“By people living outside the town, Shutesbury is considered a typically depraved community. Whenever an example of decadence is sought, among the first names mentioned is the name of this town. The sentiment prevails that the people of the community are idle, ignorant and licentious”
Source: A Study of Community Transition
Phases of a Town’s History with Psychological and Sociological Interpretations
by RF Lund-Thesis for the Degree of Master of Science Mass Ag College 1916
“There was a social group in the town which tended to give the entire community an unsavory reputation. The Pratt group composed of 8 families descended from Ephriam Pratt who lived to be 116 years of age. On his tombstone on can read that he was “Cheerful in his disposition and temperate in his habits…
… Of Ephriam Pratt’s descendants, however, it could not be said that as a whole they were either cheerful or temperate. On the contrary, they were constantly quarreling amongst themselves, and with outsiders upon the slightest provocation.’…
“A hotel called Old Pool Tavern stood on the Main Street. Visitors from places as far distant as New York and Boston for the believed curative properties of the mineral waters. Excema is one of the diseases which this water was supposed to cure.( The hotel was built in 1845and burned in 1893- it’s last 20 years had served as a private residence but was purchased and remodeled with the idea of returning to business but caught fire just before completion and was never rebuilt)
On the brow of Shutesbury hill stood another hotel. Its history covers a period contemporaneous with the Mt Mineral Spring House. The fame of the Mt Mineral Spring hotel had gone abroad so that when guests came to the Town Tavern, they frequently demanded the Mt Mineral Spring water to drink. The proprietor at first religiously had the spring water carted about 6 miles from the spring to his hotel… The trips soon grew more and more infrequent, but the supply of mineral water never failed…. A great deal of liquor was sold at all periods in the history of this hotel. …People from Hadley, Northampton, Deerfield and Sunderland used the hotel for immoral purposes…. A great deal of the town’s defamation may be traced to this source. In 1897 a fire destroyed this hotel. It has not been rebuilt since…
Dickenson(?)
…In 1890, the community organized a Village Improvement Society. The distinctive work carried thru by this society was the renovation of the common and the introduction of street lights. Four members of the community contributed their horses and time, for the purposed of plowing the common. After a social at the church on afternoon, everyone nearby “picked stone” off the plowed and harrowed ground. A crop of potatoes was planted on the old sod land in order to get it mellow for reseeding. The potatoes were hoed and cultivated by anyone who cared to contribute their services. Strangely enough, they are said to have been well taken care of. Several times the men who usually sat around the tavern and store spent an evening hoeing out the potatoes. Unfortunately this bit of community enterprise was short lived, due to the general decline and lack of community stimulus thru rivalry and community progress.”
William Hemenway 1846-1911 Shutesbury’s town clerk from 1883-1911 and town treasurer for 23 years. He served in the legislature for one year in 1892
“was deeply interested in the work of the library, and contributed freely and generously to its support. The modern bookshelves that adorn the library were a gift from him and he was also contemplating more extensive work in the near future.”
‘William Hemenway’, said his old friend and neighbor Newton D. Crossman ‘was one of the finest men that ever lived. He would do everything that was in his power for everybody, and charge little or nothing for his services.’”
“It was generally supposed that William H. Hemenway was worth at least $100,000 and some thought his wealth must approximate one million, but the disclosure which came as a thunderbolt from a clear sky soon after his death in 1911 revealed that for a number of years he had been a poor man and he had long been paying taxes on a great deal of property that he did not possess, rather than that the truth be known…
He was generally considered an exceptionally well posted man.. he took at least 3 daily papers and never destroyed but he kept them in his house until there was no longer room for them there; then he stored them in a little old house north of his residence, which at the time of the auction was nearly filled with old newspapers and periodicals. Springfield Sunday Republican 11/20/15
William Hemenway lies buried in a corner of the Samuel Henry lot, (West Cemetery) the southeast corner with no stone. He was the last of his family. (Written by Katharine Clark Aug 27, 1955 story of the tomb and grave stones in the Luther Henry Tomb Yard).
=============================================================== Shutesbury, Mass
March 4, 1892
Dear Lucy:
It wasn’t so that Dearie could come over to see you today after all, as the wind blows and she has the head-ache too.
She says tell you she is going to be an old lady a while longer and will come over some other day to play with you.
Have you got your bank full of dimes yet? If it isn’t send word to me and Mary and I will (each) give you one.
Am sorry you are sick, hope you will be better soon. I am coming over to see you some day. Bessie sends her picture to Charlie. I wish you had one for us. I must close this letter now so good-bye
Your friend, Laura Berry
(Lucy Hamilton- Died at age 6 in 1894 Her piecework box with this note in it, is in the vault at old town hall, formerly held at library.)
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April 2. 1894 Annual Town Meeting
Article 10: Voted to elect a Board of Library Trustees (William Hemenway, Moses A Wood and Charles F. Mathews).
and appropriate the money necessary to secure the gift of One hundred dollars’ worth of books from the State for a free Public Library.
June 11, 1894: Certificate to Free Public Library Commission. Board of Library trustees William Hemenway, Moses Wood, Charles Matthews. Room in Townhouse to hold books presented by State and Librarian chosen.
1894 Town library opens in Meeting House
April 1, 1895 annual Town Meeting
Article 10: Voted thanks to Miss Mary L. Clark for services as librarian the past year.
Article 14: Voted not to have a Superintendent of Schools
Article 18: Voted to accept the law necessary to secure a Free Library
Mirick (or Myrick) Spear
“ To make the acquaintance of Mr. Spear one should meet him among his books.” Biographical review
His mother lived in Shutesbury (Martha Paul) and he was a descendant of Deacon Moses Spear who came in the 1780’s and gave land to each of his sons. (what is now Pelham Hill Rd) Myrick’s father was Eliphalet Spear
was born in Shutesbury on July 28, 1824
He married Miss Sarah A.M Whitney on May 27, 1847 and after her death in 1860 he married Della O. Washburn
Sons Edward M and Henry F pre-deceased him and William was a hotel clerk in Buffalo, NY who gave the town of Amherst the illuminated clock in the Town Hall tower in memory of his father established an endowment of 45 shares of American Telephone and Telegraph stock for the care and maintenance of the MN Spear library in 1934.
..
Spear established a bookstore, what is now Hastings in Amherst (1840??),
*“To the town of Shutesbury…the sum of fifteen hundred dollars to be used for the erection of a memorial library building in said Shutesbury, to be called the MN Spear Memorial Building, provided that said bequest shall be accepted by said town at a legal meeting called for that purpose within one year from my decease: and provided further that if in the opinion off said town said sum shall be insufficient to erect such a building as ought to be erected of wood, brick or stone and metal or slate roof, then said sum of fifteen hundred dollars shall be placed at interest and so continue at interest until the principal and interest therone shall amount to a sum sufficient as in town meeting expressed to erect such library building.”
In its report to the town in 1900 the trustees addressed the residents of Shutesbury by stating, “your Trustees have to report a steady growth and patronage of the institution, the management of which has been placed in our hands. We are continually short of room for string the ever accumulating volumes coming to the Library. The voters of the town will have the opportunity at the town meeting to act upon a provision in the will of the late MN Spear of Amherst, whereby a legacy of fifteen hundred dollars is bequeathed to the town for a library building” The town appropriated $50 that year and approved the article
From annual town meeting April 7,1904
* With $80 of interest earned, it came in under budget. Built by D.A. Sullivan of Northampton for a total of $1547.61 in 1902.
1905 Herman Dihlmann, born in Tuttlingen, Germany emigrated to the US to find opportunity, leaving his wife Anna and son Fred behind in Norway. After they moved to Shutesbury, Anna died after becoming ill after a fall from roping a steer. Fannia and Hermann Dihlman are the parents of Herman Jr, Gustave, Emil, Karl, Rudolph and Pauline. (from Celebrate Shutesbury)
From the 1910 census William H Hemenway age 63 Head of household, single white male Household members Carrie A Moody, Mary L. CLark
Miss Mary Clark Father- Warren Clark died oct 4 1879 age 59 years Born around 1820
Mother- Emma E. Montague his wife died aug 29 1886 age 85 7(?) months born around 1800???? Emma Clark resided at the Henry/Hemenway house called “The American House” (which is now the Rogers, next to the library) with Mary, William and Carrie Moody. Made the bookcovers for the library.
From the 1911 annual report:
“Mary L. Clark who served as Librarian without compensation since the library was built, tendered her resignation and the library was closed through the summer months”.
1913 John and Katherine Plaza took a team of horses, a stage coach to their new homestead in Shutesbury,
1914, “a reprentative of the Community Building Department of the M.A.C. met ten of the townspeople assembled at the public library and there explained the community building plan which the people of Shtuesbury might use to improve their economic and social situation. There was little sentiment in the commit expressed for concerted action and for betterment. It is noteworthy that stimuli were applied from without the town and activity enforced before there had been created a concerted demand for progress.”
1930 Electricity comes to Shutesbury
Springfield union 1936
Miss Mary L Clark Dead at age 86
Amherst, Feb 10- Miss Mary L Clark, 86, of North Amherst died this afternoon at Northampton following a long illness. She was born at Leverett, June 25 1850, the daughter of Warren and Emma (Montague) Clark. Her nearest relative is a cousin, Samuel Smead of Northampton. The funeral will be held Friday at 1 in the Douglas funeral home of Pleasant street with Rev Arthur Hopkinson Jr. of the Wesley Methodist church officiating. Buruial will be in More’s Corner cemetery, North Leverett.
1945 WWII ends. Shutesbury has the highest number of recruits for any town this size in US.
1961 Shutesbury’s 200th Anniversary, Nathan Hunting retires after being Town Clerk since 1911. A longtime Chair of the Board of Trustees of the MN Spear Memorial Library. “He valued education, honesty and quiet diplomacy” (Celebrate SHutesbury).
One cold night, he returned from Pelham to Shutesbury to return a pen he had accidently taken.
Inspired and helped Henry Dihlman pursue higher education and graduatte from UMASS in 1937.
Said during an incident of religious intolerance “she was good enough for us when we were in trouble, so why isn’t she good enough for us now
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