USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Ashfield > Historical sketches of the times and men in Ashfield, Mass., during the Revolutionary War > Part 1
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February 9, 1929
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JOHN HARVEY TREAT, A. M.
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
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GENEALOGY 974.402 AS351HO
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HISTORICAL SKETCHES
-OF THE-
TIMES AND MEN -IN-
ASHFIELD, MASS.,
-DURING THE- -
REVOLUTIONARY WAR,
-BY-
BARNABAS HOWES,
ASHFIELD,
Who will send upon the receipt of Twenty- Five Cents, a copy postpaid to any address.
MRS. W. B. WALDEN, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, 21 SOUTH STREET, NORTH ADAMS, MASS.
78
HISTORICAL SKETCHES
OF THE TIMES AND MEN
IN ASHFIELD, MASS.,
DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
The year 1777 was a peculiarly dark and trying one, to that part of the inhabitants of Ashfield who were patriotic. Many of them had been here only a year, while all the settle- ments in town were quite recent. Prominent men did not dis- guise their sympathy with the royal government, and the year before three men had fallen in the battle of Long Island. never to return to their friends. The armies of Howe and Burgoyne were driving the Americans before them at almost every point. It is therefore an highly interesting inquiry, what did our fathers do? The historical account that has come down to us gives answer. They put forth vigorous efforts, and offered earnest prayer to the God of Heaven for Providential aid.
Of the efforts, I have often heard, how when a messenger came on the 16th of August to call for soldiers, he found men
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at the old meeting-house with their muskets. ready to go promptly on to the army. And upon examining a list of the patriotic I am impressed with the thought, that so large a pro- proportion of them did so. Seven out of twelve of those who were of suitable age. Two men it appears were enduring hard service under Washington. Mr. Stocking had nine men to guard in his house because of their Tory sympathy. So we see the efforts of the newly and thinly settled districts were to the extent of their ability ; though our estimate does not comprise the most thickly settled districts as No 1, 2, and 8. For at this late day, I am unable to learn where all their men were. Then our fathers were wise enough to do more than put forth determined efforts. They earnestly sought for assistance from "the great Judge of the Universe." Not only soldiers went on ; their minister went as a chaplain. The Rev. Nehemiah Porter left Ashfield soon after the 16th of August and did not return until after the surrender of Bur- goyne. His serving as chaplain in Gen. Gates' army is the great historical event of Ashfield, though Dr. Paine does not allude to it in his history of the town. Yet it may be safely claimed, that it would be profitable to every friend of our country to know about his services to it, in the time of its trial. But though I have for nearly twenty years been endeavoring to find something published or written about them, I have found only a few sentences. I am obliged. therefore, to rely upon traditional reports. They inform us that at one time the army was assembled for prayer, and Mr. Porter en- gaged so long and earnestly in prayer, a profane soldier said, "I don't want to live until that man gets done praying." From what Dr. Thatcher, a surgeon in the army, has recorded in his journal, we infer , this assembling of the soldiers was on the Sabbath, just before Gen. Gates marched north to meet Burgoyne. And the next day he wrote and issued his procla- mation, encouraging the Americans to expect the help of Heaven. It seems evident Gates was inspired with this en- couraging assurance to his men, by hearing Mr. Porter's prayer.
And if there is a Heaven to help the oppressed, in their efforts to resist kings and aristocrats, Mr. Porter's prayers were of great service to secure the independence of our free
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nation. Quite too many at the present day reason as if there was no such Heaven. They are unwilling to admit that there is an unseen Mind exercising omnipotent power to control all events, as the prayers of good people desire. But have we not evidence that Gen. Gates reasoned correctly, when he told them that Heaven would help them ? For was not efficient aid given ? It is said that the battles of Saratoga and Stillwater decided that the friends of liberty should succeed in estab- lishing a free government, or meet with irretrievable defeat. and that irretrievable defeat would have overtaken our army, had not an unexpected event kept its general and officers from going on with their unskillfully formed plans. A large body of our men were kept from a bad movement, by a British deserter, who informed them where Burgoyne's soldiers lay concealed, and so saved them from imminent danger.
This shows how easily an unseen Mind may make a very slight cause the means of producing vast results. We can understand that it was not difficult to induce the deserter to go over to the Americans and communicate information of great importance. Upon communicating that information depended the victory at Saratoga, and that victory secured in the end the freedom and independence of the nation. We see. therefore, that events are determined not by the evolution of matter moving round and round again by a course of unvary- ing laws ; but by knowledge as it is possessed and used by mind. We can easily understand how the mind of a shrewd man, may furnish a general with such knowledge, as will en- able him to gain an important victory. May we not suppose a Mind infinitely more learned and skillful may do as much and vastly more. Now this is what we believe is Providentially done in answer to prayer. The infinite knowledge of God is continually directing events. The great Divine Mind is ever turning the minds of men, and events contingent upon the will of men are so changed or modified, as to make them accom- plish His designs. If then He has designs of granting, what is desired in prayer, no one is able to resist His purposes. Our fathers in this town had a firm belief that He has such designs. So strong was their confidence Mr. Porter and several pious soldiers, turned aside into a retired place and spent a season in earnest prayer, while the battle was raging at Saratoga. And
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the fact that the most decisive victory of the Revolutionary war was gained after seasons of special prayer, is a strong argument for the existence of an intelligent Being, who has great power to help the true friends of freedom, if they call upon Him.
Then the Bible teaches that "if we regard iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear us." We claim we have an illus- tration of this, when we consider that our fathers were not slave-holders. They did not insult the God of Heaven with prayers, while they neglected to give liberty to the Negro. I have what I deem reliable information, that the Rev. Jacob Sherwin, the Congregational minister in our town, owned a slave ; and for his treatment of her, he was dismissed from the ministerial office. And so great was the aversion of our fathers to the practice of holding slaves. and so deeply were they impressed with the truth, "that all men were created free and equal," they deemed him unworthy of a standing in the pulpit. Our space will not permit me to give a detailed ac- count of this early, if not the first, effort in America to re- deem the Christian church from the practice of holding slaves. It is sufficient to our present purpose to say that the prayers Mr. Porter and Deacon Taylor rose to Heaven un- hindered by any complicity with the practice of depriving men of their freedom.
We have therefore another and a conclusive argument in this, that there is a Mind exercising omnipotent power, to help those deprived of freedom in their struggles against their oppressors. For if we have in writing certain specified con- ditions, in which prayer will or will not be heard, and those conditions are manifeslly adhered to, evidence is furnished, which ought to convince every reasonable man, that there is a "Supreme Judge of the Universe." To such it will be inter- esting and profitable to notice how many of the victories of the Revolutionary war were gained in the non-slave-holding parts of the country ; and how many of its defeats were ex- perienced in the slave-holding parts. The men who rallied at Lexington and drove the British back to Boston were not slave-holders. Neither were the men who stood on Bunker Hill and shot down the British infantry. The defenders of Fort Stanwix, and the Green Mountain boys and the Sons of
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New Hampshire, who won so promptly the desirable victory at Bennington, were not slave-holders ; neither were the men who stood firm at Saratoga, and met the thrice repeated charges of Burgoyne's selected soldiers, though their com- mander was. Gen. Washington, a slave-holder, was the first in command, when it suffered the -evere and disastrous defeat on Long Island. Gen. Gates, a slave-holder, commanded at Camden, when he and soldiers from slave-holding states were panic smitten, and almost every defeat and reverse, was in slave-holding states ; and so furnishes an illustration that the sin of holding slaves hindered the prayers of those who interceded for their own freedom and independence, while they neglected to give liberty to the African race.
We have, therefore sound reasons for claiming Mr. Porter rendered important services as chaplain. by his prayers and counsels to his country and the cause of freedom throughout the whole world. All the authors of our American histories. in their zeal to give Washington the honor of acheiving our independence, fail to present a full and correct view of the very great importance of the victories at Fort Stanwix, Bennington and Saratoga. But if we turn to what English historians have written, we find a more just estimate of it. Hume says : "Uncertain rumors being spread at London, in the course of the morning, as soon as Parliament met, the Secretary was questioned respecting the intelligence. Rising slowly in his seat, in a low voice and sorrowful accents, he acknowledged that Gen. Burgoyne and his army were prisoners of war. For a considerable time after the fatal tidings were delivered, a dead silence overspread the house ; shame, consternation and dismay from the declared issue of their boasted armament, did not more closely enchain the tongues of the promoters of the war, than astonishment and grief overwhelmned the feel- ings and utterances of their opponents. The stillness, how- ever, of amazement and grief, at length gave way to the loud- ness of lament and fury of indignation; all the charges and censures, that ever had been or could be adduced were repeated and accumulated against the authors of the war." From this extract we see that the able British statesmen considered their defeats which had resulted in the surrender of Burgoyne, as severe ones, and likely to have a highly disastrous effect upon
S
their cause, and though the pride of George the Third and his ministers, encouraged by the self-conceited and rash man- agement of Gates at Camden, kept him from acknowledging our independence for several years ; still the question was decided. I have said Mr. Porter's serving as chaplain in the army, was the great historical event in Ashfield ; I may with truth, I believe, say that his services in the army were in a pre- eminent degree, a great historical event in the history of the world. For far-reaching effects have for the past one hundred years, resulted from them. Our history books state that Col. Baum was "despatched to seize a magazine of stores at Ben- nington." Dr. Thatcher, a surgeon in the army, in his jour- nal says Baum was ordered to "march to the Connecticut river and return by the other road," to capture a large number of horses and "to endeavor to produce the impression it was his design to form a junction with the British forces in Rhode Island." If we consider what is the reason for this difference between him and the others, we should understand that almost all the authors of our histories are unwilling to displease slave- holders ; or else have written under the influence of political party zeal. They try to make it appear that Burgoyne's only object in sending out Baum was to capture the military stores ; and so his generalship appears to many not to have been of a very high order ; and therefore his defeat by Northern men had less to do in bringing the war to a successful close. But if he sent him with orders to "march to the Connecticut river and back again by the other road ; " his ability as a gen- eral may be estimated as of much higher order. For it was quite a shrewd plan to send abroad this detachment, to strengthen the Tory spirit, already very strong, as we, who have lived all our days among the hills of western Massachu- setts, have often been informed ; for by so doing Gates' army could not be re-enforced by crowds of militia men. The im- pression therefore, which some, if not all the readers of his- tory books, that were published previous to President Lincoln's proclamation of emancipation have, that Burgoyne was an incompetent general, is a mistaken one. He was undoubtedly an able officer, and it was only a hair-breath escape, that the friends of liberty had, from having their cause strangled to death by him. And it was not the ability of generals, that
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stopped his doing it; but the rallying of hardy men from log houses and houses little better, with Providential aid, who captured him and his army, and established peace and safety and free institutions, among our hills and vallies.
Two thousand seven hundred years before the leading men in the freest nation that ever peopled the earth, said to their Judge : "Make us a king that he may go out before us, and fight our bat- tles." From that remote age until the victory over King George the - Third the opinion prevailed among the nations that a monarchical form of goverment made a nation more efficient in war than a republican one, but in 1777, the experiment was tried, and a republican government proved to make a nation the most powerful in war. And this experiment is of inestimable im- portance to the inhabitants of the whole world. For the only ar- gument for a monarchical government was shown to be the mis- taken opinion of men adapted without careful experiments. Hence the efforts and prayers of our father have been a cause producing far-reaching effects.
There is hardly a king now in the whole world, that does not tremble on his throne, as the result of what the friends of freedom did to Burgoyne and his army. It was a terrible experiment to them-a bursting forth of a mighty moral principle, that like a great earthquake that begins to rock a few hills, but year after year moves on with increasing volume of sound and ominous shak- ing of mountains, rocks, oceans, forests and dwellings.
The moral and intellectual greatness of a man does not depend on his being a ruler of a kingdom or an empire, or his being the commander of a large and successful army, but on the courage with which he endures trials and meets difficulties and dangers. Mr. Porter, in the darkest hours of our country, when men's hearts were failing them for fear, and when five Congregational clergymen in what is now Franklin county were Tories, went on to serve as chaplain in Gates' army. And so far as we can learn no other clergymen of any denomination in the whole country offered to serve in that capacity in his army.
Of the other years, and of the other men who served in the Revolutionary war from our town, my space will require me to be brief, and only to relate the most interesting incidents.
Their names were :
Io
MOSES SMITH, SR., Killed.
MOSES SMITH, JR., ..
CORNELIUS WARREN.
TIMOTHY PERKINS, JR. JONATHAN TAYLOR, JR. ZACHARIAH HOWES, ELISHA PARKER, JOHN WARD. SAMUEL GUILFORD, JOSEPH BISHOP,
SAMUEL BURTON,
JONATHAN LYON, Lost an arm.
ELDER ENOS SMITH,
JONATHAN LILLY,
SPENCER PHILLIPS,
SYLVESTER PHILLIPS,
TIMOTHY WARREN,
BETHUEL LILLY,
CALEB WARD,
EDWARD ANABLE, JOHN BELDING,
JOHN ALDEN, Died.
JOEL CRANSTON.
EBENEZER CRANSTON,
JOSIAH FULLER,
HENRY ROGERS. Died.
CAPT. ASA CRANSTON.
DEACON JOHN BEMENT. PHINEAS BEMENT, ROBERT GRAY.
Twelve young men, who served in the Revolutionary war. settled in Ashfield before it closed or soon after. Their names are : LOT. BASSETT. STEPHEN WARREN, SOLOMON HILL, CALEB CHURCH. JOSEPH GURNEY, LAABAN STETSON, CALEB PACKARD, EZEKIEL TAYLOR,
YI
DAVID VINCENT, JONATHAN SEARS, CALVIN MAYNARD, TIMOTHY CATLIN, ZEBINA LEONARD, BENJIMAN SHAW.
We find in the history of North Ashfield, that this " Moses Smith was of Ashfield, 1753, and the son of Samuel, who was the son of Preserved, who was the son of Henry, who came to America in 1635, and was cousin to Chileab, and who married when 96 a fourth wife ; children of the fifth generation attending his wedding." It is also stated that he had two sons, Moses and Aaron. From finding among the list of voters in 1774 two Moses Smith's, I have evi- - dence that his son Moses was the one killed in battle and that Aaron died when young. As no further account is given of his descen- dents, which coincides with the tradition that none of his male descendents survived the battle of Long Island. An additional statement inform us he was Ensign from Hinsdale in 1761-4. So we may infer our town sent a veteran to the army early in the war.
We have often read how Washington, in the heat of the battle of Long Island, crossed over from New York to Brooklyn, and see- ing his best soldiers slaughtered, uttered an exclamation of anguish. No doubt there were many exclamations of anguish, when the news came to Ashfield, that three of their best soldiers had fallen in battle. Moses Smith left a little daughter of two years, the only surviving member of the family ; how great must have been her sorrow, that her father and only brother were killed so soon after the death of her mother. She was carried by friends to one of the river towns, and lived to the age of seventy-four, when the mother of the writer saw her, and she told her the sad story.
Quite as sad was the story of the death of Cornelius Warren, who was shot in the same battle. A most feeling account of the deep sorrow of his mother, was told to me by one who was her next door neighbor. How her husband was intemperate and treated her cruelly, while Cornelius was kind and industrious but her other and younger sons were not. Had as many in proportion to the population been killed in the thirteen states, I find by computation 1751 would have been slain.
Jonathan Lilly, born in Stafford, Conn., in 1740, came to Ash_
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field in 1762, and had served in the French war four years and was a veteran in the Revolutionary war.
Joel and Ebenezer Cranston went into the army under Washing- ton about 1779. Both of these young men died suddenly of dysen- tery. The fatal disease was caused by eating beef badly cooked.
Henry Rogers, the father of Sarah, the wife of Seth Church, was drafted. At first he felt reluctant to join the army, but after the first campaign he more willingly engaged in the service of his country, until death ended his earthly trials and hardships.
Of John Alden, who died, and Jonathan Lyon, who lost an arm, we are not able to learn much about.
John Ward, it appears from the statement of his daughter, Mrs. Israel Phillips, now living at Ashfield, was in service three years or more; and his son, John C., informed us was at Saratoga, and stood only about five feet from Burgoyne, when he gave up his sword to Gen. Gates. He never had a pension.
Timothy Perkins, Jr., the father of Jehiel, and Timothy Warren were in the army three years or more, but Perkins had to much property to draw a pension under the law as first enacted.
Bethuel Lilly was in the army 1780, and was guard of Andre on the night before his execution, and as he was taken to the gallows. One of his sons, Joel, had three out of his four sons in the war to maintain our Union; Joel, Jr., Casper, who died suddenly in the camp, and Rufus.
The descendants of Joseph Gurney, Solomon Hill, Laban Stet- son, Ezekiel Taylor and Caleb Packard are living in Spruce Corner district or its vicinity. Three of Packard's grand-sons live now in Plainfield. Several anecdotes may be related of Ezekiel Taylor that are worth preserving. He stopped over night at the house of my father, and in the morning said he was on his way to the next town to pay a debt to the widow of Dr. A. He told how several years before he had failed in business, but now having got a pension he was determined to pay his debts. A different spirit at the pres- ent time actuates many men, and they refuse to pay their debts after they fail. We have often heard he told with great glee, how when the tidings came of the gathering under Daniel Shays, he took his musket and started upon a run, until in some way he dis- covered his musket had no lock on it, and was worthless.
Stephen Warren lived to the age of ninety. Some of his des- cendants are living in Illinois.
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David Vincent-though his father was reluctant to have him do it-enlisted near the close of the war. He was a pensioner; so was his son David, Jr., for serving in the war of 1812.
We are informed that all of the Church name in Ashfield are the descendants of Caleb Church.
Joseph Blake served in the Revolutionary war, though he lived and died in what is now the town of Goshen. His grand-son, Hosea Blake, in 1876, had in his possession the old French gun he used in the war, and he said he very highly prized it, and it is now kept by Silas Blake, Esq.
More interesting than almost any of the historical items that have been related to us, was how Elizabeth Stocking spun the yarn and wove a piece of cloth for the soldiers. There must have been much real hard work in converting enough tow into cloth to make a piece of some thirty or forty yards. She married Timothy Per- kins, Jr., November 25th, 1779, after his return from the war.
A veteran soldier, Nathan Crosby, stayed over night at the house of my father in 1823. He stood in a hard place in the hard fought battle of Monmouth, and the hot sun of that day struck up- on his brain, and his mind became disordered. He journeyed from Dennis on Cape Cod to Ashfield and back again almost every year, carrying on his back a large pack. He walked to Washington to see the President-I think it was Munroe-and plead with him to recommend to Congress to enact a pension law, and though we do not know how much influence his speech had with the President, yet to see the once vigorous young man stand up and tell what he suffered in that severe battle on that intensely hot day, and to no- tice his packs which contained all of his property, must, it is reason- able to suppose, have lead the President to reflect upon the circum- stance of one, who had endured so much for forty long years and never had much financial aid from his country. But the poor man died before any pension law helped him.
AARON LYON.
"At a town meeting held June 10, 1777, it was voted that Aaron Lyon is a suitable person to procure evidence against certain per- sons, who were thought to be enemies of the American States." It is interesting to learn who this man was and in what part of the town he lived, and what made him a suitable person for such a work.
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The writers of "The Memoirs of Mary Lyon" were evidently un- acquainted with this event in the life of her grand-father, that un- questionably had much to do in determining what her character should be. Let us therefore recall a view of his situation in the summer of 1777. Burgoyne's orders to Col. Baum were to march as far as the Connecticut river and endeavor to produce the im- pression that he intended to form a junction with the British forces in Rhode Island, and return by the other road. If he had succeeded in advancing, his route would have been on to Fort Massachusetts at East Hoosac, now North Adams, and then over the mountain to near Fort Shirly, now Heath; then ford the river in what is now Buckland. He must next go up The Hollow to the settlement in the north-east part of Ashfield, near Aaron Lyon's house. But he was not a man to be afraid of his duty to his country, and August, 1777, Aaron Lyon, Peter Cross and Phineas Bartlett, Selectmen of Ashfield, brought into town meeting a report; that "Samuel Beld- ing, Seth Wait, Philip Phillips, Samuel Anable, Jr., Wait Brough- ton, Asa Bacon, Elijah Wait, Jesse Edson and Daniel Bacon ought to be brought to a proper trial. The author of the History of the Connecticut Valley makes the statement that Aaron Lyon came to Buckland about 1780, but it is doubtful if he ever lived in Buck- land. The present lines of the towns were not established until Mary Lyon was about ten years of age. And a list of voters of Ashfield, in 1798 has the name of Aaron Lyon. This was the grand-father of Mary, and I am told by Elijah Clark, of Plainfield, now ninety years of age, who lived some years in Ashfield in his youth, that both father and son lived together. I have been in- formed by Deacon Frederick Forbes, of Buckland, that there was a strife between the towns, which should have a gore lying be- tween them. Squire Taylor, of Buckland, went to the General Court, and Squire Williams from Ashfield, for the purpose of get- ting the gore annexed to their town. During the absence of Squire Williams, Squire Taylor brought up the subject and no one being present to oppose him, got the town lines altered to his satisfaction and so the Lyon place was joined to Buckland. Instead of Aaron Lyon, Jr., coming to Buckland in 1780, he was born on his father's farm about 1757, in the town of Ashfield, and that farm has great notoriety as the birth-place of Mary Lyon. Thus we see that the writer of her memoirs were unacquainted with an important fact in her education, the mental and moral training given her family, when
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