Westfield City (part 3 of 4)

The commemoration of this anniversary is associated with the dedication of the statue of Major General William Shepard who was born here and lived here all his life save when war or other public errands called him outside the limits of the town. The statue is a fine specimen of the artist's work and will not only be an ornament to the public square of the town but will commemorate a distinguished career and preserve the example of it for future generations. The celebration of the founding of the town may very well include this recognition of the career of William Shepard. Certainly in doing that undue emphasis is not given to militarism. It is not at all the career of a professional soldier to which you pay homage, but he was none the less a genuine soldier. He was taught the rude art of war upon the rough battle lines of his time, in the wilderness filled with Indians, upon the cold plains of Canada, and upon many a battlefield in our own country. In the time of Shepard's early life and west of the Connecticut River it was fitting for every man to be a soldier. England and France had for centuries been enemies and were upon the point of going to war again. The French were masters of Canada and had acquired great ascendency with the Indian tribes. They were quite ready to make use of these savage allies. It required little instigation from the French to induce the Indian to contest the advance of the Englishman and otherwise to make trouble for him. When the new settler might return to his home in the evening and find it in charred ruins and that the members of his family had been killed or carried off into captivity, it was of the first necessity that he should be a soldier. It is true that western Massachusetts had witnessed little of the hostility of the red man after King Philip's war, but the memory of the bloody scenes of that war was very vivid and served to keep the white man awake against a repetition of the horror. Shepard took up the inevitable work of the citizen of his time and was trained for fighting. He began as a private soldier and was in more than one fierce fight where his side was not successful. His valor, however, gained him steady promotion and he did his part in the winning of Canada for England. He bore an honorable part in the fighting in the Province of Quebec which had so much to do with banishing the power of France from North America.

The French war was to an important extent a Massachusetts war. Her people detected the aggressive purposes of the French to extend their empire south ward from Canada along the Atlantic coast. They remonstrated with the British government and it was due in a considerable measure to their attitude that England took steps to defeat the French designs. The war was a bloody and inhuman war. There were Indians upon both sides although the Indians with the French very greatly outnumbered those with the British, and tomahawks and scalping knives were employed by the enemy with far too little restraint. In this Seven Years War, arduous not merely in its fighting but in the appalling hardships which the men were called upon to face, Shepard performed the work of a soldier so well that he was steadily advanced and reached the rank of captain. At the ending of the war he returned to his work as a farmer, but not for a long period, because the spirit of rebellion was growing against England. There has probably never been a people more sensitive to oppression than the people of

Massachusetts about the time of the revolution. Their example was infectious and soon inspired the entire Atlantic seaboard. One wonders whether any English government could have been so good as to keep the colonists long in willing submission. It was as much the ambition for independence as the spirit of rebellion. The spirit of liberty was in the air and permeated all ranks of society. The boys were as rebellious as the men. There were plenty of orators in the country, some of them great ones, and they were not idle. The temper of those times would not tolerate even a light grievance, and the direct imposition of taxes by a parliament in which the colonies were without representation was a most serious grievance. The only way in which such taxes could be collected was by superior force. War became inevitable.

Captain Shepard had come to be the foremost citizen of Westfield. He was its member upon the Committee of Correspondence and Safety, the councils of which nurtured the incipient rebellion and gave it great driving force. He had fought under the flag of Britain in the Seven Years War. But he was wholly with Massachusetts. He was a man of deeds and not of words. His countrymen heard little of what he said - they saw much of what he did. When the news came of the fighting at Concord and Lexington he straightway went out from Westfield in command of its minute-men and started for Bunker Hill and Boston. From that time he was again very steadily in the fighting. He was in camp with Washington when Boston was evacuated. He followed his leader to New York and was put in command of the rear guard in the celebrated retreat there which was one of the most masterly of Washington's manoeuvres. That the army was rescued with such slight loss from a most perilous situation was due very much to the heroism of the small rear guard which under the command of Shepard held back the British until the main body had reached a safe position. He was at the battle of Saratoga; was with Washington in the gloomy winter at Valley Forge; fought in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, and Monmouth; was again under Lafayette, and bore his part in the final great victory at Yorktown. There were few, if any, men of his time who saw more real fighting and none who bore himself with steadier valor. When the fighting had been ended and our independence won he returned to his farm in this town. Once again he was called upon for military service. Just as some of the earliest settlers in the country would no sooner get their settlements well established than they would move on and found new settlements ; so the rebellion against England had no sooner been consummated and brought to a successful end, than some of the colonists at once proceeded to rebel against the government they had helped set up, and there occurred what is known as Shays' Rebellion. Governor Bowdoin put Shepard in charge of the forces that dealt with that rebellion and he bore himself with courage and sanity in that imitation of a civil war, winning more, indeed, by his good sense and firmness than by fighting. After the outbreak had been quelled he again returned to his plough.

The excellent accounts that have been written by your fellow townsmen outline with definiteness and in graphic fashion the fine record of William Shepard in war. He never became what would be called a great general but that was not because he was lacking in the quality that would make him one. Although there was much fighting, its character was not such as made it likely to produce great generals. It was too desultory and depended less upon the military discipline of the men than upon their individual bravery and their fortitude to endure privation and hardship. Indeed, after Washington, it is probably true that our revolutionary period did not produce a really great general, although evidence of military genius was shown by more than one and there was plenty of the stuff out of which great generals are made. If the title belonged to any other than Washington it belonged to Greene whose masterly retreat, by which he saved his Army from destruction, must take rank as a very brilliant military achievement. What Greene learned of war he learned while holding important military command. With little or no military training he was made a major general by Rhode Island at the outbreak of the war.

Shepard did his full duty as a citizen in peace as well as in war. He served as an officer of the town, as a member of the Governor's Council and of both Houses of the General Court, and as a member of Congress. There was nothing spectacular about him but he was great in simplicity and in those qualities which most distinguish the good citizen; and he achieved a rounded and noble career which you do well to emphasize today. And so, when you dedicate this statue, you provide for carrying down to future generations the figure of a man who did the town, the commonwealth, and the nation great service in war, and who, as a citizen of Westfield, performed his duty in peace in a way that deserves permanent recognition. He may well find imitators far beyond the limits of the town.

The history of Westfield is typical of that of the older towns of the commonwealth. It was first a part of a larger unit and was included under the beneficent rule of Springfield. The parent town was most willing to grant the right of self-government to your ancestors whenever they desired it. It has been a tradition which survives in Springfield today among its people and in its organs of public opinion, that right of self-government in communities. But the government of the new town was set up under much difficulty. It had hardly been incorporated before the war of King Philip broke upon the western counties. It was a most relentless war. The town happily escaped the fate of the parent town which was burned. Every conceivable kind of fiendishness and brutality known to the red man, who in those times was untutored in everything except fiendishness and brutality, was practised in that war. It was indeed fortunate that they were not versed in some of the barbaric arts that have shown themselves in warfare in the last half dozen years. Westfield escaped the full fury of the war that fell upon Northampton and upon her other neighbors to the north. Very likely, had it not been for the stubborn resistence of the men of Northampton and of Turner's Falls, helped by the men of Westfield, the town would have been temporarily wiped out of existence. Westfield sought safety in a wooden wall, a device that was much used in those days and a portion of it was surrounded by palisades which gave it a precarious protection, and which fortunately was not put to a severe test. The end of King Philip's war marked the ending of any special danger to Westfield from the Indian. His spirit was for the time effectually broken and with the steady growth of the country he gradually moved farther westward and kept upon the borders of civilization.

The chief problem of the town then became one not of defence but of establishing itself as a community and developing the organs for the expression of a civil life. The roads of that period were marked out along Indian trails, some of which apparently are followed by the present highways. The wagon roads were practically the only means of local communication for the river was of little value as a highway and water communication was obtained only after carrying goods over the hard roads that led to the Connecticut. The chief reliance of the people for the carriage of freight was probably upon oxen, and it is a striking circumstance that the distance an ox team would haul its load in a day at that time was not very much less than the average distance traversed by freight trains upon some of the great railroad systems of the United States today. Westfield soon came to have a good position for trade. It was upon the road between the valley towns and Albany and also upon the chief road between the towns to the north and to the south. Prosperity came with the destruction of the forests and the transformation of the wilderness into fertile farms.

The first dwellings were primitive affairs. The greater number of them were made of logs, and, as nearly everybody lived in a log house, it did not at that time form the basis for a political caste. It was reserved for a later period when the log cabin had almost disappeared from our civilization that to have been born in one conferred a political distinction and, indeed, in some instances, formed the chief argument for the elevation of candidates to the presidency. With the coming in of that pioneer of civilization, the sawmill, the log house gave way to the more modern structure built of sawed lumber. It was a house filled with health and comfort. Some of the houses were good examples of the old colonial style of architecture, of which some fine specimens still remain near the seaboard and invite favorable comparison with the more pretentious modern dwelling. In those days, the house was not merely a place for social uses and to eat and sleep in, but it was very emphatically a manufacturing establishment. Beer and soap were manufactured, cloth was spun and dyed, and made into clothing, and much of the repair work for the outdoors was carried on in the house. There was little time for idleness. The household work had none of the strain of the present day factory where fast-flying machinery chases the operative and keeps him on a perpetual tension.

The ancient furniture with its simple forms was in good taste but what we call civilization came forward so rapidly that good taste could not keep up with it. The evolution may be traced in the various splurgy and pretentious forms of furniture, reaching its climax in the haircloth variety which was an offence alike to good taste and comfort. Much more than furniture was homemade. The food was not hauled over great distances before it reached the table. The fare would be very tempting and certainly very wholesome today, with the liberal supply of game and fish and the meats that were preserved by the natural cold through the long winter. Tea and coffee were in far less common use than now, but a substitute was found, for Nature would have her innocent way upon the juice of the apple and produced a beverage much of which would be under the ban today on account of the prohibitory law. The great social center was the meeting-house, and it held a place in the community which made it practically the chief governing institution. The training of the local militia afforded a stirring spectacle, and the militia colonels, in uniforms splendid with gold lace, filled the spectators with awe and admiration.

To sum up in brief compass, the citizen of the Westfield of one hundred years or more ago led the simple life and was none the worse for it. He governed himself by the sun and not by the clock. He was not one of those fortunate creatures who retire early and sleep late, but he saved all the daylight there was. He got his news of the outside world from the meager weekly newspaper and the happenings in the town from the neighbors. The general cares of mankind troubled him but little. There was usually nothing to get disturbed about more exciting than a dry debate in Congress. He went regularly to church and prayer meeting and knew every item of expense that he was voting for at the town meetings. He was happy or miserable according to his temperament and if he could survive the accidents or the heroic remedies of that period he was apt to live to a great age. His was an ordered life and the world seemed to roll easily in its orbit. If one wishes a contrast he has only to turn his eyes to our own time. Each morning with scarcely a look about us, even at the hills from whence cometh our strength, we survey the more or less remote parts of the globe. A distant monarchy has collapsed over night and is followed by a republic that will disappear before tomorrow's sunset. The air is filled with strident voices preaching a new style of government discovered since yesterday. We now and then return to the simple life when the latest railroad strike compels us to walk. What with the world turned turtle and the sons of chaos disporting themselves over great spaces of the earth, with liberty a memory, and everywhere industrial strife, class warfare, instability, and unrest, it is only to the penetrating eye of faith that it seems clear whether we inhabit a world made safe for democracy or for the devil.

But there is an aspect of this occasion which cannot be overlooked at a time like this and that is the place of the town in the general structure of our government. It lies at the foundation of our system and is the basic form of organized government that first comes in contact with the individual. The gradation is made easy from the individual who is the unit in our government up through the town and the state to the nation. It may well be likened to the pyramid resting upon its broad base and receding and springing upward to the summit which is a mere point securely supported by the mass beneath and resting lightly upon it. There is another kind of government which has been very much in evidence in the world. It was the kind given by the Hohenzollern kings, by the French kings before the revolution and such as the Stuarts tried in vain to establish in England. Instead of government springing from a broad base and pressing more lightly as it receded from the people, the whole mass of governmental powers was placed at the top and overhung and pressed heavily upon what was be- neath them. Under such a system all power came from above and was wielded by the king or by his agents. There was no such thing as liberty and the privilege to do things came as an act of grace from the sovereign. The American system is the reverse of that. Power comes from below instead of from above - from the people instead of from a king. It is the aim of our system to have self-government. The people themselves do the things directly that come in contact with them. The things that are out of convenient reach they do through agents chosen by themselves.

Due homage is paid to these different forms of government to which power is apportioned. The people are deeply attached to the states. Indeed, they were too much attached to them until war settled and perfected our structure. They are patriotic to the nation. Their affection for the towns and cities in which they live is shown by lavish munificence and in a thousand ways. The system is ideal for self-government although it must be admitted that it is not always ideally applied. The greater government is apt to encroach upon the lesser with the result that there is a dislocation of power. And to just the extent to which that occurs the real participation of the people in their government will be lessened. Its operations will be distant and they will be spectators rather than actors. With the great mass of governmental power centralized at Washington there will be such an enormous detail of jurisdiction that no one set of governmental agents will be able to cope with it and there will be government by bureaus which is sure to be rigid and autocratic, if it does not become corrupt. With a system like that applying to a continent and to more than one hundred millions of people, self-government will become a myth, and its work will be tainted with injustice. One section of the union will so levy taxes that they will fall with especial might upon another section and public money will be expended in the same partial way. There are op- portunities of partiality enough under the present state of the development of our system without broadening the area of injustice by still further dislocating the partition of powers. To maintain so far as we are able the traditional distribution is necessary for real efficiency and is surely necessary to liberty. Let the central government take care for the common defence, regulate commerce between the states and deal with the subjects of general and common concern and let the municipal and state governments exercise the great range of powers that have long been theirs unchallenged. We shall thus have better government. More than that we shall have better citizens because there is no greater educating force than the practical participation of men in directing the affairs of their own government. It develops character and it gives a public-mindedness that can be gained in no other way.

Thus in celebrating the two hundred and fiftieth birth year of this town we may well pause to do reverence to the basic form of our three kinds of government. Of that form Westfield is a happy illustration. Here life has been safe and property secure. Prosperity has been diffused and has shown itself in every walk of life. Those two beneficent institutions, the school and the church, have been at the summit of her social order. And looking forward, if she may see spread out before her a future that shall be of the texture of her past, fortunate indeed will be the people who shall be gathered within her gates.

I have considered generally the place of the town in the government of the country, and for our country surely we have provided for us sufficient government with the differend kinds overlapping each other. But there still remains a vast and momentous space unfilled in a comprehensive scheme for the government of the world. There is no earthly force above the nations but humanity, and humanity, unfortunately, as now organized, makes only a moral appeal which too often falls upon deaf ears. At the top of our system we have the sovereign nations which for practical purposes may be counted as less than ten and we find them dividing and disputing among themselves the government of the world and without a common arbiter often clashing with each other. This disputing between nations over the right to govern is responsible for very much of the misery of mankind. Obviously a very great thing yet remains to be done before the world can be said to be properly organized for government. I do not mean by this that the time has come for a government by a parliament of man and a federation of the world. The world, even with its proportions shrunken as now by inventions, is altogether too vast to be comprehended in a single community of thought. The establishment of a world state to regulate with a single code of laws the thousand different sets of interests and the vast diversity of peoples will be a most ambitious project for very many years to come, if indeed the time shall ever come for it. Such a thing today would wholly destroy self-government and obliterate the last trace of individual freedom. Just as we see the national government devouring the states and the states the lesser authorities, so the nations would be eaten up by the central monster and would disappear except in name.

Human nature is a pretty constant factor and is little likely to change, but until it shall change very greatly this union of the world into a single state would better remain a dream. What refuge such as America has always been would there be to which the oppressed might fly?

Among the terrors which Gibbon painted of the worldwide tyranny of ancient Rome was the lack of a place of escape for those who were oppressed. He declared that the creation of a number of independent states was productive of the most beneficent consequences to the liberty

"But the empire of the Romans," said Gibbon, "filled the world; and when that empire fell into the hands of a single person the world became a safe and dreary prison for his enemies. To resist was fatal and it was impossible to fly."

We need embark upon no such mythical project as laying the foundations of a world state in order to join with other nations in underwriting the peace of the world. They may still live their individual lives but they must permit other nations to live theirs. The nations may have their own internal development, may perfect their own civilization, may even have their own peaceful expansion. We can establish a high court of nations; we can provide at once for doing away with those armaments which are crushing the life out of nations ; we can agree with all other nations to submit our differences to arbitration; we can have a council of conciliation. But we can dispense with some of the trappings under which this council may strut with the airs of a world state and may develop into an arena for playing the high politics of the world.

A union of the nations against war will be confronted with difficulties enough without the sacrifice of a single attribute of any one of them which has shown itself a force for peace. The particular isolation of America and its aloofness have proven of the greatest value to mankind. We have more than once been told that the time of our isolation had passed and that we should be corded and bound up with the rest of mankind with one set of primary ambitions, passions, and interests. Our isolation has been scornfully compared with that of China. It is scarcely necessary to point out the sophistry of such a comparison. We can no more compare the isolation of America with that of China than we can compare the two nations with each other.

The one is the most progressive and the other the most static nation in the world. It is beyond the power of the imagination to picture China playing the part America has played in the last two years. It is true we were unprepared in a military sense. We had set the world an example in disarmament which if it had been followed by the other nations would have averted the catastrophe that almost engulfed them all. But that we were able to arm on a very great scale and successfully pursue the arts of war we demonstrated beyond all doubt and our isolation backed by our power imparted to our intervention the decisive quality of a final arbiter. If we shall throw away our isolation and become an everyday European power with primary interests and points of view, time will bring about a new set of alliances and division of nations and in the event of another colossal war there will be no great power in reserve to save the world. When our nation was established there was an ideal opportunity for the development on this continent of a new group of political ideas and interests, but little vexed by the political divisions of the other hemisphere. To be wholly isolated was impossible but we were measurably so and we grew to be a powerful nation and the center of a new world. Having just now demonstrated the immense advantage of this dual structure of the world, what a demented act it would be to abandon it. It would be to throw away one of the fairest gifts Providence has ever given to man. If America enters a League of Nations let her enter it erect and not an eviscerated America with some of her most distinctive attributes gone. Let her not put her Monroe Doctrine in the keeping of any council but hold fast to it as the central fact in her foreign policy. Let it remain what it was originally intended to be, a buttress against the extension of monarchical institutions upon this hemisphere. America will be of far greater value to any League of Nations if

That the time is ripe for a high court of nations to adjudicate their controversies with each other there can be no doubt. For many centuries the rivalries of nations have levied a frightful toll upon the youth of the world. Boys have been torn from their mothers and uncounted millions of them have been set to slaughtering each other. Northern Europe has once again been made a vast graveyard. If we cannot be moved by the appeal that comes from the millions who have fallen, from the crushing debts that have been piled up like mountains, from the revolutions that are stalking the earth, then we can be moved by nothing. If we shall heed that appeal and give it a safe and sufficient answer, we shall write as the future policy of nations in the simplest terms in which they can be written DISARMAMENT and ARBITRATION.

Mr. Ely said: As you know, this day was set apart for two purposes, one to unveil the statue of General Shepard, the other to welcome home the service men. It is not for me, certainly, at this late hour to say more than a word to the service men. Looking over the Honor Roll on the Green, I find many names that I cannot pronounce. In fact, I think a majority of the names are foreign to this Yankee town. But every Yankee loves every one of those men, and all I am going to say in behalf of the Town of Westfield is, that we do love every one of you service men, and take the greatest pride and satisfaction in -welcoming you home, and the greatest interest in your future.

Introducing Major-General Edwards, Mr. Ely said: When I saw the parade this afternoon of the service men and the women in white with the cross of red - all honor to them! - I felt a good deal like the little boy walking down the street behind another boy marching with his brother just returned from the war. The little boy behind crept up to the soldier, just touched him, then ran to his mother. With his eyes dilated, full of pride, his face all aglow, trembling all over with excitement, he said, " Mother, I have touched a soldier." With such feelings I present a soldier, a general, a major-general of the United States Army, General Clarence R. Edwards.

Major-General Clarence R. Edwards, U.S.A.

The other day I visited a shell-shock hospital, and I saw a fine lad, one of my men, walking along in a happy, debonair way, and he had a wheelbarrow upside down. Says I, "Hold on, my lad! That is wrong. Turn it up." He said, "Not on your life, sir! I did it that way yesterday and they filled it full of bricks."

So the happiest announcement that I can make to you at this time is to say to you that I will keep the wheelbarrow upside down, and let you out soon, especially as it is going to be my great opportunity to talk again to these lads tonight. But there are one or two thoughts.

tion has been such that it is a renewal of my youth to stand here and get these wonderful hypodermic doses of New England and this brilliant oratory, and the only new thing in it that I have seen is the expertness with the apple in former days. And when we talk about getting our just powers from the governed, I think it is the one hope that the soldier has, for those things that you did to him in our absence in France, to rely on your expertness with the apple this next winter. As far as I can learn, it is the only thing that our attorney-general says is not vinous, and therefore within the law.

Coming from Springfield today, driving up here, my earliest recollection was of my father telling me how he refused to smoke, so that he could buy a horse and drive about, and how often he used to drive, as a lad, to Westfield. Naturally. It is the home of my people. And I take pride in the wonderful record of Major-General Oliver Edwards.

My earliest recollection as a child, at a large dinner given by my mother, was the wonderful tribute that Sheridan paid to him for his capture of Winchester, being in command. I think that tribute made me take the veil of poverty and go into the Army.

So it goes without saying that I should participate with pleasure in that I had the great good fortune to command Yanks and to know what was their tradition. And I was so reminded of it here, when these lads of mine, these YD men, with their band, and those women went by, - which to my mind was the feature of the parade, - gently bred women, with their eyes up in the clouds, where I used to tell my lads to look, - sopping wet. And then as they went by the famous battle hymn of the 26th Division was played to march them past.

air, - we were the first to take it as our own, - had a card with those wonderful words on it, and after the review the regiment of the iO4th of which this is a component part formed in four sides of a square, with the band in the middle, and they sang the Battle Hymn of the Republic as their own.

I was riding a thoroughbred horse and I galloped up there and I said, "Let that ring in your hearts, and make you think of your home, and there is one word that will tell what I expect you to do to the boche." And a cheer went up, and my horse nearly turned a somersault. These lads will recall it.

We went in immediately to the fight, and this iO4th of yours, that hadn't got even the baptism of fire, the first desperate smash was theirs, and when the boche got on the left of them, and our right fell back, they came in his rear. Many of these men said that the ring was in their heart, and no ring on earth will make men fight so if they learn to sing that Battle Hymn of the Republic.

At the end they got pretty tired, and the boche got well behind them. Blood and sinew were bound to give way. And what did your lads from Springfield and Westfield do, but charge to the front, singing, "Hail! Hail! The gang's all here ! " And then some sergeant would say, ' ' I will have men left to charge back again.." And they fought for three days, from the loth of April to the I3th, and didn't lose one foot of ground. And your regiment from this part of the country was decorated, the first one in the American Army, with the croix de guerre.

Now, one word about the psychology of the American soldier. He is a queer animal or he is a delicate piece of machinery, whichever you want to call him. You can't make a Tommy out of him. I wish I had time to tell you why, and of those that tried it. You can't make a Frenchman out of him, or an Italian. And God knows you don't want to make a boche out of him. But he has got elements that in peace times we often think are detriments. In other words, you know that a lad of sixteen years of age knows much more than his father, and a girl of much more tender years can't be taught by her mother. But when war comes along and bullets prevail, and men go up against blood and iron, they are quite controlling forces. And all that it is necessary to do - and I can prove it because I had a lot of thirty thousand green men, whom I knew had to go against the best army in this world, - or that thought they were, - but they were boche, and I knew it.

I came home one day to my staff after they had taken four of my best boys away, and I said, "There is only one thing you have got to do with those Yanks, and you have got them." They said, "How?" Said I, "Tell them what you want of them, and why, and pat them on the back, and I believe there is a certain kind of infernal region that they will go through for you."

Literally that is what I did. These men knew I believed in them. So I averred. And then you may epitomize a few rules, which my forty years of service have told me are all that is necessary to do with the American soldier.

First, show him that you are interested in him, - and you can't fool him. Second, show him that you are trying to be fair, - and he will forgive you your errors. Commend an American whenever you may, and condemn him when you must, and keep him right up to the line. And never give an American false praise, and when possible, don't lower his self respect. And that American will go to hell for you, with a smile on his face, and never count the cost.

Trained like that, he is the finest soldier of any land in the world. And it was so proved abroad. There were great, great lessons to learn with the American Divisions. And I speak of the Yankee Division as but typical of the others. And it is all a question of basic citizenship.

A good soldier, - what is he? A sound mind and sound body, a man who appreciates the dignity of labor, the happiness of industry, the benefits of our institutions, the point of view of his fellow, who can control himself, and knows how to shoot. That is a soldier, and that is a citizen. And nothing but the basic qualities of citizenship and the capitalization of our traditions did those impossible things that were 60 per cent better than any soldier had a right to dream that they could do. And that is the American soldier.

It is that about these lads. I used to go up and down through New England to these "Welcome Homes" before the YD men came, and I said, "You will find the men so vastly improved that you have mathematically got to say they are two or three hundred per cent regenerated." There is no question about it. They are going to exercise the franchise, as these Civil War veterans. And my uncle and others used to tell us that it was the best electorate they had ever seen.

There is one thing on the side though. And all my ancestors were in the Civil War. These Civil War veterans were tougher than we were. They were sturdier. They stood it for four years, and we one. And, confidentially, I believe that they were morally tougher. In other words, they didn't have to have repressive laws. They weren't told they couldn't do anything, as are we.

And I believe this great outburst of the nation, sending these delightful women, and keeping us within bounds, and all those ministers, was due in some way to some act of these Civil War veterans, different from us. I hate to say that we were wickeder, but war makes men, and up and down through New England I have had mayors and selectmen come to me and say, "What on earth did you do to those men? I sent you a lot, six or seven that God or man could do nothing with. They were bad actors. I was glad to have them go. And they come back here, have gone to work, many of them decorated, and swearing by you. What did you do?" Said I, "Nothing on earth."

When you put a lot of men up for ten months, expecting to die every day of their lives, those men think they have been nearer to their God than they have been since they left their mothers' knees. A bunch of machine gun nests will produce more automatic praying than any altars I have ever seen.

And then let them know that you believe in them, and if there is anything good in a man or in tradition it conies out, as it has come out in these men. I will say about this desperate series of problems that face this nation, that they are your solution, under the guidance of these Civil War men, in the organizations they make. I would rather have - and I know them intimately and speak of them as typical of the rest - those forty thousand YD men write the laws for my family than any lot of men I have ever seen.

So I think you will get sanity. I think you will get men who have reached man's estate. I think you will find a lot of men who have seen the futility of schisms and fads and panaceas, who have seen the institutions of our Allies and of the boche, who have learned the benefit of our own institutions and are determined to keep them sacred. God pity the soap box assassin that gets up and preaches destruction of government if any of these lads are around. They will muss him up.

Now, let me read you the constitution that I picked up from my table this morning, of the American Legion, that they have evolved themselves in the first meeting. Perhaps you have all heard it. The American Legion's spirit and purpose is reflected in the preamble to its constitution, which reads: of America; to maintain law and order; to foster and perpetuate a one hundred per cent Americanism; to preserve the memories and incidents of our associations in the Great War; to inculcate a sense of individual obligation to the community, state and nation; to combat the autocracy of both the classes and the masses; to make right the master of might; to promote peace and good-will on earth; to safeguard and transmit to posterity the principles of justice, freedom and democracy; and to consecrate and sanctify our comradeship by our devotion to mutual helpfulness."

I congratulate you upon being kin of their kin and blood of their blood, and I will tell you - and I know it - that the blood of New England has not attenuated.

At the conclusion of Major-General Edwards' address, the audience of more than fifteen hundred people rose and applauded with great enthusiasm, while the two bands, seated in the gallery, one on each side of the platform, played the "Commandery March" followed by "The Star Spangled Banner." This completed the program of the afternoon, except for the service men, to whom a "Welcome Home" was extended through the following committee :

Daniel F. Doherty Emil Motak

Immediately after the parade was dismissed in front of the Town Hall, the service men were transported to Woronoco Park, for the clambake and program of field-sports.

The clambake went off according to schedule with clams, lobster, chicken, corn and other good things to eat; but sports were out of the question. All hope of having that Army and Navy ball game, on which the returned civilians had counted, was abandoned; for even had the clouds cleared away, the diamond at the race-track would have had the appearance of the rain-soaked trenches at Chateau Thierry, and would have been altogether too muddy for any kind of game.

The men were served in the Park Pavilion and as a crowning feature, there was an impromptu address by General Edwards. After leaving the church where the dedication exercises were held, he, with his personal aide, Major Hyatt, was driven to Woronoco Park, where a rousing reception awaited him. He gave the men a heartto-heart talk and advised everyone of them to join the Legion.

Edward G. Clark gave out one hundred copies of the volume, " Westfield in the World War," for the preparation of which a part of the appropriation had been used.

Dancing On The Green

Although twice postponed because of inclement weather, the community dancing and carnival feature of the town's 25Oth Anniversary Celebration took place on Thursday, September 4, 1919, and lost nothing in enthusiasm nor in anticipated crowds.

As a social event it was the greatest of its kind that the town has ever seen. Westfield's thousands of residents and those of the attendants at the anniversary celebration who had not returned home, were joined by large delegations of visitors from out of town. They poured in by means of auto and trolley and it was estimated that there were 20,000 persons present. A crowded dance-surface was the result, but the enormous number was well handled. All during the program, traffic was eliminated from the Green. Detour arrangements were made for the autoists and some of the streets leading into the square were reserved for parking purposes.

The green was brilliantly lighted for the reception of the guests. In addition to the natural illumination furnished by the moon, there were arc-lights, colored spot-lights, incandescent lights hidden in Japanese lanterns, clusters of lights and multi-colored incandescent globes, all of which poured forth their rays on the dance-surface.

Preceding the dance program, there were two band concerts with the Westfield Band and Short's Band alternating. The latter was located in front of the Hampden National Bank on Main Street, while the other was placed at the south end of the Green.

A generous portion of the esthetic dances, which were to have been given at the Community Picnic under the direction of Miss Florence Barker, were woven into the opening

Marguerite Lane

Miss Gertrude Finnell in a special toe-dance number, "The Snow Queen," won much applause. A suite of interpretive dances, the first part "Night and Storm" given by Miss Vesta Gannett, and the second part " Dawn" by Miss Marjorie MacWorthy, also received much applause from the vast assemblage. Following these an Irish lilt by Miss Floris Degere and Miss Gertrude Finnell was excellently given.

Another dance, "School Days," represented the reopening of school after the summer vacation. Those who took part caused much amusement by their antics. They were :

Mary Moseley

The closing number of the special program was the stately minuet, given by a group of sixteen young women. Always admirable, this old-time dance was especially beautiful in the unusual setting, and proved an appropriate ending to a most charming entertainment.

Ruth Beals And Ruth Taylor

LAURA JUNIOR AND FRANCES MANNING RENA MANNING AND BARBARA HEDGES MARJORIE MACWORTHY AND ZILPAH MEYER ALFREDA MAYOR AND VESTA GANNETT RUTH HARDEN AND RUTH WOOD CATHERINE WESSON AND MAUDE HILMUTH MARION BROWN AND MILDRED BEALS RUTH BEALS AND RUTH TAYLOR

After the minuet, favors were distributed by the entertainment committee. There were carnival hats, confetti and paper serpentines in abundance. Then came the grand march consisting of 125 couples. Preceding Short's Band was Frederick Goodwin, chairman of the Entertainment Committee, with Miss Florence Barker. Following the band came those who took part in the special dances, in costume. Morrell H. Moore, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, and his niece, Miss Mildred Cleveland, led the division of townspeople, and after marching around the Green everyone joined in a one-step, the first of the twentyfour dance numbers in which anyone was at liberty to participate.

An Appreciation

As a descendant of one of the old families of Westfield, I feel that I must in some small way express my appreciation of the pleasure received from a visit to your town during the 25Oth Anniversary Celebration.

The pageant was a perfect success, the setting excellently chosen and the handling of a great crowd could not have been better. The business-like parking of automobiles could have given good points to the traffic police in large cities. The history of the town as passed in review before us, revealed the hardships and courage of the pioneers. The costumes were particularly interesting to us as we had never seen so many well preserved clothes of that period in one collection.

The Hostess House, the Industrial Exhibit and the marking of historic houses, with the beautiful decorations on every side, impressed us with the community spirit and exhaustive labor entailed.

As we left the historic town on our return home it was with a feeling of pride and gratitude because of our ancestry from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Have you Westfield memories which should be preserved? Do you know some good stories which should not be lost? Do you want to pay tribute to the men and women who have directed the life of this community during the past fifty years? The committee having charge of the publication of the official record of the 25oth anniversary celebration of the town, would be glad to add some pages of reminiscence which may throw a stronger light upon the Westfield of the last half century, and they therefore make this public appeal for interesting material. The best part of the book published in 1870 recording the celebration of the previous year, is the appendix which contains a series of "Pictures of Westfield as it was" from the pen of the Hon. William G. Bates. No one among us today has the reputation of "Squire Bates" for good story telling, but if many unite their efforts, we may be able to gather enough of the intimate and personal to give real flavor to the forthcoming book. The editors will of course be forced to use their own judgment in accepting and rejecting material and in its arrangement, but will welcome with an open and hospitable mind any contributions which may be offered. Please give this serious thought and send the results before January 1st to

George W. Searle

Although Westfield has grown to be the second largest town in the commonwealth, with a population of about 20,000, and has kept pace with the numerous changes that modern communities have introduced, she has never lost faith in the benefit to be derived from the older fashioned but substantial methods of our sturdy founders, and such of these methods and ideas as can be moulded to comply with present day conditions are retained and their value appreciated. While the population has changed in its character, due to the influx of immigrants from European countries, mainly Russia and Austria, while many new industries have sprung up and grown to large proportions we have many times had reason to feel that we are built on a firm and sturdy foundation laid by our forefathers and we give due credit to them, their judgment and their foresight.

In 1915 the population was 18,411 and it is generally considered that today we have neared the 20,000 mark. At least 5,000 and probably more are Poles, Slavs, Lithuanians, Bohemians and Hungarians, with many Italians and Spaniards. The first comers from these central Euro pen countries arrived about thirty years ago and have furnished much of the labor in our factories and on our farms. Many of these people live in the Meadow Street section although others are south of Noble Street near the bicycle factory of the Westfield Manufacturing Company and many are scattered about town. They are an industrious, frugal element of our population and are being rapidly assimilated, building their own homes and taking advantage of our naturalization laws to become citizens.

In spite of many efforts to bring about a change by those who feel that the name "city" carries greater prestige, the town form of government has been retained. Evening town meetings are held and are often attended by from 800 to 1,000 voters, probably the largest legislative body in the United States. At the present time a committee is investigating the desirability of a changed form of government as there is a belief in many quarters that the large town meetings of the present day are not desirable or conducive to the best government. All of our voting is done at the Town Hall, there being but one precinct. Three thousand voters are registered, it being said to be the largest voting precinct in Massachusetts. The present valuation of the town is over $13,500,000. The town owns the municipal water plant valued at over $600,000, on which there is but $25,000 indebtedness. Two systems of supply are operated at Mont- gomery and Granville and on the latter watershed is an opportunity to construct a storage system good for more than fifty years. The use of water is unlimited, no domestic services being metered. The water is of excellent quality and rates are lower than the average.

Another asset of the town is the Municipal Gas and Electric Plant which is inventoried at over $350,000. This was purchased by the town in 1899. Both water gas and coal gas sets are installed and electric current is purchased from the Turners Falls Power and Electric Company, since this spring. Besides the house and street lighting nearly all of the manufacturing plants purchase power from the municipal plant. Much favorable comment is caused by the town's surface and sanitary sewerage systems costing several hundred thousand dollars and the extent of our excellent sidewalks. Nearly all of the roads in the center of the town are surfaced and compare to our advantage with the highways of other cities and towns.

Interest in education has always been keen and the annual expenditure for schools exceeds $125,000. There are twenty school buildings in town in addition to the Boys' Trade School where metal working courses are taught, and the State Normal School, a training school conducted by the commonwealth for training teachers. Recently when it seemed that the school buildings were being crowded the town erected within a period of three years three large and one small building, at an expense of about $275,000. Schools have not been neglected despite financial stress, and the standard of Westfield schools is second to none.

The Fire Department is operated by permanent firemen assisted by call men and the department is completely motorized, the last horse-drawn apparatus having been discarded about four years ago.

The town possesses an excellent public library, the Westfield Atheneum, conveniently located at the corner of Elm and Court Streets. Through the generosity of the late Milton B. Whitney, for many years president of the institution, a new and modern library building will soon be erected, Mr. Whitney having left bequests for this purpose. Noble Hospital and the Keep Memorial Building, the contagious building of the hospital, located on a high and sightly spot on West Silver Street cared for nearly 1,200 patients last year and proves daily its value to the community. Although not as heavily endowed as many institutions of a similar nature, it has rendered sterling service and won its way into the hearts of all who have learned of its great work. Present and past residents of the town responded so generously to the appeal made in the autumn of 1918 for the hospital that the institution is at this writing undergoing extensive repairs and enlargement.

A Federal building erected in 1913 and containing the Post-Office faces the Green of which more than passing mention should be made. This attractive space has been retained as a park and is a most picturesque spot. More than seventy years ago a number of individuals each planted an elm tree on the Green. They never knew how much their act of thoughtfulness beautified the town in later generations for this shady resting place in the center of business activities could not be purchased for any sum. Three churches, the Library, High School and Town Hall and Post Office face the Green and it is planned that as more pretentious municipal buildings are erected in future years that they be located here where a wonderful natural setting exists for a municipal group.

The streets of the town are many of them tree-lined and everywhere there are modest homes owned in large measure by their occupants. Westfield is also provided with recreational centers. The Whitney Public Playground, the gift of the late M. B. Whitney, is located on the south side of the river north of the dike. The town also boasts a Country Club with a good nine hole golf course, tennis courts and a charming clubhouse situated in the western part of the town overlooking the Russell Road and the Westfield River. The view from the broad piazza, of the clubhouse is unexcelled in this section. The property is owned by the club and is across the road from the property of the late Ralph D. Gillett, used with his permission as the first golf course in Westfield.

The town is also fortunate in possessing unusually modern and attractive hotels. In fact, no town of the size of Westfield is as fortunate in this respect. Westfield hotels are well known for their cordial treatment of guests and homelike atmosphere.

Of churches there are two Congregational Churches, two Methodist Churches and Baptist, Episcopal, Adventist and German Lutheran, besides the Wyben Chapel where religious services for that community are held, and five Roman Catholic Churches.

Westfield is a manufacturing community. While she boasts many farms and produces a quantity of agricultural products and tobacco, manufacturing is, nevertheless, the backbone of the town. Whips, radiators and bicycles are the chief articles produced, but there are many other manufactured articles, the output of factories of large or smaller proportions. In fact, we are most fortunate in having within our midst a large variety of industries. As a result the employment offered has not been seasonal and a depression in one line of business has not affected the entire town. For many years we have claimed the title of the "Whip City" from the fact that here are manufactured 95 per cent of the whips used in the world, over 20,000,000 being turned out annually. The tendency in the whip business has been to eliminate many of the smaller concerns and concentrate the business in the larger factories. As for years past Westfield retains its pre-eminence and doubtless to the end of its day will be the "Whip City." The radiator and boiler business of the H. B. Smith Company, started in Westfield and always located here, has grown to large proportions. The company occupies two large plants, one on each side of the river, and employs several hundred workmen, many of whom are skilled mechanics. Radiators and boilers are shipped to every part of the world and the success of the concern has entered into and materially assisted in the steady growth and prosperity of the town. From the number of employees and the amount of its payroll the Smith Company is the largest concern in the town. Many years ago when bicycle riding was a craze the Lozier Manufacturing Company established a large factory in Westfield for the manufacture of bicycles. Later this became a branch of the long established Pope Manufacturing Company and afterward the business fell into the hands of the Westfield Manufacturing Company. As the bicycle became less popular it grew apparent that machines will always be used for business convenience as well as pleasure. The Westfield Manufacturing Company has succeeded in acquiring a large share of this staple business and has been most successful. Motorcycles also are manufactured and during the war much of the plant was utilized for the manufacture of shells, and large additions were constructed. With the end of hostilities the bicycle business was resumed on a large scale and the energetic modern methods of the owners are making a success of this large industry. The factory is located in the southeast part of the town. While the cigar business does not reach its proportions of former days it is still one of the town's important industries and a number of manufacturers are turning out a smoke of the highest quality. Japanese linen paper, manufactured by Crane Brothers, is a product sent far and wide. The mill is one of Westfield's established institutions. Among the most successful and largest of the manufacturing plants is the Foster Machine Company, where winding machines are made. Large additions have been recently constructed and the working force increased. The factory on South Broad Street adjoins the plant of the W. Warren Thread Works, another of the large industries of the town, where cotton yarn is made into a high quality of thread. Other products manufactured in Westfield include: paper, casket hardware, warm air heaters, bricks, textile machinery, church organs, carriages, brushes, awnings, ink pads and stamps, cutlery, lithographing, soft drinks, automobile bodies, paper and cigar boxes and other articles. Trap-rock and marble are also quarried here.

The town boasts a large number of modern up-to-date stores with complete lines. The town is a trading center for a number of surrounding communities and the trolley facilities and increased use of automobiles bring many outsiders here to trade.

No article, however brief, on Westfield is complete without some reference to Westfield as the " Pure Food Town" for as such it has been advertised and won fame throughout the United States. The thing started in a casual way with no idea that it would develop the importance which it attained. It all began in a little chemical laboratory in the Westfield State Normal School, presided over by Prof. Lewis B. Allyn, "The Little Gray Man." Just prior to then Dr. Wiley, chief chemist for the United States government was making a stand against the use of alum, coal tar dyes and benzoate of soda in food products. The matter had previously interested Professor Allyn, who contended that these chemicals in food stuffs were dangerous to the health of the consumer when used in large quantities or continuously.

Professor Allyn conducted a most interesting set of experiments among his classes and the interest of the teachers and pupils began to spread about town. Later it grew to such an extent that the Town of Westfield set up its own food standards and local grocers and provision dealers signed an agreement to give preference to foodstuff not containing the chemicals in question. Naturally this attracted outside interest for the sales of certain lines of goods fell off and the manufacturers naturally investigated. Until then the agitation had been purely local but it began to spread. Newspapers and magazines all over the country interested themselves in the matter and naturally the food manufacturers whose output came within the Westfield Standard advertised that fact. Professor Allyn became a contributor to various national magazines. Other newspapers and magazines gave space to the controversy until the Westfield Standard was known in every state in the union. It is a significant fact that the standards set by Westfield have from time to time been adopted by the government.

Much has been written in characterization and praise of the New England town meeting. Its value as a political institution, - the original unit of Democracy, - can hardly be overestimated. It is a useful school for individual training in the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. Before one attains his majority he can visit the school and begin his tutelage before becoming entitled to the privilege of either speaking or voting; and thus not be obliged to take his active place there as an absolute novice.

Being myself a native of New York State, my first personal acquaintance with this notable institution, occurred when, at the age of thirty-two years, I attended the March meeting of 1880, having settled in Westfield a few days after the April meeting of the preceding year.

My interest in that and in many a subsequent meeting during two and a half decades succeeding, was intense as regards the business affairs and personal characteristics involved. Important questions of policy relative to appropriations large and small were discussed and, when wide differences of opinion arose, were threshed out to definite and final decisions, though rarely reconsidered and altered.

During the whole period of my residence I considered it my delight and duty to attend every meeting, - regular and special, - a duty incumbent upon every citizen, to be escaped only under most pressing necessity.

Many items of vast importance to the growing town were considered during that period and "there were giants in those days." Men memorable for personality and ability, - real statesmen in vision, efficiency and debate, in this unit of civic administration.

Often did I listen with admiration and envy to those gifted village orators, amazed at their natural powers of forceful expression, only a few of them having had the benefits of college training. At times the contestants on both sides of a question were so effective and convincing in pressing their respective cases, that I found myself wobbling, each speaker in turn bringing me to a decision in his favor.

Certain great enterprises were discussed at length and finally approved, though without access to the records I cannot determine accurately the order in which they were adopted, some of them having been carried over from year to year.

Westpjbld, Massachusetts

was one of them, rendered imperative in order to rid the town of a half dozen grade crossings. It was a long, tedious and expensive job, involving a change of grade for more than a mile from the " tin bridge," so-called, at Little River south of Silver Street, to the Great River; but its benefit has been incalculable.

Various expedients in hardening Elm Street were vainly tried when action was finally taken providing for curbing and paving from the Green to Great River. The horrid incubus of deep mud alternating with heavy clouds of dust was removed.

As each annual meeting drew near, the hearts of the School Board began to flutter with anxiety lest the steadily enlarging appropriations called for because required by steadily changing conditions, might in some way arouse opposition and fail of approval. I well knew the keenness of that trepidation from an experience of several years as a member of the committee and latterly as chairman; and the blessed relief felt when the budget was finally ratified. Westfield has cherished and maintained traditional generosity to its schools for many generations.

Minor matters coming up year by year for consideration, and over which were numerous squabbles and heart-burnings, concerned the acceptance of new streets, the extension of concrete sidewalks, the location of new street lights, the hardening or paving of streets, etc.

The list of items in the annual warrants became so numerous and the questions involved became so complicated, that the happy plan was adopted whereby an unhappy committee was regularly appointed to spend weary hours in considering them and make recommendations respecting them. But for the efficient work of these successive committees, Westfield would have been forced long ere now to adopt a city charter.

All these varied questions demanded and received thorough and extended discussion, which at times was carried to wearisome length by long-winded advocates.

It was, however, the display of personal character and peculiarity which gave me keenest interest in those town meetings. Various men who on these occasions exercised their right of free speech, stand out clearly in my

A remarkably capable series of moderators guided the proceedings. When we found one of that type we liked to keep him in the chair at successive meetings, and he was generally willing to wear the distressful crown. In this class Robert H. Kneil, Harold P. Moseley and Joseph D. Cadle are most prominent in my recollection. When affairs occasionally became so complicated as to bewilder an ordinary parliamentarian, those skilful moderators would keep their heads, maintain order and give rulings which very rarely were upset by Cushing's Manual.

The sturdiest and most effective debaters were the Kneils, - Thomas, the rugged Manxman, - and his two sons, Arthur S. and Robert. Deacon H. B. Smith, founder, with his brother Edwin, of the great manufacturing concern which still bears his name; James H. Bryan, merchant and ever ready speaker; Lucius F. Thayer, whose engineering ability was utilized by the town for so long a period, always prepared to give a clear statement and essential figures when any new engineering project was under consideration; William H. Foote, who late in life served the town and the Federal government so faithfully as postmaster; Hon. M. B. Whitney whose legal acumen enabled him to discern safe and sound policies; Henry Fuller, another prominent lawyer; three younger barristers, - James R. Dunbar, whose removal to the Capitol was a distinct loss to the town, Alfred F. Lilley of marked ability, Willis S. Kellogg, who for many years has served as judge of the District Court. Harold P. Moseley, soon after beginning his practice, was notable in debate as well as in a presiding officer's chair. Others somewhat less prominent might justly be included in this honorable list.

One worthy citizen who took little part in formal debate, yet cherished such loyalty to the town as to oppose habitually what seemed to him a tendency to extravagance in administering its finances, - Noah Strong, who almost invariably arose when a motion was made to approve an appropriation, and moved the substitution of a sum lower than the one named. His son, whom I have just chatted with, has reminded me of an amusing incident relating to a reversal of Mr. Strong's usual procedure. Once when the town was considering an appropriation to be used in providing bath-rooms at the Town Farm, he arose and said: "I move that the amount be raised to $10,000 to be used for that purpose and immediately expended, for at the present rate of extravagance we all shall be there soon and it will be well to have sufficient bath-rooms ready for us."

There was some wire-pulling, but not of a serious character. There were impassioned debates, hot words, sharp retorts, personal reflections, but the bitternesses were speedily mollified. I recall an instance of decidedly unparliamentary and unchristian character when in an excited encounter, either " Bill " Foote or I charged the other with what a shrewd boy defined as "an abomination in the sight of God and a very present help in time of trouble." I cannot now recall which of us was the accuser and which the accused. The incident was soon closed and did not impair our protracted friendship.

It is a great privilege and satisfaction to be able to visualize the town meetings of that interesting period and it will be, on many grounds, an expensive loss to the citizens, when that local forum becomes obsolete because a city charter does not require its perpetuation.

Frank Grant

The building of our sewer and drainage system in 1889 resulted in such decided changes, not only in sanitary but also in physical conditions, as to warrant more than passing notice as one of the remarkable developments of the last fifty years.

Older residents will recall that springs under the hill on which Noble Hospital is situated formed a swampy section near the head of Cortez Street. From this source, with the addition of a small stream which came from the north side of Court Street, west of Bates, there rose a brook which flowed in an easterly direction through about the middle of the southern portion of the town. Just west of Pleasant Street this brook received the waters of another stream from the south which, by the way, furnished facilities for a tannery near the present site of the Abner Gibbs schoolhouse. The main stream continued easterly across (under) Broad Street in the vicinity of H. C. Lane's present home, where it received another tributary which had its source in a spring near the east line of the new Post-Office and ran under the First Church. From this point the main stream passed under the old canal and, crossing Taylor Avenue, State and Cross Streets (on the east side of which latter it furnished water for another tannery once operated by Lemuel Grant and Horace Avery) it continued on across Noble Street and flowed into Little River at a point about opposite Reuben Noble's residence.

Another stream had its rise in the swampy section north of Pine Hill Cemetery, near the southerly end of Smith Avenue, and ran eastward through what is now Green Avenue, under the old Normal School Dormitory - now "The Alquat" - across Washington Street and back of the Green District schoolhouse. It soon turned northward, crossing School Street near the former Advent Church, and continued across Church, Arnold and Franklin Streets and through Maple Street, - the sidewalk on the east side of Maple Street being a plank covering for the brook. From this point it turned again eastward and, after crossing (under) Elm Street, received the water from the tail-race of the J. R. Rand Whip Factory, now the site of the Westfield Power Company's buildings, and continued under the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, north of Birge Avenue, and across (under) Mechanic Street on the east side of which it again furnished power for a whip shop. Thence it took a southeasterly direction around the Old Cemetery, through the farm of Erastus (Charles) Grant and along what is now White Street where it was known as "Grant's Brook." Just north of the present site of the Fort Meadow school it furnished the "old swimming hole" for boys of that section and generation. Thence it continued under the (then) hill back of the old Main Street schoolhouse and along the northerly side of Main Street until it crossed (under) Meadow Street a few rods north of the stone that marks the site of the second meeting-house at the corner of Main and Meadow Streets. Then following pretty nearly what must have been the northern line of the palisade of Indian days, it flowed into Great River back of the old Major Taylor place - now the J. W. Loomis homestead - a bit of its former bed being still visible in the rear of F. H. Avery's home on Main Street.

The Rand factory referred to above, received its power from a section of the old canal which was still in existence at that time, the Rand wheelpit being its northern terminus while the "Feeder Brook," which used to cross South Broad Street, marked its southern extremity. Main Street crossed it so nearly at its surface-line that the bridge timbers were always in the water. In summer it afforded a fine swimming-place for the boys of the rising generation and in winter a splendid skating-place. That part of the canal just south of Main Street and east of the foundry, being much wider than the rest, was known as "the basin." Academy Street, which used to extend down to "the basin," was formerly called Basin Street.

In especially cold winters the boys were able to skate the canal's whole length and up the feeder brook to Brush Dam in Little River, back of the Charles R. Fowler farm, and on up to Cowles' Dam (Crane's Mill). When the canal was discontinued the railroad and presumably other abutters acquired title to the old canal bed, which brings to mind an amusing and characteristic reply made by the late Deacon H. B. Smith when the writer banteringly asked him : " How did your people get title to so much of that canal bed?" This was in his later years, and although he was nearly blind, his eyes twinkled as we used to see them do in prayer meeting or in town meeting, as he said : "I'll tell you. There's only one other man and the Lord and myself that know. The other man is dead and I'm going to be soon and the Lord isn't saying anything."

With the passing of the old canal came relocation of the roadbed of the New Haven Railroad and separation of the grades at all its street crossings through the town. Subsequently the present viaduct was built to carry the Boston and Albany Railroad over Elm Street near the station, and later the stations of the two roads were consolidated.

Thus it may be seen how thoroughly the sewer system has changed very considerable portions of Westfield referred to above - the streets running south from Court, south from Franklin and east from Smith Avenue, together with the whole district comprising White, George and Frederick Streets and covering the old Moseley Park tract which was the circus ground of a generation ago, - much of this latter having been filled in with foundry sand from the H. B. Smith Company in recent years. Indeed the result has been a very marked change in the home-building and appearance of Westfield during the last half century.

In the appendix to Mr. Bates' "The Westfield Bicentennial" he gives under "Pictures of Westfield As It Was" his early memories of homes in Main, Broad and Court Streets. In the following pages the attempt is made to identify those properties as occupied at present:

South Side

Perhaps it is worth while irr this connection to note briefly the more conspicuous changes on the other prominent street leading from the Green during the last half century, viz. - Elm Street. On the east side going north there has been little change except general improvement in appearance until coming to the Winthrop Hotel, which, with the buildings between it and the Lambson Block, submerge the flower garden and the residences of the late Samuel Dow and of Dr. Woodvine, the latter having been, I think, Westfield's earliest homeopathic physician. Mr. Dow conducted what was perhaps the first commercial greenhouse in town. The Lambson Block at the corner of Thomas Street stands in what was George Dow's front dooryard.

On the north corner of Thomas Street was the residence of Asa P. Rand, and next the residence first of Dr. J. H. Waterman and later of Dr. M. L. Robinson, both sites now covered by the imposing Columbus Block, and the Y. M. C. A. Building. The Baptist Church and Allen Memorial Building occupy the site of the old Captain Charles Douglas house. The John Bancroft house, next north (removed to and now standing on Chapel Street), made way for the Central House on the corner of Chapel Street. On the north corner the Universalist church has been remodeled and is now the Masonic Temple. Just beyond the next two residences stood the old Noble-Ashley house (a cut of it is in Mr. Greenough's contribution to "Copeland's History of Hampden County"), said to have been the first house erected on Elm Street. I think it was on the site of that house that the Hoop Skirt-" Crinoline "-Factory of Rand, Lewis & Rand stood, finally burned and the site now occupied by the buildings of the Westfield Power Company. The latter also covers the site of the old J. R. Rand Whip Shop, whose bell always rang as well as the various church bells whenever there was a fire, before the advent of power fire-engines and the electrical fire-alarm signal system.

Beyond the Rand Factory stood William Provin's shop and that of Shepard, Holcomb & Cook. All these buildings suffered in the flood of 1869. The last before coming to the railroad was the old-time blacksmith shop of William Phelps, practically the site of the Swift Company's building of today. Beyond the railroad and Bartlett Street, the brick block and the Nickel Theatre hold the site of the old Cornelius Bartlett house; the Tivoli on that of William A. Johnson. Farther north and beyond the Standard-Atwater-Bay State and now again the Standard Whip Shop, the major change has been the remodeling of the Lay Whip Shop into a church and still later the building just beyond it of the more pretentious Church of the Holy Trinity and parochial residence. Beyond Meadow Street the extensive development of the power plant of E. A. & S. A. Allen has displaced the church organ factory of Steer & Turner and the old-time town dump at the south end of the old covered bridge.

On the west side of Elm Street, corner of Court Street, the fine old residence of the late Hon. James Fowler has become the home of the Westfield Atheneum (Free Public Library). Next, the Holland Block holds its own, but the old Woronoco Hotel (Wilmarth House) has lost its veranda, acquired a modern front and flourishes under the name of "The New Park Square." The buildings next north to School Street are much the same in appearance, but on the north corner of School Street (the Methodist people having built their fine house of worship on Court Street) the old church minus its steeple and white paint is now the Commercial Block, sheltering as one of its tenants a Loomis grocery store as it did fifty years ago. For thirty-eight years it housed the United States Post- Office. North to Church Street, the First National Bank has rebuilt its front but no other material change has occurred. The old Baptist Church on the north corner of Church Street would hardly be recognized with its three-story brick front. This building also held the Post-Office for some eight years. A little farther north the residence of Dr. Andrews has been pushed back and forms the rear part of the Woronoco Hotel Building.

This brings us to the Parks Block covering the site of the former residence of T. Horton Loomis (the house now the residence of C. F. Austin on Woronoco Avenue) and of the old Atwater-Blair place. In its day the latter house was a fine old mansion with mammoth elm trees in front, - trees probably over a hundred years old when cut down to make way for the new block. On the south corner of Arnold Street, now occupied by the Gowdy Block, stood the Chapman-Smith-Gowdy residence, where General Samuel Chapman Armstrong of Hampton School fame spent part of his earlier life. On the north corner where the Gillett Block and the Lakin Block stand was the house of Dr. Jehiel Abbott, the building now standing on Arnold Street as the Colonial Hotel. The Parker and the Lane & Loomis Blocks cover the sites of the homes of Rev. Dr. Emerson Davis (long time pastor of the First Church) and of the late Cutler Laflin. A little farther north was the residence of Dr. William Bell, later of J. B. Williams (the building now on Mechanic Street next north of the Old Cemetery gate). That site and next, on to Franklin Street, are now covered by store properties.

From Franklin Street to the railroad crossing are various but not notable changes. The old-time Elm Street Schoolhouse (supplanted by the Davis School on Bartlett Street, now the Boys' Trade School) is still standing as a tenement house in the rear of its former site. The residence of William Phelps, just opposite his shop, is now part of a furniture store. Between the railroad and Orange Street the Van Deusen Block and that built by Thayer & Waterman stand on the ground formerly covered by the W. A. Johnson Church Organ Factory. After the burning of the latter their new factory was built near the dike at the south end of the bridge, now occupied by the Emmons Howard Church Organ Business, and the J. J. Fuller Wood Turning Shop. North of Orange Street are the Merrick Lumber Company's Warehouse, the Kosciuszko Hotel, the Sanford (Donovan Brothers' Branch of the United States Whip Company), and the Massasoit Whip Shop (now the Rogers Silver Company's Plant), all built in comparatively recent years.

Elm Street with its successive regradings (sidewalks three and four deep in places), now granite paved and traversed by the Franklin Street, Union Street and Holyoke trolley lines, of the Springfield Street Railway is our busiest thoroughfare.

Frances Fowler

The changes in Westfield's physical aspect are most interestingly portrayed in the Reminiscences of Miss Frances Fowler who gives a delightfully vivid picture of the town as it appeared to the children of fifty years ago.

One day one of my brothers asked : " Mama, do you remember Noah's flood?" My mother disclaimed such a feat of memory, but a younger child said : "Well, I'm sure she can remember when David killed Goliath."

It is said that the changes of the latter half of the nineteenth century were greater than during the five previous centuries, and the changes in Westfield alone make this statement credible.

The wider spaces stand out in my memory, even allowing for the distances of youth, for we had a wealth of meadow, orchard and hill in which to play. In the triangle formed by Court, Broad and Silver Streets, there were only two streets laid out; Mill and Pleasant Streets.

The brow of the hill and the hillside between the present Chestnut Street and Bates Street was a never-failing ground for adventure, with a small brook at the foot of the hill and a little pond near Court Street.

The whole region of the present Tekoa Avenue was pasture and woodland and the Sheldon lot and other lots in the vicinity of Noble Avenue were available for children's feet. There was nothing incongruous in picking huckleberries below Chestnut Street, near a small hole in the hillside which we children named the "Cave of Adullam"; nor in helping the hired men in hay-time in the meadow, drinking the haymakers' drink in close proximity to the big meadow swing gate from the extremely high post of which Eli the High Priest, as impersonated by one of us, fell off when he heard of the fate of his wicked sons; nor in decking what we pretended were shrines of the gods of Greece and Rome, on the slope below the upper end of King Street within sound of the village bells.

The names of the localities were original and interesting: Honey-pot, The Island, Hundred-acres, Lover's Lane, Ponder's Hollow (Pond's Holler), Salmon Falls, Poverty Plain, Pine, Aunt Nab's, Sand and Clay Hills, Squawfield, Tophet, The W., The Jug Road, Madagascar, New Guinea, Jacksland, Pochassic, The Wildcat Road, The Pitcher, Timber Swamp, and Frog Hole.

Westfield is unusual. The flowers that grew around us added, in great measure, to our recollections. The spring in the meadow where the white violets grew we named "The Fountain of Pirene, " and the "gentil knighte" "pricked o'er the plaine" in the same meadow near the grass-grown log bridge under which our pet striped snakes disported. Lancelot, Rob Roy, The Forest Exiles, Horatius and Ivanhoe, with Hector and Aeneas were appropriately placed in the apple orchard whose lane was the scene of many a gallant fight.

I can still see Absalom hanging by miles of hair from the big buttonball tree near the present Holland Avenue; the fairies were most at home in a certain mass of fine grass near Mrs. Root's house (Robert Chapin Parker's) and as for Indians, they might be, and were to our fancy, anywhere. The stone marked "IX miles to Springfield Court House," near Mr. Grant's house on Main Street, was revered like a relic of the Roman Forum ; we learned Grecian architecture from the pillars of some of the houses, and Gothic styles were made familiar to us by the Stimpson house (corner Main and Cross Streets) and even more by the adorable panelled cupboards in the bookstore on Elm Street.

We knew nearly everybody and everybody seemed to know us, though the "little boys" were once chagrined when a man told them: "Oh yes, I know your grandfather, he owes me ten dollars."

Never were children more kindly treated when doing errands. Mr. Holland's apothecary shop was as a crystal palace to us. Mr. Morse made us welcome by song and flute as we passed the display of what seemed crown-jewels, to go up the familiar stairs to his home. Gillett, Snow and Thayer's store was approached by several steps but that ascent achieved, we were often allowed to go behind the counter and make our own change. Mr. Buell let us set our own type for the enigmas which we so kindly contributed as we thought, and which he so patiently printed, as we now know. It was a great day when Mr. Colton, who manufactured extracts, sold peeled lemons and so it was all along the line, even to the candy emporium of Mr. John Hull on the corner of Elm and Church Streets. Once the friendly butcher told my younger brother: "You're a fine boy. You'll be a man before your mother," and a thrill of sadness came to me that such praise could never be bestowed on me.

Naturally, the livery stables were always interesting, and a tinge of the same jealousy beset me when we girls were not asked to sit aloft and drive in a funeral procession.

But we were familiar with horses for the boys drove the cows to pasture and David saddled an extra horse in the morning for the girls to learn to ride.

There is one marked difference between us and the children of the present day. We had no money. We never needed any. When we were sent on errands we brought back the change. Once in a while we had a penny for a stick of candy. Generally speaking, we did work in house or yard with no thought of emolument, but sometimes we were paid small sums for weeding or for picking sage leaves, and we learned finance by buying Christmas presents, with a total of fifty cents with which to purchase gifts for everybody for whom we had not made something.

Christmas was far simpler, but no tree can produce the thrill of creeping downstairs early, in that dark December morning, and feeling the big things, and scampering back to a warm bed with one's own stocking.

A bride of 1848 said to Mr. E. B. Gillett on Court Street: "How much improved this street would be by a row of trees in the middle!" He replied: "Look again," as he and Mr. Samuel Fowler had set them out that year.

My father used to tell of walking barefoot on the fences, as a boy. There were fences for every house lot, sometimes as at our grandfather's ,(the present Atheneum), there were hedges of arbor vitae. The front yards had many more trees and shrubs than is now customary, and syringas, lilacs, Missouri currants, roses and locusts were common - and we older ones amuse ourselves and each other now by enumerating the growing things in the yards we knew best. Judging by present standards there was not room for all that grew.

The grades of the streets running east and west have been many times changed, and future archaeologists will find at least three front walks in many places.

In the early eighties a young man airily offered his company to a young woman with: "May I escort you to your gate?" "Thank you," she said; "the gate is in the woodshed," this being the era when fences, as they wore out, were not repaired, but made way gradually, by slow or rapid decay, for the park effect now well nigh universal. There is less privacy, yet the fences were easy loafing places, and pickets were broken off freely to make wider seats of a summer evening.

Some fences were a constant joy and a scene of walking competition. The fence on Broad Street in front of the Alden (Reed) house was easy, but in front of the Morgan (Way) house the rails were set edges up, and walking was quite a toeing-in stunt. Lawn-mowers were not much used during the days of fences, nor were the streets much sprinkled - still, there was less passing, of course.

One of the joys of travel, aside from the venturesome element, was to have the stage call for passengers. Some one asked once what sort of a woman a certain child had made, "for, " said she, "the last time I saw her she was hanging on behind the old stagecoach." Then came "hacks" and we drove all around town to pick up other travelers, and happy was the youngster who was called for first.

Later there was a small omnibus, but usually people walked, in days before the latest severe flood, through a covered bridge, over the river where, at the further edge, stood a huge old elm tree.*

I suppose vehicular fashion has changed as much as anything, and merely to think of the different kinds of wagons, carriages, carts, sleds, and sleighs in which we have sped over the roads of Hampden County is to set our mental wheels in a whirl. Sleighrides are even yet unsurpassed in many minds. Speaking of vehicles reminds me of Tom Thumb's wonderful little coach, and Tom Thumb reminds me of the Music Hall stage, and the magical, marvelous glass-blowers. How proud we were to have a baby in a bottle or a ship in full sail !

Most of the old inhabitants remember with grateful affection the presiding geniuses of kitchen and barn, whose interest in the affairs of the household made them as much a part of the daily life as the members of. the family. The "American Economical Housekeeper" fifty-fifth thousand in 1845 has one receipt which begins: "Take a hundred pounds of ham. " While in my childhood the food was not cooked in such large quantities, the kitchen was a busy place and nowhere are greater changes seen than in the methods of the domestic and culinary departments. Even when bought, poultry was usually plucked and dressed and vegetables cleaned at home, berries were sold at the door from pails to dishes, milk was poured out by measure into wide pans (with milk tickets passing from hand to pocket and pocket to pan). Nearly everyone made sausages and head cheese at home and tried out the lard. Can't you smell the crisp "scraps?" A whole orange was rather self-indulgent, a bunch of bananas sent from New York a wonder to behold, and Guava jelly a rare arrival - eaten only to "taste" the strange flavor.

The mere word "water" in connection with the kitchen makes one remember the stages from the well, the pump in the yard, the pump in the kitchen, the cold water faucet at the kitchen sink, the luxury of the hot water tank back of the range, and, height of luxury, the faucet thereto, to the water service of today. From water to fire is but a step, and reminds us how recent and how devoid of widespread excitement is the present fire alarm system. For many years the bell of the First Church clanged out the warning, and, if by night, everybody jumped out of bed,

* Then one of if not the finest known specimens of New England's famous elms. Grand in both its size and symmetry. Of more than local fame through Henry Ward Beecher's praise of its surpassing beauty.