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Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Obituaries
Died in Greenfield at the residence of J.J. Graves Sept. 12, Curtis D. Graves, late of Boscawen, N.H., age 24, Mary A. Fudge, daughter of Elijah Hayden, age 22.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Greenfield items
Rev. Mr. Warfield of Greenfield, who was instrumental in getting up the protest of the Franklin County clergymen against Mr. Beecher's preaching at Lake Pleasant, and who bore the protest to Mr. Beecher at the Twin Mountain House, is man enough to publish a letter in the Greenfield Gazette, vindicating the motives of Mr.Beecher in making his engagement, and rebuking that paper for its unjust and uncharitable statement -- Springfield Union.
We deny that our statement was uncharitable to Mr.Beecher, or intentionally unjust. Mr.Warfield and every clergyman who signed the protest presented by Mr. Warfield to Mr. Beecher, and a large majority of the people of this vicinity, approved of our article and were glad to see it. It was the first thing that opened Mr. Beecher's eyes to the nature of his engagement.
The only thing stated, not strictly correct, was that Mr. Beecher was to receive compensation for his services. Whether people go back on us or not, the Gazette & Courier will not hesitate at all times to advocate an observance of the Sabbath and good morals for the community in which it circulates.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Oration of Hon. George B. Loring at Bloody Brook, Sept. 17, 1875
Oration of Hon. George B. Loring at Bloody Brook, Sept. 17, 1875 - Fellow citizens: 200 years ago an event occurred on this spot, which on account of its significance and its touching details, has passed into that long heroic line over which the mind of man is compelled to pause and ponder...At the name of Bloody Brook the men, women, and children of New England started and held their breath in horror, in that primeval time when the sickening tidings were borne on the wings of the wind as it were from hamlet to hamlet...
The sad event of the 18th of September 1675, calls upon us still to remember the trials through which our fathers passed and to rejoice over that fraternal spirit which bound them together in their day of sorrow, and watered the soil of this charming valley with the choicest blood of the sons of Essex. I stand on ground made sacred to you by the sacrifices of your hardy and devoted progenitors; but I meet here the names of Lothrop and Stevens and Hobbs and Manning and Dodge and Kimball and Trask and Tufts and Mudge and Pickering, of the three-score braves who died that you might possess this goodly land and these pleasant homes...
How would they who were familiar with the cruel warfare of the savage; whose ears had heard the shrieks of the tortured mother mingling with the groans of her dying child, and whose eyes had beheld her fear, her patience and her despair; whose highway was an Indian trail, and whose home was a frontier block-house - how would they rejoice over these sunny fields, these laughing harvests, these busy towns, these tasteful homes, this cultivated landscape adorned with these institutions of learning and religion; and how would they count their own sufferings but small when compared with the manifold blessings which have descended upon the spot made sacred with their blood?
...Deerfield two centuries ago, was on the very confines of civilization - one of the outposts of a feeble Christian people, who had hardly a foothold on this continent, and between whom and the strongholds of power and wealth and learning, rolled 3000 miles of stormy and almost unknown sea. The fate of a great and wide spread empire rested then in the hands of a few colonists scattered along the Atlantic seaboard, divided in interests and tastes, perishing continually from exposure and want, not all actuated by the highest motives, but all recognizing, as by an unerring instinct, the fundamental principle out of which was to grow the American government, and all in danger of being exterminated at any time by the "pestilence which walketh in darkness and the destruction which wasteth at noonday".
Scattered up and down the great extent of territory stretching from the Passamaquoddy Bay to the capes of Florida were but about 200,000 souls, of whom Massachusetts, with Plymouth and Maine, may have had 44,000; New Hampshire and Rhode Island, with Providence each 6000; Connecticut from 17,000 to 20,000; that is, all New England, 75,000...
These people had come largely from that "Germanic race most famed for the love of personal independence". They were not men of high estate, but they were men who possessed an inherent love of land, with all the individual honor and freedom which go along with it...
Of one colony said "Spotswood, a royalist, a High churchman, a traveler", "I have observed here less swearing and profaneness, less drunkenness and debauchery, less uncharitable feuds and animosities, and less knaverys and villanys than in any part of the world where my lot has been"...
In all their customs they were obliged to exercise the utmost simplicity and they voluntarily regulated their conduct by those formal rules, which, in their day, constituted the Puritan’s guide through the world. We are told, as an illustraton of their character and manners, that by the laws of the Plymouth Colony, in 1651, "dancing at weddings was forbidden". In 1660, one William Walker was imprisoned one month for courting "a maid without the leave of her parents".
In 1675, because "there is manifest pride appearing in our streets", the "wearing of long hair or periwigs", and so "superstitious ribands, used to tie up and decorate the hair were forbidden under severe penalty"; the keeping of Christmas was also forbidden "because it was a popish custom". In 1677 an act was passed "to prevent the profaneness of turning the back upon the public worship before it was finished and the blessing pronounced".
Towns were directed to erect a cage near the meeting house, and in all this all offenders against the sanctity of the Sabbath were confined. At the same time children were directed to be placed in a particular part of the meeting house, apart by themselves, and tything-men were ordered to be chosen, whose duty it shall be to take care of them. So strict were they in their observance of the Sabbath that "John Atherton, a soldier of Col. Tyng’s Company", was fined 40 shillings for wetting a piece of an old hat to put into his shoes, which chafed his feet on the march; and those who neglected to attend meeting for 3 months were publicly whipped.
Even in Harvard College students were whipped for gross offenses in the Chapel, in presence of students and professors, and prayers were had before and after the infliction of the punishment. As the settlers of Deerfield are described as being of "sober and orderly conversation", we may suppose that these laws and customs were here rigidly enforced.
[Here follows a section on "subsistence and diet of your ancestors". Also talks about how they were good farmers, fishermen and readers]...
...Possessed evidently of a common origin, for "between the Indians of Florida and Canada the difference was scarcely perceptible", they were divided into tribes, which differed from each other mainly in their fighting capacity, and the vigor with which they roamed from place to place; and they were liable at any time to be swept off by disease, or exterminated by war, or absorbed by other and more powerful tribes.
In language, the North American Indian was limited by the material world, an abstract idea finding no birthplace in his brain and no expression on his tongue. "In marriage the Indian abhorred restraint, and from Florida to the S. Lawrence polygamy was permitted". Divorce meant merely desertion. The wife was a slave. Domestic government was unknown. The Indian youth grew up a warrior, adorned with vermilion and eagle’s feather, as fleet of foot as the deer, and as tolerant of hunger as the wolf; the Indian girl grew up a squaw, degraded and squalid and servile.
A rude agriculture, resulting in a weedy corn crop, and a few squashes and beans, was the Indian’s, or rather the Indian woman’s occupation; he had neither trade nor manufactures. "There can be no society without government; but among the Indian tribes on the soil of our republic, there was not only no written law - there was no traditionary [sic] expression of law; government rested on opinion and usage and the motives to the usage were never imbodied [sic] in language; they gained utterance only in the fact, and power only from opinion...
The Indian had a government without laws; a State without institutions; a church without faith, or creed, or head; a town without schoohouse or meeting house; a punitive system without jails or gibbets; a history based on tradition; a religion based on superstition; he was ignorant of the ownership of land; and knew nothing of a system of inheritance.
As in peace he was an idler - so in war he was a marauder. An organized army was to him unknown. He fought in small bands, seldom over 50 in number, to surprise and slaughter. He pursued, and killed, and scalped. He had neither commissariat nor hospital. He fought his enemy in the rear and in ambush; and he tortured and roasted and devoured his captives. These were the national characteristics which our fathers found on this continent.
Nor did their attempts to modify and humanize and Christianize them meet with much success. The Indian could be tamed, but he was the Indian still...Neither John Eliot nor Roger Williams was able to change essentially the habits and character of the New England tribes..."They are unspeakably indolent and slothful; they deserve little gratitude; they seem to have no sentiments of generosity, benevolence or goodness".
The Moravian Loskiel could not change their character...In New Hampshire and elsewhere schools for Indian children were established; but as they became fledged they all escaped, refusing to be caged. Harvard College enrolls the name of an Algonquin youth among her pupils; but the college parchment could not close the gulf between the Indian character and the Anglo American.
The copper colored men are characterized by a moral inflexibility, a rigidity of attachment to their hereditary customs and manners. The birds and brooks, as they chime forth their unwearied canticles, chime them ever to the same ancient melodies; and the Indian child, as it grows up, displays a propensity to the habits of its ancestors...
The trouble lay deeper. Year after year the Indian discovered an irreconcilable difference between himself and the stranger...When he entered the home of the settler, he discovered that the joys of the fireside could never be found in the group squatted beneath the shelter of the wigwam. He felt the antagonism - and his soul burned within him. The strife was not for land...It was for supremacy. And as revenge is stronger than ambition, and hate is stronger than avarice, so the war raged with unspeakable fury, and was as cruel as the passions of a desperate savage could make it.
The great contest which grew out of this antagonism, and lasted more than a year, unabated either by the heat of summer or the frosts of winter, threatening destruction to the New England colonies, was known as Philip’s War. With the story of this conflict you are all familiar. The peaceful death of Massasoit at a good old age, after a long life of friendly relations with the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies; the sadder death of his son Alexander, worried out of life by the failure of his intrigues against the colony, and the exposure of his meanness and his crimes; the gradual development of the worst of passions in the breast of Philip, and his passage from treachery to war are all fresh in the memory of all who have traced the hard path which our fathers traveled in the work of settling these shores.
The war which began in Swanzey on the 24th of June, 1675, reached this spot on the 18th of September - three months of murder, and fire, and all the bloody horrors of savage warfare. At the time the war broke out Deerfield had been settled 10 years, or had been deeded for the purposes of settlement to John Pynchon that length of time. It was then, as it is now, one of the most delightful spots in New England...
And here in the luxurience of that natural beauty, and in the wealth of wood and stream, the Indian found his favorite resort. In this town and in the towns of Hadley and Hatfield he mustered a numerous and a powerful tribe. And upon these lands purchased by the settlers, with titles confirmed by the court, the whites and Indians lived together in peace for years. It is amazing with what rapidity the war, once opened, spread from village to village, and from tribe to tribe in this wilderness...
The Pocumtucks had received their orders - and in a day had stepped from the blessings of peace to the misery of war. having promsied to deliver up their arms, on suspicion that they might misuse them, they broke their promise, fled to Sugar loaf Hill, engaged with Captains Beers and Lothrop commanding the English here, lost 26 of their number, and then sought shelter under the standard of King Philip...
Deerfield too was abandoned; and the attempt to secure a quantity of wheat which had just been partially threshed by the farmers there before their flight, resulted in the massacre which still thrills me with horror, and the anniversary of which we have met to commemorate...From behind hundreds of trees the savages poured their deadily [sic] fire. At the first volley many were killed, and the remainder were panic stricken...Lothrop...was among the first to fall. The savages, numbering nearly 700, "rushed upon the defenceless men, and the work of slaughter was soon complete.
But 6 or 7 Englishmen escaped to tell the tale, of whom one had been shot and tomahawked and left for dead, and another forced his way through the yelling ranks of the savages with the but [sic] of his musket...
While the Indians were employed in mangling, scalping and stripping the dying and the dead, Captain Moseley, who, as has been observed, was ranging the woods, hearing the report of musketry, hastened by a forced march to the relief of his brethren. The Indians, confiding in their superior numbers, taunted him as he advanced, and dared him to the contest. Moseley came on with firmness, repeatedly charged through them, and destroyed a large number with the loss on his side of but 2 killed and 11 wounded...
A quantity of bones lately found in that quarter is very probably the remains of the Indians who fell there at the close of the action. The united English force encamped for the night at Deerfield. They returned in the morning to bury the dead and found a party of the Indians upon the field stripping the bodies of their victims. These they quickly dispatched, and the remains of the brave young men, or some portion of them, were committed to the earth near the spot which we have this day consecrated anew to their memory.
The stream on whose banks they fell, and whose water ran red with their blood, has been called from that day, in memory of the disaster, Bloody Brook...[Two more entire columns follow, but they are quite blurry and unreadable].
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 13, 1875
Court record
Court record - The fifth week of the Superior Court continued the business of the term, beginning Tues. with the following trials before the court:
John O’Donnell vs. Bartholomew Reardon & Trustees - Finding for the plaintiff, amount $68.68, and the charging of the Trustee (the Keith Paper Co.) with $76.07...Erastus Cowles vs. Edwin A. Ball - This was an action of trespass, wherein the plaintiff alleged that the defendant, who, being a highway surveyor, had, in repairing the highway on Deerfield Meadow, trespassed upon the plaintiff’s land, plowing into the Broughton Pond road, a turf embankment some 3 ft. wide and 68 rods in length.
Also, by removing a stone at the western terminus of the road. The question at issue being the true location of the northern line of said road. The defendant claimed that he had not exceeded the original limits of the road, which was laid out in 1796. The case developed the fact that the race of old men were not yet extinct, and the remembrances of the greater portion of Deerfield were required on the pros and cons of the matter in dispute. Finding for the defendant...
Henry Couillard vs. Elihu Smead - This was an action by the plaintiff, as tax collector of Shelburne, to recover $33.85, being a tax assessed in 1871. The defendant claimed that the tax had already been paid by J.B. Whitney, who, acting as his agent, handed the plaintiff the money in the yard of his livery stable at Shelburne Falls, and moreover, fixed the date as Apr. 29, 1871.
The circumstances attending the alleged payment were detailed by Mr. Whitney, while the plaintiff, while testifying that at the date named he was at Winchester N.H., engaged in the joint occupation of "courting a woman and trading horses", succeeded in raising an issue of fact, which, after a subsequent attempt by the plaintiff’s side to show the true status of the witness Whitney, for truth and veracity, and the counter attempt of the defense to discredit Couillard on the same ground; the truth might be said to indeed be "trembling in the balance". Finding for the plaintiff, amount $40.78...
The inhabitants of Leverett vs. the inhabitants of Rowe - This was an action to recover for money expended by the town of Leverett in assisting a pauper by the name of Rice, and whom it was claimed, had a legal settlement in the town of Rowe. The circumstances of the case were quite peculiar. One of the ways by which a person gains a settlement in a town is by the possession and residence on an estate of freehold for 3 years.
A settlement once gained of course continuing until a new one is gained elsewhere. In this case, Mr. Rice owned and lived upon a place in Rowe, but a few days previous to the expiration of 3 years he returned the deed of land to the original grantor, who then conveyed the property to a new party. Mr. Rice continued to live upon the land for some few weeks after giving up the deed as mentioned.
The new party who took the property did not take possession; neither did the original grantor exercise any act of ownership except the mere transferring of the deeds till after the expiration of 3 years. The question arises whether the fact of giving the deed back by Rice to his grantor, did moderate the circumstances, divest Rice of his seizin of the freehold. If not, of course he gained a settlement; while if the residence or the seizin were cut short by a few days, the statute would not be complied with and the town would not be liable. The point raised was so peculiar that the Judge reserved his decision...
Lucius Smith vs. Austin Drake, appt. The case came up on appeal from a magistrate’s findings. The court found for the plaintiff and assessed damages of $7.42...
The following cases were disposed of by judgment without trial: Samuel B. Fletcher vs. Henry Herring - This case has stood upon the docket for a long time, having been tried by a jury in 1873. It was settled on agreement by a verdict for the plaintiff, amount $19...Moses Stebbins vs. Jasper Gillett - This was another of the old cases consisting of many items of an account with offsets. Judgment was granted on award of referee...Edward H. Fitts vs. Samuel Sugland - Judgment on award of referee for plff. Damages, $4. Each party to pay their own cost...
Turners Falls Lumber Co. vs. David A. Wood - This was an action on 2 promissory notes, one of $1200...and the other of $518...Judgment for plaintiffs on both...Edwin Pierce et al. vs. Levi A. Bates Jr. et al. Judgment for plaintiffs against Bates for account of $52.50...Edwin Pierce et al. vs. Allen Mansfield - Judgment for plaintiff on a promissory note...for $58...
William L. Bradley vs. Edward Barney - Judgment for plaintiff on a promissory note...for $212...Bradley Fertilizer Co. vs. Edward Barney - This was an action on a note given by George Fuller of Deerfield, upon which the defendant was sued as surety, for $300. Judgment for plaintiff on the same...
Asa C. Lewis vs. Lorenzo D. Joslyn appt. Judgment for plaintiff, amount $30...Nathaniel Holmes et al. vs. Stephen L. Pratt - Judgment for plaintiff on note...for $59.10, upon which $40 had been paid before suit. William R. Armstrong vs. R.L. Goss. Judgment for plaintiff...for $400...Nathaniel Holmes et al. vs. Thomas Lap[?]. Judgment for plaintiff for $11...
George W. Potter et al. vs. R.J. Goss. Judgment for plaintiff on 2 notes, one for $732 and another for $82.89, also an account of $319. Total, $1134.52. Frank L. Eldridge vs. R.L. Goss et al - Judgment for plaintiff on note, amount $350...In the case of S.L. Shattuck et al. vs. George Jones, in which a verdict for plaintiff was given by the jury, a motion was filed for a new trial. But the motion has been overruled.
The docket has been well cleared of old cases this term, some 40 being settled out of court, to which no reference has been made in our reports. Judge Aldrich has earned the thanks of suiters by his persistent labors in holding this, the longest term of the Superior Court, known for many years. The court adjourned for the term Fri...The law term of the Supreme Judicial Court will begin Sept. 28, with the full bench.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 13, 1875
An excursion
The Connecticut River Railroad has issued excursion tickets to the White Mountains and back at very low rates. They take the excursionists to the top of Mount Washington and are good from the 11th to the 21st for the upward passage and on the return to the 25th, inclusive. The price of tickets are to the Profile House and return, $9; Fabyan House, $8; Crawford House, $8.50; top of Mt. Washington $11.50. This is a favorable time of year to visit the White Mountains and the fare is very low.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 13, 1875
Mr. Beecher and Lake Pleasant
Mr. Beecher and Lake Pleasant - Your correspondent, induced by feelings of regret at Mr. Beecher’s announced visit to Lake Pleasant, called upon him during the week, at his summer home, the Twin Mountain House, and by a personal interview learned that your article of last week did him great injustice. Having a letter signed by all the clergy of this immediate vicinity, I found ready access to Mr. Beecher, though he must be often annoyed by visitors who, from their position, have more claim upon his attention than I. Further, the letter expressing, as it did, the Christian sentiment of this vicinity, found a quick response in Mr. Beecher’s heart, and a long conference revealed the following facts which are quite in antagonism to those published by you last week.
First - that Mr. Beecher was led to feel, that by a visit to Lake Pleasant, he would confer a favor upon his numerous friends in all this region - that there were many to whom it would be a lifelong pleasure to have once listened to him, so he should declare the Gospel unto them. Among the recent gatherings at Lake Pleasant, and their gala day character he knew nothing. When he learned that these gatherings in the past, had predjudiced [i.e. prejudiced] the Christian mind against a similar meeting there under similar conditions, though it should be in the interests of the Gospel, Mr. Beecher with true nobility of soul replied "In all matters where my own conscience will not be violated I defer most heartily and readily to the convictions of my ministerial brethren, and shall do in this".
Second - that as far as Mr. Beecher was concerned, there was no "stroke of business" at all to the arrangement. The inference in your article, that it was the compensation offered that had led him to accept the invitation to speak at Lake Pleasant, needs correction and emphatic denial.
In the course of the arrangements when compensation was spoken of, Mr. Beecher replied that "he had never taken a penny for outside work, save for his lectures, never a penny for charity addresses, never a penny for sermons preached during his vacation, never a penny for campaigning in support of political doctrines, as he did in 1856 when he made 3 addresses a week, sometimes of 3 hours each in the open air, during which campaign he even insisted upon paying his own expenses, that he might be above all criticism"; and then in substance added, I shall not accept anything for this service more than careful provision for my personal comfort.
Later, an excursion to the Tunnel having been proposed in connection with his stay here, he declined even this, in part because it would have the appearance of being a return for services rendered. It would seem therefore that the only parties interested in this as a worldly matter of dollars and cents are the railroads; and it is certain it was not from love to any of these, nor from a desire to fill their purses that led Mr. Beecher into this arrangement, but other motives, pure and noble, influenced him.
As to Mr. Beecher’s views concerning the sanctity of the Sabbath and the way in which it should be observed, I need say nothing, as last Sabbath in the course of a reply to certain criticisms upon his course that had appeared in the Vermont Chronicle, he announced that he should soon engage in the discussion of the Sabbath question.
I believe however, that he differs not so much from many of us in relation to Sabbath observance in our rural districts. He affirms that he is not settled about excursion trains in general, but when the possibility of his speaking in Greenfield on the 19th was referred to, his answering question was "How can you stop the trains?"
Whatever his view may be, it is certain that he is unwilling to violate the consciences of his brethren, if he can yield to them without violating his humor. Withal, I am convinced that Mr. Beecher in the matter referred to in your article last week, is deserving of no censure from the Christian public, but rather is worthy of imitation by them in the frankness in which he considered and recognized the judgment of those whom he felt to be better qualified than himself to judge, because of their better knowledge of fact involved; and also worthy of imitation in the promptness with which he acted in the matter.
The criticisms that have been so freely passed by many of us upon Mr. Beecher’s connection with the affair, have been criticisms of a misinformed man and hence Christian courtesy demands that we recall them. But while we draw the arrows let us apply as well the balm to heal. F.A. Warfield.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 13, 1875
News about home: Greenfield items
Greenfield - Rev. Henry Ward Beecher will not stop in Greenfield next Sat. and preach at Lake Pleasant on Sun. as has been announced. When Mr. Beecher was informed of the exact character of the gathering that would be assembled on that day, that the people who came to hear him would travel on railroad trains from a long distance, making the trip a holiday excursion, he immediately canceled the engagement.
His position, and the motives that have influenced him, are fully set forth in another column by a communication from a gentleman who last week visited him at the Twin Mountain House. We regret that the criticism in our last issue, with reference to this matter, does Mr. Beecher injustice.
Our statements were based on such information as we could gather, but we are glad that he is able to stand in a better light, and now hasten to make amends for the wrong our article may have done him. A large class in our community, who would have been pained and saddened by the proposed Sun. exhibition, will be pleased at the result, and esteem Mr. Beecher as they could not if the plan had been carried out.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 6, 1875
Hinsdale N.H.
(Hinsdale) G.S. Wilder, who has successfully manufactured chisels and other edge tools here for several years, has had the pleasure of seeing his goods, on account of their superior quality, widely introduced not only in this but in foreign countries. He has had numerous orders from Australia, Cuba, South America, etc. The demand for them is still widening...
Mrs. Betsy Straw of Warner, N.H., a relative of ex Gov. Straw, who lacks only 2 months of being 101 years old, is knitting a pair of white worsted stockings for A.T. Stewart of New York, and another pair for Dr. Lambert of the same city.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 30, 1875
News about home: Greenfield items
The following is the list of creditors given by Edwin D. Merriam, who has gone into bankruptcy. The first meeting of the creditors, to choose an assignee and prove their claims, will be held at the court house in Greenfield on the 14th of September.
[Forgive me; this is quite a long list, totaling up to $26,633,28, and I just don't have the stamina right now to type it in]. Creditors are shown from Greenfield, Montague, Boston, New York, Holyoke, Turners Falls, New Britain, Ct., Bradford, Vt., Concord, N.H., Philadelphia, Springfield, New Haven, Ct., Mittineague, Albany, NY, Warren, MA, and Hartford, Ct
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 30, 1875
News of the week
The death of Mrs. Magoon, which occurred at Raymond, N.H. some little time ago and concerning which there has been some suspicion, proves to have been a case of poisoning. Mr. Magoon and a woman named Gardner are under arrest.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 23, 1875
Conway
If anyone wishes to see a view, both grand and beautiful, they will find every facility at Theodore Field's [probaly Theodore Tobey Field] observatory. We enjoyed this pleasure through the kind courtesy of Mr. Field last week. He says: "In a clear day, at sunset, gives the best prospect". Part of New Hampshire is visible, a line of Connecticut, 8 towns or more, you count at least 18 churches, etc., etc.
Mr. Field has proved himself a man of active mind and enterprise. By his own industry and skill, he has created from the rough hills and rude beginning a pleasant home. His improvements are to be seen on every hand - something better than gold; yet a competence he has won, also giving his children an education, which is better, thus preparing them for the battle of life. "All honor to whom honor is due".
[See Google Books "History of Conway, Massachusetts"].
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 23, 1875
News about home: Greenfield items
The Stratton Brothers of this town, with a relative from Keene, N.H., spent several days fishing last week, above Stoddard, N.H. They camped out in genuine backwoods style, built their own boat, caught an abundance of fish, and notwithstanding the frequent rains, had a very pleasant time.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 16, 1875
Hawley
Among the many fine views in Massachusetts is that from Parker's HIll, in this place. This hill is elevated above the surrounding hills, and commands a prospect in every direction, such as is hardly surpassed in the Commonwealth. All the important eminences in our State are in sight, and portions of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. And yet, there are those who have lived all their days, almost under the shadow of this summit, from which all this beauty and grandeur are to be seen, who have never taken the trouble to ascend it. Several years ago, a company of young people gathered there for a picnic, and as two of their number bore the name of Olive, it was voted that the hill be called the "Mount of Olives"; but the natives have never said "amen" to it, and it still goes by its original name.
[See Internet Archive's "Full history of the town of Hawley, Franklin County, Massachusetts, by William Giles Atkins, 1887].
Temple, A.B., age 31, late of the firm of Slate & Temple, Southington, Ct., and son of D.W. Temple of Bernardston, died of consumption in Hinsdale, N.H. Aug. 3. Another loved one gone.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 9, 1875
News about home: Greenfield items
The Beecher party, en route for the Twin Mountain House, White Mountains, passed through Greenfield on the morning train Tues. They spent the previous night at Easthampton, and were making the journey in a drenching rain, though they enjoyed comfortable quarters in a drawing room car. The party numbered about 35, and included, beside Mr. Beecher and family, General Tracy and wife, Mr. Ovington, at whose house Mrs.Tilton found refuge, and many of the personages that have been made familiar to the public during the great trial.
Henry L. Pratt http://oldtoolheaven.com/biography/henry-pratt.htm and wife, formerly of this town, were also among Mr. Beecher's friends who were accompanying him on the excursion. While the train was waiting here, a few of our citizens were introduced to Mr. B., and received his usual free and cordial salutations. The great preacher, notwithstanding the fearful ordeal through which he has passed, looks as young as he did 10 years ago.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 2, 1875
Edwin W. Major
Edwin W. Major of Wilton N.H. will be tried for the alleged poisoning of his wife last winter, at Nashua in Sept. The remains of Ellen Lovejoy, sister of his wife, who is also thought to have been poisoned by Majors 5 years ago, have been exhumed and the stomach sent to Boston for analysis.
[It was strychnine. Read the whole story at Internet Archive's "Wharton and Stille's Medical Jurisprudence].
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 2, 1875
News about home: Greenfield items
The Episcopal Sunday School had a fine time at their Lake Pleasant picnic Tues. The schools in Brattleboro and Keene, which had been invited, did not put in an appearance; but about 100 excursionists from North Adams, many of whom had not been east of Hoosac Mountain, joined the party, and the occasion was one of mutual pleasure to all.
- Sun, Feb 21, 2010
