History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

310 HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTON, [I'^SO.
and among its patients were Caleb Strong Jr. (afterwards
Governor, then sixteen years old), of ISTortliampton, and
Elislia Porter of Hadley. Cases of this nature as well as
of other contagious diseases, were treated in a house owned
by Increase Clark, situated probably on Pancake Plain,
Some apprehension concerning this dread disease doubtless
prevailed here, but the town refused to order the building
of a pest-house. Existing arrangements were deemed suf-
ficient.
Old House of Cor- In Marcli, 1760, the town voted to sell to
rection Sold. Ithamar strong the land " that has so long-
been enclosed for the old house of correc-
tion," The prison-house on this land, at the corner of
Main and South Streets, built in 1707, was sold for 56s.
Very probably this old building was considerably out of
repair, and was of little use for the purpose for which it
was constructed. It was never very secure, but seems to
have answered its purpose passably well for about half a
century, A new jail was built on Pleasant Street, in 1773,
and for thirteen years there seems to have been no place
nearer than Springfield for the detention of criminals.
Various Town Mat- Ouce uiorc tlic tliievisli crow comes to the
ters acted upon. front, and again a price is put upon his
head. For every fledged crow killed between
the middle of April and the middle of June, a premium
of Is. was offered and 4d. for all unfledged.—That
the gallery stairs had not been removed, as had been contemplated,
is evident from the fact that children were pro-
hibited from sitting on them on Sunday, above the first
broad stair from the floor, —An inquiry was instituted concerning
the cost of a fire-engine, but no machine of that
kind was purchased for thirty years, — All the millers in
town were required to conform to the laws respecting tolls,
and the petition of the inhabitants of Pascommuck for an
appropriation to pay for preaching in that village was
denied.