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Gc 974.402 R78b 1207848
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01145 7295
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ROWE VILLAGE IN 1899 Showing B. T. Henry's Store and Postoffice in right foreground, Town Hall beyond and old Satinet Factory beyond the Hall ; Union Hall in middle foreground.
HISTORY
OF
ROWE, MASSACHUSETTS
By PERCY WHITING BROWN
Member of Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association Member (President) of Concord Antiquarian Society Member of Bostonian Society Corresponding Member of Fitchburg Historical Society Member of The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities
Member of The Society of Mayflower Descendants
1921
Lc 774. 402 3 78 b
Privately Printed
Printed by Old Colony Press Boston
1207848
PREFATORY NOTE.
For many years the writer has had a great love for the Rowe hills, and in his many walks and drives has accumulated items of both historical and personal interest. The sight of an old cellar-hole* with its pink fire-weed and neighboring lilac bush has always held a solemn fascination, and has brought up pictures of a once happy family.
" Near yonder thorn, that lifts its head on high, Where once the sign-post caught the passing eye, Low lies that house where nut-brown draught inspired, Where gray-beard mirth and smiling toil retired, Where village statesmen talk'd with looks profound, And news much older than their ale went round."
Then too, the roads became a subject for study ; how the earliest highways were laid out in straight lines with little regard for hill summits, and how an early philosopher fetched a kettle to town meeting to prove that the distance around a hill was no greater than over it.
The interest of the village school teacher in Rowe's early history and her efforts to arouse the same inter- est in her pupils, have been the stimulus for setting down these items on paper, in the hope that thereby their love for their native town will be increased.
The author has drawn freely from the following sources : -
Rowe Town Records, 1785 - 1920
Massachusetts Archives, 1744 - 1785
Perry's Origins in Williamstown, 1894
Sheldon's History of Deerfield, 1895
Holland's History of Western Massachusetts, 1855
* There are nearly 50 cellar-holes to be seen in Rowe.
Greenfield Gazette - Centennial Edition, 1892 Amid Rowe Hills, by Mrs. M. A. Smith, 1904
Baptist Church in Rowe (1810-1910) by Mrs. Lillian Cressy Peck
The Rise of the Tide of Life to New England Hilltops (N. E. Magazine, Aug. 1900) Edward P. Pressey
Green Leaves from Whitingham, Vt., by Clark Jillson, 1894
Barber's Historical Collections, 1839
Nason's Gazeteer of Massachusetts, 1874
Letters and Diary of John Rowe, 1759 - 1762, 1764 - 1779, edited by Anne Rowe Cunningham, 1903 Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, Second Series, Vol. X Article by Edward Lillie Pierce
Correspondence of William Shirley Edited by Charles Henry Lincoln, 1912
Reminiscences of Rev. Preserved Smith of Warwick. Privately printed, 1904
Journal of Gen. Rufus Putnam, 1757 - 1760 Reprinted in Albany, 1886
History of the Congregational Society in Rowe, by Deacon John Thomas, 1845
From the Hub to the Hudson, Washington Gladden, 1869
Wood's Turnpikes of New England, 1919
History and Proceedings of Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association.
History of the Connecticut Valley, 1879 Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester
Farewell Sermon Preached at Rowe June 10, 1804 by Preserved Smith A. M.
" But whatever this History be, it aims at the Doing of Good, as well as the Telling of Truth; and if its Aim shall be attained, That will be a sufficient Reward for all the Trouble of Writing it."
Cotton Mather.
HISTORY OF ROWE, MASSACHUSETTS
CHAPTER I.
TOPOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION.
"For the Country it is as well watered as any land under the Sunne."
Wood's New England Prospect.
The territory that comprises the town of Rowe origi- nally belonged to Hampshire County,* and so remained until 1811, when it was transferred to the County of Franklin, then incorporated. It is situated in the northwestern part, twenty-two miles from Greenfield, the County seat.
The land is distinctly rugged and mountainous. The Green Mountains of Vermont extend southerly into Massachusetts dividing into two parallel ridges called the Taconic and the Hoosac Mountains. The Taconic ridge divides the water-shed of the Housatonic from that of the Hudson, and the most conspicuous peak is Greylock. The Hoosac ridge divides the Connecticut water-shed from the waters of the Hoosac and Housa- tonic and the chief elevations are Spruce Hill in Adams and Clarksburg Mountain. The gneissic rocks of the Hoosac range extend to the east of Rowe and we may properly call the Rowe hills part of the Hoosac Moun- tains.
The territory purchased in 1762 by Rev. Cornelius Jones was in form a parallelogram of which the north- ern boundary formed the Province Line. The northern boundary of Massachusetts was stated to be " a curved line pursuing the course of the Merrimack River at
* The western part of the unincorporated tract called Zoar was formerly in Berkshire County.
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HISTORY OF ROWE
three miles distance on the north side thereof, begin- ning at the Atlantic Ocean and ending at a point due north of Pawtucket Falls (now Lowell), and a straight course drawn from thence due west." In 1741 Richard Hazen, a surveyor of Haverhill, ran the line; but the line " due west " was in fact about 1º 45' north of due west, so that about one-third of the present township of Rowe would otherwise have fallen to New Hamp- shire and later to Vermont. This is still called " Hazen's Line." The western boundary of this par- allelogram included a fourth part of the present town of Monroe, or some 1500 acres, approximately the territory between the Deerfield River and a line drawn nearly north and south (S.2°E.) through a point about fifty rods east of Monroe Four Corners. The eastern boundary was two hundred rods west of the present one; while the southern boundary was at least three hundred rods north of the mouth of Steele Brook.
When the town was incorporated February 9, 1785, there were added two hundred rods on the east and south, and an irregular tract on the southwestern corner to include the Fulham Grant which roughly today represents the Veber and two Cressy farms. In 1838 (April 2) the unincorporated tract called Zoar was divided; the eastern portion was given to Charle- mont and the western portion, from Florida Bridge around the Great Bend, to Rowe. In 1822 the portion west of the Deerfield River was set off as a part of the newly incorporated town of Monroe. (See Appen- dix A.)
The country at the time of the first clearing in 1744 was practically covered with primeval forests. Many of the old valley towns owe their beginnings to the absence of trees which resulted from the annual burn- ings by the Indians. But the savages seldom pene-
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MASSACHUSETTS
trated the upland forests of Rowe,* and the region was left to the haunts of wolves, bears, deer and smaller animals. A petition to the Legislature in March 1780 sets forth " that the inhabitants of the western coun- ties were greatly distressed by reason of the destruc- tion of the sheep and neat cattle by wolves, catamounts and wild cats, which are numerous in some parts of said counties."
MOUNTAINS.
Adams Mountain. At first called " the south moun- tain," and called Adams Mt. in 1797. This distinguish- ing feature of the town is in the southern part and rises to an altitude of 2140 feet above sea level. It heads a long ridge which culminates in Coon Hill, 1623 feet high, in Zoar. The Vermont line crosses Streeter Hill at an altitude of 2100 feet. The old road to Readsboro north from the old center of the town passes to the east of elevations 2,034, 1,967 and 1,937 feet respec- tively. Pulpit Rock, a colossal pulpit formed by the cleavage of a cliff, is 900 feet above the Deerfield River in the western part of the town and is flanked by eleva- tions of 1806 feet and 1951 feet. The entire west slope is precipitous and was described in the crude map of 1779 as a " steep mountain." In only two places on this slope has the art of man been able to maintain roads; namely the road down to Monroe Bridge, and the road from the " Cressy Neighborhood " down to Hoosac Tunnel.
STREAMS AND MILL-SEATS.
Deerfield River. This chief tributary of the Connec- ticut River rises in southern Vermont, and enters Massachusetts in a southerly direction, then bears to
* One or two arrow-heads have been ploughed up; and the writer has a stone knife, the gift of the finder, F. A. Browning.
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HISTORY OF ROWE
the southwest forming the western boundary of Rowe. At the eastern portal of Hoosac Tunnel it makes a great bend to the southeast, forming the southern boundary of Rowe until it reaches the abutments of the old Florida Bridge. In 1886 James Ramage of Holyoke erected a dam at Monroe Bridge and built a plant for the manufacture of pulp and manila paper, used chiefly for boxes. Operations were begun Decem- ber 9, 1887. A substantial brick plant now used as a warehouse is located on the Rowe side. In 1913 the property was sold to the New England Power Com- pany and a long canal was built to convey the water of the Deerfield to a hydro-electric power plant three miles down the river on the Florida side. The pulp and paper plants were sold to W. G. Shortess of New York, a well-known paper manufacturer, and electric power is purchased of the New England Power System. In 1920 these plants were considerably enlarged at a cost of some $250,000. In the early sixties the Deerfield was dammed a short distance above the Great Bend and a fall of thirty feet was obtained. Compressed air was thus supplied for the drills used in boring the Tunnel and was first brought into use in June 1866.
Pelham Brook. This considerable stream rises on the southwestern slopes of Streeter Hill, flows south- erly for four and one-half miles to the confluence with the Deerfield at Zoar. Several brooks add to its vol- ume, of which but one, Steele Brook bears a name. This stream rises in the western part of the town and takes a general southerly course meeting Pelham Brook at the southern boundary of Rowe. Other small tributaries rise in various parts of the town; one north of the road to Heath, another on the south- ern slope of Streeter Hill, another north of the old center, known locally as Langdon Brook, and others
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MASSACHUSETTS
from one to two miles west of the old center. The first mills in Rowe were on Pelham Brook which as early as 1773 was called Pelham Mill Brook. The map of 1793 shows a saw-mill above the bridge which crosses the brook a mile south of the old center, (near the present saw-mill), and a " corn mill " (grist mill) just below the bridge on the south side of the brook. Without question these were the first mills. The next mill was a saw-mill a little above the place where the brook is crossed by the road to Heath. Prob- ably the fourth mill was the so-called Thomas Fellows mill on Pelham Brook, a quarter of a mile above the mouth of Steele Brook .* Fellows mill is mentioned as early as 1796. The saw-mill and grist mill by the bridge were owned by Moses Rogers as early as 1793. The present saw-mill which is rapidly disintegrating on the west side of the brook, was built by Ambrose Stone in 1835, and some of the first lumber turned out was used in building the satinet factory erected and operated by Solomon Amidon and Joseph Burton in 1836, later by the Franklin Manufacturing Company until 1848, a hundred rods to the north. Power for the latter was obtained from an overshot wheel, and the water was supplied by a long ditch or flume from the bed of the brook a few rods below the reservoir at the northwest base of Adams Mountain. S. P. Day in later years operated the factory in a small way. The old stone dam was blown up in 1879 to prevent taxes accruing on an unused water power, and in 1905-6 it was rebuilt by the Foliated Talc Company to supply a constant head of water for their mill a mile down stream near the village school. A carding machine and fulling mill was built in 1808 by Selah Munson below
* According to the description of a road it would seem that the mill later owned by Rufus Hyde was once owned by Fellows.
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HISTORY OF ROWE
the Nims-Hawks-Darling house, (called " Mr. Nims Fulling Mill " in 1810) and later another above the house of Mrs. Julia A. Browning. After 1812, Erastus and Moses Gleason enlarged the business of Ebenezer Nims, and added 60 spindles for the manufacture of satinets. The carding machinery was removed and the " clothing-works " carried on by Solomon Amidon and Moses Gleason, who then moved upstream. A saw- mill* once stood below Charles King's, which was owned by Rufus Hyde who lost his life in the flood of 1869. Fayette Snow in more recent years had a wheel- wright shop just below the talc mill. The old Rogers grist mill below the blacksmith shop bridge was prob- ably rebuilt " prior to 1825 by Thomas Brothers, and later sold to Abijah Burnap." Elijah Carpenter bought it about 1870 and added machinery for making Venetian blinds and chair stock. The mill was burned March 10, 1875. A tannery was operated for a number of years by Alfred Olds, Pliny and Joel Wells, Hitch- cock & Maxwell and later by Thomas Scott and Sons, at the foot of Mrs. Julia Browning's hill. Below this was a currier shop, and a shop for making boots and shoes. A shop for making planes and other bench tools still stands on the " pond road," and Horace Brown- ing, the owner obtained power from the water in the flume leading to the satinet factory. Rev. Arad Hall had a shop in the southwest part of the town for mak- ing rakes, and later another shop with a modern water power by the bridge a little below the Miller-Ayers house. The brook has been known locally as Hall Brook and Shovel Handle Brook. At the foot of Tut- tle's Flats, a mile above the present town centre, are the remains of an old stone dam and millsite. A tan- nery and potash works were once located at the old
* See Note on Page 5.
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MASSACHUSETTS
centre. S. Nash operated this tannery before 1800, and was succeeded by Asa Foster 2nd, Enos Adams, Alfred Olds, and Thomas Harrington.
MINES AND MINERALS.
The so-called Rowe serpentine enters the town from Vermont at the northeast corner and extends south- west across the town as a heavy bed, ten to twenty rods wide. A few rods northwesterly of Abbott White's house it bends a little and takes the same course as the Deerfield River to the west, forming the crest of a ridge. In the Cressy neighbourhood it crosses the road and runs down to Hoosac Tunnel where it changes suddenly entirely into serpentine and steatite. At the old King place nearly one mile east of the Tunnel we find a large bed of serpentine with dolomite. It is com- pact, even grained and in color dark gray with traces of green on the fractured or sawed surfaces. A con- siderable amount has been taken out of this bed for soapstone stoves and bed-warmers. On Abbott White's farm the Massachusetts Talc Company for a number of years mined talc. The rock was carted to the com- pany's grinding mill at Zoar which burned under peculiar circumstances a few years ago. The Foliated Tale Company was incorporated in 1905 and operates a tale mine on the old Bullard farm, a half-mile north of the old centre. The rock is carted to the grinding mill opposite the village school. Water power is sup- plied by a long metal flume from the pond connected with the village saw-mill, which in turn is supplied by Pelham Brook and the reservoir formerly supplying the old satinet factory.
Knowledge of the existence of pyrite containing iron and sulphur on the Brown farm east of Adams Moun- tain, was known as early as 1840. H. J. Davis secured
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HISTORY OF ROWE
control and operated a mine from 1882 to 1910. Daily shipments at one time reached 150 tons; and before the mine was shut down, copper became an important by- product. The chief mineral was a mass of almost pure, coarse-granular, shining yellow pyrite, with some chal- copyrite, blende, garnets and galenite.
About one and one-half miles west of the Davis Mine, George H. Davenport operated on a small copper vein for a few years. It was traceable for 700 feet con- forming closely with the Savoy schist in which it occurs. The mine was abandoned after a few years, and the stockholders of the New England Mining Com- pany, incorporated in 1902, have only pretty paper cer- tificates and title to a few acres of land.
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MASSACHUSETTS
CHAPTER II. ROWE IN KING GEORGE'S WAR.
" It is open war with us and a dark and distressing scene opening." Col. Israel Williams.
Our narrative opens with the year 1744, when war broke out between France and England, and our grandfathers knew only too well that this European quarrel meant trouble for them on the exposed fron- tier. June 8th a scout was sent from Deerfield to Hoosac Mountain. They returned three days later with the report of having seen the trail of some forty Indians at the head of the west branch of North River (probably in what is now North Heath), which they followed for some distance. We infer that this scout- ing party must have passed through Rowe which lies midway between Hoosac Mountain and North Heath. Sheldon records that another scout sent out from Deerfield June 13th, returned two days later and " reported having seen on the Deerfield river, about eight miles above Rice's settlement at Charlemont, (near the present Hoosac Tunnel station), a place where three men had made a fire and camped, and saw two coats made Indian fashion hanging up to dry."
Deerfield now was no longer a frontier post. Tiny settlements had been established "on the Charle- mont," at Colrain, Fall-Town (now Bernardston), Vernon and Charlestown, N. H. The Indians had been trading and mingling with the settlers, but at the out- break of War, they returned to their tribes to prepare for trouble. In Queen Anne's War, (1703-1713), the route of the French invasions from Canada to the Con- necticut Valley had been via Lake Champlain and thence over the Green Mountains. One was by the
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HISTORY OF ROWE
Winooski River and down the White; another up Otter Creek and down the Black, Williams or West Rivers; and a third, up Wood Creek, Paulet and Indian Rivers to the Hoosick Valley and over Hoosac Mountain to the valley of the Deerfield.
To guard against these lines of approach, the Massa- chusetts General Court, in the summer of 1744, ordered the erection of a cordon of forts to run from Fort Dum- mer (built in 1724 in the present Town of Brattleboro), westerly to the New York line. Governor Shirley appointed a committee of three to build these forts, of whom the Chairman was Colonel John Stoddard of Northampton.
July 20, 1744 Stoddard wrote a letter to Captain William Williams his nephew, which reads as follows:
"Sir you are hereby Directed as soon as may be to Erect a fort of the Dimensions above mentioned, and you are to employ ye soldiers under your Command, viz such of them as are effective men and to allow them by ye day in manner as above expressed and in case your soldiers chuse rather to undertake to build sd fort for sum in Gross or by ye Great you may promise them Two Hundred pounds old Tenor Exclusive of the Nails that may be necessary the fort is to be erected about five miles from Hugh Morrison's house in Colrain in or near the line run last week Under the Direc- tion of Col° Tim° Dwight by our order and you are hereby further directed as you may have Opportunity to Search out some Convenient places where two or three other forts may be Erected Each to be about five miles and a Half Dis- tance upon the line run Last week as above mentioned or the pricked line on the platt made by Colº Dwight you will have with you.
" and further you are to order a sufficient Guard out of the men under your Command to guard such persons as may be Employed in erecting sd fort and further you have liberty to Exchange of the men under your command for those that are undr the Command of Capt. Elijah in case there be any such that will be proper to be Employed in building sd fort you will take care that the men be faithful in their business, they must be watchful and prudent for their own safety.
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MASSACHUSETTS
" There must be good account kept of the various Services in case men work by the day.
John Stoddard.
To Capt. William Williams
Northampton, July 20, 1744."
Accompanying this letter was a certificate approving the erection of a line of forts " from Colrain to the Dutch Settlements," with the signatures of the Com- mittee, - John Stoddard, Ol. Partridge, and John Leonard. At the top of the letter is a memorandum: -
" The fort 60 feet Square Houses 11 feet wide Mounts 12 feet Square 7 feet high 12 feet High the fort roof of ye Houses to be shingled the Soldiers Employed to be allowed the Carpenter nine shillings others six shillings a day Old Tenor ".
Such were the instructions for the erection of Forts Shirley in Heath, Pelham in Rowe, and Massachusetts in Williamstown, and the crude dimensions for Shirley. Colonel Dwight, the father of President Dwight of Yale College, in July 1744, had surveyed the line par- allel to Hazen's Province Line at two miles' distance, on which two of the forts, Shirley and Pelham, were to be located. Fort Shirley was completed in short order, for Stoddard began billetting himself in the fort beginning October 30, 1744. The next we hear of Fort Pelham is the following March in a letter from the Stoddard Committee : -
" Northampton, March 6, 1745
To Capt. William Williams of Fort Shirley
Sir you are hereby fully authorised and Impowered In ten days after this Date to employ so many of the soldiers under your Command as you Judge necessary In finishing a fort in the place where the Comtee for Building a Line of Block Houses &c agreed with Capt. Moses Rice to Build one and employ for that purpose the Timbers the sd Rice had drawn
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HISTORY OF ROWE
together (the sd Rice having Desired sd Timber may be employed for that purpose) you are to allow to a Carpenter Nine Shillings and other Effective men Six Shillings a Day Old Tenor you are to finish sd fort with all convenient speed provided the sd Rice do not within sd ten days take effectual care to your Satisfaction that he will finish it.
John Stoddard."
Apparently Stoddard had bargained with Rice for the erection of some sort of a fort on the hill-tops of Rowe. Moses Rice had come from Rutland to be the first settler in Charlemont. He built his first cabin in the spring of 1743 near a buttonwood tree that is still standing a few rods from the Charlemont bridge. In June 1755, twelve years later Captain Rice was killed and scalped by Indians and his remains buried nearby. The grave is marked by a small monument which was dedicated in 1871.
Fort Pelham was erected on a slight swell of ground a scant half mile southeast of the old centre of Rowe. The site is now an open pasture on the farm of Edward Wright. Perry describes it as a " stockade twelve rods by twenty-four, probably enclosing nothing but a well and a small magazine, and a covered lodging-place for the garrison in one or more of the interior angles. There was certainly a mount at Pelham, in all likeli- hood upon the northwest corner, and under this would naturally and cheaply be the quarters for the sol- diers ".
Perry's conclusions were: (1) That Pelham was a purely palisaded fort constructed of upright posts or forest staddles sunk into the ground and bound together in contact with each other above, and not like Fort Shirley and the two bearing in succession on the same site (between North Adams and Williamstown) the name " Massachusetts ", a jointed blockhouse of hewn timbers; (2) that it was in form a parallelogram
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MASSACHUSETTS
twelve rods by twenty-four in extent, thus enclosing more than an acre and a half of dry ground on the swell of a broad hill; (3) that a trench, perhaps a foot deep, was dug around the four sides, and posts of a pretty uniform size (perhaps hewed) were set upright into the trench, unless natural trees of the right dimen- sions were already growing in line, and then the earth thrown back into the trench and upon both sides of the staddles, which now (1894) forms the pillow of turf that can be traced almost unbroken, particularly on the south and east sides; (4) that the well of the old fort was near the middle of the enclosure and upon the highest ground within it, and that the removal of four or five large stones that now choke the opening would practically restore the digging of 1745, and dis- cover with certainty whether it were originally walled up within or constructed with corner-posts like the cor- responding well at Shirley; (5) that the considerable circular depression a little northwest of the old well either indicated that the magazine of the fort was in part, at least, a substructure, or that the beginning of an unfinished well there was thwarted by a ledge, and a thorough excavation at that point might reveal which of the two, and possibly a stone floor or some remains of side walls; (6) that the main opening into the parade of the fort was, undoubtedly, on the north side, along which, at some distance further north, on account of the head of a swamp in the direct line east and west, the military road from Fort Shirley certainly passed in a northerly curve to the west, the straight west line being resumed about half a mile further on; (7) that the fort was placed where it was by the rude engineers of the time near the head waters of what came in consequence to be called Pelham Brook, in order to guard against access to the Deerfield by means
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