Let it Snow

Do you remember the thrill of a new snowfall, a snow day, and your parents saying "let's go sledding?" This author remembers dragging a wooden sled with runners down the street to the sledding hill. There we would join other children on sleds, toboggans and flying saucers. As connoisseurs of sledding equipment, we appreciated the pros and cons of the various types. The toboggans were great for a group--pile on and try not to get the front position so you wouldn't get a face full of new powdery snow. The flying saucers--the hard plastic discs--were the fastest down a polished hill, but completely impossible to steer. All you could do was hold on tightly to the straps and hope that the slope wasn't too bumpy. Then there were the Flexible Flyer wooden sleds with metal runners. They were heavy to lug up the hill, and could get bogged down in wet snow (we would wax the runners with candle stubs), but they were steerable--either with your feet on the two "ears" up front, or with your hands if you dared to go down on your stomach, face first.

The Longmeadow Historical Society was recently gifted with a number 5, Junior Racer model, measuring 63" long. That was big enough to pile on several friends for the exhilarating run down the hill.

Flexible Flyer sleds were manufactured by the S. L. Allen & Company out of Philadelphia, PA, and shipped all over the country. Samuel Leeds Allen patented his design in 1889, but sales didn't take off until he started marketing them to toy companies.

Springfield Republican, December 4, 1910

A store called The Toy Shop operated on Worthington Street in Springfield and advertised "We have the Real Flexible Flyer Sleds in sizes 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5" and also advertised "Barney and Berry Skates" and "Bradley's Games" in December 1910, just in time for Christmas shopping.

Even Johnson's Book Store sold Flexible Flyers!

Next door to The Toy Shop was another store owned by S. B. Call & Sons. They advertised a variety "of holiday goods that will delight the children. Rocking horses, velocipedes, wheelbarrows, desks, blackboards, wagons and small automobiles are only a few of the things which are carried by this store for the boys. 'Flexible flyer sleds that steer without the need of scraping shoes and are the pride of a boy's heart, because they beat the other sleds on the hill, are to be found at this store."

I'm not sure I would consider wheelbarrows and school items as toys that would delight the children, but the rest sounds good!

Sledding wasn't completely a carefree adventure though. The papers published stories of sledding mishaps, including this one where one Thomas Ryan crashed his sled and ended up with a broken leg. His other 3 companions were less injured.

In fact, there was at one time in 1926 a motion to prohibit sledding on Mulberry Street. The petition failed, and the children "have forgotten the gloomy days when the petition talk first went the rounds. Daily rippers and flyers zip down the incline, high banked on either side by walls of new-fallen snow."

Let it snow, let it snow!

- Contributed by Betsy McKee, Longmeadow Historical Society

Sources: Genealogybank, Longmeadow Historical Society collections

Sarah A. Coomes Colton's Paintings

Two charming folk art paintings in the collection of the Longmeadow Historical Society bear the hallmarks of the kind of work educated young women in mid-19th century America produced.

Chatsworth: Home of the Duke of Devonshire by Sarah A. Coomes Colton

oil on canvas, 24" x 34"

Biblical Scene by Sarah A. Coomes Colton c. 1855-1856

oil on canvas, 30" x 39"

We are lucky to know the name of the artist of both pieces: Sarah Amelia Coomes Colton (1836-1922). Residing all of her life in Longmeadow, MA, her obituary does mention that she was educated in public schools and at Thetford Academy in Vermont. Though it is unclear how old Sarah Coomes Colton was at the time she attended Thetford Academy, her curriculum at the school would have included painting. A school advertisement from the era mentions, “The School is divided into two departments, English and Classical. Instruction is given in the Elementary and Higher English Branches, Latin, Greek, French, Drawing, Painting, and Music. Students are fitted for College, for professional teachers, or business.” Music, painting, and drawing added an extra $8 to the $4 tuition charged per term. That seems like quite a financial commitment.

So who were Sarah’s parents? Her father, Elias Coomes, was featured in an earlier History Note after we acquired his picture from eBay recently showing him wearing his militia uniform. He was a farmer in town whose real estate was valued at $5000 on the 1850 census, about double what the average farmer’s real estate value was. His unexpected death in 1851 at the age of 44 following a fall from the roof of a brick kiln left his wife alone to raise three young children. It is unclear if his daughter Sarah, who was fourteen at the time of her father’s death, attended Thetford Academy in Vermont before or after his loss, though his death surely must have been a significant financial hardship on the family She does appear on the 1850 register of the District 1 Schoolhouse in Longmeadow.

Chatsworth: Home of the Duke of Devonshire

Both paintings are on canvas. One piece, “Chatsworth - Home of the Duke of Devonshire” features a faux-painted wood background and border around a bucolic British scene featuring a bridge, a river, hills, and various estate buildings. These sorts of scenes were popular subjects among schoolgirl painters, even though most had never traveled abroad.

The second piece bears two interesting labels on the back. One shows that it was donated to the Historical Society by J.D. Colton, the son of the artist, and identifies the subject as a “Biblical Scene.” Like the Chatsworth painting, it seems unlikely that young artist would have traveled to any place that looked anything like the scene of the columned building in the painting. For sure, Sarah Coomes Colton would have been familiar with hills and sheep and trees, both in her hometown and in the Vermont area around Thetford Academy.

Biblical Scene

The other interesting label on the back of the “Biblical Scene” is the canvas maker's mark: “From N.D. Cotton, 7 Tremont Street, Boston.” This mark helps to date the painting to circa 1855-1856. Newspaper advertisements show that N.D. Cotton was in the business of art supplies and stationery for many years in Boston, but only at that location in 1855 and 1856. Sarah Coomes Colton would have been 19 or 20 years old at that point, perhaps too old to be a student at Thetford Academy, but did she continue to practice the skills she learned in her earlier schooling? It’s hard to know, but many young women who attended Academies did so to receive a more refined education to make them better teachers. Perhaps Sarah was working as a teacher at the time she completed these works of art.

English Prepared Canvas from N. D. Cotton

7 Tremont St, Boston

In 1861, at the age of 25, Sarah Coomes married Alvah Colton, Jr, also of Longmeadow. Surely, her days of painting would be behind her at that point as she became a successful farmer’s wife and a mother. Did Sarah bring these paintings with her to decorate her new home as she began married life? It is nice to know that her children held onto her paintings, and even nicer that they have found their way into the collection of the Longmeadow Historical Society.

-Contributed by Melissa M. Cybulski, Longmeadow Historical Society

all images from the collection of the Longmeadow Historical Society

Cannon on the Green 1926-1942

Image from Annie Emerson Papers, Vol 2

In 1920 it was decided to construct a war memorial to honor the almost 340 Longmeadow veterans who had served in our nation’s wars. The monument would include a large boulder with a bronze plaque inscribed with the veterans' names along with a flagpole. The site of this memorial was to be on the Longmeadow green. According to The Springfield Republican on February 17, 1922, “The bowlder (sic) which was quarried on Joseph Wesson’s estate in Palmer is on the way and will be placed on the Longmeadow green. Its weight is 12 tons”. The dedication and unveiling of the monument occurred on Memorial Day, May 30, 1922.

The guest of honor and principal speaker was Major-General Clarence Edwards, a descendant of Lieutenant Nathaniel Burt, a Longmeadow resident killed in the Battle of Lake George during the French and Indian Wars on September 8, 1755. General Edwards was commander of the 26th Infantry Division during WWI. It was referred to as the “Yankee Division” as it consisted of units from New England. Men of the newly created Albert T. Wood post of the American Legion led a procession through the cemetery to decorate the graves of the veterans buried there. Four Longmeadow residents who were veterans of the Civil War were present.

In 1919, captured German artillery was turned over to American forces to be distributed to cities around the United States as “gifts” of the government. In 1926, a 150 mm caliber artillery piece was secured by Colonel Charles Tenney, a Longmeadow resident who was head of the Springfield Gas Light Company for almost 50 years. Tenney offered the cannon to the town, thinking it would be a nice accompaniment to the memorial on the green. He suggested that if the town weren’t interested in taking it, he would put it in his own yard. The town did accept the gift, and the cannon was placed at the war memorial on the green.

Image from Longmeadow Sesquicentennial

The cannon, however, soon created a controversy in town. It was described as “another distinct detriment to the beauty of the landscape” and should be “placed in a less conspicuous place”. The cannon did remain in this location until WWII. In early 1942 it was decided that it would, “be returned to its native land slugged special delivery to Hitler in the form of American shells and guns”. The cannon was removed in July 1942 and sold as scrap metal with the proceeds to be donated to various service relief funds. Nothing of its presence remains at the memorial which was later expanded to include veterans of WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

Springfield Republican, July 1942

-Contributed by Lenny Shaker, Longmeadow Historical Society

Sources:

Annie Emerson Papers, Vol 2, Richard Salter Storrs Library

Longmeadow Sesquicentennial Book

Springfield Republican: February 17, 1922, February 16, 1926, October 15, 1926, July 9, 1942