USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Shelburne > History and tradition of Shelburne, Massachusetts > Part 22
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May 31st, John Burdick was elected to the Com- mittee of Correspondence, which consisted of Ebenezer Ellis, Job Burdick, Lieut. Robert Wilson and John Bates.
Again on July 12th, Major Wells was chosen to represent the town at the General Assembly at Water- town, held July 19th. On December 13th, Major Wells was voted "five pounds, nineteen shillings and two pence for service to the town."
The year 1776 was one of financial stress. Many decisions were necessary on the part of the loyal citizens. Town meetings were called frequently. On January 12th, it was voted to "send a petition to the Honorable Court of Assembly, praying them to peti- tion the honorable Congress to have them take over some of the wages of the officers of our army."
There was a vote on March 18th "that the town clerk shall take an account of all men and money that has been advanced and raised in Shelburne for the defense of our country and liberties."
On June 26th, eight days before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it was voted that "this town will stand by the Continental Congress with their lives and fortunes, if their Honorers think it expedient to declare us Independent from the Kingdom of Great Britain for the safety of our rights and privileges." Later, when the Committee of Safety received a copy of the Declaration of Independence, the people assembled at the meetinghouse to hear it read.
On September 26th, Deacon Samuel Fellows, Cap- tain Lawrence Kemp, Lieut. John Long, Lieut. Benja- min Nash and Stephen Kellogg were added to the Committee of Correspondence and Safety, which had previously consisted of David Wells, John Wells, Robert Wilson, Aaron Skinner, John Burdick, John Taylor and Samuel Wilson, who had been elected March 4, 1776.
The colonists met with disaster after disaster at Long Island, White Plains, Fort Washington, and Fort Lee. But their interminable courage and per- sistence kept up their spirits and determination to right this great wrong which Britain had imposed upon them.
No levy of men or supplies was too great. When a call came for 4,000 blankets from Massachusetts,
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In early May of this same year the townspeople were amazed to see an officer riding through town, dressed in gold-trimmed blue uniform, with plumes on his hat. It was Benedict Arnold on his way to Ticonderoga !
Shelburne contributed her quota. They were made by the women from the yarn spun and woven of wool from their own sheep.
Commodities grew very scarce. There were no spices, tea, coffee or chocolate, and the only sugar to be had was maple sugar. There was very little salt. Pork was the chief meat in use, as the sheep were needed for their wool.
There were but five enlistments recorded for 1776, these were in Captain Samuel Taylor's Company at Roxbury, and were as follows: James Anderson, Moses Bates, William Fellows, Willis Fellows and John Hunter.
In March, 1777, it was voted that the Committee of Safety should consist of seven men, and David Wells, Samuel Fellows, Ebenezer Allis, Stephen Kel- logg, Samuel Wilson, Moses Smith and John Bar- nard were elected. At the same meeting a vote was carried "not to raise any money to hire Continental soldiers."
A month later, April 28th, it was voted "that this town will give eighteen pounds to every man that will engage in the Continental service for three years or during the war, until the number that we are to raise be completed ; six pounds to be paid at their passing muster and six pounds annually after that until the whole sum is paid, allowing Mr. Stephen Kellogg for his Negro man, Charles, as much as the others have and that the Commissioned officers of the town shall be a committee to procure the above said men and that they be empowered to give security in behalf of the town to the above said men."
In the spring of 1777, when the British planned to carry out their campaign to conquer New York, Gen- eral Burgoyne started from Canada with a well- trained army of ten thousand men. All New England felt great uneasiness when they heard of this threat to their homes and families. Men were eager to serve in the army to help drive out the invader.
The list of men serving for forty-seven days, Feb- ruary 23 to April 10, in Captain Lawrence Kemp's Company, Colonel Leonard's Regiment at Ticon- deroga, is as follows:
Capt. Lawrence Kemp Benjamin Potter
Lieut. John Stewart
William Choat
Ebenezer Ellis ( Allis)
Hugh McGill
Stephen Ellis ( Allis) Samuel Severance
Nathaniel Merrill Levi Fisk
William Fellows John Hunter
Samuel Fellows David Childs
William Anderson Samuel Fisk
David Hunter
Timothy Woodward
During this time a serious sickness descended upon the people of this little community of Shelburne. It was a malignant form of dysentery which proved fatal to sixty persons, many of them children, all within a period of fifty-three days. A French doctor came but stayed only three days. Dr. John Long, an army surgeon, came home to care for the sick and dying.
The fact that the cannonading at the Battle of Ben- nington could be heard added to the distress and worry of the people. Then came the call for a new quota of men to serve in the army. The list of those who entered service, May 10, 1777, for two months, nine days, under Captain Lawrence Kemp, in Colonel David Wells' Regiment was as follows:
Eliphalet Graves James Butler
Silas Shurtliff David Hosley
Benjamin Allen Calvin Ransom
Benjamin Allen, Jr.
Phineas Rider
John Bates
John Taylor
Daniel Belden
Luke Taylor
A larger group went into the Company of Captain John Wells, Colonel David Wells' Northern Depart- ment, from September 22 to October 28, namely :
Jabez Ransom Job Colman
Ezekiel Buscom John Nims
John Burdick Levi Fish
James Wilken David Hunter
Ebenezer Bardwell Luther Ransom
Solomon Smead
Martin Severance
Matthew Barker
John Fellows
Elisha Severance
William Anderson
Thaddeus Merrill Zeeb Taylor
Stephen Kellogg Abner Nims
John Ransom
John Anderson
Benjamin Potter
James Anderson
Job Bardwell
Hazael Ransom
There were six men who enlisted in 1777 in differ- ent regiments :
John Dochardy, Regiment unknown
Duncan Conoly, Regiment unknown
James Bragden, Regiment of Col. Bayley Nathan Peck, Regiment of Col. Bayley
Charles Carter, Regiment of Col. Brewer
Timothy Woodward, Regiment of Col. Nixon
The real crisis of the war passed with the surrender of Burgoyne. Although the seat of the war changed, Shelburne continued sending her quota of clothing, money, beef and men until the end of the war in 1781.
An interesting list of articles furnished and the dates are as follows :
June 6, 1778 - 22 shirts, 22 pairs of shoes and 22 pairs of socks June 9, 1779 - 5 men
June 22, 1779 - 22 shirts, 22 pairs of socks and 22 pairs of shoes
Sept. 14, 1779 - 11 blankets
April 21, 1780 - 18 pairs of shoes, 18 pairs of socks, 18 shirts and 8 blankets
June 22, 1780 - 13 men
Dec. 4, 1780 - 10,312 weight of beef or, in place of it, wheat or money
June 30, 1781 - 8 men
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It is amazing that a town as small as Shelburne was in 1763 - 14 families - could supply so many soldiers. But the town had quite an increase in popu- lation even during the war. In 1778 the town tax bill contains the names of 178 resident taxpayers.
Before listing the names of the men who served in the years 1778, 1779, 1780 and 1781, it would be well to give the names of the sixteen who actually fought and who are listed in all histories of this region :
Martin Severance Samuel Smead
Samuel Severance
Deacon William Long
David Anderson Stephen Long
James Anderson Reuben Bardwell
Abner Peck
Benjamin Nash
Col. David Wells
Dr. John Long
John Fellows
Asa Nims
Lieut. Jacob Pool Elisha Barnard
Elisha Barnard was present at the execution of Major Andre.
The nine-months men in 1779 were: Thomas Dyer, Avery Randall, Hugh Hunter, Thomas Anderson and David Anderson. This same year Matthew Taft and James Graves served in Capt. Woodbridge's Company in Rhode Island.
On May 29, 1780 the list of men in "new Levies" was as follows:
Philip Bartlett Avery Randall
James Graves
Ezekiel Ransom
Daniel Nims Selah Smith
John Jeril
Ichabod Graves
Elisha Barnard
James Merrill
Oliver Bates
Ephraim Lyon
Robert Long
Militia of Shelburne mustered for "Clavericle" 1780, under Col. David Wells, "who appeared and made oath" August 3rd, in Capt. John Wells' Com- pany were :
Abraham Bass Solomon Fellows
Robert Watson
John Kemp
David Doyl
Russell Allen
Samuel Fellows, Jr.
George Dillibar
Joshua Whitney Peter Dodge
David Barnard
Daniel Taylor
Phineas Rider
The final list of men who served in the Continental Army cites their return in 1781:
James Tinney Samuel Severance
John Jeril
Nathan Shippee
Joseph Bennet
Luke Oxford
Caleb Thayer Francis Green
Amos Dodge Adam McNitt
All these lists are from the "Military Notes" in the Shelburne Town Office compiled by William O. Taylor, from the records in the State House, Boston.
Other records of infinite value in portraying the picture of conditions during these trying times are the
articles voted by the town at their frequent town meetings :
May 22, 1778 - "voted to allow Levi Kemp forty shillings for the use of his gun and the damage done it."
May 27, 1778 - "voted not to accept the Con- stitution. 102 voted against and not one for it."
June 25, 1778 - "Voted to allow each of the Con- tinental men that were raised for nine months the 30 pounds that the Court allowed to this town and 20 pounds that the Officers engaged to make up 50 pounds and to hire the above money." "Voted to choose a committee to take into consideration the fines paid and times when paid and how much time each fine shall answer for" (above fine paid by drafted men) "Voted that the Continental Clothing that is to be provided by this town this year shall be paid for out of the town treasury and Selectmen be a com- mittee to provide it."
March +, 1779 -- "voted that the Selectmen shall procure the Powder that lieth in the State Stores that belongeth to this town and deal out to each man half a pound, he paying for the same."
May 17, 1779 - "voted to take the oath of Fidelity and Allegiance to the United States of America." "Voted that the Selectmen shall set up a notifycation to warn all the inhabitants that are above the age of 21 years to meet at this place at the adjournment of the meeting to take the above oath."
June 24, 1779 - "voted that this town will agree together as a town in raising soldiers from the begin- ning of the war to the end of it." "Voted to choose a committee to assist the commissioned officers in settling their accounts as to the drafting of men and likewise assisting in making our present draft. The Selectmen and Committee of Safety together with Col. Wells and Daniel Worthington to be the above said Committee and they shall assist in procuring the Continental men that are yet behind in our quota of the 3 year men or during the war."
Articles were voted in September, 1779, May, June and July, 1780 in regard to relief concerning delin- quency of our Continental Men, financial reimburse- ment to Dr. Long for "going with the 9 months men to So. Hadley, allowing the six months men a two hundred dollar bounty and one hundred dollars for three months."
June 23, 1780 - "voted to keep the money good as it is now which the Selectmen may hire to pay our Continental six months men, their bounties and ra- tions."
The articles passed in town meetings during the remainder of 1780 and 1781 deal mainly with the rais- ing of money and supplies for the army.
Nov. 3, 1780 -- "voted to raise 7000 pounds to purchase Beef," "voted 3758 pounds for the payment of the horses the Selectmen have purchased."
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Jan. 1, 1781 - "voted to raise 14,000 pounds to procure this town's quota of beef."
June 8, 1781 - "voted to raise 670 pounds and 15 shillings in Silver money and to receive wheat, rye, Indian corn at 6 shillings a bushel, and wool and fax in place of money."
July 24, 1781 - "voted to raise +255 weight of beef agreeable to a resolve of the General Court, June 22, 1781, and to raise 85 pounds silver money or in wheat equivalent for the purpose of procuring the above quota of beef to be raised by the town."
May 12, 1783 - "voted whereas this town received a resolve of the town of Boston respecting the return of conspirators and absentees to this state, therefore voted that this town will at all times, as they have
done to the utmost of their power, oppose every enemy to the just rights and liberties of mankind and it is the opinion of this town that their conspirators and absentees never ought to be allowed to return but be excluded from having a lot or portion among us."
With the surrender of Lord Cornwallis and his army at Yorktown, on October 19, 1781, the many years of strife and sacrifice were at an end. Congress issued a proclamation for a day of Thanksgiving and prayer.
Two years elapsed before the treaty was signed which granted a full and complete recognition of the independence of the United States. The little town of Shelburne, war-weary and impoverished, assumed her responsibilities toward the forming of a great, new country.
SHAYS' REBELLION
JOHN HUNTER of Shelburne was a veteran of the Revolution. Like most of the citizens of the Com- monwealth he had probably loaned money to the State for the prosecution of the war against England. He had also served in the army himself. We have no record of where the Hunter family lived in Shelburne. John was the son of Samuel Hunter of Colrain, mov- ing to this town with his mother and sister after the death of his father.
He returned from the war, as did countless other farmers and laborers, to find his property run down, and no money from any source to resume his business. It was impossible to collect the money loaned the State and promises to pay on paper were of no value when a man's creditors clamored for "hard cash."
Everyone lived in terror of being committed to prison by the Debtors' Courts. There were no laws governing the equitable distribution of a man's prop- erty among his creditors, and the returned soldiers stood to lose what little they had, should more than one creditor bring suit for money owed. The prisons were fearful places and the debtor's terror was under- standable.
As early as 1781 there were many people who dis- trusted the newly adopted State Constitution, and little reliance could be placed on the representatives to the General Court. The patriots, who had worked with zeal throughout the crucial years preceding and during the war, had been replaced in high positions by men of dubious qualifications, whose personal ambi- tion overrode interest in the common people. In short, the country had freed itself from England, but the average citizen had as yet little understanding of, or confidence in, the new order of government.
No doubt John Hunter knew of the conventions being held in various parts of the State in 1786. At one held in Worcester thirty-seven towns were repre- sented. Resolutions were drawn and presented to the Legislature, setting forth the people's difficulties. When these petitions failed to produce any action,
groups of irate citizens gathered and violent disorders broke out. Living conditions were unbearable, and having no hope of lawful redress the people took what to them seemed the only way.
The main idea was to prevent the courts from sit- ting. A Debtors' Court session in Northampton in August, 1786, was hastily adjourned when 1500 men, armed with muskets and clubs, gathered silently at the Court House. Other groups broke up similar courts scheduled to sit at Worcester, Concord and Springfield. At Great Barrington, not only was the court broken up, but a mob of 800 men forced the jail and released the men imprisoned there.
Meanwhile, Daniel Shays of Pelham had entered the picture. A son of poor parents, and a man of little education, he had, nevertheless, had a distin- guished career as an officer in the Continental Army. From the Shays' farm, which lay between Pelham and Prescott Center, he made trips to many towns, making speeches and urging the people to revolt. Dur- ing the hectic summer of 1786, he made one or more visits to Shelburne. His brother, James, was a resi- dent of Shelburne at that time. As his army became organized, they used the land adjoining the tavern in Pelham as a drill field. The men were willing, but the immediate need was for arms and ammunition.
Shays planned an attack on the Arsenal at Spring- field in order to secure needed supplies for his men. A number from Shelburne were members of his army, among them John Hunter. They proceeded to Spring- field in January, 1787. Shays had depended on his friend, Luke Day, of West Springfield to meet him there with an army which he had raised and drilled. Day, however, failed to appear, and Shays' men found the Arsenal strongly fortified, and well-guarded by Federal troops under General Benjamin Lincoln.
Unarmed, as most of his men were, there was nothing to do but retreat. This they did, into the woods between Springfield and Pelham, where the fighting in the cold and the snow continued for
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several days. During this time, John Hunter was killed at Petersham.
Whether he was brought home for burial is not known. For a number of years a stone (now gone) in the Shelburne Hill Cemetery bore this legend :
"John Hunter died Jan. 1787, aged 29 years.
Martha Hunter died Oct. 6, 1807, aged 61 years.
Widow Jane Hunter died Jan. 20, 1812, aged 98 years."
Apparently, sympathy was felt for the family when John was killed, for at a town meeting held November 19, 1787, it was voted "to abate John Hunter's rates on Thomas Wilson's note bill."
After the fiasco at Springfield, began the rounding up of the members of Shays' army. In the spring of
1787, Jacob Walker of Whately was killed in Ber- nardston, while attempting to arrest one of Shays' men, named Parmenter. Walker was the carpenter who finished the second church in Shelburne. Par- menter was tried for his murder, was convicted, and later pardoned.
Other Shays men, some from Shelburne, were re- quired to take the oath of allegiance. Shays himself went to Sparta, New York, where he died in 1825, at the age of seventy-eight.
In several towns in Franklin and Hampshire Coun- ties, the page for 1787 has been torn from the rec- ords, so deep was the shame of the relatives of those who followed Shays. But the good highway honoring Shays as a protester against unjust laws has vindi- cated him and his adherents.
WAR OF 1812
IN JUNE of 1812, the Selectmen of Shelburne -- William Wells, Amos Allen and John Fellows - re- ceived the following letter from the Selectmen of the town of Greenfield :
To the Selectmen of the Town of Shelburne: Gentlemen :
We have received the unquestionable intelligence that an unconditional Declaration of War against Great Britain alone has been made by the Congress of the United States. In this alarming posture of our national affairs, it behooves us to dwell with deep and solemn attention upon the event to which our Country is hastening.
Considering that everything valuable under our Republic is about to be staked in a war with the only power on earth that is able to affright us, and that our sentiments, our interests and our arms may pos- sibly soon be joined with those of the Despot of France, at a time, too, of general complaint and calamity - we deem it of the last importance that the great body of the people should express to their public agent their sentiments and feelings in relation to that eventful measure which they will soon be called on to support with their treasure and their blood.
We would therefore, Gentlemen, suggest the pro- priety of calling a meeting of the Inhabitants of your Town to consider the expediency of petitioning the President and Congress that the projected war may be forborne and that peace and trade may be restored to the nation.
And suffer us further most earnestly to request your utmost effort to procure a distinct resolve to be passed by Yeas and Nays in disapprobation of an alliance with France as the most dreadful of national calami- ties.
We have further respectfully to advise that each Town at their meeting for the above purpose should choose one or more delegates to meet in a convention
of Delegates from all the Towns in the counties of Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden at Northampton on the 14th day of July next to deliberate together upon the perilous condition of the country, and further to act as the crisis may demand.
We are, Gentlemen, with great respect
Your very obt. Servts.
Thomas Smead Eli Graves David Ripley B. Ralph Wells
Selectmen of Greenfield
Greenfield June 25th, 1812
(This letter was found among old papers in the old Wells house and was given to the town, where it may be found in the records, by Miss Frances Loomis, a descendant of William Wells.)
In the speech of Rev. Theophilus Packard given at the Centenary celebration, we find the following list of those who served in this most unpopular war:
Stebbins Allen Thomas Goodnow
Daniel Anderson David Long
David Anderson Alexander Fisk
Medad Bardwell William McCollister
Ira Barnard George Bull
Samuel Nims George W. Carpenter
William Phillips Jesse Wilson
These men were listed in the local Veterans' Office as being in service in the War of 1812, and are buried in the cemeteries indicated :
Rudolphus Allen (or Adolphus?), Arms
Capt. Joseph Nims, Franklin
Capt. Willis Rice, Arms Charles Tolman, Arms
Pliny Wells, Arms
Drury Williams, Franklin
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THE MEXICAN WAR
There is little to be said about this war so far as Shelburne is concerned. There were grave discus- sions here, as elsewhere, about both the wisdom and the
ethics of the action, but no Shelburne men are known to have been in service and it had no perceptible effect on the economy of the town or the routine of its daily life.
THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES
IT Is difficult at this time to appraise the sentiments of the people of Shelburne about national issues in the years immediately preceding the outbreak of the war. The town had no newspaper of its own. Green- field had two weeklies, the Gazette & Courier ( Repub- lican) and the Franklin Democrat, but they allowed only a negligible amount of space for Shelburne items. If we assume that sentiments in Shelburne were com- parable to those in Greenfield, we may select three items as typical of the various points of view :
The re-election of Governor Banks in the fall of 1859 showed that the recently organized Republican Party was vigorous and purposeful in spite of its heterogeneous elements, and in his inaugural address, (January, 1860) he made several significant state- ments. He expressed his satisfaction in the increased enrolments in the State Militia and urged still more enrolments and greater interest in discipline and pro- ficiency. He repeated some of the arguments of abo- lition ; and referring to the possibility of secession he said, "In my judgment, dissolution is one of the evils not within the scope, if it be within the purpose, of human power." The value of Governor Banks' judg- ment depends upon the extent to which it reflects the beliefs of his party.
The opposite extreme appears immediately after this speech in the editorial comment of the Franklin Demo- crat. "The Governor," it says, "insults the sentiment of the community, plays into the hands of ultra- Sewardism," and, "with a politician's gratitude for favors to come, gives anti-slavery legislation a decided lift."
An intermediate and somewhat disheartened opinion is given in the Gazette & Courier (Feb. 11, 1861) more than a year later and after the election of Mr. Lincoln. It is that "one of three measures must be adopted : First, a Peaceful Separation; or, second. War; or, third, Compromise. I mention these in the order of bad, worse, worst." The paper allots a column and a half of its closely typed space to argu- ments on those alternatives, indicating that it considers a discussion of them important. The article is signed, however, with the single initial "F," so that we may not assume that it expresses the opinion of the paper.
The extent to which any or all of these sentiments were prevalent in Shelburne may be judged by the results of the elections of November 1860. Mr. Lin- coln's electors received 258 votes of the 295 cast, elec- tors of the other parties receiving 32, four and one respectively. The count in the State gubernatorial election was nearly the same: 256 for the Republican nominee, John A. Andrew, and 31, three and two for
his opponents, respectively. Mr. Andrew served, by repeated re-elections, throughout the war; and his administration and character were such that, in retro- spect after the war, he was looked upon in Massa- chusetts much as Mr. Lincoln was later regarded by the nation at large.
In rural New England, as in many other places, minorities are often much more vocal than majorities.
THE OUTBREAK OF HOSTILITIES
Events moved rapidly everywhere after the election of Mr. Lincoln. This was true of the town of Shel- burne; and let it be said that from here on, the activi- ties of the towns of Shelburne and Buckland were carried on practically in unison under the name of Shelburne Falls and the political division was forgot- ten, so far is it could be legally. The two town meet- ings had to be held separately, of course, but prac- tically all of the actions dealing with war situations were identical by prearrangement.
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