USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Volume II pt 1 > Part 10
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Nathaniel, his son, born in 1781, in Hancock, married Cynthia Marsh, of Hinsdale, her mother being an Adams of the John Adams line. To them were born three sons, Rufus M., Martin I., and Randolph W. All went to Williams College. Martin I. graduated in 1833. As a lawyer, politician, and orator Martin I. Townsend has a deserved repu- tation.
Captain Caleb B. Gardner, from Rhode Island, on the 13th of April. 1767, bought of Asa Donglass, of Connecticut. 100 acres for $75. Soon he had 1,000 bushels of wheat in one year from said farm. delivered at Schodac Landing on the Hudson, in sleighs. and with the proceeds pay- ing for the farm, contrary to the expectation of Esq. Douglass, who had expected the farm with improvements would come back into his hands. In a few years he was the owner of 500 acres, including the Donglass homestead, which was the adjoining farm. and which is in the Gardner family now. Kirk E. Gardner, great grandson of Caleb B., owns and lives on the old farm, probably the best kept farm in the county, having received the premium as such.
Caleb B. built his house and barn large and strong and both are now in use. The house was the first hotel in Hancoch, and an old clock, the
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first in town, built into the wall on one side of the bar room, is still there with its metallic face. In the house also may be seen the signs of " Caleb 'B. Gardner's Inn, 1790, and J. Gardner, Inn." J. Gardner, his son, kept the house as a hotel till about 1840. John had five children, John H., Minerva, Silas H., Daniel H., and Louisa L. Daniel, the father of Kirk F., died on the homestead where his widow still lives ; there being now in the house four generations of Gardners. Silas H. Gardner graduated at Williams' College and became a lawyer as well as farmer, owning and occupying the farm next east of the old homestead. He died in 1857. greatly esteemed and greatly lamented, leaving a widow and three chil- dren, Sarah. Mary, and Charles, a gradnate also of Williams, a noted Greek scholar, and for some years a tutor of Greek in Chicago Univer- sity, now a real estate agent and an occasional essay writer. Mary mar ried Mr. H. L. Lewis, a graduate of Williams College, who has made his mark and fortune as a successful lawyer in Chicago. Sarah, for some years teacher in Maplewood, Pittsfield, now makes glad the heart of her cheerful mother by making their home a comfort.
Thomas Eldridge. from Rhode Island, bought and occupied the farm now owned by William Kettle He had five boys and four girls. Caleb, the eldest, died in Hancock. leaving nine boys and three girls. Nathan married. moved to and died in Williamstown. Griffin died in Hancock. leaving four boys and four girls. Thomas left six boys and three girls in Hancock. Of Griffin's children, Deacon Lyman is the only one living. 79 years of age; Hannah died in 1884, aged 82. Lyman Eldridge has been deacon of the Baptist church since 1849. Gardner Eldridge, brother of the deacon, a very successful farmer and respected citizen. died a few years since, in the road, of heart disease. leaving a widow and one living son, Fern Eldridge, who married Minnie, daughter of Kirk E. Gardner. Griffin, above mentioned, married Elizabeth Gardner, who came on horse- back from Rhode Island. Her mother was Martha, wife of Nathaniel Gard- ner, who had a brother, Ishmael. that never married. Nathaniel, having six boys and two girls as children, volunteered for the battle of Bennington. Ishmael insisted on taking his place, saying as he started " I shall not be shot in the back." He came back unharmed. Elizabeth, the eldest of the six girls, became the grandmother of Deacon Lyman Eldridge. She remembered hearing the cannonading, and with others was greatly afraid of coming Indians. To allay that fear a man was hired, when the battle was over, to hasten to Hancock and give to every home the news, who were wounded or dead, as well as to announce the victory. That black horse, made white with the foam of hard riding, was long remembered by the dwellers in the valley of Hancock, and is still awaiting the poet who shall do him honor in heroic verse.
Three or four miles south of the village of Hancock is a valley, slop- ing to the southwest, known as Goodrich Hollow. In the earlier history of the place many mills of various kinds might be seen along the banks of a stream, then in good working order by reason of its much water, but
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now weak and feeble because of too much sunshine. In this valley are many families, chiefly of the tribe of Goodrich, whose ancestral history should find a place in the records of the town. At an unknown date John and his brother came to this country from England. After a time the brother returned to England and disappeared from history. John repeated himself in a John, jr., who begat Jacob and his brethren. Jacob bogat five, the first born of whom was Elijah, and he fathered twelve. whose names may be found in the chronicles of " the old family Bible that lay on the stand :" Elijah, born 1754: John, born 1955: Jeremiah, born 1757 ; Jesse, born 1759: Solomon, born 1761: Margaret, born 1763; Daniel, born 1765: Uriah, born 1767; Justus, born 1769; Jonah, born 1772 ; Mercy, born 1774; and Lucy, born 1778. The father of these was married at twenty-eight to Margaret Gilbert, of Connecticut, then one year beyond the sweet sixteen. From Connecticut they moved to Good- rich Hollow in 1770. He bought five hundred acres and, as his children were old enough, gave to each forty acres. Justus, his ninth child, was married to Lydia Sheldon, from whom matured five sons and two dangh- ters. Justus had forty acres at first from his father, but in time bought of his brothers and neighbors, till he had over six hundred acres, three hundred of them on the mountain, some bordering Berry Pond, the only pond in the township, and called by the Indians Otancaque. After his death the land was divided among his five sons. Deacon Clark B., his youngest son, born July 19th, 1814, now owns what was divided among them, 160 acres, including the homestead. All of Elijah's twelve chil- dren married and settled ; nine of them in Goodrich Hollow.
Among the prisoners taken by the Americans at the battle of Hoosie was an inhabitant of Hancock, a plain farmer, Richard Jackson. He conscientiously took the royal side, and felt bound to take the earliest opportunity to serve his sovereign. Learning that Colonel Banm was ad- vancing toward Bennington, and taking an early start, he hastened on horseback to Hoosic, intending to join Colonel Baum's corps. He was captured under such circumstances as proved his purpose and he was too honest to deny it. He was taken to Great Barrington and put in charge of General Fellows, high sheriff, who confined him in the county jail, then so out of repair that a prisoner, unguarded, could easily escape. Richard had no thought of making such an attempt. After a few days he said he was losing time and asked the sheriff's permission to go ont to work and earn something, promising to return at night. His character by this time being known. his wish was granted. Regularly, through the remaining autumn, winter, and spring, till early in May, with scarcely an exception, he performed his day's work, returning at the promised hour to his place in jail. In May he was to be tried for high treason. The sheriff prepared to take him to Springfield. Richard said it was not needful, as he could go alone and save expense. He was allowed to go alone, the only instance of a like journey for the same object. In the woods of Tyringham he was overtaken by the Hon. J. Edwards, who tells
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the story : " Whither are you going ?" said Mr. Edwards. "To Spring- field, sir, to be tried for my life," answered Richard. He went directly 'to Springfield, surrendered himself, was tried, found guilty, and con- demned to death.
Application was made to the Council of Massachusetts, then the su- perior executive of the State. for a pardon. The facts were stated. the evidence by which they were supported, and the sentence grounded on them. The president put the question, "Shall a pardon be granted to Richard Jackson ?" The gentleman who first spoke said the case was clear, the act was high treason, and the proof complete. If a pardon was granted in his case it should be in every other. So said the others in turn, till the question reached Mr. Edwards. He told the whole story with that simplicity and truthfulness which give to light and shade a living reality, touch the heart, and enforce conviction. The council be- gan to hesitate. One of the members finally said. " Certainly such a man as this ought not to be sent to the gallows." To this opinion the assent was unanimous. A pardon was immediately made out and sent to Springfield, and Richard returned to his family in Hancock. President Dwight, in relating the story more fully, adds, " Never was a stronger proof exhibited that honesty is wisdom.'
Adjoining the Hand estate on the southeast is the Corey farm, the orig- inal deed for which was signed by Ebenezer Pierce, Israel Jones, and Dan- iel Brown, appointed by General Court in February, 1789, to sell all un- appropriated lands in Berkshire county. To Abel Corey they sold fifty- five acres for $5, 19s., and gave him twenty-one acres for services to the State in settling the uncultivated lands. repairing roads, &c. He came from Rhode Island in 1780, aged eighteen, and settled on this farm when twenty seven. He paid $50 for betterments, including a shanty and one acre of cleared land, showing that some of the earliest settlers were squat- ters. When Corey bought the place there were no one horse wagoas and only three two-horse wagons in the town, though only two years later the population was 1.211. Freborn Corey, now on the homestead. is the eleventh grandchild in a family of twelve children.
Harmon Whitman, now living at the foot of Hancock Mountain, re- ceived his farm of 150 acres as a gift from Henry Whitman. of Rhode Island, who bought it of Caleb Hall, to whom it was left by George Hall, who bought it of the State committee, paying in addition $109 for squatter improve- ments. This George Hall had twelve children. all of whom lived to get married. Not the large number of farms or families but the large num- ber of children in each family will help to account for the population of 1790. The Whitman farm was bounded on the south by the Douglass estate, which, by this. appears to have extended across the town.
Among the first settlers were Jonathan Hazard. Esq. and his son. Henry, from Rhode Island. They settled on a farm east of the cemetery, where are now an old red house and the mills he erected. Rodman. son of Henry, was born there in October, 1775. In a log school house he
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spent the portions of each year when a school was kept, till, at fourteen, he was apprenticed to learn the trades of tanner. currier, and shoemaker. He gained the trades and a good name in Lanesboro, came back to Han- cock and married Lucy Vaughn. in April, 1797. He worked his farm in the summer and made shoes during the winter. In 1812 he started the first clothiery in Hancock, and commenced making satinet cloth. employ- ing a Scotchman, James MeKenas, who had put in operation the first fly shuttle loom, and woven the first piece of satinet in the United States. A few years afterward he built, on the stream below the village, the red house and mills, since burned. He represented Hancock in the General Court in 1806. and till 1823.
During the war of 1812 he was efficient in sending a company. His diary has this entry : ". Wed., April 27th (1814), the soldiers set off from Hancock for Boston, under Captain L. Ross." Under date of September 15th. 1814. a paragraph in a letter from Captain Ross, dated Fort Inde- pendence, says " the men of my company are well. and David Vaughn makes an excellent member of the army, and finally the greater part of my men are fit for officers, and conduct with great propriety." Another: "Boston is in constant alarm ; people of all classes are moving, and we expect to have the privilege of trying our skill and courage soon ; but every man appears to be firm and wait impatiently for the time when they will have an opportunity to distinguish themselves and gain a rank among the worthies. Your very humble servant, Leonard Ross." Another letter from a young soldier is a fine specimen of sentiment and patriotism, too long for this condensed history. It is dated Fort Inde- pendence, October 10th. 1814. He says " Parties from the adjacent towns volunteer daily to work on the fortifications : 110 men from Hing- ham and 95 from Lincoln are now at work on this fort. besides 200 of our own troops : 500 are at work on Fort Strong, and as many men on Dor- chester Heights." * " Captain Ross, after having braved the tide of adversity, sustains an honorable rank in the army, and is beloved and respected by all the soldiers under his command :" signed Luke G. Hosley.
In 1820 Mr. Hazard was a delegate for revising the State constitution. As senator in 1824, on joint ballot he was made one of the Governor's Council : and the next year. a senator. he aided General Lafayette in lay- ing the corner stone of Bunker Hill Monument. A journal of his tavsb in Europe shows him to have been a practical observer of men and thing .. His diary was kept from his marriage till four days before his death. and in it many facts of Hancock history are preserved-not one word in the whole is egotistical. Of good habits and untiring industry were his how. ored life and character made. He died March 8th. 1845, though his monument says March 4th. the inaugural day of President Polk, whom he much admired.
The Baptist church in Hancock was formed in June. 1722. of Ri- a members. Coming from Rhode Island, most of the people were Bagel:
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and have remained so. Clark Rogers, of Rhode Island, was the first elder. He died in 1805, aged 77. in the thirty-fourth year of his ministry in Hancock. Then followed preaching by Elders Hull, Niles. Beman, Northup, Jones, Leland, and Vincent, mostly as supplies. till 1830. though John Vincent was ordained as pastor in 1827. F. S. Park became pastor in November, 1831, and continued a year or more. From 1831 to 1835 J. D. Rogers. E. Tucker, and P. C. Tripp supplied by turus ; then J. D. Rogers one half and one quarter of the time till 1837. Harmer Ellis was pastor for one year till 1838 : then there were helpers. includ- ing Elnathan Sweet, till 1812. Platt Betts was pastor for a year : Eider Sweet at intervals till 1849. G. S. Stockwell till 1851. William Bowen till 1852, and A. P. Viets till 1862. In 1865 Elder Guild was called to the pastorare. In 1869 G. L. Ruberg became pastor. In November, 1874. Daniel Shepardson was ordained, and resigned in April, 1882. The pres- ent pastor is A. B. Whipple, of Pittsfield. The deasons have been David Vaughn and Caleb Carr, chosen in 1772 ; Thn ldens Patchen, 1794; Daniel Smith, 1821; Justus Goodrich. 1824: Gardner Smith, 1831; Lyman Eldridge, 1849 ; William Smith, 1849; and Clark B. Goodrich, 1850, with . Deacon Eldridge now serving. A fuller history may be found in the minutes of the Baptist church for 1854. Till 1797 they worshippal in a log honse, one and a quarter miles north of the village. A framel one was then reared on the same spot, and in 1850 the present building was erected. In 1827 the first Sunday school was formed at the suggestion and with the help of G. M. Briggs, who afterward assisted in planning the present meeting house and establishing a permanent Baptist society. Deacon Eldridge was the first, and the only superintendent for thirty- three years.
For a few years there was a Friends' meeting house a little further north, where the Friends from Adams, Cheshire, and other towns wor- shipped.
The Hancock Shaker village lies partly in the town of Hancock and partly in Pittsfield. A society was regularly established here in 1792, although prior to that time a few Shakers resided in the locality where the prosperous village now is. They consisted at first of three families. each occupying a farm, although these farms were less in size than those owned by the present families.
The branches of industry at first carried on did not differ materially from those of the surrounding population. Nearly all their labor. whether agricultural or mechanical, was performed by the members of the families. After a time special branches of industry were introduced, such as the manufacture of brooms, of tubs, pails, etc., lumber wagons, nails, cloth from flax raised on their farms, the cultivation of garden- seeds, medicinal herbs, and other products, markets for all of which were found in the surrounding country and in more distant regions. Nearly all these branches have been discontinued by reason of the springing up of establishments for the manufacture or production of these articles at
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so cheap a rate that competition with them could not be maintained. But . little except ordinary agricultural and horticultural industry is carried on now.
The size of the farms has increased by additions from time to time till the land owned now amounts to more than 2,000 acres. Some of this is mountain woodland, but most of it is kept under good cultivation, and it will compare favorably with any land in this region.
Of course great changes have taken place in the buildings of the vil- lage as time has gone on, till now an air of thrift is visible that is not often witnessed in villages of the size of this, As old buildings have gone to decay they have been torn down or removed and converted to other uses, and as the circumstances of the people have permitted or re- quired new and more commodious and tasteful though plain ones have been erected. A saw mill and a grain grinding mill are in operation for the convenience of the inhabitants of the village, and of the neighbors in the vicinity. Some business is carried on in the purchase of coarse grain, the conversion of it into feed, and the sale of it to dealers and consumers. With the industry and economy that are practiced by these people they are of course prosperous.
When first established here the Shakers were despised, maligned, and persecuted ; but the ill feeling toward them, and the persecutions with which they were treated, have long since died out, and they are uni- formly regarded as worthy, honest, and reputable people.
The greatest number that this society has at any time embraced was about 300, in 1820-30. There were then four families. There are now about 100, divided in three families. The present heads of these families are Henry Pardee and Ira Lawson of the first. Albert Battle of the sec- ond, and William B. Pomeroy and Augustus W. Williams of the third.
CHAPTER V.
TOWN OF HINSDALE.
BY REV. A. B. WHIPPLE.
Settlement and Early History .- First Meeting House .- Incorporation .- Congregational Pas- tors .- The Baptists .- The Hinsdale Family .- The Whites .- 1. D. Matthews,-Other Prominent Families .- Thomas Allen .- The Kittredge Family .- Billy Hibbard .- Method- ist Church .- St. Patrick's. -- Nathan Torry .- The Cady Family .- The Raymond Family. -Ichabod Emmons .- Francis E. Warren .- Schools and Library .- Hon. Charles H. Plunkett.
O UT of No. 2 (now Peru and Hinsdale), by request of the people therein, the West Parish of Partridgefield was formed. June 23d. 1795. Its earlier history is incorporated with that of Peru. The first parish meeting was September 21st. For twenty-two years settlers had been locating in various parts of the town ; the first perhaps were three Miller brothers, Francis, Daniel. and Thomas, from Connectient. Fran- cis was surveyor, for the government, of the road from Boston to Albany, and so adherent to his oath of loyalty that at the commencement of the Revolution he returned to England. Five sons of Joseph Watson soon came, leaving still resident descendants. So also two Torrey brothers. Nathan and Wilson. April 29th, 1772, Nathan Fish bought of Oliver Partridge 221 acres for $80, and built, one year a corn mill, and the next a saw mill, about a mile south of the Ashmere Reservoir and on the road now leading to Middlefield. The tradition that the government gave him 250 acres of land for a kind of bounty for building said mills lacks con- firmation. This mill was afterward bonght by Samuel Watkins.
About the same time a mill was built at Wahconah Falls, just over the line at the northwest corner of Hinsdale, to which there was a bridle path from the present Maple street. Along this path, when new, a Mr. Cleveland, then a lad of twelve, came one night on horseback with a bag of meal, attended by a pack of wolves. He reached the flat in safety. He lived many years to tell the fact to wondering grandchildren, as illus. trating the times of early settlement.
In 1781 came Richard Starr, whose monument, erected by the parish,
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attests his services in the interests of the church. During these years the woodman's axe was heard six days of the week, but the seventh found the people gathered somewhere for worship, hearing, at first, Rev. Stephen Tracy, and next, John Leland preach. As their number in- creased they obtained an act of incorporation, having as moderator of the first meeting Ebenezer Pierce, choosing officers, and voting Rev. J. Leland to continue preaching till April. In October they voted 920 for preach- ing, and asked for the use of the school house near Andrew Beicher's. The next March they voted to build a meeting house north of the road near Rufus Tyler's house (innholder). In June they met somewhere and " voted to adjourn down to the barn now occupied for preaching : " also " to look at a lot between the store of Messes. Hause & Crary and their Potash, on land owned by Andrew Belcher." In October, 1796, they voted to build a meeting house, forty by fifty feet, with a convenient porch ; the outside to be finished by direct tax. In October, 1797, "voted to have it forty four by fifty-two, to sell the pews to pay ex- penses, and have it on the school house hill." "Voted that there be liquor provided for the use of the vendue of pews at the expense of the . parish." Forty-one pews were sold on the lower floor for about 83,500 ; fifteen in the gallery for 8590. Of the fifty-six pews sold at that time forty two were given up in open meeting in December. 1798. The stim- ulant provided did not seem to be permanent ; so two months later they hired money to pay the builder. In May they petitioned the Gen- eral Court to be incorporated, with a town name of Green, or Russia, but their petition was not granted. In October, 1799. they accepted the meeting honse, and dedicated it the 17th. Rev. Mr. Pomeroy, preacher. In 1800 they voted to hire by subscription, the largest sub- scriber to have choice of pew. The next year appear the names of twenty-three delinquents, with the aggregate indebtedness of $250. De- spite all these hindrances they went forward, and in December of 1891. engaged Rev. Caleb Knight, at an annual salary of $110 as long as he might continue. This £110 was soon called 8366.66, and so remained, till he resigned, in 1816. In 1803 another petition for an act of incorpo- ration was sent to the Legislature, asking for a town name-that of Hins- dale-because the Rev. Theodore Hinsdale had given the society. for the meeting house, a bell costing $300 ; and it tolled so loudly in his favor that the next year, 1801, Hinsdale was a recognized town. July 30th, 1804, Cyrus Stowell, one of the justices of Berkshire county, requires Artemus Thompson, of Hinsdale, to warn the inhabitants to meet for town business. The limits of the town. by act of incorporation, were as follows :
"Boundary beginning at the northeast corner of lot No. 75 on north line of Partridgefield, thence south to the north line of lot No. 62; thence west to the north line of lot No. 15: thence on the west line of No. 15 to the north line of Joshua Jackson's farm; thence east to the northeast corner of said Jackson's farm; thence south on the east line of said farm to the north line of Lemuel Parsons' farm; thence east to the northeast corner of said farm; thence south on the east line of said farm
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to the brook; thence on the brook to the road to Middlefield, thence on the road to the east line of John Watson's farm; thence east on said farm line to the southeast corner of lot No. 118; thence on the east line of lots No. 119, 120 and 121 to the south line of said Partridgefield; thence north on the west line of said Partridgefield to the southeast corner of Dalton; thence west on the south line of said Dalton to the southeast corner of lot No. 60 in Dalton; thence north to the northwest corner of lot No. 32 in Dalton; thence east on the north line of lots 32 and 9 to the south- east corner of lot So in Dalton: thence north on the east line of said Dalton to the northeast corner of lot 72 in the northeast corner of said Dalton; thence east on the north line of Partridgefield to the bounds first mentioned."
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