USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Williamstown > Centennial discourse, delivered in Williamstown, Mass., November 19, 1865 > Part 2
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In the year of Mr. Welch's ordination, and of the incorporation of the town, there were some sixty or more settlers here. In 1770, there were about seventy families or parts of families. I will give you their names as I find them recorded :-
CAPT. NEHEMIAH SMEDLEY,
WILLIAM HOSFORD, JOSIAH HOSTORD, COL. B. SIMONDS, SETH HUDSON.
SETH LEWIS, DAVID NICHOLS, STEPHEN DAVIS, TITU'S HARRISON,
ISAAC OVITT,
RICHARD STRATTON,
JOSIAH WRIGHT,
JJONATHAN MEACHAM, JAMES MEACHAM, THOMAS TRAIN, THOMAS DUNTON, WILSON WEBB, DAVID WEBB,
JESSE RYAN, SAMUEL BIRCHARD, JOSEPH WHEELER,
ADA JOHNSON,
ROBERT HAWKINS,
DERRICK SMITH,
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ELKANALI PARIS,
JOSEPH TALMADGE,
CAPT. ISAAC SEARLE,
ELISHA HIGGINS,
JOHN NEWBURY,
STEPHLN OLMSTEAD,
ELISHA HIGGINS,
NATHAN SMITII,
DEA. NATHAN WHEELER,
ISAAC STRATTON,
M . SEELEY,
DANIEL BURBANK,
ELISHA BAKER & SON,
ROBERT MUMASTER,
WILLIAM HINE,
JOHN MCMASTER,
MOSES RICH,
WILLIAM YOUNG,
BARTHOLOMEW WOODCOCK,
JEDEDIAH SABIN,
NEHEMIAH WOODCOCK,
DAVID JOHNSON, 2D,
DAVID JOHNSON,
ASA CORBEN,
SAMUEL SLOANE,
AMASA CORBIN,
ALEXANDER SLOANE,
JOSEPH CORDEN,
. THOMAS ROE,
ICHABOD SOUTHWICK,
JOHN TORREY,
WILLIAM TORREY,
CAPT. SAMUEL CLARK,
- DEMING,
MOSES YOUNG,
LIEUT. SAMPSON HOWI.
ANDREW YOUNG,
SAMUEL MILLS,
JONATHAN SHERWOOD,
SAMUIL SHERWOOD,
ISAAC SHERWOOD,
I have said that these men were the descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers. It is not however a fact that they all came from either Central or Eastern Massachusetts,-many of them were from that portion of Connecticut which lies immediately south of Berk- shire county. They were all, however, of the same original Puri- tan stock ; entertaining the same strong views of religious truth and of civil liberty; uniting habits of industry, frugality and a stern morality with a true appreciation of solid learning in their teachers and of general intelligence among the people. As they set up their church and their school-house in the very centre of their settlement, and laid out their farms on every side of this centre, so it is no exaggeration to say that their remarkable wis- dom and energy in laying foundations of temporal prosperity were inspired by and rendered subservient to the great central idea of establishing the kingdom of God among men, and secur- ing for themselves the blessings of that " ETERNITY," which was a great word, and a most vivid reality to their minds. And it is in this connection that I wish to consider a little more particularly what our Fathers were.
I confess that I feel a much deeper interest in this subject than in their original and general history. As I see them leaving their former homes, and arriving here among these wild hills; as the dense woods are gradually opened to the sunlight, and the virgin soil rewards with its treasures their first years of labor, I love to remember that they were not mere laborers, and that ma- terial interests and physical comfort were not their first object. They were, some of them, eminently spiritual men, and all be- longed to the most remarkable race that had been found on the
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carth for many ages. and they lived in the midst of those peculiar influences which created the American nation.
It has been said that " God sifted three nations" to secure the seed which He planted in our American soil. The Huguenots of France, the Dutch Colonists of Holland, and the Puritans of Eng- land were certainly, in their day, " the salt of the earth, and the light of the worldl." Though the great majority of them were of the common people, yet it should never be forgotten that they were not the " Peasants" of Europe, but in their intelligence and character, far above the masses.
A modern writer, Thackeray, in his lectures on the Georges, says, "As one views Europe in the carly part of the last century, the landscape is awful,-wretched cities beggarly and plundered ; half burned cottages, and trembling peasants gathering piteous harvests ; gangs of such tramping along with bayonet's be- hind them." " Near the city, shut out by woods from the beg- gared country, the enormous, hideous, gilded, monstrous Palace where the Prince is, and the Court, and the trim gardens, and huge fountains. If you can see out of the Palace windows beyond the trim-cut forest vistas, misery is lying outside, hunger is stalk- ing about, the bare villagers listlessly following precarions hus- bandry ; ploughing stony fields with starved cattle, or fearfully taking in scanty harvests. Round all the royal splendor lies a nation enslaved and ruined ; there are people robbed of their rights ; communities laid waste ; faith, justice, commerce trampled upon and well nigh destroyed." " In the first half of the last con- tury this is going on all Europe over."
Now, while such was the condition of the people "all Europe over," a kind Providence had resened our Fathers from the terrible degradation. From 1620, when the Mayflower landed its precious freight of freemen at Plymouth, till the latter part of the century, the Puritans were quietly leaving England and finding a refuge in this western world. As they were at home the very choicest of the people in intelligence, in morales, and in enterprise, so here they were placed in the midst of the most propitions influences for the formation of the highest possible character. ' Before the law they were all equal. They in faet chose their own Rulers and made their own laws. In Religion they had a Church with- out a Bishop, as they had a State without a King. In learning there were no exclusive privileges, and no degraded castes or
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classes. The common school and the common church stood side by side, and it' was considered not simply the privilege but the duty of all to share equally in their benefits. The climate was rigorous, and the soil was stubborn, and the Indians were treach- erous, and their life was full of care and toil. But they shrunk not from their responsibilities in effeminancy or in fear. They were diligent and frugal and thrifty and heroic. The old forests rang with the blows of their sharp axes, and fruitful fields soon surrounded their simple homes. They increased in numbers gradually, and all their institutions of learning and liberty as well as of religion were strengthened and perfected.
Near the close of their first century, according to the London Magazine of May, 1755, and when our Fathers were beginning to emigrate to this county, there were a little over 200,000 peo- ple in Massachusetts, 100,000 in Connecticut, and 30,000 in New Hampshire and Rhode Island respectively. There were also 100,000 in New York, 60,000 in New Jersey, and 250,000 in Penn- sylvania. In all the Southern Colonies there were also 250,000- making a little over a million in all.
At the opening of their second century in this land-that is from 1730 to 1700-there were new and mightier influences work- ing all around our Fathers; and we shall fail to appreciate the character of those who founded our town, if we forget the times in which they lived.
There were the two French wars-the first continuing from 1744 to 1748, and the second from 1754 to 1760. In both. of these fearful struggles with the French and Indians our Fathers were personally engaged; and in the second, Col. Ephraim Wil- liams lost his life. There was not a home in all this valley which the tidings of French cruelties and horrible Indian mas-acres did not darken, while there was not an individual who was not . thrilled by the capture of Louisburg, and the final victory of the young Washington at fort DuQuesne (now Pittsburgh,) and the consequent possession of the Ohio Valley and the entire line of forts from the Mississippi to Detroit and the lakes, and at last, a short time before the ordination of our first Pastor, the victory of Wolfe on the plains of Abraham and the subjection of all the French possessions in the North to the British crown.
During all these years the cloud of war hung so portentously over all this region and burst sometimes with such fury upon our
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Fathers that every thing seemed ready to perish. From 1754 to 1760 there is an entire blank in the Records of the town and we are left to fill it up with deserted homes and burning houses,- those who had come for peaceful toil being turned into soldiers struggling for their personal existence and the life of the colonies as dependencies of a Protestant Power.
But while as subjects of Great Britain and unyielding Protes- tants they felt identified with all these struggles, and rejoiced in these magnificent triumphs over Roman Catholic France, they were not prepared to surrender their own rights which they had enjoyed in this land as a most sacred inheritance derived from . their Fathers. Hence after they came forth from this protracted contest, they were prepared to enter into that new and strange conflict which the British Government so unexpectedly forced upon them.
If then the first settlers of this town lived and labored in the . midst of the perils of French and Indian wars, they also, as well as their immediate successors, must have felt all the excitements which preceded and created the Revolutionary War.
In 1760, a Royalist wrote from Connecticut to the Archbishop of Canterbury, "Connecticut is little more than a mere Democ- racy ; most of them upon a level, and each man thinking himself an able divine and politician. The people are rampant in their high notions of liberty." This was a true witness ; and he de- scribes very exactly those men who came to this valley. The spirit which animated them had many representative men whose names have since become immortal. There was, for instance, the young and bold John Adams. At that time he was " Master of the town school at Worcester, and meditating to become a Preacher." He is described as one who " loved the shady thickets and gloomy groves," and as saying, " a few people came over into this new world for conscience sake, and in another century will become more numerons than England itself. All Europe will not be able to subdue us." There was also James Otis of West Barn- stable, and afterwards of Boston, who said, " I am determined to sacrifice estate, health, applause, and even life itself, to the sacred calls of my country."
These young men spoke out the secret and strong sentiments of the universal heart; and it was such patriotic fervour that burned in the bosoms of our own Fathers as they toiled here in
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the construction of their new homes. And we may imagine, though we cannot describe the intense indignation at the Stamp Act which was passed in this memorable year 1765, and the ex- citement on this topic which must have mingled with the cere- monies of the ordination of our first Pastor.
But there were representative men in religion as well as in pat- riotism in those days. The land was indeed full of learned and sound religious teachers-of men who, while they were them- selves the product of the open Bible and of unrestricted religious freedom everywhere enjoyed, stood up in the presence of congre- , gations cager for the truth, and capable of appreciating the most vigorous reasoning on the most sublime doctrines of revelation. Can we forget to-day, that when the first settlers of this town came over the hills that separate us from the Connecticut river, or wound their way up along the valley of the Housatonic, the great Jonathan Edwards had just left the scene of his most won- derful ministry in Northampton, and was already seated in his little study with its bare floor, in this county, thinking his wise and holy thoughts, and preparing, among other immortal works, his treatise on the freedom of the will? Can we fail to remem- ber, also, that Dr. Samuel Hopkins began his ministry in this county in 1743, and continued here 26 years, several years after the organization of this church by himself and others; and that his system of theology was for some years a text book in this College, and has in fact given tone and strength to the best re- ligious thinking of New England for the last century ? If there were time I might mention other great and memorable names as illustrations of the religions sentiments and character of our fathers. Suffice it to say that the whole Bible as the rule of faith, and christian doctrine scientifically stated by teachers of the clearest minds and the warmest and most devout hearts, was the spiritual food in which the people most delighted.
But it is our purpose not only to consider, this day, the charac- ter of those who first settled the town, but also to pass in brief review the history of the succeeding generations, and look at some of the results which have been here accomplished.
I have not been able to discover from any written records the exact date in which the different families arrived here after the ordination of Mr. Welch. Among the earliest of them was, how- over, my grandfather, David Noble, who planted himself imme-
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diately on the banks of the Hoosie, in a house which stood on the spot where the new factory company are now erecting their principal dwelling house. He was a graduate of Yale College, and a lawyer by profession. He soon removed to the main street, where he lived for many years, and finally died in 1803, in the old brick mansion now owned and occupied by Mr. John Cole. He was one of the original Trustees of Williams College, and a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. His name and that of leis wife are found in the list of the 63 members of the church who united in the call to Rev. Seth Swift to become their Pastor in 1779, three years after the death of Mr. Welch ; and he was one of a committee of three to present the call to the Pastor-elect.
Another of those early settlers was the son-in-law of my grand- fatther, Daniel Dewey, also a lawyer, and who subsequently became a Judge of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, and was very eminent for his legal knowledge and intellectual power.
Another man of distinction at that time was Thompson I. Skin- ner, the Treasurer of the Commonwealth.
Another man who should not be forgotten, was Capt. Jonathan Danforth, the honored grandfather of our fellow-citizen, Keyes Danforth, Esq. He was actively engaged in the battle of Bunker Hill, with his eldest son, Joshua, who soon afterwards became Aid to General Washington, and fought through the Revolution, leaving the army at the close of the war with the rank of Colonel. Not long after the battle of Bunker Hill, the father emigrated with the other members of his family to this town, and it was he who headed the company of our townsmen who rushed to the Bennington battle. In that battle he is said to have "acted a conspicuous part as commander of a battalion."
In the medical profession also, there was one man, Dr. William Towner, whose fame as a physician extended to the Capitol of our State, and whose carly death excited the profoundest regret among all classes.
In Barber's Historical Collection of Massachusetts, there is an imperfect list of those who arrived here between 1770 and 1800. The names are the Bulkleys, Bridges, Chamberlain, Day, Judd, Northam, Skinner, Tyler, Judah and Elisha Williams, and the Wolcotts. They came most of them from Colchester, Conn.
These were all old men when I was a boy; but their features, their forms, and their manners are indelibly impressed on my
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memory. I thought little then of what they and their predeces- sors had done to create their pleasant homes ; but to-day, with my own experience of life, I turn and look back with the deepest interest to their early struggles after they had selected their homes on the high hills and in the deep and narrow vallies of the town. Beginning with my grandfather, Charles Bulkley, on the high bleak ridge just this side of South Williamstown village, where afterwards Gershom Bulkley lived so many years, we may follow them down the old road to the banks of Green river by the Judds and the Kriggers and the Williams and the Blairs and the Days and the Harrisons, while the Bridges and the Northams pass over the Hoosic, the Chamberlains and the Tylers going up to the very summit of Northwest Hill, the Fords cultivating the base of that hill, and the Wolcotts planting themselves nearer the fort and the growing village. The Wolcotts passed away, and Col. Tyler came down from Northwest Hill and spent his last years in their old red mansion. But now the house itself is gone, the old road leading by it is turned into the valley, and as I tried to discover the site of the home of these two generations, every vestige of the past was gone, and I found only a ploughed field.
This last emigration we may suppose found the better portions of the land already taken up by the first settlers. The Smedleys and Meachams and Kellogg's and Simonds and Sloanes and No- bles in the north, and the Barbanks and Woodcocks, and Torreys and Youngs and Sabins and Sherwoods and Demings and John- sons in the south, were already reaping rich harvests on every side.
I am aware that the younger portion of my audience may not feel any special interest in some of these names. Bat to those of my own age and older, there are a thousand thrilling associations connected with them, and the dead past is thus filled to us with life and beauty. We see also the hills and the pleasant farms as they were once occupied on the cast by the Kelloggs and the Footes and Pauls and Blackintons and Wells, and on the west and southwest by the Danforths and Talmadges and Hoxies and Hickoxes and Prindles. And the interest does not diminish as we come into this village and pass up and down the principal street, and mingle once more in imagination with those who were once seen here in their various occupations. Here were the Putnams,
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the son and grandsons of the old revolutionary hero, and the Starkweathers and the Whitmans engaged in successful trade, and Dr. Samuel Porter, whose knowledge of medicine and skill in surgery placed him at the head of his important profession; and Eli Porter, who mended our watches and regulated our time; and Royal L. Porter, who established the " American Traveler," a newspaper that still survives in Boston, and though he died so young, had made himself one of the leading editors in our State Capitol. And here in the. most beautiful house in town, was General Sloane; and after him his son, Douglass W. Sloane Esq., surrounded by his family of accomplished daughters. As we pass down the hill we come to the residence of Judge Daniel Dewey, which after his death in 1813, was occupied for many years by his son, Charles A. Dewey, Esq., who has since been invested with the same judicial robes which sat so gracefully on his father before him, and which the son continues to wear in the full strength of his powers. When he left us for his new home in Northampton, his younger brother, Daniel N. Dewey, Esq., succeeded him here in the profession of law ; and after fill- ing the important offices of Trustee and Treasurer of the College, and Judge of the Probate Court of Berkshire County, and for . many years proving his excellence as a christian by the purity of his life and the generous spirit with which he sustained the insti- tutions of religion, died at the early age of 54-greatly re- gretted-his loss to the church and the town being still deeply felt among us. His son, Daniel Dewey, Esq., also a lawyer, now occupies the old home and is rapidly assuming the responsibili- ties of the father and grandfather. Near him was Gershom T. Bulkley, Esq., the merchant, the Postmaster, and the Town Clerk, who proclaimed with a trembling and yet distinct voice to the breathless congregation just assembled for worship on Sab- bath morning, that "Marriage was intended between Mr. A. B. of C., and Miss E. F. of Williamstown." And on the opposite : i.le of the street was Solomon Bulkley, Esq., the Sheriff, whose quiet and silence of speech were proverbial and from whose ceaseless and stealthy activity no victim of the law could ever escape.
There was also the Hon. Daniel Noble, in the full tide of suc- cess in his profession of the law, so devoted to the interests of Williams College, defending it before the Legislature and origi- nating and rendering successful those important measures which
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prevented the removal of the College to another locality. How elegant his home, and how full of dignity his bearing, and how sudden and overwhelming his early death. Llighting some of the fairest prospects for himself and his children not yet arrived at maturity. He had been for many years a member of this church, and in the winter preceding his death, by his cxhortations and prayers in the conference room, left a very deep impression upon many that the Great Head of the church was preparing him in Ilis own loving way for the solemn change. His three surviving sons are Rev. Edward W. Noble, for many years past a faithful and successful Pastor of a Congregational Church in Truro, Mass. ; Soloman B. Noble, Esq., a lawyer of fine abilities in the city of New York, and William II. Noble, a civil engineer in Wisconsin.
Adjoining his home was that of Dr. Samuel Smith, who went day and night singing over these hills, and carrying light and joy into so many darkened households. He has left two sons, Dr. Albert W. Smith, of Castleton, Vt., and Dr. A. Murray Smith, who occupies the old homestead, and has the honor of practicing his profession among the children of his father's patients.
And Amasa Shattuck with his sevea sons-all still living, and the oldest yet toiling in the same shop where the people went in the olden time for their nicest cabinet furniture and at long intervals for the coffin which should inelose their dead.
And Deacon Noble with his seven sons also, two of whom found early graves, while the remaining five yet survive-one the HIon. Charles Noble, a lawyer, and once holding the position of a State Judge; another, the Hon. David A. Noble, also a lawyer and a member of the U. S. Congress; and two others, Daniel and William A. Noble, successful merchants and useful christian men-all in Michigan, the State of their adoption.
And Christopher Penniman, with his intelligent and zealous wife ever laboring for the kingdom of God.
And Bissell Sherman, who was thought by us boys to have gone to the end of the rainbow and seized there the bag of gold which was hidden so closely in the chest at home.
And Samuel Duncan, whose diligence in his work was equalled only by his wonderful mechanical skill, and whose only surviving son, Dr. Samuel Duncan, is now an honored physician among us.
At a somewhat later date there lived in the same street John
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Wright the merchant. and Samuel G. Nozes the hatter, and Ho- mer Bartlett the lawyer, and Ebenezer Emmons the physi- cian and Professor of natural history, and Ridiey Bannister the Publisher and Editor of the "American Advocate," the weekly newspaper which was the joy and pride of our town for several years. And later still came Major Lyman Hubbell, who had spent a long life in the incessant toils of his large and successful business as a merchant in " Southpart," and Gurdon Bulkley of " Stonchill," who retired from the labors of his farm and spent his last years in such zealous endeavors to lead sinful men to the Saviour. And can we close this list of well-remembered men better than with the honored name of Stephen Hosford, the mer- chant, who was also for so many years our Town Clerk and Justice of the Peace ?
Now while the character and fortunes of these men may have been quite different, we cannot forget that they were all engaged, in their various spheres of life, in the great work of turning this wilderness into a fruitful field. While some were busy in cutting down the forests, in subduing the soil, in constructing roads, in building bridges, in erecting houses for their families, and schools and church, they all found themselves in " a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of val- leys and hills ; and they built goodly houses and dwelt therein ; and when their flocks and their herds multiplied their hearts were not lifted up, neither did they forget the Lord their God. They remembered that it was Ile that gave them power to get wealth that He might establish his covenant which he swore unto their fathers."
And it was under the influence of such principles that schools were so soon established and cherished in each of the districts of the township ; that with the aid of the noble legacy of Col. Wil- liams the Grammar school began its vigorous life, and afterwards, under President Fitch, grew into the College. There were doubtless narrow minded men and croakers among them as there always have been in every generation. But their selfishness was swept away by the high and generous spirit of the majority. And it should never be forgotten that if there had been a differ- ent class of men controlling our affairs at that early period-if our fathers had been men without large intelligence and christian sympathy, and self-denying devotement of their comparatively
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