USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Gazetteer of Hampshire County, Mass., 1654-1887 > Part 47
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405
TOWN OF PLAINFIELD.
The upper water privilege was made efficient by Josiah Stetson, in 1817. He built a saw-mill and managed it for several years. Afterwards David Stowell purchased it and continued the business until 1854, at which date it passed into the hands of W. C. Gilbert. In 1855 George W. King bought the property, and still owns it. Mr. King turns out yearly from forty to sixty thousand broom and brush-handles, besides custom sawing and planing.
Following the stream a few rods further we come upon the ruins of a saw- mill built in the latter part of the last century. Adjoining this saw-mill were the old clothier works conducted successively by Daniel Richards, Mr. Glea- son, Mr. Shattuck and others. In 1820, Arnold and Nahum Streeter built on the site of the clothing-mill a factory for the manufacture of satinet, flannel and other woolen goods. This mill was burned in 1825, It was re- built and managed by the family of Streeters until 1876, when it was again destroyed by fire. No attempt has been made to rebuild it.
Lower on this stream, nearly opposite the present residence of Lester Street- er, Messrs. Dorn & Remington, in 1830, built a large tannery, 100 x 30 feet, covering eighty vats. Here a large business was done. Mr. Dorn sold his share to a Mr. Parsons, and later the new firm disposed of the property to Giddons & Latham. In 1851 the business was discontinued. A small saw and broom-handle-mill was for a time continued by Neison Clapp, and after him by Sebert Whitmarsh.
On the other side of the road from the present Wilcutt mill, in 1810, was a flax-dressing-mill owned and run by Noah and Iram Packard. About the year 1816 Reuben Hamlin and Otis Pratt built on the same site a factory for the manufacture of satinet and woolen goods. The building was re- moved in 1820 to its present location. Mr. Pratt sold his share to Erastus Bates. Mr. Bates moved West in 1834, and for a time Mr. Hamlin managed the mill alone. After his retirement, different individuals endeavored to make use of the buildings and water privilege. Jason Noyes used the mill for a chair factory. Elbridge King rented it for a time. Capt. James Cook finally bought the property and gave it to his sons Andrew and Nelson Cook. The Cooks sold to Daniel Ingraham, who manufactured baskets. William Wilcutt bought the plant from Mr. Ingraham, repaired it thoroughly and put in entirely new machinery. At the present time he uses annually from thirty to fifty thousand feet of hard lumber for the manufacture of whip-stocks, and broom and brush handles. There is also a lumber yard attached, and custom sawing is done.
Half a mile further down the stream the earliest tradition places the grist- mill, owned at first by the Cooks. From them it passed into the hands of Jeremiah Robinson. In 1798, Joseph Beals, the celebrated "Mountain Mil- ler," purchased the property and managed the business until his death, in 1813. His son, Joseph Beals, Jr., then conducted it for a number of years. Dea. Jared Bisbee, Joel Lyon, Loren White and Edwin Torrey succeeded
27*
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TOWN OF PLAINFIELD.
in turn to the management. In 1861, James A. Nash came into possession of the property and he is the present miller.
In 1852 William Shattuck built a saw-mill on the branch of Mill brook run- ning from the west part of the town. After a few years he sold it to W. M. Cleveland, who continued the mill and also manufactured broom handles. The quantity of water proving insufficient the buildings were removed in 1884.
There is at present a saw mill at the outlet of Crooked pond, in the extreme northwestern portion of the township.
Many manufactures of minor importance have from time to time been un- dertaken by the inhabitants. During the earlier settlements distilleries for making cider brandy were not uncommon. Later spruce tar and spruce oil were made in limited quantities in the west part of the town. Brickmaking, begun by Thomas Shaw about 1800, has heen revived at intervals by different persons and firms. The clay bank is a few rods east of the old house of Kingman Thayer. Shingles, butter firkins and cheese boxes have been made to some extent. Window sashes are at present manufactured by W. H. Dyer.
Mineralogists and mining experts have pronounced the beds of black oxide and silicious manganese in the west part of the town of rare value and qual- ity. One of these mines, situated on the present farm of W. H. Packard, was successfully worked for a short time by a firm from Enfield. The death of one of the partners and the removal of the other to California prevented further operations.
The manufactures of Plainfield never have been of much importance, owing, doubtless, to the small size of the streams and the distance from business centers.
ECCLESIASTICAL.
The Evangelical Congregational church was organized by an ecclesiastical synod, August 31, 1786. The society had fourteen members, and Rev. Moses Hallock was their first pastor. Their first house of worship was built in 1792. The present structure was erected in 1846. It will seat about 400 persons and is valued, including grounds, etc., at $1,500.00. The society now has 102 members, with Rev. F. G. Webster, pastor. The church has also an enviable missionary record. It began early in this century, two years before the formation of the American board. The first missionary was James Rich- ards. He united with the church in 1805 and entered Williams college in 1806, became acquainted there with Samuel J. Mills. An intimate friendship ex- isted between them. In 1808, before the end of his third year in college, he had come to the fixed purpose of spending his life among the heathen. From that time he severed from that purpose not for a moment. His parents shared the same spirit. Properly, therefore, this foreign missionary record of the
407
TOWN OF PRESCOTT.
church here began with that purpose of young Richards, in 1808, seventy- eight years ago. He entered Andover Theological seminary in 1809. The three years there spent, he did his utmost to promote a spirit of missions among the students. In October, 1815, he embarked for Ceylon, in company with other missionaries. He afterwards said, " The day on which I bade fare- well to my native land was the happiest of my life." What follows will show that from 1815 this retired community has been represented abroad among the heathen, sometimes by two, three and four laborers, unceasingly to the present, an interval of seventy-one years. He died in 1822. Before the tid_ ings of his decease had reached the home circle in Plainfield, his brother William, who had married Miss Clarissa Lyman, daughter of Levi Lyman, Esq., of Northampton, had already embarked at New Haven to join the mis- sion at the Sandwich Islands. In 1838 he became associated with the gov- ernment as the king's advisor, went on an embassy, 1842-45, to the United States, to England and France, which proved highly successful. In 1840 he became minister of public instruction, councilor and chaplain to the king. He deceased through over-work in 1847. The same year David Rood and wife, both of this town, sailed from Boston for the Zulus, South Africa. This is the fortieth year of their active missionary life. Still another in South Africa, Stephen C. Pixley, born in this town. Married Miss Louisa Healy, of North- ampton. Sailed October, 1855, thirty-one years ago. In 1858, Miss Mar- garet Hallock, daughter of Homan Hallock, married Mr. Byington, missionary for over twenty years among the Bulgarians, and at Constantinople. Ill health has twice compelled him to discontinue labor and return to America. In 1826 a missionary printer was needed on the Mediterranean, at Malta, and some years after at Smyrna. Who should respond to this call but one of the sons of Plainfield, Homan Hallock, the youngest son of the first pastor here, Rev. Moses Hallock. Associated for some of his first years abroad with that superior oriental scholar, Rev. Eli Smith, the Arabic press at Malta did most valuable service. When the American Bible society commenced the publi- cation of the Arabic Bible in the city of New York, it is said that only two persons in the world understood the difficult task of preparing molds for the printing of that Bible, viz .: an aged German, and Mr. Homan Hallock. When after a few years they transferred the work to Beyrout, Syria, to save expense, Samuel Hallock, inheriting his father's mechanical skill and nice workmanship, took the position his father had occupied and has filled it for sixteen years with much ability.
P PESCOTT, the youngest town in the county, lies in the northeastern corner of the same, and is bounded north by the county line, east by the county line and Greenwich, south by Enfield and Greenwich, and west by Pelham and the county line. It is shaped nearly in the form of an inverted letter L, and contains an area of about 12,706 acres.
408
TOWN OF PRESCOTT.
The surface of the town is rough and broken, though there are many good farms, particularly in the valleys. The soil is moist, fertile and strong. The principal elevations are Mt. Ell, in the northeast part of the town, and Pres- cott hill and Rattlesnake mountain, in the western part. The streams are the west branch of Swift river, which forms the western boundary of the town, and the middle branch of the same stream, flowing across the northeastern corner of the township. Russ pond is a small body of water in the northern part of the town.
Formation and Settlement .- As we have said, Prescott is the youngest town in the county, its dating back to only 1822; and thus the early history of the territory belongs with that of the neighboring towns of which it formerly was a part. The story of its formation is as follows :-
On December 31, 1734, a township of thirty-six square miles was granted to sixty proprietors, residents of Salem, to whom an additional grant of 4,000 acres was made June 17, 1742. This territory took the name of New Salem, and lay just north of the old township of Pelham, most of it in Franklin county, an oblong town about thirteen miles in length. It may readily be seen that such an inconvenient territory would not exist long without a desire on the part of its inhabitants for a division, that municipal business might be more centralized. Many attempts were made from time to time for such division, but none were successful till January 28, 1822, when a tract about three miles in length was taken from the southern part of the town, annexed to the east parish of Pelham, and incorporated into a new township, which was given the name of Prescott, in honor of Col. William Prescott, of Peperell, who com- manded the American forces at the battle of Bunker Hill.
Who the first settler upon the present territory of Prescott was can not be definitely stated. The southern part, or that which formerly belonged to Pelham was settled first, and its pioneers have been mentioned in connection with the sketch of that town. Among these were the Conkeys, Mellens, (both of whom originally had a prefix of "Mc" to their names, and the Mellen was spelled with a "u,") Grays, Berrys, Crossetts, and Pierces. To these may also be added the family of Obadiah Cooley, Seth Peibles, Peleg Aldrich, Jotham, Levi and Amasa Leach, Bennos Ayres, and many others.
Andrew Johnson, son of William, was born in 1781, and passed nearly all his life on a farm in the southern part of Prescott. He married Judith Chase, and had born to him eleven children, viz .: Ansel, Adam, Henry, Joel, Jane, Lyman, Lucy, Maria, Rosalind, Rhoda and Shepard. Of these only four are living, Ansel, Jane, Joel and Rosalind. Ansel married Margaret Moulton, and has had born to him two children, Andrew and Henry. Adam married Luzette Jennings, and reared two children, George and Marcia. Henry married twice, first, Eliza Hunt, and second, Augusta Goodman, and had born to him five children, namely, Nina, Hattie M., Leo, Nettie and Theodore L. Joel married Maria Washburn, who bore him five children, as
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TOWN OF PRESCOTT.
follows : Adeline, Angenette, Frank, Andrew and Clara. Joel married for his second wife Harriet Voice.
John Pierce moved to Shutesbury from Middleboro, Mass., married three times, and his children were as follows: John, Nathan, Mary, Sarah, Peleg, Naba and Matilda. John married Sarah Haskins, and had born to him nine children, viz: Sarah, Joseph, Rounesville, Lucy, Asa, Appleton, Rox- anna, Maria and Caroline. Appleton was born June 23, 1797, in what was then the town of New Salem, now Prescott, about one mile from the farm now owned by his son, Daniel T. He married Hannah Cole, April 16, 1820, and had born to him two children, Hannah A. and Daniel T. He learned the moulder's trade and worked at that for several years, then bought a saw- mill, which he run for sixteen years. He died May 20, 1881, aged eighty- four years. Hannah A. was born November 14, 1822, married Ellis White, of Barre, Mass., and has two children, Josiah E. and Anson A. Daniel T. was born November 23. 1829, married Ellen A. Pierce, in January, 1856, and has had born to him six children, five of whom are living, namely, Les- lie M., who was born October 11, 1857, and married Lucy A. Soper; Adelaid E., who was born October 11, 1859, and married George Foote; Eudora H., who married George W. Brown, of Athol, Mass .; Carl M. and Lillie B.
Madison Pierce, son of Caleb, was born in that portion of Prescott which was formerly New Salem, March 31, 1809, and learned the blacksmith trade. He married twice, first, Elizabeth Lawless, who bore him two children, Elsie, who married Collis Vaughn, and Ellen, who married Daniel T. Pierce. The mother of these children died in 1842, and Mr. Pierce married for his second wife, Zuba Shaw, and had born to him five children, four of whom are liv- ing, namely, Cleora, Orinda, Emily and Lineus.
Elias Thayer, son of Calvin, came to this town with his father, from Leverett, Mass., when he was only four years of age. He afterwards moved to Orange, Mass., and in 1866 was killed by falling from a scaffold. His son, Addison, was born in this town in 1833, married Salinda M. Vaughn, November 18, 1856, and his children are Martha J., Minnie E., Ellis A. and Grace B. His oldest son, Milford, was killed by the falling of a limb, which struck him on the head. Mr. Thayer is engaged in the lumber business.
John Thrasher came to this town in 1823, and located about three quarters of a mile from Prescott postoffice. He died at the age of eighty-seven years. His widow is now ninety-six years of age, and is in good health. His son Samuel, was born in 1822, and came here with his father when an infant.
Daniel R. Potter, son of Ezekiel, was born in Ludlow, Mass., April 10, 1818, and as his mother died at his birth, he was adopted by Levi Payne, of Belchertown, where he lived until he was ten years of age, until the death of Mr. Payne, and then went to live with an uncle in Connecticut. After three years he returned to live with Mrs. Payne. He married Maria L. (Newton) Cheeney, widow of Arnold W. Cheeney, and has had born to him two sons, Charles F., who died in 1869, at the age of nineteen years, and Frederick L.,
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TOWN OF PRESCOTT.
who was born July 31, 1854, and married Sarah F. Haskins, in 1885. Mr. Potter came to this town in 1867, and bought the place where he now resides.
The population of the town has fluctuated as follows : 1830, 758 ; 1845, 786; 1850, 737 ; 1855, 643 ; 1860, 611 ; 1865, 596 ; 1870, 541 ; 1875,493; 1880, 460. .
The first hotel in the town was kept by William Conkey, in the old " Milo Abbott house." The first store-keeper, at least the first who kept a store of any account, was Peleg Canada. The first physician was Dr. Nehemiah Hinds, who located here as early as 1786. Among the men of distinction whom the town has sent out, may be mentioned Judge Peleg Aldrich and Hon. E. A. Thomas.
Organisation .-- The town was duly organized March 4, 1822, at which meeting the following officers were elected: Josiah Pierce, moderator ; Chester Gray, clerk ; Barna Brigham, Caleb Pierce and Nymphas Stacy, selectmen ; and Moses Gray, Henry Haskins and Josiah Pierce, assessors.
In the late great war the town furnished sixty-seven men, a total of seven over and above all demands. It expended for war purposes $6.427.50, ex- clusive of $3,306.34, which was subsequently re-imbursed by the state.
VILLAGES.
PRESCOTT VILLAGE lies in the center of the southern part of the town, or that part formerly belonging to Pelham. Here is located the Congregational church, a few dwellings and a store and postoffice. The latter was estab- lished about 1822, with Barna Brigham, postmaster. Since then the follow- ing have served in this capacity : Stacy Lindsey, Dexter N. Richards, Charles Hodgkins. W. E. Johnson and Liberty Crossett.
NORTH PRESCOTT lies in the extreme northern part of the town, partly in New Salem. It has a Methodist church (over the line in New Salem), a store, postoffice and several dwellings. The postoffice was established here about 1844, and the postmasters have been Horace Hunt, S. L. Haskins, E. A. Thomas, Frank Sampson and L. K. Baker.
INDUSTRIES.
Marshall F. Brown's saw-mill, on road 12, was built about thirty-eight ago by Foster Brown, father of Marshall. It has the capacity for cutting 8,000 feet of lumber per day.
Browm & Harrington have a protable saw-mill, run by a thirty horse- power engine.
Asa Moore's shop, on road 21, was built for a grist-mill, by White & Hem- enway, in 1826. Mr. Moore here does repairing and general wood work. The shop has bench saws and turning lathe.
4II
TOWN OF SOUTHAMPTON.
Oscar Titu's cider brandy distillery, on road 17, was built in the spring of 1886. It has the capacity for distilling into brandy about 200 barrels of cider per month.
John E. Stowell's packing box factory gives employment to fifteen hands, and turns out about 1,000 boxes per day, using 600,000 feet of lumber per year.
James F. Wood, on road 13, is extensively engaged in breeding pure Ital- ian bees and queens. He began as an apiarist in a small way in the spring of 1876. Since then he has gradually added to the business until he now has about 150 colonies which he uses entirely for breeding purposes. He ships his queens to all parts of the country by mail.
ECCLESIASTICAL.
The Congregational church, at South Prescott, is the only church within the limits of the town. On June 28, 1786, the eastern part of Pelham, with a part of New Salem, was incorporated as the East Parish of Pelham, and the church here was organized soon after. The first regular pastor was Rev. Matthias Cazier. The church was re-organized January 15, 1823. The present church building was erected in 1848. Rev. Augustus Alvord is pas- tor of the society.
S OUTHAMPTON is situated in the second tier of townships west of Connecticut river, in the southern part of the country, and is bounded north by Westhampton and Easthampton, east by Easthampton and the county line, south by the county line, and west by the county line and a small part of Huntington. It originally formed a part of Northampton, ex- cept a small addition, to "Additional Grant," so-called, which lay south of the original Northampton tract. It was also settled by Northampton people, thirty of whom in 1730, " proceded to divide up and settle the new precinct."
Physical Features .- In extent of territory Southampton may be classed among the first towns of the county, as it contains a little over seventeen thousand acres of land. The major part is comprised in the basin or valley that extends from the northern limits of the state to the shores of Long Island Sound, and is here termed the "third" or "great expansion." This valley is bounded both on the east and west by elevated ranges belonging geologically to the primary system. They approach each other closely on the north, recede towards the south, being farthest apart near the boundary line of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and then converge in the latter part of the last-named state. A greenstone ridge commences in the neighbor- hood of New Haven, extends nearly the whole length of this depression, and, with only occasional breaks, terminates abruptly in Belchertown. This trough
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TOWN OF SOUTHAMPTON.
or valley, reaching from the mountains on the north to the sea, between the greenstone ridge and the primary regions on the west, is nowhere, following the course of the now disused canal, more than one hundred and forty feet above the level of the river at Northampton. Naturally, then, the Connecti- cut river should flow along this depression in the earth's surface, through Southampton and empty its waters into the sea at New Haven. Instead of following this natural channel, it has worn a deep gorge in the mountain to the eastward through which it passes. Geologists have been somewhat per- plexed in arriving at the true course of the present physical aspects of this region. The theory that it was once covered with water, and that the fertile meadows and the sites of beautiful and flourishing villages were once the bottom of a long and narrow lake has been given on another page.
There is not, probably, a single town in the Connecticut valley that sur- passes Southampton in picturesque scenery. People who penetrate its rural obscurity for the first time are apt to expand with rapture over the exquisite configuration of the landscape. The surface is, with the exception of the plain lands, which are of no great extent, curiously diversified with endless undulations. An artist once drew a waving line with his pencil across the corner of one of his pictures and designated it as the line of beauty. This is finely illustrated in the physical conformation of this town. The village oc- cupies a position but little above the meadows that fringe the waters of the
Connecticut. On the west and northwest each succeeding ridge rises higher than the one immediately adjoining it, until the summit of Pomeroy mountain is reached. The altitude of this eminence is more than twelve hun- dred feet above the level of the sea. From its top there is presented a scene of rare loveliness. The vision ranges over a vast expanse of hills and dales and mountains, while the river glitters beneath like molten silver under the rays of the summer sun. At its base, in alternation of verdant fields and pleasant groves, the intervening country is arrayed in a drapery of rich and variegated colors. A tower has recently been erected on the highest point of the moun- tain, and it has become a favorite resort in the summer season for the inhabi- tants of the valley. With the top of the mountain something of a tragedy is connected. In 1704, the hamlet of Pascommuck, an outlying settlement of Northampton, was attacked by the Indians and several persons slain, as de- tailed in the Easthampton sketch. The assailants retreated to Pomeroy mountain, where they held a pow-wow during the night, and, on leaving, scalped Mrs. Janes, the wife of Benjamin Janes, whom they had brought with them as a prisoner. Mrs. Janes was found alive on the mountains by her friends and eventually recovered.
But nature has not been so prodigal in her gifts to Pomeroy mountain- the origin of the name is involved in much obscurity, but is mentioned in the early records before the settlement of Southampton-as to neglect other sections of the town. There is no part of its surface, with the exceptions previously mentioned, that may be termed exactly level. It abounds in ter-
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TOWN OF SOUTHAMPTON.
races and gentle slopes. Especially is this true of the elevation called Little mountain, at the foot of which the village quietly reposes. In many of its features it bears a striking resemblance to the far famed " Round Hill," of Northampton. There are charming sites for residences, and a natural adap- tation for winding roads and paths. . No prettier place can be found within a radius of fifty miles for homes of elegance and refinement. In the fore- ground is Mount Nonotuck rising abruptly towards the sky and prominently displaying its ribs of red sandstone. Just beyond it is its Cogener, Holyoke. Lower than either of the others, like a pigmy reposing under the shadow of giants, is White Loofe, a very modest eminence. Within the range of vision are the beautiful villages of Easthampton, Amherst, Hadley, the city of Northampton, as well as others of humbler pretentions, and the fertile and highly cultivated meadows of emerald hue, that lovingly embrace the broad river which with many curves and bends, gently flows through the valley. Little Mountain is really a gem in its way, and deserves more consideration than to be used indefinitely for cow-pastures.
As is befitting in a region so uneven and undulating, there is no de- ficiency of rivulets and brooks. They wind in all directions among the hills and meadows, and are generally tributary to the Manhan, the largest and principal stream within the limits of the town. Its source is in Westhamp- ton, and its course southerly until it reaches the northern boundary of West- field, where it turns with a sharp curve to the north and passes a little way east of the village to the Connecitcut, with which it mingles its waters. In- ferior streams bear such local names as Triple, Moose, Alder, Meadow, and Red brooks.
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