Gettysburg 1913: A 50th Anniversary Reunion

One hundred and sixty years ago, Union and Confederate armies fought The Battle of Gettysburg from July 1-3, 1863. The Union victory is felt to be the turning point of the Civil War. It was the most costly battle in U.S. history with approximately 50,000 casualties.

According to The Proceedings at the Centennial Celebration of the Incorporation of the Town of Longmeadow, October 17th, 1883, 166 men from Longmeadow served in the Union Army. Of these, eight were killed in action, five died of wounds, ten died of disease and three died in prison. In 1913, fifty years after The Battle of Gettysburg, two of Longmeadow’s Civil War veterans arrived in Pennsylvania to honor the anniversary.

The 50th anniversary of the battle was commemorated by the largest reunion of Union and Confederate veterans. It was said to be “the greatest gathering of conquerors and conquered in the history of the world.” From June 29-July 4, 1913 approximately 53,000 veterans from 46 of the 48 states gathered in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The gathering was peaceful and veterans, who ranged in age from their late 60s to their 80s, slept in tents and re-hashed battle stories with comrades-in-arms as well as with their opponents. The reunion was designed to promote healing and unity in an increasingly fractured and polarized country.

Among them were Isaac Coomes (1834-1916) and Nathan Coe (1845-1943), who both lived in Longmeadow at the time. Born in Vermont, Isaac Coomes was just a child when his family returned to their own native Longmeadow in 1841. He remained for the rest of his life. He enlisted in the 37th Massachusetts Volunteers and served in 21 battles - including Gettysburg. Isaac Coomes was one of seven brothers, two of whom died during the Civil War. Elias was killed in action at the Battle of Fair Oaks, Virginia May 31, 1862, and James died at the infamous Andersonville Prison, Andersonville, Georgia in 1864. Isaac, like his brother Elias, was trained as a thimble and spectacle maker in Longmeadow.

According to an article in The Springfield Union, Coomes enjoyed his 1913 trip to Gettysburg even though he was in poor health at the time. The paper reported, “He was much gratified to get a drink again from Spangler’s spring, remembered by the soldiers for its cold, delicious water.” Isaac never married. He resided at the pumping station according to the street directory in 1901, and on Meadow Street at the time of his death in 1916.

The other Civil War veteran who traveled from Longmeadow to Gettysburg was Nathaniel Coe. Originally from Connecticut, Coe enlisted in the Union Army at the age of 17 in 1862 in the 21st regiment of the Connecticut Volunteers and later in the 2nd Massachusetts heavy artillery. He had been captured at the Battle of Chancellorsville (Virginia) April 30-May 6, 1863 and was “released on parole May 14, 1863.” Though he did not participate in the Battle of Gettysburg he still made his way to the gathering of soldiers who were commemorating the 50th anniversary of the important event. Coe left his home at 21 Hopkins Place and made his way toward Pennsylvania.

For a more detailed look at the 1913 Battle of Gettysburg reunion please see here.

-Contributed by Lenny Shaker, Longmeadow Historical Society

Photo Credit: "Union and Confederate veterans shaking hands at reunion to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg. Pennsylvania United States Gettysburg, 1913." Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018652225/. Other sources: Wikipedia Springfield Union News Springfield Republican Ancestry.com Military-Historians.org

Seven Acres

While most properties in Longmeadow today clock in at well under an acre of land, that hasn’t always been the case, particularly along Longmeadow Street where it was once common to own long, thin parcels of land of about eight acres that stretched down towards the Connecticut River. As Longmeadow moved away from its agricultural roots, more and more land was sold and developed into the many side streets we have up and down Longmeadow Street today. However, there is still one parcel of land in town that maintains just about seven acres. This property, near the intersection of Longmeadow Street and Edgewood Avenue, features a home built in 1919 which came to be called, appropriately, “Seven Acres.”

The home was designed by H. Hilliard Smith and Donald G. Bassette, partners in the well-known architectural firm Smith and Bassette located in Hartford, CT. They were in business from 1911-1946. Their designs were based upon Classical and Colonial Revival styles. They designed several homes in the Colony Hills neighborhood, as wells as the iconic Longmeadow Community House (built in 1921) and the Richard Salter Storrs Library (built in 1933).

Prior to The Community House and Storrs Library, the firm designed several beautiful homes in town, including the property that came to be known as Seven Acres.

The seven-acre property was purchased from sisters Martha and Mary Ella Cooley, whose surname hearkens back to one of the earliest family names in town. At the time, the sisters resided in the family home at 418 Longmeadow Street.

1912 Longmeadow Map showing the land owned by the Cooley sisters

that would become Seven Acres

John F. and Marjorie S. Jennings, who resided at 33 Benedict Terrace after marrying in 1912, purchased the property. John Jennings, a 1906 graduate of Harvard Law School, and his wife, Marjorie, a Smith College graduate who brought her training and interest in landscape architecture to the Springfield and Longmeadow Gardening Clubs, sold their home for the larger lot. They hired the Smith & Bassette firm to design their new home.

John Jennings died in 1947, but his wife continued to live there until her death in 1980 at the age of 99. Extensive renovations were done to the property in the early 1980s. Today the house maintains its lovely acreage and the seclusion away from the bustle and traffic of Longmeadow Street. Now along with the extensive grounds, this is one of the loveliest homes in Longmeadow. A seven-acre oasis in town!

- Contributed by Lenny Shaker, Longmeadow Historical Society Board Member

Blueberry Hill School

Longmeadow Annual Town Report, 1960

Another week, another school visit! This week, Blueberry Hill School’s 3rd graders had a visit from the Longmeadow Historical Society to talk about local history. In the process, they learned a little about the history of their own school.

Springfield Republican, May 13, 1956

The mid-1950s was a whirlwind of school planning and building in town. Prior to 1955, Longmeadow junior high students finished 9th grade at the Junior High on the green (presently part of Center School) and boarded trolleys or buses headed to one of the high schools in Springfield to complete their education.

In 1955, Longmeadow responded to a boom in residential construction and population growth by constructing its own first high school on Grassy Gutter Road to house students in Grades 10-12. The 9th Grade soon joined them. Wolf Swamp Road School opened the next year in 1956 to relieve the overcrowding at the Norway Street School off Maple Road. And in September 1957, Blueberry Hill School welcomed students in Kindergarten through Grade 6. Imagine how busy town meetings and school committees must have been in those years as important decisions about budgets and school district boundaries were being made.

Blueberry Hill School was constructed to handle the overflow of elementary school students from the Converse Street School which had been built around 1918. The land east of Burbank Road had not been developed into neighborhoods yet, but would be after school construction had begun. Annual Reports from the time are filled with warrant articles about the naming of streets, paving of roads, and infrastructure related to water and sewer systems in the area off Bliss Road near the high school.

Longmeadow Annual Town Report, 1956

Blueberry Hill School opened its doors in September 1957 to 200 elementary school students under the leadership of Principal Ronald G. Billings, who had previously held the same role at the Converse Street School. As far as the name “Blueberry Hill,” it is hard to find any solid evidence pointing to an abundance of blueberry bushes in the area. Perhaps it’s true that the area was a great place for picking, but it is also possible that it was just a nice-sounding name.

Interestingly, the famous song of the same name by Fats Domino was released in September of 1956, and became a chart-topper after a November 1956 appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. Surely, workers on the school construction site and in households around town were humming along to the tune as they went about their work. The song was popular in other versions all throughout the 1940s as well, but it was Fats Domino’s take that had staying power.

Longmeadow Annual Town Report, 1957

Even as initial construction on all three new schools was occurring in the 1950s, it was already apparent that each building was going to need additions in the years to come to meet the needs of a rapidly growing town population. As a matter of fact, other sites were also being looked at as potential sites for additional school buildings, including an area of Emerson Road.

In time, the Converse and Norway Street Schools were turned over for other purposes in town and the additions to Center, Wolf Swamp and Blueberry Hill School have been sufficient to house Longmeadow’s youngest learners. Can we talk about those middle schools, though…..?

This week the Longmeadow Historical Society recognizes

M&T Bank for their support of History Notes