This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/4EB.2ACE/896 Message Board Post: History of GREENFIELD by Josiah Holland, 1855 Holland, Josiah Gilbert History of Western Massachusetts. The Counties of Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin & Berkshire Springfield, MA: Samuel Bowles & Company, 1855. Vol. I, 520 pp; Vol. II 619 pp, three parts. Call number 974.4, H71 Vol. II, Part III. Pages 367 - 377 GREENFIELD Names found in this transcription: Alvord, Ames, Barnes, Bellows, Bigelow, Billings, Boylston, Brigham, Burr, Chapman, Childs, Clapp, Coleman, Collins, Davis, Deane, Dickman, Field, Fish, Fowler, Hamilton, Hastings, Henry, Hitchcock, Hunt, Huntington, Jenkins, Kellem, Langstroth, Leavitt, Leonard, Lincoln, Marcy, Marsh, Mather, Miller, Mills, Mudge, Nelson, Newcomb, Newton, Nickols, Olds, Partridge, Paulson, Potter, Ransom, Ripley, Russell, Seaver, Stone, Strong, Townshend, Washburn, Wells, Woodbridge, Woods. Pictures attached : 1839 Central part of Greenfield (2 files), Old River Mill, pre 1915 (email list members must view on the msg board click the link inside the message) GREENFIELD page 367 ....The territory of Greenfield was originally a part of Deerfield, being then called Green River. Jan. 15, 1738-9, the inhabitants of Green River petitioned the town of Deerfield to be set off as a separate parish, which was re- fused. The request was renewed, and a question having arisen as to the dividing line, at a town meeting at Deer- field April 2d, 1753, it was voted "that Col. Oliver PARTRIDGE, Doct. Samuel MATHER, and Lieut. Ebenezer HUNT be desired to consider and determine where ye dividing line shall be between ye town and ye proposed district on the North side of Deerfield river;" and " to act and determine page 368 as if there had been no votes of the town previous to this with regard to said lands or district with respect to the boundaries." This committee met and viewed the lands, April 10th attended by a committee of two from, the old town and two from the proposed districts, and made a re- port dated April 12, 1753, which was accepted at a town meeting in Deerfield, April 13. This report determined the name of 'eight thousand acre line,' to run from Con- necticut river West to the West end of the first tier of lots which lie West of the seven mile line, &c." This is the present line between Greenfield and Deerfield. The report goes on to state: "We further judge it reasonable that ye lands lying in a certain meadow or interval which lies North of Deerfield river, which is known by the name of Cheapside, which belong to Timothy CHILDS, Jr., and David WELLS, who dwell in said proposed district, shall pay taxes to said district when set off. * * * * * We further judge it reasonable the same proportion of county tax laid on the town of Deerfield hereafter be paid by the said district when set off as was levied upon the inhabitants and rata- ble estate in the limits of the district for the last tax, and that the said district, have the improvement of one half of the sequestered lands in the said town of Deerfield, being North of Deerfield river." At a town meeting in Deer- field, December, 1753, a committee was appointed to divide the sequestered land or the income of it, North of Deer- field river, with the minister and people of Greenfield. ....The charter of Greenfield, granted June 9, 1753, after bounding the town according to the report of the commit- tee, and investing it "with all the Privileges, Powers and Immunities that towns in this Province do or may enjoy, that of sending a representative to the General Court only excepted," enacts "that the lands in a certain interval or meadow called Cheapside, which do now belong to Timothy CHILDS, Jun., and David WELLS shall pay their taxes to said district of Greenfield so long as they are owned by any persons living within said district; and again; "Provided also that the said District shall have the improvement of one half of the Sequestered Lands on the North side of Deerfield river, until there shall be another district or parish made out of the said town of Deerfield." The char- page 369 ter, as will be seen, in those provisions did not follow the report and award of the committee, the committee having fixed no limitation of time, when Greenfield should cease to have the taxes from Cheapside, or the improvement of one half of the sequestered lands. In 1767, the district of Conway was made out of Deerfield. ....In 1768, the charter of Greenfield first appears on the town records. And at a town meeting at Greenfield, March 25, 1768, it was voted "to take the best advice we can get with respect to our holding or keeping the sequestered lands for the use of the ministry in Deerfield, and if we can have proper encouragement, to stand a trial in the law for the same." Three days afterwards, a town committee was raised in Deerfield to take advice respecting an attempt to regain these sequestered lands. At a town meeting in Greenfield, August 1, 1768, it was voted "to stand the suit with respect to the sequestered lands;" and May 29, 1769, a committee was chosen "to prefer a petition to the General Court to make a new act with regard to our being set off from ye town of Deerfield, said act to be made agreeable to the report of the committee that was mutually chosen by the town and for that purpose, said report being ac- cepted by the town and district." ....It will be seen from the above various votes that a con- troversy had arisen between Greenfield and Deerfield re- specting the sequestered land, and the variation in the pro- visions of the charter of the town, from the terms of the award of the committee mutually agreed upon by the par- ties. How this variation happened to be made, we cannot now certainly determine, but we know by tradition that it led to many violent disputes between the inhabitants of the two towns, and in one instance, at least, to an actual affray, where rakes and pitchforks were freely used in a contest for the possession of the crops upon the lands in question. It is also certain that the committee intended that there should be no such limitation to the improvement of the sequestered lands, as that provided in the charter of the town; since on December 29, 1770, they drew up and signed a certificate as follows: ....."Whereas, we the subscribers were appointed by the town of Deerfield, in the year 1753, to consider and determine in what manner the district of Greenfield should be set off from page 370 the town of Deerfield, and among other things to determine what part of the sequestered land in Deerfield the said dis- trict, when set off, should be entitled to, and for what term of time, which article we took under consideration as by our report appears, and we did determine that it was reasonable that the said district should have the improvement of the one half of the said sequestered land lying North of Deerfield river, with- out limitation of any time, &c., and now being desired to sig- nify the understanding we then had of the affair - we do now say tat it was our design and intent that the said district lands, and having seen the act of incorporation of the district the improvement of the said sequestered lands, which we freely declare is entirely contrary to what was our intent and meaning. - - -"Oliver PARTRIDGE, Samuel MATHER, Ebenezer HUNT. - - -"December 29, 1770." ....But the intention of the committee, could not, of course, avail against the express language of the charter, which seems to have been overlooked by the inhabitants of Green- field until the year 1767; and, accordingly, the town of Deerfield prevailed in several suits of trespass, which it commenced against persons in Greenfield, who had entered upon the lands, and carried away the crops. These suits were defended by the town of Greenfield, and were finally settled January 10, 1771, by payment of £40. ....The subject of the desired change of boundary was kept before the General Court until Feb. 2, 1773, when, upon a petition of the Greenfield committee, a preamble and reso- lution were adopted in the House of Representatives, con- taining the following language: "Whereas, it appears that the town of Deerfield did originally grant the lands in the town. And the said town did consent that the district of Greenfield should have one half the same, on the North side of Deerfield river, there being then but one minister, and they expecting there would soon be another settled in said Greenfield. Resolved, that the district of Greenfield ought to hold their proportion of the sequestered or minis- try land aforesaid." In council, on the next day, the above were read, and unanimously non-concurred in. ....No further action appears to have been taken upon this subject until 1782, when it was again brought before the page 371 town, but without any decisive steps being taken. It then rested until 1836-7, when a viewing committee of the Legislature made a unanimous report in favor of the pro- posed change (Sen. Doc. 1837, No. 5,) which was, never- theless, defeated. The same question was embraced in a petition presented to the Legislature of 1850, by residents of the disputed lands, but the petition was withdrawn with- out a hearing upon it, with an intimation by the petitioners that it would be presented to a future Legislature. Of the modern history of this controversy, which has always to some extent alienated the people of Greenfield and Deer- field from each other, and which appears to be not yet finished, we have purposely abstained from speaking at length. ....When the news of the battle of Lexington reached Greenfield, the people assembled on the afternoon of the same day, and formed a company of volunteers upon the spot, choosing Benjamin HASTINGS captain. HASTINGS, how- ever became himself second in command, yielding the first rank to Capt. Timothy CHILDS, who, he modestly said, was a man of greater experience than himself. Aaron DAVIS was then chosen ensign, and the next morning the company marched for Cambridge. During the whole war of the Revolution the people of this town took an active interest in its progress and success, as is abundantly shown by the numerous records of votes choosing committees of corres- pondence and safety, approving the confederation of the United States, raising money for ammunition and food, and hiring men for the army, as well as by their prompt per- sonal obedience to the calls for reinforcements. ....It was not until the meeting of the first Legislature under the Constitution of Massachusetts, which assembled in Octo- ber, 1789, that Greenfield first became entitled to a repre- sentative. In 1802, the town was visited by a pestilence which destroyed 57 persons during the year. ....September 24, 1753, after taking the advice of several ministers with respect to the fitness of Mr. Edward BILLINGS for the work of the ministry in Greenfield, the town voted to give him a call, which was accepted. In 1760, a call was given to Mr. Roger NEWTON, which was accepted, Mr. BILINGS having died, but in what year it is not known. In page 372 1813, the town invited Rev. Gamaliel S. OLDS to settle as colleague with Mr. NEWTON, and Mr. OLDS so acted until 1816, when he was dismissed. In December, 1816, Mr. NEWTON died, aged 79, after a ministry in this place of fifty- six years. Rev. Sylvester WOODBRIDGE was ordained as minister in 1817, and dismissed in 1823; in 1832, Rev. Amariah CHANDLER, the present minister of the 1st Society, was ordained. The old meeting-house on the plain, a mile North of Greenfield Village, was taken down in 1831, and the present meeting-house at Nash's mills was built. ....There was a division of the original society about the time of the death of Mr. NEWTON, and the new society built their meeting-house in 1819. For a time this society had the services of Rev. Dan HUNTINGTON, now of Hadley. Their settled ministers have been Rev. Messrs. Charles JENKINS, from 1820 to 1824; William C. FOWLER, 1825 to 1827; Caleb S. HENRY, 1829 to 1831; Thomas BELLOWS, 1833 to 1834; Samuel WASHBURN, 1837 to 1841; Lorenzo L. LANGSTROTH, 1849 to 1848; George C. PARTRIDGE, 1848 to 1854. ....The 3d Congregational Society (Unitarian) separated from the 2d society in 1825. Their ministers have been Rev. Winthrop BAILEY, from 1825 to 1835; Rev. John PARKMAN, Jr., 1837 to 1839; since which time several ministers have preached as states supplies. Their meet- ing-house was built in 1837. ....The Episcopal Society was formed in 1812. Titus STRONG has been the rector since 1815. Their church was built in 1814, and rebuilt in 1847. The latter is a sub- stantial stone edifice, equaling in the beauty of its finish and internal decorations, any in Western Massachusetts. ....The Methodist Society was formed in 1835. Their preachers have been Rev. Messrs. Paul TOWNSHEND, B. RANSOM, L. C. COLLINS, C. BARNES, L. B. BIGELOW, L. MARCY, J. MUDGE, R. KELLEM, S. MARCY, J. NICKOLS, D. AMES, J. PAULSON, and Linus FISH. The Baptist Society was formed in 1852, and have pur- chased a place for a church. The preachers have been Rev. Joseph H. SEAVER and Rev. Wm. F. NELSON. ....In 1753, the pay of persons that had done service for the district, in school teaching was fixed at two shillings a page 373 day for Summer, and one shilling and fourpence a day for the Fall. In 1763, it was voted to hire a school all the year round; and in 1767, the town was divided into seven school districts, £20 being raised as school money. At present, $3,246 are raised for school money by the town, and there are 10 public schools with fourteen teachers. A high school with 50 scholars, established under the statues of the State, is taught by Luther b. LINCOLN. The Green- field Institute for the education of Young Ladies, incorpo- rated in 1843, under the charge of the Misses STONE, main- tains its high reputation. ....In 1763, the population of Greenfield was 368; in 1830, it was 1,550; in 1840, it was 1,758; in 1850, it was 2,580; and at present is somewhat over 3,000 and is rapidly increasing. ....The town contains two banks, the Greenfield and the Franklin County, each with a capital stock of $200,000, an Institution for Savings with deposits to the amount of $300,000, tow Insurance Companies, the Franklin Mutual and the Greenfield Stock and Mutual, a Horticultural Asso- ciation, &c., &c., ....The Green River Cemetery Company was organized May 26, 1851, and its present officers are Henry W. CLAPP, President, and Henry B. CLAPP, Treasurer. The Ceme- tery is situated within the limits of Deerfield, upon a hill which overlooks the village of Greenfield, half a mile to the North, and is laid out with much taste and elegance, and will in a few years be one of the most beautiful of the rural cemeteries of New England. ....In 1850, a Fire Department was organized in this town, and at present there are two large and effective fire com- panies, two fire engines, and a well disciplined Hook and Ladder Company, with appropriate implements. There are several ample reservoirs in different parts of the village. ....Amongst the manufacturing establishments, the following are the most prominent: ....The Green River Works, for the manufacture of Cutlery, established in 1834, by John RUSSELL, its present head, on the Green River, at about a quarter of a mile North of its present situation. The buildings were destroyed by fire in 1836, and were rebuilt and enlarged the same year, where they now stand, a few rods below the dividing line page 374 between Greenfield and Deerfield. Within a few years, the business and the building have been much increased, and at the present, table cutlery, and butcher and shoe knives to the amount of $300,000 are annually manufac- tured by 300 men and boys; with an annual consumption of 100 tuns of cast steel, 180 tuns of Granadilla wool, 50 tuns of ebony, 50 tons on cattle horns, 16,500 lbs. of ivory, 150 tuns of hard coal, 15,000 bushels of charcoal, 175 tuns of grindstones, and other articles in the like proportion. Cutlery of their manufacture is found all over the United States. The present proprietors are John RUSSELL, Nathaniel E. RUSSELL, and Henry B. CLAPP. ....The Greenfield Manufacturing Company was incorpor- rated in 1832, with a capital stock of $80,000 which is now held equally by Charles H. MILLS and Co. if Boston, and Theodore LEONARD of Greenfield, Mr. LEONARD being the Treasurer of the Company and manager of the estab- lishment. It manufactures black doeskins exclusively, and turns out about 140,000 yards annually, worth from $150,000 to $175,000, consuming about 150,000 lbs. of wool, mostly of the finer quality of Saxony, and employ- ing 120 operatives. Its goods are manufactured with great care, and are well known to the trade in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, which are its principal markets. The mill is a substantial stone building, 100 feet by 45, four stories high. It has, besides, a smaller stone building, used in the finishing processes, a dye house, machine shop, wool house and other buildings, with five sets of machinery. The situation is upon Fall River, at a beautiful an romantic spot surrounded by high hills, and near Turner's Falls. ....The Greenfield Tool Company removed to this place in 1851, from Conway, where it was first organized in 1850. Its present officers are George W. POTTER, President, and Hopkins WOODS, Treasurer. There are two buildings, each two stories high, and 200 feet long, besides a range con- taining the store room, blacksmith's shop, &c., of still greater length, which with other smaller buildings, cost some $33,000 besides the land; all situated on the Con- necticut River Railroad, a short distance above Greenfield village. It employs 80 hands, all Americans, and makes about $80,000 worth of joiners' tools annually, and with page 375 its recent additions to machinery will probably make a larger amount in future; consuming at present 120,000 feet of beech timber a year, with some $3,000 worth of foreign woods. Its metals are all manufactured on the premises from the raw material, except plane-irons. The foods manufactured are sold in Australia, California, South America, the West Indies, the Canadas, and in all of the United States. ....Messrs. S. and F. BOYLSTON manufacture annually $12,000 to $15,000 worth of baby wagons, gigs and car- riages of every description, varying in price from $1.50 to $130. This is a new branch of business in this region, and is prosecuted by the Messrs. BOYLSTON, and R. E. FIELD, with an energy well calculated to supply the in- creasing demand. ....The following are some of the men of note now dead, who have lived in Greenfield; Roger NEWTON, the minister of the First Congregational Society, from 1761 to 1816. Isaac NEWTON, a nephew of Roger NEWTON, and a man of much benevolence, came to the town in 1770, and died in 1834, aged 75. Caleb CLAPP, a gentleman of the old school, an officer in the Revolution, and a friend of Washington. Thomas CHAPMAN, a native of England, and the father of Rev. Dr. Geo. T. CHAPMAN, and Henry CHAPMAN. William COLEMAN, a native of Boston, and for many years before his death the editor of the New York Evening Post, the friend of HAMILTON, and the partner of BURR, lived in Greenfield during his early life, and many beauti- ful elms, planted by him, which still adorn the village, bear witness to his taste and public spirit. Jerome RIPLEY, the father of Franklin RIPLEY, and of George RIPLEY, now of the New York Tribune, died Dec. 25, 1838, at the age of 84, an honored resident for 49 years. Jonathan LEAVITT Judge of Probate and of the C. C. Pleas, died in 1830. Richard E. NEWCOMB, Judge of Probate, from 1821 until his death in May, 1849. Elijah ALVORD, a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1820, the father of James C. ALVORD, and of Daniel W. Alvord, and clerk of the courts from 1819 till his death in Sept. 1840. James C. ALVORD, beyond all question one of the most brilliant and promis- ing men in the state, elected member of Congress in 1838, but died at the age of 31, in Sept. 1839, before taking his page 376 seat. Daniel WELLS, late Chief Justice of the C. C. Pleas, who died in June, 1854. Dr. John STONE, born in 1763, came to Greenfield in 1787, and removed to Springfield about 1819, where he died in 1838, aged 75. Dr. Alpheus F. STONE, brother of the foregoing, practiced medicine here from 1805, until his death in August, 1851. Dr. Amariah BRIGHAM, late of the Insane Hospital at Utica, N.Y., lived here from 1821 to 1831. Thomas DICKMAN, already noticed in the history of the newspaper press, as the printer of the first newspaper here. .....Dexter MARSH, the collector of the fossils of Connecti- cut River, died April 2, 1853, aged 47. A brief sketch of the history of these fossils will be proper in this place. A discovery, indicating that birds and other animals in- habited the earth during the deposition of the New Red Sand-stone of the Connecticut River, was made in 1835, in the South-west part of Montague. Their footprints are impressed upon the strata of this rock, in a very perfect state of preservation. The importance attached to these vestiges, lies in the fact, that they reveal the existence of air-breathing, warm-blooded animals, in a period of the earth's antiquity, immensely remote. The discovery of such indications of the higher grade of animal life so low down in the geological series, conflicted with established doctrines, and there was not a geologist in this country or in Europe, who would admit the manifest conclusion at first drawn from these eloquent inscriptions. The first practical observer of these foot-marks and the discoverer of the fact that they were the foot-marks of birds, was Dr. James DEANE of Greenfield; and it was by his efforts, thorough the means of descriptions, plaster casts, &c., that the attention of eminent scientific men was drawn to the subject. Dr. Edward HITCHOCK of Amherst gave them the first thorough scientific world. He pursued the intelligence, and such thorough method, as forever to iden- tify his name with the discovery and the philosophical con- clusions of which it form the basis. ....At a later day the subject attracted the attention of Mr. MARSH, who pursued it with extraordinary vigor and suc- cess. Although the gentleman did not posses the advan- page 377 tages of education, yet by untiring activity, and by the acuteness of his judgment, he has been justly regarded as the Hugh MILLER of the New Red Sandstone. He was sus- tained by a singular enthusiasm until, by discovery upon discovery, he contributed a collection of inestimable value to this single department of paleontological science. His cabinet contained the record of innumerable birds, reptiles and fishes; a record of unmistakable truth, that three classes of the animal kingdom flourished in affluent abun- dance during the sandstone era of the world. At his exc- cutor's sale in Sept., 1853, this magnificent collection real- ized nearly three thousand dollars, a significant evidence of its appreciation by the scientific public. Mr. MARSH originated in Montague, but lived in Greenfield for many years previous to his death.