USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Volume I pt 1 > Part 3
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The water sheds which tend out of the county from the western de clivities of the Taconic range are of small consequence. Kinderhook, or Stephentown Creek, which rises in the northern part of Hancock, fui- nishes some good water power in that town, and runs to the Hudson at Kinderhook. A small stream issues from Berry Pond. a little lakelet un the summit of the mountain. and joins the Wromanock in New Lebanon
The water sheds which feed the rivers to which the county chieny owes its manufacturing prosperity, and their branches, are divided bongi- tudinally by the Greylock range and transversely by the valley summits which lie upon its eastern and western sides. In Laneshow, near the
*Bach Falls, two hundred feet high, with their per turo que gorge and diary oflife Live wide and much culmination to a brook which daske shewp the west suferit Mt. Washington to Copake River, and has much volume for a mountain brook.
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
eastern corner of Pittsfield, are the Partridge meadows, filled with spring- which bubble up, side by side, to send their waters, some into the Hoosac River, and some into the Housatonic; the direction. of course. being governed by natural laws, but apparently by more chance. From this fountain head the Hoosae flows north, sluggishly, until it has passed the center of Cheshire. Thence, with volume increased by the large reset- voir in that town, and by the incoming tributary streams, it dashes more impetuously through the northern part of Cheshire, and the towns of Adams and North Adams, to a point near the middle of the north line of the latter. Here it receives a branch from the northeast, which furnished some of the best water power in the town, and is otherwise notalife. At this point it also bends abruptly to the west, and continues almost in a direct line along the northern base of the Greylock range, until it reaches Williamstown. There it crosses the northeastern corner of that town. with a sharp turn to the northwest, at the middle of its north line, and breaks through the rugged mountains of the Vermont boundary. It then crosses the southwestern corner of Vermont. finds a pass through the Taconics some five miles north of the Massachusetts line, and. after crossing a portion of New York, joins the Hudson at Schachticoke.
The valley summit on the western side of the Greylock range is near the southern boundary of New Ashford, from which a streamlet descends until. in South Williamstown, it joins the Green River, which runs northeastery until it unites with the Hoogte in Williams town. These streams, with their valleys, have had great influence upon the history of the county in the past, and promise to have quite as much upon its future fortunes. In its passage through Adams and North Adams the Hoosac is lined with large manufactories, for which it fur- nishes power, and which first brought large population and wealth to those towns, besides being the seed from which other sources of its pros- perity spring. The river also gives water power to mills in Cheshire and Williamstown. The tributary streams which flow from New Achtord and Hancock furnish little water power, but are interesting features in the geography of the section. What is of greater consequence, their valleys, as well as those of the main rivers, afford attractive grades for highways and railroads, and present landscapes of great beauty. But of that we must treat in another connection, after describing the water courses and valleys of the southern and larger portion of the county.
Unkamet Brook, which emanates from the Partridge Meadows, flows south some three miles until it unites with a stream which comes in from the northwest. This stream is formed by two branches which. rising re- spectively in Windsor and Hinsdale, unite in Dalton. Two large and costly artificial reservoirs have been built near the heads of these branches, and the water power which they and the stream, after their union, afford, has contributed quiteas much. to say the least, as any other and importance it is fairly entitled to be considered the eastern branch of
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GENERAL HISTORY.
the Housatonic River, and it is so styled upon sevend mays. Technically. however, that honor is ascribed to the little Unkamet Brook, because its course coincides with that of the grand valley, or chain of valleys. de- scribed by Guyot. The descent of the Dalton River, or northeastern branch of the Honsatonie, is sharp, but that of the Unkamet Brook is so slight that a dam four feet high. just below the junction, would then the waters of both northward through it into the Hoosac. The fountain head of the western branch of the Housatonic is mimistakably near the southern border of New Ashford, and within a few feet of that of the Hoosad's western branch." Nothwithstanding the Billy character of the neighboring region, its descent is very gentle until it has passed through Pontoosue Lake, which hes in Lanesboro and Pittsfield, and also receive. from the former town Secomb Brook. The passage of the river out of the lake is marked by a waterfall of thirty feet. the first of the series which extend for three miles, and are occupied by large factories. 1 mile further south it receives, through Onota Brook, the waters collerte? in Onota Lake from several Taconic mountain brooks. After a further course of about two miles, Shaker Brook, or the southeastern branch of the Housatonic, comes in, having first been joined by other Taconic streamlets.
Both Pontoosue and Onota Lakes have been enlarged as reservoirs by costly and massive stone dams, and both Onota and Shaker Brooks furnish power to factories quite as extensive as those on the main stream. This stream, which in early time was, after it left the lake, called the Pontoosne River, unites with the western branch about two miles north of the southern boundary of Pittsfield, in forming the main body of the Housatonic. " The winding Housatonic." with its multitudinous curves and frequent "ox bows, " here commences its course, and runs soitle- ward until it reaches South Lee. Then it turns abruptly to the west. through Stockbridge, but passing around Monument Mountain, on the north, resumes its southerly course through Great Barrington and Shef field. In its course of about thirty miles the Honsatanic receives, before it leaves the county, many tributary streams and brooks. Roaring Brook and Yokun River enter it at Lenox, Hop Brook from Tyrinzbam. and May Brook, which runs through East Lee from Lake May, joins it in Lee. Williams River joins it in the north part of Great Barrington. and Green River, rendered famous by the verse of Bryant, near the southern border of the same town. Konkapot Brook, which has its head in Monterey, and joins the Housatonic near the village of Stockbridge. is chiefly notable for the fact that the friendly Indian chieftain from whom it takes its name had his home a few rods north of it. Konkapes River. Whose source is not far from that of the brook, runs southwand through New Marlboro, for a little space beyond the Connecticut lines. but by westward curves, shortly recrosses it, and joins the Housatonic near the southern border of Sheffield. The number of water privileges on this stream, give it, in New Marlboro, the name of Mill River, and if
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
is a singular fact that, at Ashley Falls, near its junction with the House. tonic, and very near the spot where the settlement of the county began. is the only good water power in Berkshire, with convenient railroad fa cilities, which is not fully occupied, while most of them are reinforced by artificial reservoirs and steam. In early times it was the site of Ash ley's water works.
The Housatonic River, in its course of some thinty miles before it Jeaves Berkshire, presents, with its branches and tributaries. a remark able alternation of wealth-bringing rapid descents and equally wealth- giving streams winding leisurely with infinite grace through field and level meadows. The branches which come in through Dalton are largely a succession of waterfalls: that which flows through Langshope is a meadow brook. In the northern part of Pittsfield the two intermingle. In the south part, for some two miles, and about three in the north part of Lenox, the river exhibits some of its most graceful curves; but just above Lenox Furnace a succession of falls continues through 1 .... Stockbridge, and Great Barrington, and affords water power for many manufactories, several of which have a national fame. The stream whose two branches find their respective sources in Green Water Pond, in West Becket, and Lake May, in East Lee, and which enters the Housatonic near the center of the town of Lee, is especially rich in water power during its entire course through that town. Everywhere in the valley. of the Housatonic there is a marvellous mingling of the useful and the beautiful. Sometimes we are apt to say the beautiful predommans and sometimes that the useful prevails. Then we remember that in Berk. shire the beautiful, in all its varied forms, is everywhere; the useful is conspicuously manifest only in limited location. But remember, also. that the beautiful is also useful by the mere fact of its beauty: and 1- member still further, that every rounded mountain top, every flower. bordered valley, every dallying streamlet curve, every springlet that gurgles up to refresh both the eye and the lip of the traveler, every lakelet that from its mountain height smiles to the sky or sparkles among the valleys; all combine to give vigor to the waterfalls which drive the machinery whose products have no mean part in the commerce of the world. The shriek of the locomotive. heard upon the height of Greylock or the Dome of the Taconies, reminds the listener that the bar riers which once cut off this inland valley from the markets of the world have been broken down and many a flourishing village tells him that its people are busy in supplying their demands, or are emiched by denizens who divide their lives between the labors and excitements of city marts and the calm pleasures of their Berkshire homes.
Still we cannot but perceive that the prevailing element in Berkshire is its beauty; beauty of mountain and valley, of lake and stream, of sky and earth; beauty ever present and ever varying. The poetle war gover not of the commonwealth. John A. Andrea, spoke of - the delicate surprises " of Berkshire rides, and every man and woman who dilves
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GENERAL HISTORY.
through its roads recognizes how happy the phrase is. Dr. Holmes, in his poem at the dedication of the Pittsfield Cemetery, apostrophising the spirit of beauty, says:
" Spirit of Beauty ! Let thy graces blend With loveliest nature all that art enn lend. Come from the bowers where Summer's life blood flows Through the red lips of June's half open une. Dressed in bright hmnes, the loving sunshine's dower; For tranquil nature owns no mourning flower.
" Come from the forest where the beach's screen Bars the fierce moonbeam with it flakes of green: Stay the rude ave that bares the shadows plans. Stanch the deep wound that drie- the maple's woin
" Come with the stream whose silver braided rills Fling their unclasping bracelets from the hills. Till in one gleam, beneath the forest's wings, Melts the white glitter of a hundred springs.
" Come from the steeps where look majestic forth From their twin thrones the giants of the North On the huge shapes, that, crouching at their knees. Stretch their broad shoulders, rough with shaggy trees. Through the wide waste of other, not in vain, Their softened gaze shall reach our distant plam: There, while the mourner turns his aching eyes On the blue mounds that print the bluer skies. Nature shall whisper that the fading view Of mightiest grief may wear a heavenly blue."
And this brings us to the further point that Berkshire, the moun tain county of the State, and that which surpasses all the others in the multitude and beauty of its streams, is also a lake county. Within its borders there are a hundred lakelets, each of considerable area. Some of moderate size, like Lake Ashley in Washington, and Berry Pond on the Taconic summit in Hancock, lie upon the mountain tops, and are almost entirely fed by springs, having a very slight water shed. Formerly held of small account, these mountain lakes, where favorably situated. are now held as of almost priceless worth in supplying the water-works of the growing valley villages below them, their water being generally very pure. while that of the village wells, even when not impregnate! with deliterions minerals, is insufficient for the demands made upon it in thriving communities : especially in those in which it is needol for four tains and other ornamental purposes. for the supply of steam boilers. for power in elevators and like purposes.
Few of the smaller lakelets lie north of Pittsfield, and none of the larger, except Pontooste Lake, of which more than half is in Late show, The towns most liberally endowed with lakes and ponds are Pittsfield. Stockbridge, and Otis, each of which has tive, wholly of in fert within its limits. Many of the smaller takelots ane gems in the seehogy of the county. Almost all of any size me beautiful objects in it. but of the
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
larger, those most noted for their beauty are Lake Mahkenac in Stock. bridge, Pontoosue Lake in Lanesboro and Pittsfield. Lake Onota in Pittsfield, and Lake Buel in Monterey and New Marlboro, near the southeastern corner of Great Barrington. Great Lake and Rand's Pond in Otis, may be added to the list when they get railroad communication and more distinctive names. They are already the favorites with sports men.
The aboriginal fish which swam in the lakes and streams of what is now Berkshire, and furnished food for the aboriginal inhabitants and early settlers, were, as stated by Professor Dewey, in 1829, " the sucker, common in the large streams, the trout, not abundant, the perch, dece. bull head, flat fish, red fish, or . shiner,' eels, &c., common." The sucker is a large fish, nutritious and palatable in its season, although not ex- actly craved by epicures. The same may be said of the fresh water epl. Both were easily speared and would have probably been welcomed upon the aboriginal table, if such a thing there had been, at any season. Tire bull head is still highly prized, and the perch not rejected. Pickerel were introduced into Lake Onota by Linus Parker, a noted sportsman. about 1810, from Lake Mahkenac, to which they had been brought from Connecticut a few years before. They spread through all the lakes and large streams of the county rapidly, and their voracious appetite has traditionally the credit, or discredit, of having had a large share in alwjust exterminating the tront from those waters, and greatly diminishing them in the mountain rivulets, which the pickerel rarely, if ever, ascend.
During the fifteen of twenty years preceding 1850, Lakes Mahkent, Onota. Pontoosne, and Buell were successfully stocked with land-locked salmon. Jake tront, salmon trout, Oswego, lake, and black bass, and Eng- lish carp, although all these varieties were not placed in each lake Local sportsmen consider some of these varieties like tares sown among wheat: in particular the black or " goggled eyed bass," which is said to be greedily devouring the spawn and the young of the more valuable fish.
Professor Dewey speaks of the bear, the deer, and the wolf as neither uncommon nor abundant at the time of the early settlements. He was the most eminent naturalist which Berkshire has ever given to the world of science. Many years of ardent and loving labor made him more familiar with all branches of the county's natural history than any other has become by personal investigation. Hisauthority is of great weight; still, his denial of the abundance of tront and deer at the time of the settlement of the county may be well questioned. There is sufficient evidence to prove that Central Berkshire, at least, rivalled the Adirondack region of to dny in the number of tront in its lakes and streams, as well as of the deer on its hills and in its valleys.
Wolves did not appear in hungry packs as in some regions, but they were numerous enough to demand liberal bounties for their slaughter. almost to the beginning of the Bath conting, and at an earlier date to call for all the heroism of a Pittsfield woman left alone in her house, to de.
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GENERAL HISTORY.
fend it against their night attacks. The wild cats were in sufficient num- bers to be a terror to the sheepfolds, and they have not yet been entirely exterminated. Foxes, beaver, otter, and muskrats were shot or trapped to an extent that created a considerable trade in their peltry. Rabbits and woodchucks, grey. red. black, and striped squirrels were multitu- dinous, and raccoons not very rare, although the case with which they were hunted soon made them so. The wild turkey, at first plentiful, wie tired as usual before the advance of civilization: but the black dnek on the surface of the lakes still attracts the fowler. The partridge was fre- quent in the woods, clouds of wild pigeons in their season alighted ngon the lower hill tops, the wild goose, bewildered in its flight. sometimes sought a resting place in the valley.
Of reptiles, the most notable was that terror of the field, the mike smake, of which the black, yellow, and spotted varieties were common in the south part of the county, although they were not known in the north There is, however, hardly an instance preserved, even in tradition of a fatal result of their bite. The only other venomous snake in the county was the spotted or milk adder, which was rare. The black snake, at first rather common, soon became rare.
We have not attempted here even a sketch of the natural history of Berkshire, but only enumerated the most important beasts, birds, De- tiles, and fishes which affected the lives of the earliest inhabitants, ciel as supplying food or clothing, as objects of trathe, or as posts. Theearly settlers were certainly annoyed by wolves, bears, wild cats, and forest which prayed upon their barn yards and sheep fold; and they hand a rattlesnake; but not much more than the farmer of today, who is an noved by roving dogs, tramps, and petty thieves, hates them. Some how could be made of the early pests after they way . once killed; even Sage portions of the rattlesnake were held to be medicinal.
The settlers were very practical people, and they considered what ever earth, air, or water gave them for the more killing as a valuable addition to their stock of food, provided only that it was cleanly. Bu; 'nowhere in the county or State did they regard game as the article of luxury which it is now considered : partly, perhaps, because it was so common, but not improbably, partly also, because their cooking was not adapted to bringing out its best flavor. Time. also, had a high value with them, and if they had given up a day's farmwork for it, tront. venison or partridges might have been practically as easily to them as they are to the epicure of to day. If they came in their way, very well ; otherwise, pork and beans, succotash, and like substantial food was more economical. as well as highly relished. The enly farmers were hard-working, practical, and economical men, as a rule. The aborigines. until they were taught it by civilization, were not so fastidions as to oleun liness in their eating. No bird, beast, fish or reptile. And hardly any part of either of them was unclean to these simple clubtion of the forest From the partridge to the owl, from the haunch of the deer to the entill
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
of the partridge, all was equally food to their hungry stomachs, although it cannot be supposed that all were equally agreeable to their palates ; they ate turtle like an alderman, and crow like a politician. The natu- ralist will tell you that the range of this menn was wide ; and that besides those we have mentioned, there were some enrions and interesting fishes and animals, an infinite variety of insects, frequently of gorgeous colors. but as a rule only a swarm of forments, or of destruction to vegetation : but as an atonement for these, there were hundreds of birds, from the eagle, which sometimes made its nest on the mountain tous, to the hub- ming-birds which probably then revelled among the wild flowers and blossoms, as a dozen varieties. of fairy form, glittering and gleaming in all their tiny, irridescent glory, will now visit your garden of a summer afternoon, and rival as well as rifle your choicest flowers. There are probably few of the inhabitants of the county who know the fact that more than a hundred different varieties of birds either have their home in the county or visit it for a considerable space during the year. Most of these are distinguished for grace of form, or for their plumage, somje- times brilliantly, often delicately, and always in some sort beautiful. You will admire all these feathered wonders for their form. color. or song, because you can do so comfortably. The hungry Indian would! have eaten them all, simply because he was hungry and there was no other available food at hand. Few Berkshire birds are harmful to man. his fields, or his poultry yard ; but it has taken a long course of insoo scourging to teach that lesson imperfectly. Farmers still shoot insectis erous birds, and the feathered songsters seek the shelter of the villages. where, to be sure, it takes no little trouble to prevent their getting more than a fair share of the strawberries and cherries: they present their bills so promptly.
The geology of the county, both scientific and practical. is a subject too great and to intricate to be properly treated here. It is sufficient for the purpose of illustrating its resources, to speak in general terms of the mineral deposits which have contributed to its wealth. The chief of them are iron ore, marble, limestone, and granular quartz. The earliest settlers found immense quantities of iron ore, in masses of from boulders of a ton's weight, to the smallest pebble, spread over the surface of the valley or embedded in its soil. These masses are still found in the Berk- shire fields, and rich deposits are known still to exist in the shift of the valley. Beds of the same ore. some of them practically ineshanstible. are scattered through almost the whole county, from Mount Washington northward. They belong to the same system and have the same qualities with the famous Salisbury mines in Connectiont, which they now rival in product and reputation. The profusion of the surface boulders mad. iron the first manufacture in Berkshire, after potash and leather; all he. ginning soon after the earliest settlement, although in the most primitive fashion. The opening of successive mines, and the substitution of blast furnaces for the forges first employed, increased the business.
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GENERAL HISTORY.
The primitive limestone, which, commencing on the Connection: shore of Long Island Sound, extends to northern Vermont, is continuons through the western side of the Housatonic valley, where it affords many beds of valuable marble, generally white or lightly clouded, but often blue, grey, and dove colored. The blue, grey, and dove colored are per- haps not sufficiently susceptible of polish to be considered tine marble. but locally they are more highly prized for many architectmal purposes than the white or clouded. The dark blue stone of Great Barrington, of which the Atherton at Pittsfield is built. and the dove colored from a Sheffield quarry, which forms the basement walls of the court hanse. built of white marble from the same locality. me especially admiped The white, however, is most in demand in the great markets, where it has long stood foremost among the marbles of the country. The greater part of the National Capitol is of white marble from Lee quarries. Long ago the material for the New York City Hall was taken from a quarry a; West Stockbridge. The Sheffield quarry, which furnished the white marble for the Berkshire County Court House, did the same for the crow. pletion of the National Monument at Washington. In earlier times the white marble quarries of Lanesboro, Pittsfield. Richmond, and New Ashford were worked to the no small advantage of those towns and the emolument of the quarry men; but the easy and cheap transportation which the railroads have brought to the southern quarries, have rendere it impossible for the northern to compete with them until they obtain the same facilities. It costs more to draw blocks of the size last requireil of the Pittsfield quarries for use in Philadelphia, to the railroad depiet in that town, than it did to transport them from the depot to Philadel phia: more also than it would cost to carry blocks of the same dimon sions from the heart of the Lee, West Stockbridge and Sheffield qharijos to the city of New York. The southern quarries are, however, sufficient to supply the present demand, and the others can bide their time.
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