William C. Pease

I found these photographs in the Emerson file on Digital Commonwealth and it stirred my curiosity to learn more about the subject. The Emerson photographs document life in Longmeadow in the early 1900s. The subject of these pictures is Longmeadow resident William C. Pease and they were taken by amateur photographer Paesiello Emerson in 1910.

William Collins Pease was born in Feeding Hills on November 30, 1830, and raised in Somers, Connecticut. He was the oldest of nine children. Pease moved to Philadelphia for a time in 1855 and worked as a tobacco merchant. He married Cornelia Skinner Coomes, of Longmeadow in 1857. She was one of five daughters. The Peases moved to Longmeadow in 1867 after the death of Cornelia’s father. A mention in the local paper noted, “Wm. C. Pease of Philadelphia purchased the farm and residence of the late Samuel Skinner Coomes of Longmeadow, including utensils, stock & etc, for $9000.” This is equivalent to $180,000 today. In the 1860 census, the farm had 2 horses, 2 milch (sic) cows, 7 other cattle, 14 bushels of rye, 100 bushels of corn, and 2000 lbs of tobacco. The home is located at 857 Longmeadow Street.

Mr. Pease carried on in farming, apparently specializing in hay, and later owned considerable acreage down in the meadows.

"Two men hunting - William Pease" c.1910

Emerson Photo Collection

Longmeadow Historical Society

In 1869 William Pease helped in organizing the first May breakfast, which became a longstanding Longmeadow tradition. He became the first town park commissioner and was a member of the Longmeadow Historical Society. William C. Pease was very active in the community, playing a key role in facilitating the division of Longmeadow and East Longmeadow in 1894. He served on the first board of selectmen after the division.

William and Cornelia were said to be an “unusually devoted couple.” They lost their only son in infancy, a daughter in young adulthood, and a grandson in his youth. Mr. Pease died at 83 years of age on January 20, 1914, and Cornelia died at 87 years of age on March 18, 1922. The couple is buried in the Longmeadow Cemetery.

I find it so enjoyable to learn about a captivating image, such as William Pease's, and the investigative effort is always so informative.

-Contributed by Lenny Shaker, Longmeadow Historical Society Board Member

Sources: Digital Commonwealth, Emerson Photo Collection Springfield Republican Massachusetts Spy Ancestry.com

Fridays with Zoe- Documenting Early Black Lives in Longmeadow (updated, 2023)

Editor's Note: This article first ran in August 2021. Since then our work on this important topic has continued. Zoe Cheek is now employed as an Archivist at the Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History and is still a great resource for us.

The program "Say Their Names" being offered at the Storrs Library on August 30th at 6:30 pm is a result of the work we did for Documenting Early Black Lives Project with PVHN and UMass Amherst.

During the summer of 2021, the Longmeadow Historical Society participated in a project called “Documenting the Early History of Black Lives in the Connecticut River Valley” organized by the Pioneer Valley History Network (PVHN), the UMass Public History Program, and the UMass Amherst W.E.B. Du Bois Library, with support from Mass Humanities and the UMass Amherst Public Service Endowment Grant.

Most Fridays over those few months, I had the privilege of meeting with UMass Amherst Public History student, Zoe Cheek, as we continued the important work of uncovering the names and stories of free and enslaved black residents of early Longmeadow. Zoe had been inputting names, dates, details, and links to sources into a new database generated by the program which collected similar information from other participating organizations all over the Pioneer Valley. One of the goals of this project was to build a broader and more complete view of the role people of color have played in building the communities in which they lived and worked.

As part of our work, Zoe and I pored over the diaries of Longmeadow’s first minister, Stephen Williams, for details of the community, his household, and the people he was known to enslave. Williams’ diaries, which cover the years 1716-1782, have been transcribed and studied before, and names and some details of enslaved people have been known for well over a century. It has never been a secret that Williams, like many ministers in colonial New England, was an enslaver. We also know that Rev. Williams was not the only enslaver in 18th-century Longmeadow. Now it was time to gather what we knew and look at it in the larger context of what was happening in the region and hopefully be able to connect names and places and come to a more complete understanding of the racial and class complexities of the Connecticut River Valley in early America.

We went through all ten volumes of the diaries of Stephen Williams, all of which are available for the public to view in their handwritten and transcript forms on both the Storrs Library and Longmeadow Historical Society’s websites. There is nothing linear about this work. One mention of a name or set of initials sent us cross-referencing with available town and church records. In addition to that, we also compared what was transcribed to its 18th-century handwritten counterpart. One small error in transcription could lead to a new understanding. We crossed borders between towns, counties, and into Connecticut. Mentions of Stephen Williams visiting a “poor negro” in prison several times in 1732 led Zoe on a journey through newspapers of that year and a further hunt for court records about a case involving parties from Windsor and Suffield that was tried in Springfield.

We know that Williams owned an enslaved boy named Nicholas from 1719-1720 before selling him to someone in Deerfield. By entering Nicholas’ name and the few details we were able to ascertain about him into the project’s database, we hoped it would be possible to trace his movements in another household after 1720? Sadly, all traces of Nicholas were lost after he was sold.

There is a mention in a Williams diary entry on July 30, 1734 that someone called "S.W. Esq. B" “Bought me a servant.” Who is S.W. Esq. B.? By servant, does he mean slave? The two terms were interchangeable at the time. This diary entry also mentions the city of Boston. Does the “B” stand for “of Boston” meaning the “servant” came from Boston? Was that the seaport through which this person entered? Or had he or she come from another household? This query sent our board president, Al McKee, to begin searching what he describes as a mammoth Boston directory called, "Boston, MA: Inhabitants and Estates of the Town of Boston 1630 -1822.” He began at the "Ws": “working my way from Wackum thru the end of the Ws.” We hoped to find a clue as to the identity of this S.W. Esq. B to see what further information about the slave trade in Massachusetts we could learn as it related to our community and region.

Our search for details about the lives of the free and enslaved people of early Longmeadow is a winding one, sending us into wills, probates, tax records, vital records, merchant account books, church records, and all manner of town records. It is work we are eager to take on. It is time to bring the names of some of Longmeadow’s earliest residents to light and acknowledge their legacies - people like Nicholas, Robin, Phillis, Scipio, Zickrie, Peter, Stamford, Caesar, Tom, Patte, Tobiah, Cato, Joseph, Betty, Jack, Pomp, Pero, Richard, Andrew, Prince, Guy Gordon, Azuba (Guy’s mother), Susannah Freedom, Ceasar Avery, Prince Starkweather, and countless other souls who lived and toiled here. For more information on the project "Documenting the Early History of Black Lives in the Connecticut River Valley" visit their website at https://blogs.umass.edu/pvhn-blackhistory/

To Register for the August 30th "Say Their Names" event visit visit the Storrs Library Event Link

-Contributed by Melissa M. Cybulski, Longmeadow Historical Society Board Member

Image of an unidentified woman by Alice Willard, courtesy of Longmeadow Historical Society Collection

Longmeadow Go West! Persis and John Burt

Faithful readers of this blog may recall an article written by Beth Hoff on March 25, 2021 titled "Westward Bound," about the adventurous travelers Harvey Stebbins and his bride Julia Robinson. "West" in that story was the new state of Ohio, very much the frontier in those days. More recently this author told the story of James Cooley who moved to Ohio and became the ill-fated charge d'affairs to Peru. After his death, his widow married another Longmeadow man, Jonathan Ely. By this point, we decided to round up how many Longmeadow-ites made the migration to the new state of Ohio, and we're already well over a dozen!

This story will be the third in the series of "Longmeadow Go West," telling the story of John Burt of Longmeadow and Persis Meacham of nearby Enfield. As in some of our other stories, much of the information comes from letters that were saved by descendants. In this case, those descendants live right here in Longmeadow--the 14th generation of Burts to live here! And the treasure-trove contains more than letters, as you'll soon see.

William Burt Harlow, Ph.D. wrote an article in The Connecticut Magazine, vol. 10, #4, 1906 called "Courtship of a Sergeant in the War of 1812" about his grandmother Persis Meacham and grandfather John Burt. Persis was born in 1785 on Enfield Street in nearby Enfield, CT. John Burt, son of Colonel Gideon Burt of Longmeadow was six years her junior, but that didn't deter him from courting Persis.

John decided to follow his father's career, so he procured a commission as a sergeant to serve in the War of 1812. He served at Sackett's Harbor on Lake Ontario in New York and Fort Michilimackinac in Michigan. Having signed up for a five year stint, Persis was impatient with being left behind. In a letter written to John in February of 1816 she complains about his lack of letter writing; "I received your letter yesterday with much pleasure as well as surprise, for I had long since supposed myself forgotten by you." Ouch!

She goes on, "Oh, John! have you got to stay more than two years longer? Three years are allmost past which seems like an eternity!" She then abandons this tact and unsubtly tells him of the romances of his friends and family, "Thanksgiving eve I attended Wm. Stebbins and Eliza B's wedding. Happy, happy union! Your brother [William] has once more received a wound from little Cupid but I think there is a remedy before winter is out. I think he will be firmly bound in Hymeneal bonds with Miss Sally Kibbe; he seems to think of nothing else at present but his approaching nuptials."

John does eventually answer the letter, and "My feelings are rather hurt at finding that you should imagine or even think that you were forgotten by me on account of not punctually writing to you. No, my dear Persis, it is the fate of a soldier's life to be thus disappointed ..." He ends the apology with, "The Indians here are quite peaceable at present. Remember my love to all friends and remains your ever affectionate and unalterable John Burt, Sergeant Artillery, Captain Pierce's Company, 1st Battallion."

Persis was not disappointed--she and John married two years later, on April 26, 1818. Coincidentally, Persis' sister had married John's brother Nathaniel ten years before. John and Persis moved to Euclid, Ohio, traveling by stage, outfitted with household goods amounting to $72 supplied by John's father Gideon.

John was a joiner by trade, and so found plenty of work in the new state. According to William Burt Harlow, "when he was not building houses and barns he was making cradles and coffins. He was easy-going and kind, never demanding what was owed to him." This had detrimental effects on their finances, so when he heard of lucrative work building a canal in the southern part of the state, he moved his family to Chillicothe, Ohio.

The area of the canal was swampy and malarial, and John and Persis' oldest daughter Julia grew sick. John subsequently caught the same dread disease and succumbed at the age of 39, leaving a frail widow and three small children. She made her way back east to family, with the assistance of her brother-in-law, Simeon. He was well-off financially and childless. He owned a controlling interest in a stage route, so sent her $50 and instructions on how to return home. He offers to take her youngest child (Celia) if Persis was willing, and suggested that his brother Nathaniel might be willing to take on another if she couldn't manage.

Poor Persis! She returned home, traveling in the coldest winter weather, with her three children, the youngest being only 8 years old. Persis' parents had both passed away a decade earlier, so she was dependent on her in-laws for help.

Her daughter Julia started working at age 16 in order to support herself and her mother. Younger sister Celia was able to continue her education, and their brother Simeon, according to William Harlow, was, "of a roving disposition and gave his mother much anxiety. He finally ran away and enlisted on board a man-of-war." "He was of little comfort to her [his mother] and finally joined a tribe of wandering Indians, returning with them to Maine where he married among them and died without issue and with no communication with his sisters, who had married well." Persis spent her last days in Worcester, MA with her elder daughter Julia who had also become a widow, and died "among kind friends at the age of sixty-one years."

Persis and John's letters were carefully preserved by their descendants, as well as silhouettes, a painting of Persis, books and other objects.We are grateful for the glimpse into their lives through everyday items treasured by their families.What are you keeping for your descendants?

Contributed by Betsy McKee.

Sources: Ancestry (Gideon Burt's probate documents), Ancestry, The Connecticut Magazine, Vol. 10, #4, 1906, letters, painting and other objects on loan by Burt family. All photographs by the author.