Chapter IV Yearly springfield and longmeadow, massachusetts WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO BENJAMIN COOLEY PIONEER 'Write this for a memorial in a book." Exodus XVII: 14 Harry Andrew Wright Member American Antiquarian Society Generated for Ian Guido Huntington (New York University) on 2014-07-29 05:23 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89066037771 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-google CHAPTER IV EARLY SPRINGFIELD AND LONGMEADOW Harry Andrew Wright In the autumn of 1635, William Pynchon, with two scouts, John Cable and John Woodcock, sailed up the Connecticut river in their "great shallops"1 and con- cluded an exploring trip at the confluence of the Agawam and the Connecticut rivers, where, as related by Edward Johnson in 1654, they found a district "fitly seated for a beaver trade."2 It is quite possible that the scouts had viewed and chosen the land on a previous excursion and that Pynchon's visit was to give his final approval to the selection. Nothing contributed so much toward the lure for the exploration and settlement of North America as the quest for the beaver. Interest became quite pro- nounced early in the seventeenth century. Bartholo- mew Gosnold voyaged hither in 1602, trading inci- dentally for furs with the Indians. In 1603, Martin Pring coasted along the New England shore and re- ported seeing animals "whose furs may yield no small gain to us." In 1614, Captain John Smith, of Poca- hontas fame, reported that "With eight or nine others, ranging the coast in a small boat, we got for trifles, near eleven hundred beaver skins." English merchants, who financed various colonizing enterprises, urged the emigrants to devote their energies to such commercial activities, rather than to agriculture. At times, the ship- ment of beaver skins totaled as high as 200,000 a year, which, eliminating Sundays, would average around 650 a day. 1 Burt, Vol. I, page 157. 2 Wonder-working Providence, by Edward Johnson. Generated for Ian Guido Huntington (New York University) on 2014-07-29 05:23 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89066037771 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-google 62 THE COOLEY FAMILY The question naturally arises, what use was made of such vast quantities of skins? Were European women in need of that number of fur coats and neck pieces? The answer is decidedly in the negative for the skins were put to a much more prosaic use: the manufacture of felt, primarily for making hats. All which takes the story back to much earlier beginnings. Hats are a variety of the ancient cap and bonnet and were early made of velvet, silk and other rich materials. Formed of felt and assuming a certain firmness of fabric, hats began to be manufactured in England about 1510 and we hear of them superseding caps and softer headgear, in the reign of Elizabeth. Wool was the material first employed in forming felt hats, but wool was scarce and in great demand for the weaving of cloths. St. Clement, the patron saint of the hatters, is credited with first producing felt. It is said that when on a pilgrimage, he put carded wool between his feet and the sole of his sandals and found at his journey's end that the wool was converted into cloth. Regardless of tradition, it is a fact that if carded wool is thus contin- ually trodden and at the same time moistened, it will become felt and all the manufacturer's processes of felting are but modifications of such treatment. It is merely taking advantage of the natural tendency of hairs to interlace and cling to each other. As trade with America developed, the fur of the beaver was adopted, being finer and softer than wool and of lesser cost. Hence the term beaver, as synony- mous with hat, came into use. For more than two centuries, fine beaver hats formed the head covering of the higher classes of Great Britain. As American colonies became established and more and more grew the need for protection to the merchants and bankers who financed those enterprises, the English parliament, in 1638, passed an act prohibiting the Generated for Ian Guido Huntington (New York University) on 2014-07-29 05:23 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89066037771 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-google A Shallop of the Seventeenth Century The term shallop is an Anglicized form of the French chaloupe, the German schaluppe, and has survived as sloop. Used for disembarking on shelving beaches, it had no keel, and so had a lee- board, as does a sailing canoe. In this photograph the larboard lee-board is lowered. Today a center-board would be used. As the shallop was used as a ship's tender, it had no bowsprit. This photograph is of a measured drawing made by the Nautical School in Rotterdam from sketches made by Dr. Geoffery Callendar, of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, Eng- land, and is based upon data of Harry Andrew Wright, with whose permission this illustration and explanation are used. A three-foot model of this shallop was made in 1936 at Springfield, Massachusetts, for the Tercentenary exhibit. Generated for Ian Guido Huntington (New York University) on 2014-07-29 05:23 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89066037771 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-google EARLY SPRINGFIELD AND LONGMEADOW 63 making of hats from any material other than "beaver stuff and beaver wool." Great impetus was thus given to the trade and so was created a monopoly that vir- tually existed for two hundred years. On their arrival at Agawam in 1635, the three ex- plorers encountered a little band of nomad Indians, eighteen families in all, under the leadership of two natives whom Pynchon designated as "Commucke and Matanchan, ancient Indians of Agawam."' Had Pyn- chon arrived a year earlier or a year later he might not have found a single Indian there, but the English happened to come in 1635 and there this little band of gypsies just happened then to be. Probably the natives had little comprehension of what was meant by land ownership in the English sense and they certainly had no knowledge of what obligations land sales entailed. But Pynchon was not a free agent. His associates had cautioned that "if any of the savages pretend right of inheritance to all or any part of the lands granted in our patent, we pray you endeavor to purchase their title that we may avoid the least scruple of intrusion."4 Therefore, Pynchon presumably assured the natives that the land which they occupied was theirs and that he proposed to buy it from them. A tentative bargain was made, the Indians eventually receiving for their domain eighteen fathams of wampum, eighteen coats, eighteen hatchets, eighteen hoes and eighteen knives, in addition to which an Indian called Wrutherna ac- quired two extra coats, the reason for which is sug- gested by the fact that the composition of his name indicates that he was a prince in embryo.* After concluding his preliminary negotiations with the Indians in the autumn of 1635, Pynchon returned 'Indian Deeds, page 11. 4 Letter of instruction, April 17, 1629. 8 Indian Deeds, page 11. Generated for Ian Guido Huntington (New York University) on 2014-07-29 05:23 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89066037771 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-google 64 THE COOLEY FAMILY to Roxbury for the winter, preparing for the exodus of his associates in the spring.' Cable and Woodcock remained and it is apparent that they had with them both cattle and swine, for when Pynchon returned in the spring of 1636 he found that the future of his enter- prise had been sadly jeopardized. Not only had the live- stock so ravaged the native planting grounds that the Indians "demanded a greater sum to buy their rights in said land"7 but they also insisted that if similar damage was done in the future the English were to "pay as it is worth."8 All prior plans were thereby set at naught for the basic intent of the settlement con- templated the full use and occupation of the Agawam meadows. Fencing such a tract being out of the question a complete removal to the east side was the only alter- native.8" There, on May 14, 1636, gathered eight men, "being all the first adventurers and subscribers for the plantation," to organize their body-politic.9 In view of the changed conditions due to this enforced removal, the question of provision for their cattle loomed large in their minds, and of the fifteen by-laws adopted, four were related to the control of the remaining pastures, northward from the town; the pasture called Nayas toward Patuckett on the side of Agawam, lying about four miles above in the river, and the long meadow called Masacksic." It was agreed that "the long meadow called Masacksic, lying in the way to Dor- chester {Windsor), shall be distributed to every man as we shall think meet, except as we shall find other con- • Mass. His. Soc. Coll., Ser. 4, Vol. VI, page 369. Cited in Genesis of Springfield, page 42. 7 Burt, Vol. I, page 157. 8 Indian Deeds, page 12. ** Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, Vol. XLVIII, page 38. Cited in Genesis of Springfield, page 42. • Burt, Vol. I, pages 156-160. The the north of end brook, lying Generated for Ian Guido Huntington (New York University) on 2014-07-29 05:23 GMT / http://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89066037771 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#pd-google EARLY SPRINGFIELD AND LONGMEADOW veniency for some for their milch cattle and other cattle."10 The long-meadow was thus early recognized as being too valuable to be divided without full con- sideration of the benefits to all.