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

SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 438
lyro tern, of the Senate during Mr. Pickman's illness, and upon liis
election as president a Boston paper had remarked that it had been
said of George Bliss's father that " nothing escaped his notice or ex-
amination. This is true of the son, — his mind is extremely active,
and its activaty is more than ordinarily apparent in the variations of
his countenance and in his whole air and movements. No person of
observation can fail to perceive that he is constantly intent."
The festivities attending the second centennial of the town's birth
began upon Tuesday afternoon. May 24, 1836, when Gov. Edward
Everett and suite. Col. Robert C. Winthrop, General Dearborn, and
other officials arrived at Springfield from Boston by the old Moseley
stage line. A cavalcade of citizens, and as well many in carriages,
met the party at the Five Mile House, and conducted them to the
Hampden Coffee-house upon Court square. Charles Stearns had also
arrived from Maine the same day, bringing with him four fresh salmon
and trout caught nearly four hundred miles from Springfield, he " hav-
ing been only forty-three hours on the way." John Howard opened his
residence in the evening, and the citizens of Springfield had an oppor-
tunity to become acquainted with his Excellency and party.
The eventful 25th was heralded with the firing of cannon and the
ringing of bells. The fire department, under Stephen C. Bemis and
George Dwight, assembled at an early hour upon Chestnut street
and proceeded to Court square, where it showed to a large crowd what
the hand-engine pumps could do upon occasion. The governor was
escorted to the scene of the oratory by five hundred mechanics, the
procession being formed upon Elm street. The printers had provided
a hand-press from '' The Springfield Republican" office, and as they
moved along they worked off an edition and distributed copies to the
people. The mechanics of the armory followed with a banner, tlieu
the carpenters and workers in wood, then machinists, shoemakers, and
so on through the list of trades. The hardware mechanics from ^\\\-
limansett were conspicuous in the line. The military escort iucluded
tlie Springfield Light Infantry, the Springfield Artillery Company, the