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

382 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1SS6.
cliusetts-Connecticut bouudary commission of 1826, and of the northeastern
boundary commission (Maine and Canada) in 1842. He
served as State treasurer, and was for many years willing to run on
the democratic State ticket when victory Avas out of the question. He
became thoroughly identified with Springfield by real-estate invest-
ments, too much so for his pecuniary advantage ; but his predictions
as to the growth of Springfield have been singularl}^ fulfilled.
Judge Oliver B. Morris holds a distinct place in local annals as
lawyer, citizen, and lover of Springfield village. "In my youth,"
he used to remark, " I saw an aged man who remembered seeing per-
sons who came over in the ' Mayflower.' " And the judge was quite as
proud of this as if he had led a victorious army to battle. He was
preeminently the village man. He knew everybody, and everybody
knew him. All the waj's of rural New England life were pleasing to
him ; he enjoyed its shady walks, its humble thrift, its simple democ-
racy, its deference paid to the village fathers, its solemn Sabbaths,
and its old nine-o'clock bell. But the satisfaction he felt for his
own local prominence was not simply a personal pride. He came b}'
his local patriotism in the study of local history. He thought much
of the past, and loved to talk of the plantation of Springfield, to re-
produce the pioneer scenes when every yeoman was a defender of the
gospel, a tiller of the soil, and at times a fighter of Indians. Morris
never wanted to live to see the time when the town-meeting would
adjourn forever ; when the stages would be taken from the old turn-
pikes, and the town brook buried in tlie Main-street sewer. But he
did, — and he lived also to be the oldest inhabitant, and to see cit}"
wards spring up where once were open fields. " I do not like to see
" I used to
so many strangers," he once remarked to a minister here ;
know every voter." This lament was not the result of a natural de-
sire to oppose progress, but a deep affection for the quiet, quaint, old
days of Springfield. He had been looked upon for nearly two gen-
erations as the antiquarian of Springfield. He was familiar with
more genealogies than any one else, could give more facts about old