During the 17th and 18th centuries, the towns located along the Connecticut River in western Massachusetts were a unique region within the Bay Colony. While these towns were politically part of Massachusetts, they were separated from Boston by over 80 miles of sparsely populated hill country. Due to the distance and rugged terrain, the Massachusetts River towns had closer ties to Connecticut. From the beginning of settlement, family ties, trade, and communication bound the settlers of western Massachusetts to residents of Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield, Connecticut. Despite this, connections to Boston were preserved through kinship, politics, and commerce, growing in importance during the 18th century. The combination of political development and geography produced a cultural region in the river towns of western Massachusetts, which, despite its relative isolation, was open to influences from both the Bay area and Connecticut, occasionally producing its distinctive artistic expressions. Surviving gravestones in the region are a testament to this cultural and artistic heritage.
During the 1740s, a large number of cherub stones with intricate foliate borders appeared in Old Hampshire County (Hampden County). These stones were carved by Thomas Johnson II (1718-74), Joseph Johnson (1698-c. 1770), William Holland (working 1748-67), and Nathaniel Phelps (1721-89). The resemblance between the stones was due to the master-apprentice relationships between these cutters. Thomas Johnson II, his uncle Joseph Johnson, and Gideon Hale all trained with Thomas Johnson I in Middletown, and even though Joseph worked in East Windsor during much of the 1740s, the Middletown sandstone quarries remained the focal point for the family. William Holland worked for Joseph Johnson in East Windsor in 1748 and may have been trained by him, as he returned with Joseph to Middletown around 1750.
Along the east bank of the Connecticut River, from South Hadley to Longmeadow, purchased grave markers from the Johnsons. The Johnsons supplied most of the gravestones placed in these towns during the late 1740s and early 1750s. William Holland moved from Middletown to Longmeadow (East Longmeadow) in 1756 to take advantage of this market. He bought land and began producing grave markers in locally quarried stone. Holland was an extremely skillful carver and spent most of his career as a journeyman working for others and in their styles. However, several distinctive gravestones in Connecticut can be documented to be his work, revealing that his status as a journeyman had nothing to do with his talent as a stonecutter or "stone carver," as he called himself. During his three to four-year stay in Longmeadow, he was his own master and produced stones with his distinct touches. The low hairy foreheads, the precise lettering, and the hooked numeral '1' recall his earlier work and that of his probable master, Joseph Johnson. However, the languid, open foliate borders, the crown surmounted by a globe, and the Maltese cross are innovations of Holland. The use of the cross may explain why Holland placed only a few stones outside of Longmeadow in neighboring Springfield; the mid-Connecticut River valley was probably not ready for such a papist symbol. Holland left Longmeadow at some time in 1760 and returned to the Middletown area, where he cut stones with his distinctive pointed crowns that can be seen in Durham, Middletown, North Guilford, and North Haven, Connecticut graveyards. He stopped working in the late 1760s and vanished without a trace.
Holland's influence had a lasting impact on southern Hampshire County, even after he left. It seems that he trained two or three stonecutters from the Springfield area. Joseph Williston (1732-68) of Springfield produced about 100 gravestones in red sandstone between 1759 and 1767. Williston imitated Holland's lettering, borders, and effigies but changed some things. He didn't add hair on the forehead and only carved three stones with crosses. His work was somewhat stiffer, smaller, and simpler compared to Holland's. He beautified at least four of his stones by carving a brick wall under the effigy. He placed most of his stones in South Hadley, Springfield, West Springfield, and Westfield, and some examples are found in Chicopee, Deerfield, Hadley, Hatfield, and Northampton. Nathaniel Phelps, who produced only a few stones during the mid-1760s, had been the primary supplier for the last four towns mentioned. Unfortunately, Williston's career was cut short by his untimely death, but it seemed to have been promising.
After Williston's death, Aaron Bliss (1739-76) of Wilbraham supplied Williston's market. Aaron Bliss called himself a stonecutter, and it was his probate inventory that contained four stone axes, four hewing chisels, nine writing chisels, two iron claws, an iron mallet, an iron sledge, and a pair of compasses. A man of modest circumstances, Bliss supplemented his income from stonecutting by blacksmithing. He appears to have begun cutting gravestones in the later 1760s in a dark brown sandstone easily distinguished from the red sandstone used by Williston and the paler, closer-grained brown sandstone used by the Longmeadow stonecutter. His stones usually had winged cherubs and foliate borders which recall the work of Holland and Joseph Johnson. Most of Bliss's stones, including those which mark his children's graves, are in Wilbraham; several are in Westfield, and examples can be found in South Hadley, Springfield, West Springfield, and northern Connecticut. His death brought a temporary halt to stonecutting in Wilbraham, and when activity resumed in the 1780s, under the direction of John Buckland (1749-93) of East Hartford, it marked a break with the traditions derived from Holland's work. At some point in time, Buckland moved to Wilbraham. His work was considered crude compared to Bliss and Stebbins.
The first tenant of the Burying Ground (Adams Cemetery) was 39-year-old Elizabeth Cockril who died on April 26, 1741. Elizabeth, who was a widow from Boston, was on a visit to her sister, who was Samuel Warner’s wife, and became ill and died. Mr. Warner buried her here, and even though he was not a stone cutter, he found two flat stones and engraved her name, and the date of her death, and that was the first grave located in that cemetery. Her stones are located in the southeast quarter of the old section.
The influence of William Holland endured significantly in Longmeadow long after his departure. Following Holland's exit, a skilled stonecutter, evidently trained by him, continued crafting crowned cherubs that closely resembled Holland's work. However, these Longmeadow cherubs displayed broader proportions and less intricate detailing than Holland's originals. A plausible candidate for this Longmeadow stonecutter is Ezra Stebbins (1731-1796), a local gravestone maker. Stebbins, identified in the Stebbins family genealogy, received payments for gravestones in 1773 and 1784. The 1773 payment may have been for the creation of the Mary Bliss stone from 1757 in Longmeadow.
Ebenezer Stebbins was another family member who was a stonecutter along with many others in his family and extended families. He is credited for being the stone carver for all of the victims of the Nine Mile Pond tragedy that happened in 1799. These gravestones are all in Adams Cemetery, Wilbraham.
Adams Cemetery has upwards of 90% of the carved stones done by local stonecutters. Here are three more stonecutters who have at least one stone done by their hands, William Holland, Solomon Brewier, and John Ely.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding the Longmeadow stonecutter's identity, it became evident that the crosses characteristic of Holland's work were abandoned. Eventually, even the distinctive hairy foreheads were phased out. In the late 1760s and 1770s, the Longmeadow shop transitioned to richly symbolic motifs such as hourglasses, crowing cocks, and flowers cut by scythes. Moving into the 1780s and 1790s, the shop expanded its repertoire to include portrait stones and crowned cherubs. These later cherubs, while reminiscent of the 1760s style, had distinguishing features.
The production of profile stones and crowned cherubs persisted beyond the death of Ezra Stebbins in 1796, possibly carried on by Ezra Stebbins II (1760-1819) of Longmeadow. Under the leadership of Herman Newell (1774-1833), the Longmeadow shop continued its gravestone production until the 1820s.
In towns where a preference for sandstone gravestones persisted, the urn and willow motifs experienced a delayed and often brief resurgence during the 1810s and 1820s. Notably, the stonecutters in Longmeadow and others working with sandstone in the Springfield area continued to offer gravestones adorned with motifs that, in many instances, directly descended from William Holland's designs in the 1750s.
Until approximately 1810, an artisan emulating the Sikes family's distinctive style remained active, supplying residents of Granby, South Hadley, and Wilbraham with sandstone imitations of the Sikes family's unique effigies.
We know of two brownstone quarries in Wilbraham. The first is the Burt Quarry off Main Street and a smaller quarry off Stony Hill Road near Hitchcock Road. Most of the brownstone foundations and building stones come from the quarry off of Main Street and the rest from the Stony Hill Road property. The quarry off Stony Hill Road was abandoned before 1885. Some of the foundations in South Wilbraham (Hampden) came from the Main Street quarry in Wilbraham or the McGregory Quarry off Somers Road in East Longmeadow. An interesting note that is on the 1917 Edson's Historical Map shows the quarry located off of Main Street belonging to McGregory at some point and also shows many stonecutter houses along Tinkham Road.
The primary sources of information include the works of Kevin M. Sweeney and Gravestones of New England, which provide invaluable insights into the subject.
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