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The Bridgman Tavern
On the old Bay Road

Jonathan Bridgman, the genial landlord of a famous tavern on the old Bay road, founded in South Amherst a notable family of thinkers, scholars, and writers, whose influence has been a power for good in the community, and whose philanthropic enterprise has extended not only throughout America, but also to the Chinese empire and within the Arctic circle. His strong convictions and deep religious nature led to the founding of the South Amherst church, which his descendants have loyally supported for eighty years. With diligence and fore-thought he cultivated his farm, managed his brickyard, and gave hospitable entertainment to his guests. He was successful in all his undertakings, and used the means acquired to educate his children for positions of usefulness and honor. He was a model of industry, frugality, and thrift, a typical New England farmer of the olden time.

James Bridgman, a carpenter by trade, sailed from Winchester, England, in 1640, and settled in Springfield, where he lived for eleven years, his “home lot fronting on Main street.” Here he was a constable and surveyor of fences until, in 1654, he decided to move up the river, and chose Northampton as a permanent residence. He built his house in Hawley street, was constable and sealer of weights and measures, and found that his services as a carpenter were in great demand. After a time of peace, the Indians became hostile, the stockades about the village were strengthened, and all the settlers were on guard. The venerable James, being about to die, sent for the lawyers to come and make his will. While it was yet unsigned, that very night, an alarm was given, and all, lawyers included, rushed to the defense. The town was saved, but when John Lyman and Medad Pomeroy returned to witness the will, the old man James was dead. The son born that night to his son John received the significant name of Deliverance. This grandson, with his brothers, Isaac, Ebenezer, and Orlando, founded the four branches of the Bridgman family in New England. Deliverance was the ancestor of Sidney Edwin Bridgman, the well-known bookseller of Northampton, who entered the store of J. H. Butler as clerk when seventeen years old, and has remained at the same stand, and is now proprietor of” Bridgman’s Book Shop, founded 1797.”

Ebenezer, the grandson of James, was the ancestor of the Bridgmans in Amherst. He married Mary Parsons, of Northampton, and receiving from his father “one acre of land in old Rainbow” settled on the “Plain.” In 1732, Ebenezer and his family removed to “Cold Spring,” where they “took up” a piece of land on the old Bay road, about three miles from the present center of Belchertown. The site of the log cabin where these settlers first made their home, and the place where, in the meadow behind the homestead, the old man was buried, are still pointed out to visitors seeking to locate landmarks in the early history of the town.

Joseph, the son of Ebenezer, was a deacon in the Congregational church, and married Elizabeth Warner of Northampton, and their son, Joseph, took for his first wife, Ruth, daughter of Reuben and Sarah Edwards Wright, also of Belchertown. Wright, Theodore, Joseph, and Jonathan Bridgman, sons of Joseph second, and his wife, grew up in Belchertown. Wright became a merchant. Joseph fitted for college in Hopkins academy, and about 1790 ascended Mount Holyoke and planted the first flag ever thrown to the breeze from the summit of the mountain. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1795, practiced law in Belchertown, and represented the town in the General Court.

Lieutenant Theodore Bridgman owned the farm at Pond hill which belonged to his father, grandfather, and great grandfather, Ebenezer. His second son, Elijah Coleman Bridgman is well known as having been the first American missionary to China. He was converted when only eleven years old during the great revival in Hampshire county, and was among the company of one hundred and six persons who together joined the Belchertown church. He graduated from Amherst in 1826, from Andover in 1829, and at the altar where he had been baptized in infancy was ordained to the Christian ministry and dedicated to service in China. He rode in a carriage to Northampton, traveled in the fast mail coach over the mountains to Albany, then with fear and trembling went on board a steamboat and reached New York in safety. Embarked for China on a sailing vessel, he spent the journey of four months in the study of the Chinese language. His impressions on his arrival and the story of his life are well known to those interested in missions. His loss was deeply felt in the family circle, and the sight of so brilliant and youthful a scholar joyfully leaving home and friends for a life among heathen in an unknown land, produced a profound impression on the community and on the college of which he was a recent graduate. His letters, which came after an interval of eight months, were claimed almost as public property, and the interest in missions was greatly increased throughout Western Massachusetts by the fact that it had a representative in this new section of the foreign field.

Jonathan Bridgman, the youngest of the brothers, lived in Amherst in 1793, when a boy twelve years of age. He may have been apprenticed to a brick maker, and in this way have learned his trade. That year a library association was organized in South Amherst. The books were kept in a case six feet high by four or five feet wide, in the home of Deacon David Moody. Among the grave and reverend fathers of that portion of town who composed the purchasing committee, we find this little Belchertown boy, whose inquiring mind, not satisfied with the Hampshire Gazette and Missionary Magazine, sought in this public library a means of gaining information about the outside world.

In early days residents on the Bay road lived in the woods with forests all about them. Here and there hospitable taverns formed links in the chain of primitive highways which connected the scattered New England hamlets. These early hostelries offered entertainment for man and beast. The weary traveler, jogging along on horseback over the rough and stony road, hailed with delight the creak of the swinging tavern sign or the glimmer of candles which betokened that the end of his journey was at hand. Stretching his tired limbs before the blazing barroom fire, he smoked his pipe and drank his mug of toddy until summoned to the evening meal. Here with lavish hand the hostess displayed the products of her skill, and sharpened appetites did full justice to the bounty thus provided. Far down in the depths of the voluminous feather-bed beneath the home-spun counterpane and patchwork quilt, the traveler slept the dreamless sleep of the weary and awoke refreshed to enjoy his bowl of Indian pudding and milk and briskly travel on his way.

Shrewd young Jonathan Bridgman, when grown to manhood, perceived a favorable tavern stand on the Bay road, and bought of Marson Easton the frame building now in the rear of the brick portion of the dwelling. Here in 1806 he brought his bride, Achsah Granger of Granby, and the couple set up housekeeping. Their happiness, however, was of short duration, for in three years the young wife died, leaving no children. In those days, as at present, it was not good for man to be alone. Believing this, and following the custom of putting his convictions into practice, Jonathan Bridgman married for his second wife Jerusha Smith, the daughter of Deacon Elisha and Ursula Billings Smith of Amherst. The former wife, however, was not forgotten. That tender sentiment so often hidden beneath the rugged exterior of our stern old Puritan ancestors caused this father to name his first little daughter, who lived but three short years, Achsah Granger, and to add the name of Granger to the ancestral name of James, by which he christened the son, who was afterward to sacrifice his life for the cause of missions. Our foremothers, however, were not jealous of shadows, and practical Jerusha Smith did not object to this reminder of her husband’s early love and mourned sincerely when the little Achsah was laid away beside her namesake. Now came to this new family a time of struggle. The master of the house, although endowed with an old-fashioned New England conscience, possessed also akin eye for chances of turning an honest penny and a dogged determination to achieve what the world call success. His wife, mature beyond her years, bravely took upon her girlish shoulders the ordering of a household whose members multiplied after the good old fashion. When the wooden house became too small for the increasing family, ambitious Jonathan decided to build a house of brick. A mountain stream, flowing beside a bed of clay, was near at hand. Here he started his brickyard and made the bricks with which he built the walls of the Bridgman tavern. These bricks were firm and of regulation size and orthodox in their composition as the character of their maker. Orders came in and bricks were sent to Belchertown and throughout Amherst. An assistant was employed, who lived in a cabin beside the brook, and horrified the children by eating the legs of the frogs which he caught with a hook. With his aid, the shrewd Yankee transformed the soil unfit for cultivation and the water running to waste into building material, which he sold at a considerable profit. The energetic wife at the age of forty-seven, had been the mother of ten children, eight of whom were living. The family now consisted of six sturdy boys, Erastus Smith, Edward, Richard Baxter, James Granger, Guilford, and Coleman, and two little daughters, Louisa and Harriet, seven and five years old.

These children were wide awake and energetic. Their father, though severe and strict, was genial in his home. He lived the religion which he professed, conducted family prayers each morning and at night when practicable, observed the Sabbath beginning at sundown Saturday night, and with his wife and flock of little ones went five miles to church, no matter what the weather. The tavern was equally distant from the meeting houses in Amherst center, East Amherst and Belchertown, there was no choice as to distance. Mrs. Porter remembers well the sounding board and great square pews of the second meeting house on College hill and the discomfort she endured there in when a little more than three years old.

The mother of this family, when very young, covered her abundant hair with the cap supposed to be the proper head-dress for the matron of that day. Attired in short, plain-waisted gown, to which, when older, she added a little shoulder cape, she moved about her daily tasks, keeping the house as neat as wax, knitting and spinning, making butter and cheese, and, withal, ruling her children, and perchance her husband, with mild and gentle sway. The tall clock in the kitchen showed a shining face, and the cherry table, an heirloom from her grandmother, shone like the looking glass upon the wall. Her wedding dishes, blue and white and gold, though daily used, were never chipped or broken. The dark blue glossy English ware, adorned with the picture of “Castle Toward,” and bearing the trademark of J. Hall I& Sons, though handled by all those children and tavern guests, escaped the slightest injury, and are treasured by their owner, Mrs. Porter, as among her most valuable relics.

The Bridgman boys and girls learned their first lessons in a wooden schoolhouse on the site of the present home at Dwight Dickinson, in the southeast district. Their teachers were Eliza Franklin, Candace Blodgett, Miss Robbins and Parmela Russell. Among their schoolmates were the Nutting children and Emeline Kellogg, who afterward married Henry Nash. The girls wore low-necked, short-sleeved dresses and pantalettes. Little Louisa, three years old, who had a passion for drawing, sat upon a low front seat and was punished for making pictures on her book. Later the wooden schoolhouse was moved away, and a fine brick building erected in its place. Here during school hours Webster’s spelling book and the queer geographies and arithmetics of that day were diligently studied, with variations of “I Spy” and jumping the rope at recess. But the most important elements of education in olden time were not acquired in school rooms. Trained by their father the boys learned to plow a straight furrow, to sow and reap and swing a scythe, and to compel the rugged soil to yield a plentiful harvest. Milking the cow, gathering apples and peaches in the orchard, selecting great watermelons in a patch and disposing of the same, were pleasant tasks enjoyed by boys and girls alike. Louise and Harriet practiced domestic science in their mother’s kitchen, assisted now by an adopted daughter, Mary Shumway, who was loved by all.

The Bridgman tavern soon became a favorite stopping place for travelers on the long journey to the eastern part of the State. A sign in blue and gilt, surmounted with an urn, and swinging between towheaded white posts above the watering trough, bore the words,

JONA. BRIDGMAN’S TAVERN
1822

The fame of Mistress Bridgman’s cooking, passed by word of mouth along the line, attracted many guests. Seated in the bar-room on yellow wooden chairs, made by Hosea Goodale, thirsty strangers drank from glasses holding a quart, and slept beneath a red and green counterpane of home manufacture and remarkable design. The chairs, the glasses and the quilt remain, but as no register was kept, the names of those distinguished visitors will forever be unknown. An impecunious artist, probably to pay his bill, cut some silhouettes of the landlord and his wife, which show us how they appeared when managing the tavern.

Those of the present day know the Bay road as a neglected, grass-grown highway. In olden time it was the scene of constant activity, along which a moving panorama made its way even by night. The sleeping tavern guests heard dimly through their dreams the fast mail coach as, having started from Northampton at 2. A.M., it rattled over the hill and so into the distance beyond. Drovers and teamsters, flocks of sheep and cattle and turkeys, on their way to market, passed in slow procession, or stopped to drink at the watering trough where Burgoyne’s defeated forces are said to have watered their horses. Menageries passed along with bears and elephants and camels and cages of wild animals akin to those whose calls were heard through the darkness from among the shadows of the Holyoke mountains. Travelers on foot, on horseback, and in fall-back chaises, a never-ending procession, passed the tavern or lingered to enjoy its hospitality. The iron ring now seen on the left-hand side of the front door casing, was driven by a stage driver that into it he might tie the long reins of the four horses and thus secure them while he partook of refreshment at the bar within. Other drivers found the ring convenient, and for this purpose it was used till stages ceased to run.

Jonathan Bridgman was a public-spirited citizen and a firm supporter of the Whig party. In 1822, and again ten years later, he served as selectman of the town. In 1824 he was a leading member of the committee which organized the South Amherst church. Services were held in a carpenter shop until in 1825 the meeting house was built and dedicated, and Rev. Horace Chapin was ordained and installed. Jonathan Bridgman was the largest contributor toward the expenses of the undertaking. After its organization the Bridgman family transferred their allegiance to the South Amherst church, attending its services, filling many offices, and giving all its departments loyal support. Jonathan never allowed business to detain him from the preparatory lecture which was held in the afternoon, and formidable indeed were the snowdrifts through which he could not break a road and go three miles to church on Sunday. He was a true apostle of Sabbath observance in the old-fashioned sense, and exemplified in his daily life the precepts which he taught. He did not believe in frivolous amusements, therefore there was no ballroom in the tavern, and cards were things unknown. His children inherited his deep religious nature, and made this manifest in early youth. In later years, the mother said that Baxter never had to be corrected, but was always a ”good boy.” The same was also said of Edward, who loved the Bible, and when plowings carried a Testament in his pocket for consultation. James, when a little boy, used to persuade Louisa to go apart with him and have a prayer meeting. This sister now displays a book which was given to him for being the best reader in school.

The Bridgman family were all singers and natural musicians. They attended the singing school on the Green, taught by Dr. Woodman, and afterward by Mr. Gorham of Amherst college. The boys sang tenor and bass. Harriet had an alto voice of remarkable quality and range, and Louisa sang soprano or alto as the case required. Baxter learned to play the flute and clarinet. They mastered all the pieces in “Kingsley’s Social Choir.” In summer evenings they often went up on the hill and there sang glees and madrigals, while Baxter played. The music floating down seemed to the traveler passing by like songs from heavenly choirs. These were happy days in the old Bridgman tavern before separation came, and the band of brothers and sisters was broken, never to be united.

The Bridgman boys attended Hopkins academy in old Hadley, and all but two became teachers. The eldest, Erastus, was a dashing soldier in the militia. His sister wall remembers his uniform and cap with its cockade. Edward, when a student in 1834, kept a diary, now in the possession of his daughter, Mrs. C. A. Shaw. The daily entries speak of almost constant ill-health, for which much medicine was required. Hard manual labor was performed. The lessons were difficult. The youth attended prayer meeting every night, and was possessed with a constant anxiety as to the state of his soul and the souls of his fellows. In the course of one day he unloaded hay, ascended Mount Holyoke, attended prayer meeting, and was discouraged about his studies. He went to the river to see the steamboat, but even this mild excitement failed to relieve his depression. The unhappy boy climbed a tree from which he could see one corner of his father’s farm, and longed for his home.

Letters from the missionary in China, who had been for years laboring to translate the Bible into the Chinese tongue, fostered the desire in the mind of young Baxter to dedicate his life to the same noble service. An injury received while helping his father in the brickyard made further study impossible, and thus destroyed the hopes of years. While his elder brother’s disappointment was the subject of discussion, James pondered these things in his heart, and quietly decided to follow in the footsteps of his cousin. Doubtless the parents counted it a privilege to dedicate this son unto the Lord, and if they felt misgivings, they gave no outward sign, but quietly removed all obstacles from his path and helped him on his way.

He entered Amherst college when sixteen years old, and graduated second in his class, giving the salutatory address. He taught one years principal of Monson academy, and then came the appointment from the American Board, and the day of parting was at hand. Going to china in those days was like going out of the world. His sister well remembers how the family group about the tavern door, with grief too deep for tears, bade farewell to him whom this side of heaven they could hope to see no more. The carriage in which, with his brother Edward, he drove to Hartford, passed slowly from their view. No lingering glances back were given, but with tear-dimmed eyes and steadfast heart the brave young soldier of the Lord went fearlessly forward in the path of duty. Four months of tossing on the ocean brought him to his desired haven, where he found a welcome from his cousin and abundance of work ready to his hand. Four months more, and tidings of his safety came to the waiting ones at home, who went about their daily toil, the same yet not the same, for one best loved of all was gone.

Harriet and Louisa Bridgman, under the training of their admirable mother, developed from romping country girls into capable and accomplished young women. They became expert in all domestic arts, could spin and weave, braid hats, knit stockings and cook as delectable dishes as the mistress herself. They were handsome girls, full of life and health and energy and ambition. They assisted in milking, just for the fun, and sang duets while engaged in this homely avocation, and Louisa composed some of her best poetry sitting by her cow. Mounted each on a white horse, they ran wild races up and down the old Bay road. They went chestnutting on the mountains, and now and then attended a husking bee. In company with their brothers, they sang in the South Amherst coir to the music of violin and bass viol and Baxter’s clarinet. Jonathan Bridgman was proud of his two daughters, and gave them all the advantages in his power. Harriet attended the academy in Monson and the one in Brookfield, and taught school in new Salem, North Hadley and Ware. She was an excellent teacher, and a favorite everywhere on account of her sweet singing, which charmed all Listeners. Louisa was a pupil Amherst academy and a classmate of Emily Fowler, Emily Dickinson, and Fanny Montague of Sunderland.

Emily Fowler was a beautiful girl, and a brilliant scholar. She read a notable composition beginning “Sing a Song of Sixpence.” She was very intimate with Kate Hitchcock. Edward Hitchcock was also at this time a pupil in the academy. Emily Dickinson was very bright and original, and Fanny Montague possessed an acute mind and vivid sense of humor. Mrs. Hunt, the widow of the first minister of the North Amherst church, was the preceptress, and was a “very nice lady.” While in the academy Louisa wrote a composition on “Local Attachments,” and also wrote much poetry. She was the artist of the family, sketched everything she saw and was anxious to take lessons in drawing and painting, but the philosophy class came at the same hour, and so she tried to take half of each. After leaving the academy she was a successful teacher, in Amherst, New Salem and Belchertown.

Time brought many changes. Erastus Bridgman married Lucinda King Smith of Amherst, and named his first child Achsah in loving memory of the little sister who died when he was five years old. Edward took for his wife Elizabeth May Blodgett, of East Windsor, Connecticut, and settled near the old home, where he could catch a glimpse of his father’s farm without being obliged to climb a tree. Baxter took a trip to Illinois, the the far West, and fining no place more attractive than his native town, married mary, daughter of Captain George and Judith Nutting, and settled in South Amherst. The Bridgman girls were too attractive to remain unnoticed, and soon it was made plain that Harriet had decided among her many admirers and fixed her choice on James Ely Merrick, the son of Aaron, who had been a school teacher like herself. Their wedding, the first in the old tavern, took place Dec. 24, 1845. The bride, in her gown of drab corded silk, seemed dearer than ever to the sister when she was about to leave. A poem, written for the occasion, in Mrs. J. E. Merrick’s album, “ To Sister Harriet on the Day of Her Marriage, “ and signed “ Louisa, “ expressed the feelings of the latter on this occasion.

The ceremony was performed by Rev. Dana Goodsell, and then the couple drove away to the new house in West street, South Amherst, built for them and now occupied by their eldest son, named for his grandfather, Jonathan. With rare good sense and judgment young Mrs. Merrick applied herself to second the efforts of her husband and make his farming a success. She was a busy woman, and in later years, with seven children to train and educate, her heart and arms were full. Her melodeon remained closed and her voice was used only for songs of lullaby. Hard work and anxious care drew lines upon her brow, yet to the last her courageous spirit failed not, and her smile was ever sweet, the outward expression of a soul at peace with itself and all mankind. Her memory is today a benediction to the community in which she lived, and her descendants rise up and call her blessed.

Five years had passed since Harriet’s wedding, when word came that the brother in China, on account of ill health, had received permission to make a visit home. Joyful anticipation now filled every heart. Alas, how terrible the day when his brother Baxter saw in a religious paper a notice of the tragic death of the missionary, James Bridgeman, and his burial in the island of Whampoa. The next day letters were brought confirming the news. A stone thrown from the Chinese wall injured his head, and brought on inflammation of the brain, which produced violent insanity, and finally was the cause of his death. Letters came from his fiancÈe, also a missionary, to whom he was soon to have been married, and from Elijah Coleman, expressing his high regard for the young missionary, and deepest sorrow at his death. A copy of his life work, the “ Notitia Lingual Sinicae of Premare, “ translated into English is in the college library. The mission which he inaugurated among the people of China has gone on and on unto the present day with results which are recorded only in heaven.

This crushing sorrow brought sad changes into the Bridgman home. The father’s health, impaired by arduous toil, could not endure the strain, and after several months of illness he died, and was buried in the Belchertown cemetery.

After the death of the landlord the business of the tavern declined, and Guilford, with his family, made it their home, Louisa and her mother keeping house together in what was known as “ grandmother’s part.” When Harriet went away, Louisa felt that she, too, must have a melodeon, so her good father had one made for her in Buffalo, for which he paid $100. Her niece remembers, when a tiny girl, going into the shaded front room to hear Aunt Louisa play on the melodeon and sing old-fashioned songs. Mother and daughter lived quietly together until the sweet-voiced singer was called to grace another home, and relatives gathered to witness her marriage to Moses Chapin Porter, a prominent citizen of Hatfield. The picture of Mrs. Porter, copied from an ambrotype taken by a Northampton artist, introduces us to the bride in her wedding gown of stone-colored silk, striped with a brown, with trimming bought in New York city. A wreath of orange blossoms, tied with broad white ribbons, encircled the heavy braid of jet black hair. After the ceremony, performed by Rev. James L. Merrick, dinner was served. Then the bride put on her silk velvet cape and bonnet, and with the groom headed the long procession of carriages in which the wedding party drove to Hatfield, where a reception was held in a manner befitting the position of a man of wealth and influence in the town. Twenty-five years later the couple celebrated their silver wedding, at which brother Baxter read an original poem.

After this marriage grandmother’s company was in great demand, and though she made her home with Edward, yet ever and anon she would go to Hatfield to see Louisa, or spend a few days with Harriet in West street, or visit her “ good boy “ Baxter, into whose home had come ten children, eight of whom were living. This favorite son was one of the strong men of South church. His prudent forethought and excellent judgment managed its business and kept it on a firm financial basis, and caused it to be acknowledged one of the most flourishing of the rural churches of Western Massachusetts. His children all showed signs of unusual ability, and the man who was not able himself to obtain a college education, determined that those bright boys of his should enjoy the advantages denied their father.

Erastus Bridgman died in Newton in 1892, leaving a son and daughter. He was a business man, respected and honored by his associates. Edward died in South Amherst in 1877. His son, Harlan Page, lives in the old home and carries on the farm. His daughter, Mrs. C. A. Shaw, is president of the Thursday club of South Amherst. Her youngest son, Charles Harlan, a graduate in the class of 1905 of Annapolis academy, is now a midshipman on board the Minneapolis. Coleman Bridgman married Sarah Louise Cook of Granby, and moved to St. Cloud, Minnesota, where he recently died, leaving no children. Guilford married Martha Ober of Bridgton, Maine, and died in 1886. James Ely Merrick, who held several town offices and was for many years one of the prominent members of the South Amherst church, died in 1885. His wife, Mrs. Harriet Merrick, died in 1893 at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Gilbert Manley. Their sons are among the chief supports of the church. James Ely is a postmaster and a successful business man, has traveled extensively, and is one of the assessors of the town. Richard Baxter Bridgman and his wife lie side by side in the South Amherst cemetery. The homestead where their children were born and reared is the rallying place for the family, to which they come for an occasional reunion. Their three sons, graduates of Amherst college, are well-known journalists and authors. Herbert Lawrence of Brooklyn, was in 1894 a member of the Peary auxiliary expedition to North Greenland, and in 1899 commanded a Peary relief expedition. Raymond Landon and Arthur Milnor have been for many years reporters for the Legislature. The daughters are all musicians. Helena Frances is the widow of Rev. Dr. Charles M. Lamson, the noted divine, trustee of Amherst college, and president of the American Board. Mary Lyon married Rev. Herbert W. Boyd. The three younger daughters, Gertrude, Clara, and Amy, have been successful teachers.

The Bridgman tavern on the old Bay road is again the home of Mrs. Louisa Porter, who hopes to spend her last days beneath its sheltering roof. Her husband died about 1888. Her stepdaughter, Mrs. Augusta Porter Graves, who is the great great granddaughter of Jonathan Edwards, through Colonel Porter of Hadley, occupies the homestead with her husband, Myron C. Graves, who cultivates the farm. Though eighty-two years old, Mrs. Porter reads without glasses, and takes an active interest in all about her. She rides three miles to church, attends the missionary meetings in the village and is the only representative of her generation to entertain the Thursday club by telling stories of her youthful days. She enjoys letters from Henry Bridgman Dickinson, the son of her adopted sister, who calls her Aunt “Louisa “, and writes from Illinois. Surrounded by mementoes of the past she delights to welcome visitors and show them the urn which surmounted the old tavern sign, the huge glasses, andirons, and yellow wooden chairs and other relics of old tavern days, and the body of the fall back chaise in which her mother used to ride nearly one hundred years ago. She is the living embodiment of the kindly courtesy which distinguished the true New England gentlewoman of olden time. Her story of those early days in the Bridgman tavern holds up a picture of that old New England family life upon which is founded our modern civilization.

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