USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 4 > Part 32
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character to Berkshire and shaped there also the plastic forms of industry. The streams that gather on the mountain sides turn the wheels of lonely or clustered manufactures; herds and flocks feed upon the sweet grasses that grow among the rocks and upon the smoother slopes, while many a favored home-lot nestles down upon a broad intervale watered by a stream that has found an open path, and shut out from bleak winds by the elevations that rise on every side.
"This beautiful realm won from a wilderness by toil has had an interesting history. The links of association that bind the present population to the past are strong. Multitudes who now till the soil of the eastern valley, or pursue the rougher husbandry of the western hills, bear the names and the blood of the first settlers; while the streams, hills, and meadows from the Housatonic to the Connecticut and from Hoosac to Taconic are still called by names first shaped by the Indian tongue. This region, beautiful in natural scenery, varied in its industry and inhabited by descendants of the noblest men that ever founded a nation, must have a glorious destiny."
Holland could not have thus transformed the map of western Massachusetts into a charming picture if he had not been a poet, or if he had not lived among and loved the scenes which he describes. To a geographer a map may seem to be merely a flat sheet of paper covered with black lines, sprinkled with numerous dots, labeled with unfamiliar names; but to a mind enriched by hallowed memories and gifted with imagi- nation those curving lines swell into rolling rivers and tum- bling brooks, those pencilled hatchings grow into rockbound and forested mountains to be climbed for the sunrise.
"The first outlook from Greylock was magnificent. The east tinted with ruddy light, the landscape floating in a dreamy twilight out of which the higher hilltops were becoming dis- tinctly outlined, and the west, unconscious that day was dawn- ing, still under the stars. Wonderful was the effect of slowly increasing light upon the sleeping world. Hills before blended in a common mass took form and substance. Valleys hidden from view unveiled their beauty with maidenly reluctance; and the whole expanse became lighted with ever increasing radi- ance. The grandest effects were at the west, at the south, and
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OFFICIAL BASIS OF THE TOWNS
to the north. Hilltop after hilltop flashed the advancing watch- fires of morning, while here and there a wanton window flaunted back the rays. In the underbrush a bird chirped a morning greeting to his mate."
Imagination changes winding lines of ink to rivers, and shaded lines to hills. The surface of the map includes un- dulating meadows and forests and fields of waving grain; and each tiny dot expands into a quiet village or a busy city throbbing with human life.
ORIGIN OF THE NAMES OF TOWNS
Place names are fossil ripple marks of history. Our fore- fathers retained enough Indian names to suggest the red man's language and traditions; but such names they used chiefly for rivers, lakes, and mountains, to whose wild beauty they are best adapted. Most of the New England towns were named in memory of English homes. Such names form a procession on the map from Gloucester to New London, from Dorchester to Hartford, and westward and northward through Connecticut to Hadley and Sunderland, and in Berkshire County to Tyringham and Stockbridge.
By the time that the towns further north required names, disaffection with England had begun; hence the names next chosen were those of Englishmen believed to be friendly to the American colonists: for example, Barrington, Lenox, Richmond, Pitt, and Holland. Later followed the names of American patriots : Washington, Lee, Otis, Hancock, and Adams.
OFFICIAL BASIS OF THE TOWNS
In this study of the economic expansion of western Massa- chusetts from 1820 to 1861, it would be out of place to attempt the individual histories of the one hundred towns in that section of the State. It is, however, possible to determine what common characteristics and what bonds of common interest existed among these scattered settlements, which may make it possible to regard them as a united people. With few ex- ceptions, the settlers had a common ancestry, a common lan-
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guage, a common form of government, and a common religion. They set up similar county courts. They established identical forms of town government by similar local officers elected by the same procedure, all based on colonial or State legisla- tion, elucidated by central judicial decisions. They belonged, with a few exceptions, to the Congregational Church, which in many important matters was a part of the town organiza- tion.
All these towns were organized by individual statutes of the General Court; and their organizing acts, which were in effect charters, were granted as a rule subject to the same legal conditions. This system of local town organization is inter- esting, and seems to have originated in Massachusetts. We do not find the general form of town organization definitely prescribed in any colonial or provincial statute. Fragmentary quotations from statutes are frequently found in the intro- ductory chapters of town histories. By comparing and piec- ing together a number of such fragments, it appears that the following conditions were generally laid down for the local town government :
(1) Towns could be founded only by lawful owners or "proprietors" of a sufficient quantity of land. Their land was called a "proprietary" or a "propriety."
(2) The approved normal size for a township was thirty- six square miles, though there were many deviations from this size.
(3) The required number of settlers was sixty families, expected to be actually living on the proprietary land within a specified time, usually from five to seven years.
(4) The proprietors must lay out a suitable main street with necessary cross roads, and roads connecting with other towns. The main street must not be less than eight rods in width, and the other roads not less than four rods.
(5) In the central part of the town the proprietors must lay out sixty plots and draw lots for choice of them. Hence lands so drawn were called "lots."
(6) Besides these sixty lots, three lots were to be reserved : one for the first settled minister, called the "minister's lot";
From Barber's Historical Collections
CENTRAL PART OF PITTSFIELD
-
From Barber's Historical Collections
COURT SQUARE, SPRINGFIELD
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OFFICIAL BASIS OF THE TOWNS
one was called the "ministry lot" (pronounced "min-is-try"), intended for the perpetual support of the ministry, or less frequently for the use of a second minister ; and one was for the support of education, called the "school lot."
(7) Within a reasonable time every settler was to build a house at least eighteen feet square and of "seven foot stud," and to bring five acres to English grass or to plowing.
(8) The town must engage within one year a good and learned protestant minister, and engage to pay him a suitable salary.
(9) A meeting-house of specified dimensions must be erected at once on a suitable site as near the center of the town as possible'; and a lot of eight acres must be laid out near it for an open common, a drill-ground, and a burying place.
(10) Failure to fulfill these conditions was punishable by the forfeiture of the land and by the revocation of the grant.
These regulations are frequently set forth in Massachusetts colonial records from about 1650 to 1776. That they were not required after the Declaration of Independence in- dicates that they had been imposed by the State with little regard to local desires. Forgetful of this, many town histo- rians have attributed an exaggerated degree of religious fervor to the proprietors because of their prompt reservation of lots for church and school, and appropriation of money to hire a minister.
These regulations were not imposed upon towns in Con- necticut unless founded on a grant of land from Massachu- setts; but they were required by the Plymouth Company in 1689 in the case of "Mount Hope Lands," which involved the incorporation of Bristol, Rhode Island; and also by Governor Wentworth in connection with many New Hampshire towns. They apply also to sixty or more land grants to towns which afterward became part of the State of Vermont. Governor Wentworth, however, expressly stipulated that the minister should be of the Church of England.
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OFFICIAL PRACTICE IN FOUNDING TOWNS
After chartering a new town, the Colony or Province de- termined, or commissioned the proprietors to determine, the size of each lot; prescribed the extent and character of fences, roads, and bridges; appointed committees to call the first town meeting ; arranged the order of its business, nominated its chairman, and sometimes appointed the first selectmen. They then kept vigilant eyes upon the town, scrutinized its stated reports, and punished it for the non-fulfillment of specified conditions. The whole procedure is well illustrated by the following typical instance taken from the printed Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachu- setts Bay (Volume X, Chap. 73, p. 35) :
"Resolve upon the Report of the Setlemt of Rutland (1720) :
"We The Subscribers of the Committee for Setling the Town of Rutland, Considering the Grant of the said Town made by the Honbl General Court, tho't it became us humbly to represent to this Great & Honbl Court our complying with & fulfilling, the Directions & Conditions of the said Grant, Which were that within seven years time, Sixty Families be settled thereon, & sufficient Land reserved for a Gospel Minis- try & School &c, Accordingly Sixty Dwelling Houses are erected & Sixty Families Dwelling in them, (a List of the Names of the Heads of them is here exhibited) & a convenient Ministry Lot & School are Assign'd. Wch that this Honbl Court might be duly ascertain'd of, We prevail'd with three of the worthy Members of this Honbl Court, Viz. John Chandler & Francis Fulham Esqrs & Mr Joseph Wilder to come upon the Place & observe the same, Wch we humbly presume are ready to confirm this our report, And we crave Leave further to add, That the proprietors of said Township have expended several hundred Pounds in Erecting a Meeting House, Cutting & Making of Roads to the said Town passable, In getting & Maintaining a Learned Ortho- dox Minister, & Bringing forward Settlements thereon, Wch We hope, If Divine Providence continue to smile upon us,
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A TYPICAL SETTLEMENT
will be a good & serviceable town in this his Majesty's Prov- ince.
"Estes Hatch Thomas Smith Thomas How
Jacob Stephens Stephen Minot
"We the Subscribers testify to the Truth of the aforewritten Report, As to the Number & Houses & Names of the Heads of them, Having visited & seen each Family as setled upon the Spot, the thirteenth & fourteenth days of October 1720, We also certify That we were shown a Lot for the Ministry & an- other for the School, Each containing thirty Acres (Being the same in Quantity and as good in Quality as the rest of the Lotts). The Rights of which are equal with the other Lotts, both very conveniently laid being near the Meet- ing House, There is also Land left for a Green containing twelve Acres or Upwards, On which stands the Meeting House very commodious, The Dimensions wherof, were fifty feet long, Forty feet wide & twenty feet Stud :
"(Sign'd) John Chandler Francis Fulham Joseph Wilder"
A similar procedure was followed in the grant of the town of Sandisfield in 1735:
On the 15th day of January, 1735, "At a Great and Gen- eral Court assembled for his Majestie's Provinces of the Mas- sachusetts Bay in New England," Edmund Quincy, Esq., from the committee of both Houses, made report on the peti- tion for a grant of land lying between Westfield and Sheffield. The committee were of opinion that there should be four townships of land opened upon the road between those towns, and that "they be contiguous to one another or either join to Sheffield or to the township lately granted to the pro- prietors of Suffield, and each of the contents of six miles square," and that they be "situated as near the road as the land will allow, and that there be 63 home lots laid out in each township, one of which to be for the first settled minister, one for the second settled minister, one for the school and one
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for each grantee who shall draw equal shares in all future divisions," said lots to be laid out in a "regular, compact and defensible manner as may be," and that they give security to the value of forty pounds to perform all things on their lots and within their respective township, wherein they are ad- mitted, in the same manner as the "Grantees in any of the towns between the rivers Connecticut and Merrimack," and that a committee of five suitable persons be appointed by the court for the service aforesaid, and "impowered and obliged as is before provided for, with respect to bringing forward the line of towns between the rivers aforesaid."
SOURCES OF THE SETTLERS IN WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS (1781-1820)
Bold and hardy frontiersmen were the first adventurers into western Massachusetts. Towns were often colonized by groups of families, by entire neighborhoods, or by seceding congregations ; though incongruous elements were if possible excluded. Scotch-Irish pilgrims peopled Sudbury, Bland- ford, Pelham, and Colrain. Bands of Quakers made their way from Rhode Island to northern Berkshire, and built their church in Cheshire. Shakers from New York formed settle- ments in Hancock and Tyringham. Baptists left Framing- ham for New Framingham, now Lanesborough.
But the great impulse for immigration into the hill country of western Massachusetts came from the farmers and trades- men in the overcrowded towns of Connecticut. The only vacant lands lay to the north and west. Many families moved up the Connecticut Valley into New Hampshire and the grants which later were included in the State of Vermont.
The Revolutionary War checked the movement to more distant places ; the expedition of Burgoyne in 1777 disrupted the settlements in northern New York; and the western frontier of Massachusetts was pushed nearly to the Hudson River. The peaceful wooded hills of Hampshire and Berk- shire, therefore, attracted men who sought cheap land, and those whose friends had met ill fortune in Pennsylvania or
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POLITICAL-RELIGIOUS UNIFICATION
New York. Titles to land were unclouded, and the stream of immigration increased greatly at the close of the war.
Middlefield, for example, which in 1780 had only about thirty families, received during the next ten years nearly a hundred more. Besides 114 settlers from Connecticut, 87 came from Massachusetts towns. The Connecticut men proved to be the better home makers: they acted together and, being in the majority, practically owned the town. Of the selectmen chosen in Middlefield between 1793 and 1800, thirteen were from Connecticut and four from Massachusetts; and between 1800 and 1830 all were from Connecticut except one.
Soon after 1800 large tracts of farm land were opened for settlement in New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. These were more fertile, more easily tilled, and also cheaper than New England farms. Many of the restless and uncongenial minority yielded to the temptation. Within ten years nearly a hundred families emigrated; and by 1820 about ninety more young men and their families had left Middlefield to its peace- ful and harmonious, but decadent, solidarity.
POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS UNIFICATION (1780-1820)
The distinguishing characteristics thus impressed upon the towns of western Massachusetts continued to mark them for many years, and, indeed, in some instances may be still ob- served. Nevertheless, the necessity of united action against common enemies, the uniform procedure of their local gov- ernment, the gradual removal of discordant elements by emi- gration, and the harmonizing effect of propinquity and intermarriage combined to make one people out of many towns. After the adoption of the national and State consti- tutions, dawned an era of religious toleration and even of friendly cooperation among the denominations. Among the first evidences of this was the relief of other denominations from taxes levied for the support of a Congregational minis- ter.
Usually the Baptists were the first to profit by this more
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liberal spirit, as they had been among the first to protest against Puritan intolerance. In 1635, Roger Williams and his colony of Anabaptists established their independent organ- ization in Providence; but as late as the time of the "Great Awakening" in 1740, there were only eight Baptist churches in Massachusetts. Before 1780 they had increased to 73. In towns incorporated later, a Baptist church usually came next in order after the Congregational, and in a few instances was the first to appear. The Methodists generally came third in point of time. They were handicapped by the antagonism of John Wesley to the Revolution, which he called the "wicked rebellion." The Episcopal church suffered severely from the Revolution, inasmuch as many of its clergymen had been loyal to England. For years after the war an Episcopal church was the last to be started in a newly organized town. The Baptists on the other hand were everywhere welcomed as they had been uniformly patriotic, zealous, and friendly.
A significant development of the times was the famous "Haystack prayer-meeting" in Williamstown in 1806. To the inspiration of the young participants in that storm-driven gathering, with the addition of Adoniram Judson and other students in Andover, the American Board of Foreign Mis- sions, a Congregational body, ascribes its origin. We have almost lost sight of the significant fact that through these same young men came also the prime incentive to Baptist missions in America. Adoniram Judson with his wife and Reverend Luther Rice sailed to India under the auspices of the new Congregational board. Forbidden by the East India Company to preach in Calcutta, Judson consulted Reverend William Carey, the distinguished Baptist missionary from England, was baptized by him, and consequently dropped by the American Board. News of this conversion, brought to America, led to the organization in 1814 of the American Baptist Missionary Union.
In several of the towns of Berkshire and Hampden Counties union churches were formed, in which Congregationalists, Baptists, and Methodists worshipped together; and in 1792, Mr. Azariah Eggleston of Lenox, an ardent Episcopalian,
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SOCIAL UNIFICATION
gave a large Christmas party in rooms decorated with ever- greens, where oranges first appeared in Berkshire, and gath- ered around his festal board "Orthodox" and Episcopalian neighbors, who ate and drank in fraternal fashion with their respective clerical leaders, Reverend Daniel Burhans and Reverend Samuel Shepard.
The Protestant semimonastic order, of Shakers, which arose about 1800, was friendly to all other sects, but was exclusive in its own form of worship. After 1820, many other de- nominations found space for their churches. Before 1860, Roman Catholics were acknowledged as fellow Christians, and have since grown rapidly in numbers and influence through- out western Massachusetts.
SOCIAL UNIFICATION
(1800-1820)
A powerful though silent influence for general harmony must be credited to the Masonic fraternity, which before 1800 had established several flourishing lodges in the western coun- ties. Many of these cherished charters signed by Paul Revere; and in all of them was breathed the spirit of their great Amer- ican brothers, Washington, Franklin, Price, and Warren. In these lodges men of all creeds met on a common level and did their part toward promoting the brotherhood of man.
Another fraternity, the Washington Benevolent Society, was useful as a check upon the too rapid and dangerous spread of ultrademocratic ideas, and helped to save this coun- try from such terrors as attended and followed the French Revolution. Founded in New York City in 1806, by Gulian C. Verplanck and Isaac Sebring, as a Federal organization in opposition to Tammany Hall, it extended its branches through- out all the States, and won thousands of adherents to the conservative policies of Washington.
The first branch outside of New York was established in Pittsfield, Mass., June 13, 1811. Through the influence of the Appletons, Goulds, Sedgwicks, and Dwights, the "Massa- chusetts Washington Benevolent Society" was formed in Boston in 1812 in the office of Nathan Hale; and it celebrated the twenty-fourth anniversary of Washington's first inau-
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guration on April 30, 1813. An oration was delivered by Josiah Quincy in the Old South Church. The procession was escorted by the Boston Light Infantry, the Winslow Guards, and the New England Rangers. Two hundred and fifty schoolboys marched, in white and blue, wearing wreaths of Washington roses, and with miniature copies of the "Fare- well Address," bound in red morocco, suspended on their breasts. In the procession, composed of thirteen divisions corresponding to the thirteen States, were William Sullivan, Josiah Quincy, Nathan Hale, and Nathan Appleton; as vice- presidents of the society, Governor Caleb Strong, Lieutenant Governor Phillips, and Colonel Humphrey. After the death of its founder, Gulian Crommelin Verplanck, in 1870, Wil- liam Cullen Bryant closed a memorial address with this apos- trophe : "Farewell! thou that hast already entered upon thy reward! May all those who are as nobly endowed as thou and who as willingly devote themselves to the service of God and mankind be spared to the world as long as thou hast been."
INTELLECTUAL ENERGIES (1780-1820)
Besides the beneficent influence of Williams and Amherst Colleges, and of other institutions of learning, including academies and public schools elsewhere described in detail, the lives and teachings of two men, Elkanah Watson and Amos Eaton, were noteworthy factors in the material and intellec- tual development and consequent unification of western Mas- sachusetts prior to 1820. Watson, a gentleman of the old school, a Masonic friend of Washington and Franklin, pur- chased the elegant mansion and extensive farm now owned by the Country Club of Pittsfield. There from 1807 to 1816 he studied, practised, and taught to the struggling farmers of Berkshire, of Massachusetts, and of the nation, the principles of intensive agriculture and stock breeding. He organized and conducted the Berkshire Agricultural Society, introduced the first pair of merino sheep, caused their wool to be manu- factured by the best artists into fine cloth (samples of which were exhibited in our principal cities), and was the first pro-
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PROFESSIONAL MEN
moter of the woolen factories for which Berkshire has long been famous.
Before coming to Pittsfield at the age of fifty, he had travelled extensively, constantly striving to understand and to alleviate the peculiar hardships of the newer settlements. He was one of the prime movers for better road building, and in the inauguration of the canal system of New York. He founded the Albany Bank. By the example of a life of unremitting and unselfish industry, by a succession of care- fully prepared addresses, and by a wide correspondence with learned societies and distinguished men, notably President John Adams, he made his influence far-reaching and perma- nent. Watson was painted by Copley in powdered wig, ruf- fled shirt and silver knee-buckles.
PROFESSIONAL MEN (1800-1820)
In striking contrast was the appearance of Amos Eaton, graduate of Williams, 1799, a huge and rugged teacher, who lectured before his alma mater on practical geology and botany with such acceptance that he issued the first edition of his Manual of Botany in 1817. The petition of the entire student body for the privilege of publishing the work of this visit- ing lecturer, and the accompanying gift of the money and time required for that purpose, is perhaps unparalleled in the history of American colleges, and affords a sure proof of Eaton's unique power in arousing enthusiastic devotion to science and to himself among his hearers. He gave courses of a like character in many towns of Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire Counties, and in Connecticut and New York. To use the later words of President Merrill Gates, he knew "how to ring the rising bell in the dormitory of the soul." Everywhere he kindled the lasting interest of men and women of all ranks. He inspired the scholarly activ- ities of Albert Hopkins, Ebenezer Emmons, Chester Dewey, James Hall, James Dwight Dana, John Torrey, Lewis Caleb Beck, Stephen Van Rensselaer, and Mary Lyon.
Miss Lyon spent several months under his roof, and re-
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ceived from him personal instruction in scientific subjects, which at that time were reserved for men. She became the founder of Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary. Mr. Van Rens- selaer furnished the means which enabled Eaton to establish the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, where between 1824 and 1842 he graduated most of the professional civil engineers in America. These were men thoroughly grounded, so far as knowledge then extended, in the principles and prac- tice of surveying, bridge building, chemistry, physics, inten- sive gardening, road making, botany, and geology: in a word, in the practical application of science to the common concerns of life.
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