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

604 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-18S6.
time — as was then customary, before coming of age — of his father, and emi-
grated ; and that the town where he was born never left upon his memory suffi-
ciently agreeable impressions to have yet received from his present accumulated
millions anything commemorative of liis childhood, and in furtherance of the
interests of its present inhabitants, or is probably ever likely to be thus remem-
bered. Therefore, I conclude that there must be something more than the mere
fact of having been born in a certain locality that constitutes the attraction in
later life to those who have been long absent to return to it; and that it is
necessary, in order that such attraction may be powerful, that the impressions
of early life, which are so strong tliat old men babble of them when all other
memories have departed, should have been pleasant. And so far as Springfield
is concerned, I think I can truly say, not only for myself, but for all other of its
children who have wandered from the old home, that the early impressions
received here were always most pleasant.
Nowhere among all the towns of New England did the current of life run
more sweetly and quietly than here. How vividlj' can I reproduce the former
picture of localities ! On the spot where we are now gathered stood the family
home, embowered among great trees, of the Hookers, — judges, legislators,
deacons, and town councillors. Next below was the great gambrel-roof parson-
age of the First Church in Springfield. Where the railroad station is, grew some
of the earliest and sweetest apples,—sweeter if they could be gathered without the
privity of their owner, the Widow Hubbard. Where the railroad bridge crosses,
was one of the most famous of shad fisheries. Across the street, but lower
down, ran, as I tliink it yet does, the " town brook," once sufficiently pure to be
so stocked with trout as to admit of their being caught with a scoop. Across the
square rose, as now, tlie steeple of Dr. Osgood's churcli. which, to my childish
imaginings, seemed something akin in height to the tower of Babel ; and upon the
top of its spire still sits that wonderful rooster which, as all children were in-
formed, always crowed whenever he heard the other roosters.
How little then occurred to break the current uniformit}' : the publication of
the " Weekly liepublican ; " the annual town-meeting, which seemed always to
occur when the weather was most unpleasant and the roads the muddiest, to the
inconvenience of the multitude, who came up as the tribes of old to Jerusalem,
from Cabotville, Chicopee, or Skipmuck, " Jenksville," " Sixteen Acres," Long
Hill, and the Water-shops ;
the tolling of the ' passing bell," to indicate that some
one of the little community had joined the great congregation; the annual train-
ing of the Hampden Guards and the Springfield Artillery ; the occasional show
the A\inter's lyceum ; the arrival and departure of the good steamers " Agawam "
or •• Massachusetts," Peck, master ; or the departure before daylight, or the arrival
;