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

484 SPRINGFIELD, 1 636-1886.
of the retiring and final board of selectmen, administered the oath of
office to the mayor, who swore in the rest of the city government.
The mayor and aldermen were immediately confronted with the
license qnestion. The new license law went into effect on July 22,
and, on motion of Eliphalet Trask, who in later times stood, and still
stands, as a temperance tower of great strength, moved that licenses
be granted to that date. George Bliss opposed this motion, but Mr.
Trask gained liis point. City Marshal Adams had his hands full
before the year closed, raiding saloons and rumholes.
Petitions were circulated in this, the first year of the municipality,
for the removal of Postmaster Stowe and the appointment of Charles
Stearns. This was called persecution for opinion's sake, Mr. Stowe
having been an active militar}^ armory superintendent advocate.
Both of these gentlemen were whigs. Stearns was in Washington
at the time, and upon hearing of the petition requested that his name
be withdrawn, and it was.
During the last eight years of Springfield's township the business
street had undergone, as we have had occasion to note, great changes.
In fact. Main street had been largely rebuilt or remodelled. There
had gone up the Union House, Burt's block, Foot's block, the burned
district buildings, about Sanford street, Hampden Hall block, Good-
rich's block, City Hotel block, the new arsenal at the armory, and
the John Hancock Bank on the Hill. The corner bookstore of the
Merriam's began to take on the dignity of age, owing to these new
buildings. There were also four church edifices, as we have noted,
— Universalist, Pynchon-street Methodist, the Baptist, and the North
Congregational churches. The new block above the depot, with
many houses in that region, was a real estate feature of that day.
A dozen elegant residences had been built on Maple street, and the
railroad buildings were nearly all new.
The new city of Springfield assumed its robes with becoming dig-
nity and good nature, in spite of the misgivings of an infiuential
minority. To William B. Calhoun, John B. Kirkham, Theodore