USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Volume II pt 1 > Part 36
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would greatly contribute to the growth of the place, and remedy these inconveniences. An act of incorporation was therefore passed on the 16th of April in that year, and approved by the governor (Sir Francis Bernard) on the 26th of the same month. The act conferred the usual powers, but provided that the original settling proprietors, or those holding under them, should defray the expense of building a meeting house and settling the first minister. The new town was excluded from representation till 1763.
Under the provincial regime the privilege of conferring names on towns belonged to the royal governor, who usually consulted the wishes of the parties interested. In this case the name Pittsfield was given in honor of the English statesman. William Pitt, who was highly esteemed by all parties in New England.
Almost simultaneously with the incorporation of Pittsfield was the erection of the county of Berkshire ; and Pittsfield was established as one of the two seats of the county courts.
The first town meeting was held in the forenoon of the 11th of May. 1761, at the house of Deacon Stephen Crofoot, which stood near the west . ern end of Elm street. The business center was already, it seems, creep- ing westward. The only business transacted was the election of the following officers : Moderator, David Bush : clerk, William Williams ; treasurer, David Bush ; selectmen and assessors, David Bush, William Williams, and Josiah Wright ; constable, Jacob Ensign ; highway sur- veyors, Gideon Goodrich, David Bush, and Eli Root ; fence viewers, Nathaniel Fairfield, William Francis; sealer of leather and of weights and measures, Simeon Crofoot; wardens, Solomon Deming and David Noble ; deer reeves, John Remington and Reuben Gunn.
The deer reeves were elected annually to enforce the law which for- bade the killing of deer in certain seasons.
In the town meetings at that early period a large share of attention was given to roads and bridges, but even with the aid of a practical en . gineer it would be difficult to follow the changes that were made. The roads reserved in the division of the township were laid out at uniform distances, and at right angles ; so that the changes which were required by the frequent streams, lakes, swamps, and hills which the right lines encountered were almost innumerable.
The first appropriation for schools was of £22, Ss., in March, 1762. In 1766 three school houses were built, the town having been divided into East, Center and West Districts. They were " to be well shingled, doors made and hung, with floors and good chimneys, and glazed with four windows, and twelve squares in each window." The largest stood north of the eastern end of the park, in what is now the traveled street of Park Place.
In 1771 two new districts had been erected and $60 were appropriated. In 1723 school houses were built in these districts and $100 were appro- priated, in addition to which $6 were donated by Rev. Mr. Allen. and
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£6 were received for rent of school lot. The names of only three of the teachers are preserved : Mr. John Strong, afterward noted in the Revo- lutionary history of the county, Mrs. Phineas Parker, and a son of Colonel Partridge.
Paupers and vagabonds soon found their way into Pittsfield, and there were frequent appropriations of money for the relief of the former class. In 1764 $10 were appropriated for a workhouse, and the town in- structed its selectmen to " warn out" itinerant paupers.
In Pittsfield, as elsewhere in the province, slavery existed under the laws, and many of the early settlers held slaves. As late as the Revolu- tion advertisements of runaway slaves were inserted in the Hartford Courant by Pittsfield masters.
In Pittsfield, as in other towns in the province at that period, the magistrates were often ocenpied in the investigation and punishment of misdemeanors that are now rarely meddled with. The pillory, the stocks, and the whipping post were then efficient agents for the reformation of criminals, and they were sometimes made to do duty as auxiliaries to the pulpit. It appears from the records that stocks and a whipping post were built in Pittsfield, in 1764, by James Easton and Josiah Wright for which they were allowed nine shillings and sixpence.
Here, as in other newly settled places, mechanical arts were enconr- aged by grants of special privileges, for grist mills, saw mills, and full- ing mills were indispensable to the people in those days.
Before the Indian disturbances Deacon Crofoot built some sort of a grist mill on a dam which he constructed near Elm street. He subse- quently, after the war, obtained a lease of the dam for the term of fifteen years, but his mill was not popular. In 1767 Jacob Ensign was granted the privilege of. the west end of the dam for fifteen years, on condition that " he should within one year, begin and exercise the feat of a clothier. and attend to said service, and do the business of a clothier at such place during said term." In 1768 Valentine Rathbun built similar works on the outlet of the pond which then lay between Richmond Lake and Bar- kersville.
There was a pressing need for saw mills, and these, often associated with grist mills, began to spring up in all quarters soon after the estab- lishment of peace. In 1962 Joseph Keeler built a saw and grist mill on the outlet of Pontoosue Lake, and a saw mill was built at Coltsville about the same time. About 1767 saw and grist mills were erected near the site of the Pomeroy Lower Factories, by Ezra Strong and others. A saw mill was early built where the Pontoosne factory stands, and, previous to 1776, another at Wahconah, in connection with a fulling mill owned by Deacon Matthew Barber.
Within the first decade of the existence of Pittsfield many of the log dwellings which the early settlers erected gave place to more pretentions and tasteful framed structures. Among the houses built in that time was the curious mansion known for many years in Western Massachu-
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setts as "The Long House." It was built by Colonel Williams, on Wil- liams street, a mile east of Wendell. and was eighty feet in length and two stories in height.
It is difficult to give with accuracy the years in which individuals became residents of the town. Rev. Dr. Field gives the following as the years when the persons named are understood to have moved into the town : Samuel Birchard, Daniel Hubbard. Daniel and Jesse Scott, Jona- than Taylor, 1759; David and Oliver Ashley, William Francis, Gideon Gunn, 1760 ; Joshua Robbins. Ezekiel Root, Gideon Goodrich, James Lord. Charles Miller. Thomas Morgan. Daniel and David Noble. William Phelps, John Remington, 1761 ; Phineas Belden, Solomon Crosby, Israel Dickinson, Elisha Jones, John Morse. David Roberts, Aaron Stiles. Israel Stoddard, Johnand Caleb Wadhams, Aaron and Phineas Baker, William Brattle, Colonel James Easton. Benjamin and Josiah Goodrich, Moses Miller, Joseph Phelps. Amos Root, John Williams, Rev. Thomas Allen. James D. Colt. Ezra and King Strong. Dr. - Colton, Rufus Allen, John Strong, and a number of others, 1762-3-4. Not long afterward Joseph Allen, David Bagg, Lieutenant Moses Graves, Woodbridge Little. Esq., Colonel Oliver Root, Ebenezer White, " and many others."
The persons who affixed the following signatures to a petition to the General Court, in 1766. assumed to represent the forty purchasers from Livingston; but the interest of some of them had been acquired by transfers of various kinds : William Wright, John Remington. Charles Goodrich, Josiah Wright, Charles Miller, John Wadhams, Elizur Dem- ing, David Ashley, William Francis, Oliver Ashley. Joshua Robbins. James Lord. Erastus Sackett, David Bush, Daniel Hubbard. Amos Root. Eli Root. Dan Cadwell. Hezekiah Jones, Gideon Gunn, William Brattle, Abner Dewey, Nathaniel Fairfield. Zebediah Stiles.
The following names, not previously mentioned in any other connec- tion. appear on the first list of jurymen, reported August 18th. 1761 : Lemnel Phelps. William Phelps. David Noble, Jesse Sackett, Thomas Mordan John Morse was a fence viewer in 1762. Israel Stoddard. Israel Dickinson, Phinehas Belding. Joseph Wright, and Joseph Wright. jr .. signed a petition in 1762. Caleb Wadhams was deer reeve in 1763: James Easton, school committeeman in 1764.
Controversies concerning the conditions on which the proprietors of the sixty settling lots obtained their titles, and the validity of those titles arose, but were finally ended, though the fends thus engendered contin- ued. and influenced the division of parties in the Revolution, when the great majority of the settlers were ardent whigs and their adversaries were still more unanimously tories.
When the difficulties between the mother country and the colonies. which eventuated in the Revolution, first arose, a degree of caution, and even of hesitation, was manifested by the inhabitants of Pittsfield re- garding the stand to be taken. As time wore on, however, and the op- pressive measures of the British crown and Parliament were one by one
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developed, this hesitation disappeared, and the line between loyalists and patriots became well defined. For reasons which are not difficult to discern the original proprietors of the township, and their families and friends, as well as some of those who held prominent positions in the province, were tories : while the original and the later settlers were, with still greater unanimity, whigs.
In the fall of 1774 Pittsfield refused to send a representative to the General Court that the governor had called, at Salem, but chose John Brown a delegate to the Provincial Congress at Concord, which had been recommended by the Worcester committee. Captain Charles Goodrich. Deacon Josiah Wright, Dr. Timothy Childs, Deacon James Easton, and Lieutenant Eli Root were chosen committee of instruction.
On the 5th of December the town voted to adopt the non importa- tion and association resolutions of the Continental Congress, and chose Eli Root, Timothy Childs, Charles Goodrich. Dan Cadwell, Josiah Wright, James D. Colt, and Stephen Crofoot a committee of inspection. Messis. Goodrich, Childs, Root, and William Francis were appointed committee of correspondence, and a committee was chosen " to sit as arbitrators, to regulate disturbances and quarrels, and to take the Province law for their guide." This consisted of Deacon Wright, William Francis, Lieutenant Root, Captain Bush, Captain Israel Dickinson, Ensign John Brown, and Captain Goodrich.
In almost every family in Pittsfield, except those of the fifteen of twenty tories, all were busy in fitting out the young soldiery for the field, and the loom and spinning wheel made music in harmony with that of the fife and drum, and the call to arms found the patriot soldiers of Pittsfield ready.
As for the prominent tories of Pittsfield at this time, Woodbridge Little and Israel Stoddard were compelled to flee to New York, because of their acts in opposition to the popular canse. Little went thence to Albany, was sent home, placed under keepers till Stoddard returned. when they "humbly confessed their faults and promised reformation."
Moses Graves and Elisha Jones, two other tories, were imprisoned in the Northampton jail from April to July. 1775, when they were released. Graves was afterward drummed out of Westfield for loud mouthed tory. ism, and Jones joined the King's army, and his estate was confiscated.
At the annual town meeting in March. 1775, Colonel Wilhams, Dea. con Wright, Matthew Barber, Aaron Baker. Jacob Ensign, and James D. Colt were chosen wardens, and appointed " a committee to take care of disorderly persons." Israel Dickinson, Josiah Wright, William Francis, Colonel Easton, and Captain Goodrich were elected selectmen, and Cap- tain Charles Goodrich was chosen delegate to the Provincial Congress in place of John Brown, who was in other service.
At this early time Rev. Thomas Allen had commeneed the active ef forts in behalf of the American cause, which distinguished him through the war of the Revolution.
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The committees of correspondence, inspection, and safety were con- solidated, and Pittsfield, in 1776, at the March meeting, elected to the of- fice Deacon Josiah Wright. Valentine Rathbun, William Francis, Stephen Crofoot. Joseph Keilar, William Barber, and Aaron Baker ; Captains Eli Root, James Noble, and John Strong were added at the May meeting.
The committees of subsequent years were as follows :-
1777. - Lieutenant William Barber, Valentine Rathbun, Colonel John Brown, Captain Eli Root. Joshua Robbins. Deacon Josiah Wright, Cap. tain William Francis. Lebbens Backns, Lieutenant Stephen Crofoot.
1778 .- Valentine Rathbun. Caleb Stanley. Lieutenant Stephen Cro foot, Deacon Josiah Wright, Captain William Francis, Lientenant Rufus Allen, Lebbens Backus. Realeeted in 1779.
1780 .-- Lieutenant Stephen Crofoot. Colonel John Brown, Colonel James Easton, Captain Eli Root. Captain William Francis.
The State Constitution being adopted in 1780, no more committees of this character were chosen.
Stringent rules were adopted by the town for the guidance of the committees in dealing with, or "handling" tories, or, as they were termed, " those inimical to their country." Many of these had hiding places to which they resorted when there was danger of receiving unwel. come visits from members of committees. That of Little Woodbridge was in the open space left, according to custom, around the chimney of his house. One of the Ashley brothers, the only tories in the west part of the town, had his refuge in a erevice among the rocks at the Taconics. known as the Diamond Cave. Another often fled to a cavern in the rocky banks of Roaring Brook, in New Lenox.
The tories of the town were subjected to many petty annoyances, and the mischievous and fun loving youth played on them many pranks. Overt acts of treason were punished more severely, and confiscation and banishment were, in several instances, inflicted, especially on those who had joined the King's forces. Jonathan Prindle, Benjamin Noble. Francis Noble, Elisha JJones, John Graves, and Daniel Brewer were thus dealt with in different parts of the county. Of those who ontwardly maintained a circumspect demeanor many were suspected of secret trea. sonable acts, and were closely watched by the local committees. At a town meeting in 1777. as a result of this surveillance, Woodbridge Little. Israel Stoddard, Moses Graves, Jonathan Hobby, Jonathan Weston, and Joseph Clark appeared, made confession, took the oath of allegiance. "and were received as the friends of these States."
In the spring Pittsfield responded to th . call made upon her, in com- mon with the other towns in Massachusetts, by furnishing to the depleted armies of Washington twenty four men -more than one seventh of the entire number enrolled in her militia. It was also voted by the town to purchase for each a shirt, a pair of shoes a id stockings, ant " that the assessors take the town's money in the hands of Colonel Williams, and puchase the same immediately." Captains Goodrich and Rufus Allen
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were also directed to forward the money and clothing collected for the soldiers by Rev. Mr. Allen, who appears to have miniged whit an- swered for a Christian and Sanitary Commission.
On the receipt at Pittsfield of the news of the impending battle of Bennington the people assembled in the meeting honse, and the Rev. Mr. Allen, musket in hand, made an address, the eloquence and power of which were long remembered. A large portion of the able bodied men of the town were already in the field.
On the 16th, and of course before news of the battle was received, a second detachment of seventeen men, under Lieutenant James Hubbard. set out for Bennington : and this, too, was peculiarly constituted. for in its ranks were Captains Isaac Dickinson and John Strong, and Lienteu- ant Oliver Root. Major Israel Stoddard and Woodbridge Little, E-q .. also signalized their newly-sworn allegiance to the " Independent United States of America " by volunteering in Lieutenant Hubbard's detach- ment ; and we find in its rolls, as well, the name of Ezekiel Rout.
From 1777 to the close of the war the military record of Pittsfield is meagre compared with that of the earlier years of the Revolution. While the patriotism of its people continued as ardent, and they were as prompt as before to respond to the calls of their country, the war was in a great measure turned from the neighboring frontier, the demand for extraor- dinary service ceased, the contributions of men were mostly to the regular army, and they can hardly be followed in their scattered and distant service.
While Johnson was invading the Mohawk valley, Lieutenant Joel Stevens led a small detachment to Fort Edward, where signs of danger appeared ; and. at the same time. Captain Rufus Allen, with twenty.six men, " marched forty miles," probably to the same point.
When Connectient was invaded by Governor Tryon, in the summer of 1779, Lieutenant Stevens went, with fourteen men, to New Haven. In October, 1781. the same officer, having been promoted to a captaincy, re- paired, with Lieutenants Lebbeus Backus and Nathan Warner, to Sara- toga upon an alarm in that quarter.
Pittsfield had, in the spring of 1778. thirty two men in the Conti- nental service. They had been enrolled during the two next preceding years, for terms of three years or during the war. In May of that year a call was made for six men for nine months, and 9180 were offered to procure them.
June 30th, 1779, a committee of seven was appointed to procure seven men for nine months, and on the 2d of July they reported the fol- lowing enlistments on the terms specified :
" John Wright and Ozem Strong. f2oo Continental money each, and Ly each in neat cattle at the same rate at which they were selling in the year 1775.
" David Johnson and Samuel Smith, E300 Continental money each, on their passing muster.
" Jeffrey Hazzard (colored), {200 Continental money, and nine pound' worth
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of merchantable wheat at 45., 6d. per bushel, to be paid to Nathan Robbins by Dec- ember ist, 1779, provided Hazzard passes muster.
" Isaac Morse, f2oo Continental money, and Cio worth of wheat, or corn at the rate of wheat, by February ist, 1779, at 45. per bushel, provided he passes muster. Morse entitles the town to his State bounty.
"Daniel Bates, {115 Continental, and £13. 1os. worth of wheat at 4s., 6d. per bushel, by December ist, 1779, provided he passes muster."
Of these three were said to have " run away." All finally served except Ozem Strong and Jeffrey Hazzard, who had as substitutes Joshua Chapell and Jonathan Morey.
Ini December, 1780, sixteen men were called for to serve three years or during the war, and at a meeting on the 14th of that month a com- mittee was chosen consisting of Joshua Robbins, Eli Root. Esq .. Joseph Fairfield, Lieutenant William Barber, Woodbridge Little, Esq., Captain Rufus Allen, Captain David Bush, and Daniel Hubbard, who elaborated a plan for procuring these men. The plan was at first to hire men. if possible, at thirty pounds each. Failing in that the town was to be di- vided by ratable polls and estate into as many classes as there were men lacking, and each class was to be required to furnish a man, and was authorized, if necessary, to tax the polls and estate for that purpose. The plan was adopted, and fifteen men were raised at the following boun- ties : In six cases, $50 each ; in five, 955 ; in one, 955, 7s .: and in three, £60. The other class failed to procure a man.
In 1781, the last call for thirteen men was filled in the same way, the committee for classing the town consisting of Woodbridge Little. Eli Root, Lebbeus Backus, and Captains William Barber, Joel Stevens, and James D. Colt.
Among those from this town who served in 1780 was Hosea Merrill, who is said to have been one of the guards of Major Andre.
Large contributions of material were made by Pittsfield during the Revolution, and so heavily was the town taxed that at times the taxes were in arrears.
In the contest which was carried on by the Berkshire Constitutional- ists, and which continued from 1774 till the adoption of the Constitu- tion, in 1780, the town of Pittsfield had a prominent part. This is not the place for a discussion, or even a history of that controversy; but it is quite proper to say that of the constitutionalists none were more firm, active, and uncompromising than the citizens of Pittsfield. The most ac- tive and energetic of these citizens, and the one who exercised the most potent influence in opposition to the relies of British oppression and in favor of the democratic principles which finally triumphed, was Rer. Thomas Allen. From his pulpit in the old meeting house under the ehn went forth his appeals in behalf of the rights of the people in the enact- ment and administration of the laws, and many of the spirited resolutions adopted at town meetings in favor of constitutional rights, and of the
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protests and petitions that went forth from the town, were formulated by his pen.
On the 26th of December, 1775. an elaborate " Petition, Remonstrance. and address of the town of Pittsfield to the Honorable Board of Coun cillors and House of Representatives of the Province of Massachusetts Bay " was adopted in town meeting. At the same time resolutions in opposition to any further sitting of the Court of Quarter Sessions were adopted.
This court was appointed to sit at Pittsfield on the last Tuesday in February, but on the day preceding that date the several committees of inspection, etc., met there and were addressed by Mr. Allen, who read to them the pamphlet entitled " Common Sense." The result was, accord- ing to the statement of one of the King's judges, that the people " were so much intiveneed that no court was suffered to sit, and all commissions of civil officers, upon which hands could be laid, were taken away." The ordinary channels of justice. thus obstructed, were not reopened till the reorganization of the judiciary under the constitution of 1780.
This bold action of the town led to the appointment, by the Provin- cial Congress, of a joint committee to visit Pittsfield and inquire into the canses of complaint. It did not do so, for the desired information came otherwise. At a town meeting a petition and memorial, written, as was the previous one, by Rev. Mr. Allen, was adopted and was presented to the Council and House of Representatives assembled at Watertown, on the 20th of May, 1776. This paper respectfully but firmly set forth the ovi. dences of the attachment of the people to the cause of civil liberty, and their opposition to the measures of the British administration, and the grievances which they suffered under the rule of the Provincial Congress. which they insisted conferred on them no privileges beyond what they enjoyed under their defective charter. It complained of the misrepre. sentations of them that had been made to the General Court, pledged their firm adherence to and support of the union of the colonies, insisted that the people constituted the true fountain of power, and concluded with the following appeal for a constitution :
"Your petitioners, therefore, beg leave to request that this honorable body would form a fundamental constitution for this Province, after leave is asked and obtained from the Honorable Continental Congress, and that said constitution be sent abroad for the approbation of the majority of the people of this colony; that, in this way, we may emerge from a state of nature, and enjoy again the blessings of civil government. In this way the rights and blessing, of civil government will be secured, the glory of the present Revolution remain untarnished, and future posterity rise up and call the Honorable Council and House of Representatives blessed; and, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
" Attest: ISRAEL DICKINSON, Town Clerk."
The constitution proposed in 1777, when submitted to the people of Pittsfield, received their assent only in some of its provisions: and when. on the 20th of August, 1777, the question of permitting " the Court of
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Common Pleas and the Court of General Sessions, or either of them, to be holden in the county before a bill of rights and a constitution were framed and submitted to the people" was considered by the people of the town they decided by a vote of fifty to twelve against such per mission.
An act of pardon and oblivion was passed by the Provincial Legisla- ture, but the feeling of the people in Pittsfield concerning it is shown by the following paragraph of the instructions given to their representatives, Colonel William Williams and Captain James Noble. These instructions were signed by Eli Root, John Strong, and James Easton: but the orig- inal draft is in the handwriting of Rev. Mr. Allen.
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