Holyoke High School - Annual Yearbook (Holyoke, MA)

Page 13 text:

Many of the inhabitants of the First and Second Parishes of Springfield petitioned the General Court in 1750 to set them off as a new parish. Consequently, the two became the Fifth Parish of Springfield. This parish ih- cluded Holyoke and Chicopee. It 'lincluded practically all of Chicopee that lay north of the Chicopee River together with the land in West Springfield lying west of the Connecticut River and north of a line running westward from the Connecticut at the point where Riley Brook joins the river. In 1774, West Springfield separated from hm,-...... Springfield and became a town in its own right. In 1776 the part of West Springfield known now as Holyoke had been incorporated as the Third Parish of West Springfield, and was called North Parish, or Ireland Parish, since the first settlers had been the Irish family by the name of Riley. The early settlements of the Holyoke area were on Northampton Street until the development of water power made sections around the dam the center of village life. Holyoke remained the Third Parish of West Springfield until it became a city in 1876.

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braham, Longmeadow, Ludlow, Westfield, Southwick, Holyoke, Northampton, Suffield, Enfield, and Somers. However, the only re- gions settled were those on the east bank of the river. Until 1675, the people had friendly and frequent trade with the Indians. When Philip of Poconoket, a Wampanoag chief better known as King Philip, organized a confedera- tion against the white man because of unfair trading, the settlers were engaged in King Philip's War. It endured from 1675 to 1676. During the war Springfield was burned and Elizur Holyoke was killed while commanding troops. Despite several bloody massacres the settlers prevailed. After the defeat of the In- dians, more houses were established on the west bank of the river. In 1684, .lohn Riley, an Irish settler who now dared to locate on the west bank of the river, purchased sixteen acres of land north of what is, now the southern boundary line of Holyoke. The brook defining this lot is called Riley Brook. Though there is no record of his having stayed on the land until 1725, Riley was the first permanent settler in the region I0 which became Holyoke. In 1696 the General Court of Massachusetts partitioned Springfield into two civil divisions, the First and Second Parishes. Under early Massachusetts law, a parish was an actual civil division of state, with territorial bounds as dis- tinctly marked and duties as clearly defined as in the case of a township. Every citizen be- longed to the parish and could vote IH parish meetings, was eligible for parish office, and must pay all taxes imposed upon him by the parish. Legal recognition of the parish entailed, according to Massachusetts law, responsibility for the support of a minister. When Springfield was partitioned into two parishes, the point, or rather, line, of boundary was the Connecticut River. The east bank was the First Parish, and the west bank was the Second Parish. Therefore, Holyoke was in- cluded in the Second Parish of Springfield. Despite the Indian raids in the early eight- eenth century, six families lived in the pre- Holyoke region, these families were the Days, Elys, Chapins, Balls, Morgans, and Millers. They 'Gforted togetheri' at night out of fear of the Indians. 'Early dwellings were located on Front Clxlorthamptonb Street.

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Industry The Connecticut River, passing through the city of Holyoke, drops downward over a dis- tance of sixty-five feet in less than two miles of its length in this area. The visions and work of many men created the great dam and in- dustries and made Holyoke what it is today. The river had borne considerable traffic between Hartford and the foot of South Had- ley Falls, but towns above the falls were forced to transport their merchandise partly by land. In 1792 a group of twenty men secured an act of corporation from the General Court. The corporation was called the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals on the Connecticut Riverf' Benjamin Prescott was the engineer in charge of a canal to be built from a point just below the falls and extending two and one-half miles northward and parallel to the river. A wing dam was to be extended ob- liquely out into the river at the head of the canal and a strong guard lock to control the water. Another lock would secure the outlet of the canal. In 1795 the first navigable canal in the United States had been cut along the shore of the Connecticut River. Part of the works was a two hundred and thirty foot long in- clined plane device that pulled river vessels I2 from the waters below the rapids to the upper level-or lowered them on the downstream run. This device compensated for the fifty foot difference in the levels of the upper and lower sections of the canal. The dam, made of timber, slanted up and across the river for about one thousand six hundred and fifty feet, then went straight in- to the West shore a distance of nine hundred and ninety feet. The canal itself paralleled the river for nearly two and one-half miles down the east side. The upper portions became picturesque as wild vines and flowers grew along its banks and tall trees formed archways. It is certain that Prescott had no precedent to follow when he devised the inclined plane, and his engineering skill in the project was widely acclaimed. The twenty-by-thirty-foot car that traveled the thirty-foot-wide slope had three sizes of wheels so that the carrying surface of the car was always level while the car was being pulled up or lowered. This plane device is now pic- tured on the seal of our city. Water power was used in the pulling and lowering of the car and was perhaps the first time that water power was used by a utility