By Jacqueline T. Lynch, Vice-President
Today we have a look back at 1801, the 25th anniversary of the start of our Revolution.
There were 16 states in 1801. Thomas Jefferson was president, having been inaugurated four months previously in March for the first of his two terms. He defeated John Adams, but tied with Aaron Burr – who was his own vice-presidential candidate. It was left to the House of Representatives to pick the winner, and they chose Jefferson. The country was split into two opposing parties: the Federalists, and the Democratic-Republicans. The Federalists, of course, eventually passed into history and the Democratic-Republicans became the Democratic Party.
The national political turmoil did not seem to have a profound effect on our local ancestors as much as it did during the Revolution, when events in Massachusetts had a profound effect on the founding of the nation.
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Twenty-five years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we had begun to lose some of our veterans from that war. Five men died since the signing of the peace in 1783, with their ages ranging from 38 to 88 at their deaths. (At least two men died during the war, but were probably not battle casualties.) Old men and very young boys enlisted in that war, with the majority of them being young, and these vets, rather than just moving on with their lives after the war, took an active part in developing their communities.
Many were farmers, of course, most along Chicopee Street, Willimansett, and Skipmuck, which we later generally termed Chicopee Falls. Abel Chapin, who had marched to Ticonderoga, was fast becoming known as Landlord Abel Chapin for his well-known tavern and inn on Chicopee Street, where the post riders delivered mail, and celebrations in the upper common room included dancing. There may have been dancing on July 4, 1801, the 25th anniversary of the Declaration; unfortunately, we have no newspaper accounts on this date of our little villages.
Ariel Cooley, from Skipmuck, had marched away with a company of Minutemen when news was received of the Battle of Lexington and Concord. He became an engineer and first proprietor of the Canal & Locks at the Falls at South Hadley begun in 1792, the first such canal in the nation. He built the first dam across the Connecticut at Ireland Parish (future Holyoke) and a number of other projects in other parts of the young country.
Calvin Chapin, from Chicopee Street, was only a 15-year-old fifer when he joined in 1778 to guard stores and powder magazines at Springfield and Brookfield. After the war, he graduated from Yale, taught there, and became a famous minister.
Amos Skeele, originally from Connecticut, joined at the age of 25 and fought from Boston to White Plains, Trenton, and was wounded in Connecticut. After the war, he studied medicine and became a doctor, but he wouldn’t arrive here for another three years, in 1804, setting up his practice in his home on Chicopee Street as the only doctor between Springfield and Hadley, including treating folks in Ludlow and across the river in Ireland Parish.
Ebenezer Burbank, originally from Middlesex, and who joined the fight in Boston at the age of 17, settled here after the war and ran that ferry across the Connecticut at Ferry Lane with his brother. He and his wife lived near the ferry landing. Sadly, he drowned the following year in 1802 at the age of 41, possibly in the operation of the ferry.
They became deacons of the church, small businessmen, early entrepreneurs, and raised families. Some moved to other towns, some to other states. Some came from other places to make Chicopee their home.
This rough map depicting the area as it looked in the year 1800, shows Chicopee Street linked at the river by the first covered bridge (which was funded by a lottery in the last year of the war, 1783) to what is now lower Springfield Street, but then commonly referred to as “Toddy Lane” in the 19th century as the taverns that provided refreshment to men walking to the Springfield Armory (founded 1794) to work.
Much of Fairview, Aldenville, and Sandy Hill were vast spaces referred to as “Pine Barren.” Their day would come. The Burnett Road area was still Johnnycake Hollow.
We were part of Springfield at this time, the Fifth Parish, which included part of Ireland Parish across the river, with the Congregational Church on Chicopee Street built in 1751. The folks from Ireland Parish crossed the river by ferry, landing at Ferry Lane, to go to services. The total population of Springfield and all future towns in its boundaries at that time was just over 2,300.
We were also part of Hampshire County at this time, as Hampden County would not be carved from it until 1812.
At this time there were two cemeteries in town: the Old Burying Ground on Chicopee Street, and the Pine Grove Cemetery, which was established by the Pendleton family in 1788 for the burial of Rev. John Pendleton, a Baptist minister. This small graveyard was originally part of South Hadley, but the boundary line changed at some point when Hampden County was carved out of Hampshire County, and became part of Chicopee. By 1888, this cemetery was discontinued and the bodies were reinterred in other cemeteries in South Hadley and Chicopee. Caleb Pendleton, Sr., and John Frink, Jr., both veterans who settled in Willimansett after the war (and were related by marriage) were both buried in the Pine Grove Cemetery and later reinterred in the Old Burying Ground on Chicopee Street.
We were 25 years from the Revolution, but only 13 from Shays’ Rebellion (in which Landlord Abel Chapin became Col. Abel for a while when he commanded a company of government troops against the rebels).
We were only 11 years away from the War of 1812, when Great Britain was again our adversary. Levi Chapin, whose house still stands on Springfield Street, was 30 years old when he served at Saratoga. He also registered for service in the War of 1812 when he was 61. We don’t know if he was called to fight.
The son of Moses Bliss, Francis, did serve in that war. Moses served in the Revolutionary War at the age of 22 in the Hampshire County militia, and both the Connecticut and Massachusetts state militias.
The country was still very young, and the veterans must have marveled at the changes – perhaps not in the infrastructure of the town which was a few dirt roads, a couple sawmills, an early minor iron ore production. In this year of 1801, an early cotton mill with carding machines and two spinning frames, was established by William, Levi, and Joseph Chapin. Women used the yarn made here to weave into cloth on their hand looms. You could say they were subcontractors, working at home. The Chapins advertised in the Hampshire Federalist in 1812 that they would accept produce in exchange for their cloth or yarn. It was still a bartering economy.
Most clothes were still homespun linen, the spinning and weaving done at home, and what shopping to be done was done in Springfield. Cooking was done at the fireplace. The dark nights were lit by candles. There were cattle, pigs, a few horses, but wagons were rare.
Still, the most profound change was that the fathers, uncles, and grandfathers of the Revolutionary War veterans had fought for England in the French and Indian War, and a few like Ephraim Chapin, Sr., and Gad Chapin, were older Revolutionary vets who themselves had fought for the King in the French and Indian War.
To them, maybe the biggest change was no longer raising toasts of “God Save the King” at celebrations at places like Abel Chapin’s tavern. Now, and especially on July 4th, they raised tankards to the memory of George Washington, who had died a year and a half ago in December 1799, and “God Save the United States.”
Sources
Chapin, Charles Wells [Ed.]. (1895). Chapins who served in the French and Indian Wars 1754-1759; the Revolutionary War 1775-1783, the War of 1812, 1812-1815, and others. Springfield, MA.
Comeau, Robert. (2023, March 30). Pine Grove Cemetery of Chicopee and South Hadley, Massachusetts. HolyokeCanalTour.org.
Hampden Federalist. (1812, January 30).
McKinstry, Winthrop. (1978). Glimpses of the past. Chicopee, MA.
Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth [Ed.]. (1896). Massachusetts soldiers and sailors of the Revolutionary War. (1896). Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co., State Printers.
Palmer, Clara Skeele. (1899). Annals of Chicopee Street: Records and reminiscences of an old New England parish for a period of two hundred years. Springfield, MA: H.R. Johnson.
Rolls and lists of Connecticut Men in the Revolution 1775-1783. (1901). Hartford: Connecticut Historical Society.
Shlakman, Vera. (1936, reprinted 1969). Economic History of a Factory Town – A Study of Chicopee, Massachusetts. New York: Octagon Books.
Springfield (Massachusetts) Vital Records, 1638-1887.
Springfield Daily Republican. (1886, May 26).
Springfield Sunday Republican. (1894, June 17).
Springfield Sunday Republican. (1927, January 2).
Szetela, Thaddeus M. (1948). Chicopee. Chicopee, MA: Szetela & Rich Publishing Co.
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The Chicopee Historical Society is currently looking for a new treasurer. Anyone interested in applying for that position on our board of directors may contact us at TheChicopeeHistoricalSociety@gmail.com or through our Contact Us page.
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