USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Tyringham > Hinterland settlement Tyringham, Massachusetts and bordering lands > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11
19
Letters and diaries confirm that this first highway was hardly worthy of the name Road, being suitable for not much more than ox- cart travel. With the constant increase in population accelerated by the wars, the traffic kept pace, as well as the need for repairs. Com- plaints of its condition irritated the Court at Boston until they made mandatory the maintenance of the Great Road by the towns them- selves. Records speak of the fines paid for failing to do so.
In town records the next mention of a road was a branch, com- mencing about one mile east of Brewer Pond (Lake Garfield), passing north of the pond, over Mt. Hunger past the meeting house lot to Beartown and down into Stockbridge by Icy Glen. From these high roads, running along the ridge of the mountain, branches led out in all directions, like fingers reaching for a hold. As homes were built on the various lots away from the Great Road, the records are filled with petitions from owners for more and more roads. The Surveyors of Highways were kept busy, perhaps too busy, for the same men never held that office for long.
As already mentioned, in record of 1737, our present Tyringham is referred to as Hop Lands or Swamps. This indicates the condition of this valley in those days and leads to the belief that the first roads here were from the Great Road at the Old Center running down to the high spots in the valley.
Tradition tells us that the first road leading into North Tyring- ham, usually mentioned as Hop Brook, was known as the Royal Hem- lock Road opened in 1743. From the Old Center by the Manse it came out by what is now Littel's Lodge. In Colonial days, trees marked with an R denoted Royal and were reserved for his Majesty's ships. Only the best and largest were so marked. The story is that a traveler passing along in his ox-cart, came to this beautiful giant hem- lock on which was carved R H, meaning Road to Hop Brook. The man mistook their meaning for Royal Hemlock, which ever after clung.
It seems logical to assume that there were three branch roads leading into North Tyringham; one from West Otis into the south end of town, past Brayman's dwelling house (Add. Heath's), "past Grang- er's Cider Mill" to the Frances Clark house (Gelsleichter's) and into Sodom. This, called Graden Hill, may be a contraction from Brayman or Granger. Another from the Mt. Hunger Road past the Smith dwell- ing house, down Smith Hill and the third from Beartown to Jerusalem, now the Brace Road. From the foot of Smith Hill, the road, now in use, to Jerusalem and Fernside into South Lee, where Isaac Davis settled while the north Hoplands were still in Tyringham, seems feasible as a very early highway, avoiding the swamp.
To give some idea of the cost of road work, in the lists of assess- ments in 1752 were "Jabez Davis and Wm. Hale and the hands that labored under them, 18 pounds, 19 shillings, 9 pence paid by the treas- urer, Ephraim Thomas". In 1762 the assessors were "to commit the list thereof to the Surveyors of Highways." Each assessment to be paid either in labor on the roads or money. Each man was allowed for one
20
day service, 2 shillings 8 pence; yoke of oxen, 1 shilling 2 pence; for a cart 8 pence; for a plow 8 pence. The next year new surveyors were Gershom Woodworth, Sam'l Wadsworth and Gideon Joslen. The clamor for road work sounds quite natural today. John Chadwick, John Brewer, Isaac Gearfield (Garfield), Eathan Lewis, Benj'm Heath and Jacob Brown received pay for labor and oxen on the roads but Chadwick had an extra bill for 7 quarts of rum and hanging gates.
The first mention of a Hop Brook road found in the town records was in 1763. Mention is made for laying out roads to Mr. Joslin's and Road to Hop Brook. By the next year the workers began to ask for higher pay. A James Sturdevant and others petitioned for a road past their place "as living back off the ways". Two years later a new road to Great Barrington and one to New Marlboro were opened, the latter "past Capt. John Brewers, deceased, across the Mill River, past Granville Brook to east bank of Sevin Bear Brook, past Samuel Wads- worth's dwelling, allowing the possessor of Josiah Brewer's Intervail the privilege to hang gates across the road for benefit of Travelers, s'd gates to stand open from Nov. 1, to April 1". At the same time Deac. Thomas Orton gave an account of clearing a new road from Mr. Robbins, on Beartown, to Orton's in No. Tyringham. This probably was the Brace Road.
From here on there is frequent mention of Hop Brook Roads. In March 1770, "To Elijah Warrin for 8 days building bridge over Hop Brook and clearing roads". This is the first bridge recorded in Hop Brook and seems to be the one by the Tyringham library. At a follow- ing meeting they planned for a road, "beginning at Lot No. 46 at a tree standing on south bank of Hop Brook, near the bridge, leading to south bank of Orton's Brook (Shaker Brook). Could this be Jerusalem Road? In 1773 Amos Northrup (Chapin House) and others requested a road from the Saw Mill (rake factory) on Hop Brook past Abijah Merril's dwelling to Amos Northrup's dwelling. (North end of Main Road) The next year a committee was formed "to view the new County Road, lately laid out through Hop Brook". This section of town was in an expanding mood, flapping its wings to fly.
And then came the lull, which lasted from 1774 to 1779, when there was practically no mention of roads. The officials had all they could attend to in raising money, men and ammunition for the army; besides, they were beset with the problem of a small pox epidemic.
During the wars north of here, soldiers became infected with small pox bringing it back home with them. The pestilence grew until by the time of the Revolution there erupted a frightening epidemic. In Mar. 1777 town meeting the voters, after choosing their officers, voted to pass over all else "excepting the matter of small pox". Also, "that there be a final stop to inoculating for the present". Lieut. Joseph Wilson, Abijah Markam and Ebenezer Chadwick were chosen to carry this message from the Selectmen and Committee of Safety "to all houses in town infected with same", The houses of John Betty, Gideon Joslin, Josiah Brewer, Giles Jackson and Thomas Benny were men- tioned as being infected. The committee was ordered to go to any
21
place where a person was suspected of giving it by inoculation and bring back a list of all suspected or actually having it, "for the select- men are determined to carry out all orders and any who disobey will be confined on their own lot with Proper Guards set until the town is sufficiently cleansed". In 1779 Dr. Binney (first doctor mentioned in records) was allowed for medicine and attendance on two transients infected with small pox.
The pestilence was still raging in 1785. Early that year the town, "resolved that a committee be chosen to appoint a House or Hospital for those that have taken the small pox by inoculation in the town of Tyringham in violation of the Laws of the Land and to the great dis- turbance and Danger of the Inhabitants of said town. And no one shall be allowed to go near same without special permit from the Committee after being cleansed of all Infection, to see that the Hospital is sup- plied with good and proper nurses and attendance and other neces- saries which they may need, at their own expense and the committee is to supply them with a physician". Dr. David Tallcott and Lieut. Joseph Wilson with the selectmen were the committee. They were directed to prosecute in Law, persons who brought in the Infection and all that had taken the inoculation. How medical science has con- sistently changed all through the years!
Day after day Rev. Adonijah Bidwell recorded deaths from small pox, among them was, "Joe, the Indian, died today of small pox."
After 1779 roads again came in for consideration. The township was bursting with activity. New homes brought appeals for roads and more roads, offset by discontinuance of former ones. New laws were passed, taxes raised, men skipped town without paying their taxes, others complained. It took 22 Continental dollars to get one silver dollar and the treasurer was demanding silver dollars. A commentator has said, "America is getting pretty stuffy when a man can't openly complain about his taxes". It is well to read these early records and ponder, have the people of today cause to complain? So the men worked out their taxes, building and repairing roads, gates, bridges and the town pound. In August of this, "the 4th year of Independence", the town "agreed to repair the public road requested by the Quarter Master for transporting stones through the town, half the cost to be paid by the town and half by him".
The town resented any infringement upon this means of paying taxes as demonstrated by the vote in Jan. 1802 to send a "committee to the General Court and oppose the proposed turnpike". Due to the limited long-distance roads and their bad condition, Turnpike Cor- porations were formed to challenge the situation. As a business enter- prise, the turnpike roads failed but those that were built became free and furthered the development of this Berkshire region. Better facil- ities for transportation invited more frequent communication with larger, older towns. Even so, travel during the early 19th century proved hazardous, sometimes dangerous. Theodore Sedgwick Ingersol of Stockbridge, wrote to his fiancé, Lydia Brewer in Tyringham: "I am told you are going to start for Hudson tomorrow morning with Sally,
22
and are coming home alone .- If you have any pride, or mean to sup- port any dignity, I would by all means advise you not to go-you must see that it is not only very dangerous but rediculous .- I think it the most imprudent thing I ever heard of. You not only expose your character and reputation, but your life is very much exposed. If you should happen to meet a ruff company of Dutchmen, half drunk, and they should affright your horse what would you do? Where would you go to?"
This first half of the 19th century was a restless period; new fam- ilies appeared and former settlers moved. After the cold year of 1816, when there was a freeze in every month of the year and all crops were frozen, many moved to western New York State or Ohio. This exodus carries a familiar tone when we think of the young families today being shuttled through the branches of big industry. The wide-spreading network of roads that formed, proved confusing to strangers passing through, so in 1840, by act of Congress, guide posts were placed at five strategic points on the main roads. Two years before this the town appropriated $1000. for repairing the highways and raised the workers' pay consistently for many years.
After more than one hundred years of use, the Royal Hemlock Road was discontinued in 1852. Several times men living in Jerusalem petitioned in vain to have it reopened. When, by the last of the cen- tury, families began to leave the rocky hilltops and move to the valleys or farther west, most of these early roads were discontinued until, in the early 20th century, the state passed a law forbidding termina- tion of all roads due to forest-fire hazard. Today, in hiking over the hills of Tyringham, one can detect the location of some of these aban- doned roads by the stone walls that bordered them.
CHAPTER VII-INCORPORATION & NAME, TYRINGHAM
Until its incorporation in 1762, the settlement was known as Housatonic Township No. 1. From then until 1952 the origin of the name Tyringham was clothed in conjecture. Most of the settlers were of English extraction and all historians agreed it was named from the Tyringham Estates in England-but, by whom and why? The most prevalent theory was that Lord Howe, passing over the great road through town, on his way to Ticonderoga, named it after his home in England. During early historical diggings the writer began to question this theory so in 1929 correspondence with Mr. F. A. Konig, owner of Tyringham House, England, was begun. His reply in part follows: "The Lord Howe of whom you make mention has never owned Tyringham, which for the last 600 years has been in the Tyr- ingham family until I acquired it in 1907". Mr. Konig had even con- sulted his neighbor, Col. William Trevor of Lathbury Park, regarding the question, who said, as far as he knew the Howe family never had anything to do with the neighborhood. So that knocked the Howe speculation in the head.
23
However, twenty-three years later a letter reached Tyringham's selectman, Fred Loring, from a young man, John G. B. Tyringham, attending Aiglon College in Switzerland. He stated that in clearing out some old documents at home he discovered one written by a resi- dent of Tyringham Estates wherein the man wrote he had been to America and while there had founded the town, Tyringham. The Lorings replied but never heard from him again.
In April 1954 the Lorings received a telephone call from Col. Giffard L. Tyringham who, with his wife and daughter, Rose Mary, were in New York City and would like to visit Tyringham, U. S. A. He and his daughter were greeted at the train in Lee, by Mr. and Mrs. Loring. The writer drove them back to the train in late afternoon where Rev. Franklin Couch met them. After that there was a brief correspondence with Col. Tyringham. In it he explained that from the old document he learned that a native from his ancestor's Tyringham Estates, England, emigrated to Massachusetts before the Revolution and came to this area prospecting for iron. While he was in western Massachusetts a town was named after his home in England. It sounds like he made a hit with the proprietors at an opportune time when they were incorporating and needed a name.
Ever since Col. Tyringham read the old paper he had wanted to visit this town. It was his son who first wrote from Switzerland and died shortly after, the only remaining person to continue the family name.
This year 1762 coincides with the emergence of iron forges in Berkshire County and the start of the Salisbury Iron Works expansion to the south of us.
Col. Tyringham also blasted the story of the origin of the English name as told in Scott's 1905 history of the town. The Colonel wrote: "According to our Pedigrees and Lineage the original Tyringham came over from Normandy with William the Conqueror and fought with him at the battle of Hastings in the year 1066-for his services was rewarded with forty-eight manors-which included Tyringham in the County of Buckingham".
The Tyringham Library holds a cablegram from Mr. Roger Tyringham, (emphasis on Mr. not Sir.) of Buckinghamshire, England, father of Col. Tyringham, congratulating the town on its 150th anni- versary, celebrated with presentation of the Hawthorne pageant in the Gilder meadows bordering Hop Brook.
And so ends the true story of the name Tyringham; this, the only town so named in the United States of America or in the WORLD!
CHAPTER VIII-SCHOOLS
Until the year of incorporation, wives of the proprietors, those with the proper learning, kept school in their respective homes. That year the town voted the sum of 18£ for schooling. The next year Isaac Gearfield was paid for making one writing table and sundry small benches for the school house and Elizabeth Warrin was paid 5£ 8s. for keeping school 18 weeks.
24
18'-0"
LONG DESK
TEACHER'S DESK
SEAT
UP
GIRLS' CLOSET
PASSAGE
SEAT
12:0"
C
STOVE
BLACKBOARD
BOYS' CLOSET
1 6.12.63
OUTER DOOR
PLAN: WEBSTER DISTRICT SCHOOL HOUSE TYRINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS . SCALE 1/4"= 1'0"
FROM DRAWING BY ESTELLE DORMAN STEDMAN AND MEASUREMENTS OF EXISTING FOUNDATION WALLS.
*Hoff Mrs
L'eut ifn Gerfi-
I've: who ched
The Hermit's Hut Tichnor's Shanty
Cross-eyed Angel Carving on Tombstone
From then through 1764 wives of Deac. Hale, Jonathan Whaples, John Kelloggg, Zachariah Thomas and Ben'j Heath received pay in various amounts at different times for keeping school. Then in '65 Giles Jackson made seats for the school. By January of the following year the town voted to build a school house on "North end of Lot # 43 on County Road, near where Bailey's house stands". This was to be a frame house 20 feet square by 7 foot stud, with chimney at one corner. When the bills came in, seems like every man in town helped to build that school house; they even charged for rum consumed on the job. This school house stood by a boulder on Beartown Road, not far from Brace Road.
Hulda Sedgwick commenced teaching in 1767 and boarded with Jacob Brown. In all probability this was the first time a regular teacher was employed who boarded out. In 1770 she was followed by Abigail Lewis, School Dame. In two years Samuel Eaton kept school and was paid for lights of glass for the school house. A Mr. Mahoney taught and boarded at Orton's.
Town meetings were often adjourned to this school house (warmer than the church) and in 1770 there started a continuous question, "should they dispose of their school land?" After the minutes of town meeting in 1773, there is a notation stating the school house burned on Mar. 5, 1773. Thus went the first school house in Tyringham-like so many of those early buildings. At this same meeting was asked, "the mind of the people whether to build a school house in Hop Brook." After the fire the inhabitants awoke to the need for more school build- ings. So they voted to build four school houses and a committee was appointed to "lay out in four districts, equally proportioned". The first included dwellings of Isaac Gearfield (Garfield), Capt. Sam'l Wheelock and Thaddeous Graves to connect with Dowd's, then to Noah Lankton's (Langdon), and Ebenezer Jackson. The school house to be set at the "Crock of the road against the house where Hezekiah Hale dwells". This was later known as Morse Corners. The second district began at Joseph Brewer's, west on town line to Six Mile Pond (Lake Buel), to Benchly Patton's, Benedict and Job Rewey's, to Ebenezer Jackson's and back. The third began at Isaac Gearfield's west, then north to Sam Howes, Abraham Collins, Thomas Robbins, easterly back to beginning. This was near the school house that burned. The fourth included all living in Upper and Lower Hop Brook, north to the Hop Brook south mountain. School house to be set at the turn of the town road, a little north of Ebenezer Spring's house. This recorded location appears to be that of the first school house for use of Hop Brook children and was in what is now West Otis at the junction of Route 23 and the Tyringham Road. Also, from this it appears that the most populous and influential section of Hop Brook was at this south and east end of town.
With the development and spread of Hop Brook section, grew the necessity for more schools. In April 1782 William Hale, Jr. and others petitioned to have their part of the township divided into three or more school districts and it was so voted. One district to include
25
property of Hezekiah Culver, Ebenezer Springs and Benj. Davis and all inhabitants northerly of them. This was the North Center District by Hickory Farm. Another district in the south part included Capt. Ezekiel Herrick, William Bentley, Darius Joslen and all southerly and easterly of them. This was the South Center or Sodom District. The third district was composed of all inhabitants between aforesaid which was the Center School, still used. One hundred years later there were eight schools in the Monterey section and six in Tyringham, be- sides the Shaker School. In Tyringham there were schools as above mentioned, plus one in the Webster District, one at Goose Pond (Lake May) and another in Jerusalem.
The location of the Sodom school house never changed but three different buildings stood on the same site. The first two were destroyed by fire and the last was taken down since 1914 when it was closed from lack of pupils. Beavers now occupy the site of this school house.
Around 1830 Eber Slater's children attended school in Jerusalem. His descendant, Edward, said that this school house stood on the south side of the road below the Curtin-Littell house. This building was taken down and another built about in front of where the Howard barn now stands. That also, was taken down and another built near the North end of Shaker Pond, to accommodate scholars who lived nearer this location. Slater told how it was not uncommon for the boys in Jerusalem to put the teachers out in the street and take full control of themselves. For several years a Shaker School, under supervision of the town committee, registered 28 scholars.
The North Center school location and building remained the same until it was unoccupied around 1900. Ossie Canon was the last teacher. After Mr. Kitson came to town, for a short time he used the building for a studio; subsequently it was removed and the land automatically reverted to Hickory Farm.
The first schoolhouse in the Lake May (Goose Pond) district stood between the old McCormick place and the Blake Farm. As the population in that section changed, the school house was removed and another erected west of the McCormick Farm. By 1912, or before, school was conducted in a room in the McDarby farm house. Rose McDarby was the teacher. Now, any scholars from that locality are transported to Lee.
As previously mentioned, the Webster District schoolhouse too, changed locations. Before it was moved, Jemima Stedman taught there in 1826. Text books were very scarce and expensive so Jemima made some of her own. Her arithmetic is especially interesting, written in beautiful penmanship and hand sewed for binding. An example in solid measure:
In 19 tons of round timber how many inches?
In 14 tons of timber how many solid feet?
In 21 cords of wood how many solid feet?
26
On another page, taken at random:
How many barley corns will it take to reach around the globe, it being 260 degrees?
How many times will a carriage wheel 16 ft. & 9 in. in circumfer- ence turn around in going from New York to Philadelphia?
A silversmith received three ingots of gold, each weighing 27 ounces with directions to make them into spoons of 2 ounces cups of 5 ounces sats.
The national debt of England amounts to about 279 millions of pounds sterling, how long will it take to count the debt in Dollars reckoning without intermission 12 hours a day at the rate of 50 dollars a minute and 365 days a year?
A lesson in discount follows:
I sold a watch for 17 pounds 1 s. 5 d. and by so doing lost 15 percent, whereas I ought, in trading to have gained 20 per- cent, how much was it sold under its real value?
On some of the last pages are these:
What is the least number that can be divided by 9 digits sepa- rately without a remainder?
In 45 £ 10s, sterling how many dollars and cents a pound sterling bring 444 cents?
Reduce 12 of a farthing to a fraction of a shilling.
Later, Jemima Stedman taught in Hinsdale, besides, she did a lot of tutoring. In her Day Book she charged Jessa Cheney, in 1838, for teaching Bruce and Lucy Cheney of Lee, 8 weeks. The scrap book says she taught "for nigh onto 40 years" in various places. One of the last teachers in this Webster District was Estella Dorman (Mrs. Charles Stedman).
The Center School has never changed location, in fact the present school building has been there for at least 100 years, probably many more. When Miss Cynthia Judd (Mrs. F. G. Heath of Monterey) taught there in 1870 she had 48 scholars and there were 146 pupils in the town.
The first printed school report was in 1859, the next year a second one, both written by Addison Brown, then chairman of the school com- mittee. Mr. Brown was a local Baptist minister. He gave the names of the teachers but not the pupils. The first record of scholars came in 1861, written by Albert Thompson, chairman of the board.
In 1865 T. D. Thatcher, chairman of the board, reported that there was no one living in the town, except the minister, who had re- ceived a diploma from any seminary, but by 1905 there were many who had. Tyringham schools have sent out into the world, boys who have made good-business and professional men, men in the mer- cantile business, and heads of manufacturing. Many of our girls trained and have held excellent positions as teachers and nurses.
27
Teachers today will be astounded to hear what a school dame's: life was like when Emogene Beach (Mrs. T. Fenn) taught in Jerusa- lem in 1857. "At that time," she wrote, "there were six districts in town. The school year began in the spring with only two terms in the year, the summer term being much the longer. A number of teachers. met at the home of C. E. Slater, who was on the examining committee, as candidates for their respective schools. Of the six teachers who taught that year, only two are now living in 1905. I received the munifi- cent sum of $1.6212 per week, which was 1212c more than any of the others except the one in the Center School."
"In addition to this amount we were boarded around. Now this: process of boarding around, must be experienced in order to under- stand its full meaning. The school ma'am had to send or go in person to inquire if it would be convenient for them to board the teacher a. certain length of time, according to the number of scholars sent from her family. If the good housewife had finished housecleaning and made soap, a favorable answer might be expected. If not, the teacher had to try some other place, possibly where such sanitary measures were not. deemed necessary. If the term was very long, mine was twenty weeks, she had the delectable pleasure repeated. Those teachers, as they moved their belongings from one family to another, realized they had no continuing place to live. That was my first and last such experi- ence. The next year was the dawning of a new era; steady board was furnished and soon wages were largely increased".
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.