Westward Bound

"The Connecticut Settlers Entering The Western Reserve” by Howard Pyle (1853-1911)

Who among us hasn’t dreamed of moving to somewhere new and making a fresh start? When he had the opportunity to do just this, Harvey Stebbins seized it. Harvey Stebbins, who was born in 1793, was the youngest child of Medad and Sarah Stebbins of Longmeadow. Medad Stebbins, who had served in the local militia, was one of the minute men who marched upon the Lexington Alarm from Springfield on April 20, 1775. When Medad died on September 9, 1804, Alexander Field, a prominent citizen of Longmeadow, became Harvey’s guardian. In this capacity, Alexander Field turned to John Robinson, a man in Granville, Massachusetts with close ties to Longmeadow.

John Robinson

Naomi Bliss Robinson

John Robinson had married Naomi Bliss from Longmeadow and the couple had been blessed with six daughters but they had no sons. Daughters were able to assist Naomi with the housework but, in an age when work was strictly gendered, daughters couldn’t help John with heavy farm work. John Robinson needed an assistant, and he found one in Harvey Stebbins.

The archives of the Longmeadow Historical Society include the apprentice indenture for Harvey Stebbins. Indentures apprenticing children to learn a trade were commonplace in New England. Following the accepted custom, Alexander Field indentured Harvey to John Robinson to learn the “art, trade or mistery of husbandry” until he turned age 21 on September 22, 1814. At the end of the indenture, John Robinson promised to pay Harvey $120 and provide him with a good Bible and two suits of clothes.

Harvey lived with the Robinson family during his indenture in Granville and, according to a family memoir in our archives, “As Grandpa had no sons and six daughters, they were all very fond of Harvey Stebbins.” Perhaps not surprisingly, Harvey became romantically attached to one of John’s daughters, Julia.

In the collections of the Longmeadow Historical Society are a number of samplers created by these daughters as they learned needlework, one of the skills needed by a properly educated girl at that time.

Sampler by Naomi Robinson created in 1816

A family story relates that when his indenture ended, Harvey and a friend, Elijah Hall, joined the migration of New Englanders to the Connecticut Western Reserve to seek their fortunes.

The Connecticut Western Reserve, also known as New Connecticut, is land that was claimed by the colony (then, the state) of Connecticut which was located west of Pennsylvania. Comprising what is now northeastern Ohio, New Connecticut was bordered by Lake Erie on the north and Pennsylvania on the east, and it extended west to the Sandusky Bay. Indigenous peoples had deep roots in this land, of course, and their claims clashed with those of Connecticut. Click here for additional information about the many claimants to the Connecticut Western Reserve land. Connecticut’s claims prevailed and the state sold the land to a group of speculators known as the Connecticut Land Company; the company surveyed the land and sold it to settlers for new development.

Western Reserve in 1826

Family legend says that Harvey and Elijah walked from Granville, Mass. to Ohio. In 1817, Harvey used most of his $120 to buy land in the just-opened township of Brunswick in Medina County, Ohio. Harvey was one of the first white settlers in Brunswick, and he was one of 19 men who voted in the first town election on April 6, 1818.

Harvey spent a year clearing the land of heavy timber and building a snug cabin. The Connecticut Western Reserve at this time was rife with wild animals such as bears and rattlesnakes, and he must have faced daily challenges while he was establishing his homestead. Sometime between April and November of 1818, Harvey and Elijah walked back to Granville. Both men married their sweethearts in November, 1818, and then both couples honeymooned as they returned to Ohio with wagons full of household effects and yokes of oxen. According to family lore, the return trip took six weeks.

Julia Robinson Stebbins

Harvey and Julia lived in Brunswick, Ohio, raising a family and farming, until they died – Harvey in 1875 and Julia in 1878. Harvey was active in early Brunswick politics, serving as clerk in 1834 and trustee in 1836.

Two of John and Naomi’s daughters married Colton men of Longmeadow; Clarinda married Jacob Colton and Naomi married Newton Colton. By 1830, John and Naomi Robinson and their two unmarried daughters, Sophia and Eunice, had relocated to Longmeadow, living in the western half of town near their married daughters. Their home was probably 679 Longmeadow Street, which is located just north the Richard Salter Storrs Library.

1831 Map of Longmeadow The sixth Robinson daughter, Irene, married John Noble of Blandford, Massachusetts and became the mother of Lester Noble, a dentist who lived in Longmeadow from 1860–1905. John Robinson died in 1835 and his wife, Naomi, died in 1847. Sources

1. Brunswick Area Historical Society

2. Longmeadow Historical Society archives

3. Massachusetts, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991

4. North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000

5. 1831 Longmeadow Map

6. Find a Grave

7. Brunswick: Our Hometown, by “Sam” Boyer

Contributed by Elizabeth Hoff, LHS Board Member

Originally published March 25, 2021

Solomon Burt and the Explosion at the Powder Mill

As this gravestone attests, patriots faced danger at home as well as on the battlefield. This stone stands in Longmeadow Cemetery, describing the untimely death of 18 year-old Solomon Burt, "Who was suddenly Kill'd by the Blowing up of a Powder Mill."

Two years before this catastrophe, Longmeadow's minister Stephen Williams wrote about the growing conflict with Great Britain in his diary. On April 20th, 1775, the Reverend Stephen Williams wrote (Vol. 8): "this morning--as Soon as it was light, ye Drum beat & three Gun/fired an Alarm--the Story is that Some of ye troops had marched from Boston to Seize Some military Stores, at Lexington, or Concord--& that Some men had been Killed..." On April 21st, Captain David Burt led 22 Longmeadow minute men to the Lexington alarm. On the 26th, Reverend Williams, upon hearing of various conflicts occurring in New England, prayed "to God to Give wisdom, prudence, discretion and moderation to all his people." In May, he bemoaned the state of affairs: "the nation in a ferment; Some are for violent and coercive measures, with ye colonies, & provinces; some few for lenient, & moderation measures--destruction both to the parent country & the colonies Seems inevitable..."

While Williams seems to have been torn about the rift with Great Britain, the Burt family's sympathies were clearly on the side of the patriots. Solomon Burt worked at a powder mill situated on the Mill River in Springfield. The mill, owned by his father David, supplied powder to the American army.

On May 7, 1777, the powder mill exploded, with predictably disastrous results. Sabotage was suspected, but powder mills were by their very nature extremely volatile, and any spark could have set it off. The Reverend Williams wrote about the event in his diary (Vol. 9): "this day ye powdr Mill blew up & Solomon Burt (Son to Lt. David Burt) was Kill'd- was cari'd over ye Mill River - Severall rod/ & upon ye Hill - his leggs broke - & his Body much Bruis'd- Asahell Bliss - yt was in ye mill with him - was flung into ye River & one of his legs broke de [ditto]- de [ditto]- a very awefull & affecting providence - ..."

David Burt continued the powder mill business even after the explosion, as detailed in the following document from 1781 in the Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum in Springfield, MA.

Other local cemeteries record similar dramatic explosions, including Southwick and Glastonbury, CT.

Contributed by Betsy McKee, Board member, Longmeadow Historical Society

Originally published March 18, 2021

To Encourage Music

Music at Longmeadow's early meeting house had been a very controversial topic during Stephen William's early years as minister. The matter must have been settled by 1765 when the parish voted that a suitable instructor be found to "instruct us in the Art of Singing."

"To the Selectmen of Longmeadow Please to direct the Town Treasurer to pay to Deacon William Colton the sum of fourteen Dollars for a Bass Viol which he has purchased for the Town, to encourage & assist the publick singing."

By 1794 the town was ready to add some accompaniment to the singing in the form of a bass viol. A committee of three deacons, William Colton, Ethan Ely, and Josiah Cooley, was charged with the purchase of a musical instrument described as a "bass viol." Their bill to the Town of Longmeadow for reimbursement stated that the purpose of the purchase was to "encourage singing" in the church. The sum of $14 was substantial, and represented quite an investment in a time when the average daily rate of pay for a laborer was 33 to 50 Cents. The bass viol they bought has had a place of honor in the South parlor of the Storrs House Museum for many years. The collection of musical instruments also includes an 1835 Chickering piano, several flutes, and a lap zither--imagine them all being played at once!

Bass Viol, Collection of Longmeadow Historical Society

This instrument was examined by Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, curator Darcy Kuronen in 2015 as part of a project to document musical instruments in the Commonwealth. He casually asked me "is there a label?" I replied "not that I have been able to see." Thus challenged, Darcy and his colleague whipped out their official curatorial investigative tools--two cell phones, one with the flashlight app activated, and the other with the camera turned on. With each aiming their phones through the F-holes on each side of the instrument they were able to spot a label inside the case! Eureka! But, covered in roughly 221 years of dust, it was illegible. How to clean it safely--a soft paintbrush? None were at hand. Aha--how about a feather? A reproduction quill writing kit was swiftly opened and the feather put to use. Success! A nearly intact label was found. Aaron Chapin (1753-1838) was the maker.

Aaron Chapin, 1753-1838 Portrait sold at auction in 2015, current owner unknown.

Curator Kuronen noted: "this is a relatively important instrument, as it is a quite early example of an American bass viol and is the only known example made by Chapin. The printed label inside the instrument is also very significant in revealing that Chapin likewise made flutes, fifes, and pitch pipes." According to the label, Aaron Chapin's shop was located "twenty rods north of the Court-House" in Hartford, CT. Chapin was related to Eliphalet Chapin, a prominent local cabinetmaker in nearby Windsor, CT.

Also discovered in the archives were the reminiscences of C. S. (Charles S.) Newell, written in 1906; "Personal recollections of the music in the First Church of Christ in Longmeadow from about 1840." In it, he describes the makeup of the choir and their accompanying orchestra, "consisting of two violins, two flutes, two violin cellos, (then called bass viols) and one double bass viol, with sometimes a clarinet and a trombone." He says that the first organ was placed in the church when it stood on the green and was a small pipe organ built by Johnson of Westfield, costing $600. The funds were raised by donations and fund raisers, as the parish voted "that leave be given to place the organ in the church, provided it is done without any expense to the parish. Like offering to give a man a horse, and he tells you he will accept the horse provided you will build him a stable to keep it in." Having some accompaniment was helpful in keeping the choir in key, as Newell notes: "I recall one occasion while we had an orchestra, when the choir fell from the key or flatted so badly that some of the players tried to follow them by lowering the pitch of their instrument, which made things worse, and the singers continued to fall from the pitch so much, that had they not fortunately reached the end of the hymn they might have ended on the main floor of the church instead of in the gallery where they started."

Today First Church, known now as First Church of Christ Longmeadow, UCC, still has an active music program, continuing on the long tradition started by a simple 18th century help-wanted ad for a music instructor and a $14 investment in a bass viol.anted ad for a music instructor and a $14 investment in a bass viol.

Contributed by Betsy McKee, Board member, Longmeadow Historical Society

Originally published March 11, 2021