Location: Inscriptions on Field Memorial Library, 1 Elm Street, Conway
Coordinates: 42°30’29.7″N 72°41’44.6″W
Date dedicated: July 13, 1901
Architect/Design/Manufacturer: Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, architects
In 1886, Conway built a new town hall—an ornate wooden Victorian structure in the shingle style. The first floor of this building contained a Memorial Hall which featured marble tablets “bearing the names of those from the town who fought in the country’s battles.”[1] Presumably, these listed soldiers who served in the Revolution, War of 1812, and the Civil War. We can’t know exactly what they said because the building burned in 1950. The tablets are not in evidence and apparently were destroyed in the fire.
Long before that fire, just as the 20th century began, someone decided that a much more prominent memorial to those from Conway who died in the Civil War was necessary. The Field Memorial Library is not itself a Civil War monument but it bears the names of the town’s Civil War dead on its façade. It was built as a gift to the town by Marshall Field, one of the wealthiest men in the country at the time. Field was born in Conway and eventually moved to Chicago where he rose in the ranks of a successful department store firm. He ultimately purchased this firm and renamed it Marshall Field & Company.
Field was known for his philanthropy, donating large sums to museums and universities. He did not forget the small town where he spent his youth. The stunning library he built for Conway, filled with the finest Italian marble, looks as though it should belong to a larger city. In addition to the building itself, he also donated 6,000 books. It was dedicated on July 13, 1901 as a memorial to his parents.[2]
The beautiful spectacle of a building, built in a remote town by one of the richest men in the country, attracted considerable attention from the press. The dedication ceremonies largely focused on the celebrity of Marshall Field and his accomplishments. The numerous news articles covering the event are almost breathless in their praise for Field’s generosity and the grandeur of the building. Only a very few make brief mention of the names of Civil War fallen inscribed on the façade of the library. A writer for the Boston Globe, after dwelling on the life of Marshall Field and the library’s architecture, concluded his article with a matter-of-fact sentence, “On either side of the entrance are the names of Conway men who lost their lives in the Civil War.”[3]
So, the significance of the limestone memorial tablets featured on the face of the library was overshadowed. And the story of how they came to be included seems to be lost. But the 24 names are there nonetheless and comprise a striking tribute.
According to a local history, 106 men from Conway served in the war. The largest group consisted of 34 men who enlisted in the 52nd Massachusetts Infantry, a unit made up almost entirely of Franklin and Hampshire County recruits. The Conway men served in Company D of that regiment and the company was commanded by officers from Conway—Captain F. M. Patrick, 1st Lieutenant Horace Hosford, and 2nd Lieutenant Oliver Edgerton. Hosford took over command of the company early its term as Capt. Patrick was discharged due to illness.[4] The 52nd Massachusetts served in Louisiana and saw combat during the Siege of Port Hudson.
[1] “The Conway Town Hall,” Springfield Republican, March 1, 1886, 3.
[2] “Marshall Field’s Gift,” Boston Morning Journal, July 14, 1901, 12.
[3] “Beautiful Gift to his Native Town,” Boston Globe, July 14, 1901, 16.
[4] The People of Conway, ed. Rev. Charles Stanley Pease, History of Conway (Massachusetts) 1767-1917 (Springfield, MA: Springfield Printing and Binding Co., 1917), 206-209.