USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Volume I pt 1 > Part 2
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Agate composed of jasper.
Argillaceous concretions of clay stones of light drab color in form of disks and spheres.
Tourmaline, straw yellow color. Manganese dendrite penetrating quartz rock.
Pearl spar, a dolomite. Kyanite, a silicate of alumina.
Smoky quartz.
Phosphate of lime or apatite. Graphite or carbonate of iron. Limite epidote or zoisite. Green tourmaline with cale spar. Soapstone. Tale is found in veins. Nickel in small quantity.
White pyroxene or diopside. Specular iron.
Bladed fremolite, fibrous tremolite, quartz crystals in dolomite, mag- netite in small veins traversing mica slate rock.
Hydrate of allumina or gibbsite.
Aragonite in trimetric crystals, pargasite black crystals, rose quartz. orthoclase in monoclinic crystals. Moonstone or opalescent feldspat. Gold and silver in small quantity at the Cleaveland mine.
Scapolite, pink caleite, black tourmaline.
Ferruginous quartz. zoisite, red oxide of titanium in dolomite.
Allophane, deweylite. .
Graphic granite.
Rutile in lime rock, kaolinite, chalcopyrite or copper pyrite, alum slate.
Iron pyrites in lime rock. It is mined and shipped to Boston for the manufacture of sulphuric acid.
Cubes of pyrite in chlorite schist, polybasite, a double sulphure; found in drift. Earthy manganese or wad. Fine dendritic crystalliz. tions of manganese in laminated quartz. Brown iron stone is found among drift in pebbles and boulders. Numerous species of acid or oxide of silicum have been found of vitreous rock crystal, and small groups of quartz crystals. Of common quartz, which offers such variety in external aspect, may be mentioned hacked quartz, cellular quartz. ferruginous quartz, smoky quartz, irised quartz, green chlorite quartz, quartz cavi ties after spodumene, silicitied wood. Of cryptocrystalline varieties, car. nelian, agate, brown jasper, yellow jasper, red jasper, black jasper. hornstone, chert. Of the silicates of several bases are the zpolitie sinh stances-chabazite in groups of primitive rhombs, orthorhombie thomp sonite. The needle stone of Werner. The Harringtonite in implanted globules of yellow color. The laumonite a monoclinic zeolite-subject to decomposition by exposure to the air, stilbite of smoky color, sploor- ostilbite in radiated sphere -- oder white. Among the fell-pathie group may be found orthoclase both white and pink color, small triclinic crys.
GENERAL HISTORY.
tale of albite. necronite (fetid feldspar. Monoclinic pyroxend of duck green color, light green salilite. Augite in rough crystals. fibrous jis roxene, white crystallizations of spodomene. Petalite in which lithia was first discovered in truncated crystals. Of amphibolic species lancioglar and fibrous hornblend. dark green. Pargacite, black. Cummingtonite. asbestus. Of the seapolite group tetragonal wernerite- often modifical by truncation. Nuttalite presenting an oily aspect. ekebergite in masses and slightly fibrous. Of micaceous substances muscovite monoclinic and broad plates of dark green color, also silver white and black colors. Garnets in small dodecahedrons. Of the titanices, sphere-a silico- titanite of light brown color. Menacanite occurs massive iu gavis roch. ihnenite in quartz veins. Washingtonite large tabular crystals in quartz drift. Of carbonates cale spar of white and purple colors. Agaric mins eral. rock milk, in fissures of lime rock. Graphite in quartz which indi cates that vegetable life existed when these rocks were formed. Serpen tine.
Limonite, this occurs massive. often stalactie-botryoidal or mam. millary forms with nearly black and shining surface, irised-rare. lepivi ocrokite -- rare.sometimes micaceous -- gothite.and velvety the pizibramit. Ores of manganese pyrolucite, psilomelane. There are large deposits of limonite ores in many of the towns. Much of this has been sighted in the county and large quantities shipped to other localities.
CHAPTER II.
TOPOGRAPHY.
BY J. E. A. SMITH.
B ERKSHIRE, the extreme western county of Massachusetts, has wide fame for the exquisite beauty of its natural scenery, for the product of its mines and quarries, for its manufactures, and for the influence some of its citizens and inhabitants have had on the manufac tures and agriculture of the whole country, and also for the great mimber of eminent divines, scholars, statesmen, soldiers, and min of letters who have had their birth-place or homes in it. Its part in the French and Indian wars was important, and within a few years, its grand share in the war of the Revolution has been dragged from its comparative oh security, and the more recent of the best historians heartily recognize it
There are few counties in the country which have so proud a tecont as Berkshire in any of these particulars; hardly one, if there is one. which equals it in all. Some of these points of excellence are obviously due to the physical geography of the county, and it will be found equally true that others are derived from a combination of the results of physical geography and its geographical position. A description of these is, thered fore, the natural foundation of the history of the county.
Berkshire is bounded on the north, for fourteen miles, by Benning ton county, Vermont. The town of Monroe. in Franklin county. Masses chusetts. juts into its northeastern boundary, and adijains it for about four miles at this point on the north. The southern line of the county runs for about twenty- four miles along the northern boundary of bitch field county. Connectiont. The western boundary of the State and comity. dividing it from New York, is almost exactly 50 miles long. The Families of Hampshire. Hampden, and Franklin lie next east of Berkshire. and the dividing line is very irregular in its outlines; but the average breadth of the county is about 28 miles. In area it has about 920 square miles In what manner, and for what reasons, good or led. these long lines were fixed as they were, we fell elsewhere. This outline of fom is given here, as an essential preliminary to the proper understanding of the
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GENERAL HISTORY.
physical geography of the region, and because it shows the frontier character of Berkshire, which has no small influence upon it now, but which gave the whole tone to its earliest story .
The territory thus defined has also a remarkable physical formation. Professor Guyot, the geographer, as quoted by Palfry, the historian, con- siders the great inland topographical feature of New England to be a double belt of highlands, separated by the deep and bread valley of the Connectiont. He regards these belts, not simply as two ranges of hills.
" They are vast swells of land, with an average elevation of a than- sand feet above the level of the sea. with an average width of fifty miles, from which, as a base, mountains rise in chains, or in isolated groups, to an altitude of sometimes several thousand foot mere. The western belt, which bears the general name of the Green Mountains. is composed of two principal chains, with several smaller ones which nin along them. Between the principal chains a longitudinal valley can be traced. although with some interruptions. from Connecticut to Northern Vermont."
Perhaps a more accurate statement would have been a chain of vil leys: for although they clearly belong to the same system. they are dis tinetly divided from each other by ridges, which turn the stream- in xp posite directions.
" The mountains have a regular increase in elevation from a height of less than a thousand feet in Connectiont, to two thousand five bubdiet feet in Massachusetts, where the majestic Greylock lifts its head to the stature of three thousand five hundred feet."
The increase continues still further in Vermont, until, at the north- ern extremity of the Green Hills. Mansfield Mountain reaches a height of 4.400 feet.
.. The rise of the valley is less regular. In Connectiont its laatom is from five hundred to seven hundred feet above the sea level In South ern Massachusetts it is eight hundred feet. It rises thence two hundred feet, to Pittsfield, and one hundred more to the foot of Greylock. where. it descends to an average height of a little more than five hundred feet in Vermont. Thus it is in Berkshire county that the Western swell presents, if not the most elevated peaks, the nest compact and consoli dated structure."
The facts thus stated by Professor Guyot clearly designate Berkshire as the summit county of the fireen Mountains, and also, together with others of a local character which we must present more in detail, give it a marked individuality.
The grand Berkshire valley, divided and subdivided as it may be, is enclosed in mountain walls which make it one. And this valley, with the adjoining hillsides and mountain tops, mostly within the barriers of which they form a part. comprises the territory of the county. The mountain range along which it- castera boundary mas is the Hivesar. Its highest peak, specifically known as the House Mountain, has become.
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
world-famous by the boring through it of the House Tunnel. Long hi. fore the tunnel was dreamed of it was famed for the grandeur of the rings from the highway which crossed it. In still earlier days the inhabitants of the Connecticut valley looked to it with dread; for notwithstanding its height. from it descended upon their homes the savage warriors of Canada. It lies in North Adams and Florida, and rises about 2.000 fret above the neighboring valley, or 2.000 above the sea level. The next highest is French Hill in Peru. 2.439 feet above the level of the sea, bht probably not more than 1.400 above the valley at its base. The mage decreases in height toward the south, and its summits have an avete height of 1.600 feet. The traveller over the Boston and Albany Hat road will not be disposed to question the statement of the geographer. that " the space between this range and the Connectiont River is mostly occupied by a rugged table-land. 1,000 or 1.500 feet in height." Som portions of this territory have been, however, found rich in rate wineeds. and there are several towns with valuable water powers, or much good farming land, as farming land goes in New England. The massive kinh and table-lands which compose the Hoosae Range, are divided by trans verse valleys, but generally of little depth. The adamantine racks which underlie the thin soil are not so rapidly worn into furrows as the suffer material of the Taconics. How unbroken is the barrier wirich the Hoos sacs interpose between Berkshire and the rest of Massachusetts, is cheng by the fact that the Boston and Albany Raihoad is obliged to alins) double upon its course to enter the valley, over a valley summit whose original elevation was 1.478 feet above tide water at Albany; the ascent of the twenty- five miles between Westfield and Washington bring 1.211 for of which 837 are surmounted in the last 123 miles by a grade which. fort short distance at one point. is eighty feet to a mile. It was $2. 18 before grading. It is claimed that there are lower grades further south: but the alleged difference is too slight to affect our illustration. The fact remains that the Hoosac Mountains were a formidable barrier to communication between the northern border of Massachusetts and the rest of the State: not an unsurmountable one, by any means, but quite sufficient to tum the tide of trade in other directions.
The western boundary of the county, and of the State, lies along the Taconic Mountains, although it is not. as is frequently said, coincident with that of their summits, owing to the curvilinear course of the range and its tendency at the north toward the west, while the boundary, which is a straight line, diverges twelve miles eastward. This line crosses Mount Washington near the western base, and rund west of several of its sonth. ern summits, and nearly upon the line of others. About eight miles after reaching the long and narrow town of Hancock the Taconies divide. That portion which is usually considered the main range, runs almost directly north until it terminates abruptly with the high hill in South Williams town. known as East Mountain. The town and valley of Hatwork lie est of its summits. The other ridge runs west of the Hancock valley, and
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GENERAL HISTORY.
mostly in New York-while it borders that town-but north of it bends to the east, and on the west of Williamstown the boundary is nearly apon its summits. Berlin Mountain. the highest peak in this range, has an altitude of about 2.100 feet above the village of Williamstown, of 2,500 feet above the sea level. The highest elevation in the main range is Mount Washington, a huge, uplifted mass, occupying the southwest corner of the county. It has several summits, the highest of which. .. The Dome of the Taconics." rises 2. 624 feet above the level of the set. When President Hitchcock, while Edward Everett was governor, made the geological sur- vey of the State he renamed this summit as Mount Everest. Catharine Sedgwick, and others of like character, made an indignant protest against the change, and in literature it remains " The Dome. " although on the maps it is generally Mount Everett. The Taconie summit next in heigl is Perry's Peak. in Richmond, 2.077 feet above the sea level. of 1.100 feet above the neighboring valley. Both "The Dome" and Perry's Peak command magnificent over views, which are at least not sia passed by those from Greylock.
The average width of the Taconic Mountains, from their caster to their western bases, is about five miles, and there are several points be- tween the peaks where the highways find a not exceedingly difficult pas sage, although it is generally necessary to surmount a grade. sometimes steep, of several hundred feet. In fair weather, when the road is in good condition, a pleasant drive of an hour or two will carry the traveller, or the party, with good horses, across most of them. But, in addition to these, the Taconies are broken through at one point, and practically at two, by passes with a very slight grade. In the northwest corner of West Stockbridge. a little south of midway between the northern and southern extremities of the boundary line, the Boston and AAlbany Rail road, by the aid of an inconsiderable tunnel in the adjoining town of Canaan, N. Y., passes through the range with a grade of only 120 feet above that.of its road bed in Pittsfield. This pass, before the days of railroads, was the gateway through which the commerce of Berkshire with the city and State of New York chiefly passed. AAlthough the stage routes and much passenger travel were over the steeper highway, touns heavily loaded with country produce going to, or merchandise coming from the sloops and steamers which plied upon the Hudson, almost in- variably took the level road, even when it was less the direct.
The contrast between the broad, ruggell. and almost unbroken wall by which the Hoosacs separate Berkshire from the rest of the common. wealth, with the thin barrier by which the narrow Taconies, with their convenient. although infrequent passes, divide it from New York, will strike every reader.
The line between Berkshire and Vermont is marked by rude and massive mountains, the highest. " Bald Mountain." in Williamstown and Clarksburg. being 2.270 foot high. Still, they are so separated as to afford along this short boundary, roads of moderate grade. The valley
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
through which the North Branch of the Hoosac enter- Clarksburg leads into a good section; but the grand pass is that of the main Hoosae River. whose course has already been described. It affords an easy poster both to Vermont and the west. It was earliest known as an Indian war. path, but was of interest in after wars. Through it the Berkshire militia and the Connecticut commissioners went to join Ethan Allen in the cap- ture of Ticonderoga, and it enabled the men of the county to reach the battle field of Bennington speedily. Over it a portion of Burgoyne's captive army marched to Boston, and in many ways it has long losen noted.
The Connectiont boundary is also mountainons in gent, but the hills which open gracefully to let the Housatonic River juss through. as courteously afford abundant space for highways and railroads, while at other points there is easy communication between the county and Cons nectient, which added no little to the safety of the early settlements in Southern Berkshire. Berkshire is thus bounded on three sides by States with which she has easier natural interconommunication than with the ad- joining counties in the commonwealth of which she forms a part. Raj !- roads have greatly modified this peculiar border position, but in a linvred degree it still exists, and its influence is still apparent. Its early eflyet upon the settlement of the county, upon its part in several wars, upon its trade and commerce, and upon its political. social,and moral life. wer incalculable. It gave to Berkshire a history, in many respects, quito dis tinet from that of the commonwealth generally, and to its people some elements of character different from those which they brought with them from the Connecticut valley. although it could not greatly affect the substantial New England basis of that character.
The grand valley of Berkshire is a complete whole, distinct final. however it may be connected with, others. The mountains which we love described as enclosing it have an average height of seven of eight Jan- dred feet, and certainly give it well-defined walls The observer From any considerable elevation at once recognizes this and admins the pet fect architectural proportions which nature has given to the superb ange phitheatre. The valley as thus presented, from mountain top to monn tain top, has an average, and not very irregular, width of about fourth miles, and a length of about forty six. Of course, from base to lose. it is much more narrow and irregular.
The spectator descending from his elevated standpoint finds this main valley divided and subdivided into a multitude of minor ones, by spor thrown off from the external mountain ranges, and by indentations into their mass, as well as by independent chains not much inferior in altitude to the Hoosaes and Taconics, and with one summit which excel any of those we have mentioned.
The most conspicuous feature of the interior topography of Berk shire. and one that has great influence upon others, and also upon the Issue of the county, is the Greylock chain of hills, which divides almost equally
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GENERAL HISTORY.
a large portion of the northern section. The early settlers in Central Berkshire saw what looked like a single noble mountain crowning the valley at the north with its grand and graceful double summits. Asont- lined against the sky these summits bear a strong resemblance to thise of a saddle, and, after their matter-of-fact way, they forthwith called it Saddleback Mountain. And this name, which cannot by any possibility be used in poetry, or even in poetic prose, was adopted by the early geog. raphers. It still holds a place in geographies, and on some mags. The saddle form is, however, not uncommon among mountains, and there are several saddle or saddleback mountains in thecountry, so that ;lo gging. besides being unmusical and commonplace, was not even distinctive. It may be noted, too, that saddles are no longer so familiar of jects as they were in the days when all traveling, by men or women. from a journey to Boston to a ride to church of a ball, was on horseback. For those reasons, and from our tendency always to use the more brief and striking term, the name of Saddleback has, in local usage and general literaturv. given place to one of the most poetic and distinctive in the nomenclature of mountains.
Saddleback Mountain-we give it its unrepealed although much dis. used name-Saddleback Mountain is one grand mass uplifted from the valley and surmounted by several summits. It is six miles long from east to west. and lies at about an equal distance from the Hoosar and Taconic ranges, and about five miles south of the mountains of the Ver. mont border, from which it is separated by the valley of the Hoosac. Ifs highest peak", which has an altitude of 3.500 feet above the level of the sea, is in the northwest corner of the town of Adams, very near the point which adjoins both North Adams and Williamstown.
Upon the summit of this peak the shows of winter first appear, while all is green or brown below, and here they appear to linger longest in the spring: although they in reality may be preserved later in some hidden dell. The hoary appearance which this gives the mountain head was quickly recognized in the bestowal of the name of "Greylock." now everywhere familiar. " Greylock. cloud-girdled on his mountain throne." the highest summit of Massachusetts, is celebrated in the presse and verse of Catherine Sedgwick, Mrs. Kemble, Holmes. Thorgan, Melville, and a host of other writers. One of the effects of this poetic and distinctive name, is the wonderful individuality which it gives to the mountain and its fame. Whenever it is heard it is understood to mean this summit and nothing else. We no more think of saying " Mount Greylock." " Greylock Mountain," or " Greylock Peak." than we should write or say .. Mr. Shakespeare, or " Mr. Milton." It is simply, grandly, and to Berkshire people fondly. " Greylock."
The twin summit to Greylock is upon the west, and has some two
*Here and elsewhere we are the word peak, In conformity with leal enstangas sympa. ymous with mountain summit, although, Strictly speaking, there are no pal Mar Leysshire, all its hill tops being rounded.
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
hundred feet lower altitude, although from Pittsfield and some other points it appears the higher. It is styled Simond's Peak, in honor of Col. Simonds, of Williamstown, a veteran of the French and Indian wars, who, as senior colonel, commanded the Berkshire troops at the battle of Bennington. There are several other summits, one or two of which are notable as commanding fine views, but they do not. except scenographically. affect the geography of the county.
Saddleback Mountain, with all its summits, is, however, only the base of a chain of hills, which, in the form of a triangle, growing lower and more narrow, extends to the center of Pittsfield, where it reaches the vanishing point at Springside. The only notable hills in the chain and Pratt's. St. Luke's, and Prospect, all in the town of Lanesboro. L'util it reaches the last named hill, a little south of the center of Lanesboro the chain presents a formidable barrier to intercourse between the people on its eastern and western sides. In every respect the Greylock range is an important element in the physical geography of Northern Berkshire.
The most important interior mountain range in Southern Berkshire is the Tom Ball chain, a spur thrown off by the Taconies at Alford, which extends between Stockbridge and West Stockbridge, Richmond and Lenox, to Pittsfield, where it terminates with South Mountain, near the middle of the south border of that town. Between Stockbridge and West Stockbridge it is known as Stockbridge Mountain, and as Lenox Mountain between Richmond and Lenox. Its highest paints are. Tom Ball in West Stockbridge, Yokun's Seat. the summit of Lenox Monn- tain, and Mount Osceola which lies in Lenox. Pittsfield. and Richmond. Yokun's Seat, Mount Osceola, and South Mountain are the peaks which. as seen from Pittsfield, form so beautiful a combination in the landscape. The range is broken through, at West Stockbridge, by what is known in New York as Flat Brook, and after it enters Massachusetts as Williams River. It appears on some of the maps as a western branch of the Hon- satonic River, with which it unites at Van Densenville, in Great Barring. ton. The streams which may be accounted branches of the Housatonic are innumerable: they are like the branches of an elm tree. The Tom Ball range at its Pittsfield extremity is. nevertheless, strong enough to compress all north of that point into one volume.
Of the isolated hills the most interesting is Monument Mountain. which lies on the northern border of Great Barrington, and extends a little into Stockbridge. Bryant's poem of the name has made it known wherever English poetry is read. However fanciful the legend of the poem may be. the description of the mountain is sufficiently precise to command the approbation of the most fanciful poe- Raphadite. The White Cliffs are of compact granular quartz. the same rock which, when disintegrated at various points in the northern part of the county, forms the silicious sand of commerce, from which glass is made. An immense pile of blocks of this rock lies at the base of these cliffs, from which they have been reft in the course of ages.
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GENERAL HISTORY.
From the mountains of the county to the valleys, and the water courses which are governed by them, is a sharp but natural transition. In Berkshire, the peculiarities of its mountain ranges create several diverse water sheds. In the northeast corner the brooks flow into the Deerfield River, which forms the very winding border of the town of Florida. The Westfield River rises near the center of Savoy, and some of its branches in Windsor, Peru, Washington, and Becket. The Peru meeting house is so exactly on one of the summits that the rain drops which fall upon one side of its roof contribute to the Westfield, and those on the other to the Housatonic. The easterin water sheds on the eastern declivities of the Hoosac rauge continue for so short a space in this county, that, interesting as they may be otherwise, they em have little effect upon its manufactures. It is far otherwise with that which in the south part of the range, feeds the Farmington River. This nivel rises in the southwestern corner of Becket, and. for a distance of about fifteen miles, within or upon the border of the commity, runs in a direction a little east of south, through Otis and along the eastern boundary of the large town of Sandisfield, until it reaches Colebrook. in Connecticut. It descends rapidly over a rocky bed. through a region of great natural beauty, and rich in natural resources, in a moderately direct com ... although not entirely without the curves which never fail a Berkshire brook. unless it dashes, like a waterfall, straight down a mountain side. All along the Farmington River in Berkshire, and often upon its tribmn tary streams, there are opportunities for making use of its power for turning the wheels of large factories. In addition to this, in the town of Otis, there are lakes which rival in area those in Pittsfield, and which act as reservoirs for the supply of the river, the largest, with which the others communicate, having been artificially enlarged for that purpure. For lack of railroad facilities all this power is unused in Massachusetts. and only aids manufacturers in Connectiont, adding to the wealth of that State. With the communication with markets which other portions of Berkshire has, the valley of the Farmington River would be one of its richest sections.
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