USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Vol II > Part 31
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E. Herbert Botsford, educator, founder of the Northside College Preparatory School at Williamstown, and the present head of that in- stitution. a prominent citizen of Williamstown, where he has resided for various periods since September, 1879, was born at Port Byron, New York, December 18, 1860.
The family on both sides is English, its ancestry being traced back for numerous generations. Although the family tree is known in com- parative entirety, the early record is not at hand for this writing, and we must be content to begin the history with the grandparents. Grand- father Botsford, who came from England, located in Connecticut and there followed farming during his active career. He took for wife Miss Mary A. Clark, also of English birth, who came to America and settled at Northampton, Massachusetts. Of this couple was a son, Alfred Pomeroy Botsford, who became the Rev. A. P. Botsford, D.D., and who has spent over half a century in the ministry of the Presbyterian church, and is now living at Woodbury, New Jersey. His wife, and the mother of E. Herbert, was Miss Mary A. Pardee, who was born in Oneida county, New York, and is a member of a large family that has long been connected with the history of central New York.
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Prepared for college at Port Jervis, New York, Mr. Botsford entered Williams College in September, 1879, with the class of '82, and in 1882 received the degree of A.B., and in 1885 the degree of A.M. While in college he was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fra- ternity. After leaving his alma mater he continued his studies abroad, in Germany, and both by training and by natural fitness has been well prepared for a successful career as educator. Besides acting as a col- lege tutor, he has taught for varying periods of time at Port Jervis, New York: Hawley, Pennsylvania; Manchester. Vermont, and Will- iamstown, having been a high school principal and principal of the Man- chester Seminary. In 1900 he established the Northside College Pre- paratory School at Williamstown, which he has since conducted as an ideal educational institution of its kind.
Mr. Botsford has always been an upholder of Republican doctrines. He is an active worker in the Congregational church, holding the offices of Deacon, Sunday school superintendent, treasurer, etc. His only con- nection with secret orders is with his college fraternity.
January 1, 1884, he married, at Williamstown, Miss Angie E. San- ford, a daughter of Charles G. Sanford. Of their marriage was born, December 5, 1884, Elizabeth Sanford Botsford, who, in June, 1905, was graduated from Vassar College.
HERBERT HUME GADSBY. Ph.D.
Herbert Hume Gadsby, a well known educator in this section of Massachusetts, now principal of the Drury high school, was born at Gilbertsville. New York. August 13, 1862.
He prepared for college at Gilbertsville Academy, and in 1886 grad- uated from Cornell University with the degree of A.B. He entered upon 28
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his educational career as teacher of Latin and Greek at Oswego, New York, a place he held during 1886-89: was in the same position at Yonkers. New York, during 1889-91; was principal of the Yonkers high school in 1893-94. and in 1895 came to his present position as prin- cipal of the Drury high school at Drury, Massachusetts. Progressive in his work and ambitious for continual advancement, he has never fallen into educational ruts nor failed to keep abreast of the spirit of the times. On the completion of his course of study and after a successful exami- nation and the approval of his thesis, in 1892, he received from New York University the degree of Ph.D.
Mr. Gadsby is a Republican in politics, and is a member of the Con- gregational church.
DAVID INGERSOLL. JR.
David Ingersoll, Jr., was for a few years immediately preceding the revolution, a resident of Great Barrington. He acquired position and influence, and was a prominent figure in the politics of the southern part of Berkshire county, but became an obnoxious Tory, and was driven from his home by the people, and sought refuge in England. The story of his life during those days was written by Mr. Charles J. Taylor, who acknowledged his obligations to Mr. Robert C. Rockwell for much of his material. Mr. Taylor's paper was published in the "Collections of the Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society " in 1899, and from it the following narrative is condensed :
David Ingersoll, Sr., father of David Ingersoll, Jr., having previ- ously resided in Westfield, Springfield and Brookfield, Massachusetts, settled in what is now Great Barrington, as early as 1739. He became a large landowner, and in the year of his coming built mills and iron
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works on the Housatonic river, near Great Barrington. He became the principal man of affairs in the North Parish of Sheffield, and was cap- tain of militia, selectman of Sheffield, represented the town in the gen- eral court, and was a justice of the peace. He suffered business reverses and the displeasure of the provincial government, and for the last eight- een years of his life he occupied no official position. His second wife was Submit Horton, and they were the parents of David Ingersoll, Jr.
David Ingersoll, Jr., born in what is now Barrington. September 26, 1742, graduated from Yale College at the age of nineteen. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar in April, 1765, and at once entered upon practice in Sheffield, and he, with Theodore Sedgwick and Mark Hopkins, principally represented the legal talent of southern Berk- shire prior to the revolution. He was not regarded as the equal of the two named with him, but he was a lawyer of very creditable attain- ments, which with his somewhat imposing presence and audacity of manner, made him a competitor not to be treated with disrespect. In 1768 he removed to Great Barrington, where he purchased a dwelling house and several acres of land, upon which he resided until he left the country in 1774. The house was torn down about 1894. and upon the lot now stands the elegant stone mansion erected by Mrs. Mark Hopkins- Searles. Mr. Ingersoll was not married. and it is believed that his mother presided over his home until 1772, when she died, and afterward by his sister, Louisa. He was active in the transaction of town affairs at Sheffield, and his name appears several times as a member of town committees, overseer of the workhouse, and surveyor of highways. After his removal to Great Barrington, still holding his commission as justice of the peace, which made him one of the magistrates of the court of general sessions, he was accustomed to hold court at his residence, and he continued to act in a judicial capacity until June, 1774. although, as
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appears from a file of his writs now in existence, the actions brought before him were for the most part of trivial importance. In the spring of 1769 he was chosen one of the selectmen of Great Barrington, and he was re-elected for two or more succeeding years. In May, 1769, he was elected to the office of representative. and by successive re-elections his term was extended to cover a period of five years. He was appar- ently in sympathy with the Whigs of that time, and had a large follow- ing, though he was opposed by many influential citizens who had little faith in his sincerity. Little is known of his legislative career, but he eventually ingratiated himself with Governor Hutchinson, who in June, 1773, commissioned him captain of a company of cadets at Great Bar- rington, with the rank of major, and this Mr. Ingersoll's opponents con- strued as a reward for the surrender of principles he had previously pro- fessed, and of fealty to Governor Hutchinson. It does not appear that his company of cadets ever organized, but there is no doubt but Major Ingersoll became a firm supporter of his patron.
In 1774 Major Ingersoll's political career came to an inglorious end. Notwithstanding his rumored affiliation with Governor Hutch- inson, he was re-elected representative for the fifth time, and in a force- ful speech he assured his constituents of his steady adherence to the principles he had ever held, and of his devotion to the rights and liber- ties of the people. On his return from the ensuing session of the legis- lature, he found a changed feeling among his constituents. They had learned that he was one of the signers of the laudatory address presented to Governor Hutchinson on the eve of his departure for England, and they viewed him with abhorrence. Events of startling import rapidly succeeded each other. The port of Boston had been closed; her trade and commerce were paralyzed; her Whig residents had been subjected to indignities and abuse ; and a military governor held his seat hedged
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in by British bayonets. These conditions, perhaps, emboldened Major Ingersoll, leading him to believe that the rebellious spirit of the Ameri- cans was soon to be crushed out. In the summer of 1774 he seems to have openly avowed his attachment to British interests-to have ex- pressed his opinions with arrogance and aggressiveness, and to have habitually so demeaned himself as to become exceedingly obnoxious to the greater part of the people. So bitter was this feeling that twice he apparently became the object of mob fury. These outbreaks have been described in a confusing manner. It is certain, however, that Ingersoll was attacked before blood was shed in the Revolution.
Major Ingersoll's enforced departure from the country was thus described in Sheldon's " History of Deerfield " :
" August 19th came news that on the 16th the court at Great Bar- rington had been stopped, David Ingersoll mobbed, and the windows of his house broken. -* Ingersoll came over the mountains to Chester- field, but he was out of the frying-pan into the fire. He and Col. Israel Williams were seized by a mob, and compelled to sign a covenant dic- tated by their captors. Both, with Dr. Ebenezer Barnard (whose wife was a sister of Mr. Ingersoll), and John Graves, of Pittsfield, took to the woods for Hatfield. Here Ingersoll fell into the hands of another mob, which drove him out of town, and on the 24th he sought refuge in Deerfield for rest and comfort. The atmosphere here increased in temperature so fast that Ingersoll took advice from his friends-per- haps also from his fears-and on the same day turned his horses' heads towards Boston-that haven of distressed Tories. His coat and his pocket-book followed him to Deerfield on the 25th."
Of his flight on this occasion, a tradition is preserved by his descend- ants in England (probably handed down by Ingersoll himself) that he was pursued by a large number of horsemen, who pressed him closely, and upon whom he turned, unhorsed two or three of the foremost, and made his escape. He probably arrived at Boston about September Ist, and on the 12th he mortgaged his homestead in Great Barrington to the Rev. John Troutbeck, who was also a refugee, for the sum of eighty-
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five pounds. This was presumably to supply himself with funds for his voyage, for not long after he sailed for England, never to return. After his departure his homestead was taken in charge by the authorities and leased for several years. Later, after government was established, the property was parcelled out under executions to satisfy Ingersoll's cred- itors, and an agent was appointed to administer upon his estate as an " absentee." The property was not confiscated, as has been stated, but Ingersoll was proscribed and banished by the conscription act of 1778.
Little is known of Ingersoll during his first few years residence in England. It is known that he had some correspondence with his sister Sarah, wife of the Dr. Ebenezer Barnard, of Deerfield. In one of his letters to her he intimated that he might become a member of parliament, but his expectation was not realized. The British govern- ment granted him a pension of £200 sterling, which was reduced to £100 under a revision of the pension list made in 1783. He lived at Thetford, in Norfolk county, and was captain of militia.
David Ingersoll and Frances Rebecca Ryley were married at St. Cuthbert's church, Thetford. June 17, 1783, by the Rev. H. C. Manning, an uncle of the bride, and the church records contain the signature of both the parties, who were aged forty-two and twenty-two, respectively. Frances R. Ryley was baptized October 7, 1761, in St. Gregory's church, Norwich. She was the only child and heiress of Philip Kemsey Ryley, and granddaughter of Sir Philip Ryley, of Great Hocham Hall, in Nor- folk. Sir Philip, who died January 6, 1732, was born at Hocham; he was for many years commissioner of woods and forests, ranger of Dean Forest, and a commissioner of excise.
After his marriage, David Ingersoll resided with his wife at Hop- ton House, near Thetford, in Suffolk county. He lived as a retired gentleman, was highly respected, and mingled in the best society of Suf-
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folk and Norfolk. He was of large stature, as are his descendants. His wife, on the contrary, was below the average size, and they were famil- iarly known among their friends as " the Giant and the Dwarf." David Ingersoll died at Hopton, November 10, 1796, and the record of his burial thus appears upon the Hopton church books : "Nov. 15. 1796, David Ingersoll, late of Thetford, born in the Province of New England in North America-aged 54 years." His widow survived him a little more than seven months, and died June 22. 1797. Their children were :
I. Philip Ryley Ingersoll, born June 17. 1787; died in 1828. His descendants are living in England.
2. Mary Kemsey Ingersoll. born March 6, 1789: died April. 1806.
3. Frederick Horton Ingersoll, born 1790: died at the age of seventy-eight, about 1868. He was the father of Riley Thomas Ingersoll.
JOHN BROWN TYLER.
The family of which John Brown Tyler, a retired manufacturer and leading citizen of North Adams, Massachusetts, is a representative. was founded in this country by Job Tyler, who is supposed to have been born in England about the year 1619. His name appears on the records of Andover and Mendon, Massachusetts, he having sold a farm in the latter town in 1700, being at that time over eighty years of age. The name of his wife was Mary, but nothing is known of her family history. The line of descent is traced through his son, Samuel Tyler, of Andover, Massachusetts, to Samuel Tyler, of Andover and Attleboro, Massachusetts, to Nathan Tyler, of Attleboro, Massachusetts, to Thomas Tyler, of Attleboro and Adams. Massachusetts, who in 1792 married Mary Blakley, born in 1770, first female child born in the settlement subsequently known as Adams, Massachusetts, daughter of Justice
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Blakley, born in 1736, who came from Waterbury, Connecticut, to Adams, Massachusetts, about 1766, son of Tilley Blakley, born 1705, who was a son of Samuel Blakley, a son of Samuel Blakley, who in turn was a son of Thomas Blakley, who landed from the ship " Hopewell " in Massachusetts Bay in 1635. The children of Thomas and Mary (Blakley) Tyler were: Henry, Lucy, and Duty Sayles Tyler.
Duty Sayles Tyler, son of Thomas and Mary ( Blakley) Tyler, was born in Adams, Massachusetts, in 1799. He first entered the employ of Abram Anthony, of Adams, to learn the business of manufacturing cotton yarn, about the year 1820, and two or three years later he with his brother-in-law, Stephen Brayton Brown, formed a copartnership and under the firm name of Brown & Tyler they leased a small mill and machinery of Gershom Turner for the manufacture and coloring of cotton yarn. The mill was located near where the Broadley mill now stands, in Adams, which is owned by the Renfrew Company. This was before the introduction of power looms, the yarn being woven on the old hand loom. In 1827 William Jenks, of Adams, was admitted to the firm, which was then known under the style of Brown, Jenks & Tyler. and they leased the mill known as the Old Eagle mill of Caleb B. Tur- ner for three years, and at the expiration of that period of time Mr. Jenks retired from the firm. Messrs. Brown & Tyler then purchased the land and water power where the Johnson Dunbar mills are now located, and the following year erected a mill building and placed there- in machinery for the printing of calico. This undertaking proved ex- ceedingly successful, and from time to time they enlarged the mill, added other buildings and also purchased large tracts of land. In 1839 the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Tyler taking a large farm for his interest in the concern, and he resided thereon until 1845, engaged in farming. He then exchanged this farm with Rodman H. Wells for his
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interest in the Union Woolen mills, which was then manufacturing woolen cloth with cotton warp. This mill was located on Union street, North Adams. The mill and machinery were destroyed by fire in 1852. but another building equipped with machinery was erected the same year, and Mr. Tyler retained his interest in the property up to the time of his decease in 1857. He was a director in the Old Adams Bank from about 1840 to 1857, a period of seventeen years, during several years of which time he served as president. He joined the Baptist church in North Adams in 1831, holding membership in the same up to his death, and in 1832 was elected a deacon of the same. In politics he was a Whig and Republican. Duty Sayles Tyler married Amy Arnold Brown, born in Adams, Massachusetts, 1806. She was a lineal de- scendant of Chad Brown, who left Boston, Massachusetts, with Roger Williams for Providence, Rhode Island, and who was the founder of the famous Brown family of that town. He visited England and was ordained a deacon in the Baptist church, later returning to Providence, Rhode Island. The line of descent is traced to Daniel Brown, Jabez Brown, William Brown, Eleazer Brown, of Adams, Massachusetts, who married Sarah Scott. about 1768, to John Brown, born 1770. the first male white child born in the town of Adams, who married Phoebe Brayton about 1790, and they were the parents of Amy Arnold (Brown) Tyler. John Brown died in 1863. Three children were born to Duty Sayles and Amy Arnold ( Brown) Tyler : John Brown, men- tioned hereinafter; M. Louise, who became the wife of George B. Perry, of North Adams; and Cornelia, who died in childhood. Mrs. Tyler, the mother of these children, died in the year 1888.
John Brown Tyler was born in Adams, Massachusetts, October 3, 1826. He first attended the district school and later pursued his studies in private schools conducted by Charles Emerson, Isaac Holman
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and Lyman Thomson, and at the Arms Academy of Shelburn Falls. In 1845 he entered the employ of Ingalls & Tyler to learn the man11- facturing of woolen cloth and all other branches of the business. In 1850, with William S. Blackinton and Charles Atkinson, he purchased of Sanford Blackinton a half interest in the Blackinton Manufac- turing property, but in 1860 he retired from the firm, disposing of his interest to Sanford Blackinton. The same year he purchased a one- third interest in the Ingalls & Tyler Company property, in which his father was interested at the time of his death. H. Clay Bliss purchased a one-third interest of Mr. Samuel Ingalls, and the latter retaining his interest the firm continued business under the style of Ingalls, Tyler & Co. In 1863 Mr. Ingalls died and his interest was then purchased by the other partners; the name of the firm being then changed to that of Tyler & Bliss, which continued until 1869, in which year they retired from business, and since then Mr. Tyler has spent his time in attending to his private affairs. He was president of the North Adams Gas Light Company several years, and was an active factor in the building of the first plant for the manufacturing of gas. He was a director in the Adams National Bank for six years, a director of the North Adams Woolen Company, and was one of the promoters of the company which constructed the first water works. He served as assessor for the town four years, tax collector five years, and was a member of the prudential committee of the North Adams fire district about fifteen years. He has always attended the services of the Baptist church, although not a mem- ber of that denomination. He is a Republican in politics. Mr. Tyler married, November 18, 1846, Harriet Amelia Tinker, of North Adams, who was educated in the public schools of North Adams and the private schools of Charles Emerson, Isaac Holman and Lyman Thomson, the latter occupying at that time the Drury buildings. She was a daughter
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of Captain Giles Tinker, who was a captain in the militia of the state of Massachusetts for several years. He was the first to introduce the power loom in the town of North Adams, being a leading manufac- turer of machinery of all kinds, also a manufacturer of cotton cloth. He was an active member of the Methodist church in the town of Adams from 1814 to 1833, the latter named being the year of his death. Mrs. Tyler was left an orphan at the age of three years and was reared by Mr. and Mrs. Edward Richmond. The issue of this union was the following children: Edward Duty, born 1850, at North Adams, was educated at the Drury school, and Mills school of South Williamstown. and was engaged in an insurance agency. In 1879 he married M. Louise Bigelow, of Baldwinsville, Onondaga county, New York. He died in 1890. Elizabeth Louise, born 1859, was educated in the public schools and Drury high school. Mrs. Tyler, who was interested in benevolent work and was a member of the hospital board. died Septem- ber 29, 1893.
DR. ELIHU S. HAWKES.
Dr. Elihn S. Hawkes, of North Adams, was a man of fine attain- ments and great strength of character, and it was said of him by a biographer that " the town had few citizens of more note, and few dis- tinguished by as marked and honorable characteristics, or whose moral influence was so powerful and wholesome." His family was famous in the history of the French and Indian wars. Sergeant (afterward Colonel) Hawkes, who was commander of Fort Massachusetts at the time of its capture and destruction, was probably a brother of Dr. Hawkes' great-grandfather, Eleazer, who was killed and scalped in 1746, on the site of the Harrison farm in North Adams. From the last- named the line of descent to Dr. Hawkes is through Seth to Samuel,
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who was father of the subject of this narrative. Samuel Hawkes was born in the fort at Charlemont, in which the people took refuge during the Indian uprisings.
Dr. Hawkes was born at Deerfield, Massachusetts, July 25, 1801. The first event in his life which produced an indelible impression upon his mind was in 1806, when he was little more than five years old-a total eclipse of the sun, which his father impressed upon him to teach him the divine power through the truths of astronomy. He began his education at the Deerfield Academy at a very early age, leaving it when he was only eight years old, and he noted in his " Reminiscences " at a later day that he was then as far advanced in the ordinary branches as are most children of the present day at the age of ten years. He left the academy because of the removal of his parents to Charlemont, where the school facilities were so inferior that he was sent to live with his uncle, Dr. Allen. at Buckland, and with whom he remained until he was fourteen. out of school hours assisting the uncle in compounding medi- cines, and thus obtaining some knowledge of medicinal substances. He subsequently attended the Sanderson Academy in Ashland, in order to acquire such knowledge of the languages as would be of aid in the study of medicine, and he had made suitable proficiency before he was seventeen. His friends thinking him too young to enter upon profes- sional studies, he became clerk in a store, and his reminiscences of this period are worthy of repeating as presenting a specimen of his style of writing. and as depicting the country store and people of that early day :
" The four years from the age of sixteen to twenty do more toward forming character for life than any other four in human existence, and a country store is one of the best schools for the study of human nature. Here we meet with every class and every grade of human society; the cultivated and refined, in their decorum and complacency; the uncouth and ignorant in their brawling coarseness and duplicity; the grasping miser in his penurious clutching; the reckless spendthrift in his volup-
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tuous prodigality: the self-inflated egotistical dandy, with his borrowed or stolen habiliments; the tinselled village coquette, with her spangled adornings but barren mind. In short, every class of every tribe of every nation visits the country store, either to get what they want, to look at what they do not want, or to display their verbosity, to the chagrin and annoyance of the owner, and to the ridicule, if not the contempt, of the clerks. In a place of that description 1 passed the time from sixteen to twenty years, part of the time as clerk, and the rest as partner. During that time I was well schooled in the arts, tricks, frauds and corruptions of business life."
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