USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Lee > History of the town of Lee, Mass. : a lecture, delivered before the Young Men's Association of Lee, March 22d, 1854 > Part 1
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M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01068 1119
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF LEE, MASS.
LECTURE,
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
YOUNG MEN'S ASSOCIATION, OF LEE,
MARCH 22d, 1854.
BY REV. AMORY GALE.
LEE, MASS .: PRINTED BY FRENCH & ROYCE. 185 1.
1774613
A
. GALE, AMORY.
5 84442 History of the town of Lee, Mass. A lecture, .32 delivered before the Young men's association, of Lee, March 22d, 1854. Lee, Mass., French, 1854. 46p.
CHELE CARD
₱ 15014
NL 33-4811
Lee, March 28, 1854.
REV. AMORY GALE :
DEAR SIR,-In behalf of the Lee Young Men's Association, I would respectfully solicit a copy of your interesting Lecture on the History of Lee, recently delivered before our Association, for publication.
Very respectfully yours, ..
JAMES T. LEONARD, S'y.
J. T. LEONARD, EsQ. :
Your kind note of the 2Sth inst., requesting for publication a copy of the Lecture which I had the pleasure of presenting before your useful Association, a few evenings since, lies before me. I cheerfully comply with your request, not because it is what I wish it was, but because it contains information relative to the early history of Lee, which can be handed down to posterity in no surer way than on the printed page.
That the perusal of this Address may incite the young inen of Lee to imitate the unbending integrity and sterling virtues of our fathers, and that your Association may continue to exert its elevating and instructive influence upon the masses of our people, is the sincere wish of
Yours, respectfully,
Lee, March 30, 1854.
AMORY GALE.
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HISTORY OF LEE.
IN selecting a subject for a Lecture this evening, I could think of none that could interest and instruct the members of the Young Men's Association, more than a HISTORY OF LEE. I cannot hope to present anything upon this subject but what is within the reach of you all. The want of time, however, has probably prevented the most of you from inves- tigating this subject, and thereby making yourselves familiar with the history of our town. The fathers are dead, and their sons are rapidly passing away, and unless our history is soon written, it will be too late. The sources of my infor- mation have been the Records of the town, and the scraps of historic facts that have been handed down from father to son. The citizens generally have very kindly furnished me with what knowledge they respectively had upon the subject. Allow me, however, to acknowledge my special obligations to R. Ilinman, F. Sturgis, H. Bartlett, and Lemuel Bassett, Esqrs., for valuable information presented in this Lecture. I propose to divide this subject into 10 Divisions.
I. ORIGIN AND GENERAL HISTORY.
Many 33
Less than one hundred years since, the territory now in- cluded in this town was a howling wilderness. With the exception of a few families of the Stockbridge tribe of Indians, cultivating small patches upon the banks of the Housatonic, " Nature in all her solemn wildness reigned supreme." No voice of the White man echoed through these native forests ; no hum of business was heard; no skillful work of Art or Science was seen. The majestic oak and genteel spruce reared their lofty heads with fearless defiance. The wild turkey and fearful eagle found here their native home. The wolf and the wild cat roamed our mountains unscared ; the savage bear and bounding deer had possession
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HISTORY OF LEE.
of our mountain glens and alluvial valley unmolested, save by an occasional dart, necessary to bring the needed fare to the Indian wigwam.
Our noble river, rich valley, and mountain peaks, rendered this a favored home for the romantic Red Man of the forest. lIere he was " monarch of all he surveyed."
For twenty years the White man had lived in Tyringham, Stockbridge, New Marlborough, and Alford ; and for thirty years he had been in Great Barrington, Sheffield, and Egremont.
Such was the state of things here in 1760, when Isaac Davis moved on to the farm now owned by John M'Allister, in the south part of the town, where he built the first frame house that was erected in Lee.
During the ten years from 1760 to 1770, only thirteen families had moved into town. They lived in small log houses, mostly located upon our mountain sides. No roads or bridges had then been built. Marked trees served for the former, and a tree fallen across the river served for the latter.
In 1770, John Winegar, of German origin, grandfather of our citizen of that name, came into town, and built the first grist-mill in this region. It was located a few rods above Whyte & Hulbert's paper-mill. His log house, the eleventh log house in Lee, was built against a perpendicular rock on the east side of the road as we pass around the cove beyond the mill. That rock served as the back part of the house and chimney, which was so constructed that the wood could be drawn upon the hill in the rear and precipitated down the chimney to the place for the fire. This process saved the time and labor of cutting and splitting the wood. Mr. Wine- gar, five years afterwards, built another grist-mill, where Royce & N'Laflin's mills now are, and he also erected the dwelling-house in front of them, which is the oldest building in town. When Mr. Winegar built this house, the nearest place that he could find stone for the cellar was on the Pixley mountain. The leaves and moss in the native forests proba- bly concealed the stone from public view.
When John Winegar was living at Crow Hollow, he was persuaded by an Indian to accompany him upon the mountain to hunt deer. The Indian soon left Mr. Winegar alone, and for three days, in mid winter, with the thermometer below zero, he wandered without fire or food, unable to find his home. When found by his friends, his feet and other parts of his body were so badly frozen, as to cause him to be a cripple for life. Ile, however, recovered sufficiently to attend to his ordinary business. This was deemed a great event in the early history of the town. In 1770, Isaac Davis was living on his farm; Reuben Pixley lived where Dea. Henry
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HISTORY OF LEE.
Bassett now does ; John Goffe the Irishman lived where Kenas Clark now does; Hope Davis in the old orchard about forty-six rods east of May & Dean's mills; near him lived Aaron Benedict and George Parker; William Chanter the Quaker, conimonly known as " Friend William," lived on the Snow farm, next beyond Dea. Culver's; Mr. Atkins lived nearly opposite of the old Shailer tavern, in Cape street ; Lt. Crocker found a home where P. Shailer now resides ; Mr. Dodge pitched his tent on top of the mountain, one and a half miles east of P. Shailer's, which place was afterwards called Dodgetown. Mr. Stanley and others afterwards set- tled around him. This for many years was the centre of business. Here lived the blacksmith and shoemaker, tanner and currier ; and here it was proposed to erect the church. Jonathan Foote occupied a rude structure where Lyman Foote now lives ; and Elisha Freeman owned the farm where his grandson, John B. Freeman, now lives. Two rude log huts stood near H. Bartlett's, and in and around this village there were not five acres of cleared land. In one of these log huts lived Prince West. Kunkerpot occupied the Indian wigwam, standing in what is now the Park, and several other rude Indian huts were at the Quarry, occupied by the hardy sons of the forest. A log tavern, sixteen feet square, was erected about this time, where Oliver Kellogg now lives, on Mr. Hinman's lot, kept for a time by an uncle of the late Mr. Abner Taylor. You recollect the couplet in the old Primer,
" The Royal oak, it was the tree That saved his Royal Majesty."
Nathan Foote, the grandfather of this Jonathan Foote, put Charles the Second, king of England, into the oak, to shield him from his enemies ; and afterwards, when the king was in a situation to do so, he remembered his preserver, and granted him a tract of land in Connecticut. The Foote family have for their coat of arms, a design representing an oak and Charles the Second, and Nathan Foote endeavoring to assist Charles into the oak.
The men living in the Eastern part of the town were mostly from the Cape, and hence the principal road running through that part of Lee is called Cape street. Most of the others came from Connecticut ; and a few families were from Germany.
To contrast the mode of travel then and now, I will state that Capt. Joseph Crocker, who settled on the William Cone farm, moved his family from Cape Cod in an ox cart. He and his aged mother came in advance of the rest of the family, both riding upon the same horse.
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HISTORY OF LEE.
During the next ten years, from 1770 to '80, many valu- able citizens of the town settled here, among whom were Nathaniel and Cornelius Bassett, Jesse Gifford, Jesse Brad- ley, William Ingersoll, Timothy Thatcher, Oliver and Prince West, Arthur Perry, Samuel Stanley, Amos Porter, Josiah Yale, Ebenezer Jenkins, Nathan Dillingham, Job Hamblin, and other honored names, of whose memory their children may justly feel proud. They were generally men, intelligent, good, and true, actuated by religious principles, strangers to fear, inured to hardship, strong in body and native intellect. They were peculiarly adapted to pioneer life.
The story of riding a horse across the river upon a string- piece of the bridge, I think I am able to state correctly. When Asahel Foote, father to Lyman Foote, left the Revo- Intionary army, at the proclamation of Peace, he was a young soldier of sixteen years old, of a daring spirit, and when he came to the river near Mr. Ballard's, he found the string- pieces had been put into their places, but there was not a plank upon them. He determined to ride his horse upon one of them over the river, in which he was successful.
II. THE FIVE GRANTS.
The town of Lee is made up of fire Grants,-Hopland, Watson's, Williams', Laraby's, and Glassworks.
Ist. THE HOPLAND GRANT is a strip of land extending almost across the southern portion of the town. The north- ern line commences near the Stockbridge boundary, about half a mile north of William Blake's, running a little north of J. C. Stephens', and thence nearly with the road to R. llinman's, and John Baker's in Cape street ; thence southerly to the Tyringham line. The name is derived from the great quantity of hops that formerly grew upon the banks of the river which flows down from Tyringham. This territory includes six School districts,-the two at South Lee, the one near C. Hinckley's, the two in Water street, and the one at East Lee. This traet belonged to the town of Great Bar- rington, in 1777, and was included in this town at the time of its incorporation.
William Ingersoll owned about one quarter of this grant, which was enough to furnish himself and each of his seven sons with a farm of no mean dimensions.
2d. The history of WATSON'S GRANT is as follows. In 1757 and '8, Robert Watson of Sheffield, assisted by David Ingersoll, Esq., a Tory lawyer of Great Barrington. purchased of the Indians a tract of land now comprising the town of
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HISTORY OF LEE.
Washington, and parts of the towns of Middlefield, Hinsdale, Lenox, and Lee. That portion included in the corporation of Lee was in the eastern and northern parts of the town. Its western line began at the south-east corner of Hopland, running northerly to John Baker's ; thence westerly to near R. Hinman's ; and thence northerly following the old road from Mr. Hinman's to the Housatonic river.
Mr. Watson purchased this land of Benjamin Konk-ke- we-nau-naut, John Pop-kne-hon-au-wah, and Robert Nung- hau-wot, Chiefs of the Stockbridge tribe of Indians. What they paid for it I am not able to say, only so far as that a part of the consideration was to be in the "fire water" of that day. They called this territory Watsontown, after the name of its owner.
Soon after this purchase, Mr. Watson sold his title to this grant to a company of sixty men, the most of whom resided in Hartford, Ct. This company divided their land into sixty- three shares, one for each of the proprietors, one for schools, and two for their minister. They also changed the name to Greenock, for what reason I have not been able to learn.
These proprietors soon found that Watson had failed to fulfill the obligations to the Indians ; and the Indians, there- fore, retained their right to the township now called Greenock. The Greenock company re-purchased of the Indians the town, for which they paid £179 York money ; and applied to the Governor of the colony 'to establish their title to the town.
On the 22d of Dec., 1760, the proprietors held a meeting in Hartford, Ct., and, among other votes passed at that meet- ing, was the following :- " Voted, That each proprietor shall clear three acres of land on each of his settling lots, girdle seven acres, and build a log house 16 feet square, on or before the 16th day of Oct. next."
Action on the above petition was delayed till Sept. 8, 1763, when " Francis Barnard, captain-general and commander-in- chief of the province of Massachusetts Bay in N. E., the Honorable his Majesty's Councillors, and House of Repre- sentatives in General Court assembled, Jan. 13th, 1762," granted the petition, and again changed the name of the town to Hartwood. The more common name by which this part of the county was known was "Mount Ephraim." It had borne, therefore, four names,-Watsontown, Greenock, Ilartwood, and Mount Ephraim ; by the last of which it was more widely known.
A year before the time of the above action, the Hartford company sold their right in the land to Samuel Brown, jun., of Stockbridge, and Ephraim Kidder, of Yoakintown (now Lenox) ; and it is probable that Messrs. Brown & Kidder also sold soon after their purchase, as they are not included
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HISTORY OF LEE.
among the corporators. Nathaniel Hooker, John . Townley, and Isaac Shelden, are only mentioned, with " their associates, heirs, and assigns." The conditions of this grant are, that they shall pay to the Province Treasurer, within one year, £300. 1-63 of the land shall be held for the use of a school, and 2-63 for a minister, who shall be a Protestant, and settled in town ; and within five years they shall have at least sixty households, and each one must have a dwelling 24 by 18, 16 ft. posts, and have seven acres of land well cleared, fenced, and brought to English grass or plowed.
The Records of Hartwood contain nothing out of the usual events of town affairs at that time, unless it be the building of a road from the south part of Hartwood to Pittsfield, eight rods wide. From 1762 to 1777, when Washington and Lee were incorporated into towns, Hartwood manifested a com- mendable interest in the erection of a church, settlement of a minister, and other things laying at the basis of good society.
3d. WILLIAMS' GRANT, embracing about 650 acres, was located in the north-west corner of the town. . With the exception of 140 acres, the farm now owned by Jonathan Johnson, set off to Stockbridge, this grant was included with- in the territory of Lee, at the time of its incorporation. The annexation of' the " Whelply farm," as it was formerly called, to Stockbridge, accounts for the irregularity of the line be- tween these towns.
Col. Ephraim Williams, the founder of Williams' college, was an efficient soldier in the second French war, and who fell in his country's service, as commander of a regiment, on the 8th of Sept., 1755, near the shores of Lake George, when only 41 years of age. As a testimony of the high estimation in which his services were held, the authorities granted him, before his death, this tract of land, for many years known as the Williams' grant.
4th. LARABY'S GRANT was another tract of land included in this town at the time it received its charter. It embraced about 1000 acres, and was located at and about Lenox Furnace.
John Laraby, to whom this grant was made, was probably a Frenchman, and, in consideration of his valuable services in the Revolution, this land was given to him. For several years, the towns of Lenox and Lee both claimed this grant, when, about thirty years since, Lee voted that Lenox might have it ; and thus the controversy was terminated.
5th. THE GLASSWORKS GRANT is another and important part of Lee. It is located between the other grants, and is bounded by them. It is, therefore, in the central part of the town.
There existed in Boston a company for the manufacture of glass. The colony of Massachusetts Bay, to encourage them
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HISTORY OF LEE.
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in their work, gave them this large tract of land as a bounty. Although it is now the most thickly settled. it was the last of the grants to be bought up by actual settlers. Our fathers loved the mountains, and reluctantly built their rude log huts in our beautiful valley till the skill of the mechanic subdued our river to be a servant of man.
Families continued to come on to these grants from Cape Cod, Connecticut, and a few from Ireland and Germany. Among those from the latter country was Isaac Howk, who settled on the place now owned by John C. Stephens, whose large Dutch barn gave the name to his establishment of "The Howie Barracks," and which was a sort of landmark in this region.
There are many incidents of thrilling interest told of these carly settlers, which, of themselves, might constitute an inter- esting theme for an evening's entertainment, but which would swell this lecture to an unpardonable length.
III. CHARTER.
In 1777, the inhabitants of these grants and parts of grants petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts Bay for a Charter of Incorporation, and, in answer to this petition, the following was received, viz. :
" State of Massachusetts Bay, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven. An Act to incorporate the south-westerly part of Washington, the north-easterly part of Great Barrington, or Hoplands so called, the Glassworks grant, and part of Williams' grant, in the County of Berkshire, into a Town by the name of LEE.
" Whereas it has been made to appear to Court that the incorporating the south-westerly part of Washington, the north-easterly part of Great Barrington, or Hoplands so called, the Glassworks grant, and part of Williams', into a Town, will greatly contribute to the benefit of the inhabitants of the said lands,
" Be it therefore enacted by the Council and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, that the said south-westerly part of Washington, the north-easterly part of Great Barrington. or Hoplands so called, the Glassworks grant, and part of Wil- liams' grant, beginning at the south-east corner of Stockbridge, thence running east 7 degrees sonth, 632 rods. thence run- ning north 37 degrees east, 617 rods, thenee running east 617 rods, thence running east 1204 rods on Tyringham line, thence 2
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HISTORY OF LEE.
running north 7 degrees east, 379 rods, thence running north 30 degrees west, 540 rods, thence running south 30 degrees west, 200 rods, thence running north 30 degrees west, 1236 rods, to Lenox line, thence running south 7 degrees east, 808 rods, thence running west 7 degrees north, 686 rods, to Stock- bridge line, thence running south 7 degrees west, on Stock- bridge line, 1550 rods, to the first-mentioned bounds, contain- ing in the whole 14,237 acres,-be, and they hereby are, incorporated into a town by the name of LEE. And the inhabitants be, and they hereby are, invested with all power, privileges, and immunities, which the inhabitants of other towns within this State enjoy.
". And be it further enacted, That Charles Goodrich, Esq., be, and he hereby is, empowered and directed to issue his warrant, directed to some principal inhabitant within the said town, having a free note therein to the value of 40 shillings in amount, or other estate to the value of £40, to meet at such time and place in said town as shall be therein directed. to choose all such officers as are required by law to manage the affairs of the said town. And the officers that may be chosen in consequence thereof, shall hold, and exercise the powers to their respective offices belonging, until the time that shall be appointed for the Town's annual meeting, in March next.
" And be it further enacted, That the inhabitants of the said lands be, and they hereby are, held and enjoined to pay a proportionable part of the State and County taxes of each of the towns to which they have hitherto been annexed, be- longed, or by which they have been taxed, till the further order of this Court.
"In Council, Oct. 17, 1777, This Bill having had two several readings, passed to be engrossed. Sent down for concurrence. JOHN AVERY, Sec'y.
" In the House of Representatives, Oet. 18, 1777, This Bill having been read in the House three several times, pass- ed in concurrence to be engrossed. Sent up for concurrence.
J. WARREN, Speaker.
" Consented to by the major part of the Council. A. true copy. Attest, J. AVERY, Secretary."
The name of " Lee" was given to this town in honor of Charles Lee, then a popular major-general in the Revolution- ary army.
What the population of the town was at the time of its incorporation I am not able to state definitely. Seven years before, i. e. 1770, when John Winegar came into town, he found only thirteen families living in town, his own making fourteen. For ten years after the incorporation of the town, the votes for Governor was from 14 to 24. I think that the
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HISTORY OF LEE.
number of families could not have exceeded thirty, and the number of voters was not probably over twenty-five. Allow- ing five persons to a family, Lee had, at the time of its incor- poration, 150 souls.
First Town Meeting .- According to the provisions of the Charter, the first Town Meeting was held on the 22d of Dec .. 1777, about two months after the passage of the Act of In- corporation, at the house of Peter Wilcox, which was a log house, with only one room in it, and that not so large as some of onr parlors. That dwelling occupied the place where now stands the house on Main street in which lives Mrs. Smith. the mother of Elizur Smith.
The following is the result of our first Town Meeting; and you will notice that there were 20 offices to be filled, and 25 men to fill them :
Moderator-William Ingersoll.
Town Clerk-Prince West.
Selectmen-William Ingersoll, Jesse Bradley, Oliver West, Amos Porter, Prince West.
Treasurer -- William Ingersoll.
Constables-Reuben Pixley, JJames Pegoner.
Highway Surveyors -- Daniel Church, Job Hamblin, John Nye, William Ingersoll.
Tythingmen-Abijah Tomblinson, Samuel Stanley.
Committee of Correspondence-William Ingersoll, Jesse Bradley, Oliver West.
Leather Sealer-Samuel Stanley.
IV. WARS.
Our fathers began the settlement of Lee in perilous times .. From 1760, when Isaac Davis first settled in town, to 1783, when Peace with England was declared, they were constantly fami- liar with war and its associations. The second French war was carried on from 1754 to 1763; and from that time to '76, they were amidst scenes of defiance to English Rule. Those who came from the Cape had assisted in ducking the English Judge of their Courts in their own briny Bay, and anon knocking him down with their canes and old French firelocks : and then again they surrounded the Court-House, and pre- vented the ministers of Justice from entering it. Those who came from Connecticut had fought the French and Indians. Judge Bacon, of Stockbridge, who also preached, and who was among the first that preached in Lee, was from . Boston. Hle disliked the British so badly, that he moved among these mountains, that his eye might not fall upon the redcoats.
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HISTORY OF LEE.
Under the political, judicial, and clerical tuition of this man, our fathers were educated for the scenes that were opening upon them.
With such an early experience, and adult training, as we might suppose, our fathers were not the men to shrink from their country's service, when it was wanted. Consequently, one of the first acts of the town was to vote seven men for Washington's army ; and at almost every subsequent meeting during the war, the town voted men, horses, money, sheep, clothing, and grain,-such things as were wanted for the army. On several occasions, the town voted a bounty to their soldiers. Thus, in 1779, £210 lawful money, was voted as bounty for this purpose. Lee furnished her full share of men and means for the Revolutionary war. The battle of Lexington was fought on the 19th of April, 1775, two and a half years before Lee was incorporated. The news reached Berkshire on the 20th, at noon. At sunrise the next morning, Col. Pattison, of Lenox, was at the head of his regiment, completely equipped and uniformed, marching to the field of battle. And Col. Fellows, of Sheffield, with equal promptitude, with his regi- ment, was on his way to Roxbury.
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