"Be a good boy and learn..."

Samuel C. Booth's Penmanship Book, 1820

From the Collection of the Longmeadow Historical Society

Penmanship copybooks like this one used by a young Samuel C. Booth (1812-1895) are tangible reminders of students’ diligent work as they practiced the art of penmanship.

Samuel C. Booth of Longmeadow, Massachusetts would have been just two months shy of his eighth birthday when he began to fill the now-delicate pages of his copybook with his work. Occasionally splotchy, and certainly uneven in form, his letters filled lightly drawn guide lines across each page of the book. Rather than learning to write his letters A-Z, Samuel would have been taught to practice writing letters with similar shapes first. In this book, lines came first, followed by “ti” “n” “v” and “f”- or at least what looks like a cursive “f.” Likely his teacher wrote a model letter at the beginning of each line for him to follow, and set him on his way to sit at his seat with his quill pen and ink.

From letters, students like Samuel C. Booth progressed to words and then aphorisms meant to teach moralistic lessons to young children. Samuel’s copybook shows him writing, “Be a good boy and learn,” “Honor parents at all times,” and “Quarrelsome boys are bad.”

"Be a good boy and learn/Honor parents at all times"

From the Collection of the Longmeadow Historical Society

"Quarrelsome boys are bad"

From the Collection of the Longmeadow Historical Society

Booth was educated in Longmeadow public schools, though he clearly would have enjoyed an opportunity to study at college. Every census shows that young Samuel grew up to be a farmer, but his obituary reveals a deeper passion; he was a talented mineralogist. Booth accumulated a celebrated collection of rock and mineral samples which he stored, displayed, and categorized in various rooms and outbuildings on his property. Upon his death in 1895 he left the collection to the Springfield City Library and it became an important foundational collection at the Springfield Museum of Natural History. Specimens from his collection are still used in displays in the Mineral Room at the Springfield Science Museum at the Quadrangle today. His daughter became a noted scientist as well, and some of her specimens are displayed alongside her father’s.

And to think his life as an amateur geologist began so humbly learning to write his letters in penmanship copybooks.

Image Courtesy of Springfield Museums

from Historical Sketch Museum of Natural History 1859-1909

Springfield Museums, Mineral Room

December 2022

- Contributed by Melissa M. Cybulski, Longmeadow Historical Society

Special thanks to Zoe Cheek and Maggie Humbertson at the Springfield Museums Library and Archives and Jenny Powers, Director of Science at the Springfield Museums

For the Birds!

"With Best Wishes"

Postcard from the Longmeadow Historical Society Archives

It's For the Birds!

Did you know that there used to be a crow bounty? Crows were such a pest to farmers that any enterprising resident could be paid for any crows they turned in--and they didn't need to turn in the whole bird! Submitting the heads was enough to earn your bounty, so you were free to keep the rest. Remember the rhyme "four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie?" Maybe it really took that many to bake a decent-sized dinner!

Town records in the archives of the Longmeadow Historical Society from 1794 bear witness to the practice: "Samuel Parsons for four young crows...and Nathaniel Ely for killing 13 young crows and 3 old ones.. and Elijah Burt for killing 4 young crows." And from 1791: "To Samuel Williams for killing 4 old crows and 9 young..To Hezikiah Hale for payment for 3 old Crows and 3 young, To Jonathan Burt for Paying for 2 old Crows and 6 young."

And crows weren't the only cash crop bird--people used to tell stories of the famed passenger pigeons flying overhead for hours or days, darkening the skies like a storm. Passenger pigeons were once the most abundant bird in eastern North America, numbering between 3 and 5 billion! Loss of habitat and overhunting led to their decline. Hunting them was so easy that they weren't even considered a game bird - anyone could fire into a flock without aiming and bring down dozens of birds. People also were able to get paid for catching "pigeons" as a source of income. The passenger pigeon was extinct by 1914.

What about our wild turkey? You may remember that Benjamin Franklin championed the wild turkey over the bald eagle, feeling that the turkey was a "bird of Courage" and the bald eagle a "Bird of bad moral Character." But the wild turkey was already disappearing by the time Ben offered his opinion. In fact, the wild turkey had been hunted to near extinction by the late 1600s. According to the New England Historical Society, "Connecticut saw its last wild turkey in 1813. Vermont had none by 1842, and they disappeared from Massachusetts in 1851." Part of the problem may have been that the wild turkey didn't migrate, and they had the habit of roosting in the same tree every night, making hunting them easy!

Efforts to reintroduce the wild turkey in New England began to have some success in the 1970s. Now all of the New England states have large numbers of the sassy birds--enough that people complain about them being overly aggressive in the suburbs attacking people and disrupting gardens. An article in the Stamford Advocate suggested that anyone threatened by a turkey should "open an umbrella and walk toward the turkey; it will run away."

These days, a trip to the Fannie Stebbins Wildlife Refuge down Bark Haul or Emerson Roads will show you just how comfortable Longmeadow's birds are feeling in their habitats. No more bounties on their lovely bird heads!

-Contributed by Betsy McKee, Longmeadow Historical Society

The Chapel

The First Church of Christ of Longmeadow is a truly historic town landmark. At one time there was an associated structure that stood for more than 75 years and has almost been forgotten, the Longmeadow Chapel. But look closely at old photographs of the church and you will likely notice the smaller, gothic revival era structure just next door.

In early New England, the building where worshipers gathered was called the meetinghouse. Longmeadow’s first meetinghouse was constructed in 1716. According to the First Church of Longmeadow’s website, “The building, which was relatively small (only 32 feet by 38 feet), was located where the flagpole is now standing on the Green. The nearly square unpainted building had a pyramidal roof with a central bell tower. In 1764 so many repairs were needed that it was voted to build a second Meeting House which was built in 1767-68. The old Meeting House was torn down on June 12, 1769. The second Meeting House was located on the Green, just north of the first Meeting House”.

For nearly a century, First Church stood directly on the green. A brick schoolhouse next door burned down in 1852. In addition to functioning as a town school, it was also used for prayer meetings and religious classes. When the new school was built further down the street, it was found necessary to build a chapel to continue to house some of those functions. On March 7, 1853, the Town granted the land west of the Burying Ground and north of Levi Taylor’s home to the First Church. The Chapel was constructed in 1853 just east of the church on the southern corner of the “lane to East Longmeadow,” now known as Williams Street. The minister's parsonage stood on the corner of Williams and Longmeadow Streets.

Location of First Church, Chapel and Parsonage 1870

The Chapel became a gathering place for community meetings and social events. In 1869 members of the congregation wanted to raise money for a new piano for the chapel. Apparently, they were tired of oyster suppers and ice cream festivals, common at the time, and residents of the town, Captain and Mrs. W. H. Seamans, came up with the idea of the Longmeadow May Breakfast. This was hosted at the Chapel and became a popular annual tradition in this town.

Interior of the Chapel, 1907

(image from the Emerson Collection, Longmeadow Historical Society)

Springfield Republican, May 3, 1869

In 1873, the Parish voted to move the church off the green to its current location and renovate it. The Chapel had to be moved south to accommodate this. The church renovations gave it a fashionable Gothic Revival appearance at that time.

First Church, post-1874 renovation

First Church, Chapel, Parker House, 1916

(image from the Emerson Collection, Longmeadow Historical Society)

Another change to the layout of the area around the green would come in 1921 when it was decided to build the Community House on the site of the Parsonage. This set off a series of moving structures within the small area at the corner of Williams Street and Longmeadow Street. The parsonage (today home to the Montessori School), moved to its present location next door to the church on the south side. The Chapel and the home adjacent to it were moved to new locations nearby on Williams Street.

The Parsonage, 1907

Today this building is the home of the Longmeadow Montessori School

(image from the Emerson Collection, Longmeadow Historical Society)

This required moving the Parsonage south to the site of the Captain Simon B. Parker House at 777 Longmeadow Street. It is incredible to conceive of moving these structures which at the time apparently was not uncommon.

Captain Simon B. Parker House

(image from the Emerson Collection, Longmeadow Historical Society)

(image from the Emerson Collection, Longmeadow Historical Society)

In 1930 the new town hall was constructed. This required demolition of the Chapel. A venerable structure within the community served its purpose and was no longer needed. Nothing remains of its existence today. This is an important part of town history that should be remembered.

-Contributed by Lenny Shaker, Longmeadow Historical Society Board Member

Originally published November 17, 2022

Sources

1. https://www.firstchurchlongmeadow.org/

2. Springfield Republican

3. Longmeadow Historical Society