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

554 HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTON. [1792.
rant about increasing his salary, and a committee was appointed
to inquire into his needs. A report in favor of
granting him aid was made, and the town voted to give
him £100 ; a proposition to make it £160 having failed.
For a number of years grants of sums additional to his salary
were made, though in 1793, it was decided not to in-
crease the salary ; but subsequently a vote was passed to
pay him " £65 as a free gift," towards enabling him to discharge
his present debts. While the people were willing
to vote an ample support to the minister, they were averse
to increasing the sum originally fixed upon for his salary.
Probably they were of the opinion that the then financial
difficulties were only temporary, while an addition to the
salary would be permanent.
Post-office Estab- After tlic Revolutiou postal facilities were
^'^s.heA. slowly extended throughout the country ;
so slowly in fact that in 1799, there were
only seven post-offices in the Commonwealth of Massachu-
setts. For many years Springfield was the only postal
town in this section of the State, and when an office was
established here, it covered all the territory in the county
on both sides of the river, north of the southern boundary
of the present County of Hampshire. It was in the summer
of 1793, that government extended the benefits of the
postal system through this section, and a post-office was
established in Northampton. Previous to that time the
nearest one was at Springfield, and everybody who had
occasion to visit that town, was expected to bring whatever
mail-matter there was destined for Northampton or the
neighboring towns. No regular means of conveyance up
or down through the valley then existed, and very little
correspondence was carried on by persons living in the
interior towns. People in those days wrote very few letters,
and did not depend on the newspapers for their home
news. The Gazette had been for six years a weekly visitor,
but local happenings were generally very carefully excluded
from its columns. Local intelligence was usually retailed on
Sunday between meetings, and on lecture days. An occasional
traveler brought a few items of interest from the
world at large, or an itinerant artizan, plying his trade
from house to house, delighted his employers with gossip.