USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Colrain > The early settlers of Colrain, Mass., or, Some account of ye early settlement of "Boston township no. 2, alias Colrain, adjoyning on ye north sid of Deerfield" : an address delivered before H.S. Greenleaf Post, No. 20, G.A.R., at Colrain, May 30, 1885 > Part 1
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Gc 974. 402 C71ma 1774639
REYNELOS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01105 8143
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/earlysettlersofc00mccl_0
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THE
Early Settlers of Colrain, Mass.
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Some Account of ye Early Settlement of "Boston Township No. 2, alias Colrain," "adjoyning on ye north sid of Deerfield."
AN ADDRESS
Delivered before H. S. Greenleaf Post, No. 20, G. A. R., at Colrain, May 30, 1885,
_BY_ CHARLES H. MCCLELLAN.
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GREENFIELD, MASS : W. S. CARSON, PRINTER. 1885.
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Mcclellan, Charles H.
The early settlers of Colrain, Mass. ; or, Some account of ve early settlement of "Boston township no. 2, alias Colrain, " "adjoyning on yo north sid of Deerfield." An address delivered before . H. S. Greenleaf post. no. 20, G. A. R., at C'ofrain, May 30, 1885, by Charles H. McClel- lan. Greenfield, Mass., W. S. Carson, printer, ISS5. 86 p. 24"".
RHALF CARD
1. Coleraine, Mass .-- Hist. 1. Title. 1. Title: Early settlement of "Boston township, no. 2." m. Title: Boston township, no. 2.
Library of Congress
F74.CFM2
1-11301 21437 Copyright 1885: 16910 a20c21
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LOST-ONE CEMETERY
Colrain, (AP)-Colrain Grange wants to clear Catamount Hill Cemetery, which dates bask to the town's : settlement in 1761, but it can't find it.
Boy Scouts have offered to blaze a trail to the cemetery, now over- grown with brush.
The Grange plans a work bee next month-if the cemetery is found.
TO THE PUBLIC.
It should be understood, that in putting forth the following brief pages, relating to the early times in my native town, I have not been impelled by any irresist- able impulse to contest for literary honors.
Primarily, the purposes of their preparation arose from the belief, that as the older generation of inhabitants now living passed away, a knowledge of the facts relating to the times of their ancestors was becoming gradually obliterated; and from time to time I had collected much of the material, fact, anecdote, and legend, relating to those matters, trusting that those who should succeed me, especially my children, might at least to some extent profit by my efforts.
A very kind and flattering invitation from' H. S. Greenleaf Post, No 20, G. A. R., that I should address them upon this subject, on Decoration Day of the present year, led to their preparation in the present form, and the repeated requests of my (I fear) too partial friends, have resulted in their reluctant publi- cation.
Perhaps, however, it is not too much to hope, that a possible local interest may attach to them in the town to which they relate, and as the descendants of Colrain are very largely in excess of the present residents it is doubtless not impossible that they may attain to a still more extended circulation.
In what I have had to say, of the men of those times I have sought to
"nothing extenuate
Nor set down aught in malice."
But have desired that the sons should reverently recognize, what I esteem to have been the distingish-
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ing characteristics of their fathers, and that a just estimate be had of patient, unpretending, patriotic worth.
In point of time, I have touched upon most of the important matters relating to the history of the town, down to nearly the close of the last century. To accomplish this, the accumulated dust of nearly a century and a half had to be brushed away, a task requiring no little patient toil; and that some other, possessing greater attainments as well as more leisure, shall sooner or later appear to complete this effort. is the sincere wish of
THE AUTHOR. Greenfield, Mass., September ist, 1885.
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ADDRESS.
Mr. Commander, Comrades of the Grand Army, Ladies and Gentlemen :- I trust I need offer you no apology for the subject of this address. The people and the times of which it treats certainly require no apology. And to me its seems enimently proper, that on this Sabbath of Patriotism when all over our broad land, a grateful people do homage to heroic deeds, and re-en- shrine the memory of those, who though absent still speak from out the silence; that we should briefly review the story of that earlier generation of patriots, upon whose record we may well look back with pride. Early influences as well as my own inclination, have led me, ever, to greatly venerate the people who founded the institution's of this, my native town, and that up to the present time, no one of all their descend- ants, has in any adequate degree given utterance to the feeling of reverence and appreciation, of what they suffered and achieved, which is universally entertained, would seem to be in a measure inexplicable, and were it necessary, would constitute a proper vindication for what I have to say in their behalf.
I cannot claim that what I have to offer is history, and yet I indulge the hope that it may be an aid to some future historian of the town, whoever he may be and whenever he may appear.
It is the story of the wilderness and the log hut of the settler, and of young life commenced under far dif- ferent circumstances than are ours to-day.
It is the story of earnest men and of brave, self reliant women, of hardship and privation, the cruel
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savage and the dangerous beasts, the all surrounding forests sheltered; in a word it is the story of
"Old trees, whose great and everchanging forms Were shaped by nature in a hundred storms. Old rocks, the red man's altar and his grave. Old huts, the homes the early forest gave, Old stories, gathered now from silent lips., Old faces, lost in nature's last eclipse".
It will be a century and a half in a few days, since the first events transpired looking to the settlement of the good old town of Colrain .* That its settlement should have been so long delayed, to me seems some- what remarkable. Deerfield, a neighboring and in fact an adjoining town, was at this time quite an elderly community, as also was Northfield, while Springfield had been settled nearly a century. Capt. Turner's fight with the Indians at Turners Falls had occurred nearly sixty years before, and the sacking of Deerfield long enough before to have been nearly forgotten, had events in those early days crowded as closely upon each other as they do in the times in which we live. I am aware that the "History of the Connecticut Valley" says that the Smith Brothers, Andrew and John, were in Colrain as early as1732, remaining some two years and returning again in 1736 to remain permanently. Now I have serious doubts of their being here as early as the first named date. That they were here very early, and probably earliest of any of the settlers, I have no doubt, but I hardly think they
*It will be noticed, that throughout these pages I have adhered to the early mode of spelling the name of the town. Were excuse necessary it would be, that up to, and long after the times of which they treat, such was the early method, and the old residents. as I well remember, greatly protested against the additional letter in .each syllable, as an unwarrantable innovation.
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penetrated the wilderness of Boston township No. 2 previous to its being granted to the town of Boston.
From Aunt Roxy Smith, grand daughter of Andrew Smith, a very intelligent and well preserved lady of eighty, now residing in East Charlemont I get some account of the advent of the Smith Brothers. She says, that her grand father Andrew, and his brother, (but whether James or John she cannot tell, for he had these two and possibly three brothers, as there is a Robert Smith mentioned in connection in the early records) came to Colrain on horseback from Holden, Mass., with their axes in their saddle bags, and that on their arrival in the wilderness, just over the line from Deerfield, (for as you all know Shelburne was then a part of Deerfield) on the farm now owned by the Coombs Brothers, there was quite a strife be- tween them which should strike the first blow in the new township. That they did not remain long but went back to Holden, returning soon after and buying land to settle permanently. This is in accordance with my own idea. They were two young, adventur- ous men, unmarried, and looking out for some new territory in order "to grow up with the country," and they came up into the wilderness on a prospecting tour having heard that a new township had been granted to the town of Boston, and was about to be opened up for settlement. But I do not think their visit was earlier than 1735-6, and am confident it was not six years previous to Andrew's buying his first land in town, which is the first recorded sale of land in the township, to a settler, January 10th, 1738.
But however that might have been, it matters little, the forest did not change much I fancy during the time they were first here, and there probably was not
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much of a market for the wood and timber they may have felled during the two or even six years they remained. The birch log in the spring which they are said to have placed is there today, and comparatively sound and permanent yet, as proof of at least a part of the story of their presence, but the first event of record looking to the settlement of the town occurred as I have intimated in June, 1735.
On Friday, June 27, 1735, "on petition of the Select- men ofthe Town of Boston, by order of the inhabitants of said town, setting forth the great charges the said town is at for the support of their poor and their free schools and that they pay near a fifth part of the Province tax, and praying for a grant of three or four tracts for townships to be settled and brought for- ward as the circumstances of the said town of Boston shall require, or upon such conditions and limitations as this court shall judge meet." In the House of Representatives read and in answer to this petition :
Voted,"That there be and hereby is granted to the town of Boston, three tracts of land, each of the contents of six miles square and to be laid out in such suitable place or places in the unappropriated land of the Province for townships, by surveyor and chainman on oath, and to return plans thereof to this court for confirmation within twelve months. Provided, the town of Boston do within five years from the con- firmation of the said plans, settle on each of the said towns, sixty families of his Majesty's good subjects, inhabitants of this province, in as regular and defensible a manner as the lands will admit of; each of said sixty families to build and finish a dwelling house on his home lot of the following "dementions" viz. eighteen feet square and seven feet stud at the least, that each
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of the said settlers within said town bring to and fit for improvement five acres of said home lot either by plowing, or for mowing by stocking the same well with English grass, and fence the same well in and actually live on the spot ; and also that they build and finish a suitable and convenient house for the public worship of God, and settle a learned Orthodox minister in each of the said towns, and provide for their honor- able and comfortable support, and also lay out three house lots in each of the said towns, each of which to draw a sixty-third of said town in all future divisions, one to be for the first settled minister, one for the ministry and one for the school. And in order that the conditions of this grant may the more eventually be "complyed" with, ordered that Elisha Cook, Esq., Mr. Osenbridge Thatcher, Mr, Thomas Cushing Jr. and Mr. Timothy Prout, with such as the honorable board shall appoint, be a committe fully authorized to admit settlers, and to take of each settler a bond of twenty five pounds for the performance of the con- ditions so far as relate to their respective lots, which bond shall be made payable to the Province treasurer ; and in case any of the lots in any of the townships hereby granted shall not be settled in time and manner as above provided, then such lot with the rights belonging thereto, shall revert to be at the dis- posal of the Government."
In council read and "concurred and that John Jeffries, Jacob Wendell and Samuel Wells, Esq., be joined in the affair."
In pursuance of the above act, three town- ships were surveyed and are afterward known as
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Boston townships No. 1, 2 and 3. No. I was Charle- mont, No 2 Colrain and No 3 Pittsfield or Housatonuck as it was then called. A plan of Township No 2 was made by Nathaniel Kellogg, surveyor, and filed April 10, 1736, in accordance with the conditions of the grant and was approved by the Governor and Council June 15, following. The description is as follows : Beginning at a chestnut tree in Deerfield, north bounds, from which we run west 1777 perch to a stake and stones; north 2075 perch to stake and stones, thence east 1777 perch to stake and stones, thence south 2075 perch to the fore mentioned chestnut tree.
The terms of the grant, so far at least as they relate to township No. 2, were now complied with and the town of Boston was the owner and possesser of 23040 acres of forest in this frontier wilderness. It should be remembered here that this tract did not cover the entire township as it is now and did not in- clude the Gore which was annexed in 1779. The east boundary of the old township commenced at Shelburne line on the Newell farm, now owned by Mr. Thomas Smead; running north it passed through Mr. Earl Shearer's house and just east of Mr. Joseph Bells,' striking Green river near Mr. E. D. Alexander's mill. It was the old story, and one hundred and fifty years have not changed the disposition of the town of Boston, in the least; she coveted a good big slice of the unappropriated lands of the province and set forth very plausible reasons for her greed, and as it has been ever since in the history of our state legislation she got about all she asked for.
As I said, she now owned the township, a pathless
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forest tracked only by savages, and inhabited only by bears and wolves; no foot of which I fancy any inhabitant of the town of Boston had ever seen or cared to see, nor had any other whitemen, except the surveyor and chainmen, and possibly Andrew Smith and his brother. The town of Boston so far as I can discover, never took any steps toward settling the town, they did not intend to, they had got it, and proposed to realize upon it as soon as possible. Under date of July 14, 1737, I find a deed from John Jeffries, John Armitage, Daniel Colson, Alexander Forsyth, Caleb Lyman, Jonas Clark and Thomas Hutchinson, Jr., Selectmen of the town of Boston, in consideration of 1320 pounds in Province bills or as we now reckon $6,600, one third in hand paid and the rest secured, to be paid according to contract; to Joseph Heath of Roxbury, 23040 acres the bounds and discription being the same as those filed by the surveyor the year previous, and also binding him to the provisions contained in the grant, to the town of Boston; and on the same date Joseph Heath deeds to Joshua Winslow one third of his purchase and later Gershom Keyes, (both these last gentlemen being from Boston) acquires the other third, and both coming in on the same basis as Heath had paid for the whole tract. These men were now the proprietors of the town, and seem to have taken immediate steps toward its settlement, and I think showed very good judgment in the plans they pursued toward that end. They had evidently made a good bargain, and bought the tract cheap, and as the sequel shows must have made a large amount of money out of their transactions. Their main object now was to attract
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settlers to this new territory and unload their wilder- ness. To this end they caused to be surveyed out sixty lots in the south east part of the tract, of fifty acres each. They made the lots small I think for two reasons, first they wished to bring them within the reach of men of small means as most of the settlers doubtless were, and also to make the settle- ment as compact as possible, thus making it more easily defensible against the Indians. These lots were 50 rods north and south and 160 rods east and west, and lay in three ranges, reserving land for roads five rods wide between the ranges.
The first or east range, ran as far north as about where E. B. Stewart now lives, and the road between the first and second range ran just west of the Handy place, where Mr. Conant now lives, and on north past Mr. H. A. Howard's. The second range was laid out as far north as about a half mile north of Mr. Milo Miller's, and the road between the second and third range ran just east of the Coombs Brothers' farm, across the Stebbins pasture, so called, and just on the west border of Mr. Wm. B. McGee's farm, striking the present road where it is now travelled, by the Sprague place, and following it a short distance, but bearing west up on the hill side, it passed west of the row of maple trees belonging to Mr. G. W. Miller and came out just in front of his house, and so on north past the site of the old meeting house, striking North River at the bend which enclosed the island, near the Dennison place. The third range was laid out about 100 rods further north than where the meeting house stood, and the lots ran 160 rods west of the road I have just defined. These were the sixty lots that were anticipated by the
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terms of the grant and were numbered from one to sixty. Number one was the south lot in the first range, No. twenty-eight the south lot in the second range and No. forty-eight the south lot in the third range, although they are sometimes numbered differ- ently in the discriptions in deeds, yet this is evidently the way in which they were numbered by the pro- prietors at the first. There were also a few lots laid out in the fourth range, and also other lots sold early that were not located in these ranges and whose boundary lines -bare no relation to any subsequent divisions of land in the township; such as the Clark, Miller, Fairservice and Wells tracts. The Hugh Morrison tract is intended to be an extension of the third range, but is not regularly so, as the lines vary considerably. These 60 lots then, might be said to have been the basis for the settlement of the township, laid out to accommodate the needs of actual settlers of limited means, and in order to render it even more advantageous. I find that there is conveyed in the deed for each of these 50 acre lots (the consideration for which, is in most cases one hundred pounds, in current money of the province) the right to one hun- dred acres of undivided land in the north part of the town. It being, as the deeds rehearse, "one sixtieth of six thousand acres lying in equal "weadth" across the north part of the town" etc., so that the settler not only got his 50 acres, but the right to 100 acres more, which lots constituted what is known as second divi- sion lots, and which rights were held and sold by some of the settlers at least, even in advance of their actual settlement. The proprietors also. bound the settlers in their deeds of the home lots, by the
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terms, substantially, of the original grant, and by which they were bound by the deed from the town of Boston. The early deeds, all or nearly all, containing the condition that they shall settle upon their lots, and otherwise fulfill the terms of the grant previous to October 9, 1740.
Such were the terms and inducements held out to settlers, and it would seem that they were not only wise but generous, and soon many adventurous and ambitious settlers from the older towns of Hamp- shire, and also Worcester and Middlesex counties, emigrated to the new township to partake in its opportunities and to enjoy what to them was not only a novel but a most grateful experience, the actual possession, after years of struggle and privation in fee simple of the land they cultivated and the roof that sheltered them, and their wives and little ones, Granted that it was a wilderness haunted by wild beasts and menaced by the savage Indians, but I tell you that Hugh Henry, Thomas McGee, Matthew Clark and John Pennill, felt themselves to be kings and lords of all creation, for was not the land on which they trod their own, and no landlord, as in the land from which they had come, could dispute their right to the pos- session and improvement of it. Yes, little, as the pos- session of land may seem to us in this day, it meant a great deal to those early settlers at that time.
SCOTCH-IRISH.
Colrain was settled, as you are aware, by Scotch- Irish, and perhaps a brief account of who and what these people were may not be uninteresting. They were
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mainly if not all of pure Scotch parentage, they or their immediate ancestors having emigrated from Scotland to the north of Ireland, on account of the inducements held out to them, to occupy and settle up- on land that had been wrested from rebellious Catholic subjects. Their situation there was anything but pleasant, surrounded as they were by jealous neigh- bors, envious of their enjoyment of the land previous- ly possessed by themselves, they took every occasion, even resorting to violence, to make their stay unhappy and to render desirable, emigration to some more congenial, if not so fertile a clime. They emigrated many of them from the Province of Ulster, from the towns about Londonderry and Colrain. They were and their descendants still are, "a peculiar people" of that blood of which it is said that "it will tell" wherever it is found.
They were intensely Protestant and generally Presbyterians and next to the devil they abominated a King. I have no doubt that some of them, or if not, their fathers and mothers, were present at the seige of Londonderry in 1688, the account of which is a sad tale of privation and suffering; indeed, there is mentioned in the history of that eventful seige, the doings of a youth named James Stewart and I have little doubt but that it was the same James Stewart who afterward settled in Colrain. In that terrible seige they defended the city until they had slain nine thou- sand of the beseiging army and until three thousand of their own number had fallen, and to such a state of starvation had they become reduced that a quarter of a dog was sold for five shillings and sixpence, horse- flesh was worth one shilling and sixpence a pound, a rat one shilling and a mouse sixpence; and it is re-
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lated of an uncle of Hugh Morrison that having watched all day at a hole in the walls, in hope to capture a mouse that he might appease his hunger, the creature escaping into the wall at last, he burst into tears, realizing that his hopes of dining off that savory morsel had been defeated. Think you that after these experiences, a wilderness such as was this to which they came, infested by savages as it was, had any terrors for them?
They were brave, honest and God-fearing men, "Stony and unapproachable in their pieties"
but possessed of a warmth and tenderness of heart, that you and I have felt and seen in their immediate descendants and which was strangly in contrast with their appearance and manner. They are said to have introduced the culture and spinning of flax, as well as the culture of the potatoe, into New England. They were frugal and economical and it is said that they were accustomed to walk barefoot to church; carrying their shoes and stockings in their hands, stopping when nearly there to put them on, and ap- pearing at church fully dressed, and this has been told to me by their descendants whom I have known, now dead and gone. Borrowing and lending were very common among them, and buying and selling rare. If a pig or other creature was killed for home consumption, much of it was lent out to be repaid in kind in the future. All or nearly all of their subsis- tence, as well as the material for the clothing they wore was raised on their litttle farms, by their own care and toil; the delicacies and luxuries of life were not to be thought of, or if within their reach, the in- dulgence in them, would have been considered by those stern men and women from whom we sprang,
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hardly less then sinful, and from what I have come to know of them and their descendants, I am fully prepared to believe, that next to the disgrace of being publicly admonished by the tythingman, they estimated that of "being out of pork."
Superstitious they were, which is not strange in view of their surroundings; deeply religious, the Bible was their book of Books, and a thorough knowledge of the Westminster Assembly's shorter Catechism was imperative upon old and young alike.
Here they lived as brethren and neighbors, indus- trious and hard working people, quick to assist each other in trouble, and to care for each other in sick- ness and distress. And it is also a peculiar fact that of the early settlers, who became permanent settlers of this town, very many of them were connected by the - ties of blood relationship; they felt and cared for each other, and their descendants of the generations following were hardly less attached; and may God far remove the day, when that heartfelt attachment to our Kith and Kin, that remnant of old Scotch clannishness which we have inherited from our ancestors, and the inspiration of which we have drawn from our mothers, breasts, shall have ceased to exist amongst us.
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