This profile by George Vachula was researched with help from primary sources in a document collection recently donated to the Hatfield Historical Museum by W. Michael and Judy Ryan, as well as by artifacts donated by Charles Wilkie, the subject's grandson, more than 100 years ago. It was prompted by our participation as an early contributor to the PVHN project and website, Revolution Happened Here, funded by Mass Humanities.

Henry Wilkee was a Hessian soldier who fought with General Burgoyne’s army during the Revolutionary War.  Following Burgoyne’s surrender after the battle at Saratoga Henry was taken prisoner. Although there are conflicting reports of how Henry came to reside in Hatfield, the story of his life and family is surely typical of the thousands of Hessian soldiers who came to fight, who chose to remain and who, through several generations of their families, prospered in their new land.

An exhibition of historical artifacts was included in a celebration held in Hatfield in 1889 [1].  Charles Wilkie [2], then a prosperous resident of Hatfield and the grandson of Henry, the Hessian soldier, donated several items to that exhibition.  One of these items was the powder horn Henry was believed to have obtained and possibly used during his time as a soldier in Burgoyne’s army.  This simple, utilitarian horn, along with several items from Henry’s household, resides today in the Hatfield Historical Museum.  

To read Henry's story (and why there are two different spellings of his last name), click HERE.

Collection items come to us in all sorts of ways.

Sometimes it is just one person donating an item from their home that they think will help tell a story about the history of our town. Sometimes we find a Hatfield item on eBay and solicit a funder. Sometimes it is a collaborative effort, reflecting the generosity of several people. Like this one.

“The Hadley Chest” by Clair Franklin Luther, published in 1935, first came to the attention of John Nove, a South Deerfield bookbinder, when it was brought to him by Ken Schoen of Schoen Books, also in South Deerfield. The book was part of a group of books needing repair from an estate sale in Amherst.

John, who has previously brought books he’s repairing (that are for sale) to the attention of institutional collections, recognized that this book was of local historical significance. He contacted me, as the curator of the Hatfield Historical Museum, since “Hadley chests” describe a type of joined chest that was made in Western Mass (including Hatfield) in the late 1600s to 1730 or 1740.

John has repaired and/or made protective boxes for a number of books in the Hatfield Historical Museum collection under the CPA-funded Museum Collections Management & Preservation Grant.

Since our collection did not include a copy of this book, we were very interested. Though only one photographed chest listed a Hatfield owner, the author listed many Hatfield women who received chests as well as discussed likely Hatfield builders of the chests.
What happened next was – Ken agreed to sell the book (with a damaged spine) at a VERY reasonable price; John volunteered to repair the spine at no cost; and an anonymous donor volunteered to fund the purchase. The book is numbered 131 out of the 525 copies printed 85 years ago.

The book now resides in the collection of the Hatfield Historical Museum, where it can be enjoyed by all! Thanks to all three – John, Ken and our anonymous donor.

In addition to running Grey Seal Bindery, John Nove is Chair of the Deerfield Historical Commission. He can be reached at nove.john@gmail.com. Ken Schoen, owner of Schoen Books, https://schoenbooks.com/, is a former Deerfield Historical Commission member.

For some fascinating history of Hatfield sports from four decades ago, with lots of names you may recognize, check out this Guest Post. Both the first-place ribbon and the program bumper sticker have been added to our collection.

By Mike Ryan
Coach & Program Director, 1979-1989
 
I had been a youth soccer coach in Northampton for four years when Judy and I and our four children, Luke, Molly, Maggie and Bridie, moved to 8 School Street, Hatfield in 1977.  Having gone to St. Michael’s High School in Northampton, my varsity soccer team faced Smith Academy twice a year in soccer and lost, usually very badly, every time.  In 1962, for example, Falcon Captain Marty Wilkes scored six or seven goals on us and we lost 12-0.  Hence, I was surprised to discover there was no youth soccer program in Hatfield.  In 1979, I decided to start one.  My first order of business was to recruit Bill Burke.  We were close friends and had worked together as probation officers for several years.  He knew every person in Hatfield and could charm a hungry dog into sharing his bone. 
 
Bill’s son Bill was going into fourth grade and my son Luke was going into second so we decided on two leagues: 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders for the little kids’ league and 4th, 5th and 6th graders for the big kids’ league.  At that time, there were junior high school sports so there was no need for an older kid’s league.  Besides, as probation officers, we knew kids quit talking to adults at twelve or thirteen.  Who wants to coach kids who just grimace and rolls their eyes at everything you say? 

To read more and find out how Hatfield's coed underdog team won the Eaglebrook Junior Soccer Tournament in 1985, click HERE.

By George Vachula

A recent donation to the Hatfield Historical Museum by W. Michael and Judy Ryan includes several early 19th century documents relating to Hatfield and Whately residents. One of these is a letter from Austin Smith of Hatfield to Mr. Beaman Wait of Whately, West Part.

In this letter, dated August 6, 1856, Austin is concerned that one of his cows may have injured herself trying to get over a wall.  Since he has a trip planned to the Springs at Saratoga, he has sent his cow by boy, presumably from a summer pasture in Whately, to Mr. Wait’s farm. Austin asks that she be pastured with Mr. Wait’s steer and heifer and that he watch over the cow and do what is necessary for her. 

Even though in Hatfield Austin was considered a parsimonious neighbor, he was a shrewd investor in stocks and bonds and, as this letter shows, clearly cared for the well-being of his cow.
(Click HERE to read the text of his letter, find out who "Beaman" Wait likely was, and who they were both likely descended from.)

By Rob Wilson

One need not travel far in Hatfield to pass a location where some kind of alcoholic beverage was or is brewed, fermented, distilled, served, or sold.
 
I don’t have to walk a step. The Dickinson Inn, which opened in the early 19th century and burned to the ground in 1901, occupied the spot on Pantry Road where my house now sits. Hungry and thirsty stagecoach travelers would arrive here, perhaps raise a glass of good cheer with their dinner, stay the night, and continue on their journey the next morning.  

The history of Hatfield citizens producing, selling and consuming alcoholic beverages dates to well before the Dickinson Inn opened. In the process of examining life in Hatfield from its 1670 founding to the early 1900s, Daniel White Wells and Reuben Field Wells’ book, A History of Hatfield in Three Parts, documents the social customs of the townspeople, including drinking. Although the early settlers were a religious lot, they saw nothing immoral in raising a glass or mug of their favorite spirits. Many residents, Wells noted, made their own beer or liquor.

To continue reading, about unusual alcoholic drink customs in Hatfield -- some involving children and eggs -- and Hatfield's relationship with liquor until Prohibition, click HERE.

Guest Post by Rob Wilson
Hatfield Historical Society volunteer

Combat veterans will tell you there is nothing romantic about fighting in a war. But most would agree that wartime romances may begin when soldiers are away from the battlefield. And that romance in a time of war may blossom into marriage.
 
Take the cases of Jim Day and Peter Balise, whose WWI experiences were examined in Parts II and III of this series. Each of the Hatfield men met his bride-to-be while serving in the Army.

Guest Post by Rob Wilson
Hatfield Historical Society volunteer

By the fall of 1919, most of the 2.8 million U.S. servicemen stationed overseas had come back home and returned to civilian life or were soon to do so. Across the nation, main streets were bedecked with flags and buildings were strung with bunting, as towns and cities began staging elaborate events to welcome home their veterans. Hatfield staged its veterans’ homecoming program on Saturday, Oct. 11 and, from the Daily Hampshire Gazette’s coverage of the event, the town had spared neither the flags nor the bunting when it decorated its Main Street.

Residents gathered at 2 p.m. for the program, held at Memorial Grounds on Main Street. The Gazette’s reporter described the festivities as “a royal welcome home celebration at which the population turned out not only to the last man but also very nearly to the last woman and child, many of the latter in their mothers’ arms.” Fifty-three men and one woman among the 103 citizens who had answered the national call to serve were able to attend the ceremonies. Many of those unable to make it, some of whom were still serving in the military or had moved out of the area, sent regrets from far-away places.

To continue reading this post, click HERE.

Guest post by Rob Wilson
Hatfield Historical Society volunteer

When the officer leading the U.S. Army’s 9th Infantry Regiment’s Company L was killed in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel in mid-July, 1918, Lt. Jim Day was given a battlefield promotion to captain and put in command of the outfit. He now was responsible for leading men into combat. One of his best friends, promoted to the captain of another front-line company the same day, later was killed. Day reported that he wrote a condolence letter to the soldier’s family, not the last such letter he would compose during the war. 
 
The U.S. forces kept up pressure on the German lines that summer. The enemy was well entrenched and resolute. Battles were hard fought, casualties high and progress slow. In a Sept. 12 operation, Day wrote, the “whole horizon erupted in flames” when the U.S. artillery opened up on the enemy. When the barrage halted, at daybreak, he led Company L, as he put it, “over the top” of the trenches to attack German positions. The operation was a success and Day’s unit took many prisoners.

To continue reading this post, click HERE.

Guest post by Rob Wilson
Hatfield Historical Society volunteer

James H. Day and Peter L. Balise grew up in Hatfield, joined the Army in 1917 after the United States entered the war, and were wounded fighting on the Western Front. Both men also wrote about their experiences in France. But it is thanks to the cooperation of the soldier’s descendants, who shared documents, photographs and artifacts with the Hatfield Historical Society and the Hatfield Historical Museum, that we are able to tell their stories here.

Each account delivers valuable insights into the men, the war they fought, the emotions they experienced and the challenges they and other troops faced on the front lines of World War I. Of the two soldiers’ writings, Day’s narrative—in the form of an unpublished war memoir written decades after the war and saved by his family—is much longer and more detailed. Balise’s story, conveyed in three letters that he wrote to family from France, examines his first months in France and the last days of the war. Those letters were published over 1918 in the Daily Hampshire Gazette. Additional articles in the Gazette and the Springfield Union provided additional information about both men.

To continue reading post, click HERE.