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Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 13, 1875
Hawley
Hawley - J.U. Houston, our village blacksmith, has been making 3 pairs of his chain bits for Mrs. George William Curtis of Ashfield, who is quite a horsewoman. These bits are made in the highest style of art, and being plated with nickel, shine like silver, and do not tarnish. Strength and beauty are here combined, and any horse that wears them may thus far well be proud of his adornments. A woman of taste, on seeing them, remarked that they were almost good enough for a lady's adornments.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 13, 1875
Hawley
Hawley - Moody Spring is having its quota of visitors this season. Several persons from abroad have taken possession of the old Hitchcock house nearby, where, undisturbed, they drink freely of these healthful waters, luxuriate in blackberries and feast on the wild scenery.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 13, 1875
Hawley
Hawley - A couple of days ago a couple of young men, claiming to be grandsons of Dr. James King, came along here and passed the night with one of our families. Unfortunately they had fallen among thieves at Greenfield and were robbed of their valises and their money. They had a check which they sought to get cashed, but failing in this, endeavored to borrow money to pay their expenses to Montreal.
But they found nobody who had any to lend for such an object. They rode off in the stage with Cleveland to Shelburne Falls, where they slipped away, leaving their fare unpaid. It is thought that the King blood in them is greatly diluted, and not a little vitiated at that.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 6, 1875
Hawley
(Hawley) Miss Sophronia Grout, who is posted in all Hawley matters, has furnished the following names to be added to those wives of ministers sent forth from this place: Olive Longley, Sophia Farnsworth, Mercy Howes and Mary Crosby.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 6, 1875
Hawley
(Hawley) Money is a scarce article here. Some of us have almost forgotten how it looks; but we hope to get along somehow, so long as the blackberries last.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 30, 1875
Shelburne Falls
(Shelburne Falls) We have received from Mrs. Jerusha King of Hawley a very ancient barrel made from a hollow tree. It was made by Thomas King in 1712 and was used for holding the first corn raised in the town. It holds just 8 bushels.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 30, 1875
Charlemont
(Charlemont) The new County Road near the depot, leading toward West Hawley, is fast being completed, but not in a manner satisfactory to the voters and tax payers or the traveling public. This road has been twice crowded from its first and excellent location by the change of the railroad bed. The last change now going on by the State, locates the road over a spur of Mt. Peck, making a cut through a ledge, which should have been cut away so as to leave a tolerable grade for the new road; but instead the grade has been increased very much, and the fill each way is made of material very liable to wash, making the expense for necessary repairs hereafter by the town very great, far in excess of what it would have been on the old route.
It is important that the town see to it that no such burden of future expense be cast upon them by the State, which is amply able to bear the expense of making good all highways upon which it encroaches, and any board of officers whose duty it is to decide upon the merits of this road, will do great injustice to the town if they accept of it completed or the State now decides upon. The town ask nothing but justice and will see to it that no great injustice is done the overtaxed town of Charlemont by the rich Commonwealth.
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].
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 16, 1875
Hawley
Rev. A.F. Ashley and family, of Illinois, are spending a few weeks in this place. He has preached in both parishes with acceptance. Mrs. A. was a native of this town, and a daughter of the late Otis Longley, who emigrated to Lawrence, Kansas, where he was inhumanly murdered in his own dooryard, by Quantrel's [i.e. Quantrill's] raiding band.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 16, 1875
Hawley
At the examination of the school in the sixth district, a paper was read, the articles of which were furnished by the scholars. The following is a specimen: Southampton Sewing Society -
Several spinsters sat sewing, sighing silently. Solomon Snooks strolled slowly, surveying Susanna Simpson's sewing, simpering slyly, sighing "Sweet Susanna". soon Solomon spoke, saying "Susanna, sun shines". Smilingly Susanna said "serenely sweet". Solomon sighed softly. Somehow speech seemed scarce"...
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
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, August 2, 1875
Those good deacons
[A short article about deacons of Heath, Charlemont, Hawley, Ashfield, Shelburne, Deerfield and Bernardston, who have recently gone on to their final resting places].
It is quite unusual for pork in this place to get out of the barrel and walk off, but the feat has recently been accomplished, and on two legs, as is supposed; but as it was in the night, when all honest men were abed, no one is prepared to take his oath on this latter point.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, July 5, 1875
Shelburne Falls
O.R. Maynard, Cashier, is daily adding to his collection of antiquities, and he is always glad to see those who have anything old and odd to sell or donate. A recent addition is a tea cup 150 years old, the identical one through which some of the tea which was thrown overboard into Boston harbor by the Revolutionary patriots, was put and secreted after it had been scraped out of the sand. These relics were obtained from Mr. Warriner King of King Corner, Hawley. He is about 87 years old and his sister is most 86. She is much spryer than many women of 60, and they are really the nicest old people in all the region round about.
The late William Bassett of this town, who was in the habit of keeping a diary, made the following record June 11, 1842: "The ground was frozen this morning". Elisha Hunt, who was at Saratoga at that time, says that the mountains in that region were white with snow.
Tues., June 8, the following 5 aged persons incidentally met at the house of Warriner King and dined together: Warriner King, aged 88; Mrs. Olive Longley, 88; Mrs. Jerusha King, aged 86; Obed Hitchcock, 85; and Heman Hitchcock, 76; their united ages being 423 years. They spent pleasant hours in talking over old times. Abner Longley of Washington and his sister, Mrs. Ryland H. Warriner of Philadelphia, being on a hasty visit to their native town, also happened in, and were the children of the party.
Miss Sarah P. Eastman is to be teacher of history in Mr. Durant's college at Wellesley, which opens in September. She has been a teacher in Oxford female seminary in Ohio, and will fill well her new position. [Nice anecdote about Miss Eastman in the Google book "The story of Wellesley" by Florence Converse].
- Thu, Feb 19, 2009
