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

SPRINGFIELD, JG3G-1SS6. 369
a constable. The follo^ving year William Pynchou declined to serve
as clerk v^ny longer, and Edward Pj^nchon was chosen in his place.
AVilliam received a generous vote of thanks for his long services.
John Hooker appears upon the select board.
We will here give a full list of officers of 1808, in order to show
some of the changes that time was making in the personnel of the
town :
—
•
Moderator, Jonathan Dwight ; clerk and treasurer, Edward Pynchon ;
selectmen, Thomas Dwight, George Bliss, Major Moses Chapin, Rufus Sikes,
and .John Hooker; overseers of the jioor, .Justin Lombard, Judali Chapin,
Walter Stebbins, .Jonatlian Dwight, Jr., and Zebina Stebbins ; tythingmen,
Edmund Dwight, Oliver B. Morris, Erastus Chapin, and Samuel Orue ;
assess-
ors, Zebina Stebbins, Moses Chapin, and I^itt Bliss ; hog-reeves, Lewis Good-
now, Frederick Burt, and Frederick Chapin; field-drivers, Silas Holton, Martin
Burt, Thaddeus Ferre, Lewis liobinson, Joseph Kobinson, Calvin Cooley, Caleb
Simons, Ithamer Stebbins, and William Gaylord ; pound-keeper. Preserved
AVhite ; sealers of leather. Dormer Chapin and Pitt Bliss ; fence-viewers, Festus
Stebbins, Moses Burt, Jr., ,J. A. Mclvinstry, James Meloin, William Sheldon,
Levi Stedman ; firewards, Moses Burt, Jr., Major Jacob Bliss, Benjamin Pres-
cott, Elisha Tobey, George Bliss, Frederick Chapin, Luther Hitchcock, Zebina
Stebbins, and .James Byers, .Jr. ; surveyors of shingles and clapboards, Jacob
Bliss, Joseph Pease, William Chapin, Jr., Festus Bliss, Pelatiah Bliss, and
Joseph Griswold ; surveyors of highways, Abel Chapin, David Arms, and
Thomas Stebbins; constables, Henry Brewer and Oliver Chapin, Jr. ; collector,
Jacob Bliss.
Springfield sent four representatives to the General Court in 1810,
— Moses Chapin, Jacob Bliss, Oliver B. Morris, and Edmund Dwight.
Four years later the list was reduced to three, — Samuel Orne,
Edmund Bliss, and Joseph Pease.
The first proposals for a bridge over the great river were received
with ridicule. " Parson Howard talks like a fool," said Colonel W^or-
thington, in 1786, when the reverend gentleman predicted such an
engineering event. But the bridge was a necessity, and it came. It
w^as the younger men that carried the day, and October 30, 1805, the