Holyoke High School - Annual Yearbook (Holyoke, MA)

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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

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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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firm in New England. It is interesting to note that a fishway built in the dam had been quite successful. The falls had been a favorite fishing spot of the Indians and shad and salmon were being caught there at that time, however, by the time the dam was completed, the salmon had become somewhat scarce. By this time there were several mills in- cluding three paper mills and two woolen mills using the power from the river, but all of these were on the east side of the river in Canal Village CSouth Hadley Fallsb. During these years a swing ferry was the sole means of transportation between Canal Village and 'flrelandf' The ferry, invented by a Mr. Robinson, was located a short distance below the old South Hadley bridge where the river suddenly narrows to form a neck of water. Because of this natural formation, the current is considerably stronger there and has equal force from one bank to the other. Therefore, the river at this crossing could not be navigated by any ferry-boat which used as its propelling power any thing other than the current of the stream itself. A wooden pole of some sixty or seventy feet in height was sunk in the mid- dle of the stream, and a pier of stone was placed on the upper side of it to form a break- water against ice. A connecting wire stretched from the pole to the ferry. The boat was placed diagonally against the current and the force of the water sent it to the opposite side in a circular or swinging passageg hence the name given, swing ferry. In 1872, the ferry was swept away by a roaring flood. In 1831 the original Hadley Falls Company was formed and the following year Ireland Parish had a cotton mill which was an in- corporated concern with a capital of 350,000, but not financed by local capital. The stock- holders were largely from Enfield. The mill contained 11-,000 spindles and was powered by the wing dam, guiding the water into a canal above the mill. This mill was an extremely prosperous con- cern, and the manager, Edward Smith, saw his original investment increase five-fold. The Connecticut River Railroad Company was chartered in March, 1845, and was com- pleted in December of that year, running from Springfield to Northampton, crossing the river at Willimansett and passing through Ireland Parish. The road was extended to Vermont in 1848 and connected in Springfield with roads to Boston and New Haven. The South Hadley Canal then became useless and the river boating declined in importance since there I3