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Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Wendell
Wendell - There are growing signs of an upward tendency, all things included. A new hearse house has just been completed, and a new hearse is, we are assured, under way, and it is time, for the old one had become so frightful that no one would consent to be put into it on any condition.
The remark has often been made that there has been a decided improvement within the last few years in the expectation of men regarding the near future of these old hills, and in the actual effort that is being made to restore the place to its former relations, so far as that may be done. Although our population is the lowest that it has reached for 6 decades, yet there is a future for these hills and valleys that but few dream of at the present day of trial and tramps.
In the mercantile line a new change has occurred. J.N. Beach, successor of Danforth Putnam and the company he represented, as the legitimate successors of O.H.H. Powers, himself the successor of Messrs. Oatman & Fisk, who succeeded Mr. Creagh after the fire, who came in after M.M. Stebbins made the mistake in leaving the place and O. Leach, his immediate successor in quitting the business when it was prospering in his hands.
There is no trouble in trade here except the scarcity of paying, ready paying customers, and this seems to be the general complaint all around. There is one item in this matter which the welfare of the place requires to be stated. It is this: Orange and elsewhere have completely succeeded in deluding a large class of the people with the notion that they are, in coming to them with their trade, doing first rate when they just fleece them, with the expectation that they are getting things cheap.
But there is the other side to this matter. Where did the money come from to build up those fine blocks and shops and sich [sic]? Now quite a large slice of it came off from these hills. But Orange and elsewhere don’t pay any taxes to keep things up here moving; don’t build up anything here and don’t propose to do it.
What these greedy places evidently want is to have us get what we can and run down and bring it to them at the price they think best to give, and take their truck and dicker at their own price.Don’t suppose they feel any pangs of guilt in the matter; but this past and present state of things up here shows that there is a screw loose somewhere.But things will change sometime, if not sooner, when the valleys will be obliged to conform to the old hills, or go without potatoes.
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
A man murdered in Coleraine
A man murdered in Coleraine - He is killed and robbed by two young ruffians - It is now 8 years since Simeon Peck killed Miss Cheney at Griswoldville, and Coleraine is again the scene of a tragedy, which in all its details has never had a parallel in the criminal annals of the County. The victim of this terrible crime is Joseph R. Farnsworth [i.e. Joseph Riley Farnsworth], known among his townsmen as "Riley", a quiet, inoffensive man, who dwelt with his wife and two children on his mother’s farm, on what is known as "Catamount Hill", some 2 miles and a half from Shelburne Falls.
The circumstances of the affair are these: On Tues. last Farnsworth, who served in the late war, went to Greenfield to be examined by a surgeon, as required, before making out an application for pension. He went back to Shelburne Falls on the train, and at the office of H.M. Puffer Esq., had his pension paper made out. When this business was finished, he started for home, getting a chance to ride with Levi Davenport, a neighbor.
They rode together until they came to the fork of two roads which led to the mountain. Farnsworth took the road up the ravine on the easterly side, while Davenport went the other way to his home. It had by this time begun to grow dark, and Farnsworth pushed along alone through a wood and came to a place where the road separates, a path leading up to Jack Woodard’s on the one hand and to his mother’s place on the other.
At this point someone steps suddenly from the cover of bushes by the roadside and, without a word of warning, strikes him a blow upon the forehead with a stick which prostrates him upon the ground. The blow is followed up with others or with kicks, until the man’s head is covered with ghastly wounds. He is then robbed of the few dollars which he had in his pocket book.
Farnsworth was not long wholly unconscious. Within half an hour he must have rallied sufficient strength to get upon his feet, and staggering and frequently falling, he made his way home, some one hundred rods distant, and which he reached by half past 7. He was able to tell his mother and a neighbor present a part of what had happened, and Dr. Canedy of Shelburne Falls was immediately sent for.
He arrived in the evening, but found the man so badly wounded there was little that could be done for him. Farnsworth could not tell who struck him, and becoming unconscious, he lingered until about 10 o’clock Wed. morning, when he died.
The news of the affair had by this time spread over the town, and efforts made to ascertain who were the perpetrators of the crime. Suspicion soon rested upon two young men who live in the vicinity, and who had not been seen since the murder. These were Daniel Dwight, a son of Josiah J. Dwight, and Herbert Davenport, a son of widow Roxana Davenport, and a nephew of the murdered man.
The former is 19 years of age and the latter 18, and both had borne a hard name among the people of the town. Going to the scene of the assault, a heavy print of a shoe was found, where the desperado stood when he gave the murderous blow, and a few feet in front was found the pool of blood which flowed from the wounds of his victim, and a bloody trail was made by Farnsworth as he rested and stumbled home.
Not far from his place a hickory stub was found where the stick, about an inch in diameter, had been cut; and in another direction the stick itself was discovered, which corresponded with the stub, and which had been thrown away after the assault. The stick, which is in the possession of one of the officers, was evidently cut by a left handed person. Dwight is known to be left handed.
It seems that the two boys had been to Farnsworth’s house the afternoon that he was away, borrowed fifty cents from his wife, all the money that she had - they agreeing to pay her back before the time of the county fair, when she wanted to spend it. They also took away a cheap watch which belonged to Farnsworth.
Before going to Greenfield Farnsworth had made known his errand to the neighbors, and the boys probably thought that he was going to bring home his pension money and so made their plans to waylay and rob him. But the money Farnsworth had on his person could not have exceeded 2 or 3 dollars. There had been ill feeling between the boys and Farnsworth before. He had not got along happily with his wife, being frequently jealous, it is thought by some, without cause, and the fellows had taken her part.
They have been heard to threaten him on her account. Dwight, who was married and lived with his wife in a house on his father’s farm, took away with him two suits of clothes, but young Davenport is not known to have carried away only such clothes as he happened to have on, and left behind a little money and a bank book.
Wed. aft. upwards of 50 men were out scouring the woods of Coleraine, Whitingham and Heath, under Officers Henry A. Howard of Coleraine and Deputy Sheriff [?] S. Frost of Shelburne Falls, and the search by some of the party was kept up all night, but was fruitless. Dwight and Davenport are both familiar with the woods for miles around, having hunted and roamed over them together.
It was thought that perhaps the fugitives had gone in the direction of North Adams, and an officer was sent there Thurs. morning, while the general search was partly abandoned. Though the young ruffians may evade their pursuers for a while, it is hardly possible to make a successful escape. Their photographs and descriptions will be sent broadcast. The Selectmen have offered a reward of $500 for their recovery, and mean to bring them to justice.
As there is no coroner in the vicinity, S.D. Bardwell Esq. of Shelburne Falls, as a Justice of the Peace, summoned a jury to view the remains. The jury consists of Hezekiah Smith, C.W. Shattuck, A.A. Smith, Thomas D. Purrington, H.C. Millington and Russell J. Smith. They visited the scene of the murder Wed. aft., and will meet again today, when probably a verdict in accordance with the facts we have related will be rendered.
Farnsworth’s funeral took place Thurs. morning and was largely attended by the people of the town. Rev. Mr. Cole, the Methodist clergyman of Coleraine, conducted the services. Farnsworth leaves a boy of 9 and a girl of 7. His age was about 35, and his mother, with whom he lived, is about 75. The family, though poor and ignorant, were considered of average respectability. The mother of the Davenport boy has always opposed his keeping company with Dwight, who is generally supposed to have been the leader in the matter, but the two were together a great deal, and had become hardened and desperate.
A note received by J.B. Clark, one of the Selectmen of the town on Sat., stated that there was no trace then of the murderers, but that the watch supposed to have been stolen by one of the boys, was found, and was in his possession.
Latest - Intelligence from Shelburne Falls yesterday, states that Dwight was caught about half past 10 Sat. eve. Half a dozen men were laying in wait for him around his house, and he came home at that time and fell into their clutches. The whereabouts of Davenport is not known. Dwight was put into the lock-up at Shelburne Falls yesterday morning.
[A followup to this murder can be found on p. 371 of Google Books "Publications of the American Statistical Association", 1892 - 1893. There is also mention of the sentence on p. 5 of Google Books "Public Documents of Massachusetts", 1876].
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 23, 1875
Hampshire County items
Amherst's population is 3926, against 4035 in 1870; 2009 males and 1817 females; she has 789 houses, 120 old maids, 66 bachelors, 180 widows, 84 widowers, and 29 persons over 80 years old. They will not put another squash into the harness at the Agricultural College this year, but they are trying other interesting experiments with a vine of the same kind, the Mammoth Chili https://www.semences...ltivar=Mammoth+Chili They have one squash upon the scales to ascertain its final weight, and meantime to note its increase in weight, which is now 3 pounds per diem.
The growth of its leaves is also recorded. Another scale marks the increase of its vine in length, and still another of its tendrils. An ingenious contrivance is arranged to find out the movements of an unsupported tendril; the result is worked in triangles on a paper perpendicular to the free tendril. Another arrangement is to test the strength of the tendrils and their growth in power relative to the growth of the supported squash. A gauge is being prepared to examine the sap in the vine and its passage into the fruit.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 23, 1875
News about home: Greenfield items
Undertaker Lyons has recorded but 2 deaths the past week, while the corresponding week a year ago 7 deaths occurred in Greenfield and immediate vicinity. It would appear from this that the weather of the past week or two has not been so unhealthy after all.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 16, 1875
Hawley
Albert B. Clark [Albert Burdette Clark] has recently had a nice picture of his family taken by Mr. Patch, consisting of himself, his wife and 6 children, 4 boys and 2 girls: the oldest 10 years of age and the youngest 3. It looks as though Hawley wouldn’t be totally depopulated just at present.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 9, 1875
Shelburne
D.O. Fisk brags of having his family reinforced with another son, he thinks the smartest he has ever had. We think, perhaps, he fails in judgment by this time. In some things, we are constrained to say, he holds out remarkably, as this is his 7th son and 11th child. Truly he does well for his country, and without his example and family the old third district would seem small.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 9, 1875
Diminishing population
The returns of the enumerator report the population of many of our towns, especially of the hill towns, as diminishing. The population of Hawley is returned as 100 less than 10 years ago. The reason for this is not that the people die off more rapidly here than in other towns, for it would be difficult to find a more healthy place, as the large population of aged persons here shows. The decrease is to be accounted for in good part, by the many removals from the place. Many whole families have left us, and it is quite common for our young people to go elsewhere.
But there is another serious difficulty here as in other places, and that is the small number of births. In former times it was not uncommon to meet with families of 10 or a dozen children, and a baker's dozen at that. "They sent forth their little ones as a flock". But now, families of half a dozen children are rare. those of but 2 or 3 are more common. It is now, in many cases, one, "but a lion", as the lioness said to the fox.
And thus it is that we raise hardly enough for seed; and as we have no Irish families, as in the villages, to fill up the gap, there is a continual decrease. And at this rate, what are we coming to? Where shall we be half a century hence? Unless there shall be a better regard to Scripture injunctions (Gen. 1:28) these hill towns will become wholly depopulated, and the wild beasts will resume possession.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, July 26, 1875
Franklin County tax payers
Greenfield - no. of polls, 927; in 1874, 929; valuation of personal property, 1875, $853,973; in 1874, $828,853; valuation of real estate, 1875, $1,969,665; in 1874, $1,954,790; total valuation, 1875, $2,823,638; in 1874, $2,783,653; rate, 1875, $14.50 per thousand; 1874, $13.50 per thousand.
The following is a list of persons who pay a tax of $25 and upwards, not including fire district tax, which will be about $3 on $1000.
Abell, George A., $41.15
Austin, Thomas N., $33.90
Adams, George C., $87.70
Adams, Peleg, $360.50
Adams, John A., $85.52
Amidon, J.H., $26.65
Avery estate, $30.45
Allen, William H., $89
Allen, F.R., $89
Allen, S’s Sons, $304.50
Allen, George A., $44.05
Allen, Quintas, $83.20
Allen, John S. & Son, $44.82
Arms, George A., $413.80
Arms, Elihu G., $46.95
Aiken, David, $65.80
Ames, James M., $129.75
Ames, James M., trustee, $87
Ames, George, $33.90
Alexander, A.A., $38.83
Farrell, Lewis, $36
Fisk, Dr. Charles L., $53
Fitzgerald, P.M., $60
Fitzgerald, John, $70
Field, F.E., $31
Farnsworth & Persons, $30
Field, Albert A., $29
Field, Charles R., $183
Field, & Hall, $29
Forbes, William A., $119
Fuller, Mrs. H.M., $36
Frary, George W. $115
Forbes & Foster, $6
Fellows, M.S., $78
Felton, J.P., $99
Field, Mrs. A.R., $75
First National Bank, $174 (had Nirst)
Franklin County National Bank, $362
Grennell, George, $212 (also seen as Grinnell)
Graves, John J., $45
Graves, Luther L., $35
Graves, Mrs. J.M., $31
Graves, Alonzo, $89
Gascouigne, J.F., $49
Griswold, W., estate, $40
Griswold, Duloie, g’d’n, $108
Griswold J.F., $83
Gunn, Levi J., $66
Greenfield Tool Co., $420
It is said "figures won't lie", we thought with consternation the contrary, when in the last issue of the Courier, Lewis Franklin's two children became suddenly nine. We have imagined him ever since, wondering over his paternity; rubbing his head, striving to recall what had become of the other 7.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, July 19, 1875
Montague
The population of Montague according to the present census, is 3330; children under 15 years of age, 1137; polls, 923, voters, 724. They are divided among the following villages as follows: Turners Falls, 1603; children under 15, 641; polls, 410; legal voters, 267. Millers Falls. total, 346, children under 15, 106; polls, 106; voters, 88. At the "city", inhabitants, 407; children under 15, 162; polls, 122; voters, 91. At the Center, total, 563, children under 15 years, 125; polls, 167; voters, 164. At the South and West villages, total, 258; children under 15, 76; polls, 77; voters, 76.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, June 7, 1875
Charlemont
Mr. Daniel Warner, 94 years of age, was called upon by the enumerator on Wed., answered all his questions promptly and signed his name to the family schedule in a good legible hand.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, May 31, 1875
News of the week
The no, of suicides in the German Army amounted in 1874 to 193, which gives the proportion per 1600 men, of 0.51 annually. This proportion is, in the Austrian Army, 0.85; in the French army, 0.51; in the Belgian 0.45 and in the English Army, 0.38.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, May 10, 1875
News about home: Greenfield items
Hopkins Wood has been appointed, on recommendation of the Selectman, enumerator for this town, or in other words he will gather the census and industrial statistics.
The Selectmen hold a regular monthly meeting at their office at Montague Center on the last Sat. of each month at 6 o'clock p.m. At the last meeting it was voted to accept the proposition of Clement Merchants and sons of Wendell to support Tirsa McNall, a town pauper, during her natural life for the sum of $100. R.N. Oakman was elected, under direction of the board of Statistics of Labor, to take the census and industrial statistics for the present decennial year for the town. The matter of licenses was thoroughly discussed, and although the Board are unanimously opposed to license as compared with prohibition, it was agreed to execute the present law according to its true intent and meaning as a restrictive measure.
In connection with the Selectmen's and School Committee's report, a statistical report by the Town Clerk is published. The record of deaths in the town the past year show remarkable longevity. Of the 26 persons who died, 16 were over 60, 12 over 70, 4 over 80, and one over 90. There was but one death in town under 10 and but two under 20.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, March 29, 1875
A temperance lecture
No more stirring temperance lecture can be needed than that conveyed in recent statistics relating to crime in New York City. There are said to be in the city in round numbers 7000 licensed saloons, graded from $250 to $300 per annum each for license fees, and yielding last year's total revenue of $527,380. If their receipts are put at $20 per day each - which would seem to be a low estimate - this would give $140,000 daily, and for a year without Sundays, which is the way the traffic is pursued there, the total would mount up to the enormous sum of $51,000,000!
/ This is taking no account of the unlicensed saloons, of which there are no less than 2000...It is a feeder of crime, beyond all other causes...(goes on to talk about arrests for drunkenness and disorderly conduct).
- Fri, Feb 12, 2010
