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

"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