USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Volume II pt 1 > Part 33
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In October, 1774, " Voted that the money necessarily expended out of this town in striving to suppress the late acts of the British Parliament shall be paid by this town."
The first County Court after the parliamentary act perverting the charter was appointed in Great Barrington for the third Tuesday in An-
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gust. On the preceding 4th of August a county convention was call- ed, and took measures to obstruct the coming court. In this the town of Partridgefield. then three years old. took her share of the work, and, it appears by the vote above mentioned, were willing to pay in coin their share. In the March following, 1775, they voted a committee of safety. consisting of Henry Badger, John Smith, Nathaniel Stowell. Deacon Fisk, and Deacon Daniel Kinne, to hear, judge, and determine all mat- ters of a criminal nature, &c. Three months later, in June, Cornelius Thayer and Isaiah Babcock were made assessors in place of Deacon Kinne and Caleb Eddy, who had gone into the army : also a committee of five was chosen " to discourse with Rev. Stephen Tracy concerning a discourse by him Sunday, May 28th, 1775." By inference the conclu- sion is reached that said Tracy was a loyalist : for the next April they voted not to support him any longer by tax, and May 23d, 1776, at 9 o'clock A. M., he was dismissed.
Among the earliest to respond to the call for minute men was Na- than Watkins, whose muster roll of April 22d, 1775, had forty names, of whom fifteen were from Partridgefield. They were paid for 131 miles of travel and fourteen days' service. In his company were some who did not come back in fourteen days, but were stationed at Fort No. 3. in Charlestown, at the time of the battle of Bunker Hill. Among them ap- pear the names of Nathaniel Stowell and Joseph Badger.
The first mention of a burial place was in the March meeting of 1777. when a committee was appointed to select such a place, which is now a little way south of the meeting house. In July they chose a committee " to fetch the salt provided for the town in Boston," and "to provide fire arms for a store for the present :" and " to provide some men to sup- ply the place of those lately gone out of the militia :" and " to release the Proprietors from building a meeting house for this town." In De. cember. 1777, " voted S50 for soldiers now in service." In March. 1778. a new treasurer for the town was chosen. Henry Badger, jr., and it was resolved that £70 be assessed immediately, and an allowance for the fam- ilies of soldiers. Stephen Payne, $23, 28, 2p .; John Lesener, $15, 13s. 10p .; Jesse Bruce, $10, 2s, 7p.
In May, 1777, the town chose a committee to approve or disapprove the new constitution. As no further mention is recorded it is presumable that they approved.
At the same meeting $67. 10s. were appropriated for soldiers' bounty and mileage, and £70 for supporting their families. Schooling for the children of soldiers was helped by a vote of 5200 for schools, and 840 were voted for each wolf's head : " said wolf to be killed in this or any adjoining town." In November, 1778. a meeting was specially called to license Colonel Ephraim Sawyer. "Innholder." to retail spirituous liquors for one year. In December, " vored 955, 10s. for the families of $. Payne and Jesse Bruce, soldiers." In March, 1779, " $150 for soldiers' families and 512 bounty for wolves heads." April's vote was 5500 for roads.
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and $5 per day for work thereon-not far from fifty cents per day in sil- ver. At the same meeting a committee was chosen to care for the land of absentees. The significance of this brief record will be found in an act passed the same month at Boston, confiscating the lands of persons named in an act of the previous September, among which names was that of Governor Bernard. Till a committee was duly appointed to sell, these lands must be cared for. By a vote then passed no man could settle on said land without a certificate of friendship to the American cause. In August was passed a vote " that Peter Bowen shall have town privileges." He must have had a certificate of friendship, and yet he did not settle ou a confiscated lot, for No 36, on which he settled, in the tripartite agreement became Elisha Jones'. As Peter Bowen came from Eng- . land, he was, no doubt, questioned and found all right. He brought with him an old arm chair, then having a woodchuck's dried skin for the seat. A new seat has since been added ; otherwise unchanged the old chair, more than 300 years old, is still doing good service in the sitting room of his great-grandson, William S. Bowen, on Peru Hill. William S. is the son of William, who was the son of Christopher. the son of Peter, whose farm came into possession of each sneceeding generation. In September of 1779 they voted Mr. Timothy Wood- bridge a call, and to give him lot No. 3, and $40 salary ; "and to rise to $60 as the valuation increased." He did not accept, possibly because lot No. 3 was too far away, it being near the present Congre- gational church in Hinsdale. Two months later they voted $200 for soldiers, their bounty and mileage.
That there was some feeling or much indifference in church matters would appear from a record of the December meeting. for when a motion was made to have " a committee to get a minister to preach on probation. all ran off withont adjourning or dissolving the meeting." It was also voted "to set off three tiers of lots at the west end of this town to Ashne- lot Equivalent, as far east as Captain William Fletcher's west line." No. 7, his lot, would have included the place where the old meeting house stood, or thereabout. This vote was never carried out, but later, August. 1774. twenty-two lots from Dalton were added to Hinsdale, including the stream where the factories now are, beginning with the Washington line and extending north, taking in lots 9 and 32 of the town of Dalton. Deacon Daniel Kinne, by vote of the town in March, LiSO, received 5286, 10s., 2p. for sitting in convention at Cambridge. This divided by forty will give the value in silver. In June, 20 shillings per month, in gold and silver, was voted as an addition to the wages and service of the soldiers this day raised. Next month they " vote $1,680 for soldiers, and to raise the new meeting house, when it is framed, on the hill near Colonel Saw- yer's." This was south of the road where the house now is. For cloth- ing for the Continental army 83,674 were voted in October, and 53,000 "to buy our quota of beef.".
January, 1781, " voted to raise those men now called for and that
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the three and six months men have their twenty shillings doubled seventy-two times in money." and $1, 000 in lien 5.508 pounds of beef for the army. While voting so much for soldiers the usual town expenses in addition were. up to this time, about $70 per year. In May we find the first representative chosen to be Nathan Watkins, who, as captain six years before, had enrolled the first company and started for Boston. Possibly his son's name appears in the following :
" Berkshire, June 6th, 1781. Received Joseph Clark, Frederick Miller, Gilbert Watkins, Joseph Pacon, Prince Mathews, and John Vaughn, soldiers enlisted and mustered for three years service in the Continental army, in part of the quota of the town of Partridgefield.
" P. M. WALKER, Superintendent."
Two days later the following was recorded :
" A return of the men enlisted and mustered for the town of Partridgefield for the term of three years and their hire as follows, Joseph Clarke, £92; John Vaughn, £90; Joseph Bacon, Lyo; Gilbert Watkins, Lgo; Prince Mathews, C90; Frederick Miller. Loo. Total £5.42.
" Partridgefield, June Sth, !781.
"NATHAN WATKINS, ) " JOHN COLE, Selectmen."
" JONATHAN THAYER,
During this same month there was voted $148, new emission of money for beef for the army.
" PARTRIDGEFIELD, February 2d, 1782.
" To the Honorable Treasurer and Paymaster General for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the following abstracts are due to the several soldiers herein named who served in the Continental army six months, agreeable to a resolve of the Gen- eral Court, January 5th: Elijah Bacon, Amasa Rockwell, James Sawyer, Oliver Wat- kins, Ephraim Wright and Amos Thayer. Amount £75, 11S.
"Sworn to before Justice Fisher, Nathaniel Watkins, for myself and the other selectmen of Partridgefield."
In March the town allowed Roger Haskell for all counterfeit money taken for rates -- a kindness, certainly, to the collector.
In May Ebenezer Pierce was chosen representative and Mr. John Le. land was sent for to preach on trial : and in October they gave him a call. On this call every tax payer could vote, and 55 votes were cast for him, five against. They voted £100 settlement and 450 the second year after ordination. In November there were 84 votes cast for him, and £60 in silver. In March, 1783, voted to have him preach one-fifth of the time in the west part. Little of historie interest is recorded till in 1785 is found a vote " to abate the rates of those people called Shaking Quakers in a £30 tax for preaching." These were Shakers, a few of whom had, in the previous three years, embraced the doctrines and met for worship in a house a little east of the house now known as the Ford place. In April. 1787. Elias Ballon, constable, was made collector. with four per cent. pay. Nothing was said about making good the counterfeit money. May, voted "any man giving bond to finish the meeting house shall have a pew for
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pay and they shall glaize it throughout by December 1st." This was nearly fourteen years after they began to vote on the matter of a meeting house, and they used it about twenty years before the present one was ready for service. In the last month of 1787 they sent Ebenezer Pierce to represent them in convention to consider the doings of the Federal Convention. In 1788 Amherst Thomson was chosen tithing man. He was aid to his father, Colonel Joseph Thomson. who. for some time during the war, was stationed on the Hudson River. The writer of this remem. bers him as an old soldier, and he heard him tell his trials -- one of thirst, during a long march, when following the horses through a muddy pool. he scooped up the water in his hat and strained it through his teeth as they were hurried onward, thinking it at the time the best water he ever drank. A descendant of his, a grandson, an old man, Smith Thomson by name. is now living on the same farm as a boarder.
In 1789 they built the first pound, in 1790 they released the minister's land to Roger Watkins, in 1792 they voted 0220 to build eleven school houses. In Angust, 1794, they resolved " that non commissioned officers and soldiers, called for by Congress in the present detachment, have 4? shillings per month. including the pay by Congress, except $1 60 allowed for clothing." To understand this one must remember that the nerves of this young republic ran through every town, which was a member of the body politic. After the peace of 1783 mutual complaints were made by the United States and Great Britain for violating treaty stipulations. This government was accused of preventing loyalists from regaining their estates and recovering debts contracted before the commencement of hos- tilities, &c. Americans complained that western military posts were re- tained, Indians incited to attack frontier settlements, injurious commer- cial restrictions imposed by which American vessels might be seized. taken to England, and condemned. This state of affairs caused a con- gress to assemble which laid an embargo for thirty days, passed a bill for erecting fortifications, also a bill for a provisional army, and one for or- ganizing the militia. At the same time Mr. Jay was sent to negotiate with the British government, if possible, to avert the calamities of another war. It was to meet this emergency the vote of the town of Partridgefield above mentioned was taken. But, happily. Mr. Jay was successful in negotiating a treaty, November 19th, which the United States ratified the next spring. on his return. A vote was passed in March. 1795, " to reposite the town's stock of ammunition in the garret of the meeting house," also " to petition the General Court to alter the name of Partridgefield to Alvah."
In the next sessions of Congress attempts were made by the republi- can party to hinder the treaty from going into effect. by refusing to vote for the needed funds. Partridgefield in May. 1796, " petitioned Congress to carry into effect the late treaty with Great Britain, signed by 176 free- holders of this town." Possibly this petition did its share in producing a majority and so the treaty went into effect. In Hor they asked the
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General Court to be called Russia or Sumner. In 1797 the town voted not to set off the west parish, and sent a remoustrance to the General Court.
As the year 1800 began a new century it may be of interest to give the names of all town officers chosen that year. and see what new men had come into active town life, and what old veterans still continued in service. The March meeting chose John Smith, town clerk ; Cyrus Stowell, Amasa Rockwell. and Joshua Jackson, selectinen and assessors : Captain William Frissell, treasurer ; Artemus Thompson. Charles Whit- ing. and Cyrus Stowell, fence viewers ; Nathan, Peter, and Artemus Thompson, overseers of the poor : Cyrus Stowell. Henry Badger, Asa Chamberlain, Nathan Hillard. Lientenant Daniel Brown, Samuel Wing. John Adams, James Pease. Liberty Pierce. Elihu Richmond, James C. Apthorp, Ebenezer Robins, Daniel Rockwood, Peter Bowen, James Tracy. Elijah Goodrich, and William Frissell, jr., surveyors of highways : Jedediah Kingsley and Henry Howard, surveyors of lumber; John Pierce and Andrew Belcher, tithing men; John Watson, sealer of leather ; John Smith, sealer of weights and measures : Eli Dibbold, Amasa Rockwell. William Pierce, Elijah Wing, Nathan Nicholson. Stephen Payne, Amasa Frissell. Roger Abby. Harvy Stowell, Christopher Bowen, Eleazer Loomis, and Christopher Crary. school collectors ; Henry Badger, pound keeper. The constabulary was bid off to the highest bidder, and was gained by Henry Badger the being collector, at two and one quarter per cent .: John Leland, jr., and Charles Whiting. hog reeves. They voted $333.33 for schooling, and 8555.55 for highways. three fourths to be worked ont in June, at 75 cents per day, and one fourth in September, at 50 cents. Of this meeting Cyrus Stowell was moderator, Captain William Frissell was chosen representative. Ebenezer Pierce had been representative for eigh teen years. Boundary lines were reviewed, and a new valuation was taken that year. In the 20th town election only three names appear that were chosen in the first town meeting : these are Henry Badger. Andrew Belcher, and Nathan Thomson.
For a few years the public mind was more or less agitated on the question of dividing the town. By January, 1803, the town consented by vote to the incorporation of the west parish, "and that after the incor- poration it shall forever receive an equal part of the rents and profits of the public lands of the town of Partridgefield, now held by lessees un ler the town by different persons." An equal part meant two fifths. as the west parish was two fifths of Partridgefield. Some of the public, minis- terial, and school lands, which had been rented by the town to certain parties, were more or less divided by the new line ; Peru, to day, as the parent town, collects the taxes and rentals on said lots, and annually pays over to Hinsdale two fifths of the amount.
The following March meeting of course made some changes in the names of town officers, as these two towns must be supplied with the needed town officials. In May they chose a committee for settlement be-
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
fore the west parish's incorporation, and to accept the division of public lands and rents as above mentioned. After November 14th, 1803, the west parish had a history of its own as Hinsdale.
How the overseers of the poor dealt may be learned from a vote in 1804: Abigail Thayer bid off at forty-eight cents. per week. for one year; next year at forty-six cents per week, and so on for many a year.
Concerning this one town pauper a story is still extant, that during her stay in the town as an unwilling though munificently supported guest a visitor to the towns remarked upon the apparent sterility and poverty of the two townships. "Yes," said a native in reply. " the towns are so poor that it takes two towns to support one pauper." Query, what two towns in the county to day have only one pauper between them to support ?
In 1805 there was a petition to have the town called Troy ; and in April, 1806, the selectmen were made a committee to choose three names for the town and present them at the next meeting. May 5th they peti- tioned to be called Peru. Rev. John Leland had long been complaining of the name of Partridgefield as too long, and had sought a shorter one. At this time he suggested Peru as appropriate, being a mountain town like the Peru of South America, and if no mine of gold and silver were under her rocks she favored hard money and began with a P. The same . das, May 5th, Cyrus Stowell was chosen representative and went to Bos- ton with the wish of the town, and October 16th. 1806. Peru appeared as the town name. In the last month of that year they voted to build a new meeting house, 42 by 50, on the north side of the road. with a belfry. The plan was changed the next year to 44 by 55. Shadrack Pierce, of Peru, was the architect and builder. One half of the cost was raised by auction of pew ground, to be paid by December 1st, 1807, the rest by December 1st, 1808. Seventy-eight pews were sold for $3, 750, the highest for 8121, lowest for $30. It was completed on time, made wholly of native timber, and the pine shingles, even now on the roof, were made from a single tree. This church, as now seen, was remodeled and rededicated in 1848, and it is so located on the mountain as to be seen from the west- ward eighteen miles as one crosses Potter Mountain, and it seems stand. ing against the background of the sky, into which it thrusts its spire, drawing often from the clouds the waters which, by its roof divided. flow eastward into the Connecticut and westward into the Hoosick. One Sun- day of March, 1809, as one of the citizens from the north part of the town was on his way to meeting in the new house, some half mile north. in what is since called the ". Wolf's Swamp," he saw the tracks of a wolf. After service a wolf hunt was organized, the father of Daniel Thompson leader. Sunday was a good day for advertising the hunt and calling out all who had gans. In the afternoon the swamp was surrounded and the dogs sent in. The wolf soon found himself surrounded by a wall of fire- arms: all being armed save two men, visitors, anxious to see the sport. How the wolf knew they were unarmed is not known, but by them, after
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being wounded, he rushed out and escaped toward Windsor. All, except the old hunter and son, returned home. They stayed at a farm house over night, and started again next morning, following the bloody tracks of the wolf in the snow till he was found in a brush heap and soon killed. This was the last organized wolf hunt in the town of Pern. Shadrack Pierce must have liked to linger around the new church. for he bid off the annual care of it, sweeping it, etc., for $2.89. In 1809 it was voted that a part of the old meeting honse be used for a town house, and it is still doing duty in that way. The sheds were built the next year ; and Seth Hathaway cared for the house at $2.90. In 1813 they painted it. repaired the belfry, and put in the bell. In 1814 Sylvester French took care of it for $3.80. In May. 1814, the town voted forty pounds of pow- der and lead sufficient for cartridges for the same, and to deposit them in the town house for use by the militia when called on, chose a committee to draft resolutions concerning national affairs, and in May following raised money for soldiers detailed last fall. Pern always did willingly her part in the national defense. In May, 1815, Rev. John Leland, by his own request, because of age, was dismissed, but remained in town. where he soon after died. Rev. Roswell Hawks was pastor from 1815 to 1823; Rev. Joseph M. Brewster from 1824 to 1833, when he died ; Rev. Thomas R. Rawson from 1834 to 1836; Rev. Joseph Knight from 1836 to 1855; Rev. Moses M. Longly from 1855 to 1859 ; Rev. Nathaniel G. Benny from 1864 to 1868; Rev. H. W. Gilbert, 1869 ; Rev. D. J. Bliss, 1875 : with changing pastorates since. To the present time thirteen deacons have served the church. There had been, to 1884, 737 members. York. Ohio, was largely settled by emigrants from this town and church.
Simeon Thompson was the first boy born in Peru, in Angust, 1769, and some others were born before a record was required. The first child reported in the records as born in town was Sarah Black- man, December 11th, 1770; the next, Hannah Little. December 19th, 1770; then Lemuel Blackman, September 4th. 1772; Mary Thompson, October 8th, 1772 ; Eunice, daughter of Deacon Clark, May 31st, 1773 : and Thankful, daughter of Captain William Walker, August 20th, 1773.
Intentions of marriage began to be published in 1790, and the first marriage recorded was in 1800. Elder Abraham Jackson and Widow Polly Jackson, daughter of Major Amasa Rockwell (see history of him on another page) were married by John Leland January 9th, 1815. Her first husband was Salah Jackson, brother of Abraham.
The old bell, weighing 6943 pounds, was cracked during the late war and was sold at forty eight cents per pound, in part payment for the new one, weighing 819, costing sixty-three cents per pound. This was hung in May, 1865, all expenses amounting to 8594.
One house, built by Ebenezer Pierce, in 1794, and the well dug by him, are still serviceable ; the house in the west part of the town, known for eighty-five years as the Ford place. Mr. Charies For, from Nes London, Conn., bought it in 1798, and moved in the spring of 1200, hi.
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ing one horse and cart. a yoke of steers, two cows, and one hog. Com- ing on foot, as he did, this hog became foot sore, and caused him much trouble and delay. Stopping one night at some house on the way, he. being a shoemaker and having his leather and tools, made boots for every foot of the hog, with sole leather soles, and fastening them in some way on the feet, drove the hog the rest of the way without further diffienlty.
Men trusted with the town's money : Cornelius Thayer, treasurer, from 1771 to 1778 : Peter Thomson, 1778 to 1791; Smith Phillips was chosen in 1807 ; Thomas Frissell, in 1822; Oliver Nash, 1827 ; Peter Bowen, 1834; O. Nash. again, 1836 ; Ebenezer Haskell, ISIS : E. War- ren Pierce, 1854; S. B. French, 1856 ; E. Haskell, again, 1858 ; Sylvester S. Bowen, 1866, and is still (in 1885) serving as treasurer.
Were the noteworthy men of this town honored as they deserve in this history by a full record of their lives and influence, another volume might be required. Nearly all the names in the list of town officers for 1800 would have honorable record.
Ebenezer Pierce, eighteen years their representative in Boston and elsewhere, left a record in his numerous posterity whose influence, like his own, is still felt in Hinsdale and Peru.
Cyrus Stowell, eldest son of Nathaniel, born October 3d, 1766, grew in favor while a boy, and was early initiated into the mysteries of a town official's life and duty, was elected representative in 1803, and was eleven times reelected, making twelve years a servant of the town in Boston, be- sides being a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. He was seven - ty-three when last a representative, justice of the peace for fifty-two years, and member of the church sixty-one years. He died in 1850. aged ninety-two. The town has also been honored in and by his poster- ity. Nathaniel dug the first well in town, on lot seventeen, and now in use. His wife, in that early day, seeing a flock of wild turkeys, took down his loaded gun and pointed it at them, but, not having courage to shoot, they, one by one, departed unharmed. This is the only turkey story heard, but enough to show their presence in Peru. His daughter. Althea, married Rev. John Leland, the second pastor in Peru. He was cousin to Elder John Leland, Baptist, of Cheshire. In their frequent letters to one another, one signed himself John the sprinkler, and the other, John the dipper. Nathan Thompson married the youngest dangh- ter of John Leland, and thus the Stowells and Lelands and Thompsons are counted among the descendants of Cyrus. Milo Stowell, his son. having been much in public offices, county commissioner and a repre- sentative in 1852 and 1853, is now justice of the peace and resides in Hins. dale. Good blood repeats itself.
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