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GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 03283 1262
Go 974. 402 N424t Turner, Hadley K. A history of New Marlborough
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019
https://archive.org/details/historyofnewmarl00turn
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THE CATLIN HOUSE
From a wood-cut by Janet C. Ticknor
A History
OF
New Marlborough
BY
HADLEY K. TURNER
1944
WRITTEN FOR THE TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE NEW MARLBOROUGH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SOUTHFIELD CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH AND THE ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE HARTSVILLE METHODIST CHURCH
/ 574 N53 T8
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
PRINTED BY . THE BERKSHIRE COURIER GREAT BARRINGTON,MASSACHUSETTS 1944
To "LEBASI NEFF," LONG-SUFFERING HELPER OF THE APOTHEOSIS OF SHIFTLESSNESS, THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED.
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Acknowledgments
The writer is greatly indebted to many people for facts about New Marlborough. The following books were very helpful: A History of the Town of New Marlborough by Rev. Harley Goodwin, 1829; History of Western Massachusetts, chapter by Josiah Holland, 1855; Gazetteer of Berkshire County, Mass., 1725- 1885; Town of New Marlborough, Professor S. T. Frost; and In New Marlborough, a series of letters published in the Berk- shire Gleaner by Henry M. White; Miss Caroline C. Cook, scrap- book of Berkshire Courier items.
But of the greatest assistance of all was the book by Harry D. Sisson which is an everlasting well of information on New Marl- borough.
THE AUTHOR
Among the author's ancestors were the following early New Marlborough settlers: Benjamin Wheeler (1739), Jesse Taylor (1741), Seth Norton (1745), Moses Harmon (1745).
THE EDITOR
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Foreword
T HE credit for suggesting the joint celebration of the two hun- dredth anniversary of the New Marlborough Church, the one hundred and fiftieth of the Southfield Congregational Church, and the one hundredth of the Hartsville Church is due to the Rev. Arthur Aborn Simmons, present pastor of the Southfield and Mill River Congregational churches, who is also serving the Clay -. ton Chapel and the New Marlborough congregation.
Mr. Simmons was born in Grafton, Mass., September 5, 1880. He graduated from Worcester Academy in 1901, from Harvard University in 1905 with an A.B. degree, and from Andover-Har- vard Theological School in 1915 with a B.D. degree. His first pastorate was at Montvail Congregational Church in Woburn (1912-1917). When the first World War stirred the nation he joined the Y. M. C. A. as a worker in Russia and continued in this work with Russians, not only in that country but in Egypt and Germany as well, from 1917 to 1922. From 1922 to 1924 he was associate pastor of Elliott Congregational Church in Roxbury. He was pastor of Wilmington Congregational Church 1924-1939. From 1939 to 1944 he was pastor of the Federated Church of Charlemont, Mass.
Mrs. Arthur A. Simmons was born Clara Hahn Olmstead, in Manchester, N. Y., February 4, 1882. She was educated in St. Paul, (Minn.) High School, and studied at Radcliffe College from 1900 to 1903. Mr. and Mrs. Simmons were married in London, England, in 1908. During World War I Mrs. Simmons was with the Y. M. C. A. canteen service in France with the Second Divis- ion, U. S. A., which was a combat division. During Mr. Simmons' pastorate at Wilmington she wrote the pageant celebrating the two hundredth anniversary of her husband's church. During her husband's pastorate at Charlemont she collaborated with Mrs. A. P. Harris in writing a pageant to celebrate the one hundred and seventy-fifth anniversary of her husband's church. She has now written the pageant in connection with the celebration of the anniversaries of the New Marlborough churches.
Our Lady of the Valley Rectory
Sheffield, Mass., August 3, 1944
Rev. Arthur Simmons, Southfield, Mass.
Your Reverence:
It is a singular and blessed privilege for me to extend to you and your parishioners of the New Marlborough and Southfield Congregational Churches the sincerest hopes of the Catholics of Sheffield, New Marlborough and Monterey that this jubilee year, the two hundredth anniversary and the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of these churches, respectively, may be a golden year in their history.
In terms of American history your churches enjoy a vener- able antiquity of which you may very justly boast. In such a glorious jubilee year I think the thought that should command our attention is that of the pioneers who founded, on such solid foundations, your churches, involving great sacrifice and struggle, and their successors in the two centuries which followed. Yours is a rich heritage. You and your good people will maintain the high ideals and noble standards of your predecessors of the past two centuries. If there is one outstanding tradition handed down through these years, I think it is the fine spirit of Christian char- ity that has marked the very life of this community. May it grow fuller and stronger in the years to come!
"May God bless you and your parishioners," is my prayer this glorious Jubilee Year.
Very sincerely yours, Rev. Richard J. Dee Our Lady of the Valley Church.
The Settlement of the Town
A T the Great and General Court of Massachusetts Bay which sat at Boston, May 28th, 1735, Edmund Quincy, Esq., from the committee of both houses, made the following report:
"That there be four towns opened upon the road be- twixt Westfield and Sheffield; .... that they be six miles square and as near said road as the land will allow: That there be sixty-three house lots, of sixty acres each, laid out in each township .... one of which shall be for the first settled minister, one for the second. one for the School and one for each grantee, who shall draw equal shares in all future divisions; that said grantees shall appear and give surety to the value of forty pounds to perform all things on their lots which had been re- quired by the court of grantees between the Connecticut and Merrimac rivers and that a committee of five be appointed .... to bring forward the lines of the town- ships.
At the time that Edmund Quincy made this report the Indian Chief Umpachene and four other Indian families were living on a tract of land which they called Ska-tee-hook, on the west side of the "Housatunnuk" river, between a brook they called Mau-nau-fe-con (probably Schenob brook) and the river they called Waum-pa-nik-see-poot (now Green river). Their western boundary was the New York line. The Indians had re- served this triangular tract of land in 1724 when they sold the land to the Sheffield settlers.
Eight or ten families of Indians lived in "the Great Meadow" of the Housatonic in the town of Stockbridge. Here Konkapot, the principal Indian, resided. He had just been honored by Governor Belcher with a captain's commission, and Umpachene had been made a commissioned lieutenant, in the Provincial Militia. (Later they were to lead a company of their Indians in many battles.)
The desire of Konkapot to be instructed in Christianity had led to the establishment of a mission to the Indians the previous
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HISTORY OF NEW MARLBOROUGH
year, 1734, headed by Mr. John Sergeant. Records refer to fami- lies of Indians who left New Marlborough and moved to Stock- bridge to be able to get the instruction of the new missionary but do not mention such Indians by name. But the Indian Burying- Ground on what is now the Ranolde farm (formerly known as the Smith farm or Konkapot Mills) bears quiet and permanent testi- mony to the fact that several Indian families lived here prior to the coming of the white settlers. [See footnote 1.]
What probably happened was that most of the Indian fami- lies moved to Stockbridge some time between 1734 and 1744, as it was during that period that an attempt was being made to draw them all together under the supervision of Mr. Sergeant and his four white mission families. Due to this movement the group under Umpachene finally moved to Stockbridge, selling their "reserved" land in Sheffield to the settlers. But one family of Indians refused to give up the "happy hunting grounds" of New Marlborough. "Old Anthony" and his family stayed on. There were twelve or thirteen white families in Sheffield, two or three in Egremont, and about eight in Great Barrington. Some of the latter town were "Dutch," having "come over the mountain." Some of their names were VanValkenburgh, VanDeusen, Burg- hardt, Hogoboom. These were the only white settlers in Berk- shire in 1735. There were no roads into the Housatonic valley. The settlers had either come up the river or over Indian trails. But now the Massachusetts Bay "Great and General Court" de- sired to build a road to the Housatonic valley from the Connec- ticut valley, partly to promote further settlements in the valley of the Housatonic and partly to have a connecting road between Boston and Albany. The French and Indian wars were in the making, and a good and protected road from one end of the col- ony to the other seemed necessary. [See footnote 2.]
On June twenty-fourth, 1737, the necessary surveying had been accomplished. Tyringham (called number one) New Marl- borough (number two), Sandisfield (number three), and Becket (number four), were confirmed to the grantees. The original grantees admitted into number two (New Marlborough) town- ship were Caleb Rice and fifty-nine associates. (Not until June 15, 1759, was number two incorporated as a township under the name New Marlborough.)
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HISTORY OF NEW MARLBOROUGH
The evident purpose of the General Court in establishing the four towns between Westfield and Sheffield seems to have been to afford protection for the new highway, called "The Great Road," between the Connecticut and the Housatonic valleys. This new road was to come directly over the hills and would need the protection of settlers along its far stretches. It would be up to them to repair washouts, keep bridges in repair, clear the snow- drifts, and afford travellers protection from any unfriendly Indians-in short, keep the road passable and protected.
This was all part of a general plan to open and establish a colonial road between Boston and Albany. The road became of immediate military importance in the French and Indian wars and continued so to be during the Revolution. Lord Howe marched his men over the road in an effort to take Ticonderoga in 1758. The expedition was a failure and Lord Howe was killed in the battle.
It is the writer's belief that the real purpose back of building the road was to forward this expedition. [See footnote 10.] Later, in 1759, General Amherst's expedition against Ticonderoga marched over "the Great Road." General Amherst was more suc- cessful and captured "Old Ti" from the French. The captured army of Burgoyne was sent to Boston by this way during the Rev- olution. The cannon from Ticonderoga were hauled over this road for the siege of Boston, and so the "Great Road" may prob- ably be credited with a large share in the winning of that war.
In 1851 all that part of New Marlborough lying north of Dry Hill was set off to Monterey, by which we lost old friends and our direct contact with the "Great Road." (In 1871 the town re- gained its balance by having land from Sheffield, embracing a part of the Konkapot valley and Clayton village (East Sheffield) added to New Marlborough.)
Most of the Proprietors to whom the township was granted in 1736 were from Marlborough, Mass., and its vicinity, in Mid- dlesex county. These Proprietors obtained the township from the Indians by deed, and the deed was confirmed by the General Court. The land was divided into house lots of approximately sixty acres each. There were sixty-three house lots besides one each for every grantee, or 135 in all. Three of the sixty-three lots were reserved for public property, one for the first settled
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HISTORY OF NEW MARLBOROUGH
minister, one for the second settled minister, and one for the schools. In other words, part of the township was held for later divisions.
The first improvements on the land of New Marlborough were made in 1739 by Mr. Benjamin Wheeler, from Marl- borough. In the words of previous historians: "During the winter 1739-'40, a memorable hard winter, Mr. Wheeler remained the only white inhabitant in town and continued to fell the forest."
"About one mile north-west of New Marlborough center, on the road to Great Barrington, by the right bank of Anthony Brook (so named from the last Indian resident of its valley) is the place first occupied in this town as a white man's abode," wrote Professor Frost. "Here Mr. Benjamin Wheeler passed that first winter alone, no white man nearer than Sheffield, ten miles away." During the winter some of the Sheffield people came to visit Wheeler, on snow-shoes, and left proof of their friend- ship.
A family of Indians lived near the outlet of "Six Mile Pond" (Lake Buel). They forbade Wheeler the use of his gun that win- ter lest he should kill the deer. Indians had a special word for winter deer-hunting, "pontoosuck," and believed in protecting the deer during the winter "yarding" season, the time that the deer habitually all come together in "deer yards," where they would stay in one big herd during the heavy storms, keeping the snow packed hard under foot and each other safe. For such yarding they usually chose big meadows adjacent to running water. That is why the Indians called the site of Pittsfield "Pon- toosuck." The writer has seen such a deer yard in the Adiron- dacks.
The next summer Mr. Wheeler went back to Marlborough and returned with his family. He built himself a house on the site of the tiny cabin in which he passed the first winter. The Wheeler homestead remained in the family for 140 years, through five generations of direct descent. Four of the five owners bore the name of Benjamin Wheeler.
Other first settlers came as follows: Noah Church, Jabez Ward, Thomas Tattlow, Elias Keyes, Joseph Blackmer, Jesse Taylor, William Witt, John Taylor, and Philip Brookins, from
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HISTORY OF NEW MARLBOROUGH
Marlborough and vicinity in 1741. Samuel Bryan came, some time previous to 1744, from Marlborough.
In 1744, Joseph Adams, Moses Cleveland, Silas Freeman; in 1745, Charles Adams, Solomon Raynsford and Jarvis Pike came from Canterbury, Conn.
Asa Sheldon and family, and others by the name of Wright and Allen, arrived from Northampton about 1745.
Also in 1745 Ezra Sheldon, Seth Norton and Moses Harmon came with their families from Suffield, Conn.
William Alexander and John Thompson, natives of Ireland, came here from Dedham in 1746, apparently disproving the claim that Timothy Wrinkle was our first Irish resident.
In 1760 came families by the name of Bullard and Rawson from Mendon, Mass. It is said that Bullard and Rawson were two of seven men who jumped overboard from a British man-of- war. Five were shot in the water. Bullard and Rawson escaped, living three months on roots and berries. This Benjamin Bul- lard settled "over the mountain," on the "Great Road," in the part of the town later ceded to Monterey, near the Harmons.
In 1735 John Collar arrived in town. He served two cam- paigns as an officer in the Continental Army as Lieutenant-colonel in Colonel Ashley's regiment. (Colonel Ashley owned and oper- ated an iron works at the falls of the Housatonic, in what is now the village of Ashley Falls.)
In 1754 Eben Smith (afterwards Captain of Revolutionary fame), Gershom Howe, Timothy Rober and William Keyes all owned lots contiguous to the south line of the town, on the Con- necticut line.
The following from the register of marriages in the vital sta- tistics are names of young married people, most of whom made new homes in the town in the first ten years of its settlement: Rev. Thomas and Elizabeth Strong, John and Abigail Gillette, Elihu and Rachel Wright, Asa and Thankful Sheldon, Jesse and Mary Taylor, Isaac and Mary Chamberlain, Ebenezer and Anna Hall, Elias and Sarah Keyes, Charles and Judith Adams, Asa and Miriam Hammon, Jehiel and Susan Brooks, Jarvis and Sarah Pike, Samuel and Elizabeth Norton, Stephen and Martha Rice, John and Lydia Shaw, Simeon and Mary Hammon, Solomon
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HISTORY OF NEW MARLBOROUGH
Raynsford and wife, Joseph and Miriam Adams, and Nathan and Elizabeth Harmon.
"There were a few Indians," writes Professor Frost, "that lingered on in the town after the settlement of the whites. The best-known of these was "Old Anthony," who had his cabin and garden patch where the brook that bears his name joins the Kon- kapot." This is the same brook on which Mr. Wheeler built his cabin. At the first drawing of lots, Wheeler drew number twenty-five, which remained in the family until about 1872.
On August twenty-fifth, 1737, Nahum Ward, Esq., of Shrews- bury, was appointed by the House of Representatives to assemble the Proprietors on November 29th at the Inn of Jonothan Howe, in Marlborough, Mass. At that meeting Nahum Ward and Colonel Ephriam Williams were appointed a committee to pe- tition the House. On the very next day they presented to his excellency, Jonothan Belcher, a petition setting forth "that they had paid into the hands of the honorable committee of the court £1,200 for defraying the expenses of surveying said township and for other necessary charges, and for the purpose of cultivating a good agreement with the Indian owners of said land; and that there might be no grounds for uneasiness, they had purchased said lands of Tap-hen-han-new-ka, alias Konkapot, chief of the Housatonic tribe, and sundry other Indians, which deed is duly executed and acknowledged, the consideration being three hun- dred pounds and no tobacco or rum, which sum the proprietors had actually paid, making a total of $7,500.00." They asked that the Konkapot deed be approved and fully ratified. [See foot- note 7.]
On the seventh of the following December (1737), the House voted that the deed from the Housatonic Indians "be and hereby is, fully allowed and approved of, to all intents and purposes and also that a further grant of eleven thousand acres be made to the grantees of said township upon condition that seven more fami- lies be added." Hence the second division.
On October 31, 1738, the Proprietors held a meeting in the Inn of Widow Sarah Howe, in Marlborough. A committee was chosen to make arrangements to raise a grist-mill in Number Two (New Marlborough). In June, 1739, a contract was made with Nathan Ward to build both a grist-mill and saw-mill on "Iron
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HISTORY OF NEW MARLBOROUGH
Works River," [see footnote 3] now called the Konkapot. In consideration of this service, Mr. Ward received one hundred and twenty pounds in money and fifty acres of land. Ward gave bonds of five hundred pounds to keep the mills in good order and repair for twelve years.
A grant of twenty acres was also made to Joseph Blackmer "to encourage him in raising a grist mill." At this meeting a cash appropriation was made for the purpose of raising "the town stock of powder, lead and flints." Apparently the protection of "the Great Road" was on their minds. The last vote at this meet- ing was to instruct the treasurer to "pay the shot to Landlady Howe," which was usually £1, 25, 3d. [See footnote 8.]
Every border settlement had its log fortress for refuge and defense against possible Indian raids. In such a fort, built on what became known as "Leffingwell Hill," between New Marl- borough and Mill River, occurred the first birth among the new settlers-twin children to Mr. and Mrs. Philip Brookins. Another early writer describes this fort as follows: "Near the Colonal Palmer homestead (later the Ogle estate) stood the colonial fort, on what has been known as Leffingwell Hill." (Not to be con- fused with Leffingwell Hill, so-called, between New Marlborough and Southfield.)
In 1741 Samuel Bryan, Noah Church, Jesse Taylor, Phineas Brown and Nathan Raynsford were appointed a committee to "locate a meeting-house," procure the ground for same and to raise the building. They located this important structure on lot number 22, after having procured from Adonijah Church a deed of three acres of land "for to set the meeting-house on." By vote of the Proprietors, the building was to be forty feet long and thirty-two feet wide, with a twenty-foot shed. "Probably the con- tract was let to one Thomas Tattilow," writes one early historian.
On July 17, 1744, the Proprietors being duly assembled at Widow Howe's Tavern, it was "voted, to accept the choice of the Inhabitants of Number Two (New Marlborough) of the Rev. Thomas Strong to settle in the work of the ministry in said town- ship." (Notice that the Proprietors and the Inhabitants were two different sets of people. Apparently the people who bought and owned the land made arrangements with other people to clear it and do the actual settling, probably arranging with these
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HISTORY OF NEW MARLBOROUGH
latter to buy the land they settled on as soon as they were able. However, in some cases the Proprietors were also settlers.) Mr. Strong was given an annual salary of fifty pounds "so long as he shall prove faithful."
"Prior to 1749 all Proprietors' meetings were held in Marl- borough, Middlesex county, one hundred and twenty-five miles distant, on account of Indian troubles attending the first French and Indian war," writes one historian. But the writer is inclined to believe that the real reason was that nearly all those who were entitled to vote in such meetings, the Proprietors, actually lived in and around Marlborough, with few exceptions, during most of those early years. But on June 15, 1759, Number Two Town- ship became legally New Marlborough. The first town meeting was held soon after. Jabez Ward, Solomon Raynsford and Jesse Taylor were chosen Selectmen; Elihu Wright, Town Clerk; Jesse Taylor, Treasurer; Zenas Wheeler (son of Benjamin), Clerk of the Market; Ozias Pike, Constable.
Although action to build a meeting-house had been taken by the Proprietors, the formal organizing of a church took place on October 31, 1744, by the inhabitants. On that day Moses Cleve- land, Samuel Bryan, Jesse Taylor, William Witt and Joseph Adams actually organized themselves into the First New Marl- borough Church. On the following day Thomas Strong of Northampton, graduate of Yale College in the class of 1740, was ordained pastor at a salary of fifty pounds. He was also given the use and disposal of the lot of land reserved for the first minister. Towards raising the salary a tax was paid for several years by the Proprietors of the township, "many of whom resided at a dis- tance." Mr. Strong died August 23rd, 1777, in the 33rd year of his ministry, having received about one hundred and seventy persons into the church.
The earliest church record was written by Mr. Strong, and commences thus: "October ye thirty first, anno Domini 1744. There was a church gathered at New Marlborough, alias Number Two, and the Rev. Thomas Strong ordained to ye pastoral office there." Continuing the quotation: "Present the Rev. Messrs. Samuel Hopkins of Springfield, Moderator, Jonothan Hubbard of Springfield. Messengers: Samuel Day, Deacon Philip Calen- dar, Jonas Phelps."
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THE NEW MARLBOROUGH CONGREGATIONAL, CHURCH
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HISTORY OF NEW MARLBOROUGH
About three years after his settlement in New Marlborough, Mr. Strong married Elizabeth Barnard of Stockbridge, who was a native of West Springfield. Her father was Joseph Barnard of Northampton and West Springfield. In the church record kept by Mr. Strong he mentions, under date of August 5, 1768, that a Copy of Henry's Commentaries, in six volumes, was brought to him to be lent out among the church members. These volumes were a legacy to the church from Mr. Thomas Tattilow of Marl- borough in Middlesex County. A special messenger was sent, at the expense of the church, to receive the books and convey them safely to New Marlborough. After their arrival, the church voted that five volumes might be lent out to the members who might retain them one year each. One volume was to be kept by the pastor "to be delivered to any church member that should desire it to read in the intermission, in the meeting-house, on the Sabbath, and that the person who receives it [see footnote 4] shall return it after the service, at night." In this way the books did good service for more than forty years.
Under date of March 8, 1760, the church "voted that they would admit parents and adult persons owning to a confession of Faith and the Covenant and upon their doing it, parents may have the privilege of Baptism for their children and adult per- sons for themselves."
The Rev. Caleb Alexander, D.D., native of Northfield and graduate of Yale College, 1777, was ordained February 28, 1782. During his ministry he induced the church to discontinue the "half-way covenant" and receive none but those who gave evi- dence of "being renewed in the Spirit of their minds." [See foot- note 5.] He was allotted the second ministerial lot. "After his dismission, and previous to the settlement of his successor, about fifty were gathered into the church." These were the first fruits of a revival which took place under "occasional" preaching. Dr. Alexander later became Preceptor of the Academy at Onandago Hollow, N. Y., where he died in April, 1828.
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