Life In Northeast Granville (1735-1890)
Settlement:
According to legend Samuel Bancroft (1711-1788) was the first settler in Granville (then known as Bedford) in 1735. There are no land records confirming the actual date but it is certain that in 1759 he owned 100 acres in what is now Northeast Granville. Today much of that land sits beneath the reservoir waters.
Samuel Bancroft served as a Lieutenant in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, along with at least two of his sons. In 1845 the Rev. Timothy Mather Cooley remembered Lt. Bancroft as a conspicuous character who came to church in a great wig and cocked hat.
Samuel Bancroft is buried in Granville's Main Road Cemetery beneath a brownstone marker bearing the following inscription:
"Death is a debt to nature due.
I have paid it. And so will you"
Development:
The northeastern area developed steadily in a manner typical of the times. Settlers arrived and began farming activities as well as establishing the businesses associated with farming and farm products. Over time grist mills, saw mills, coopers, keg shops, blacksmith shops, glove making and other enterprises dotted the maps of northeasten Granville.
Northeast School District (District 4)
By the early 19th century the Northeast school district (later known as the Fourth District) was one of Granville's larger school districts. No records for the school exist before 1824 but it is believed the school was well established by then. In 1854 or 1855 a new building replaced the old one, likely at the same location near what was the Warner place. This is now part of the reservoir watershed and only the cellar hole remains.
At some point in the late 1800's a new Northeast school house was built at a new location. Somehow this building has escaped take over by the Westfield Water Authority and is now a private residence at 10 Bruce Road, near the Northeast Cemetery.
The Impact of War:
One hundred ten Granville men and boys served in the Civil War, many of whom were from northeast Granville families. Most had ancestors who had served in the Revolutionary War or the War of 1812.
Patriotism has always run deep in Granville. Politically western Massachusetts was Lincoln territory. Granville had been the home of the Rev. Lemuel Haynes (1763-1833), a Minuteman during the Revolutionary War and the first black ordained Congregationalist minister in America. The Rev. Timothy Mather Cooley, (1772-1859) a highly regarded Congregationalist preacher and admirer of Haynes, kept a strong anti-slavery message alive in Granville. If anyone questioned the war, they seem to have wisely kept their mouths shut.
Granville regiments, primarily the 27th, 31st and 46th suffered heavy losses in battle as well as in prison camps (primarily Andersonville).
Dr. Samuel Barlow of East Granville summed up local sentiment when he penned the following in the family Bible after the death of his nephew:
"Died at Andersonville, Ga. in the Rebel Prison Pen, Oct. 9, 1864, Orrin Leland Barlow, [also known as Leland Orrin Barlow] son of Rowland & Mrs. Cleo Godard Barlow; a loyal & patriotic volunteer in the service of his Country in the Slaveholders Rebellion; a victim of starvation & exposure, as were many thousands of others who died in the same place, from the same causes, Martyrs to the infernal rage, malice, spite & hatred of Southern Rebels, Traitors perjured before God & Men, who are worthy of all the Hells of the Bible & all such as were shown by the Spirit to Dante, Swedenborg & all the other Prophets & Seers. God is just & will give the Devil & all his Slavery-curst [illegible] minions & emissaries their due in his own good time."
Families not only lost men who were crucial to running the farm. Widows and children were left behind and needed to be taken in by other family members at other farms. Extra mouths to feed without more hands in the field added to the burdens of these families.
In one sad instance in northeast Granville the young mother of two small children died, leaving them to be raised in their aunt and uncle's family. Mehitable Rowley, a widow with a farm in northeast Granville, lost one son in battle and another at Andersonville Prison. A third returned home but was never the same. These were all too common stories.
Families struggled to carry on and recover. What choice did they have?
Big Business Comes to Jockey Corners:
Nobody remembers how "Jockey Corners" in East Granville got its name. Some say horse races used to be held near where the Village School now stands. Others say it was because area residents were known for their horse-trading skills. Maybe it was both. Some accounts suggest it was a less than flattering name used by the more well-to-do folks up the hill to the west. Regardless, it is now "Granville Corners" (aka "the village") and the scruffy Wilcox Hotel and blacksmith shop have been replaced by the Village Green.
The Corners area of East Granville became a hub of small town industry in the 19th century, growing rapidly with the success of the drum shops (Dickinson, Noble & Cooley, Bruch & Henry) and a number of other manufacturing concerns (Holcomb Brothers, etc.).
This was especially true on Water Street where, by the 1890's the Noble & Cooley drum shop had become the largest manufacturer of toy and military drums in the country. The company was begun in 1854 but expanded rapidly in the 1860's with the demand for drums due to the Civil War. After the war their toy drums typically featured patriotic themes.
Using local labor and materials (wood and drum head skins) Noble & Cooley was a major blessing for the farmers of Northeast Granville, which was located a short distance north of the Village. And because founders Silas Noble and James P. Cooley were born in Granville, grew up as friends, and had deep family roots in town they were especially loyal to the area. Noble & Cooley became by far the town's largest employer.
After the Noble & Cooley factory burned to the ground in 1889 cities such as Westfield and Springfield were quick to woo the company owners, pitching the benefits of moving to the big city (reliable utilities, proximity to rail lines, labor supply, etc.).
James and Silas stood fast. The drumshop workers, suddenly unemployed, were more than happy to grab their tools and rebuild the business a short distance up Water Street. They did so again in 1902 after a second major fire.
The importance of local businesses in the economic survival of many Northeast Granville families cannot be understated.
Most of the jobs at Noble & Cooley paid hourly and accommodated the seasonal fluctuations of farm life. During planting and harvest season the farmers farmed; during the winter they worked at the drum shop. This applied to men, women, and children who under law could work at age 15 with a permission slip signed by a parent and the school superintendant.
The Noble & Cooley payroll book for 1890-1891 is full of Northeast Granville family names. There are two statements about Granville that a visitor might consider an exaggeration:
1. Everybody's related;
2. Everybody worked at the drum shop.
While not literally true, both are remarkably close.
One reason "everybody worked at the drum shop" is that while some jobs were "high tech" for the times, most required skills that the Northeast Granville families had in abundance.
Another is that the drum shop provided a cottage industry where much of the work could be done at home and compensated as piece work. This included hand painting wooden drum panels, cutting skins to size and other jobs.
Lastly, the drum shops provided a nearby market for material the farmers could readily produce. This consisted primarily of animal hides and wood from the numerous saw mills in Northeast Granville. The better wood was steam-bent and made into drums. The lesser quality became lumber and the worst was burned for heat and to fire the steam box used to bend drum shells.
All in all, it was a good economic ecosystem where as long as you were healthy and could work, people got by and enjoyed a community that provided work, schools, places to worship, the support of neighbors, and social events to enjoy.
Family Life in Northeast Granville, 1890:
It is safe to say that in 1890 the people of northeast Granville were living farming lives typical of the period. In other words, a pretty tough existence and far from well-to-do. If anybody in Northeast Granville "had it made" you can't tell from the Town annual reports or the tax and census records. Despite some fairly large tracts of land it still came down to farming in a time before electricity, indoor plumbing, and motorized equipment. Electricity would not come to Granville until 1926 by which time most of the Northeast Granville community was gone.
As successive generations tried to divide and subsist on long-held family land each generation's plots became smaller to the point many of these families struggled to make a go of it. Meanwhile at a macro level the industrial revolution was drawing labor from farms to the cities. Small family farms everywhere were struggling, a trend that continued through the 20th century. Taking on work at Noble & Cooley or other local enterprises helped but for many in Northeast Granville getting by was still a tricky proposition, especially if health problems arose.
The consequence of the decline of small family farms and draw of the cities was a massive labor exodus particularly of younger people, from the farms to nearby cities which offered not only decent-paying (or not) indoor jobs with regular (if long) hours and paychecks, but amenities such as electricity, street cars, running water and indoor plumbing.
The dark underside of many factory jobs in the city was that they were depressingly repetitive, unsafe, workers were often exploited, and they did not offer the daily variety of vigorous outdoor work and independence that Granville farmers loved.
One of the ironies of Granville's attention to improving education was that by the 1890's the illiteracy rate had dropped significantly, making Granville's young people that much better prepared to leave the farm behind.
A sense that times were changing was already hanging over northeast Granville in 1890 but on a daily basis life went on. How unexpected and deeply existential the coming change would be was about to be revealed. No life in this quiet community would ever be the same.