Bliss Road Intersection c. 1956

Recent eBay acquisition

Longmeadow, 1956

Here’s another neat little eBay find we recently acquired! How do you like this postcard image of the intersection of Bliss Road and Longmeadow Street? What really sold us on it was all of the vintage automobiles!

Looking back at the 1956 Annual Town Report shows that it was another period of rapid growth. The estimated town population in 1956 was 9,000 residents. There was lots of talk in town meetings about sewer work, street paving, and sidewalk building. Wolf Swamp School was brand new. The first ever Longmeadow High School was, too. The Police Department was petitioning for a new facility so they could move out of the two rooms they occupied in the basement of Town Hall. The Community House showed movies, the Yacht Club was granted a building permit, the streets around Center School were too congested at drop-off and pick-up time, and 50 people were treated for communicable diseases from dog bites.

Enjoy this little snapshot of life from not too long ago, and share your memories if you were here in town in the 1950’s! Tune in to next week's History Note when we share the story of a deadly 1905 Trolley Crash just south of where this image was taken.

All of the following images are from the 1956 Town of Longmeadow Annual Report

Originally published October 27, 2022

Dairy Farming in Longmeadow

Jarius R. Kibbe and oxen of Frank B. Allen. Image courtesy of Stephen Forbes.

Until the turn of the century, most Longmeadow families made a living by farming. Census records show that in 1880 Longmeadow (which at that time included East Longmeadow) had 155 farms and 7,723 acres of improved land. Most farmers raised crops (such as tobacco, corn, and potatoes) and livestock (cattle, sheep, swine, and poultry). Longmeadow had a strong dairy industry. In 1880, we had 719 milch cows which produced 181,739 gallons of milk and 48,545 pounds of butter. In 1896, trolley service began down Longmeadow Street and agricultural land in town began to be sold for residential housing development. Many farms remained as late as 1910 (after the split with East Longmeadow) when we still had 226 cows in town.

1894 Map of Longmeadow

The 1894 map of Longmeadow shows a neighborhood of five farms near the intersection of today’s Longmeadow Street and Maple Road. At the top of the hill on the west side of Longmeadow Street was Hillbrow Farm, a dairy farm which was owned by H. M. Burt.

Hillbrow Farm May 17, 1920. Image from the Pasiello Emerson Collection.

Springfield Republican, June 18, 1905

South of Hillbrow Farm was the farm of Jarius R. Kibbe. The farmhouse, which is today’s 1390 Longmeadow Street, was built by Gaius Bliss in 1789. Gaius was both a farmer and a tanner. After Gaius’s death in 1843, the house and farm were sold several times. Jarius Kibbe bought the farm from Simeon Simons in 1870 and he and his wife, Abigail, and daughter Julia, age 5, moved to Longmeadow. Jarius was a dairy farmer, but he also grew tobacco and potatoes and had 40 apple trees.

Kibbe farmhouse, 1390 Longmeadow Street. Image courtesy of Stephen Forbes.

Jarius R. Kibbe, barn, and farmhouse. Image courtesy of Stephen Forbes.

Kibbe farm looking west towards Connecticut River. Image courtesy of Stephen Forbes.

South of the Kibbe farm was the tobacco farm of Gideon J. Burt. Gideon died in 1893 and the 1894 map shows the farm as owned by his widow, Elmira. Across Longmeadow Street south of Maple Road lived another tobacco farmer, Walter Beebe. North of Maple Road and across the street from the Kibbe family was the home of Frank B. Allen. Today we refer to this house as the “Keep House” and it is still standing at 1401 Longmeadow Street. The home was built in the 1700's by Samuel Keep, a farmer. Frank’s father, Britton P. Allen, bought the house in 1864 from one of Samuel’s descendants, Henry Keep. Frank grew up in this house and he took over the farming responsibilities after his father died in 1879. He built it into the largest dairy farm in Longmeadow.

Keep House, 1401 Longmeadow Street. Image courtesy of Stephen Forbes.

Community ties became stronger in 1886 when Jarius’ only child, Julia Kibbe, returned from Mt. Holyoke Seminary and married her neighbor across the street, Frank B. Allen.

Julia Kibbe, 1885. Image courtesy of Stephen Forbes.

Frank B. Allen. Image courtesy of Stephen Forbes.

Longmeadow farmers sold their milk to customers in urban Springfield. Especially in the days when refrigeration was not commonplace, milk had to get to market speedily before it would sour. Longmeadow dairy farmers collaborated with other Hampden County dairy farmers to efficiently deliver their product to consumers. By 1885, the Springfield Co-operative Milk Association was advertising its wares to Springfield residents.

Springfield Republican, March 5, 1885. Note the telephone connection that was available to Springfield residents.

I

n 1899, the Springfield Co-operative Milk Association became a stock-owned corporation; Frank Allen became one of the first shareholders. In 1901, the Association invested in a “100-gallon Pott’s pasteurizer, because of the growing demand for cream of good quality served in a clean and wholesome manner.” By 1906, the Association boasted that it handled milk from 500 farms. Residents of Springfield depended upon milk delivery from Longmeadow as much as Longmeadow farmers needed its Springfield markets. In 1888, after a heavy snowstorm, the Association plowed a path to Springfield so that the perishable milk could be sold.

Springfield Republican, March 15, 1888. Note that milk was delivered to Springfield before prominent Longmeadow citizens snowed in at the train depot were rescued.

Frank B. Allen was an active member of the Association, serving as President, Clerk, and Director. In 1904, Frank and Julia partitioned the Keep residence from the dairy farm and sold the farm to Howard A. Cleveland. Several years later, Mr. Cleveland sold the land to Bay State Realty Trust and the Trust developed the Greenwood Manor subdivision. The Allen family built a new house on the west side of Longmeadow Street, 1428 Longmeadow Street, and they moved there prior to 1910.

Springfield Republican, Sept. 26, 1904

Today, there are no dairy farms in Longmeadow, but we are fortunate to have some of the beautiful residences in which the farmers made their homes.

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Contributed by Beth Hoff, Longmeadow Historical Society Board Member

Originally published October 13, 2022 Resources: Archives of the Longmeadow Historical Society Stephen Forbes Nate Chittenden, Dutch Hollow Farm 1880 Agricultural Census Schedule Longmeadow Annual Report 1910 Massachusetts, U.S., Marriage Records, 1840-1915 Springfield Republican: Mar. 5, 1885; Mar. 15, 1888; Mar. 24, 1899; Mar. 20, 1901; Sept. 26, 1904; June 18, 1905; Mar. 21, 1906

"I am like a lost sheep in the world:": The Letters of Jeannette Cooley

Last week's History Note told the story behind the inscription on James Cooley's cenotaph in Longmeadow Cemetery. A cenotaph is a monument without a body. As a reminder, Cooley died at age 37 of typhus only nine months after beginning his tenure while serving in Lima, Peru as the United States Charge D'Affaires. This second part of the story will focus on his wife Jeannette, who accompanied him to Peru.

Jeannette Cooley wrote frequent letters home to her sister, Eliza, from her new home in Peru. Her husband had been named the United States' first Charge D'Affaires to Peru after the country was recognized. Born in Guilford, Connecticut, Jeannette had settled in Ohio. Though her husband was a prominent lawyer, state senator, and elector (for the Presidential Electoral college), the appointment to Peru must have come as a shock. He wasn't President John Quincy Adams' first choice, and he was relatively unknown.

Her first letter is written about their "long and tedious" journey to Lima by way of the Straits of Magellan. She "had two narrow escapes from the hands of death" during the voyage. The first was due to a storm: "our ship was tost [sic] from side to side, and the foaming mountain waves appeard to show with what anger they allowed us to pass." After passing Cape Horn, Jeannette was ill "for the want of medical skill my life was dispaired of." The passage took one hundred and three days to reach dry land at Valparaiso in Chile. From there they stopped at Coquimbo, and then Callao before entering the walls of Lima.

Appointed to his position in February 1826, it was many months of travel before James Cooley and his wife reached their destination. Jeannette seemed ill-prepared to take up diplomatic life in Peru. Her comments about the country were unflattering, to say the least, and reflect the culture shock that challenged her early New England sensibilities: "In the first place the whole coast of South America is not worth the comforts of one little Village in the U.S., for comforts is a word not in the Language or known in the Country." Keep in mind that she didn't actually speak the language! She describes the houses as being decorated with many silver objects like looking glasses and picture frames, but "at the same time with all of this silver they will live on a brick floor without a chair in the house." She goes on to say "Chairs carpets and knives and forks were a thing unknown in Lima untill lately but they are beginning to use them in the best houses."

Jeannette Cooley was impressed with the churches, though she says that the "Priests are constant attendants at Bull Fights and Cock fights!" The ladies of Lima "have fine black eyes and pretty feet" but they "smoke a segar which they all do from old to young rich or poor."

Clothing styles were also quite different from what Jeannette was used to: "they have their dresses made very short in order to show her pretty stockings and shoes. They never wear any bonnets, they are a thing almost unknown in S. A. and have onely been worn by the few English or American ladies. They are in general very fat and wear no jackets or corsets of any kind in common and their dress made loose and low in the neck." She describes the daily garb of the women as the daya (saya) and Mana (manto). These two garments were worn in such a way as to "conceal them-selves altogether except one eye." "A Lady will go any where with this dress, and not be known by her own husband or brother, I cannot give yo a correct idea of this dress with out sending you a painting. It is the most indecent dress to a foreign eye."

Image of a woman wearing a saya and manto, 1830

Library of Congress

She found the everyday items very expensive, like "Beef 18 cents a pound, flour from 20 to 30 dollars a barrel." "We have to buy our water in the City is supplied by a fountain that stands in this centere, and wood is the dearest thing of of all, with the greatest economy you must 75 cents a day and some times more for this article and we use it for nothing but cooking in a furnace as there is not a fire place in Lima." Jeannette rarely mentions her husband in these missives to home: "As to politicks I do not meddle with them, since the arrival of Le Mar our president I have been to a Bull fight and a splendid Ball, at the Palace." It seems that she was finally impressed with the parties, at least! She was very homesick and missed her family--it seemed that the mail was very unreliable: "we have not heard a word from any of you since we left home which you know must make me miserable, I beg and pray you to write often. I am like a lost sheep in the world."

Her postscript the next day included a description of their experience with an earthquake "we have had an Earthquake (blank) very severe this is the forth we have felt. our house rocked like a cradle, and we were much frightened." As awful as that was, the next line describes some seeds they have sent to Ohio of the Chirimoya (Annoma cherimola, custard apple) that they hope will thrive there. Jeannette says "it is a species of the Paw Paw, it is the finest fruit in South America, they grow as large as a tea pot."

Chermoya, which Mark Twain called "the most delicious fruit known to man"

Just two months later, Jeannette had changed her tone in a letter to her sister. She had just returned from a trip to a nearby Indian village called Lurin. She described it as "one of the richest valley's in Peru, it is a beautiful little green valley surrounded by sand hills, and the Sea. On one of these hills lies the ruins of Pachacamac, and the temple of the Sun." She goes on to describe the ruins, including the many relics that were strewn about. Her enthusiasm might have also been due in part to the amiable company, "as there was a large party of us spent our time very pleasantly riding on horse back and accompanying the Gentlemen to shoot ducks." They were warned about highway robbers, but "we set out merrily upon the full gallop." As promised to her sister in her earlier letter, Jeannette now set out to describe a Ball given by President Le Mar. Jeannette was obviously impressed by the riches displayed, "the young ladies were dressed with some taste, and some with their twenty thousand dollars worth of diamonds." There were tables furnished with all kinds of useful and beautiful items such as flowers, stockings, fruit, and "Cegars." Jeannette passed a very enjoyable evening, and she was amazed at an usual custom that was associated with events such as this ball "what is the most strange thing is that no party can be given without most every think stolen, some times not a plate, knife nor fork, nor spoon, and even the meats all is gone nothing remains, not even the table cloth. There is a lady got a turky by the leg and puting it under her shawl. This custom of stealing has always been allowed." She concludes the letter with pleas for letters from home "if you let us know that you are in existence it is better than silence." The final letter is one written to Jeannette in May of 1828, several months after James Cooley's death. It was written by a Mr. Wetmore, detailing the stores that he has arranged for her return trip and advice about what to do when she arrived back in the United States. The list of stores included cheese, salmon, dried apples, 8 dozen Fowls, 4 doz. Ducks, 6 Fenegas (fanegas is a Spanish bushel) sweet potatoes and 6 Canasters of Gingerbread. We know that Jeannette safely returned to Ohio after her adventure in Peru. She married again, to another Longmeadow transplant, Jonathan Ely. After his death, she married a third time, to Robert Neil. According to a gravestone in Ohio, Jeannette lived to 1899. Her gravestone includes her first husband James Cooley, as well as her second. This means that James Cooley has a grave in Peru, a cenotaph in his hometown of Longmeadow, and a second cenotaph in Ohio.

List of supplies for Mrs. Cooley's journey home from Peru

-Contributed by Betsy McKee, Longmeadow Historical Society Board Member

Originally published October 6, 2022 -Copies of letters courtesy of the Champaign County (Ohio) Historical Society Museum in Urbana, Ohio. Transcriptions by Betsy McKee Note: Spelling appears directly as transcribed from the letters