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

SPRINGFIELD, 1036-1SS6. 427
House, announced, in 1834, that he had discontinued the sale of
ardent spirits. The house was "genteelly furnished " and "free
from the noise and bustle incident to a stage-house." We might
also here mention that in 1835 one thousand six hundred lea-al
voters petitioned the county commissioners to refuse liquor licenses.
E. A. Chapman presented it in a speech, and George Ashmun opposed
it. The commissioners refused the petition. At the May elections
the temperance issue was fought over, and James W. Crooks, G.
Stiles, of Southwick, C. Knox, of Palmer, L. Bagg, of West Spring-
field, and L. Wright, of Westfield, Avere elected. They granted
licenses freely. The venerable and much-honored ex-Lieutenant-
Governor Trask, who enjoys nothing better than to pass a genial
afternoon talking about bygone days, says that Mr. Chapman's law
partner signed the temperance pledge in 1840, and made one of the
most eloquent temperance addresses he ever heard.
The Elliot-Buckland murder trial, in September, 1834, excited the
interest not only of the town, but the whole country round. Moses
Elliot, the accused, Avas a lad of twelve, and Josiah Bucklaud, his
victim, was but a year older. These boys had made up their minds
to run away, and on a Saturday in April, 1834, had repaired to a
hop-pole house on the Rice farm, on the Wilbraham road, to divide
their clothing and to make some preparations for their journey. The
upshot was that in the middle of the day Elliot fled home, and was
subsequently seen going in the direction of the hop-house with a
spade, presumedly to bury the dead. No boy so young had ever
been tried for murder in the Commonwealth, and the greatest excite-
ment prevailed when Chief-Justice Shaw and Judges Wilde and
Putnam opened the extra session in the autumn of that year. Attor-
ney-General Austin and District Attorney Dewey presented the case
for the State, and Judge Morris was assisted by the brilliant and
eloquent George Ashnum. People neglected their business in order
to hear the evidence. The Elliot boy's name for mischief-making
confirmed the popular belief in his guilt, and Judge Morris was set to