By Doris Dickinson
The Belchertown Historical Association has received two important additions to
the photograph collection in the archives. The
Clark Collection is a gift from
Charles Clark Jr. and the Jackson Collection is a gift from Mrs. George Jackson.
The old cliché "A picture is worth a thousand words" may be a little farfetched
but pictures do add a dimension to history that cannot be denied.
Charles Clark Jr. is a grandson of Samuel and Mabel (Freeman) Stevenson and lived for most of his life at the family home just off Maple Street. He is the son of the late Charles Clark, a barber in town for many years and Margaret Stevenson. He is now a resident of Sunbridge Rehabilitation Center in Hadley. He will be 93 in October. His collection of family and town photographs represent a period of Belchertown history that spans from the late 1800’s to the 1940’s. His grandfather, Samuel Stevenson arrived in Belchertown shortly after the Civil War ended at about 15 years of age. He died in 1927 and his obituary gave a short synopsis of his life. "Sam Stevenson, 78, was born in slavery, although he had no recollection of actual servitude. He became an orderly for Adj. Harry Walker of the First Connecticut regiment when it was stationed in Baltimore. He followed the regiment throughout the war. At its close he brought Adj. Walker’s horses to this town and had made his home here since....Mr. Stevenson was for over 40 years in the family of the late Dr. George Thomson. He married Miss Mabel Freeman of this town."
The Jackson Collection also spans a period of Belchertown history. George Jackson and John Jackson were brothers. John Jackson arrived in Belchertown around 1891. He was a buttermaker and started creameries in Connecticut and Massachusetts including Belchertown. He also owned Jackson’s Store, a fixture on Main Street for many years. A photographer, his glass plate negatives are in the collection at the Stone House. He was president of the Belchertown Historical Association from 1925 until his death in 1931. His son, Blake Jackson, who took over the store upon the death of his father, was also a well known photographer and a member of the Belchertown Color Camera Club. The archives is also the repository of some of his work, especially the changes on Main Street. Blake Jackson was a trustee of the Historical Assoc.
George Jackson’s death in 1931 followed closely on that of his brother, John Jackson. He had learned the buttermaking trade from his brother. He came to Belchertown in 1893 to work in the store, becoming manager of the Belchertown Creamery in 1900. He worked there until it closed in 1917. Upon the completion of Lawrence Memorial Hall in 1923, he became the caretaker of the Belchertown Schools, a position he held until his death. His son, Belding Jackson who wrote the "Steeple" column for many years for the Belchertown Sentinel, wrote a number of articles about his father and the Belchertown Creamery and the local schools. Belding Jackson was also a trustee of the Belchertown Historical Association.
These collections are currently being catalogued and researched. Many photographs have names but many do not. Unlocking the history of old photographs entails researching family history, locations, time frames, clothing and hair styles, type of photograph, interviewing family members, etc. I love old photographs and old documents. It makes the people that I have only read about come alive. Our archival holdings in the Stone House has continued to grow thanks to generous individuals willing to donate collections. Without our repository and others like them, our past would be lost. We share a common purpose--to preserve, protect and provide materials for current users and future researchers.
If you are interested in learning more about the archives, stop by the Stone
House most Tuesday or Wednesday mornings. Give a call first to make sure we are
there. Volunteers are always welcome. ###
By Doris Dickinson
We have had two visitors to the Stone House Museum interested in the connection
between Belchertown and
China. Wenjaun Yin of Peking University in Beijing, China
and Elizabeth Abbott of Walnut Creek, California were here to research
materials in the archives.
Wenjaun Yin, a doctoral candidate, was here to research Elijah Coleman Bridgman, the first American missionary to China. The archives at the Stone House Museum contain letters he wrote to his family and other historical documents. He was born in Belchertown in 1801 in a house still standing on Bay Road. After graduating from Amherst College and Andover Theological Seminary, he was ordained on October 6, 1829 in the Congregational Church in Belchertown and sailed for China four days later under the American Board of Foreign Missions. He landed at Macau, in Southern China in 1830.
For 12 years, Elijah lived in Canton, preaching, learning Chinese and translating the Bible into Chinese. In 1842, he went to British Hong Kong. After a brief four months visit back to the United States in 1852, he returned to Shanghai, living there until his death in 1961. He is buried in Shanghai.
“We call Bridgman the first American Sinologist. He was more than just a missionary. You people of Belchertown should be very proud,” said Wenjuan Yin.
He wrote a history of America in Chinese and served as a translator for the first treaty negotiations between the United States and China in 1844. His most influential work was a magazine he published between 1832 and 1851, call the Chinese Repository. The magazine was about Chinese culture, history, art, politics, etc. It was one of the first publications that gave Americans information about China.
Before coming to Belchertown, Wenjuan spent three weeks at the Yale School of Divinity in New Haven, CT studying Bridgman’s correspondence with the American Board. She will be spending six weeks at the Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History, at the University of San Francisco before returning to China.
Later, Elizabeth Abbott, of Chinese ancestry, arrived to research the Chinese scholars that were sent to this country in the late 1800’s to receive an education. The two research projects—one for Elijah Coleman Bridgman and the Chinese scholars have an interesting connection. Bridgman was one of the “originators of the Morrison Education Society” which started a school to which Samuel Robbins Brown of Monson, MA was sent as principal. After nine years in China, Mr. Robbins returned to this country bringing with him three young boys from the school. They were educated at Monson Academy. One of the young boys, Yung Wing, graduated from Yale University in 1854, becoming the first Chinese to be educated at an American college. He later became the Chinese Minister to the United States and influenced his government to send selected Chinese youths abroad to be educated for public service. In 1870, the Chinese Educational Commission was authorized. A group of thirty students was to be sent to the United States annually for four years, each student to have fifteen years to complete his education. In the autumn of 1872 the first group of students reached this country and in 1875, the last group came.
In the archives at the museum, is a photograph of a young Chinese man. On the back of the photograph are these words: “To my teacher, Mrs. Longley, from her good wisher and pupil, Wing C. Tong. Hartford CT, USA. Aug. 8th, ‘81” His teacher was Maria Dwight Sabin Longley of Belchertown.
Lucy Thomson, one of our early historians, had this to say about a house on South Main Street: “Adelaide Moody lived here until after her parents died. For a number of years she had charge of two Chinese boys, Chu Si Shu and Tsae Mow Cheang, known in the village as Chu and Mur, who climbed in the apple trees with their pigtails swinging but tucked them down their collars when they went to church. They were two of the 120 boys sent by the Chinese Commission between 1872-1875 to be educated in this country. All the boys were recalled in 1881.” Their signatures, in English and Chinese, are found in a small autograph book, dated January 25th, 1878.
So perhaps three of the young men from China lived for a time in Belchertown. The picture, the signatures and the information about the house are the only evidence, so far, about this interesting connection between Belchertown and China.
Every time someone comes to the museum to do some research we learn a little
more about the history of Belchertown. Of even more importance, it prompts us to
do more research. ###