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

SPRINGFIELD, 2636-1SS6. 349
laid here. The changes iu the personnel of the town-meeting were
somewhat marked toward the close of the century. John Hooker be-
came moderator iu 1795, and the selectmen were "William Pynchon,
Jonathan Dwight, Eeuben Bliss, Phineas Chapin, and Thomas
Dwight.
In those early days the floating of timber down the river was quite
a business, which was managed very much as the common fields were.
Men secured from the authorities the monopoly of this trade. Thus
we see in the spring of 1783 Timothy Bush, Moody Freeman, and
John Ely forbidding persons marketing timber without a license. A
possible explanation of this is indicated by an advertisement in the
" Massachusetts Gazette."
Simon Parkhurst and seven others assert that whereas a small
meeting of the proprietors of the timber trade in Connecticut river,
at Landlord Brewster's-, March 4, 1783, chose Ur. Page, Alexander
Plumley, and Samuel Wells to " collect and dispose of said timber,"
they, the said Parkhurst et al., forbid said committee from so
doing.
There is little of note in this period about the schools. In 1795
the town was divided into nine school districts, and all teachers were
ordered to report the number of scholars. An English school was
ordered for the Centre, to accommodate such scholars as the selectmen
thought not admissible to the grammar school. The total schol-
ars in Springfield proved to be five hundred and ninety-three. The
special committee on schools, in view of this, said : " It therefore is a
matter of no small consequence that the liberal provision granted for
the support of schools should be so appropriated as to produce the
greatest benefit."
In March, 1787, after the collapse of the Shays rebellion. Captain
Stebbius was placed at the head of a committee to hire constables, the
bid for such service being raised from £5 to £15, and two and one-
half per cent, of the State tax. Ebenezer Bliss was finally secured
as one of the constables, and IMoses Chapin another, the latter prob-