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

SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
It would be rather a difficult thing to set apart meadow laud about
a house that had beeu pulled down, and we can safely assert that the
orioiual house on the banks of the Woronoco river had not been
pulled down in the spring of 163G, tradition to the contrary notwith-
standing ; and it is equally safe to infer that it sheltered, at least,
a part of the Roxbury arrivals.
The year 1636 was indeed an active and trying one for Mr. Pyu-
chon. Besides his duties as a member of the Board of Commis-
sioners appointed by the Massachusetts Bay General Court, to
govern for one year the plantations that might be started in the
valley of the Connecticut, Mr. Pynchon had to take full charge of
the transportation of his party, and their household goods and
effects, advancing a large part of the money required for that pur-
pose. The March session of the General Court was full of excite-
ment. The insecurity felt on account of the restless Indians, the
reconstruction of the courts, the establishment of quarter sessions,
the special religious meetings of sundry uneasy spirits in some of the
churches, the setting up of a standing council from among the magis-
trates with life terms, and finally the appointment of the Connecticut
commission of eight, were but the most important matters considered
at that time.
Sixteen hundred thirty-six ma}?^ be called the exodus year to the
Connecticut valley. Parties from the east were pushing to the sites
of Hartford, AVindsor, Springfield, and Wethersfield all that spring
and summer ;
and while the men at the Bay could do no less than bid
them God-speed, we know that nothing but the stoutest ties that keep
just minds to their moorings prevented an open rupture.
Governor Winthrop's "Blessing of the Ba}^ " sailed from Boston
for the Connecticut river April 26, and about this time the body
of the Roxbury pioneers penetrated the Massachusetts wilderness.
A reference to this vessel and its service to Pynchon is made
in a subsequent letter to John Winthrop. Jr., in which he
writes —
:
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