Springfield, Massachusetts

“ A ride of twenty-five miles northward from Hartford brought us to Springfield, the most enterprising and important town in Western Massachusetts. The United States Armory, located here, gives to the city a national consequence. No city in the Union did more to crush out the Rebellion than Springfield, through her Armory. Two or three thousand men were kept constantly employed here during the war, turning out the various arms used in the Federal service. The force now employed is considerably less than in war times. ”

“ The city owns and operates the waterworks.
Springfield was founded in 1636 by a company of settlers from Roxbury led by William Pynchon (1590-1662) . Pynchon, who had been one of the original patentees of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was dissatisfied with the government of Roxbury, of which he had been a founder. On a trip to the Connecticut Valley he selected a spot for a new colony which should have a limited membership and in which his ideas as to government might be put into execution. ”

“ The water-works are owned and operated by the municipality. The system has cost $2,141,263. The net debt of the city in 1902 was $2,196,888; the assessed valuation of real and personal property, $74,338,927. The population in 1800 was 2312 ”

“ But the people were repaid for hours of waiting by the arrival only of a few men who had been furloughed from the hospitals. On the next day it was soon known that the regiment would surely arrive and long before the hour set for the special train to arrive from New London the station and its approaches were crowded with people, including the relatives and friends of the members, not only of the Springfield companies but of the companies from the other sections of Western Massachusetts. ”

“ Springfield is a port of entry, its foreign trade in 1901 consisting of imports valued at $88,846. In the census year 1900 the various manufacturing industries had capital to the amount of $17,106,000, and an output valued at $21,207,000. The leading manufactures are foundry and machine-shop products, paper and envelopes, tobacco, cigars and cigarettes, brass castings, lumber and lumber products, buttons, electrical apparatus and supplies, confectionery, bicycles, automobiles, rubber and elastic goods, cotton and woolen goods, tools, etc. ”

“ In another matter of internal interest the influence of the confederacy was manifested. Among other considerations for the cession of the Saybrook fort, Fenwick was promised the proceeds for the term of ten years of a duty on all corn, biscuit, beaver, and cattle exported from the Connecticut River.10 March 4, 1645, the general court of Connecticut passed an act to carry out their promise; but as the law affected the trade of Springfield on the upper waters of the Connecticut River as much as that of the Connecticut towns, Springfield protested, and appealed to the protection of Massachusetts. ”

“ MEANWHILE, and while the infantry were getting in readiness, Springfield had already sent some of her sons on duty. The naval arm of the service was in a far more advanced state of preparation than was the army and it was the general opinion that of necessity the war would be one in which the navy would take the most prominent part, leaving but little for the land forces to do except garrison duty. Springfield had taken great pride in her company of the Massachusetts naval brigade since its organization and expected great things of it in the event of its being called upon for duty. ”

“ A letter to him from his former aide-de-camp, Colonel Humphreys, dated New Haven, November 1st, says: "The troubles in Massachusetts still continue. Government is prostrated in the dust, and it is much to be feared that there is not energy enough in that State to re-establish the civil powers. The leaders of the mob, whose fortunes and measures are desperate, are strengthening themselves daily; and it is expected that they will soon take possession of the Continental magazine at Springfield, in which there are from ten to fifteen thousand stand of arms in excellent order. ”

“ It had only four cars and twenty-five horses. Three years ago horses were displaced by electricity. Now, in the busy season, the daily mileage of transit on the thirty-five miles of track is equal to the distance from Springfield to San Francisco and half-way back. During the fiscal year closing October first, 1892, 7,500,000 fares were taken.
The stores of Springfield are remarkably large and tasteful. Haynes & Company have the largest clothing house in Massachusetts, out of Boston. ”

“ These newcomers, Bradford carefully notes, as we also are glad to do, treated the Pilgrims more fairly. By the end of 1636, there may have been eight hundred people in Connecticut, settled mainly at Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield, while the little settlement of Springfield, within the legal limits of Massachusetts, had also been planted. ”

“ Could you not write more often than once a week? It is very lonely here, but Springfield is really a lovely place. The river, as it comes sweeping down from the hills, is beautiful. There is a very pretty society here for a small town, and some assemblies. I think you love the country. I think that a girl, even one who had been brought up in Boston, might under certain circumstances be happy here. ”

“ Since the muster-out three more of Springfield's contingent, all K company men, have answered the final roll call. Corporal Thomas C. Boone died in Massachusetts general hospital at Boston, March 19, 1899, and Private Michael R. Lyons at Springfield, April 20. Private George C. Creley died June 25, at his home after a long illness. Private John L. Morehouse died in Springfield, November 12, 1889. ”

“ The old war between the town and the gown seems revived, with this difference, that the natives of Springfield act like the University students, and the finest World’s Fair visitors seem the real citizens of the place, insulted at the deeds of the freshmen. ”

“ Springfield, 1, capital (34) of Illinois, situated in a flourishing coal district, 185 m. SW. of Chicago; has an arsenal, two colleges, and a handsome marble capitol; coal-mining, foundries, and flour, cotton, and paper mills are the chief industries; the burial-place of Abraham Lincoln. 2, A nicely laid out and flourishing city (62) of Massachusetts, capital of Hampden County, on the Connecticut River (spanned here by five bridges) , 99 m. ”

“ So, wen one 's chose to Congriss, ez soon ez he 's in it,
A collar grows right round his neck in a minnit,
[Pg 44] An' sartin it is thet a man cannot be strict
In bein' himself, when he gets to the Deestrict,
Fer a coat thet sets wal here in ole Massachusetts,
Wen it gits on to Washinton, somehow askew sets.
Resolves, do you say, o' the Springfield Convention?
Thet 's percisely the pint I was goin' to mention;
Resolves air a thing we most gen'ally keep ill,
They 're a cheap kind o' dust fer the eyes o' the people ”

“ They are not on the map, but that matters little. We ought to be thankful that the dullness of the guide-book makers and topographists has still left us here and there serene bits of nature.
Springfield had a church, and a school, and a post office, and a tavern. It was a scattered sort of place, and a week of it would have proved the death of a city lady, accustomed to life only as it glows with color, or sparkles with the champagne of passion. ”

“ The capital was established at Springfield in 1837, an attractive city of about thirty thousand inhabitants, built on a prairie a few miles south of Sangamon River, a tributary of the Illinois, and from its floral development and the adornment of its gardens and shade trees, Springfield is popularly known as the "Flower City." There is a magnificent State Capitol with high surmounting dome, patterned 411 somewhat after the Federal Capitol at Washington. Springfield has coal-mines which add to its prosperity, but its great fame is connected with Abraham Lincoln. ”

“ For this the Rev. gentleman was not only tried by a council of the church, but a sheriff and his posse appeared and arrested Mr. Breck in his Majesty's name, and the prisoner was taken first to the town-house, and afterward to New London for trial."
A MASSACHUSETTS MILL STREAM.
The early Springfield settlers had few of the [97] articles which we consider the commonest comforts of life.
Hon. John Worthington, "One of the Gods of the Connecticut Valley," owned the first umbrella in Springfield. He never profaned the article by carrying it in the rain, but used it as a sun-shade only. ”

“ Avanel and I walk south to the city down beautiful Fifteenth Street. The city is the Fair and the Fair is the city, though there has not yet come the formal proclamation to the world of the opening. There is not one heart on the street but seems to be beating happily. The elation in the air on this perfect June night is worth a lifetime of groans. It seems to me that for this hour Springfield has been patiently toiling and staggering on, despite much sorrow and sin, for a century. ”

“ Several months after the ending of the Civil War I visited the city of Springfield in Southwest Missouri. Springfield is not a burgh of extensive dimensions, yet it is the largest in that part of the State, and all roads lend to it—which is one reason why it was the point d'appui, as well as the base of operations for all military movements during the war. ”

“ The voices of the children will be as noble as the discourses of the prairie winds that catch our tree boughs at sunset. Every house will be as delicate and subtle as the ferny hollows of the Sangamon. The convert will name many birds that will come at his call and he will feed them crumbs of this Blessed Bread in friendship.
“When Springfield has partaken of this manna for a generation, all things will become new. Leavening thoughts will come from all the street corners. Novel fancies will come from the coffee houses. ”

“ The city has been losing, since the election and the lynching, as much genius as it does deviltry. Sparrow Short who has been obliged to take down his pictures and hang them defiantly in his own studio, has turned into a profane old varlet, amazing to hear, and is inciting as many pupils of ours as possible to leave Springfield. ”

“ Springfield, Mass., has set the doors of its hospitality wide open in its welcome to the Fifty-fourth Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association. This city occupies an ideal position for such a convention. It is the center of many railroad lines, both steam and electric. A large population are resident in the towns and cities and countryside, easily accessible through these lines of transportation. It is so located geographically that many of our most populous states are within easy distance. ”

“ There are Jack Armstrong and William Green, Kelso and Jason Duncan, Alley and Carman, Hill and McNamar, Herndon and Rutledge, Warburton and Sincho, Bale and Ellis, Abraham and Ann. Oh, what a history!"
In those days, which in the progressive West would be called ancient days, New Salem was in Sangamon County, with Springfield as the county-seat. Springfield itself was still a mere village, having a population of one thousand, or perhaps eleven hundred. ”

“ All phases of the race—the religious mystery, moving in harmony, cleanness, and self respect are not only a part of Springfield’s total personality, but of Springfield’s government, in the midst of apparent mob-law. ”

“ Springfield remained little more than a large country market town until the completion of the Boston & Albany railway in 1839. From that time its growth as a railway and manufacturing centre was marked. Springfield was a strong abolition centre before the Civil War, and from here active plans were put in operation for sending material aid in the form of men and arms to the “free state” party in Kansas. ”

“ Every kind of a skirmish between Catholic and Protestant, aristocrat and democrat, labor and capital, is obliterated or merged into this main war. Springfield is Black Hawk Boone, President of the Board of Education and the World’s Fair of the University of Springfield and editor of the relentless Boone Ax:—versus this gang composed of Mayor Kopensky, Sims, his boss, and the laughing, dancing crew led by Drug Store Smith and Coffee Kusuko and Cave Man Thomas. ”

“ Then, late in the afternoon, local war breaks out suddenly and we know nothing about the trees, and care less. It is a Springfield utterly new and terrible to its citizens. The star chimes are not allowed to ring. ”

“ Springfield is a long straggling village, on a fine flat, sheltered on the north by a small chain of low but abrupt hills, and bounded on the south by the beautiful river Muskingum. The road or street is of clean gravel, and the [Pg 225] cabins are distinguished from those I had hitherto seen by their chimneys of brick, instead of stone or logs. There are some good brick houses building, and some taverns and some stores, which give it a thriving appearance. There is also a fine grist and saw mill at the falls of the Muskingum at the upper end of the town. ”

“ It was 1810 when David Ames brought the first piano into the little settlement.
We are furnished with a description of Springfield in 1789 by the journal of the Great Washington. Under the date of October twenty-first he wrote, "There is a great equality in the people of this State. Few or no opulent men, and no poor. Great similitude in their buildings, the general fashion of which is a chimney—always of brick or stone—and a door in the middle, with a staircase fronting the latter, and running up by the side of the former ”

“ The Spirit of the Lord was manifested and we returned to our tents feeling thankful for the blessings of the Lord upon us.
Through Springfield.
Friday, July 27.—Continued our journey to Springfield on the National road, one hundred and seventy-one miles from Wheeling, in Virginia. Crossed Buck creek, a branch of Mad river just before entering the village on the north. Springfield is a large and beautiful village, the county seat of Clark county, containing about three thousand inhabitants. There are many elegant buildings of brick, and it seems to be a place of considerable trade. ”