USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Vol I > Part 5
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" That fairy music I never hear, Nor gaze on those waters so green and clear. And mark them winding away from sight,
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Darkened with shade or flashing with light. While o'er them the vine to its thicket clings, And the zephyr stoops to freshen his wings, But I wish that fate had left me free To wander these quiet haunts with thee, Till the eating cares of earth should depart. And the peace of the scene pass into my heart ;
And I envy thy stream as it glides along Through its beautiful banks in a trance of song."
In " The Bryant House," where he re- sided, he wrote much of his choicest verse, including " The Indian at the Burial Place of His Fathers."
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his bride, Miss Frances Appleton, visited Pitts- field while on their bridal tour, and passed several successive summers there. They made their stay in the house on East street, Henry W. Longfellow. now the home of the Plunkett family, which was then the country home of Mrs. Longfellow's father, Hon. Nathan Appleton, of Boston. There the poet found that which gave him inspiration for one of his most pathetic poetic musings-" The Old Clock on the Stairs "-
" By day its voice is low and light ; But in the silent dead of night, Distinct as a passing footstep's fall, It echoes along the vacant hall, Along the ceiling, along the floor, And seems to say at each chamber-door,- Forever-never ! Never-forever !"
There, also he wrote " Evangeline," " The Belfry at Bruges," and sev- eral minor poems.
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Oliver Wendell Holmes, poet, essayist, novelist and philosopher, passed what he termed " seven blessed summers" on the old Lenox road, about two miles from the park at Pittsfield. In his novel, " Elsie Venner." it is believed he pictured vari- ous bits of neighborhood scenery and more than one well known local charac- ter. Here he also wrote several of his most widely known and generously praised poems, among them " Dedication of the Pittsfield Cemetery," and " The Ploughman." The latter he read at the anniversary of the Berkshire Agricultural Oliver Wendell Holmes. Society on October 4, 1849. It contained the following stanza. worthy of Cowper or Gray :
"O gracious Mother, whose benignant breast Wakes us to life, and lulls us all to rest, How thy sweet features, kind to every clime, Mock with their smile the wrinkled front of time! We stain thy flowers-they blossom o'er the dead : We rend thy bosom, and it gives us bread ; O'er the red field that trampling strife has torn, Waves the green plumage of thy tasselled corn ; Our maddening conflicts scar thy fairest plain. Still thy soft answer is the growing grain. Yet. O our Mother, while uncounted charms Steal round our hearts in thine embracing arms, Let not our virtues in thy love decay. And thy fond sweetness waste our strength away."
A pathetic interest attaches to the residence in Berkshire county of Rose (Terry) Cooke, the gifted poet and story writer. Her ad- miration for the beauties of the region was intense, and shortly after
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her marriage to Rollin Hillyer Cooke she prevailed upon him to estab- lish their home in Pittsfield. There the pair performed their most meri- torious and useful work-he in his historical and genealogical investi- gations and writings ; she in the production of some of her most charm- ing volumes, with their faithful and attractive portraiture of rural New . England life and character, and the collation of her complete poetical writings. Her plaintive poem on " The Two Villages " might well stand as a requiem for both herself and her husband :
"Over the river, on the hill, Lieth a village, white and still ; All around it the forest trees Shiver and whisper in the breeze, Over it sailing shadows go Of soaring hawk and screaming crow, And mountain grasses, low and sweet. Grow in the middle of every street.
"Over the river, under the hill. Another village lieth still ; There I see in the cloudy night Twinkling stars of household light. Fires that gleam from the smithy's door,
Mists that curl on the river shore : And in the roads no grasses grow. For the wheels that hasten to and fro.
" In that village on the hill Never is sound of smithy or mill : The houses are thatched with grass and flowers ; Never a clock to tell the hours ; The marble doors are always shut, You cannot enter in hall or hut ; All the villagers lie asleep : Never a grain to sow or reap:
Never in dreams to moan or sigh : Silent and idle and low they lie.
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" In that village under the hill, When the night is starry and still,
Many a weary soul in prayer Looks to the other village there, And weeping and sighing, longs to go
Up to that home from this below : Longs to sleep in the forest wild,
Whither have vanished wife and child,
And heareth, praying, his answer fall :
' Patience ! that village shall hold ye all.' "
BERKSHIRE HISTORICAL AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY.
This society had its origin in a meeting held at the Berkshire Athenaeum, January 21, 1878, at which were present Ensign H. Kel- logg, who presided; Henry W. Taft, William R. Plunkett, Henry L. Dawes, James M. Barker, James W. Hull, Thomas P. Pingree, J. E. A. Smith, Robert W. Adam. John P. Brown, Dr. J. F. A. Adams, and E. G. Hubbell, curator and librarian of the Athenaeum. At this meet- ing the purpose was expressed of forming "a society for increasing an interest in archaeological science, to rescue from oblivion such historical matter as might otherwise be lost," and to promote a knowledge of natural science.
A further meeting was held on February 22d following, at which were present the gentlemen before named, and a considerable number of others, a general invitation having been extended to all citizens of Berkshire county who were in sympathy with the objects expressed at the initial conference. At this meeting thirty-two persons were en- rolled as members, a constitution was adopted, and the following offi- cers were elected: Alexander Hyde, of Lee, president ; Joseph White, of Williamstown, and James M. Barker, of Pittsfield, vice-presidents;
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E. G. Hubbell, of Pittsfield, secretary: Henry W. Taft, William, R. Plunkett, of Pittsfield, and Charles J. Taylor, of Great Barrington, executive committee.
At a subsequent meeting the use of the Athenaeum was granted by its trustees to the society for holding meetings, and as a place of deposit for valuable documents, specimens, relics, etc. From the first the society has been highly successful in its work, having had in its membership, from its founding to the present day, a large proportion of the most scholarly and enthusiastic people of the county, male and female, who have labored with commendable zeal for the promotion of the objects for which it was established. It is here pertinent to observe that Berkshire was the last county. in the state to be organized. and its peopling was one hundred years later than that of the Connecti- cut Valley. Yet it possesses a most interesting history. and is making history daily. The work of the society has been most valuable in record- ing for future generations much that, but for its existence and accom- plishments, would be irretrievably lost.
The society holds regular quarterly meetings, and, besides, an an- nual field meeting in the summer season, and on some spot of historic interest in the county. At these meetings very many able and interest- ing papers on historical and scientific subjects have been presented and discussions held. These have been preserved in the " Collections of the Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society," which is a welcome visitor to the leading libraries and historical and antiquarian societies of the country. The first paper printed was by Professor Perry, of Williamstown, on " The Battle of Bennington." Professor Perry was for many years president of the society, and took great interest in its work. The writers on scientific topics have included such widely known authorities as Professor Dana, of Yale College, who wrote on " The
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Formation of Greylock Mountain," and other interesting subjects. " The Judicial History of the County," "Indian Missions at Stockbridge," and "Shay's Rebellion," are among the subjects treated of by members who had made careful study of their subjects. Among the scientific papers the botany and geology of the county have been carefully treated. In the archives of the society are histories of the manufactures of the county-paper, glass, woolens, etc ..- and biographies of Parson Allen, Jonathan Edwards, Theodore Sedgwick. John Chandler Williams and others are preserved for future investigators. The scientific department was thoroughly developed by the present secretary, Harlan H. Ballard, whose reputation as president of the Agassiz Association has extended throughout the country.
The present officers of the society are: Joseph E. Peirson, president ; E. H. Robbins, vice-president: Harlan H. Ballard, secretary; W. G. Harding, assistant secretary; Rev. R. D. W. Mallory, T. Nelson Dale and Rev. C. J. Palmer, executive committee. The following is the membership roll of the society; address, Pittsfield, unless otherwise given :
W. R. Allen. Theo. L. Allen.
Edgar D. Aldrich, Dalton.
R. WV. Adam.
W. L. Adam.
O. A. Archer, Blackinton.
Dr. J. F. A. Adams.
Prof. Jolin Bascom, Williamstown.
Henry W. Bishop, 164 Rush street, Chicago.
Henry A. Brewster. Miss F. E. Brewster. O. C. Bidwell, Great Barrington. E. Burlingame, Adams.
J. H. Burghart, Stockbridge.
Dr. B. O. Barber, Pownal, Vt. Judge H. H. Bixby, Adams. J. L. Barker, Adams.
L. L. Barnes, Canaan, Conn. Henry A. Barton, Dalton.
L. W. Brayton, North Adams.
Miss Ella S. Brown, Dalton.
H. W. Bowen, Adams.
Mrs. S. W. Brown, Cheshire. Mrs. J. S. Bracken.
H. C. Bowen, Cheshire.
H. W. Brock, Adams.
G. W. Bliss, Cheshire.
D. M. Collins.
Dr. Henry Colt.
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Mrs. Frank Colt. Mrs. G. W. Campbell. Zenas Crane, Dalton.
Fred G. Crane, Dalton.
Hon. W. Murray Crane, Dalton.
Miss M. E. Crane, Dalton.
Clinton W. Curtiss.
C. K. Collins, Great Barrington.
A. W. Curtis, Sheffield.
Mrs. James D. Colt.
I. D. Curtis, Lenox.
Mrs. W. H. Cooley.
L. A. Cole, Cheshire.
Miss Annie B. Clapp.
Rev. Silas P. Cook.
A. B. Clark, Lee.
H. H. Dyer, 223 Washington St., Boston. Miss S. Jane Dean, Adams.
Mrs. Anna Dunbar.
R. B. Dickie. Dalton.
John A. Duggan, North Adams. Mrs. John H. Eells.
J. W. Ferry. Lee.
I. D. Ferrey.
L. J. Fisk, Cheshire. Arthur Follett, Adams.
Mrs. James H. Francis.
C. C. Gamwell.
W. A. Gallup, North Adams.
T. B. Gale, Williamstown.
WV. D. Goodwin. Miss Anna K. Green, Adams.
W. B. Green, Adams.
W. G. Harding. James H. Hinsdale.
James W. Hull. Mrs. B. F. Huntting.
T. Hooper Durham, Centre, Conn. W. Harrison. Lebanon Springs, N. Y.
C. W. Kniffen, West Stockbridge. D. A. Kimball, Stockbridge.
C. W. Kellogg.
H. F. Keith, Mount Washington. L. S. Kellogg, South Lee.
Dr. Orville L. Lane, Great Bar- rington.
Mrs. Mary H. Lane, Great Bar- rington.
Dr. W. W. Leavitt.
Ralph Little, Sheffield.
J. Ward Lewis. Rev. Arthur Lawrence, Stock- bridge.
I. C. Lane, Harvard College Li- brary, Cambridge.
Dr. W. M. Mercer.
Mrs. Dr. Miller, Sheffield.
E. E. Merchant, Adams.
J. H. Manning.
James Magenis. Adams.
C. W. Miller, Adams.
Charles A. Mills.
Hon. L. E. Munson, New Haven. Conn. Rev. T. W. Nickerson.
Mrs. T. W. Nickerson.
Mrs. C. D. Nichols, 302 C street, N. W., Washington, D. C.
E. H. Nash.
William Nugent.
Mrs. F. C. Parker, 4 W. School street, Westfield.
J. E. Parsons, Trinity Bldg., New York City.
WV. M. Prince.
T. C. Partridge.
G. T. Plunkett, Hinsdale.
Don M. Peck.
Mrs. Don M. Peck.
C. Quackenbush, Hoosac, N. Y.
C. S. Rackemann, 39 Court street. Boston.
Mrs. C. B. Redfield. W. B. Rice.
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Mrs. F. W. Rockwell.
Miss Dora Radlo, 9 Cherry street, North Adams.
E. H. Robbins.
Dr. O. S. Roberts.
H. T. Robbins, Great Barrington.
Robert C. Rockwell.
H. S. Russell.
Mrs. Daniel Upton, Adams.
Mrs. S. S. Roys, Sheffield.
Mrs. E. H. Robbins.
Miss Maria R. Warriner.
George Wiley Roberts, Le ?.
F. H. Wright, Great Barrington.
Wellington Smith, Lee.
N. H. Sabin, Williamstown.
Mrs. L. W. Streeter, Adams. George Shipton.
Henry C. Warner, Great Barring- ton. Mrs. Charles E. West.
Hon. E. T. Slocum.
Rev. A. B. Whipple.
Mrs. Seraph H. Stevenson.
Dr. H. H. Smith, Lee.
Dr. D. M. Wilcox, Lee.
John M. Stevenson.
Gen. Morris Schaff, Boston.
Mrs. S. M. Smith.
W. P. Small, Sheffield.
Mrs. Clarence L. Sherman, Adams.
Mrs. Louise P. Shedd.
Rev. Nathaniel Seaver.
Hon. Joseph Tucker.
Marshall Wilcox.
W. A. Whittlesey.
Mrs. Wm. P. Wood.
Mrs. Dr. W. H. Wentworth.
BERKSHIRE ATHENAEUM AND MUSEUM.
The trustees of the Berkshire Athenaeum were organized as a cor- poration on May 13, 1872, under a charter granted in the preceding year, that instrument reciting its purpose to be " establishing and main- taining in the town of Pittsfield an institution to aid in promoting edu- cation, culture and refinement, and diffusing knowledge by means of a library, reading rooms, lectures, museums and cabinets of art, and of historical and natural curiosities." Power was also granted to the town to appropriate money toward the support of the institution so long as it maintained a free library for the use of the inhabitants. It succeeded the Pittsfield Athenaeum, and took over its well selected collection of books, which had been received in greater part from the Pittsfield Li- brary Association, a proprietary organization established in 1850. Of the original trustees of the Berkshire Athenaeum were Thomas Allen
Berkshire Athenæum.
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and Henry L. Dawes, who were among its most active supporters and liberal benefactors.
At the organization of the corporation a deed was made to it for a tract of land formerly occupied by the Agricultural National Bank, which was purchased with a fund to which Calvin Martin had con- tributed $5.000, the remainder being given by Thomas Allen and Thomas F. Plunkett. The corporation also received, in 1869, in ac- cordance with an enactment by the legislature, the library, museum and apparatus of the Berkshire Medical College, and $4,400 from the trus- tees of that institution, which, after a long and useful career, though sadly hampered for want of means, had gone out of existence. The latter sum of money was paid out for land additional to that previously conveyed. In 1874 the town of Pittsfield appropriated $24,000 for the purchase of additional land and for the payment of certain mortgages on that already in its possession, and $22.400 was devoted to that pur- pose. Thomas Allen then proceeded to the erection of the Athenaeum building. upon the condition that the town would contribute to the support of the free public library maintained by the trustees, an obli- gation which has been religiously carried out to the present time.
The Athenaeum building provided by Mr. Allen having served its purposes for a period of twenty-one years, from the accretions to the library came to be no longer adequate for the proper storing of the books and for such an administration of the library as was demanded by its increasing use by the people of Pittsfield. This fact was called to public attention by the president in 1890, and resulted in the com- pletion of an addition in 1897, at a cost for land and building of about $50,000, and which will for a long time afford all sufficient accommo- dation. Among thie benefactors of the Athenaeum were Phinehas Allen, who died in 1873, who made a bequest amounting to $91.525.92. In
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re-cataloguing, rearranging and adding to the Library and Art Gal- lery, $10,000 was expended in 1883, and this amount, as well as the cost of the new addition to the Library building and repairs upon the old one, was taken from this fund. Since 1891 the income from the remainder has been applied to the current expense account.
Bradford Allen, son of Hon. Thomas Allen, bequeathed to the corporation the sum of five thousand dollars, the income to be applied to the purchase of works of art. The most notable purchases made from this fund have been " Mid Ocean," by Woodbury, and a copy of the Sistine Madonna by Bardi. of Naples. In 1880 Mrs. Elizabeth Campbell Clapp gave to the trustees $1.000 to be expended in the pur- chase of books. Her death occurred the same year, and she left a further sum of $4,000, the income to be expended annually for books. Prior to her death in 1891. Miss Elizabeth S. Newton made a bequest of a valuable collection of paintings, engravings and books, many of the former having been purchased in 1835 in London, England, by her father. Hon. Edward A. Newton. From Mr. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes the library received about one thousand volumes from the library of his namesake father, the beloved " Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," who during his lifetime maintained his interest in Pittsfield, his grand- father, Jacob Wendell, having been one of the original proprietors of the township, and it was for a number of years his own place of sum- mer residence. These books are appropriately marked with Dr. Holmes' own bookplate. In 1903 Hon. Zenas Crane, of Dalton, presented the fine Museum of Natural History and Art, located on land contiguous to the Athenaeum, the property and its contents representing a value of more than one hundred thousand dollars. This benefaction grew out of the donor's conviction that the similarity of the purposes of the Athenaeum and the Museum pointed to the desirability of their being
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united under one management. The name of the corporation was ac- cordingly changed to that of the Berkshire Athenaeum and Museum, and additional trustees were provided for. With reference to this union Mr. F. M. Cruden wrote as follows in The Outlook:
" It would be ungracious not to acknowledge the appreciation of the trustees, in which they are confident the entire community shares, of the fine gift from the Hon. Zenas Crane, of the Museum of Natural History and Art, with its admirably selected works of art, specimens of natural history and objects of curiosity and interest. Its reception by the public has been cordial and enthusiastic, and the praise of it has been universal. It will long continue to be an object of pride to the citizens of this county, a wise contribution to education in art and natural history, and an incentive to the high citizenship that is helpful in promoting institutions that are educational and uplifting."
The Museum of Natural History and Art is located in South street, a few rods from the Pittsfield Park, where stands, as Pittsfield's soldiers' monument, the Launt Thompson heroic bronze statue of " The Color Bearer," and near where flourished and faded the Old Elm, fa- mous in history, its place now marked by the sun dial set up in 1903 by the Patriotic Order of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Adjoining is the massive Athenaeum edifice, one of the principal archi- tectural ornaments of the city. The Museum building is constructed of gray limestone and gray Roman brick, in the Italian renaissance style of architecture. The exterior is severe in design, and depends for its architectural effect upon its extreme simplicity, refinement, and care- fully studied proportions.
In this building have been assembled works of art representing both ancient and modern schools, examples of statuary from casts of famous works: samples of productions in bronze and pottery. and cu- rious specimens of ancient glass, clay and the metals. in decorative de-
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signs, in coins and jewelry, in articles for use and ornament, some of them but crude attempts, yet possessing a beauty and interest of much valute as representing the progress made from the days of old to the present perfection of productions in art and the trades.
One of the most interesting of the exhibits of the Archaeological Department is a model of what is known as the black obelisk of Shal- maneser II, who ruled the Assyrian empire, 858 to 823 B. C., and which was found overthrown under the debris covering the palace of Shal- maneser, among the extensive ruins at Nimroud, identified by Sir Henry Rawlinson and others as Calah, and situated about thirty miles below Nineveh, on the Tigris. In the same department are thirty-four clay tablets with cuneiform inscriptions, representing an empire earlier than that of the Assyrians-the Chaldaean, or First Babylonian. There is also a replica of the famous Rosetta stone, the original of which is in the British Museum, and which has proven to be practically the key to the great temple of knowledge of ancient Egypt, its two inscriptions in Egyptian (B. C. 195, 205-181) representing different periods, and first introducing Egyptologists to an acquaintance with the language of the Pharaohs.
The collection of Greek and Roman curios, useful and ornamental, is replete with fine specimens, and includes one case of sixty-five glass vases of the third and second centuries before Christ, of unique beauty, many of them carrying the opalescence of rare gems, and others pre- senting the scale of the rainbow. There are also Greek and Roman gold ornaments of the fourth and third centuries B. C .; specimens of Greek and Roman bronze vases and implements of the fourth to the second centuries B. C. ; and a collection of Egyptian, Greek and Roman beads, coins, etc., of great antiquity. Other objects of beauty and inter-
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est are Phoenician and Chinese curios, and a rare array of relics of the Indians of North America.
Besides the statuary in the entrance hall, there are three pieces of splendid sculpture in the Museum-the Discobolus, of Myron, about the fifth century; St. George, the slayer of the Dragon, by Donatello, 1386-1466; and the Wrestlers, a well known Greek group. The Natu- ral History Department has for its principal adornments a series of Berkshire mineral specimens, collected and presented by Daniel Clark, of Tyringham; a collection of marine curiosities, including beautiful algae; and a hortus siccus of plants and ferns collected by members of the Agassiz Association. A representative collection of birds is of pecu- liar interest and beauty.
The officers of the Berkshire Athenaeum and Museum for 1904-5 are as follows: President. W. R. Allen; Vice-President, James M. Barker; Treasurer, George H. Tucker; Librarian and Clerk, Harlan H. Ballard; Auditor, Henry Colt. Investigating Committee-President. Treasurer, Auditor (cr-officio), C. W. Kellogg and I. D. Ferrey. Li- brary Committee -- Dr. Henry Colt, Walter Hawkins, Dr. J. F. 1. Adams. Art and Museum Committee-C. W. Kellogg, I. D. Ferrey, George Harding. Trustees-Morris Schaff. William M. Mercer, Henry WV. Taft. Walter Cutting, Harry D. Sisson, Joseph Tucker, Wm. E. Tillotson, Erwin H. Kennedy, Henry R. Peirson, Henry A. Francis, Theo. L. Pomeroy, James L. Bacon, John C. Crosby.
THE. AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION.
Perhaps no work originating in Berkshire county has been more widely instructive and beneficial than that inaugurated by the Agassiz Association. It was an carnest desire of the distinguished naturalist.
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Louis Agassiz (whose last work was the establishment of a School of Natural History on the island of Penikese, Rhode Island), that socie- ties should be formed in towns for the purpose of studying the district for a radius of five or ten miles. It is probable that this desire found root in some considerable degree from his knowledge of the natural beauties of the Berkshires, with which region he became familiar while a professor at Harvard College. It was full of interest to students of nature ; its geological structure had for many years attracted the atten- tion of eminent scientists ; its flora found high appreciation for its rich- ness and variety ; and it was alive with birds of most numerous species for the extent of its territory.
In the desire to realize in some degree the views of Professor Agassiz, in 1875 Harlan H. Ballard effected the organization of the Lenox High School Association, its membership made up from among his pupils. The members entered upon their investigations with genu- ine enthusiasm, and in many of their excursions came upon a flower or a vein of quartz crystals quite out of the ordinary. In 1880 the name of the society was changed to the Agassiz Association, and it was incor- porated with an efficient directory. In the same year the association published a report of its work, and a general invitation was extended to all who might feel interest, to form local clubs and unite with the association, for the interchange of scientific information, exchange of specimens, etc. The association now numbers some ten thousand mem- bers, grouped in about one thousand chapters.
In 1893 the Agassiz Association made an exhibition at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the exhibit comprising specimens collected by various chapters, prepared collections of minerals, photo- graphs, courses of study, and a quantity of literature fully setting forth the work performed by the association. The exhibits of the association
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