May Ignorance no Longer Reign

This history note represents a bit of a mystery. The small pearlware child's plate, measuring only 4.5" across, has a transfer printed message that would have likely been immediately recognizable to anyone in the early 19th century: "May ignorance no longer reign/Henceforth the Heathen shall proclaim His Makers love--and bless the name of Billy."  Who was Billy?

Some internet sleuthing found similar examples in the British Museum, Winterthur Museum, and in a private collection. Funny thing is, the other examples have "My Bible" in place of "My Billy."  All of the extant examples feature a dark-skinned figure, kneeling on one knee with a group of people behind him and a structure next to him that looks like a podium.  

This author's example, in addition to the name substitution, also has several other modifications; the kneeling figure is wearing a hat, and holding a long staff over his head (the transfer print was also thorough enough to create a shadow on the ground for the staff).

Finding the author of the verse was relatively easy--it had been credited to children's author Mary Belson Elliott, published by William Darton in 1816. "My Bible" might have been adapted  from an earlier version called "My Mother" written by Ann Taylor, published in an anthology in 1804-5, also by William Darton. The theme may have had roots in missionary work, as it urges the child to learn the bible, but Darton was a Quaker, so the message might also have been one of anti-slavery.

So what about the modifications on our plate?  The cap resembles a Liberty cap.  The predecessor of the Liberty cap was the Phrygian cap which was familiar to ancient Romans. The original Roman cap was the pileus, a felt cap worn by emancipated slaves. The Liberty cap came to represent liberty in the American Revolution, and later in the French Revolution. You may have seen a Liberty pole at museums such as Historic Deerfield, and the Liberty cap appears on the seal of the U. S. Senate and on coins such as the Seated Liberty Dollar.  

The cap and staff appears in needlework and painted depictions of  the United States as represented by the figure of Columbia. The print titled "Liberty, in the form of the goddess of youth, giving support to the bald eagle" was engraved and painted by Edward Savage (1761-1817) around 1796.

It seems likely that this plate, made decades after slavery was abolished in England, might have been made for the American abolitionist market. Many items were sold at fairs and other events to support the cause of Abolition. Could "My Billy" refer to well-know abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison? Garrison (1805-1879) was born in Newburyport, MA, and was interested in suffrage as well as abolition of slavery. He established the anti-slavery newspaper, The Liberator in 1831. Longmeadow had several home-grown abolitionists, including two descendants of the Reverend Richard Salter Storrs--Charles Backus Storrs and the Reverend Richard Salter Storrs, II.

- Contributed by Betsy McKee, Longmeadow Historical Society Board Member.  

Sources include:

The British Museum, The Chipstone Foundation, "Ceramics in America:" Antislavery Ceramics 1787-1865, by Sam Margolin, Library of Congress, Historic Deerfield, eBay (image of 1868 dollar). 

Associate Curator Dan Sousa of Historic Deerfield was also consulted.

Dr. Hazel Richards: World War II Doctor

Dr. Hazel Richards Inspecting an X-Ray, Springfield Armory, NHS

When you think of an Army medical doctor during World War II, you probably aren't expecting them to be a woman. But Dr. Hazel Richards of Longmeadow did indeed serve in that capacity. Hazel Hortop Richards (1905-1981) was the only child of Fannie and Frederick Richards. She was born in Longmeadow and raised on South Park Place. 

South Park Place home of Hazel Hortop Richards

In a time before Longmeadow had its own high school, Hazel attended high school in Springfield where she graduated from Classical High. She then attended Skidmore College and went onto Middlesex Medical School, graduating in 1930. She pursued postgraduate training in Chicago.

She practiced family practice in Chicago after her internship and in 1940 moved to Malden, MA where her practice was primarily pediatrics.

In 1943 Dr Richards became a contract (civilian serving in the military initially without rank) surgeon in the US Army Medical Corps assigned to the Springfield Armory. She served until 1946 working as an industrial physician and obtained the rank of captain.

She was the first female physician from New England called into U.S. Army service in World War II. In 1940 only 4% of United States physicians were female. Dr. Richards had moved back to Longmeadow with her daughter by her first husband and initially resided with her parents in their home on South Park Place.

In 1949 she purchased a historic home at 766 Longmeadow Street which at one time served as a tavern and a dormitory/boarding house for employees of Dimond Chandler’s button factory which opened in 1848.

After the war, Dr. Richards went on to have a varied career. She was the examining physician for the Hampden District Court and Juvenile Court, a school physician, and active in the Well Baby Clinics in Springfield. She lived in Longmeadow for the remainder of her life dying at 76 years of age in November 1981.

Sources:

Springfield  Daily News

Springfield Republican 

Ancestry

Grassy Gutter

Our town of Longmeadow is filled with street names that reflect its history such as Bliss Road, Williams Street, King Philip Drive, and Cooley Drive. Other names invoke a somewhat idyllic notion such as Greenacre, Forest Glen, Morningside, and Bellevue. It is not clear where Grassy Gutter fits in. An older definition for "gutter" is a furrow or channel made by running water: “A small stream flowing between eroded banks of its own making and amounting to a mere trickle in dry seasons, but a torrent in the time of melting snows.” This is different from a dingle which has higher sides and perhaps a deeper depth of erosion. “Grassy Gutter” is referred to in town records from 1791 as an eastern boundary for the middle school district, a deed from 1799 from Thankful Colton to Joanna Coomes, and also a deed from the Coltons to Orrin Cooley in 1874. 

The gutter was located within a large tract of land “on the plains northerly of Hale’s Meadow bounded by the highway that leads from Hale’s Meadow to the meeting house in East Longmeadow and southerly by the highway that leads from Hale’s Meadow to South Wilbraham.” South Wilbraham became Hampden in 1878. Grassy Gutter is identified on an 1854 map and is present but unnamed on an 1894 map. 

In 1912 a plan was put forth to connect the Grassy Gutter Brook to the town water supply to increase what was stored in the standpipe situated in what is now Laurel Park. The Grassy Gutter land was largely undeveloped for years.

In 1915 there was a Longmeadow musical group performing as the Grassy Gutter Trio.

The Grassy Gutter Brook apparently was a great spot to fish and at one time was stocked with trout in the Spring during the 1930s. In 1950, it was voted to accept the so-called Grassy Gutter right of way as a public way or street. It ran between Bliss and Williams Streets. It was initially called Grassy Gutter Lane but became Grassy Gutter Road.

In 1950 there was a push to establish a high school in town. At that time 198 students were being sent to Springfield and 41 students were enrolled in private high schools. According to the Springfield Union on March 3, 1950, “It was estimated that a building to accommodate 600 pupils would cost $900,000 and operating costs would be $90,000 per year.”

It was eventually decided to build the high school on land adjacent to Grassy Gutter Road and the town approved the plan in November 1953. The land that had been purchased from Arthur and Selma Arenius.

In November 1953 approval for the construction of Longmeadow High School was obtained. It was also suggested that the road be renamed Remy Road, named after retired school superintendent Ballard Remy, or Wilkin Road, named after Longmeadow Medal of Honor winner Edward Wilkin. Neither change was approved.

Ground-breaking ceremonies were held on July 1, 1954.

The high school at 95 Grassy Gutter Road was completed in 1955.

The Grassy Gutter no longer exists and the large undeveloped tract of land that surrounded it has dramatically changed over the years. Longmeadow High School and the fourteen homes located on Grassy Gutter Road, which were all built between 1954 and 1957, are all the ties that remain. 

 Sources

Longmeadow Historical Society Archives

Longmeadow Town Reports

Springfield Republican

Springfield Union

Duckert, A. R. (1956). Gutter: Its Rise and Fall. Names, 4(3), 146–154.