The History of Florence, Massachusetts: Including a Complete Account of the Northampton Association of Education and Industry

Description

A history of Florence, Massachusetts, edited and published by Charles A. Sheffeld in 1895. Part I traces the settlement and its development, including the Northampton Association of Education and Industry. Part II gathers community recollections, religious and educational histories, biographies, and accounts of local industry.

The contributors include Frederick Douglass and members of the community. Henry B. Haven’s history of the Free Congregational Society and accounts of the kindergarten, reform activity, and the Underground Railway place liberal religion within Florence’s wider civic life. The reader contents follow the original parts, chapters, and articles, with contributor credits where the source identifies them.

The title page is dated 1895; copyright is dated 1894. The editor’s surname is Sheffeld as printed. This supplied PDF has 264 scans, while archive metadata reports 266 images; complete leaf-by-leaf collation has not been established. Source: Internet Archive.

Table of contents 55 entries

Preface p. 11
Part I 11
1. Chapter I. Topographical 11
2. Chapter II. Introductory 18
3. Chapter III. From 1654 to First Settlement 22
4. Chapter IV. First Settlement 29
5. Chapter V. Settlement Continued 37
6. Chapter VI. From 1831 to 1835 45
7. Chapter VII. Mulberry Fever and Silk Enterprise 55
8. Chapter VIII. Northampton Association of Education and Industry 65
9. Chapter IX. Northampton Association—Continued 87
10. Chapter X. Abridged Annals 107
Part II 115
1. Old Community Times 115
  1. Reminiscences 115
  2. When I was a Boy 118
  3. When I was a Girl — by a Community Maiden 123
  4. A Young Man in the Community 126
  5. What I Found at the Northampton Association 129
  6. The Hutchinsons' Visit 132
2. Religious History 137
  1. The Congregational Church 137
  2. Methodism in Florence 142
  3. The Church of the Annunciation 145
  4. The Free Congregational Society 146
3. Educational History 151
  1. The Florence Public Schools 151
  2. The Kindergarten 156
  3. Manual Training 159
  4. The Florence Lyceum 161
4. Historic Reminiscences 165
  1. Florence 165
  2. The “Underground Railway” 165
  3. The Florence Dramatic Club 168
  4. The Sewing Machine Hand 171
  5. The Fire Department 176
  6. The Eagle Base Ball Club — by One of the Players 179
  7. My Early Recollections 186
  8. The Munde Water Cure 190
  9. Florence in the Mill River Flood 193
  10. Florence and the War 197
  11. What Florence Needs 201
  12. The Village Improvement Society 202
5. Biographies 205
  1. Samuel Lapham Hill 205
  2. Charles C. Burleigh 211
  3. Daniel Greene Littlefield 214
  4. Alfred Theodore Lilly 216
  5. Alfred P. Critchlow 219
  6. Elisha Livermore Hammond 221
  7. Mary White Bond 224
  8. George A. Burr 227
  9. Henry Herrick Bond 230
  10. John Lord Otis 233
6. Industrial Interests 237