USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Berkshire County. Its past history and achievements > Part 1
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312066011826811
72 B5P2
24731
LIBRARY
OF THE
ENSE PETIT
QVIETEM
LIBERTATE
CIDAM
MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE
SOURCE
No. 24731 DATE 2-1904 Byexchange 1
F - e
72 B5 P2
Sok may be kept out TWO WEEKS is subject to a fine " a day thereafter. on the day in-
CARD
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Berkshire County.
ITS PAST HISTORY
AND
ACHIEVEMENTS.
By
Charles F. Palmer.
975 M38× BAP
BERKSHIRE COUNTY
~ AND ~~
WHAT IT HAS DONE FOR THE WORLD.
By CHARLES J. PALMER, Lanesborough.
The early settlement of what is now called Berkshire County, was partly delayed and partly hastened by the same cause, viz: the uncertainty of the exact boundary line between Mas- sachusetts and New York. On the one hand, there was the danger that a set- tler on a grant from Massachusetts would be arrested by the New York authorities, lodged in jail, heavily fined and finally dispossessed. On the other hand, Massachusetts, in her anxiety to actually settle the disputed territory and establish a prima-facie claim to the region, was disposed to offer every inducement to those willing to under- take the task. Still, in point of fact, the first settlers came from New York, and settled in what is now called Mt. Washington as early as 1693, and others soon followed. These settlers undoubtedly supposed they were occu- pying New York territory and took possession under patents granted by Livingston. John Hallenbeck states in 1753 that the farm then tilled by him had been occupied for 60 years, and his name would seem to be the oldest known in the settlers of the county.
The next settler in the county ap- pears to have been also from New York, a Dutchman bearing the name of Van Valkenburg; his errand being one
which has often been repeated since by border-whites i. e., to seii rum to the Indians.
It is also proper to remark that as early as 1676 an army of white men under Major Talcott had passed through Berkshire county in pursuit of the refugees of King Philip's Indians, passing through West Otis, Monterey and Great Barrington. These were of course in no sense settlers, but were probably the first white men to set foot in the county.
However, as early as May, 1722, there was a Massachusetts grant of two townships, under which what is now Sheffield, Great Barrington, Al- ford, Egremont and Stockbridge were occupied, at least in part. The In- dian titles of these lands were extin- guished by the payment of three bar- rels of cider and 30 quarts of rum. The settlers came from Springfield, North- ampton and Westfield; the first Mas- sachusetts settler being Matthew Noble from Westfield. In 1735 there was a grant made of land for four townships, to lie next each other along the trail between Westfield and Shef- field. This was for the purpose of ren- dering it likely that a passable road would be made and kept open between the Connecticut and the Housatonic,
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affording a base of supplies for troops marching by what was then considered the most natural route to Montreal. This result followed; the road as then constructed being long known as the "Great Road."
These townships occupied nearly the territory now held by New Marl- boro, Sandisfield, Monterey, Tyring- ham and Becket.
The necessity of having a continu- ous string of settlers along inis im- portant highway in order to keep the road passable, is shown by a petition sent to the legislature about this time. "It was very difficult, and for strang- ers almost impossible, to find the way and there being no other way of trans- portation but on horseback which, by reason of the badness and length of the way was exceedingly difficult, it was almost if not utterly impossible for His Majesty's subjects living in these parts to supply themselves with foreign commodities, be they never so necessary." A further idea of the mode of travelling to this region may be gained from an account by one who made the journey from the east. "My father and mother, with three chil- dren, started for Berkshire in a cart containing the provision for the jour- ney, and all the household goods, drawn by a yoke of oxen. We travelled from five to eight miles a day, much of the way through a wilderness where roads had to be cut and bridges made. After a journey of a month's time, we reached our new home, a log hut. Our cabin was very small, and we had to partition off nearly half of it for a fold for our sheep to keep them from the wolves, whose nightly howling echoed among the surrounding mountains. After three years, my father conceived the idea of building a frame house, but was cautioned by the neighbors against so wild a project."
As far as the object of securing the disputed territory was concerned, these settlements by Massachusetts men were successful; the boundary line being placed very nearly where it now runs, as early as 1731. In so far as the settlement of Berkshire was for the purpose of serving as a help and
barrier in the French Canadian wars, the result was not so agreeable to the settlers. Being on the highway be- tween New England and Canada, Berk- shire occupied a position very like that of Virginia in the late civil war. The Indians, thoroughly familiar with this region and induced by a reward offer- ed by the French for each scalp of an American, had an unpleasant way of making occasional descents on Berk- shire without the slightest warning and prosecuting other attacks with all their accustomed vigor and barbarity.
The numerous forts and stockades, whose ruins are found all over the county, are reminders of the days when the settlers required places of refuge to flee to at the least sound of danger; leaving their houses, herds and crops to the mercies of the foe. In point of fact, the real source of protec- tion for Western Massachusetts came not from the services of politicians or the building of forts, but as is so often the case, from the work of the mis- sionaries. It was the securing the friendship and gratitude of the Berk- shire Indians, so thoroughly acquaint- ed with the habits of the more north- erly red-men, which proved the real source of protection to New England. The story of the work among the Stockbridge Indians is worth recalling,
There was, during the 18th century, a certain romantic interest in the In- dians throughout the British Empire. and support came for work in their behalf from two quite diverse sources. As the only representatives of the easily accessible heathen, missionary work centered on them, and
also as representatives of
pure Nature, as distinguish- ed from Culture or Religion, writers, like Pope and Rosseau and Voltaire and other Deists had dwelt with affectionate tenderness on their char- acter.
The interest had taken shape, so far as the Stockbridge Indians were con- cerned, as early as 1734 in the way of planting a mission under the leader- ship of Sergeant, being sustained for the most part by funds furnished by the Church of England Society for the
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Propagation of the Gospel. The pro- ject at once enlisted a wide-spread in- terest among the churches and people of Great Britain and the details of the plans were formed in consultation with men of distinction abroad. As another has said:
Rev. Isaac Hollis, of London, a nephew of Hollis, the distinguished benefactor of Harvard College, had been interested in the mission from its start, and offered to support twenty of the Stockbridge Indians at an an- nual charge of 500 pounds. Rev. Dr. Watts also took up a collection among his friends in its behalf, and sent Ser- geant 70 pounds, together with a copy of his treatise on the "Improvement of the Mind," a little volume which is cherished as a memorial among the descendants of Sergeant to this day. Other Englishmen took hold of the matter with interest . The Prince of Wales, also, and the Dukes of Cumber- land and Dorset, and Lord Gower, with others, became liberal subscrib- ers to the mission and to the school. Mr. Francis Ayscough, of London, clerk of the closet and first chaplain to the Prince of Wales, also made a donation of a copy of the Scriptures, in two large folio volumes, gilt and embellished with engravings. Upon the flyleaf was written, "Presented by Dr. Ayscough to Rev. John Sergeant, missionary to the Stockbridge Indians, in the vast wilderness called New En- gland." It is creditable to the catho- licity of Dr. A. that, when he was informed that Mr. Sergeant was a Dis- senter, he replied, "What if he be a Dissenter? It is time those distinc- tions were laid aside. I love all good men like, let them be Church- men or Dissenters."
When Sergeant came to his mission- ary field, he found a greater obstacle to his success in the lawless and im- moral conduct of some whites from the Dutch plantations on the Hudson than from the paganism of the In- dians. As one has said, "the trials coincident to other missionaries were to be encountered-perils among the heathen, perils in the wilderness-and one which the apostle does not men-
tion-peril among the Dutch." It is the old story which runs through all our Indian history. Even in those early times there were to be found those who, for their selfish purposes were ready t to make victims of the aborigines. Rum was then as it has been ever since the grand instrument of their success. Happily the influence of the missionary was so great and such the good sense and moral princi- ple of a portion of the red men that they were led early to take strong measures against the threatening evil. It was not a year after Sergeant came among them when they passed a resolution "to have no trading in rum." The general court also came to their assistance with its law antedat- ing the "Maine Law" by more than a century making it a criminal offense for any private person to sell strong drink to an Indian. The Dutch traders, fearing like those of old who made silver images of Diana, that the hope of their gains would disappear in pro- portion as the Gospel should produce its effect upon the Indians, endeavored to excite their opposition to the mis- sionary, and to the colonial govern- ment, telling them that the latter was unfriendly to them, and seeking to de- prive them of their liberty in not al- lowing liquor to be freely sold them. But their confidence in their pastor enabled him to convince them that the law was enacted for their welfare, and that the traffickers in ram were their real enemies."
It is melancholy to read that this early prohibition of liquor applied only to the Indians. What were deemed necessities of the whites may be in- ferred from records in a neighboring town, of a vote respecting the raising the frame of a church, when among the requisites for the occasion, it was voted to provide three barrels of beer, 20 gallons of rum and 20 pounds of sugar to go with the rum.
Sergeant was, however, not the man to be intimidated by difficulties or op- position. His plans were formed in ac- cordance with the latest and most ap- proved methods. For example he adopted precisely what we sometimes:
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fancy to be a recent discovery, the principle of the University Settle- ment among the degraded; i. e., planting a little colony of the educated and refined in the very heart of the degraded, and thus establishing a cen- tre of elevating and sympathetic min- istrations to gradually uplift the fall- en; an object lesson and model which would tend to reproduce itself in the hearts and lives brought within the sweep of its influence. One hundred and sixty years ago Sergeant's mind grasped the significance and power of this conception, and he began his work, not by preaching, but by bring- ing four families of whites with him to establish a focal point of influence.
Again, his mind reached forward to modern conceptions, in that he estab- lished a school like that at Hampton Court, where the Indians should be taught not mere book learning, but the art of Agriculture, the various modes of earning a living, the sciences of Housekeeping and Domestic Economy.
Still, again, Sergeant grasped the idea of the necessity of training native preachers for any considerable success in spreading the Gospel, and raised up quite a number who bore the messages heard at the Mission, far and wide, among distant and inaccessible tribes. Here again he anticipated the methods whose absolute necessity is only be- ginning to be realized by Mission Boards. It is not wonderful to find among the graduates of such a school as this, Indian youths who went through Harvard and Dartmouth, and who proved shining lights in their day and generation. Nor is it wonderful to find that these Stockbridge Indians proved a tower of defense to New En- gland in the wars of those troubled times. So highly did Washington es- teem their services that at the close of the Revolution he publicly bore wit- ness to the fact, by presenting to the Indians an ox for a barbecue in honor of the successful issue of the war. As is well known, on the death of Ser- geant, a successor was found in the celebrated Jonathan Edwards, who found not only a certain congruity be- tween the savage impulses of his audi-
tors and the severities of his dogmatic system, but also an environment of peace and quiet in which he was able to elaborate his immortal treaties which have made Stockbridge a name of eminence in the literary annals of the world.
About 1760, shortly after the death of Edwards, such Indians as had not been brought under the humanizing in- fluence of the Mission, having been permanently expelled from this region, a considerable number of towns sprang into being, and the few already provisionally established began to rap- idly increase. For the most part, these were settled by that constant overflow of population and movement west- ward, which has been the story of the world in .all ages. Some towns, how- ever, had another origin. Dalton was established as an equivalent for an- other grant made to settlers on the New Hampshire line, whose grant on a new survey was found to lie on the New Hampshire side of the line. This township being called Ashuelot, Dalton was styled for some years, "The Ash- uelot Equivalent."
Peru was set apart by Governor Bernard, the British governor of Mas- sachusetts as a sort of country seat for himself which he expected to make like the country residences of the English nobility with their surround- ings of aristocratic pomp and luxury.
Lenox was first .occupied by Jona- than Hinsdale, a kind of hermit, who wanted to get away from the world; very much the same reasor which prompted Blackstone to settle Boston.
It is a part of the irony of history that Boston and Lenox should have been the two towns of Massachusetts to be settled so as to get away from the world, and yet finally prove to be the two places most characterized by the luxury of the world, of all parts of the Commonwealth.
In May, 1761, the western part of Massachusetts, which had hitherto been called Hampshire County, was divided and the westernmost part was called Berkshire.
The county was settled to a consid- erable extent from Connecticut, but
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also in part from the neighborhood of Boston; one town, Lee, being largely settled by the Ultra-Puritans of Cape Cod. The position of the county as bordering on several states has always given it a peculiar character more in- dependent of Boston influences than other sections, and more varied in its sympathies, and cosmopolitan in its make-up. From the very first there was a curious blending of diverse ele- ments. There were the hardy pioneers and Indian fighters, with their sturdy independence and democratic simplic- ity, and at the same time there was an unusually large percentage of the highly-educated, the cultured and the aristocratic; the ideal elements out of which a strong community should spring; elements which would lead us to expect on the one hand a people of such independence of spirit as to be the first to resent impositions from tyranny and to rebel against unlawful exactions from across the seas; and on the other hand, along with this be- ing first to seek independence, a strong conservatism that would be eminently constructive after the war be over, and be in the forefront in establishing a settled constitution and the due ad- ministration of law.
Now, how far do we find these ex- pectations realized as to leadership among all Americans in respect to throwing off unlawful authority, and also as to promptness in organizing lawful government on a solid basis at the conclusion of the struggle for in- dependence? Let us see.
1st-as to renouncing allegiance to unlawful authority-On January 12, 1773, we find a resolution adopted unanimously by the men of Berkshire assembled at Sheffield, so nearly in the language of the subsequent Declar- ation of Independence of 1776 that the latter might seem to have been copied from it. And as the resolution was drawn up by the celebrated Theodore Sedgwick, even then, as afterwards, prominent in National Councils, it is not impossible that there may have been a close relationship between the two. This appears to have been the first, or very nearly the first, public
action of the kind in the whole land. In 1774 when British aggressions be- came still more pronounced, threaten- ing to virtually reduce Massachusetts to the condition of a conquered prov- ince, although the Boston Gazette de. clared, "The whole Continent seemed inspired by one soul, and that a rigor- ous and determined one," yet of all the counties, Berkshire was the first to meet and pass resolutions of the most stringent character: Resolutions
drawn up by a convention, one member of which was from Lanes- boro (Peter B. Curtis) also a solemn league and covenant boycotting all goods and merchandise from England and every Berkshire merchant hand- ling such goods. This action was prac- tically the beginning of the Revolu- tionary war; after such a covenant, compromise was impossible.
After this we are not surprised to read that when a liberty-pole was erected in Sheffield and it was cut down by two men, that one of them was compelled to walk between a long file of citizens and ask pardon of every one; and the other tarred and feather- ed and forced to knock at the door of every house in town and ask pardon of the residents.
It is singular to notice one exception; Pittsfield then, as now, containing the most aristocratic element of the coun- try, was a long way behind the rest. When, in 1765 ,the celebrated Boston Tea Party threw overboard the tea in Boston harbor, rather than submit to paying a tax on it, the Pittsfield town meeting voted that "this destruc- tion of tea was highly unwarrantable, and we wish to express the abhorrence and detestation that we have of this extraordinary and illegal transaction, and desire that our representatives ex- ert themselves to the utmost of their power ,to bring the persons concerned with the destruction of said tea to con- dign punishment." It is proper to say that Pittsfield was soon abreast of the times, and some time before the Declaration of Independence voted to erase King George's name from all of- ficial insignia, thus actually commit- ting the overt act of rebelling without
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waiting to see whether the rest of the county did so or not; and as though to show their contempt for the import- ance of King George they coupled with this vote a number of miscellaneous provisions of the most trivial and in- significant character; the next item of business being that hogs should not be allowed to run at large.
This spirit of not submitting to un- lawful authority was not limited to op- position to British aggressions and did not terminate with the Revolutionary War. For quite a long period Berk- shire was administered as practically an independent principality; its peo- ple, being above all others great read- ers on the principles of government, claimed that by the revolution they had relapsed to a state of nature; that the old provincial charter had expired and they would admit no courts or pre- tended authority from Boston until a state convention had been held and lawful government had been organ- ized, de novo.
They were governed meanwhile by a sort of committee of prominent men. This was done in no spirit of lawless- ness, but rather with a supreme regard for law being established on a firm basis.
Knowing this, it is not wonderful to know that it was owing to a Berkshire man (Jonathan Smith of Lanesboro) more than to any other one man that Massachusetts came to ratify the Fed- eral Constitution and have a settled government. The fact seems to be, as the commissioners for publishing the Massachusetts colonial records wrote me a few weeks since from the State House: "While all our people seem to have shown a genius for code-making and a wonderful apprehension of the philosophy of republican government, the honor of being first and most zeal- ous in insisting upon a new constitu- tion, properly and lawfully formed, un- doubtedly belongs to the little commu- nity scattered along the extreme west- ern border of the Province along the beautiful and fertile valleys of the Housatonic. And yet how little prom- inence is given to this fact in our books of history. It is certainly very
modest in the intelligent people of Berkshire not to have claimed more than they have for the achievements of their forefathers."
This happy mixture and combination which we thus find in the politics of early settlers of the democratic and aristocratic elements extends to every department of action. Everywhere we find the two elements of severe demo- cratic simplicity with. the virtues of ruggedness, severity, sturdiness and hard work; and also aristocratic su- periority of mental insight and fine- ness of culture. As though the pro- duct of our environment, i. e., a home in the hills and mountains, towering above the ordinary level and yet with- out rugged and severe.
In education how plainly we see this combination of severity and superior- ity :- e. g. in the early half of this century the county was dotted over with academies, the resort of pupils from New York and Boston, and in- deed from all over the land, wielding far more than her share of the influ- ences that have made Massachusetts as a whole the centre of literary and educational activity and helpfulness for the whole land; and yet every one of the schools was no mere place for- giving the fashionable veneering of the ordinary boarding school but rath- er the severe round of training in the Spartan virtues of hard, severe, hon- est, legitimate toil and earning every step of advance achieved. And from
those schools, as well as from the mountain farms and hillside slopes of the Housatonic there has flowed a constant stream of manly vigor which has served to replenish the wear and tear and waste and strain of many a town and city in every portion of the land. The same is true of her institu- tion of higher learning in Williams- town; although small (as modern col- leges count size in terms of mere bulk and numbers,) she has the distinction of being the pioneer in American col- leges in adopting the modern method of studying not books but facts: e. g., Prof. Albert Hopkins appears to have been the first in America to adopt the methods of discarding books as pri-
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mary sources, and taking the classes into the actual fields and studying the rocks and flowers themselves. It was also under his direction that the first college astronomical observatory was erected, thus affording the students a chance to study not what the books said about the stars, but the stars themselves.
In Professor Amos Eaton the college gave to America its first botanical in- structor and opened up to the people a new conception of the beauty of the fields, and taught them how to hear again the voice of God in the gardens, and to consider the lilies how they grow.
In the department of philosophy the same originality of conception was seen. In President Mark Hopkins' recitation room the prevailing method was not the old-fashioned text-book recitation, but on the first day investi- gating a topic, after the method of the German Seminar, by free discussion, reading of essays ,investigating origin- al sources, and then on the following day demanding of the student, not the views of the author, but what conclu- sions he himself had come to as the result of the previous discussion; the student being required to defend these views against objections from any one in the class. These methods are com- monplace now; they were absolutely unprecedented then. As it has been happily expressed, "The larger institu- tions might have brought more men to the college, institutions like Williams brought more college to the men." "ine one might be more extensive in the range of their sweep ,the other more intensive in its effect upon the individual student.
This college life was an epitome and picture of the county life as a whole; i. e. great limitations of means to do with, great results accomplished with those scanty means. In other words the combination of democratic sim- plicity with aristocratic culture. Com- pare for instance, the fact of the actual presence in this county from the first, of an unusually large per- centage of families of prominence and advanced culture, as evidenced by
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