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

SPRINGFIELD. 1636-1886. 357
notable enterprise of paper manufactnring. It was he who took up
the loose lines of this industry, and developed it in away to hold the
paper supremacy of the county here. Benjamin Prescott built the
north shops, burned in 1824, as well as the west arsenal. It was due
to Prescott's efforts that Walnut street was opened through the pine
forest then standing. The title to the main part of Federal square
was secured from the town in 1812. Jedediah Lord kept a tavern on
the south-west corner in 1809. Prescott was more of a mechanic and
man of business than an executive officer, and Colonel Lee found
enough administrative reform work to do. Lee was a six-footer,
dignified and placid in demeanor. Old armorers exhibited great
respect and affection for Colonel Lee, while his administration was
recognized by armory experts as able and aggressive. Lee removed
the blockhouse and red storehouses to the " eastern square," rebuilt
the north shop burned in 1824, and put up the east arsenal and south
shop, as well as the middle arsenal, that faces Olivet church. Lee
lived on the site of the present large arsenal.
Once or twice during the administration of Colonel Lee his vigor
carried him to debatable lengths. It was a source of anxiety to him
that the armorers spent so much of their earnings for rum, and his
zeal in checking the practice precipitated quite a scene in 18 IG. The
old Toddy road to Japhet Chapin's tavern (Cabotville) was named
for obvious reasons, and Lee did not reduce the travel along this route
as materially as he had hoped. He discharged two workmen. Noble
and Charter, who were found wrestling in tlie midst of a ring of
armorers. There was a liberty pole in the centre of the ground that
had been erected by the subscription of the workmen, and here the
friends of the discharged men gathered and passed around the bottles.
"If we can't have any liberty," they said, "we won't have any
liberty pole," and an axe was laid at its root. Clerk Wolcott, then
the colonel himself, then Master Armorer Foot, with some out-of-
town officials, hastened to the scene. The pole was saved, and the
little "rum rebellion" had a good effect all round, and a better