USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Charlemont > Charlemont as a plantation : an historical discourse at the centennial anniversary of the death of Moses Rice, the first settler of the town, delivered at Charlemont, Mass., June 11, 1855 > Part 4
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Mr. Leavitt resided, during his life, on the minister's lot already described, which, till within a short time, has remained in the possession of his descendants. He died in 1801.
The first appropriation for public schools of which I find any record, was at the March meeting, 1770 ; when nine pounds were voted, and divided between the three districts-the upper and the lower end and the hill-in nearly equal parts. For some suc- ceeding years, the sum of fifteen pounds was raised yearly, and divided, £5 10s. to the " hill," £4 10s. to the " lower end," and
1 After much inquiry, I have been unable to ascertain the precise date of Mr. Leavitt's installation. Doubtless the church was organized at the same time.
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£5 to the " upper end." The system thus established, has con- tinued with varied success to the present day.
A military company was organized in 1773, and Othniel Taylor was chosen captain. His commission bears date January 18, of that year.
From the incorporation to the Revolution, a period of ten years, the town steadily increased in numbers and wealth. Settlers of an excellent character came in from various quarters, and became worthy coadjutors with the fathers of the town, in advancing its prosperity. Prominent among these are the familiar names of Avery, Bingham, Brooks, Fales, Hartwell, Gould, Maxwell, Nich- ols, Parker, Pierce, Temple, Thayer, White and Upton.
We have no means of ascertaining the number of inhabitants, accurately, previous to the Revolution. The ratable polls, in 1773, were sixty-three, and in 1775, eighty-one.
The valuation, in 1770, was, personal estate, £354 5s. 0d. ; real estate, " reckoned at six years' income," £1,008 Ss. Od. The province tax was €2 10s. The three highest tax-payers were, Othniel Taylor, taxed for £98 Ss. real, and £21 11s. personal estate ; Aaron Rice, for .€84 0s. real, and £21 11s. personal ; and Daniel Kingsley, for £72 Os. real, and £15 14s. personal.
The Revolutionary History of Charlemout well deserves an ampler recital than I am able to give. She may safely challenge any sister town to show the record of a heartier devotion to the patriotic cause, or a more numerous catalogue of hardy soldiers and able officers, in proportion to her population.
In answer to the letters of the " Committee of Correspondence" at Boston, the " inhabitants and freeholders," on the 25th of Octo- ber, 1775, unanimously adopted, and ordered to be recorded, the report of their committee,-which, after expressing the " warmest sentiments of loyalty to, and the highest respect for, the sacred person, crown and dignity of our right and lawful Sovereign, King George, the Third," proceeds to set forth, in strong terms, their bardens and grievances, and then says : "That the Inhabitants of this town hold sacred our excellent constitution, so dearly pur- chased by our forefathers ; that we also hold dear our possessions, so dearly purchased by ourselves, when, to settle this town and make it more advantageous to his Majesty, and profitable to our- solves and posterity, we have been alarmed by the yells of savages
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about our ears, and been shocked with scenes of our dearest friends and nearest relatives butchered, scalped and captivated before our eyes,-we, our wives and children, forced to fly to garrison for safety ; therefore we must hold the man in the greatest scorn and contempt, who shall endeavor to rob us either of liberty or prop- erty."
The town was represented in the Provincial Congress of 1774, by Lt. Hugh Maxwell, and in that of 1775, by Samuel Taylor. Their accounts for expenses were duly allowed and paid.
A company of minute men was early formed. This company, with eighteen men from Myrifield, now Rowe, under Oliver Avery as Captain, and Hugh Maxwell as Lieutenant, marched to Cam- bridge, immediately after the engagements at Concord and Lexing- ton. When the various bands of volunteer troops were organized into a regular army, many of the Charlemont company enrolled themselves, and formed the second company, fifty-two in number, in Col. Prescott's regiment. Hugh Maxwell was commissioned as Captain, and Joseph Stebbins as Lieutenant, May 26.
Capt. Avery, and a portion of his men, dissatisfied with this arrangement, returned home. Others still, who did not enlist per- manently, remained for some time as volunteers, and were engaged with the company in the battle of Bunker's Hill. Of this number was Josiah Pierce, lately deceased at an advanced age, who fired at the enemy forty-seven bullets, with an unerring aim which was proverbial in his time. Ebenezer Fales was killed in the battle, and Capt. Maxwell dangerously wounded. The company and its commander served through the war. Capt. Maxwell had already performed hard service in the French and Indian war. He was in the battle of Lake George, when Williams fell, and Dieskau was defeated and made prisoner ; and, two years later, at the capture of Fort William Henry, and barely escaped the massacre in which so many of his comrades fell. He was present at Trenton and Princeton, at Stillwater and Saratoga ; and endured the horrors of the encampment at Valley Forge. He enjoyed the confidence of Washington, and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He was a brave and skillful officer, and a most valuable citizen. He died at sea, October 1799, in the 67th year of his age.
His brother, Benjamin Maxwell, was Lieutenant in the company of minute men. He also had served in the French and Indian
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war. He was one of Maj. Rogers's rangers in the campaign of 1758 ; and was in the engagement between the provincials under Putnam and Rogers and the Indians, in which Putnam was taken prisoner.
From the families of the "first settlers," there were many actively engaged in the service. Sylvanus Rice, son of Capt. Moses, as Captain of the " minute men," was frequently employed in short terms of service. He led his company, at one time, to New London ; mortgaging his farm in order to raise the necessary means of equipment.
Luther Rice, son of Capt. Sylvanus, was several years in the army, and died in the service at West Point, 1782.
Moses and Samuel Rice, sons of Samuel, senior, were also in the continental service, probably each three years. Samuel was present on the northern frontier, when Ethan Allen's detachment joined the troops under Arnold, and witnessed the characteristic quarrel between these two officers in regard to the command of the united body. On the morning of the Battle of Bennington, Mr. Rice and others of the " minute men " started from Charlemont for that place. " Riding and tying " as they went through the wilderness, they made such haste, as to reach the field of action just as the second body of Hessians, under Breyman, were giving way, and joined in the final pursuit. Late in the following fall, he was sent from Bennington with three or four others-one of whom was Lemuel Roberts, also from Charlemont-to examine the ice on Lake George. While on their route through the deep snow in the roads, the party was overtaken and captured by a company of Canadians, and taken, first to Montreal, and afterwards to Que- bec. Their sufferings, from rigorous confinement and from the extreme cold, were intense. They contrived to escape from Quebec and made for the woods in the plain in the rear of the city. Here, being discovered by some woodmen, they were retaken and placed under a guard in one of the small islands in the St. Lawrence. When the ice left the river in the following spring, Mr. Rice, eluding the guard, seized a small canoe which was left unlocked, and made his way to the southern bank of the river ; with the scanty store of provisions which he had saved from his daily rations, in anticipation of flight, he started on his lonely journey through the deep woods between the Canadian and American
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settlements ; concealing himself by day at first, and traveling at night by the guidance of the stars, he reached his home, after enduring almost incredible hardships, early in the summer.
Martin Rice, the older brother of Samuel, and but recently deceased, was one of the volunteers with the Charlemont company at Bunker Hill.
Eleazer Hawks, the son of Joshua, senior, was engaged in the battle of Bennington. He had removed to that town just previ- ous to the war.
Ephraim Hawks, son of Dea. Gershom, was a continental soldier, it is believed, through the war.
Tertius and Othniel Taylor, sons of Othniel, senior, were both in the continental service during the war. Tertius, who held a lieutenant's commission, was in most of the important battles in the middle and northern States ; at White Plains and Kingsbridge, at Stillwater and Saratoga. He was one of " Mad " Anthony Wayne's storming party at Stoney Point.
Othniel held a captain's commission, probably in the same regi- ment with his brother, and, like him, was engaged in most of the important northern battles. He led his company at Stillwater and Saratoga.
Many others, either as levies or as volunteers, performed service for longer or shorter periods. The records of the town show numerous votes of supplies to the families of soldiers who were serving their country in the field.
In closing this meagre sketch of the revolutionary efforts of the town, I cannot but give expression to the hope, that its very scan- tiness will lead to the production of some ampler and more satisfactory record of this portion of our history, while so many traditions of the times yet linger amongst us.
I have thus brought to a close, what I proposed to say with regard to the early history of Charlemont. I am well aware how far short it falls of a satisfactory chronicle. Most deeply do we deplore the loss, excepting a few leaves, of the Proprietors' Book of Records, which would have been an invaluable storehouse of materials for the early history of our town. In the absence of this, I have relied, as you have seen, upon such documents as have been preserved by the descendants of Capt. Othniel Taylor, the Proprietors' Treasurer ; also upon various memorials and petitions
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of the early settlers to the General Court, with the action of the government upon them ; and, in addition to these, upon the tradi- tions which fell upon my car in boyhood, or have been gathered in later years. Imperfect as these sketches are, if, however, they shall prove the means of exciting a more active inquiry into our early annals, and also induce a more careful preservation of the records of current events for the benefit of those who come after us ; if, especially, they shall succeed in exciting a deeper reverence for the persons and the principles of our fathers, then they will not have been wholly in vain.
We are descended from men of no common mould. They were worthy sons of the men who first landed on these shores. These fathers of our fathers, were indeed a peculiar people. They were the seed-wheat, sifted by the winds of persecution from the chaff of the old world, and wafted across the sea, to be sown broadcast on the virgin soil of the new world. They were edu- cated men. From the university, and the parochial school, they brought hither the garnered science and liberal learning of their times. Above all, they had drunk deeply of purer streams-of the living waters of truth. They feared God, and bore true fealty to the obligations of justice and truth. They lived not for them- selves alone. They acknowledged the claims of the future, and manfully strove to pay the debt. And, as were the fathers, so also were the sons whom we this day commemorate. Born in the wilderness, and reared amid dangers and hardships, if they had less of liberal culture, they exhibited in no less degree the higher and sterner virtues which their times demanded. True, also, to the future, they sowed that we might reap ; they labored, that we might enter into their labors ; they purchased with blood, that we might inherit in peace. May ours be the high privilege, as it is the solemn duty, to transmit this rich inheritance, unimpaired, to the generations yet to come. So shall we best honor the memory of the Fathers.
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX A. page 12.
The petition of Capt. Rice, from which I have quoted in the text, together with the action of the General Court thereon, is as follows :
Province of the Massachusetts Bay.
To the Hon'ble Spencer Phipps, Esq., Lieut. Governor and Commander in Chief in and over said Province, the Hon'ble His Majesty's Council and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, at Cambridge, Nov. 22d, 1752.
The Petition of Moses Rice of a Place called Charlemont, in the County of Hampshire, Humbly Shews :
That it is about Ten years since your Petitioner went to Live in said Place, and was the first Family that moved there, and hath remained there Constantly untill this Time (saving three years in the heat of the late Warr,) nor did your Petitioner remove till the very week Hoosuck Fort was taken by the Enemy.
That your Petitioner has undergone great and uncomon Hardships, by Settleing in so distant a Place, being obliged to go to Deerfield to get his corn ground, which is about Twenty-Two miles, as the Road goes.
That his living was of great service as he humbly apprehends, to the Publick, as being the only House where People could be Supplied. And as Soldiers were often Travaillng that way, as well as small Partys on Scouts, it was very Expensive to your Petitioner, who often Supply'd them at his own cost.
That your Petitioner was solely at the cost of Building his House in a Defensible manner, nor was there any Soldiers allowed there (tho' so Expos'd a Place) Excepting a few months.
That as he was not defended he, at the Time aforesaid, drew off, and carryed his wife and Family to Deerfield. And returning in order to take Care of his Things, found his House was burnt, with a good Stock of Pro- vision therein, (or cary'd away,) by the Enemy, as was all his Household Goods, with a Considerable parcel of Clothing, his Stock of Cattle being Seven oxen and Cows, together with Six very good fatt Hoggs, were all killed by the enemy,-his Crop of Grain, at Least Three Hundred Bushell, with all his Hay, Husbandy Tools, and many other things all destroyed- his Loss being at Least Fifteen Hundred Pounds, old Tenor.
That as he was ready, at great Cost and Charge, in defending himself while he Tarry'd in said Plantation, "and his Losses are Trully repre- sented "-he
Therefore Humbly Prays he may obtain a Grant of Land in the County of Hampshire, under such Restrictions and Limitations as may be consistant with your Honor and Honor's Known Wisdom and Goodness, " or otherwise
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Releave your poor Petitioner as your Honors shall think fit." And as in Duty bound shall ever pray.
MOSES RICE.
In House of Reps., Dec. 4, 1752.
Read and in answer to this Po'tn, Ordered that there be granted to the Pe'tr his Heirs and Assigns forever, One hundred Acres of the Unappropri- ated Lands in the County of Hampshire, at the South End of Boston Town- ship Number One, in consideration of his services for the Government ; and the Losses He sustained, as sett forth in His Petition. And that the said Land be laid out at the Cost and Charge of the Petitioner, by Joseph Wilder, Junr., Esq., to prevent Damage being done to the Province Land that shall be left.
The following statement of Capt. Rice before a Committee of the House of Representatives, throws further light upon the condition of things at the time spoken of in the text.
April 8th, 1748.
" The account of Moses Rice, late of C'hisley Mount, as near as I Can, of Cer- tificales givin in to the Gien't Court before the Town House was Burnt.
By Col. Williams, Capt. Stevens and Levt Mitchal, For Pas- turage of Horses and Cattel on my Farm at Charleymount, the Summer past, £24. 0. 0. And for damage done to my fax on A'd farm by s'd horses and Cattel. 30. 0. 0.
Also by Capt. Pattridge for Horse keeping, when he went to bury the Dead, at Fort Massachusetts, after the s'd Fort was taken, 10. 0.0.
old Tenour, £64. 0. 0. MOSES RICE.
It appearing to ye Committee that Petition of s'd Rice and vouchers to ye above accounts were burnt with ye town House, and having now particularly Exam'd a'd Rice upon ye several articles, it appears to ye Com'tee reason- able he be allowed the above acc't amounting to sixteen pounds last Emission.
Per order. O. B. PARTRIDGE.
APPENDIX B. page 12.
Province of Massachusetts Bay.
To His Excellency Wm. Shirley, Esq., Capt. Gen'll and Gov'r in and over maid province, &c.
The petition of Moses Rice, of Rutland, County of Worcester, most humbly shows : That in July, 1746, one Benj. Shaw of Middleboro,' was Impressed and went to Fort Pelham, from Col. Warren's Regiment-That in December following, one of your petitioner's sons (upon being assured that in July following he should be dismissed.) took said shaw's place ;- That tho' the first year has expired, and more than two mo. of a second year, yet your petitioner cant't get his son released, without your Excellency, of your great goodness, will please to interpose with your authority. Your petitioner therefore, most humbly prays your Excellency will Compassionate ye circum- stances of your petitioner's son, whose name is Aaron Rice, and order him to be released from ye service, and if it may be consistent with your Excel-
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lency's wisdom and pleasure, to direct Col. Warren to Impress another man, to relieve your petitioner's son, or in such other way and manner grant relief, as to your Excellency, in your great wisdom, shall seem meet. And as in duty bound will ever pray.
MOSES RICE.
Indorsed .- " Moses Rice's petition to the Governor, 1748."
APPENDIX C. page 13.
To his Excellency William Shirley, Esqr., Captain Generall and Govern- our in Chief in and over his Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England, &c., To the Honourable his Majesty's Council, and the Hon'ble House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, April 5, 1749.
The Petition of Othniel Taylor, Humbly Sheweth :
That your petitioner, by Order of his Officer, pursued the Indian Enemy on the 25 of Aug'st, 1746, with such vehemence that he killed an Horse, which Cost him Forty pounds, Old Tenor.
Wherefore your Petitioner prays your Excellency and Honors to take his Case into Consideration, and allow him the money his Horse Cost him, and as in Duty Bound Shall ever Pray, &c.
OTHNIEL TAYLOR.
APPENDIX D. page 13.
I insert here such further notices of Mr. Taylor's family as I have been able to obtain.
His children born in Deerfield were
Samuel, b. Sept. 21, 1744, m. Esther White, of Leominster. Intentions posted Nov. 28, 1769.
Mary, b. June 23, 1746.
Lemuel, b. Feb. 11, 1748, m. Abigail White of Leominster. Intentions posted Dec. 8, 1772.
These two sons lived and died in that part of Charlemont, south of the Deerfield, which is now Buckland.
The children born in Charlemont were
Enos, b. Feb. 3, 1751.
Othniel, b. Jan'y 10, 1753; Tertius, b. July 25, 1754 ; Martha, Dec. 21, 1756; William, b. Jan'y 27, 1758; Lydia, b. March 16, 1760 ; Rufus, b. Ap. 3, 1763 ; Lucinda, b. Nov. 26, 1765; Tirzah, b. Jan'y 2, 1769 ; Dolly, b. Dec. 12, 1772,-" in all thirteen, every one of whom lived to old age, the youngest dying at 66, and the oldest at 92. Their average age was 77 years, and their aggregate ages 1,000 years ! "
Mr. Taylor, as will appear in the narrative, was one of the most intelli- gent, enterprising and public spirited men of the town. He kept a public house for many years, and was also a trader. The account book of Capt. Taylor still exists, and some names have a frightful array of charges against them for " Rhum," "Flip," "Toddy," "Sider," &c. In 1762 there is a
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charge of tavern expenses to Capt. Samuel Robinson and family, on their way from Hardwick, to settle in Bennington, Vermont, (Vide Rev. Mr. Fos- ter's Hist. of C. in Holland's Hist. of West. Mass.) Mr. Taylor died Dec. 27, 1778.
APPENDIX E. page 13.
Eleazer Hawks. the father, was the son of Dea. Eleazer and Judith Hawks, and was born at Deerfield, Dec. 26, 1693. He was an older brother of Col. John Hawks. (born Dec. 5, 1707.) a brave and distinguished officer, who, as we have seen, commanded at Fort Massachusetts, when it was besieged and taken in 1746. His wife's name was Abigail. Their children were, -
1. Gershom, born Feb. 23, 1716, married Thankful Corse, of Deerfield, May :1, 1744. He was stationed for some time at Fort Massachusetts, and was wounded in a skirmish with the Indians near the fort, July, 1746. Fur- ther notices of him are found in the narrative. He died at Charlemont, Dec. 25, 1799. This wife died Dec. 6, 1800. Mr. Hawks was for many years one of the most active and inthiential inhabitants of the infant settle- ment. Their children were .- Gershom, baptized at Deerfield, May 10, 1744 ; Jonathan b. nt Charlemont. March 9, 1755. d. Ap. 25, 1831 ; Elihu, b. Sept. 3 1756. d. Dec. 26, 1813 : Elihu, bap. Oct 23, 1757 ; Israel, Rufus, Ephraim and Renben.
II. Eleazer, born Nov. 13, 1717, and killed at the " Bars Fight," Aug. 25, 1:40
III. Joshua, b Jan's 25, 1722, and married March, 1711, to Abigail Hast- ings, of Deerfield. Their children born previous to their removal here, were Abigail, b. Jan'y 31. 1245 : Eleazer, b. Feb. 29, 1717. He lived many years, and died nt Bennington, Vt. Joshua, mentioned in the narrative. There is a tradition in the family that he was born at Fort Pelham. Jared, born at Charlemont, March 17, 1752-the second child born there-hap. at Deerfield, Oct. 8: d. Dec. 14, 1828. AAsa, bap. May 9, 1757 : Ichabod, posthumus, b. Sept. 13, 1761 : d. 1-37. Joshua, the father, died in the beginning of 1761. ;
IV. Seth, b. Oct. 5, 1729 ; married Elizabeth Belding, June 24, 1761. Children, Samuel, and a daughter : by 2d wife, William and Esther. Mr. Hawks, after a few years' residence at Charlemont, returned to Deerfield. Ilis son Samuel is said to have been born in the " fort ; " he lived in Zoar, on the farm month of the Deerfield, afterwards owned by his son, Dexter HawkN.
Besides the above named sons of Elenzer and Abigail Hawks, there were aløb six daughters.
APPENDIX F. page 16.
Mr. Wilder (Hist. of Leominster, p. 218, note) speaks of Col. White as a descendant of Peregrine White. Vide also his Dedication Address at Lcom- inter, Nov. 7, 1551, p. c.
The following statement, made by Col. White to his son, the late Dea. Jathes White, of Heath, Oct. 28, 1754, and recorded by him at the time, points to another erinn.
" Josiah White came from the west part of England, and settled in Lan- caster. He brought over with him two sons, Josiah and Thomas. Thomas
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settled at Wenham, and Josiah at Lancaster, on his father's estate, and his son Josiah lived on the same estate ; and his son Jonathan settled at Leom- inster," &c.
Owing to the destruction of the town and parish records of Lancaster, by the Indians, in 1707, there are but scanty notices left of Mr. White's family. No account whatever remains of Josiah, senior. Josiah (2d), b. in England, died Nov. 11, 1714. His wife's name was Mary Rice, m. Nov. 28, 1678. They had a son Jonathan, who was killed by the Indians, July 16, 1707; also Josiah (3d), (b. Sept. 16, 1682, d. May 6, 1772) ; and a daughter, Thankful, b. March 27, 1689. Josiah married, June 26, 1706, Abigail Whetcomb, (b. March 13, 1687, d. Sept. 24, 1771.) They had fifteen chil- dren, thirteen of whom lived beyond infancy, and most of them to a great age ; four of them being over 90 years, four over 80, and three over 70 years. Jonathan (Col.) was the second child and oldest son. He was doubt- less named for his uncle, above mentioned. As stated in the narrative, he married Esther Wilder. Their three eldest children, a son and two daugh- ters, died in infancy. The remaining children were,
I. Jonathan, born Mar. 14, 1740, grad. at H. Coll. 1763, m. 1768, Rebecca Rogers. He removed to Vermont before the Revolution.
II. David, b. Aug. 26, 1742, m. Mrs. Eunice Butler, of Leominster, re- moved to Charlemont, and was drowned in the Deerfield, 1768. Their only daughter was the wife of the late Luke White, of Heath.
III. James, (Dea.) b. Nov. 30, 1744, m. Ruth Ballard, of Lancaster, re- moved to Charlemont, (the part afterwards Heath.) d. May 1, 1824. Wife d. June 23, 1823. Their children were Jonathan, Ruth, Esther, Rebecca, Polly, Clarissa, Nabby, Sally, James, Gardner.
IV. Asaph, (Col.) b. Aug. 11, 1747, d. Sept. 18, 1828; removed to Char- lemont, m. Lucretia Bingham, of Charlemont, who d. Nov. 11, 1811, aged 65; m. 2d wife, Martha, who d. Dec. 21, 1836, aged 88. Children by first wife, David, Joseph, Asaph, Jonathan, James, Lucretia.
V. Esther, b. Ap. 9, 1750, m. Samuel Taylor.
VI. Abigail, b. Nov. 16, 1752, m. Lemuel Taylor.
Col. Jonathan White, held the commission of Major, and afterwards of Lieutenant Colonel, in Ruggles's Regiment of " new levies," which marched against Crown Point, under Sir William Johnson, in 1755, and was present at the Battle of Lake George, September 8, when Baron de Dieskau was defeated and taken prisoner. In old age he lived with his sons James and Asaph, and died December 4, 1788. Esther, his wife, died November 23, in the same year, aged 77 years.
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