Springfield City (part 1 of 8)

Boston

TN making this " Handbook of Springfield," the aim has been to make a readable and trustworthy description of the city as it now is. The volume contains nearly four hundred octavo pages, with almost two hundred illustrations, nearly all of which were made expressly for this volume. At the end are full indexes comprising nineteen pages, with more than twentyseven hundred references, so that any part of the contents can be referred to instantly. The views are intended to show some of the historic, unique, and prominent features of the city. The portraits will bring to mind the faces of men who have been prominent in civil government, who have gained places in the local literary annals, or have been active in those enterprises which have brought wealth and fame to the city. No attempt has been made to furnish an elaborate history of Springfield ; yet for all practical purposes, the book contains as much history as the ordinary citizen cares to know or could well remember. It is believed that this book is the most pretentious one as yet issued of its kind, for any city of the size of Springfield, in this country. The original design was a much smaller volume ; but after the work was begun, so much interesting matter was found for the reader, and so many enthusiastic and patriotic citizens were met, that the book was materially enlarged, and many illustrations were added. It is hoped that it now will be acceptable, not only to the former and present residents, but also to those who may have occasion only to visit the city.

It will be apparent that much valuable aid has been rendered by many well-informed citizens, most of whom are credited at the end of their respective chapters. Many persons not having furnished whole chapters ought to be mentioned here, in brief acknowledgment of their services : among them, the Rev. Dr. William Rice, the venerable city librarian; J. Newton Bagg of West Springfield ; Thomas At. Dewey, late secretary of the Business-

Men's Association ; and Oscar B. Ireland, the scholarly actuary of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company. Albert H. Hardy, a newspaper writer, has rendered some good help, especially in the business chapter. Among those who have furnished valuable material besides the chapters to which their names are attached, are, Henry Morris, Solomon B. Griffin, Wilmot L. Warren, Charles H. Barrows, Charles G. Whiting, and Albert H. Kirkham. It may also be said, that nearly two thousand pieces of proof have been sent out in the mails for corrections, and hundreds of persons have kindly returned their pieces with useful comments. For photographs from which pictures have been made, we are indebted to Chauncy L. Moore and E. J. Lazelle. Several illustrations were furnished through the courtesy of the Springfield Printing Company.

Owing to circumstances over which there was no control, the book appears several months later than was expected. Every thing, as far as possible, has been corrected to Jan. I, 1884; but no changes that have taken place since then, with rare exceptions, have been made, and these exceptions are almost wholly in the business chapter, which, as far as possible, has been corrected up to the time of going to press.

In preparing a volume of this size and in this style, for a city like Springfield, it becomes necessary to sell many thousand copies in order to realize a profit on the undertaking; and the publisher feels confident he will receive a generous patronage from the hundreds of earnest, thrifty, and devoted citizens of the prosperous and delightful city described in the following

Moses King Postscript

Just as the book is finished, I find myself so overburdened with work that I have disposed of all my interest in it to James D. Gill, one of the most enterprising business men of the city, whose art and literary establishment is unequalled in any other city of the size of Springfield. I trust he will receive the full reward that the book, as well as his own industry and capacity, deserves. M. K.

Contents

An elaborate detailed index to the text, and a complete list of the illustrations, will be found at the close of the volume, from pages 375 to 394.

Public Buildings and Government Charles Henry Barrows. VIII. m Public Buildings, Fire, Water, Sewer, Police, Judicial, Post-office, and Other Departments.

Literature and Science . . William Steele Shurtleff. Literati and Scientists, Libraries, and Reading-rooms; Literary, Historical, and Scientific Organizations.

Newspapers and Periodicals . Solomon Bulkley Griffin. Early Journalism. - " The Republican." - " The Union." - " The News." - " The Democrat." - Later Periodicals.

The Bibliography of Springfield . . William Clogston. Printed Matter relating to Springfield in general, and to its Institutions and Citizens.

THE scenery of Springfield and its vicinity has long been regarded as beautiful. A few years ago a native of Springfield, during a visit in Scotland, spoke enthusiastically to his Scottish host, of a particular view, as the finest he had ever seen. The host, who at the - time was not aware that his guest resided in

Springfield, replied that it was the finest he himself had ever seen, excepting one from the tower of the United-States Arsenal, on the Connecticut River. Only five years after the settlement of Boston, in the year 1635, many of the inhabitants of the towns about Boston, attracted by the glowing descriptions given them by Indians of the fertility of the valley of the Connecticut, were desirous to remove to the banks of this river: considerable parties removed from Dorchester, Cambridge, and Watertown, and settled in Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield. On the 6th of May, 1635, the inhabitants of Roxbury had liberty granted them to remove themselves to any place they should think meet, not to prejudice another plantation, provided they should continue«under the government of Massachusetts. In accordance with this permission, William Pynchon, a patentee and magistrate under the colony charter, and others, came with their families from Roxbury, and located themselves, in the spring of 1636, at Springfield, then known by its Indian name of Agawam. There is little doubt that a small pioneer party of explorers was sent here by Pynchon in 1635, and built a house on the west side of the Connecticut, in the meadow. This site was abandoned on account of its exposure to freshets, and a new location selected on the east side of the river.

On the 14th of May, 1636, Mr. Pynchon, Henry Smith (Pynchon's son-inlaw), Matthew Mitchell, Jehu Burr, William Blake, Edmund Wood, Thomas Ufford, and John Cable signed a written agreement, containing numerous articles for the future government of the settlement.

The first article is in the following words : " Wee intend by Gods o-race, as soon as we can, with all convenient speede to procure some Godly and faithfull minister with whome we purpose to joyne in church covenant, to walk in all the ways of Christ."

The second article expressed their intention that the town should be composed of forty families, unless they should think meet afterwards to alter their purpose, yet not to exceed fifty families " rich and poore."

None of the signers of this agreement, except Pynchon and Smith, remained here long. Most of them left within three years. Other settlers came, and on the 16th of May twelve persons received allotments of land.

Soon after their arrival the settlers entered into negotiation with the Indians for the purchase of a site for the plantation. The land was valuable to the Indians mainly as affording a range for hunting and fishing, and the o-athering of nuts and wild fruits that grew spontaneously. In addition, they had small patches of cultivated ground, where they raised their corn. They were willing to sell to the planters the land they required, reserving to themselves only such uses of it as they were accustomed to enjoy.

Accordingly, by a deed executed with due formality on the 1 5th of July, i^e, - the purport of which was explained to them by an Indian interpreter from the Bay, - two of the "ancient Indians of Agawam," for themselves and eleven other Indians who claimed to be proprietors of the lands, conveyed to William Pynchon, Henry Smith, and Jehu Burr, their heirs and associates forever, a large tract of land on both sides of the river, including the greater part of the land now occupied by the city of Springfield. For this deed Pynchon and his associates paid a consideration which was satisfactory to the Indians, and of which they never complained.

The first settlers built their houses on the westerly side of the town street, which was about eighty rods easterly of the river, and substantially parallel with it.

William Pynchon

of the agreement, and four others who had joined them. As most of these twelve persons left the plantation soon, this allotment of lands was afterwards greatly altered by a new division, which was the basis of the permanent settlement. This new division assigned to each man a home-lot extending from the street to the river, with a portion of the meadow and upland of equal width on the easterly side of the street. In general these home-lots were eight rods wide. Pynchon and a few others had lots much wider. The town street of that day corresponded, substantially, with the present Main Street of the city, in its general course. Besides this principal street, there were three narrow lanes leading from it to the river. These, with greatly increased width, are now represented by Elm Street, York Street, and Cypress Street. The only road running easterly from the town street was in some part of its course the same as the present State Street.

In 1636 the Plantation of Agawam was supposed to be in the same jurisdiction with Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield; and the government of these four towns was administered by commissioners appointed by the General Court of Massachusetts. Pynchon and Smith were members of this commission, and Pynchon attended its session at Hartford. A more accurate survey of the division-line between Massachusetts and Connecticut established the fact, that Agawam fell within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, and left the settlers here temporarily without any magistrate, and at such a distance from the Bay as to be practically beyond the reach of the authorities located there.

In this exigency, the planters at Agawam met on the 14th of February, 1639, and voted that Mr. Pynchon should execute the office of a magistrate in the plantation, with all the powers necessary to administer justice, until the General Court should otherwise order. Under this authority Mr. Pynchon acted until June, 1641, when he was duly commissioned by the General Court with similar powers.

On the 14th of April, 1641, the name of the town was changed, by a vote of the inhabitants, from Agawam to Springfield. This is said to have been a compliment to Pynchon, whose residence in England had been a place of that name. The General Court recognized the town by the name of Springfield in 1641.

Rev. George Moxon had been settled as the minister in 1637. In 1639 a house was built for him upon a home-lot fourteen rods wide, which was granted him. He had at first a salary of forty pounds sterling, which was raised by an annual tax. In 1645 tne first meeting-house was erected. It stood near the south-easterly corner of Court Square, and extended into the present Elm Street, and fronted southerly.

Prior to 1647 the bounds of the town were quite indefinite. In 1638 old style (1639 as t'me 's now reckoned), a committee, appointed for the purpose, described the northern boundary as at a brook on the other side of the river, about a quarter of a mile above the mouth of Chicopee River. The brook at the lower end of the long meadow on the east side of the river, and the brook a little below on the west side, are mentioned as the southerly boundary. No east or west boundary is given.

In the year 1647 the General Court made very large additions to the territory of Springfield : so that it included Westfield, Suffield, a considerable part of Southwick, and the whole of West Springfield, Holyoke, and Agawam, on the west side of the river; and the present Springfield, Chicopee, Enfield, Somers, Wilbraham, Ludlow, Longmeadow, and Hampden, on the east side.

Over all this territory Massachusetts claimed and exercised jurisdiction until about the year 1748, when the towns of Enfield, Suffield, and Somers united with Connecticut. The limits of Springfield have been further greatly reduced, from time to time, by the incorporation of the other towns, named above, which remained in Massachusetts.

The growth of Springfield in population was not at first very rapid. Twelve settlers received allotments of land in May, 1636, two days after the agreement to establish the plantation was signed.

In 1642 there was a second division of planting-lands among the settlers then here. Seventeen persons received allotments under that division. In 1643 there were allotments to twenty-two.

In the year 1649 the subject of witchcraft attracted some attention in Springfield. One Mary Parsons, wife of Hugh Parsons, had circulated a report that a widow named Marshfield. who had removed from Windsor to Springfield, was guilty of witchcraft, - an offence then punishable with death. For this story the widow commenced an action before Mr. Pynchon against Mary Parsons; and the magistrate, finding her guilty of the slander, sentenced her to pay three pounds to the plaintiff, or else to be whipped twenty lashes by the constable.

Two years later, in May, 1651, Mary Parsons was herself charged with the crime of witchcraft. She was indicted for having " used divers devilish practices by witchcraft, to the hurt of Martha and Rebeckah Moxon," two daughters of the minister. For this offence she was tried at Boston before the General Court, but acquitted for want of satisfactory evidence. Upon the charge of murdering her own child, on which she was tried at the same time, she was convicted, and sentenced to death.

About this time (1651) Mr. Pynchon incurred the displeasure of the General Court on account of a theological book, published in England, which was alleged to contain heretical sentiments. The charge of heresy was a very serious one at that day; and when Pynchon admitted the authorship of the work, and after being admonished by the Court, and dealt with by leading divines of the colony, selected to convince him of his errors, failed to make a satisfactory recantation of them, he felt himself to be, and was, in no little peril. As the result of this difficulty, he left America, and returned to England, in 1652, where he died a few years afterwards. Henry Smith, his son-in-law, - although designated as his successor in the magistracy at Springfield, - and Mr. Moxon the minister, accompanied Pynchon to England. Neither of them ever returned to this country. Two members of Mr. Pynchon's family remained in Springfield, - his son John Pynchon, and his son-in-law Elizur Holyoke.

After the departure of Pynchon and Smith, Springfield was destitute of any local magistracy. To provide for this exigency, the General Court, in October, 1652, appointed three commissioners as magistrates, to govern the town. These were John Pynchon, Elizur Holyoke. and Samuel Chapin. These three men had jurisdiction for the trial of all causes, civil or criminal, except those criminal cases of so grave a character as were proper to be tried before the General Court at Boston.

In May, 1653, these three commissioners were appointed by the General Court a committee to lay out two new plantations at Nonotuck, or Norwottuck. They reported, in 1654, that they had laid out a plantation on the west side of the river, and reserved land on the east side for another when required. The first of these became the town of Northampton; the other, on the east side of the river, became the town of Hadley.

In 1662 Springfield, Northampton, and Hadley were made a county called Hampshire, of which Springfield was made the shire-town. The three commissioners were authorized to hold courts, both at Springfield and Northampton.

In 1660 was built the first brick building ever erected in Springfield. It was the dwelling-house of John Pynchon, who is called in the records " The

King'S Handbook Of Springfield

Worshipful Major Pynchon" and, later, " The Worshipful Colonel." The bricks used in its construction were made at Northampton. The carpenters and masons were from Windsor. The building was forty-two feet long, and twenty-one feet wide. The walls were very thick and solid, rising about twenty-two feet from the ground to the eaves. The roof was very steep, and the ridge was about twenty-two feet in perpendicular height above the garret-floor. It was designed to be a fortified house, and was actually used as such during the Indian war. This building remained in the occupation of the Pynchons until it was demolished, in 1 831, to make room for a more modern house. It was long known as the "old fort." The wooden house which had been the home of William Pynchon was connected with the new brick house, and made to serve as an appendage to it. It was removed in 1831 to the easterly part of Cross Street, where in an altered state, in 1883, it serves as a dwelling-house and laundry. There are still marks of antiquity about it. John Pynchon was engaged in a very large business as a merchant. He purchased furs very extensively of the Indians and others. These were sent down the river to his warehouse, at what is now known as Warehouse Point in East Windsor, and thence to Hartford: from which place they were shipped to Boston and England. He was an owner, or part owner, of several vessels.

Until the year 1675, the relations of the people of Springfield with the Indians were amicable and pleasant. William Pynchon, and, after he left, his son John, had frequent and friendly intercourse with them in the way of trade. The Indian sold his beaver and other furs to Pynchon. and, in return, purchased from him such goods as Pynchon kept in store as suited to the Indian's needs. Fire-arms and ammunition only were prohibited articles. The red men roamed the streets of the town, and visited freely the houses of the whites. No cause of disaffection or discontent was known to exist on the part of the Indians. They had what was called a fort in the southerly part of the town, but this created no uneasiness on the part of their white neighbors. Their wigwams and their planting-grounds were on both sides of the Connecticut. Probably the whole Indian population in the town, and its immediate vicinity, did not exceed two hundred persons.

In 1675 the disturbances fomented by Philip, the chief of the Wampanoags, began in the south-eastern part of the State, and gradually spread westward until they reached the valley of the Connecticut. Philip himself was said to have visited the Agawam Indians, and induced them to join the confederacy against the whites. About three hundred hostile Indians were secretly introduced into their fort, and every preparation made to assault Springfield, and slaughter its inhabitants. The time was favorable for the attempt: the soldiers who had been stationed here as a garrison were temporarily absent, with Major Pynchon their commander, on an expedition about twenty miles up the river, to check some hostile demonstrations there. The intention of Philip's men became known to the people at Windsor through the disclosures made by a friendly Indian; and timely warning was sent to Springfield, and to Major Pynchon at Hadley. The people generally took refuge in the fortified houses, of which there were three, - one of them the Pynchon house, and the others in the south part of the street. Three men and one woman were killed by the Indians. Thirty-two houses and twenty-five barns were burned, with Major Pynchon's corn-mill and sawmill.

Discouraged by these disasters, occurring just as winter was approachin-; and fearful of the suffering likely to follow the destruction of their houses, and the stores of provisions which they had gathered for the winter, - many of the inhabitants were inclined to abandon the town, and seek a home elsewhere. But wiser counsels prevailed, and most of them remained to repair the losses they had sustained. After this manifestation of their treachery, the Indians withdrew from Springfield. No considerable number of them were seen here. But for some years they continued to visit this vicinity, and perpetrate deeds of violence upon the persons and property of unwary settlers as they found opportunity.

Within a few years after this Indian outbreak. Springfield lost three of its most prominent men. Samuel Chapin, who came here in 1642. and had been a deacon in the church from that time, and was one of the magistrates appointed by the General Court to hold the courts for the county, and perform other important duties, died on the nth of November. 1675. An ideal statue is soon to be erected in his honor in Court Square. On the fifth day of February following, the '-honored Capt. Elizur Holvoke," another of the magistrates, died. John Pynchon survived these colleagues in the magistracy about twenty-seven years, and died in 1703, at the age of about eighty years. Probably no man, before or since, ever had so great an influence in the affairs of Western Massachusetts, especially in the Connecticut Valley, as Major Pynchon. He was the commander of the military forces here. He was chief judge of the local courts of the old county of Hampshire, a member of the court of assistants at Boston, and often employed as a commissioner to negotiate and adjust affairs of importance with the other Colonies.

In 1696 the settlers on the west side of the river were incorporated into a new parish, and not long afterwards the southerly part of Springfield was incorporated as the parish of Longmeadow.

In 1723 a court-house was built, and the town contributed largely toward the expense. The money was in part raised by the sale of some of the common lands belonging to the town. It was a plain two-story wooden structure, its front projecting some distance into Main Street. It was for years the only public building in the town, and near by stood the whippingpost. It was a quaint little building : and " it would seem that our venerable ancestors, who arranged the room, attempted to indicate, in the different grades of the floor (of which there were at least half a dozen), the relative rank and importance of the occupants of the place, from judge and jury down to prisoner and public." In those times the judges appeared in the old English style, attired in robes and wigs.

During the French and Indian wars, covering the period from 1744 to 1760, in which New England bore so prominent a part. Springfield men served in the army, and many of them perished. In the year 1745. at the siege and capture of Louisburg, 18 soldiers from this town lost their lives.

The difficulties between England and her American Colonies were now drawing to a head. The colonists everywhere were taking sides. It soon became apparent at Springfield, that, while a respectable and influential minority clung closely to their relation with the mother country, the large majority of the people were determined to resist oppression, and looked forward to a possible separation from England in no distant future.

At a town-meeting held on the 27th of June, 1774. certain letters which had been received from the town of Boston were referred to a committee of 9 persons; viz., Deacon Nathaniel Brewer, Capt. George Pynchon, Dr. Charles Pynchon, Capt. Simeon Colton, Moses Field. Jonathan Hale, jun., Ensign Phineas Chapin, James Sikes, and Deacon Daniel Harris.

July 12, 1774, this committee reported several resolutions, condemning,- taxation without representation; denouncing the Boston Port Bill as a measure that "ought to alarm us, and fill us with deep concern." They add: '- Impressed with just concern for our privileges, and at the same time governed by sentiments of loyalty to our sovereign, and with warm affection for our mother country, we ardently wish that all the Colonies, and every individual in them, may unite in some prudent, peaceful, and constitution.il measure for the redress of our grievances, the security of our liberties, and the restoration of union and mutual confidence between Great Britain and the Colonies." Another resolution expressed disapprobation of all measures unnecessarily affrontive of the Parliament, and all tumults and riots. These resolutions were adopted, in town-meeting, by a large majority. At an adjourned meeting, July 26, it was voted that the resolutions should be sent to the town-clerk of Boston.

Sept. 20, 1774, the town appointed a committee to devise a plan of associated action, and suggested the calling of a county congress, to which it elected three provisional delegates. It also appointed a committee to procure necessaries for the subsistence of the industrious poor in Boston, and a committee to correspond with neighboring towns.

In January, 1775, various other resolves were voted by the town, and William Pynchon, jun., was chosen a delegate to the Provincial Congress to meet in February. Jan. 10 the town appropriated ,£25 to procure a town stock of ammunition. July 12, 1775, John Hale and William Pynchon. jun., were chosen delegates to the General Court to meet at Watertown, July 19. Nov. 14, 1775, a committee was chosen to consider the subject of providing for the soldiers and minute-men. Nov. 20, 1775, the town granted ^52 14.5-. zd. for this object. March 5, 1 776, nine persons were appointed a committee of safety.

While a very large majority of the people of Springfield were preparing to throw off their allegiance to Great Britain, there were some of its most prominent and influential men who shrunk from the dissolution of the ties that bound them to the mother country, and clung to the hope of an adjustment of the existing difficulties without a resort to arms. One noteworthy instance was Col. John Worthington, a native of Springfield, born Nov. 24, 1 719, a graduate of Yale in 1740, and afterwards a tutor there. He practised his" profession of the law extensively in the old county of Hampshire, and the county of Worcester, and was regarded as a very able advocate. He was popular among his own townsmen, courtly in his manners, and was thought to stand high in favor with the provincial government. He was king's attorney in Hampshire County, and could have been attorney-general for the whole State if he had chosen to accept the office. His relations to the government, and his association with its officers, kept him from sympathy with the popular cause ; and from 1774 to the time of his death in April, 1800, he lived a retired life.

During the Revolutionary War, Springfield was a recruiting-post, and a depot for military stores. Works for repairing arms were carried on here, which led ultimately to the establishment of the national armory.

After the war, - and as a result of the expenses incurred in the war, the heavy taxation, and the depreciation of paper money, - came on those disorders, with which Springfield was intimately associated, commonly called Shavs' Rebellion. One of the earliest actors in fomenting this rebellion was one Samuel Ely, a pretended minister, who had preached at Somers, Conn. He instigated a mob, which obstructed the holding of a court at Northampton. For this he was indicted, and sentenced to imprisonment in the jail at Springfield. Taking advantage of the absence of a large number of people from the town, a mob assembled, and rescued him.

From this time onward, until the year 1787, there was a series of disorders, more or less violent, which pervaded the Commonwealth. The sessions of the courts were obstructed by mob violence, and the law was defied. Springfield was the scene of some of these outbreaks. In May, 1782, a mob collected here, to prevent the session of the Court of Common Pleas, but was dispersed by the action of the orderly citizens. In the year 1786, the insurrection had reached its highest point. The Supreme Court was to hold a session at Springfield on the fourth Tuesday of September. About 1,200 rebels, variously armed, assembled to prevent the transaction of the regular business. Under the protection of about 600 militia-men and volunteers, commanded by Gen. Shepard, the court was in session about three days ; but, for want of a grand jury, the proper business of the session was left undone. The most prominent leaders of the rebellion were Daniel Shays of Pelham, and Luke Day of West Springfield, both of whom had been officers \\\ the Revolutionary army. The town of Springfield was loyal, and passed votes instructing its representative in the General Court of a decidedly conservative tendency. To protect the courts, and suppress the rebellion, the government issued orders to, raise an army of 4.400 men under the command of Gen. Benjamin Lincoln. Of this number. 1.200 were raised by the county of Hampshire. They were under the command of Gen. Shepard, and ordered to rendezvous at Springfield.

On the 25th of January, 1787, Shays approached Springfield from the east with a large force, intending to seize the Arsenal. Shepard was prepared to meet him, and notified him that if he persisted in advancing he would be received with a discharge of cannon. Shays disregarded this warning, and continued to advance, notwithstanding shots were directed on either side and over the heads of his men. Shepard then ordered a shot to be discharged at the centre of the column. Upon this the rebels raised an outcry of murder, and fied. This was virtually the end of the rebellion.

Oct. 21, 1789, Gen. Washington arrived in Springfield on his visit to New England. He lodged at the tavern there kept by Zenas Parsons, which stood on what is now Court Square. The large old elm near the south-easterly corner of the square was directly in front of the principal entrance to the house. In his diary. Washington mentions that "Col. Worthington, Col. Williams, adjutant-general of the State of Massachusetts, Gen. Shepard, Mr. Lyman and many other gentlemen, sat an hour or two with me in the evening at Parsons tavern where I lodged, and which is

King'S Handbook Of Springfield

By an Act of the Legislature passed on the twenty-sixth day of February, [794, all the courts of the county of Hampshire were directed to be held at Northampton, which was made the shire town of the county. The reason assigned for making this change was stated to be, that Northampton, on account of its central situation, was the most suitable place for holding the courts of the county, and most likely to give general satisfaction. Whatever force there may have been in this reason in 1794, later years have shown that the centre of population and business is to be found nearer Springfield. Until the passage of this Act, Springfield had always been a shire town; and a session of the court had been held here from the fust settlement. This change probably had an unfavorable effect upon Springfield, from which it was not entirely relieved until this creation of the new county of Hampden in 181 2.

Although Springfield became an important military post and a depot for military stores during the Revolution, it was not until April, 1 7<;4, that Congress established the National Armory here. This was followed in June, 1798, by an Act of the Legislature of Massachusetts, consenting to the purchase by the United States of 640 acres of land here for military purposes.

With the war of 1S12-15, Springfield had but little immediate connection. When, near its close, British cruisers were hovering off the coast of New England, and threatening the safety of our ports, the Governor of Massachusetts ordered a draft from the militia of the State to march to Boston to repel a threatened invasion : two regiments of infantry and one of artillery went from the old county of Hampshire. The principal officers from Springfield were Brig.-Gen. Jacob Bliss, Major Solomon Warriner, and Capt. Ouartus Stebbins. The troops from this vicinity were stationed at Commercial Point in Dorchester, and remained in camp about forty days, when they were dismissed.

In the summer of 181 2 the southerly part of the old county was formed into a new count}-, by the name of Hampden, of which Springfield was made the shire town. This made necessary the erection of a new courthouse. To provide a suitable location for this, a tract of land in the central part of the town was purchased by individuals, and conveyed to the county. The buildings previously upon it were removed, and a new court-house erected in 1821, fronting upon this common, now known as Court Square.

March 2, 1824, one of the principal workshops of the United-States Armory in Springfield was destroyed by tire. The scene was pictured by a West-Point graduate, and shows the method of dealing with fires, when fire-engines were worked by hand, and supplied with water by a line of men passing buckets from hand to hand.

March 24, 1828, the first town-hall here, which had been finished the month previous, was formally opened with an historical address delivered by George Bliss at the request of the town.

In 1831 the brick dwelling-house built by John Pynchon in 1660, a structure intimately associated with the early history of Springfield as the scene of many interesting events, was demolished, and its site occupied by a modern dwelling.

Oct. 1, 1839, the Western Railroad was opened to travel from Worcester to Springfield ; and soon afterwards trains for transporting merchandise began to run.

Sept. 5, 1 841, the large and beautiful ground of the Springfield Cemetery was consecrated, and an address delivered by Rev. William B. O. Peabody.

April 29, 184S, the northerly part of Springfield was set off and incorporated as a new town by the name of Chicopee. The effect of this division was to defeat for the time a movement that had been started, in the central part of the town, for a city charter. It deprived the town of about half its territory and two-fifths of its population.

In 1852 the population of the town had increased so much that a new application of the town for a charter was successful, and on the 12th of April the city of Springfield was incorporated.

The need of a city-hall was soon felt, and the erection of such a building determined upon. On the Fourth of July, 1S54, the corner-stone was laid with a few simple ceremonials. The hall was finished in 1855, and on the first day of January, 1856, was dedicated. On that occasion, Dr. J. G. Holland delivered an address, which was published by order of the city council.

The Rebellion of 1861-65 caused as great excitement in Springfield as elsewhere in New England. The raising of soldiers and other war measures were prosecuted vigorously. Public meetings were presided over by the mayor, at which patriotic speeches were made and volunteers enlisted. The Tenth, Twenty-seventh, and Forty-sixth Regiments were encamped here before going to the seat of war. Companies for several other regiments were raised here.

In 1 87 1 the county commissioners decided to erect a new court-house on the south side of Elm Street. It was built of Monson granite, and finished in 1874, at a cost of $289,785.30, exclusive of the furniture with which it was fitted up. This carried the whole expense up to $304,543.29. The house was dedicated April 28, 1S74, when an address was delivered by William G. Bates of Westfield.

While Springfield from the first had the advantage over the other Massachusetts towns in the Connecticut Valley, of being the oldest settlement and the seat of justice, and the residence of the magistrates and other leading men, it shared with Northampton, a later-settled town, the advantage of an attractive site upon the river. Very early a rivalry sprang up between the two towns, that lasted nearly a century and a half. For the greater part of this time, each of them was a half shire town. In 1794 the courts were all removed to Northampton, and Springfield lost the prestige it had derived from them in the time of the Pynchons. At the time of this change neither of these towns could boast a large population. By the census of 1790. Northampton had a population of 1,628, while Springfield had only 1.574. The census of 1800 gave Springfield an excess of 222 over Northampton. From that time Springfield gained steadily over its competitor, until by the United-States census of 1880 it had a population of 33,340 against one of 12,172 at Northampton. All rivalry in respect of numbers has long since ceased. Each still claims the advantage of a beautiful location and charming scenery. Northampton rejoices in the excellence of its educational and charitable institutions. Springfield feels a just pride in the success of the various commercial and manufacturing enterprises which have distinguished its past history, and which promise so much for its future.

The Region About Springfield

THE topography of a country is the key to its history, so we should first notice the general geographical features of this district. The Connecticut Valley, from the northern border of Massachusetts to the sea, is not an ordinary river-channel: it is, in fact, a wide trough between two systems of mountains. On the west lie the worn-down remnants of the once lofty Berkshire Mountains: on the east, the yet more degraded ridges that constitute what we may call the Eastern Massachusetts set of mountain ridges. These worn-down old mountains were elevated at different times. That on the east was probably the first to begin its upward movement, in very ancient days. The elevation of the Berkshire chain probably began at a little later date. As these mountain chains grew, they left between them a broad trough, from ten to thirty miles wide, extending from the sea to some distance north of Springfield. This trough probably assumed something like its present form just after the close of the coal-measures was formed, but it was begun ages before that time. During the coal-making time this valley was probably the seat of the forests of those ages, and may have had coil-beds deposited within it : if so. they were soon worn away: for, shortly after the coal-time, the thick and extensive beds of the new red or triassic sandstone were laid down directly upon the surface of the old crystalline rocks which then, as now, formed the sides and floor of the valley.

Durino- this triassic time the Connecticut Valley formed a shallow arm of the sea, extending nearly as far up as where the Vermont line now lies. It probably received a number of considerable streams rising in the hills to the east and west; and at its head was the delta of the upper Connecticut. This period of the New Red Sandstone, or trias, occupied a long portion in the earth's history, and saw many great changes of climate. Once, at least, during this time, it is likely that this region was the seat of extensive glaciers, that discharged a great deal of pebbly sediment into their Connecticut basin. These pebbles were sorted and arranged in strata, and now appear in the extensive reddish-colored pudding-stone beds that abound in the valley. But the greater part of the time seems to have been one of moderate climate, as is shown by the animal and plant life that then existed in this part of the world.

Of the plant-life of the Connecticut, the fossils left then give us little information ; but of the animals we have some very remarkable remains, - remains that give to these rocks a singular, indeed we may say an unequalled, interest among all formed in this period of the earth's history. These fossils do not give us the forms of the creatures themselves, for hardly any thing that entered into their structures has come down to us : they consist of the footprints made by the ancient creatures on the shores of the bay, when they were left bare by the retreating tide. These footprints have been found in various parts of the new red sandstone beds in the Connecticut Valley ; but they are best known in the shaly sandstones found at Turner's Falls, a few miles above Greenfield. At that point they have been extensively quarried for flagging, and as a source of supply of specimens for natural-history museums. The best collection of these specimens is that brought together by the late Dr. Hitchcock, contained in the museum of natural history at Amherst College ; another of nearly if not equal value is at Yale College.

Examining either of these collections, we see large slabs of stone, sometimes ripple-marked, oftener covered with the obscure mud-flow lines so common along the soft beaches that form in brackish water-bays of our coast; exactly such beaches as are now to be seen left bare along the banks of the Hudson when the fresh water sent down by the river is lifted and lowered by the tide. These fossil mud-flats are stamped over with the footprints of many different species of animals, varying in size from a robin to a creature that must have weighed some hundreds of pounds. When these footprints were first studied, it was supposed that they were the tracks of bird-like animals : and at first sight their general shape, and the fact that each animal appears ordinarily to have walked on two feet, support this idea. But a more careful inquiry has shown that these creatures are very far away from the birds. Looking closely at the footprints, we see that many of the animals, though walking for most of the time on two legs as a kangaroo does, had two other, shorter legs, which they occasionally applied to the ground : moreover, in many cases there is trace of a tail, indicated by a furrow where it dragged on the mud as the animal walked along.

So far, though acres of these ancient sea-shores have been closely scrutinized, we have not found a single bone or other fossil remain, that can confidently be asserted to have belonged to these creatures. At this point, they have left us nothing but these footprints on the sands. From the fossils of other regions, we conclude that they were creatures in many ways more closely akin to our frogs and toads than to anv other living creatures. They were hatched in the water from eggs, lived for a while in a tadpole state, and then passed through a change in which lungs took the place of gills, and legs sprouted in their places, as in our living amphibians. In their perfect state, these creatures were often of great size, weighing several hundred pounds. It is almost certain they were cold-blooded : and, as their laro-e bodies could not during the winter have found shelter under ground as our living amphibians do, their existence is good proof that the winter season in their day, in this region, could not have been any thing like as cold as it is at present.

The physical history of this triassic time was as curious as its organic life. While for long ages these red sandstones and shales were making in the Connecticut Bay, the volcanic forces were very active in this region: from time to time crevices opened in this shallow sea-floor, and great sheets of lava were poured out upon its surface, or forced between the beds of rock that had been already formed. These trappean rocks, being harder than the sandstones amid which they lie, now form many sharp hills and mountains in the valley, lending it much of its picturesque beauty. Mount Tom, Mount Holyoke, and many other hills, are in part composed of them.

After the period of the trias we have little record of the changes in the Connecticut Valley, until the time of the last glacial period. One important series of events happened in this long interval. The rock beds of the triassic period were squeezed together, folded and tilted by the mountain-building forces, until they were built into many ridges and furrows, most of which have been planed away by glacial action. This mountain-building was probably connected with the further elevation of the old ridges of the Berkshire mountains and those of Eastern Massachusetts. Some of the lava outflows of the Connecticut Valley may have occurred while this dislocating was going on.

It is likely, that, during the ages from the trias to the last glacial period, this region was continually above the level of the sea : this is shown by the fact that there are no deposits formed during this interval within the limits of the valley.

With the beginning of the last glacial period, we come again to records of the geological history of this region. This is one of the most interesting chapters of the great stone book: though much of its print is scarcely legible, we can decipher enough to make a most interesting story, were it not necessary to give it in mere outline.

The conditions in this district just before the coming of the last glacial period are not known to us, for the reason that the erosion of the surface which took place at that time destroyed the rocks which were formed in this district just before the ice-period commenced. Enough is known of other regions, however, to make it pretty certain, that, at the outset of the glacial period, there was a climate here not very different from that now prevailing in this region: many large animals existed then that are no longer found in this country, including the large form of elephant called the mammoth,

The glacial period came suddenly. - by what change of climate, we do not as yet well know: even less do we know the cause of the change itself. It is likely, that, without any great change in the average temperature of the year, the summers became much cooler, and the winters less cold, while the deposition of water in the form of snow was very greatly increased, so that the cool and probably short summer could not melt it away. Even with our present warm summer, if the snow-fall were to be increased so that the winter fall gave a depth on the average of ten feet, it would probably remain unmelted on the highlands of the Berkshire and Eastern Massachusetts mountain ranges, and, re-enforced by the snow-fall of the following winter, give us glaciers that would creep down the valleys and slowly possess the lowlands. Be this as it may, the glacial sheets grew in this country until the Connecticut Valley was filled to far above the tops of the hills on each side. At its time of greatest thickness, this sheet was probably somewhere near half a mile in depth. It flowed slowly, a few feet a day, down the valley to the sea. This ice-stream was not peculiar to this valley: it was a part of a great sheet that covered nearly all the northern half of North America. In New England, when this dreadful time was at its worst, the ice reached south to beyond Long Island of New York, and ended in a vast sea-wall of ice, and stretched as a vast rolling icy plain far to the north. It swept over the top of Mount Washington in the White Mountains, though that mountain rises three-quarters of a mile above the general level of the country on which it stands. From the valley of the Hudson, where the ice was even deeper than in the Connecticut basin, the ice flowed over the Berkshire Hills, augmenting the tide of frozen water that poured through this way. As this enormous weight of ice ground its way to the sea, it wore down the rocks over which it moved. The soft red sandstones and shales gave way readily, and a large part of their beds that were in the Connecticut Valley before the glacial period were ground away by the ice-mill. Where there were thick masses of lava, a much denser and harder rock, these parts remained projecting, forming the sharp ridges such as Mounts Tom and Holyoke. The pudding-stones were also solid enough to resist better than the sandstones, and so frequently stand up in ridges, while the softer rocks are worn down on either side of them.

After a long period of desolation, when this region was in the condition that Greenland is now, the ice vanished as mysteriously as it came, leaving a vast amount of rocky waste strewn over the land. One of the peculiar features of the glacial period was, that all the regions covered by the glacial sheet seem to have been pressed downwards to a depth proportionate to the thickness of the ice that had lain on their surfaces. When the ice went away, the land crept up slowly to something like its old level; but for a while after the ice went away, this valley, in common with the neighboring regions, was very much depressed below the sea-level. This downsinking of the valley seems to have been greater near its head than near its mouth. About Long Island Sound, the depression probably did not exceed a hundred feet or so; while, as far up as Bellows Falls, the down-sinking was probably more than three hundred feet: so that, for a while after the disappeared from the valley, it seems to have been returned to the conditions of the triassic period; it became once again a broad but shallow arm of the sea.

When the ice went away, it left the surface of the land deeply covered with a rubbish of sand, clay, and bowlders. The heavy rainfall that marked this ice-period continued to exist, though probably in a less intense form, after the ice had fallen back towards the north pole: so that much of this glacial rubbish was carried away by the streams ; and, from the hill-region about the Connecticut Valley, a vast amount of the lighter part of the waste, that the streams could easily handle, was swept out into the Connecticut Valley, and laid down beneath the water that covered its surface. This falling of glacial waste, transported and re-arranged by the action of water, formed a very thick sheet in the Connecticut Valley: it was at least a hundred feet deep near its mouth, and over three hundred feet thick in the region near the New-Hampshire line.

Soon after this filling-in of mud, sand, and gravel was completed, the floor of the valley was lifted above the sea, and the river began to wear the waste away. If it were the rule that rivers kept their places unchanged, it would merely have cut a deep channel through this rubbish, leaving steep high banks on each side; but it is a law of rivers, that they swing to and fro in their valleys, cutting first against one bank and then the other. In these swings, the Connecticut River has crossed its valley nearly from side to side, leaving here and there scraps of the old stratified drift in the form of bits of plain ground called terraces. Constantly swinging to and fro. and as constantly cutting downwards towards its bed, these platforms, or terraces, have been left at different heights above the present level of the river. The highest are the oldest, the smallest in area, and the most ruined by the action of frost, rain, and snow. About Springfield, the most prominent and extensive of these terraces is at the height of about a hundred and eighty feet above the level of low water in the river: but it varies more or less in height. Some have thought that the uppermost of these terraces are as much as four hundred feet above the sea; but. above the level of three hundred feet about Springfield, the evidence becomes too obscure to be trusted.

view of the Connecticut Valley, and in his mind restore the vast mass of sand and gravel included below the level of the highest terraces and the present level of the river, he will then see how great has been the work done since the close of the post-glacial period. If he will remember that this post-glacial period probably occupies not over one five-hundredth part of the time that has elapsed since the building of this valley began, he will get a better idea of the wonderful changes that have been witnessed by it, only a small part of which have been recorded in any way that we can read.

King'S Handbook' Of Springfield City Of Thirty-Five Thousand Inhabitants

TN the autumn of 1S52, - the year that Springfield took on the swaddling- -L clothes of a city, and had civic incorporation, - I set permanent foot in the then " Infant City," and from that time made it my home for almost a third of a century of years. I went to it at the time named, on a locomotive, from the Berkshire hills, with the complete vote of every town of Berkshire County in my pocket; it being the night of both the National and State elections of that year, the 2d of November. An iron horse, with the longtime faithful locomotive-engineer, - first of the Western, and afterwards of its successor the Boston and Albany Railroad, - the late Louis Sherts, for driver; a young stoker, now a successful officer of a celebrated line of railway at the West, and myself, in the cab, - dashed into the old Springfield depot, at 1 1 p.m. ; at which hour the vote of every town in the four western counties of Massachusetts, save that of one of the towns in eastern Hampden, - that being lost through a misunderstanding as to the meeting-place of the post-riders sent out for it, - was in the " Springfield-Republican " office, ready for tabulating and compiling for the next morning's issue of that paper. And this successful gathering of election-returns from the remotest towns of Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin, and Berkshire Counties, was compassed with but limited aid from the telegraph; as the telegraphic service was then both very feeble in quality and small in quantity quite generally throughout the Western Massachusetts towns. Almost the whole election-return collection service was then done by special horse and locomotive expresses. And in this connection it is but simple justice to say, that in the State election of 1883, with all the aids and assistances which a complete and thorough telegraphic service in nearly every village and hamlet in the State, with the addition of efficient and widely established telephonic service, the morning papers of the next day after the election had no better or more complete returns than were given thirty-one years ago, when horse-flesh and steeds of steel were the main factors relied upon forgathering the election-returns for newspaper publication. On the occasion referred to, fifty miles by rail, and nearly as many by carriage or on horseback, - about one hundred in all, - were compassed by myself, after the counting of the votes at their respective pollingplaces, reaching Springfield before midnight. Other messengers did equally efficient service in different directions, but none had so wide a reach of country to gather from as the one who scoured the Berkshire hills.

Springfield, at that time, had 14,000 inhabitants, and was often called by would-be smart people, outside its newly made boundaries, the " Infant City ; " and more appropriately, by smarter ones inside its legitimate limits, the "City of Magnificent Distances," for it was, indeed, a city made up from three or four almost distinct villages, or, more properly speaking, localities. Court Square was the acknowledged centre of the city. The Armory Grounds on the hill, bounded by State, Federal, Pearl, and Byers Streets, was one locality, comparatively by itself. Uncle Sam's Upper Water-shops, on Mill River to the eastward, was another. The Lower Water-shops - farther down the same stream, but since entirely demolished, all marks of buildings, dams, etc., being now obliterated - was still another. The river-bankers bounded the city on the westward, and multiplied exceedingly, as they do now, and probably will to that very indefinite period when "time shall be no longer." To the northward, the railway-depot, into which the tracks of the Western, the Hartford and Springfield, and Connecticut-river Railroads were then laid, was the centre of another settlement, substantially its own ; and it took some brisk examples of pedestrianism to compass all these points in the course of an ordinary " constitutional " walk.

It had prominence, - its grounds for their beauty, and its buildings for their business. At times it was a very busy industrial centre, and brought much money to the town in the support of the skilled workmen who held positions there. To be " an Armorer," in those days, was to be one of the noted men of the town, or city when city it became. The railway-depot was then quite " out of town," and the distance between it and Court Square was broken and badly disconnected. A few scattered blocks and dwelling-houses were arranged along on the west side of the street, with fewer still on the east side ; " Barnes's Lot," a large open space where circuses blossomed annually, having prominent place, about midway, with Town Erook, which forks at the corner of Main and Worthington Streets, locating its western boundary, and flowing thence, both northwardly and southwardly, through the city, to the Connecticut River, the southern branch running under the sidewalk on the east side of Main Street, from Worthington Street to York Street.

The young city grew slowly but steadily, and became pretentious only by degrees ; but every day of its city growth has added materially to its beauty, wealth, and permanence. The word " boom " had not then been written down in the popular vocabulary ; but a boom nevertheless, of no ordinary dimensions, came to the city with the opening of the war of the Rebellion. The Armory just before the war - for reasons more apparent since than were obvious at the time - had had its stock of arms almost entirely removed, and its force of employees reduced to a very few men, enough only remaining to keep the grounds in order, the machinery from rusting, and the property in general from going to decay. But all this was changed when President Lincoln found himself obliged to call repeatedly for troops with which to fight the battles of the Union, and when the loyal heart of the North responded so patriotically, as they came to the rescue beneath banner and bunting, with shout and song, -

Workmen were called from all quarters, gun-making machinery was built and bought as best it might be, old buildings were enlarged, and new ones erected on the grounds, until the Springfield Armory was enabled to equip a full regiment with arms in a single day. This tact necessarily made

A'Ing'S Handbook' Of Springfield

Springfield famous, and gave much occasion for its name and locality to be kept constantly before the eyes of the people, not only of our own land, but incidentally of the world at large. Over three thousand men were at work at gun-making early in the war; while, just before its breaking-out, only some two hundred and fifty could be counted. The city limits had scarcely room to contain all its new-comers, - had not food and shelter sufficient for the proper accommodation of all the workmen who had been so suddenly gathered upon the grounds of our national Armory. From sheer necessity, many of these swarmed into the outlying regions of country, in search of temporary homes. The cars brought to the city, each morning, scores of workmen from Chicopee, Chicopee Falls, Holyoke, Northampton, West Springfield, Mitteneague, and Westfield ; while hastily improvised vehicles came loaded, daily, from Longmeadow East and West, Agawam, Wilbraham, Ludlow, and intervening farmhouses, - all returning at night, with weary workmen and empty dinnerpails. Every house in the city was stowed full of humanity, from basement to attic ; boarding-houses sprang up, like Jonah's gourd, in a night, and were ready to " take boarders " in the morning; and prosperity reigned on all hands. When the war ended, and the occasion for more arms had passed away, many of the men who had sought and found work in the Armory had seen enough of Springfield to convince them that it was an excellent place in which to make homes for themselves and their families ; that it had good church, school, and general social privileges and advantages, with the promise of a rapid growth and development. As a consequence, many found ways and means for becoming permanent residents ; and the building of houses, stores, and blocks, the opening and improving of streets and thoroughfares, and the successful development of industrial interests, have been constantly and steadily made. Three or four years before the outbreak of the Rebellion, the manufacture of the Smith & Wesson pistol was commenced, in a modest way, in hired apartments on Market Street; prospering marvellously, and <rrowin<r from small bejrinninirs to the rearing of the immense manufac- turing buildings now located on Stockbridge Street ; finally overshadowing the Armory, both in amount and value of its productions, making great wealth for its projectors, and securing to the city a remarkably prosperous and very valuable industry. The railway-car-building industry of the Wason Manufacturing Company, now located at Brightwood, - a northern district of the city, - has also had a rapid and successful growth and development within the limit of years under discussion in this article, until, like the Smith & Wesson establishment, it far outranks the Armor)-, both in amount and value of its manufactures.

As the Armory in the turn of years lost caste in the matter of being the lion of the town, other lions came into existence, growing apace, until strangers who wanted to "see the town " came by degrees to be shown or told of the Smith & Wesson Pistol Works, the Wason Car Manufactory, the establishment of " The Springfield Republican," - which paper had won for itself, while the city was still very young in years, not only a valuable national reputation, but a wide fame abroad as being a leading representative of distinguished American journalism, - the large printing and publishing house of Samuel Bowles & Co., the modest quarters of G. & C. Merriam (where Webster's Unabridged Dictionary was, and still is, published with much honor and profit to all who have ever come within the charmed circle of its interested parties), and the great Indian Orchard Mills at Indian Orchard, one of the villages of the city.

Springfield, as a town or village, was not, however, unknown to the world in the field of manufacturing, or in the general run of business marts. Indeed, it had a wide name as being the home of one of the earliest and most successful paper-manufacturing establishments in the country,- - that of D. & J. Ames. Their works were located on Mill River, where the shops of the Springfield Silk Company now stand. Their paper went to every city, village, and hamlet of our civilized country; and their name and fame were spread through all the world. In addition to their mills in the suburbs of Springfield village, they had others at Chicopee Falls, at South-Hadley Falls, at Northampton, and at Suffield, Conn., with their business headquarters for all of them at Springfield. Of the founders of that then wealthy and weighty paper -making firm, the junior member and the inventor of much of the papermaking machinery both then and now in use, - John Ames, - still lives a quiet, retired life, enjoying a fair degree of health, in the old Ames homestead on the easterly slope of Ames Hill; while the ; senior member, David Ames, died at the age of 92, on March 12, 1882, after reaching the rank of the oldest and one of the most extensive paper-makers of the United States.

The origin of the paper-making industry of the Connecticut Valley, now so prominent and prosperous, and of such vast dimensions, can easily be traced to the Ames family : the builder of the first paper-mill in Holyoke, Joseph C. Parsons (the president of the Third National Bank of Springfield), having had prominent connection with the Ameses,- at the time of their greatest prestige and prosperity ; and George L. Wright, one of the oldest and best practical paper-makers, still in active business-life, at the head of the Worthy Paper Company of West Springfield, acquired his mastery of the paper-making business at the Ames Mills, and had prominent connection with them in their palmiest days. For many years, in the long ago, it was a difficult matter, indeed, to find a sheet of foolscap or letter-paper - the only kinds of writing-paper made in those days - in any bookstore, schoolhouse, or household even, that did not have the stamp of " D. & J. Ames " upon it. And the writing-down of this fact recalls to mind the circumstance, in evidence of the correctness of this statement, that the sheet of paper upon which the hand that writes these lines first attempted to make " pot-hooks " bore the Ames stamp.

Springfield was then broadly known for its Ames paper, while still a town; so that, when it took on city life and airs, it had the advantage of

Its first mayor was Caleb Rice, who, some half a score of years ago, with the armor of business warfare belted and buckled closely about his loyal heart, as he went to his long home on one of the sunny hillsides of the city of which he was the first official head, was as proud of Springfield, and as free to proclaim her good name and deeds, and as bold to fight for these, as Springfield was appreciative of him in its early days of city life. His business ability, and faithfulness in official life, have full acknowledgment in the recognized fact, that the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company was built up, under his 22 years' presidency, from a crude local society, to a gigantic national organization. The love for and loyalty to Springfield and its interests, so pleasantly prominent with him, were by no means exceptional in his case. The same record that is made of him in this respect may with equal pertinence and force be accorded to all the city fathers, who have in turn kept up the line of succession most nobly and well from the first days of the mayoralty to the present time.

Nine of the city fathers - including Mayor Rice, Philos B. Tyler, Ansel Phelps, jun., William B. Calhoun, Daniel L. Harris, Stephen C. Bemis, Henry Alexander, jun., Albert D. Briggs, and Charles A. Winchester - have joined the great majority on the other side of the River of Life : while Eliphalet Trask(the third mayor, and the only surviving ex-mayor from the incorporation of the city to the year 1870), William L. Smith, Samuel B. Spooner, John M. Stebbins, Emerson Wight, Lewis J. Powers, William H. Haile, E. W. Ladd, and Henry M. Phillips the present worthy mayor, still remain, - nine again ; thus drawing the line equally between the living and the dead, as to number.

It would be a pleasant thing to do, with time and space at command, to write here, at some considerable length, of all the mayors of the city, with every one of whom I have had most agreeable - never any other - business and social relations ; so much so, indeed, that I cannot allow the occasion to pass without having pleasant thoughts, or of giving a good word or two of the many which I find in my heart for each and every one of them. Limited time and space narrow me down to the following hastily made observations.

In looking over the occupations of those who have filled the office of mayor, it will be noticed that they have been chosen from many walks in life ; and, although a few were in the legal profession, a large number have been active and thrifty manufacturers.

Philos B. Tyler, the city's second mayor, was an active, wide-awake business man, who had much prominence, both at home and abroad, as the president and presiding genius of the American Machine Works, which built cotton-presses for the South, and steam-engines and the like for anybody who wanted them. He controlled a large trade throughout the Southern States before the war, and had much prestige and popularity at home, especially so among his employes and immediate business acquaintances.

Eliphalet Trask knows all about Springfield as a city, from A to Z, having already passed far beyond the prescribed threescore-and-ten milestone on the highway of life, having been a prominent actor in both the political and business circles of the city. His political predilections won for him the lieutenant-governorship in the Know-nothing regime, and he served the State in that capacity from 1858 to 1861. His kindly nod of recognition

Ansel Phelps, jun., came to Springfield from Greenfield to practise law. and was well known as the attorney for the Western Railroad, where his ability and industry won for him much fame among the railway magnates of his time.

William B. Calhoun, a dignified, scholarly, and pleasant gentleman of the old school, was a popular mayor, who left a city full of mourning friends when he went out forever from among them. His early years were given up to the legal profession; but later in life he took the presidency of the Hampden Fire Insurance Company, - then a prosperous institution, - edited -'The Connecticut Valley Farmer " during its publication by Samuel Bowles & Co.. and was also, for a few years, an editorial writer on "The Republican."

Daniel L. Harris, whose business - life had been largely spent in successful railroad building and management, gave the city a year of vigorous and valuable administration, after the Andrew Jackson style of dispensing authority. His really warm heart and tender nature, hidden as they were at times behind the uprisen walls of his positive nature, were duly accepted and fully appreciated only by those who were the closest to him, or who knew- him the most intimately.

Stephen C. Bemis, as one of the leading coal-merchants and hardwaredealers, was one of the best-known men of the city, when the mayoralty reins were placed in his hands, during the stormy days of the war of the Rebellion, and when recruiting and drafting for the army were the order of the day. But his energy and faithfulness, all through those trying days. gave the city most excellent service during that exciting emergency.

Springfield - now the Second National - Bank, was a notably active and efficient mayor, who was never happier than when he was serving Springfield, or some of Springfield's people or its interests. His capacity for business was marvellous ; and his physical endurance during the last years of his official life, which was the closing period of the war, was noteworthily great.

Albert D. Briggs was well known to the business world, in and outside of Springfield, as a successful bridgebuilder. His official life as mayor was characterized by the same excellent he took the editorial chair of "The Hampden Daily Post," which brought him, I imagine, more honor than profit; and he has consequently devoted his energies and later years entirely to law and its profits.

Samuel B. Spooner, now register of deeds for Hampden County, furnishes abundant evidence of his merits and popularity, by holding, as he does, a virtual mortgage on the registry office, with no one to rise up and dispute his claim thereto.

John M. Stebbins snatched a year from his legal profession, that he might serve the city a little while as mayor; and he served it well, putting on his legal mantle again at the first turn of the tide, and retiring to private life to grow old and good as he does, quietly and gracefully.

Emerson Wight walked so correctly the strait and narrow path of the perfect man as mayor, that the city called him back repeatedly for a continuance in public life. He always found time to devote to the city's affairs, in addition to those which came to him in his legitimate business as a builder and real-estate owner; and he has been for years, until 1884, president of the Morgan Envelope Company, one of the prosperous manufacturing industries of the city.

Lewis J. Powers, newsboy, bookseller, paper and envelope manufacturer and dealer, a successful boy and man in all these, was equally successful in his labors for good management in city affairs, while mayor. He was born and bred in Springfield, and has ever been one of its most active and public-spirited citizens, ready at all times to help bring fame and a good name to Ids native town.

William H. Haile, jolly, genial, and good, lavishly dispensed his smiles and sensible ways of managing the city while mayor, and in such a manner as to secure the good-will of his city family, all of whom said " Well done " when he retired from the field of local public life. He came to Springfield from Hinsdale, N.H., where he still has large manufacturing interests; but he has become so thoroughly and happily "acclimated" in the city of his

King'S Hands 00 A' Of Springfield

Edwin W. Ladd, a practical builder, and a good one, took the city government over into the camp of the Democracy, from Repyblicanism, when he was made mayor; but the whirligig of time brought about such reverses, it fairly became a city. And that machinery, having been kept well oiled, and quite generally driven by competent and steady-going motive power, is in excellent condition, and promise for worthy achievements in coming years. The improvements of the streets and sidewalks were soon apparent when the new order of tilings was fully established. Educational facilities were largely increased, and quickly took rank among those of older and larger neighboring cities. The last score ot vears have witnessed the erec- times, both in construction and appointments; and the schools, with scarcely an exception, have earned proud positions in management and achievements. The Catholic Parochial School on Everett Street in connection with the Church of the Sacred Heart, and that on Elliott Street belonging to St. Michael's Cathedral, provide excellent facilities for children of the Roman-Catholic faith. Taken as a whole, probably there is no city of its size in the Union that has better or more perfectly maintained schools than has Springfield.

The erection of church edifices since the incorporation of the city is something quite remarkable. With one exception the writer has watched with much interest the building of all the church edifices which have been erected since Springfield became a city, - fifteen in all, - four Methodist, four Congregational, three Catholic, one Baptist, one Episcopal, one Universalist, one Unitarian, besides Brightwood Chapel in Ward One, and Faith Chapel in Ward Six. The First Congregational Society has also erected a large chapel and parlors, - a church really in size and appointments ; and the First Baptist has raised and altered its building at considerable cost. With one or two exceptions, all of these church buildings have chapel accommodations in some one form or another, such as church parlors and kitchens, and all " modern conveniences."

The public buildings erected since the city organization are the City Hall, the City Library Building, the new Court House, and the new Almshouse, - all valuable acquisitions to the city's growth and prosperity.

The city was fortunate indeed in being one of the earliest " railroad centres " of note in the country. The Western, the Hartford and Springfield, and the Connecticut-river Railroads were all running trains regularly, either through or into the Springfield depot, several years before she became a city. The Western, now the Boston and Albany, was opened for travel and traffic, from Worcester to Springfield, on the first day of October, 1839. The Connecticut-river road was opened from Springfield to Cabotville, on the 28th of February, 1845 ; the Hartford and Springfield Railroad, now the New-York, New-Haven, Hartford, and Springfield, preceding it only a fewmonths, that having "come to town" on the 9th of December, 1844. These roads, in combination, made what might be called a railroad " four corners." They furnished an excellent "distributing centre;" and as our country has since reached out, from year to year, almost to the ends of the earth in every direction, Springfield has improved its opportunities, and reached out, likewise, over its daily lengthening line of radway connection, to the outer rim of Uncle Sam's domain, and even far beyond. Her people could early go easily and readdy, North. South, East, or West; and they went, many, it is true, to build homes for themselves elsewhere, and many others to return, "bringing their sheaves with them." Later years have added to the railroad facilities first enjoyed, in the Springfield and North-eastern Railroad, formerly known as the Athol ; and the New- York and New-England Railroad, which comes to the city from the land of wooden nutmegs, over the Springfield and Longmeadow road-bed. These open up, and turn Springfield-ward, a local trade of some considerable volume and importance. Thus has Springfield grown in goodness and grace, in brains and brawn; and while it may not appropriately be called a great manufacturing city, it holds a prominent place by reason of its several large manufactories and its many small ones, and also as the centre of a commercial manufacturing region of country. Besides the Smith & Wesson and Wason Manufacturing Company establishments, before mentioned, there has been, and still is, much manufacturing done in the belongings of paper: the natural consequence, doubtless, of so large an amount of paper being produced within easy reach of the city limits. During the war, and when photographalbums were in the height of fashion, it had the largest album manufactory in the country. And, again, when paper collars were first introduced as wearing-apparel, Springfield men were early in the field, and profitably engaged in their manufacture. At one time four large and profitable papercollar manufactories were in the full tide of " successful experiment ;" but these, by means of combination, have reduced the number in the ''survival of the fittest" process, until one alone remains to represent the business and emoluments of a large and valuable industry. The manufacture of envelopes has also been introduced extensively and profitably. Papeteries, now so generally used in a wide range of styles, had their origin with the Morgan Envelope Company, which also had the first contract with our government for the manufacture of postal-cards. The manufacture of envelopes and papeterie has been large and, in the main, remunerative; and the "storm centre" - so to speak - of the envelope and papeterie business still hangs over the city of Springfield. Card-board and glazed-paper making, though of later introduction than paper collars and papeteries, are a prominent

King'S Handbook Of Springfield

The banks and insurance-companies of Springfield, though smaller in number and capacity than those of Hartford, rank well with them, however, both in character, and capability of management. Especially is this the case with its insurance-companies, - the Massachusetts Mutual Life being one of the soundest and most successful of American liteinsurance companies : while the Springfield Fire and Marine, in its special line of insurance, ranks among the best, both as regards its able management, its immense assets, and its financial results. The Mutual Fire Assurance Company had existence, success, and much incorporated in 1827. It has a wide reputation for furnishing trustworthy insurance at a minimum rate of expense, and this has been secured by writing only on property that might well be considered " fire-proof."'

Springfield put a very handsome feather into its cap of notoriety the first year after its incorporation, in originating the Simon-Pure horse-show business. "Mammoth three-sheet posters," with a spirited "group" of two were sent out far and wide, and attracted much attention, and succeeded in bringing large crowds of people to the first horse-show ever known. Hampden Park had its origin in that horse-show ; and although Henry Ward Beecher, at its first public opening, dedicated the park to horse-shows, it has often of late years been crowd" ed with people who came to witness bicycle and other modern forms of amusement.

Interesting details of what Springfield has been and done might here be given to a comparatively indefinite extent : but the space is limited, and there is no end to what might be said in admiration and praise of Springfield. "The people are the city," as Shakspeare has said. Her people have made Springfield what she is. Daniel Webster said of Massachusetts, "There she stands." The same may be as pertinently said of Springfield, and she will stand the closest scrutiny and criticism. Who ever knew of either a native or adopted citizen of Springfield, who did not feel a just pride in claiming that there is where "the noble have their country"? Springfield boys are found everywhere, and Springfield girls everywhere else, scattered all up and down the earth, from " Dan to Beersheba," from the Orient to the Occident, and from the North Pole to Patagonia. Some of these have become millionnaires, some have secured a firm footing on the ladder of fame, and some, like Micawber, are still waiting for "something to turn up; " but all have a warm place in a corner of their hearts for Springfield, the metropolis of the Connecticut Valley.

King 'S Handbook Of Springfield. 5 1

IT is well to premise, that the surroundings of Springfield belong to a civilization lining the Connecticut River, that taken in its total elements of good ancestral foundations, a generally diffused intelligence, religious and social culture, agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial thrift, facilities of education, and the most charming of natural accessories, is unsurpassed within American limits. When the Indian sachems of Agawam and Woronoco emerged from time to time from the Bay Path, to bring their packs of beaver, mink, and other peltry, to William Pynchon and his Roxburv neighbors, their glowing talk about their great river Quonektacut, and its tributaries the Agawam and the Chicuppe, alive with fish and beaver, their luxuriant meadows, and outlining forests full of game, was no exaggerated story. As the Western fever grew, and one company after another started from Roxbury, Dorchester, and Watertown, for this El Dorado of the Connecticut Valley, they were of the choicest and most enterprisingspirits: and none of them more so than William Pynchon and his followers, who settled Springfield and its surroundings. The original settlement included the present Springfield, West Springfield, Agawam, Feeding Hills, Westfield, Suffield, a part of Southwick, Enfield, Somers, Longmeadow, Wilbraham, Hampden, Ludlow, and Chicopee, a territory about 25 miles square.

We should bear in mind, as we survey the environs of the present Springfield, the fact of a thoroughly homogeneous population of the best English stock, the traces of whose religious, social, patriotic, and industrial energy, and high intelligence, are everywhere to be observed.

Let us take our stand upon the tower of the Springfield Arsenal for a bird's-eye view of the surroundings to be delineated. Towards the north, midst the interval of wooded hills and spreading meadows, with the Chicopee River flowing through, and framed in by the graceful outline of Mount Tom and the Holyoke range, are the manufacturing chimneys, towers, and spires of Chicopee, Chicopee Falls, and Holyoke, the fertile bottom-lands of old Chicopee Street, and the higher plain of Ludlow. Towards the east is the wide expanse of champaign country through which the old Pay Path highway and the Boston and Albany Railroad thread their course towards

Palmer, with the Wilbraham road diverging to the "Springfield Mountains" on the right. Towards the south, the lovely Pecousic vale, and Pecousic hill merging into the wide stretches of the Longmeadow forest, with East Longmeadow on its left, and on its right the old village ot the " long-meddowe " itself, its spacious street and elevated plateau looking down upon the fair expanse of level acres whence it derives its name, and along which glides and winds and gleams the bordering river. The westward view beyond the silver stream includes the green expanse of the farther meadows belonging to West Sp'ringfield and Agawam ; the towering elms and leafy maples under which nestle the village mansions and the scattered farmhouses; the old sentinel white meeting-house on West Springfield Hill: the fresher beauty of Mittineague as it creeps up the terraces of the fretful Agawam; and the magnificent stretch of broken interval that vanishes in the distant horizon of the Berkshire Hills.

Let us now take these surroundings in their details. Passing by the cavernous entrance of the old bridge, an ancient marvel of clumsy architecture, with its huge superfluity of massive timbers, intricate in construction as that schoolboy puzzle of Julius Caesar's, we will cross the Connecticut by the light, spacious, and airy North-end Bridge, - said to be the noblest highway structure in the country, - for a ride among the western environs of Springfield. As we strike the ancient common of West Springfield, its generous breadth lined with quaint homesteads of the olden time, and the more elegant mansions of a recent date, and adorned with the new Town Hall and Park-street Church, historic scenes begin to throng the memories of other days. This old common was the camping-ground of two British armies. Gen. Amherst with 7,000 men halted here for two days and two nights, on his march to Canada. Gen. Burgoyne with his captive army were encamped on this spot as long a time, on their way to Boston; and here several of his men, attracted by the advantages of the location, deserted, and settled in the vicinity; their descendants, the Millers, Worthvs, Ewings, Silcocks, and others, being of well-known families in this valley. Gen. Riedesel, the Hessian officer, was the guest of the parson, Joseph Lathrop, in the old parsonage on the green; and they conversed together in Latin. His magnificent charger was shod here by blacksmith White.1 Here Capt. Luke Day drilled his insurgents in the "Shays Rebellion." It very likely was the plain advice given him in the old parsonage, that hindered the junction of the West Springfield rebels with Shays at the attack on the Springfield Armory. Capt. Day insisted on divulging the secret of the proposed attack to Parson Lathrop, whose judgment he very highly valued, and received the following rebuff: "Capt. Day, your army is deficient of good, true, and trusty officers. You are engaged in a bad cause, and your men know it. I advise you to disband them, and let them return peaceably to

Icing'S Handbook' Of Springfield

Leading eastward from the common, to the river and the old ferry, is " Shad Lane," thus called because of the great supply of shad, - so plentiful, that, according to Sewall White the West Springfield chronicler, a single man could take with a scoop-net a thousand in a day. In Horace White's day-book for May, 1770, shad are charged to several persons at 2 cents apiece. Sewall White records his seeing 100 fine salmon lying together on the bank of Heman Day's and Tilly Merrick's fishing-place, one of them weighing 42 pounds; and that, with the roe of a shad for bait, he had himself in a single morning thrown upon the shore, as he stood in a fish-boat, eight fine bass. The largest he had ever caught weighed 12 pounds, while his neighbor Justin Ely took one on his line weighing 22 pounds.

It was in Shad Lane that Jonathan Parsons was driving his two yoke of fine cattle, and a horse, attached to a load of stalks, when two horsemen overtook him with the order to turn out for Gen. Washington, whose coach was making for Springfield Ferry. He refused, probably doubting the courier's word, and declared that he had as good a right to the road as the General. While the coach was waiting for the boat, Parsons, who had come up, overheard the General say, " That man was right: he had as good a right to the road as I have."

At the east end of this old common was a ship-yard, where the sloops '- West Springfield " and " Hampshire," and the schooner " Trial," ranging from 60 to 90 tons burthen, were built by Daniel Ely and Benjamin Ashley. In the centre of the common stood the old meeting-house of 1702, - 42 feet square, with its quaint three-storied hipped and gabled roofs, the highest coming to a central point, surmounted by a huge sheet-iron vane cut into curious devices, and above it the weathercock of gilded copper. The windows were of diamond panes set in lead, and the interior wood-work of massive oak and yellow-pine.

In those days, and through that century, West Springfield exceeded Springfield in population by about 800, and was, indeed, in most respects the leading town in Western Massachusetts.

The second meeting-house, yet standing on its sightly eminence of "Orthodox Hill," was located there by the gift of John Ashley, which stipulates that it shall remain there for a hundred years from 1800. It was contracted for $1,400 and 10 gallons of good rum, and occupies the most commanding site of any building in the re«ion, - unless it be the Arsenal, - rejoicing also in historic memories of a notable succession of able ministers.

banks and bold headlands of the turbulent little river, and made busy by the Agawam and the Southworth paper companies. Across the grand reaches of the meadow, and beyond the silver river. Springfield stands in bold relief. Historic suggestions multiply. The Agawam was famous in the olden time for its beaver-dams, and it also swarmed with fish, while the fertile meadowlands were of easy tillage. For these reasons a large Indian population resorted to its banks. Not far off, on the sides of the old river-bed, is one of the four Indian burying-grounds that lie within the limits of West Springfield ; and manv interesting relics have been found with the exhumed skeletons. As our road winds around the edge of the high plateau that rises from the southern side of Agawam River towards the village of that name, we look down on the '-house-meadow,'' where John Cable and John Woodcock in 1635, having been sent forward by William Pynchon and his friends, built, at the common charge of the planters, the first house. They were the first English tillers of the soil: occupying the house and adjoining ground "all that Sommer," and perhaps all the winter, although probably returning in the late fall to Roxbury.

Another wide and leafy street, pervaded by the quiet rural beauty and still life of roomy and thrifty farmhouses, is Agawam. The query is suggested, Why have all these Connecticut-river villages the same spacious breadth of the long central street? It was from no aesthetic inclination of the founders; but because, with deep forests and the wild beasts in their rear, and lurking Indians all about, they would provide for the '-home commons," where the domestic animals might have a roaming-place, guarded bv fences, and within sight and call.

There are parallel roads going down the river-side; one skirting the western bank, with charming prospects of land and water, and meeting the Thompsonville Ferry; another turning back to Feeding Hills : another to the Southwick ponds; and another stretching on to the goodly old town of Suffield, and, if one would take a longer ride, to the old ruin of the Simsbury copper-mines, long famous by prison romance as the Newgate of Connecticut. Each of these roads is replete with an attractive beauty of continual changing prospects, and not the least, that which is lent by a fertile soil and a thrifty agriculture. The luxuriant, and, as it were, spontaneous growth of trees and crops belonging to the Connecticut Valley, together with its sheltered situation, gives it a tropical aspect as compared with other portions of New England.

Returning to Springfield by the South-end Bridge, another costly and recent iron-and-stone structure of light and elegant proportions, and commanding, alike with its northern compeer, a magnificent sweep of the river, with its outlying scenery of city spire and tower, and woodland height crowned with arsenal and mansion, the broad meadows and over- lookino- headlands, and the more distant mountains, let us take the southern highway to Longmeadow. For a while it skirts the river, with the Hanford and New-Haven Railway between. On the left rises Long Hill, whence from their palisaded fort 300 of King Philip's Indians stole forth to burn the infant settlement of Springfield : and at its foot, crosses Pecousic Brook, where John Keep of Longmeadow, with his wife and child, when on their way to Springfield church, were killed by ambushed Indians, and others of their party wounded. Here in Pecousic valley was an Indian village. Rising Pecousic Hill, and now within Longmeadow boundaries, we look back from its elevated plateau on Springfield, set like a gem upon the arm of the circling river, expanding here to the proportions of a lake. If one leaves the highway to the left for the views from either the Goldthwait or the Huck estate, or the open field between them, he will find them of surpassing loveliness. Or if he traverses the woods on the other side of the highway till he comes to the outlook towards the north, or west, or south, he will discover other views of changing beauty, which must by and by attract the eye of future builders, as Mr. Barney has been attracted by the site on which his beautiful house is being erected on the northern side of Pecousic valley.

This southern highway brings us next into the spacious street of Longmeadow, which was laid out by the founders for a "home commons," to the breadth of 16 rods, for a distance of about three miles. As we approach its centre, the straggling houses become a compact village, and the generous street becomes a park-like lawn, shaded by lofty elms or spreading maples. On each side of the green expanse and the double highway, are roomy and well-kept homesteads ; combining in their varied architecture the flavor of a quaint antiquity with the elegance of modern taste, and generally blending, without any division barriers of inhospitable fences, their private grounds with the public green. Longmeadow, like West Springfield, has an ancient and honorable history belonging to sturdy settlers, a permanent ministry, and a stanch fidelity to New-England principles and institutions, which has well preserved the unbroken unity, both social and religious, of the former days when it was the third parish of Springfield.