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

SPRINGFIELD, lOSG-lSSG. 475
hundred voters, three thousand nine hundred and fortj^-six population,
and a tax-rate of $5,000.
N. P. Ames, of Cabotville, died in the spring of 1847. He was born
Dear Lowell in 1803. He removed to Chicopee Falls in 1829, and to
Cabotville in 1834, and was one of the founders of its commercial
prosperity. He visited ILurope in 1840 in order to study the mechani-
al arts for the benefit of the Ames Manufacturing Co. ,
and returned
broken in health. He was a dignified, affable, and generous man, and
was an active church-member. He gave $5,000 to build a Congrega-
tional church. Among other deaths during this period may be men-
tioned those of Justin Lombard, October, 1841 ; Samuel Bowles,
founder of the " "Weekly Republican," September, 1851 ; John
Howard, lawyer, 1849 ; and Moses Bliss, merchant, 1849.
The diA-ision of the town came in 1848 by a decree of the General
Court, and the selectmen's board of Springfield was reorganized as
follows : Solomon Hatch, William E. Montague, Philo F. "NVilcox,
Waitstill Hastings, and E. W. Bond.
The committee of the two towns appointed to divide the property
of the original town decided that the surplus revenue was to be di-
vided on the valuation of the two towns, giving Springfield sixty-one
per cent, and Chicopee thirty-nine per cent. Chicopee got a little
larger share of the school fund and property. The debts of the old
town aggregated $20,000, and Chicopee made a point, as $8,000 of
this was for the two new bridges over the Chicopee river. Spring-
field took the town farm, town hall, etc., except the old safe, which
was to remain with the Springfield town clerk for the preservation of
the old records.
But the town, reduced in territory as it was, seemed as gay and
full of business and pleasure as it ever was. Trade was good, and
we notice that the following January (1849), in one week the Niagara
Fire Company had a ball at Hampden Hall ; the Campbell minstrels
followed ; Eastcott gave a musical soiree at Concert Hall, Foot's
block ;
while J. H. Green, the reformed gambler, exposed the secrets