USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Berkshire, two hundred years in pictures, 1761-1961 > Part 6
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1785
Broadhall, later part of the Pittsfield Country Club, is built by Henry Van Shaack, a former Albany businessman who was forced to leave New York State during the Revolution because of his loyalist sympathies.
"Parker's Flood" destroys several mills in Adams; first of a long series of destruc- tive floods in the Hoosic River.
Large migration of Stockbridge Indians to New Stockbridge in upstate New York.
1786
In a prelude to Shays' Rebellion, a mob of 800 men prevents the courts from sitting in Great Barrington and liberates debtors from county jail.
1787
The last battle of Shays' Rebellion occurs when a band of insurgents who had looted Stockbridge the night before and released prisoners from Great Barrington Jail is attacked by militia under Col. Ashley between Sheffield Plain and South Egremont. Two insurgents kill- ed, 30 wounded, 50 captured; two militiamen killed, (Feb. 27).
Massachusetts-New York boundary dis- pute is settled and Berkshire County's western border established.
Lenox replaces Great Barrington as county seat.
American Centinel, first Berkshire news- paper, issued in Pittsfield with E. Russell as editor; expires after three issues.
1788
Jonathan Smith of Lanesboro delivers his famous address to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention urging ratifi- cation of U. S. Constitution.
1790
Lottery conducted to help finance the "free school" provided for in Col. Ephraim Williams' will raises $3,500.
The Hancock Shaker colony established. Pittsfield town meeting is presented with a petition from Van Shaack and others protesting a special tax to pay for en- larging the Congregational Church. Van Shaack later took the issue to court and was upheld by the state Supreme Court in a decision which helped pave the way for the separation of church and state in Massachusetts.
1791
West College, the first building at Williams, erected at a cost of $11,700.
County's first post office established in Stockbridge.
1792
Shaker colony established in Tyringham. Trustees of the Ephraim Williams dona- tion petition the Legislature to allow the "free school" provided in his will to be converted into a college; the petition is granted despite much local opposition.
County Courthouse completed in Lenox.
1793
Williams College chartered (June 22) as the second college in Massachusetts. First classes start in October under President Ebenezer Fitch.
Bulfinch church, Pittsfield, built. Cheshire incorporated as a township.
1796
Theodore Sedgwick of Stockbridge becomes Berkshire County's first U. S. senator; serves until 1799.
Epidemic of "bilious remitting fever" (also called "pond fever") carries off 60 residents of Hubbard's Pond area in Sheffield.
1797
The Berkshire and Columbia Missionary Society, today the oldest missionary society in the U. S., is organized.
1798
Anson Jones, last president of Re- public of Texas, born in Great Barring- ton.
Becket becomes first town in County to support its Congregational church by voluntary contributions rather than taxes.
1800
The Pittsfield Sun, a Federalist weekly newspaper, is started by Phineas Allen, nephew of Parson Thomas Allen.
1801
The Great Cheshire Cheese, weighing 1,235 lbs. and representing one day's output of the town's dairies, is made for President Jefferson by the inhabitants of Cheshire at the suggestion of Elder John Leland, local Baptist preacher.
Zenas Crane, in association with Henry Wiswell and John Willard (who was soon replaced by Daniel Gilbert) builds a two-vat mill in Dalton and begins the manufacture of printing paper and foolscap.
First textile mill in North Adams estab- lished by David Estes for carding wool and dressing cloth.
Arthur Schofield, an immigrant clothier from England, launches the textile in- dustry in Pittsfield by setting up a wool carding machine on West Street, one of the first in the U.S.
1803
Lenox Academy is founded with Levi Glezen as first preceptor.
1804
Hinsdale is separated from Dalton and Partridgefield (now Peru) and incorp- orated as a separate township.
Giles Tinker, later instrumental in the development of the cotton textile in- dustry in Northern Berkshire, begins manufacturing wool carding machines in North Adams at the age of 23.
1806
American foreign missionary movement is born at an open-air meeting held by a group of Williams College students in a field in Williamstown. The "Haystack Meeting" led to establishment of Ameri- can Board for Foreign Missions (Congre- gational) in 1812 by Samuel J. Mills, one of the students at the meeting.
Samuel Church of East Hartford, Conn., builds Berkshire County's second paper mill, in South Lee; it was purchased by Owen & Hurlbut in 1822 and eventually became the Hurlbut Paper Company.
The Berkshire Bank, first bank in Berk- shire County, is incorporated in Pitts- field. It failed in 1809, and its directors- all leading citizens of the Town - were jailed when they were unable to honor its obligations.
Nancy Hinsdale's school in Pittsfield (which eventually became Miss Hall's) is established as the first incorporated girl's boarding school in Massachusetts under the name of the Pittsfield Female Academy.
1807
Agricultural pioneer and promoter El- kanah Watson, whose introduction of Merino sheep into the area helped estab- lish the Berkshire woolen textile industry, moves to Pittsfield, buying the Henry Van Shaack house.
1808
Berkshire District Medical Society is organized.
The Berkshire Agricultural Society is organized by Elkanah Watson at a meeting in Capt. Pepoon's Tavern, Pittsfield.
Lemuel Pomeroy of Pittsfield establishes an armory for the manufacture of muskets for the state and federal governments, a leading Pittsfield industry for 30 years.
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1810
The Pittsfield Agricultural Fair, believed to be the first such fair in America, makes its debut under the auspices of Watson's Berkshire Agricultural Society (Oct. 2).
1811
First cotton mill in Adams, a four-story building known as the "Old Brick Factory", is erected by a joint stock company consisting of 20 citizens of the town.
1812
Pittsfield is designated by the federal government as a rendezvous for recruits in the War against Great Britain and (in 1813) as a depot for prisoners of war.
Cheshire Crown Glass Co. is incorporated by Capt. Daniel Brown, the first of sev- eral companies to exploit the high-grade sand deposits in that town.
A rowboat containing eight young people capsizes on Six-Mile Pond in New Marlboro. The pond is renamed Lake Buell in honor of a youth of that name who rescued the five survivors.
1814
A post office is established in North Adams with Nathaniel Putnam, grandson of Gen. Israel Putnam, as postmaster. First stage route in Northern Berkshire is established, running from Greenfield to Albany via North Adams and Williams- town.
1815
Berkshire Law Library established in Lenox-the first law library in Massa- chusetts.
Berkshire Society for Promoting Good Morals is organized to combat Sabbath- breaking, swearing and dancing.
1816
A new county courthouse (now the Lenox Library building) and county jail are built in Lenox at a cost of $26,059.
Poet William Cullen Bryant comes to Great Barrington as a young lawyer; elected town clerk in 1820.
1817
The Congregational Church of Pittsfield, which split over political issues in 1808, is reunited under the ministry of Rev. Heman Humphrey, later president of Amherst College.
1818
Humorist Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) born in Lanesboro.
Rev. Dr. Stephen West is dismissed after 56 years as pastor of Stockbridge Congregational Church in the wake of unsubstantiated charges that he had been guilty of "intemperate drinking".
Agricultural National Bank of Pittsfield is incorporated with capital of $100,000. Thomas Gold is elected president and Ezekiel Colt, cashier.
1820
Susan B. Anthony, women's suffrage crusader, born in Adams (Feb. 15).
1823
Berkshire Medical Institution is in- corporated in Pittsfield with a grant of $5,000 from the legislature despite much opposition from Harvard College.
1824
The powder factory of Laflin, Loomis & Co., near the center of Lee, blows up, killing four persons.
1825
First collegiate anti-slavery society in U.S. is organized at Williams College and is soon joined by many others on Northern campuses.
Marquis de Lafayette visits Pittsfield, enroute from Albany to Boston. He is brought from the state line to Pittsfield in a four-horse coach festooned with flowers which takes him through a triumphal arch erected in Park Square.
1827
Iron mining in Richmond launched by Gates Petee & Co., later known as the Richmond Iron Works.
Nathan Drury, a wealthy North Adams farmer, leaves $3,000 to build school to be named Drury Academy.
Berkshire County School Association is formed to improve public education.
1828
E. P. Tanner of Lee founds a paper- making machinery repair shop which eventually becomes Clark-Aiken Co.
Construction of a railroad tunnel through the Hoosac Mountain range is recom- mended by a special state commission.
1829
The first history of Berkshire County, edited by the Rev. David Dudley Field, and written by "gentlemen of the county", is published in Pittsfield.
1831
First Greek letter fraternity house in the " U. S. is leased by Kappa Alpha of Wil- liams College from Col. James Meacham, Williamstown farmer.
1832
Pittsfield Town Hall (now the city hall) is built, replacing a smaller hall which stood on the present site of St. Stephen's Church.
1834
Berkshire Courier established in Great Barrington by John D. Cushing.
1835
First Catholic mass celebrated in Pitts- field at the home of a Mr. Daley on Williams Street by a visiting priest, the Rev. Jeremiah O'Callahan.
Berkshire Mutual Fire Insurance Co. is established, with St. Stephen's Church as its first policy-holder.
Housatonic Manufacturing Co., which became Monument Mills in 1850, estab- lished in Housatonic.
Smith Paper Co. (later a division of Peter Schweitzer Inc.) established in Lee.
1836
Mark Hopkins becomes president of Williams; served until 1872.
1838
Powder magazine near center of Pitts- field, containing 700 lbs. of gunpowder, much of it for testing arms manufactured at Lemuel Pomeroy's armory, is blown up by "disorderly young men" of the town, destroying one house and damag- ing 20 other buildings. The culprits were never apprehended.
1839
Horace Mann, visiting Great Barrington, says that "to make an impression on Berkshire in regard to schools is like attempting to batter down Gibraltar with one's fist."
1841
Western Railroad completed as far as Pittsfield; first train reaches the town from Springfield (May 4).
1842
First passenger train traverses Berkshire County, running from Springfield to Albany via Pittsfield.
Housatonic Agricultural Society holds the first Barrington Fair (Sept. 28-29).
First train comes to Great Barrington via a line built north from the Connect- icut border at Ashley Falls by the Berk- shire Railroad Co.
Pittsfield Young Ladies' Institute found- ed in the buildings of the old Berkshire Gymnasium. Becomes Maplewood In- stitute in 1853.
1843
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow honey- moons in Pittsfield at the Appleton- Gold mansion, home of his wife's father. Weekly Transcript established in Adams by John P. Briggs with 600 subscribers. Henry Chickering becomes sole pro- prietor in 1844.
George Nixon Briggs of Pittsfield be- comes governor of Massachusetts, serv- ing until 1850.
1844
The "Berkshire Jubilee" brings 4,000 Berkshire and ex-Berkshire residents to Jubilee Hill, Pittsfield, to sing the praises of the county (Aug. 23-24).
Pittsfield's first Catholic church is erected on Melville Street on the site now occupied by Notre Dame Church.
Berkshire County's first full-fledged public high school is established in Pittsfield with 66 boys and 46 girls enrolled.
1845
E. D. Jones & Sons is founded in Lee by Edward D. G. Jones.
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1846
Pittsfield-Adams railroad is completed at a cost of $450,000; first train carries passengers to Pittsfield agricultural fair.
1847
Mahaiwe Bank in Great Barrington is incorporated with capitalization of $100,- 000 and with Wilbur Curtis as first president.
James Hunter Machine Co. is established in North Adams.
1848
First Catholic services in North Adams. New England Lime Co. is established in Adams.
1849
L. L. Brown Co. is established in Adams by Levi Brown and his uncles, Daniel and William Jenks, to manufacture paper.
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes builds a house on ancestral acres at Canoe Meadows, Pittsfield, and spends the first of "seven blessed summers" there.
1850
Herman Melville buys Arrowhead farm, Pittsfield, and lives there until 1863. Publishes "Moby-Dick" in 1851.
Nathaniel Hawthorne comes to the Berkshires from Salem and establishes residence at Tanglewood.
Pittsfield and Stockbridge are connected by rail via Lee and Lenox.
1851
Berkshire Life Insurance Co. is chartered with George Nixon Briggs as its first president (May 15).
Construction of the Hoosac Tunnel is started by the Troy & Greenfield Rail- road Co. with Laommi Baldwin as chief engineer.
A free public high school is established in North Adams, using the Drury Acad- emy building.
1853
Laurel Hill Association is established in Stockbridge under leadership of Mary G. Hopkins; first village improvement society in U.S.
First plate glass in the U.S. produced in Cheshire by the Cheshire Glass Co. Pittsfield Coal Gas Co. is incorporated.
1854
Julius Rockwell of Pittsfield is elected to the U. S. Senate.
Original St. Peter's Church (Catholic) in Great Barrington is built at Russell and Cottage Streets.
1855
Lenox opens a free public library - the first one in Berkshire County.
Great Barrington Gas Co. chartered; begins laying gas pipes along Main Street.
1856
Housatonic Agricultural Society erects buildings and lays out a half-mile track on the site of the present fairgrounds in Great Barrington.
1857
Owen Paper Co. in Housatonic is estab- lished by Owen and Hurlbut, South Lee papermakers.
A telegraph line is established between Pittsfield and Great Barrington by the American Telegraph Co.
1859
First intercollegiate baseball game ever played takes place in Pittsfield, Amherst defeating Williams 66-32 in 26 innings with 13 players to a side.
1861
The Pittsfield militia, known as the Allen Guard and numbering 78 men under Capt. Henry S. Briggs, becomes the first Western Massachusetts company called up in the Civil War.
Special town meetings are held through- out the county to raise money with which to equip local infantry companies, pro- vide bounty payments (usually $100 to $125) for volunteers, and extend aid to their families. Berkshire County towns raised $852,946 for war purposes be- tween 1861 and 1865, and supplied between 5,000 and 6,000 men.
1862
Camp Briggs, a training camp for Berk- shire recruits in the Civil War, is estab- lished on Elm Street in Pittsfield; named for Henry S. Briggs, commander of the Allen Guards.
A telegraph line from Bridgeport, Conn., is extended to Great Barrington, connect- ing there with the line to Pittsfield.
1863
The Defiance Mill in Dalton is bought by Franklin Weston; he sold it a year later to C. O. Brown and Byron Weston, his nephew, who bought out Brown's interest in 1867.
1864
Stockbridge Library, built with funds contributed by the town and by Nathan Jackson, a wealthy native son, is opened to the public.
The Lenox Club is organized by prom- inent summer and year-round residents of the town.
1866
Farnam Lime Works is established in Cheshire.
Lenox Academy, closed during the Civil War, reopens as the town high school.
1867
First practical demonstration in the U.S. of paper-making from wood pulp rather than rags, at Smith-Platner mills in Lee under the direction of Frederick Wurtz- bach (March 8).
E. D. Jones & Sons moves from Lee to Depot Street in Pittsfield.
1868
Berkshire Medical College in Pittsfield finally closes for lack of funds after grad- uating a total of 1,138 doctors.
Berkshire Life Insurance Co. moves into new headquarters at the corner of North and West Streets, Pittsfield.
After many years of agitation and bitter controversy the seat of Berkshire County is moved from Lenox to Pittsfield by the Legislature which authorizes an ex- penditure of $350,000 for a courthouse and jail.
1870
Lee Lime Corporation is established by Martin Deely.
A crew of 75 Chinese "strike breakers" is brought to North Adams by shoe manu- facturer Calvin T. Sampson following wage disagreements with a shoemakers' trade organization known as the Crispins.
1871
Berkshire Bar Association is organized.
County Courthouse in Pittsfield built at a cost of approximately $175,000, using white marble from Sheffield.
1873
The Berkshire Athenaeum, established in 1850 as The Pittsfield Library Associa- tion, becomes a free public library.
1874
The Charles Sedgwick Library and Read- ing Room is opened in the former court- house building in Lenox, a gift of Mrs. F. Augustus Schermerhorn.
Father Matthew Temperance Society (now the Catholic Youth Center) is established in Pittsfield by the Rev. Thomas Smyth, assistant pastor of St. Joseph's Church.
1875
The House of Mercy hospital opens on Francis Avenue, Pittsfield, with 8 beds.
First train negotiates Hoosac Tunnel: three platform cars and a freight car, with 125 dignitaries aboard (Feb. 9).
Henry L. Dawes of Pittsfield is elected to the U.S. Senate after serving 18 consecu- tive years in the House.
1876
The present Berkshire Athenaeum build- ing, made possible by the gifts of the Allen family, is completed, and the col- lection of some 4,200 books is moved from the former quarters in the Agri- cultural Bank building.
1877
The first demonstration of the telephone in Berkshire County is staged before an audience of 300 at the Academy of Music in Pittsfield.
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1878
North Adams is separated from Adams by the Legislature following spirited local controversy over the question of whether the town should be divided or should adopt a city charter.
A. H. Rice Co. is established in Pittsfield to manufacture silk thread.
Field Chime Tower is erected in Stock- bridge to mark the site of the first Indian mission church.
Pittsfield's first public elevator is installed in the Berkshire Life building.
1879
Crane & Co. of Dalton obtains an ex- clusive contract to furnish the U.S. government with currency paper.
The first telephone exchange in Berkshire County opens in North Adams with 33 subscribers.
A tornado cuts across southern Pittsfield, killing two persons and destroying several buildings (July 13).
1880
The Pittsfield Evening Journal, Berkshire County's first daily newspaper, is estab- lished by Nathaniel C. Fowler.
1881
Great Barrington Free Library is chart- ered.
American Zylonite Co. established in Adams with $750,000 capitalization.
1882
Train wreck in North Adams injures 35 workmen en route to the Hoosac Tunnel (Oct. 21) and leads to the establishment of the North Adams Hospital in 1884 with funds raised by popular subscrip- tion.
1883
A trunk telephone line is strung between Pittsfield and Great Barrington.
1884
North Adams Public Library established. The Maplewood Institute, weakened by epidemics in 1864 and 1866 and by the financial panic of 1873, finally closes its doors after five decades as one of the nation's leading girls' schools.
1886
William Stanley gives Great Barrington the world's first commercial electric system run by alternating current; he closes a switch that brings light to 25 stores on Main Street (Mar. 20).
East Lee flood, caused by collapse of a dam, results in 7 deaths and $250,000 in damage.
Stockbridge Casino, later the Berkshire Playhouse, is built as a gathering place for wealthy "cottagers" of the town.
First horse car in Pittsfield travels on tracks laid from the North Street railroad bridge to Pontoosuc Lake (July 3).
1887
The Maplewood Hotel is established by Arthur W. Plumb in buildings formerly occupied by the Maplewood Institute, Pittsfield.
Pittsfield Street Railway Co., predecessor of Berkshire Street Railway, is incor- porated as a horsecar line.
1889
Hoosac Valley Street Railway in Adams becomes one of first horsecar lines in the U.S. to switch to electricity.
1890
Stanley Electric Manufacturing Co. is established by William Stanley on Clapp Avenue, Pittsfield, with 16 employes.
The Pittsfield Electric Co. is organized and builds a power station on Renne Avenue.
Pittsfield decides to become a city, voting 932 to 786 in favor of a charter plan en- acted at the previous session of the Legislature (Feb. 11).
1891
Electric trolley cars are introduced in Pittsfield, running from Park Square to Pontoosuc Lake; despite difficulty in ascending hills, the trolley carries 3,700 passengers on its first Sunday.
1892
The weekly Berkshire County Eagle be- comes a daily; its first daily issue of 4 pp. sells 2,000 copies (May 9).
Kremlin, a stallion owned by William Russell Allen of Pittsfield, is acclaimed the fastest trotting horse in the U.S.
The Housatonic Railroad Co., connect- ing Pittsfield and Bridgeport, Conn., merges with the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.
1893
The Hurlbut Stationery Co., which later becomes Eaton, Crane & Pike and, finally, Eaton Paper Corporation, is established in Pittsfield.
The Dalton Town Hall and Library building, a gift of the Crane family, is dedicated (Feb. 5).
Franklin Leonard Pope, inventor and Great Barrington native, retires ro Wain- wright Hall, his estate in that town, after a brilliant career that included in- vention of the stock ticker and a period of collaboration with Edison in tele- graphic research.
1894
North Adams State Teachers College is established by the Legislature; it receives its first students in 1897.
Riverdale Cotton Mills, later the Great Barrington Mfg. Co., is established.
SKC (Stanley, Kelly, Chesney) trans- mission system enables Great Barrington to utilize the water power of the Stock- bridge Iron Works, 8 miles away - a historic advance in power transmission.
1896
Fire reduces both sides of Railroad Street in Great Barrington to ashes, destroying 22 business buildings and a dozen homes.
William C. Whitney, secretary of the Navy under Cleveland, establishes an 11,000-acre game preserve in Washing- ton, stocking it with buffalo, moose, elk, etc., and employing 55 persons. The estate became October Mountain State Forest in 1915.
1897
Golf is introduced to Pittsfield on a nine- hole course laid out at Williams Street and Holmes Road by the newly organized Country Club.
1898
Mount Greylock Reservation is estab- lished by the Legislature.
Searles High School in Great Barrington dedicated (Jan. 11).
1899
Joseph Choate, eminent lawyer of New York and Stockbridge, is appointed American ambassador to Great Britain.
President Mckinley visits William B. Plunkett of Adams and lays the corner- stone of No. 4 mill.
Monument Mountain tract of 342 acres is given to the Trustees of Reservations by Miss Helen C. Butler of New York.
1900
W. Murray Crane of Dalton becomes governor of Massachusetts.
The Boys Club of Pittsfield opens in a room in the Renne building on Fenn Street with Prentice A. Jordan as super- intendent.
B. D. Rising Co. acquires the Owen papermill in Housatonic.
Pittsfield becomes the scene of a much publicized murder mystery when the daughter of Robert L. Fosburgh is shot and killed at the family home on Tyler Street. Her brother was tried and ac- quitted, and the case was never solved.
1901
The Berkshire Street Railway is organized with capitalizarion of $550,000 and be- gins building trolley lines in compe- tition with the Pittsfield Electric Street Railway Co.
1902
Solomon Pollack, a New York tailor, leads a
back-to-the-land movement which brings 35 Jewish families from the city to Sandisfield as settlers.
The Berkshire Agricultural Society in Pittsfield dissolves after 91 years, selling its fair grounds on Wahconah Street.
First trolley car arrives in Great Barring- ton from Pittsfield.
A four-horse carriage carrying President Theodore Roosevelt, Gov. Crane and George L. Cortelyou (TR's secretary) is struck by a trolley car on South Street,
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Pittsfield. Secret Service man William Craig is killed and the President sustains a leg injury. (Sept. 3).
1903
Ex-president Grover Cleveland and family summer in Tyringham at Rivet- side Farm, adjacent to the property of his friend, Richard Watson Gilder, editor of Century Magazine.
The Berkshire Automobile Club holds a hill-climbing contest on Briggs Hill, West Street, in Pittsfield. Charles K. Crane of Dalton wins the gas car contest in a Winton; City Treasurer E. H. Kennedy wins the steamer contest.
The Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield is erected through the beneficence of Zenas Crane of Dalton.
Mark Twain summers in Tyringham.
1904
W. Murray Crane of Dalton is elected to the U. S. Senate.
Williams College installs electricity in its buildings.
The Berkshire Auto Co. (later Berkshire Motor Car Co.) is organized in Pittsfield with Dr. William J. Mercer as president and with the slogan "tested in the Berk- shire Hills."
1906
Pittsfield's career as a center for lighter- than-air travel is launched when the Orient, a balloon of 1,000 cubic meters capacity, carries Dr. and Mrs. Julian Thomas and pilot Charles Levee 60 miles to a successful landing in Somers, Conn. (April 11).
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