exception, so comfortable, quiet, and agreeable, that we had neither desire nor inclination to find fault. Almost everywhere, when we wished it, we found a private parlor and a separate table ; and rarely did we hear any profane or coarse language, or observe any rude and boisterous deportment."

The era of river-men and stage-coaches was picturesque. The ancient mariners of the Connecticut had all the refinement of topography, of philosophy, and of profanity, which Mark Twain has ascribed to the pilots of the Mississippi. Prom Saybrook to the mouth of Wells River, Yt.. they wrestled with the shifty bottom and the numerous rapids of the Connecticut. Their picturesque designations of every mile of its length have mostly passed into oblivion, and it would be vain to attempt to reproduce the life which the Connecticut river-men led. The advent of steam-navigation gave a great impetus to their commerce, inspired the formation of rival lines, and gave a tremendous fever of activity to the little world of fifty years ago, which seemed to the people of those times just as big as ours does to us. Steamers were built in Springfield ; and competition for steamboat business became so hot between Springfield and Hartford, that passengers were carried either way for 12^ cents, and sent home in a carriage at their journey's end. The stage-coach, meantime, had reached a great development. Coaches ran between the same cities both ways each clay, and upon both sides of the river. The Albany coach-and-six came smoking in at high speed, blowing a warning blast upon the horn before it reached the Connecticut-river bridge; and similarly, from Massachusetts Bay, more than once a clay, great coaches rolled across the sandy plain at the eastward of the city, and halted their panting teams at the Rockingham House first, and then at Warriner's, or the other taverns. There were six lines and 18 coaches running between Boston and Albany at the close of the coaching-period. The freightingbusiness of those days, by heavy wagons, was immense ; and it has left a relic in Gunn's Block, at the corner of State and Walnut Streets, which was built in 1836 to accommodate a large West-India-goods business with towns east as far as Charlton. These goods came around from Boston by water, and were then distributed by teaming. The movement of freight between Springfield and Boston, when the Western Railroad was first discussed, was found to be 12,000 tons, moved by horse-power at a cost of $17.50 or $18 a ton; and it was calculated that the way-freight between Boston and Albany, by railroad, might reach 84,000 tons a year. The present rare of way-freight between the same points, by rail, is from $2.80 per ton upward.

The railroads reached Springfield, or started from there, in speedy succession, from 1839 to 1S45, largely by Springfield capital, and under the control of men like Justice Willard, George Bliss, Chester W. Chapin. and their associates. Springfield had received a considerable impetus to its growth from the development of manufacturing at Chicopee, from 1830 to 1840, increasing from 6,784 to 10,985 inhabitants. Now it received a new impetus from the railroads; and although Chicopee was set off in 1848, the census of 1850 gave Springfield 11,766, and Chicopee 8,291 inhabitants. The railroads have been of a certain value in the development of the city; but it had a substantial start before they came, owing to its natural advantage of situation upon the Connecticut, as a north-and-south line at the point most favorable for the intersection of a great east-and-west line. It was a town of 10,000 inhabitants before it was entered by the locomotive; because it was the natural commercial centre of a rich valley, and commanded the most practicable route over the mountains to Albany and the Great West.

The railroad-routes converging at Springfield were built amid great discouragements, through a wild and rugged country, and at a time when the prostration preceding and following the financial panic of 1837 made it difficult to raise the necessary capital. William Savage, one of the committee of forty-six appointed by the Western corporation, endeavored to give the matter of construction a high religious aspect, by preparing a circular "directed to the ministers of the gospel," requesting them to preach to their people on the morality of railroads.

The Union Passenger Depot is on Main Street, at the corner of Railroad Street. It is a huge brick-and-iron structure, with its elliptical roof trussed and braced with iron. The depot is double in its arrangements, each side having all the appurtenances of a complete depot. The northern side, or right hand as you come from Boston, is used for the westward business of the Boston and Albany Railroad, and also by the Connecticut-river Railroad, the cars of which approach on the outside of the building, as well as by a side-track in the building; the southern side of the depot is used for the eastward business of the Boston and Albany Railroad, and also by the New- York, New-Haven, and Hartford Railroad, the cars of which enter the building by a side-track. The depot is about 401 feet in length, and 113 feet in width. It has two arcade extensions, each 225 feet long. The depot is lighted by electric lamps ; and on one side is a chronometer clock in connection with the Cambridge Observatory, as well as with the large and elegant granite building containing the offices of the Boston and Albany Railroad. A new union depot has been much talked of, and is evidently to be built within a few years.

The Boston and Albany Railroad, the main route traversing Springfield. is a noble monument to the foresight and enterprise of its citizens of half a century ago. In the happy and conservative old times of the Adams and Jefferson administration, Massachusetts found her only routes of internal transportation on the highways which wound through her picturesque valleys and glens, and across her highland passes. Stages lumbered away over the old Bay Road, between Springfield and Boston, at the rate of ioo miles in iS hours; and baggage-wagons made the trip of ioo miles and return in a leisurely two weeks.

When Gen. Henry Knox was Secretary of War, he caused surveys to be made for a route for a canal from Boston to the Connecticut Valley, and westward ; and New-England capitalists laid plans for a canal from Boston to Worcester, and thence to the valley, and onward to the Hudson. This was in I 791 ; but "the proprietors of the Massachusetts Canal," incorporated by the Legislature, were content with filing away their maps and estimates. In 1825 Gov. Eustis appointed commissioners to locate a canal-route from Boston to Albany. It was estimated to cost (with a tunnel through Hoosac Mountain) $6,024,072.

But the construction and profitable operation of railways and steamcarriages in England had been carefully watched by the men of New England, and the newspapers began to advocate similar public works here. In 1827 a commission established by the Legislature made surveys for a railroad route from Boston to the Hudson River, near Albany; and two years later the board recommended that this line should be built bv the State, with a horse-path between the rails, and paths for the attendant railroad-men alongside. The flat iron rails were to be laid on granite slabs. In 1831 the Boston and Worcester Railroad Company was organized, with 10,000 shares of Si 00 each, by business-men who saw the need of such a route to the Hudson Valley; the subscribers reserving the right to withdraw if the more definite surveys and estimates should be unsatisfactory in their results. The engineers of that clay planned the construction of a gravity road, where the cars should be hauled over the upward grades bv means of stationarv engines. In a pamphlet published about fifty years ago, they demonstrated that the power for these upward hauls could be procured by hydraulic machinery, moved by the clear and abundant waters of the .Massachusetts lull-streams.

In 1827 Joseph T. Buckingham wrote, in " The Boston Courier," that the scheme of a railroad from Boston to Albany was "a project which every one knows, who knows the simplest rule in arithmetic, to be impracticable but at an expense little less than the market value of the whole territory of Massachusetts; and which, if practicable, every person of common sense knows would be as useless as a railroad from Boston to the moon." Capt. Marryatt, the celebrated English novelist, while riding by stage through Western Massachusetts, denounced "certain crazy spirits who have conceived the idea of building a railroad through this savage region.*' they ran into Worcester. The directors reported that a '"locomotive-en-int has been run three times daily, to Newton and back, with from two to eight passengers to a trip." The first engine was the '"Meteor," imported from England for the Lowell Railroad, which, not being then in running-order, sold it to the Worcester line for $4,500. It was soon followed by the Massachusetts-built engines, " Yankee," " Comet," and " Rocket," and by two or three dozen cars, named for the counties in the State, and accommodating 24 persons each, who paid their fares to the "train-master." This official (the '-conductor" of later days) carried a whip to keep the boys off the cars. The Western Railroad was incorporated in 1833. Its first grading was begun in the town of Charlton, in the winter of 1836-37; and in October, 1839, the entire line from Worcester to Springfield was opened for travel. Soon afterward the Western was continued to the State line, where it met the Hudson and Berkshire Railroad, which had been built in 1837-38, and the Albany and West-Stockbridge Railroad, built in 1840. Among the chief promoters of this system of routes were Messrs. P. P. F. Degrand, N. Appleton. David Henshaw, T. B. Wales, Josiah Ouincy, jun., and E. H. Derby, of Boston ; Harmanus Bleecker of Albany ; Charles Allen, Emory Washburn, and William Lincoln, of Worcester; George Bliss, Justice Willard, William B. Calhoun, and Charles Stearns, of Springfield.

In 1854 the company bought for $273,131.78 the road, franchises, and property of the Hudson and Berkshire line, from Hudson to Chatham Four Corners and the State line. The means for this purchase, and for new equipments, came from a loan of ,£100,000, negotiated in London. In 1857 the cost of moving each passenger one mile was 1.171 cents, and each ton of freight 2.342 cents. In 1858 began the laying-down of a second track, which was completed throughout the entire route about five years later.

The chief source of trouble with the lines between Boston and Worcester, and Worcester and Springfield, was in the division of receipts from through passengers and freight. The earlv railroad-laws of the State contemplated the use of horse-power only, and provided that the lines should be used by the public with their own conveyances, on payment of toll at established toll-gates. This primitive principle worked badly with swift locomotives, and various compromises were attempted by the Worcester and Western lines. Contested depot expenses, equated distances, decisions of referees, appeals to the Legislature, followed in dire succession. In 1S45 the Springfield road endeavored to unite with the Worcester, but was re- pulsed. In 1862 the matter was referred for arbitration to a committee of the Boston Board of Trade, which strongly recommended a consolidation. The Western road was not averse to such an arrangement ; but many influential men of Worcester fought sturdily and successfully against it, maintaining that such a union would take away from their city her eligible position as a railroad-terminus, and leave her a mere way-station on a grand through route.

At last, however, the Western company, in effect, compelled the Worcester line to unite with it. by securing the passage of an act of the Legislature enabling them to survey and construct a parallel route to Boston, unless the same end could be achieved by the union of the existing road with their own.

In the year 1867, therefore, occurred the consolidation of the Boston and Worcester and Western Railroads, and their leased lines and branches; forming a noble avenue of travel from the Hudson River, through the hillcountry of Berkshire, and across the Connecticut Valley to Boston.

The Hon. Chester W. Chapin, who had for many years owned the great stage-lines centring at Springfield, and run a steamboat on the Connecticut River between Springfield and Hartford, was the most prominent leader in all enterprises connected with the development of the interior counties. Holding the presidency of the Western Railroad from 1854 to 1S68, he assumed the control of the united line at the time of the consolidation, and directed it, with great sagacity and enterprise, for eleven years. The management of this great route has had its centre in Springfield, to which belong the present president, William Bliss, and vice-president James A. Rumrill (both of these gentlemen married daughters of the Hon. Chester W. Chapin I, besides assistant general-superintendent Edward Gallup, general ticket-agent Joseph M. Griggs, chief engineer William H. Russell, paymaster Albert Holt, auditor Myron E. Barber, cashier Andrew S. Bryant, and Arthur B. Underhill, superintendent of the motive power. C. O. Russell, for so many years the general superintendent of the line, also has his home at Springfield. Under a recent re-arrangement of the departments of the company, president William Bliss and general-superintendent Walter II. Barnes have their offices in Boston. There, also, is the post of division-superintendent Harry B. Chesley; while division-superintendent Charles E. Grover is stationed at Springfield, and division-superintendent William H. Russell, jun., is at Albany.

In 1836 the company built a terminal station on Beach Street, Boston, which was burned out in 1865, but rebuilt and occupied until 1S81, when the present magnificent station on Kneeland Street was finished and occupied.

The station of the Boston and Albany Railroad at Springfield is an ancient structure, hardly adequate to its uses. Seven or eight years ago the company made extensive preparations for the construction of a new and elegant station on the other side of Main Street, with such alterations in the grades of the street and the tracks, that the latter should be carried over the carriage-way, thus obviating the present inconvenient and dangerous crossing of Main Street at grade. But the project was defeated, before the board of railroad-commissioners, by the active opposition of some citizens of Springfield, and the lukewarmness of the other contributing railroads. It is but a question of time, however, when, with proper co-operation, the Boston and Albany Railroad shall provide for Springfield a commodious and worthy station-building.

The Springfield, Athol, and North-eastern Railroad, 30 miles long, was built through the agency of the Hon. Willis Phelps of Springfield, the city contributing $300,000 towards its construction, and taking stock therefor. In 1880 the line passed, under foreclosure, into the possession of the Boston and Albany Company, for the consideration of #438,000, or about the price of the bonds, the original shareholders losing all their investments. The purchase was made through the agency of the Hon. Chester W. Chapin. who sought by this acquisition to secure new connections for the Albany road, and to insure to Springfield the beneficial operation of a route for whose construction she had paid out so much.

Boston And Albany Railroad Co.S Offices

The importance of Boston, as one of the great American seaports of modern times, is largely clue to Springfield energy and tact, moving at a time when the freighting-business of the Bay town had fallen off so greatly that the Cunard Line found itself obliged to cease running steamships there. As soon as the Boston and Albany Railroad had acquired the Grand Junction Railroad (nine miles long, from Cottage Farm on the main line to the wharves at East Boston), the Hon. Chester W. Chapin had an interview with Sir Samuel Cunard, and requested him to renew the steamship service to Boston. Cunard objected, that he could find no freight there: and Chapin thereupon guaranteed to load one of his vessels if she were sent to Boston. Unable to secure co-operation from merchants or shippers, Mr. Chapin and Commodore Vanderbilt went West, and obtained grain enough for a full cargo, which they brought through over the New-York Central and Boston and Albany lines, and successfully placed upon the Cunard boat at East Boston. Having shown the high feasibility of transporting goods between the Far West and Europe by way of his road and its eastern port, Mr. Chapin withdrew, leaving others to follow in the route where he had been the pioneer, until the annual clearances of ocean-steamships from Boston for the European ports averaged one for each secular day.

The Boston and Albany Railroad now has 244 locomotives (193 of which were built in its own shops), 219 passenger-cars, 5,396 freight-cars, and 700 other cars. Upwards of 5,000 persons are in the employ of the company. In 18S3 it carried 8,079,072 passengers. In 18S1 its charges were at an average rate of fare of 1.98 cents each per mile, or 2.13 cents for local passengers, 1.95 cents for through passengers, and .83 cent for season-ticket holders. It also transported, in 1883, 3,41 1,324 tons of freight, at an average rate for local freight of about 1.60 cents a ton each mile, and .79 cent for through freight. The total number of miles run by its locomotives amounted to 5,651,302 in the year 1883 alone. The net earnings from passengers and freight in 1883 were $2,380,971.81.

King 'S Handbook Of Springfield

The precision and foresight with which the affairs of the line have always been managed have given it a singular immunity from accidents. During the first 32 years of its career, not ten passengers were killed in its cars, out of over 32,000,000 who had been transported. In 1S40 the directors reported, with great astonishment, " the accidental and unexpected meeting of two trains of cars, carrying passengers, upon the same track.'' And the subsequent double-tracking of the road rendered such surprises still less likely.

The Boston and Albany Company is thus highly commended in the Massachusetts Railroad Commissioners' Report fur 1882: " Having adopted a comprehensive policy for the renewal of the track of the main line, so as to raise the track construction from its present high standard to one still more perfect, the management of this road has now commenced a thorough improvement of the track construction of all its branches. In the main line it is proposed to have all the ties of uniform length and width, and steel rails weighing 72 pounds per yard, and to make the track, by careful construction and supervision, the very best of its kind. The management has also commenced a thorough improvement of the motive power of the read. The same improvement is noticeable in passenger-cars. . . . The stations of the road maintain their high standard. The management appears anxious to further the interests of the travelling public, by such improvements in and about the stations as experience indicates from time to time."'

As it is now constituted, the Boston and Albany Railroad is one of the most important routes in America, joined on the west to the great lines which run to the Lake States and Canada; and on the east, delivering its freight at the magnificent Grand Junction wharves in East Boston, with elevators, warehouses, emigrant sheds, and docks in which the largest oceansteamships load and unload. As Miss Sedgwick said, many years ago. it is --a road far superior to the Appian Way." Aside from its national importance as a great factor in the east-and-west route from the grain-bearing prairies to the seaboard, this line has a peculiar interest from its connection with some of the most delightfully picturesque regions in America, bringing tourists to the lovelv meadow and mountain towns, and quaint old historic villages of the Connecticut Valley, and to that glorious Berkshire region of which Beecher says, '-From Salisbury to YVilliamstown, and then to Bennington in Vermont, there stretches a country of valleys, lakes, and mountains, that is yet to be as celebrated as the lake-district of England, or the hill-country of Palestine." Or, as another eloquent writer has said, " berkshire is a region of hill and valley, mountain and lake, beautiful rivers and laughing brooks, - the very Piedmont of America.'' All this great park of the hills, together with the thronged towns of Central Massachusetts, are made tributary to Springfield by the admirable route which her citizens have been so enterprising in founding, and so sagacious in conducting.

The New- York, New-Haven, and Hartford Railroad is one of the most important lines running to and from Springfield. By shrewd and careful management, the company have prospered almost from the first day of their organization, so that to-day their passenger and freight departments rank with those of the larger roads of the country. The terminus of the road is at Springfield ; but, by connecting with the Boston and Albany Railroad, a through line is established between New York and Boston, without change of cars. In October, 1883, arrangements were made with the Connecticutriver Railroad, whereby drawing-room cars were run from New York to Montreal. Travel over this line is very heavy, especially during the summer months. The New- York, New-Haven, and Hartford Company have a capital stock of $15,500,000, with 123 miles of double track, from Williams Bridge, N.Y., to Springfield. By an agreement dated March 17, 1848, the company have used the New-York and Harlem tracks from Williams Bridge into the city of New York, paying a toll therefor. The company also have in Connecticut a three-mile branch running from Berlin to New Britain, a ten-mile branch from Berlin to Middletown, and a 3^-mile branch from Windsor Locks to Suffield. All these branches connect with the main line. In addition to these, they have a perpetual lease of the Shore-line road from New Haven to New London, a distance of 50 miles; one of the Harlem-river and Port-Chester railroad, double track, from Harlem River to New Rochelle ; and also a lease of the Boston and New-York Air-line Railroad, from New Haven to Willimantic, Conn. The majority of the officers, directors, and stockholders of the road have been, and still are, citizens of New-York State and Connecticut; but a local interest has always centred in the road, from the fact that Chester W. Chapin of this city was a prime mover in its organization. There was no one who did more toward extending the through line of railroad to New York, and no one who was better qualified to promote its interests. First interested in the stage-coach lines running from Brattlebororough, Yt., to Hartford, Conn. ; and, later, a controller, and afterward owner, of the steamboat-lines from this city down the river, - Mr. Chapin became thoroughly identified with local travel. The foundation of this road was largely due to him ; and upon its completion he became a director in the corporation, a position which he held up to the time of his death, in 1883. The New-York, New-Haven, and Hartford Railroad Company was formed by the consolidation, July 24, 1S72, of the New- York and New-Haven and the Hartford and New-Haven railroad companies. The New-Haven Railroad was chartered in Connecticut in May, 1844, and in New York in January, 1846; and the road was opened in January, 1849. The Hartford and New-Haven Railroad Company was chartered in Connecticut in May, 1833, and was opened in 1S39. The Massachusetts portion of the road was built under the charter of the Hartford and Springfield Railroad Company, April 5, 1839, but was not completed until December, 1S44. The several branches of the road were built at different times, under separate charters.

The Connecticut-river Railroad Company is a consolidation of the Northampton and Springfield Railroad Corporation and the Greenfield and Northampton Railroad Company, which were united on equal terms, in July, 1845, according to the provisions of the Act to incorporate the Greenfield and Northampton Railroad Company, passed Jan. 25, 1845.

An Act to establish the Northampton and Springfield Railroad Corporation was approved March 1, 1842, and made John Clarke, Samuel L. Hinckley, Stephen Brewer, Jonathan H. Butler, Winthrop Hillyer (all citizens of Northampton), their associates and successors, a corporation, with power to locate and construct a railroad from a point in Northampton, commencing within one mile of the court-house, crossing the Connecticut River near Mount Holyoke, and passing down the valley of said river, on the east side thereof, through a portion of Hadley, South Hadley, and Springfield, to meet the track of the Hartford and Springfield Railroad Corporation at Cabotville in said Springfield, or diverging from said line at or near Stony Brook, in South Hadley, and passing over the plain, and crossing the Chicopee River near the falls, uniting with the Western Railroad, easterly of the depot in Springfield. By an Act passed March 21, 1S45, the corporation was authorized to change its location, thus: "Commencing at a point in Northampton defined in the Act to whicli this is in addition, passing down on the west side of the Connecticut River, and near the same, through a part of Hadlev, Easthampton, Northampton, South Farms (so called), and West Springfield, and crossing said river at or near the village of Willimansett, in the town of Springfield, to a line designated in the Act to which this Act is in addition." The corporation was also authorized to construct a branch railroad from the main track of their road, in the village of Cabotville, passing up the south bank of Chicopee River, near the same, into Chicopee Falls village.

The Act incorporating the Greenfield and Northampton Railroad Companv was passed Jan. 25. 1S45, and names Henry W. Clapp, Ralph Williams. and Henry W. Cushman, as corporators, with their associates, successors, and assigns, who were authorized to locate and construct a railroad from some convenient point on the location of the Northampton and Springfield Railroad, at or near the terminus of said railroad in the town of Northampton, northward, across the canal of the New-Haven and Northampton Company in said Northampton, passing near the bend in the Connecticut

River; thence through the westerly part of the town of Hatfield, and the easterly part of the town of Whately, near the villages of South Deerfield and Deerfield, crossing Deerfield River at Cheapside in said Deerfield, and terminating at some convenient point in or near the village of Greenfield aforesaid.

An Act was passed April 16, 1846, authorizing the Connecticut-river Railroad Company to extend their road from Greenfield to any point on the north line of the State, west of the Connecticut River, in either of the towns of Bernardston or Northfield. On the 28th day of February, 1845. the road was opened for the transit of passengers and freight to Cabotville (now Chicopee), a distance of about four miles.

Dec. 13, 1845, the road was completed and opened for business to Northampton, and three trips per day were made each way over the road. The road was extended and opened for use to South Deerfield, 1 1 miles above Northampton, on the 17th day of August, 1846; and to Greenfield, on the 23d day of November, 1846.

On the first day of January, 1849, the road was completed to the south line of the State of Vermont, thus adding 14 miles to the length of the main road, which, with the branch of two miles to Chicopee Falls, made the entire length 52 miles. Since that time a branch from Mount Tom to Easthampton, 3^ miles, has been added, making the total road belonging to the company 55.85 miles, while it controls and operates 129.85 miles.

In 1866 a second track was completed from Springfield to Chicopee, 3^ miles. In 1873 the second track was extended to Holyoke, and brought into use in August of that year; and in August, 1874, a further extension of 8£ miles of second track to Northampton was completed and opened for use.

In 1S83 the company began the work of building a second track from Northampton to Greenfield. A section of this last extension was finished and opened for business between North Hatfield and Deerfield, on the third day of December, 1883.

It is said, that, when the people were contemplating the building of the railroad from Northampton to Springfield, they estimated that the passenger traffic would be double the amount of that of the two stage-lines then running between the two places. Now, for the year ending Sept. 30, 1883. the Connecticut-river Railroad carried 1,484,155 passengers, and 632,865 tons of freight. The total traffic earnings for the same period were $870,038.14. The road pays 8 per cent dividends. The capital stock paid in, $2,370,000; surplus, $919,039.91.

Thus it is seen that the results of the building and operating of this railroad - the success of which its projectors and many other persons along its line viewed as doubtful - have been a great increase in productive in- dustries, and an astonishing growth in the population and wealth of the whole valley through which the road runs. Within a year after the road was opened to Northampton, preparations were made for the founding of a lar"-e manufacturing town at Hadley Falls, on the line of the road; and from these beginnings has sprung the important and prosperous city of Holyoke, now numbering about 25,000 inhabitants.

The road was practically at first an institution of Northampton, where the main offices and workshops were located: but, after a while, it passed chiefly into the hands of people of Springfield, where the headquarters now are, in the building on the east corner of Main Street and Commercial Row. almost opposite the Union Passenger-Depot. Here, too, are the shops, just north of the freight-house, - which is itself on the river-bank north of the Union Passenger-Depot. The connections of the road are important, and lead in all directions. The first president was Erastus Hopkins, who also served again after the retirement of President Clapp; the others being successively Chester W. Chapin, Henry W. Clapp, and Daniel L. Harris, who remained until his death, which occurred in 1S79. For a short interregnum. Mr. Chapin acted as president, until N. A. Leonard, for a long time the company's legal adviser, was chosen in 1880, and who is now in office. The superintendent is J. Mulligan. The treasurer for the past 25 years has been Seth Hunt, who has been the clerk of the corporation for 21 years, and whose connection with the company began 38 years ago. He has been longer in the service of the company than any person now living. His predecessor was the late Samuel F. Lyman of Northampton, who was the first clerk and treasurer, and who served until 1S58. He was the register of probate for Hampshire County for 30 years ; and, after retiring from the treasury of the Connecticut-river Railroad Company, he became the judge of probate.

The Springfield and New- London Railroad was begun and finished in 1875. The records of the road show that a meeting was held July 24, 1S74, when Willis Phelps was chosen president, and William Mattoon clerk. It was voted to issue 2,000 shares of stock at $100 each. Of these, 1,500 shares were taken by the city, and the rest divided among 70 stockholders. At the next meeting, July 14, 1S74, Charles Marsh was chosen treasurer; and in the next November, T. M. Dewey was made clerk in place of William Mattoon. Jan. 27, 1875, a memorable annual meeting of the officers, directors, and stockholders of the road was held ; Daniel L. Harris appearing in behalf of the city, and Willis Phelps for the directors. The meeting was a stormy one, and resulted in an entire change of directors and officers. The following board of officers was chosen, April 9, 1875: President, Guidon Bill; vice-president, Lewis J. Powers: clerk, Daniel L. Harris; treasurer, James Kirkham. The contract to construct the road was given to Birnie

& Warren, $100,000 having been paid to them for grading. The entire cost of the road was about $200,000. The road is about eight miles long, and extends from the Union Depot to the Connecticut State line. One mile and a quarter of the new road was leased from the Athol road. In 1875 the Springfield and New-London road was leased by, and run in conjunction with, the Connecticut-valley Railroad ; and in 1SS0, the New-York and New- England leased it for a term of five years, paying $5,500 per year. At this time the New-York and New-England road leased the Connecticut Central road for 15 years, thus making a direct line from Springfield to Hartford. In 1881 or 1882, Charles O. Chapin succeeded Gurdon Bill as president, and Chauncey L. Covell succeeded Lewis J. Powers as vice-president. That portion of the line lying between the junction with what was formerly known as the Athol Railroad, and the Connecticut State line in Longmeadow, is owned and controlled by the Springfield and New-London Company, of which the following are the officers : President, Chauncy L. Covell ; vice-president, William Birnie ; clerk, T. M. Dewey ; treasurer, James Kirkham. In August, 1883, the New- York and New-England road rented ground from the Boston and Albany Railroad Company, and built a passenger-station at the corner of Spring and Lyman Streets. The station up to this time had been in the Athol Depot building, opposite the Union Depot. The division now has two passenger-trains running daily to Hartford and Rockville, Conn. ; but the freight business is the chief revenue of the division.

The Taverns Of Old, And The Hotels And Restaurants

SPRINGFIELD has always been famous for its hospitality, not only in the homes of which it is justly proud, but in the many houses of public entertainment which have flourished at this centre of travel. Before the time when the question of fame or of history trembled in the balance, - before the hamlet's future was established against the Indian's efforts to blot out even the brief note of a settlement, - there was need of a public house; for the village was at the outset the county-seat, and the county court must have entertainment. For this reason, the court in 1665 licensed Nathaniel Ely to keep an "ordinary." Ely had appeared in the village six years previous, and was not one of the original settlers. The license provided for the keeping of a " house for common entertaynment, also for selling wines and strong liquors for the year ensuing, provided he keepe good rule and order in his house." He was further released from " Trayning in ye Towne soe long as he continues to keepe ye ordinary." This license was renewed, year by year, till his death in 1675. He must have been no ordinary man in the community, for tavern-keeping was no sinecure. He was twice before the court for violation of his duty: in 1667 he sold four quarts of cider to an Indian, and was fined £\6\ in 1674 the court then sitting in his house found fault with his beer, claiming that it was not up to the legal standard, - "four bushels good barley-malt to ye hhd.," - and accordingly fined him 40 shillings. His house stood just south of the present Belmont Hotel, and is still standing, at the corner of Dwight and Sanford Streets, having been moved there 40 years ago.

For a century after the death of this pioneer in tavern-keeping, the court records are sprinkled with licenses to numerous persons ; but none made the business successful enough to leave any noteworthy record. By the close of the Revolutionary War, powdered wigs and small-clothes were passing out of use ; and the town, although small, was putting on a recognizable aspect. Alain Street was less of a cart-path than formerly, and communication with Boston had made the Bay Path something more definite than an Indian trail. Yet all the houses in the town were confined to three streets, - Main Street, State Street, and "the road to Charles Brewer's." The present site of Court Square was always the centre of attraction ; for here were the church, the court-house, the whipping-post, and most of the trading-shops. No wonder that here, too, was one of the most famous taverns of the day. It stood 18 feet north of the great elm now standing on Court Square, - a huge, rambling, unpainted building, with a lofty wing, which, when afterward detached, was called the "light-house." Here the famous Zenas Parsons held sway a hundred years ago, and many an anecdote remains of those days of flip-irons and toddy. Gen. Washington tarried here over night, while on his New-England inspecting tour. But Parsons retired with the century in which he was born : and the dignified, slow Eleazer Williams succeeded him. When James Monroe paid Springfield a visit, early in his presidency, he found John Bennett in charge. Soon afterward the property was sold to Erastus Chapin : and in 1819 he sold the place to a company of public-spirited townspeople, who forthwith bought the adjoining homestead and opened Court Square. In its last days the tavern is remembered as the humble lodging-place of two boys, who slept together on the attic floor, and were up early in the morning to drive ox-carts from the middle landing, and deliver the river merchandise to the various stores. Their names were Chester W. Chapin and Willis Phelps. The main part of the old tavern was moved back toward the river at the foot of the then new thoroughfare, Court Street, where it now stands, still guiltless of paint and in its simple colonial architecture.1

A few rods north of the Parsons tavern, stood the public-house of Moses Church, the postmaster. Walking up the village street, the stranger in town would find a hearty welcome from Lieut. John Worthington. His estate ran back to the river, and included Bridge and Worthington Streets. Lieut. John died in 1774; and his son, "Hon. John," a Yale graduate. was too proud to mix toddy. But some time after his death in 1800. the house reverted to its former use : being kept during the War of 181 2-1 5 by Elijah Goodrich, the founder of Springfield's fame in horse-trotting. Charles Stearns, the pioneer real-estate speculator of the town, got possession of the building about the time the Boston and Albany Railroad opened, after it had been used as a dwelling-house about 20 years, and moved it back to Water Street. As western travel was opened, early in the present centuryseveral small taverns were opened on Ferry Lane, the northern of the three approaches to the river from Main Street. Still farther north, opposite the buildings of the Street-railway Company, stood the house of Major Joseph Stebbins, who died in 1819. The Major was said to be in league with Capt. Joseph Carew, who operated a tannery on the other side of the street, along the town brook. When the Captain's customers came to buy leather, he would invariably tell them that he had none "ready;" advising them to stay over night at the Major's, and get the leather in the morning. So, while the Major's pocket was being enriched to the extent of four-andsixpence, the Captain dipped his hides in the brook, and in the morning weighed them out, dampness included. The Major's name will not be lost to sight as long as his elms, now a century old, remain in sentinel row in the centre of North Main Street. The tavern has since been occupied by Thomas Bond and Horatio Sargeant.

Retracing his steps, the ideal tourist finds a tavern on the south-westerlv corner of State and Main Streets, although there was no such "corner" a hundred years ago. This was known as the Bates Tavern. It does not appear who built it; but it was kept by Elijah Goodrich from 1815 to 1820. and then by Thomas Bates, whose daughter Phoebe married Jeremy Warriner. This famous couple (Uncle Jerry and Aunt Phoebe, as the older generation now living knew them) made their reputation in the Bates Tavern: and it was indeed enviable, not only locally, - although their suppers were a matter of jealousy to housewives and a marvel to husbands, while Uncle Jerry's bar-room was the rendezvous of all the wild and reckless youngsters of the day, - but not triflingly cosmopolitan: for travellers from across the Atlantic have been known to take stage, immediately upon their arrival in

Boston, for this famous Springfield resort. Uncle Jerry outgrew the Bates Tavern, and his fate is seen farther on. The old building still stands, on the southerly side of State Street, a few rods west of its earlier location. It has been known, late years, as the Springfield House, and became quite famous in connection with a beer-garden when run by August Sheppert, who died recently in Germany. South of the Bates Tavern stood the " Old Gaol," - the second which the village had, - built in 1677, and used for 114 years. The building was mostly upon the site of the present Belmont Hotel; but the jailer's house, adjoining it on the north, projected into what is now Bliss Street. This house is known as the " Old Gaol Tavern ; " as the jailer has always, until recently, kept open house for the court and bench. This tavern naturally succeeded to the patronage previously accorded the Ely '' Ordinary ; " but the jailers took greater pains to please the court than did the persecuted Nathaniel, for they were never brought to account for the quality of their beer. When the county sold the property in 1794, it was taken by the last jailer, William Colton, who continued to keep open house (although not for criminals) until 1810. The property came into the possession of the late Elam Stockbridge, who occupied it for some time. Not long after the opening of Bliss Street, it disappeared.

Capt. Charles Colton is supposed to have '-kept tavern" as early as 1774,. on the "old Dwight homestead," at the southerly corner of State and Maple Streets. But the establishing of the Armory was the first impetus to the development of the forest tract on the plateau east of the " marish ; " and when, about the same time, Capt. Levi Pease, who started his Boston and Hartford stage-line, Oct. 20, 1783, secured the first charter for a turnpike granted in the State, and began to improve the highway between Springfield and Palmer, tavern-keeping became a business on the hill. Curiously enough, the oldest of these inns sprang up five miles east of the centre of the town, and was known as the Five-mile House. When Rev. Bezaleel Howard came from Cambridge on horseback, in 17S4, for a six-monthsT trial as pastor of the First Church, he stopped over night at this house. When it gave up its fame as a caravansary, it continued for years to be the favorite, as it was for a time the only, suburban resort for sleighing-parties. In this connection, the names of Willys Russel and Orrin Dimmock commend themselves to many persons now living. In the days when the freight conveyance between the river and Boston was by team, the goods from the river-boats would be loaded at the wharf, and drawn to the top of the hill; and there the teamsters delighted to stay over night, so as to get a fresh start early in the morning. Of these taverns patronized chiefly by teaming people, the first was kept by Elisha Tileston, at the corner of State and Walnut Streets. It was also a loafing-place for the Armorers; and for this reason, as well as for its nearness to the government shops, it was called the

Armory House. In 1825 it was taken by Stephen O. Russell, who ran it a half-dozen years, and turned it over to Henry Stocking. It soon passed into the hands of Henry Adams and Solyman Merrick, and ultimately came into the possession of Aaron Nason, whose son-in-law, S. W. Sexton, now runs it under the name of the Rockingham House, by which it has been known for 20 years. It ceased to be a stopping-place for transient guests some time ago, but is still a pleasant home for some residents who do not care to keep house. In 1S32 N. B. Moseley, now of Philadelphia, moved his fathers inn from the Boston Road, a quarter of a mile west of the Carlisle Brook, to its present location, just east of the Rockingham House, and used it as the terminus of his two stage-lines, - the Springfield and Lowell, and the Springfield and Norwich. He called it " The Eagle,'' and, after keeping it two years, sold it to S. O. Russell. In two years more, when the railroad supplanted the stages, it became a boarding-house. Off toward Cabotville, on what is now called Armory Street, Japhet and Austin Chapin successively kept a tavern, which was mostly patronized by toddy-loving Armorers, so that the way thither was nicknamed " Toddy Road." About the same time (1S30-40) Ezra Kimberly kept a guast-tevern, maintained mostly by regular boarders, at the Water Shop. The jailer's house connected with the present county jail, midway down State Street, was until half a century ago used as a tavern, like the " Old Gaol Tavern " on Main Street ; among the better-known keepers being Harvey Chapin and Col. Ebenezer Russell.