Robert and Jocelyn Tyson – High Street
(See below for photograph* )

A Southampton National Register Parcel

The land where this house stands was laid out to Timothy Clark in the 1730’s.  It remained in the Clark family until 1827 when it was sold to Quartus Searle.  Quartus married, settled in Chicopee and sold this land to his father Moses Searle III in 1830.  The buildings were built here sometime between 1830 and 1839.

Moses Searle III sold this property to another of his sons, Hymenas Searle in 1849.  It then consisted of twenty acres of land with buildings.  In the deed it was described as follows: “Bounded north on a town road leading by house of Artemas Loomis, west on heirs of Asa Judd and land of Seth Bartlett, south on land of Job Searle, Zophar Searle, and Sardis Chapman, and east on the road from Southampton to Montgomery”.

As a provision of this deed from Moses to Hymenas there was a life lease given by Hymenas to his father and mother, Moses and Mary Searle, for us[e] of the house with all their expenses including their eventual burial expenses and payment of their debts.  This lease stated that both families were living in the house on the date of the lease, March 2, 1849.

Hymenas Searle, in addition to his farming, operated a small wood-working shop.  This shop was located a little north of his house, on land owned by Lysander Bates (the present Ethel Tiffany place).  Apparently, he leased this building.  The document regarding this building is briefly as follows: to Hymenas Searle from Joshua Wyman a certain building used as a shop for dressing staves and making shooks on land owned by Lysander Bates and bounded north and west on Lysander Bates, south and east on a  public highway.  April 9, 1846, price $30 (113-83).

Hymenas Searle, born 1824, married Fanny Rogers in 1846.  He died in 1866.  They had one son, George Everett Searle, who married Eva Lyon in 1872.  They moved to Easthampton.  They had two children, both of whom died young.

Stephen D. Clapp Jr. became the next owner of this homestead, buying it from widow Fanny Searle and Lewis Hannum administrator of the estate of Hymenas for $2725, on March 1, 1868.  Widow Fanny Searle did  reserve three acres just south of the house which she sold to Orrin Moore for $180, also in 1868, (251-101).

Presumably Orrin Moore sold this three acres to a later owner of the rest of the property.

Julius Boyd and his son, William D. Boyd bought this property from Stephen D. Clapp Jr.  March 11, 1870. Julius died about 1896, age 95, and in 1898 William D. Boyd and his wife moved to their newly purchased house in the village just south of the Methodist Church.

Wilfred A. Parsons and his wife Martina (Way) Parsons rented the house for the next two years, and Mr. Boyd sold it to Edward R. Swasey in 1901.

Mr Swasey built a handsome new house on the hill several hundred feet back from the road.  This house was finished in 1904.  He died in 1923, and Mrs. Swasey retained ownership of both houses until she died in 1945.

During the period 1904-1946 the old house was occupied by families who worked for the Swaseys and also by renters.  The Charles Daltons, the William Millers, The Henry Quackenbush and Fred Belware families and among the renters were Kenneth and Hope Hutchinson, Willard and Dorothy Howland, Walter and Beatrice Howland, Carey and Anna Howlett, and Mr. and Mrs. Paul Blodgett.

In 1946 Edwin D. Ballard purchased both houses and all the land from the estate of Mitta D. Swasey.  He lived in the big house on the hill and sold the old house with a small amount of land to Lorren D. Fay in 1949.

Richard R. Nickerson bought from Lorren D. Fay in 1951. and Robert W. Riedel bought from Mr. Nickerson 1956. 

The present owner, Robert M. Tyson, bought from Mr. Riedel in 1961. Mr. Tyson is vice president of the Tubed Chemical Co. in Easthampton.  Robert and Jocelyn Tyson have two children, Adam, 6, and Amy, 4.

–From “History of Old Houses” by Atherton Parsons

*See also: Roswell Field Putnam (1804-1911): Versatile architect for the Pioneer Valley     Call No.: HISTORICAL 974.423 Fabing Barcode: 37387091092799  (For photograph, see Plate 30).

 

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