Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

260 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6.
Neither the money for a new church nor for the support of Mr.
Breck was voted in town-meeting, this business, as we have before
indicated, being attended to b}' tlie inhabitants of each precinct.
The moment that the town broke up into precincts and parishes, tlie
town-meeting en hloc surrendered certain functions. At tlie precinct
meetings the schools and sundry local matters were attended to, a
part of the school money being appropriated to each precinct by the
general town-meeting. At the parish meetings the members were
admitted or disciplined, but at the meeting of the " inhabitants of
the precinct and parish " the finance and other business of church
was transacted.
There was a flourishing grammar school in the centre of the village,
and there were schools also at West Springfield, Longmeadow, Upper
Chicopee, Lower Chicopee,Agawam, Feeding Hills, Ireland, Skipmuck,
the ^Mountain Parish (Wilbraham), I^[)per Causeway (Centre), Long
Hill, Pawcatuck, and Taltum. The various parishes or precincts
were from time to time directed b}'^ the town-meeting to do certain
town work. This probably is the explanation why the First Parish con-
tinued to support a fire brigade until the beginning of the present cen-
tury. It \\\i\.y have started very much as the school duties imposed by
the town on the parishes. Witness this in May, 1741 : " Voted that
the committee of the first parish in Springfield be Desired to Provide
School Master or Masters or School Dame or Dames for Fnglish School-
ing in s** Parish as shall be needful for that P^nd Takeing the advice & j
aj)probation of the Selectmen therein at the Charge of the Town not
Elxceeding five months." We take it tliat the income from the school
lands was received by the town, and certainly at this time the ministry
lands were still managed by the toAvn, but in a way tliat the precinct
would agree to. Thus it was voted in tOAvn-meeting in 1741) that
" David Chapin be a Committee to take care of the Ministry land in
the outward commons in s'^ Town, and consult the Several Ministers
in s"^ Town Respecting the same." A £70 brick school-house was or-
dered by the town in 1745, twenty-one by eighteen feet in size.