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

388 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6.
Champion, of West Springfield, Adonajiali Foot, Josepli Hall, Jr.,
Justin Willard, John Howard, Alpheus Nettleton, and Maj. E.
Edwards. The Hampden Guards, commanded by Captain Nettleton,
marched from the Hami)den coffee-house to Dr. Osgood's church,
where William B. Calhoun delivered an oration. Dr. George Frost
read the Declaration of Independence, and Colonel Warriner, with the
aid of a large chorus, sang an ode written by Rev. Mr. Peabody.
P'rom the meeting-house the guards, with Col. Harvey Chapin, Maj.
Caleb Rice, and Lieut. Samuel Reynolds, mounted, marched with a
great crowd and band music, firing of oannon and ringing of bells,
to the new armory store-house on State street, opposite the Olivet
church, where a banquet for four hundred was spread. Samuel
Lathrop and Colonel Lee offered the toasts, and the speaking con-
tinued until dusk.
In November, 182G, a banquet was given at the Franklin hotel in
honor of Col. Roswell Lee, who was transferred to Harper's Ferry,
Paymaster John Chaffee presiding. Another dinner was given at
Phelps's hotel, J. Dwight, Jr., at the head of the table. The Fourth
of July celebration of LS27 was denounced by a writer in the
" Hampden Journal " as an " anti-administration celebration ; " but
there was no foundation for it beyond some hissing at a Jackson
toast. Tliis was considered a hit at Colonel Lee, who had returned
from Virginia to the armory.
In January, 1825, a committee of the Connecticut River Associa-
tion addressed circulars to all towns interested in river manufacture
to meet at Windsor, Vt., February 16. It was proposed to open the
river traffic to Lake Memphremagog. National aid was expected in
continuing trade communication with Canada. A shipment of lumber,
which had to be carted forty miles to the Erie canal, thence carried
two hundred miles to Troy, by sloop down the Hudson to the Sound,
up the Connecticut to Hartford, and then transferred to furniture man-
ufactories, troubled the visions of the local students of commerce.
The project of connecting the river at Bellows Falls with Boston by