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

578 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
A home lot twenty rods wide -was assigned to Mr. Holyoke next south from
that of his father-in-law, AVilliam Pynchon. It occupied the whole space from
the northerly line of Worthington street to tlie southerly line of Bridge street.
He afterward acquired, by purchase or grant from the town, large additional
tracts of land on both sides of the river.
In l(i62 the towns of Springfield, Northampton, and Hadley were made a
county by the name of Hampshire. Springfield was made the shire town, but
courts were to be held alternately at Springfield and Northampton.
In 1GG5 John Pynchon was made presiding judge of the court, with four asso-
ciates. Holyoke was the associate from Springfield, and was also the recorder
of the court.
Deacon Samuel Chapin came to Springfield, in 1642, from Iloxbury, where he
had owned a ho\ise and lot. On June 2, 1G41, he took the freeman's oath at
Boston, and so became legally a citizen of Massachusetts. It appears by the
church records of lloxbury that he and his wife, Cicely Chapin, were both mem-
bers of Ilev. John Eliot's churcli in that town. His son, Japhet, was baptized
there October 15, 1(;42.
In December, KJiS, lie appears by the records to have been at Springfield as
one of a jury of which Holyoke was foreman, and Samuel Wright, afterward a
deacon of the church, was a member. Wright and Chapin were the first deacons
of the church here. Deacon Wright removed to Northampton, and died there.
His descendants abound in that place and vicinity. Deacon Chapin continued to
reside at Springfield, where he had a large family of sons and daughters. The
northern jjart of the town was at one time almost peopled l)y his descendants.
On the 17th of September, 1862, a meeting of his descendants was held here
in the old First Church, which was largely attended from all parts of the country.
Stephen C. Bemis, one of the descendants, and then mayor of this city, pre-
sided. Judge Henry Chai^in, of Worcester, delivered an address, and the late
Dr. Holland, whose Avife was a Chajjin, read a poem. Other interesting addresses
were delivered by other distinguished members of the family. In this way the
memory of the old deacon was kej^t aliA'e. And now, as if all this were not
enough to perpetuate his memory, it is proposed to erect a bronze statue on
Court square, in front of the church in which he once worshipped and officiated as
deacon. An artist of renowned skill has been engaged to prepare this statue,
and has already begun the Avork. When finished and erected, it will, undoubt-
edly, be a fit memorial in a fit place of the worthj- man it is designed to
represent.
While we hold in especial honor the few men who were leaders in the early
settlement of this town, and who shared with William Pynchon, during the six-