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

SPRINGFIELD, 16H0-1S86. 389
a eiinal was also talked of, but engineers preferred to strike the river
at Springfield. Tlie Windsor convention memorialized Congress and
took steps to form a navigation company. A largely attended meet-
ing of the citizens was lield at the Hampden coffee-house, May, 1825,
to consider canals and river traffic. It was resolved that a Boston
and Springfield canal was [)racticable and desirable, and that the
river could be improved so as to admit sloops to Springfield. George
Bliss was in the chair and Justice Willard was secretary. Delegates
were chosen to attend a meeting at Ijrookfield. Mr. Willard was
present at Greenfield in April, where a Franklin county convention
passed resolutions favoring Connecticut river improvements ; and a
few weeks later a convention of the three counties at Greenfield took
similar action, George Bliss heading a committee to memorialize the
General Court on the subject.
Says a writer in the Boston " Patriot," >May, 1825 :
" A canal from
Springfield to Boston will I'ender our harbor the mouth of the Con-
necticut river." The papers of the State were filled Avith arguments
pro and con, and every step of the engineers commissioned to survey
the Connecticut and a canal route across the State was followed with
lively uiterest. Stages were rolling along regardless of the new-
fangled notions of transportation. In 1826 H. Sargeant advertised a
new line of stages, which left Springfield daily at 5 A.M. for Hart-
ford, taking the west side, and returning at 7 P.M., for 61. This
line stopped at Phelps's Springfield hotel (Exchange hotel). The
following year there was started a stage line from Springfield to
Belchertown, by the Factory village, — N. B. Moseley & Co., pro-
prietors. In 1828 still another line was started between Norwich and
Springfield, the distance between the two places being covered in
eleven hours. The proprietors were N. B. Moseley, of Springfield,
and Landlords Kinney of Norwich, Abbe of Windham, and Smith
of Tolland.
The local industries were making a fair showing. The paper mills
of D. & J. Ames were, in 1825, about the largest in the United States.