USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Volume II pt 2 > Part 17
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Acting upon maxims like these Mr. Burbank, notwitstanding his many losses, has come to be the largest real estate owner in Pittsfield, and has now over 100 tenants and manages 300 acres of land with none of the trouble that Irish landlords have. The reason probably is that he has always been ready to help those who would help themselves, has
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never pressed those who were unable to pay him his just dues, has given employment to more industrious workmen than any other Pittsfield builder, and has always been kindly and true to all with whom he has dealt, whether poor or rich ; and he has made no distinction between the two classes unless it has been in favor of the poor. It is no wonder that the name of Abraham Burbank is a power among the masses of the Pitts- field people.
Mr. Burbank has had ten children. The sons who are still living are all in successful business : George W., James A., Roland E., Charles H., William P .. and Merrick A. He has one daughter, the wife of Henry A. Smith, of Yonkers, N. Y.
CHAPTER XXV.
TOWN OF RICHMOND.
BY REV. A. B. WHIPPLE.
Descriptive .- Sale of No. S .-- Settlement .- Division of Town .- Richmond Iron Company .- Ecclesiastical History .-- Schools .- College Graduates and Prominent Citizens.
T HE early history of every town must, at first, consist of two parts ; its natural capacities, and the influences which press their way into it. As some inland depression gives occasion for mountain streams to tear their gathered wealth of varied materials and deposit them in its keeping for some future geologist, so a township has some attractive rea- sons for the streams of immigration which gradually fill. to the level of its capacity, its entire area : and in this more or less rich deposit, and the growth therefrom, must the historian find the primal records of note. worthy achievements. Richmond has its natural attraction in a pleasant and fertile valley, enclosed by hills on the east and west ; and on the northwest is Perry's Peak, from the summit of which. 2.077 feet above the Hudson, the valley may be seen in all its panoramic beauty. Men from England who have gazed on the natural scenery pronounce it superior to the view from the celebrated Richmond Hill of England. On the east and centrally is Mount Osceola, standing apart from the gen- eral range, like a watchful Indian ; its eastern and western slopes directing the gathered waters of its hillside springs into streams that pour their con - tents into Richmond Lake. Through the more western and southern por- tion of the valley flow numerous small streams, uniting and forming the Scott Brook, the main branch of the Williams River, joining the Housatonic at Van Densenville, in Great Barrington. Up each of these streams fish found their way into this valley long before the red man learned to catch them. In these well stocked streams the fish and purloining weasel, mink. otter. and beaver found an abiding place : and on the uplands deer and other game found food the whole year through. Paddling their light canoes along these waters the Indians found their productive hunt- ing grounds . and, at intervals quite infrequent, made their rude wig
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wams, occupied them for a season, and then deserted them to seek their game in other streams and plains. Snch was the township when the early English settlers began their settlements far down the valley of the Housatonic in Sheffield, in 1735. Ten years later Stockbridge became the home of the white man ; and in 1750 a dozen families were enumerated. among whom were Samnel Brown and Samnel Brown. Junior. This jun- ior Samuel. Esq .. was made agent of a company to purchase of two Indian sachems all their rights in certain sections of territory already known as Mt. Ephraim and Yokuntown, from the names of the two respective chiefs. Ephraim. no doubt. was a Christian name given in baptism. Yokun possibly kept the faith of his fathers and retained his Indian name. This tract of land. purchased in 1760, was described as lying north of Stockbridge and between the State of New York and the Housatonic River, and south of Hancock and Pittsfield. The stipulated price was £1,790 : but, as the province. for good and sufficient reasons, held title to the whole State, a better title was needed than the Indians could give : so the matter was carried up to the General Court. In February, 1761, the wisdom of the representatives equaled the emergency. and the land was advertised in February, 1762, to be sold at anetion, with other town- ships. June 2d, 1762. On that day it was sold. the eighth in order of sale, and hence known and described as No. S. What the limits of the section sold were, will appear in the following act of sale. "No. 8. a Township to begin at the southeast corner of Pittsfield, thence to run south so far as the north line of Stockbridge, from thence on a straight line to Stockbridge northeast corner, thence to extend westerly on Stock- bridge line so far as to make the contents of six miles square, exclusive of the grants already laid out to Josiah Dean, for two thousand five hun- dred and fifty pounds, and have received of him twenty pounds and taken bond from him together with Asa Douglass. Timothy Holaboard. John Ashley, Elijah Williams, Aaron Sheldon, and John Chadwick for two thousand five hundred and thirty pounds." A glance at the present map of the county will show that the towns of Lenox and Richmond were in- cluded in this tract.
Some eight months after this sale to Josiah Dean the tract was, by the purchaser, transferred to the original company for the sum of £650, together with such incidental expenses as added to the $1. 790 (due to the Indians) would make the sum of $2,550. This done the purchasers could obtain a perfect title to their lands. In the sale of the township an exception was made of a grant to Josiah Dean. Afterward he relin- quished his title as may be seen by records in Book 2, page 556. in the Registry of Deeds. There we read of a certain grant of land made to Josiah Dean and others, containing 2.000 acres and made to said Dean and others by the province of Massachusetts Bay in consideration of said Dean and others relinquishing to the government Yokuntown and Mount Ephraim. On page 430 of the same volume we find him calling the lin l granted " to me the said Josiah Dean by the General Court in the Prov-
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
ince of Massachusetts Bay at the session in Boston, February, 1763." This new grant was in Jericho, now Hancock. At the time of the pur- chase from the Indians Mount Ephraim contained. in round numbers, 9,000 acres ; and . Yokuntown 14,000; a kind of prehistoric division caused by a mountain range, the north end of which, now in Lenox, is called Mount Yokun, his only known monument.
The first purchasers, in their zeal to make valid government titles, had subjected themselves to the general laws of the province, requiring so many families, so much land under culture, a meeting house, and a learned Protestant minister, all within a stipulated time. The conditions could not be met in time, and embarrassments caused them to petition the General Court for power to levy and collect taxes. Their petition was granted in January, 1764, and they were authorized to hold town meetings and do business for themselves as a town. Accordingly. three months later, in April, we find them met in the house of John Chamberlain, of Mount Ephraim. Timothy Woodbridge. Esq., of Stockbridge, was chosen moderator, and Samuel Brown, jr., clerk, also of Stockbridge, as was Elijah Williams, treasurer. Samuel Brown, sen., Capt. Charles Goodrich, of Pittsfield, Capt. Thomas North and Micah Mudge, of Mount Ephraim, and Jacob Bacon, of Yokuntown, were appointed a committee to make and repair highways in the purchase. Only three of the parties named lived inside of the township, and by present laws could not have been duly authorized to vote ; and hence to act, unless as a proprietors meeting ; if so we may infer who were some of the proprietors. One of these men, Capt. Micah Mudge, came as the first settler in the summer of 1760, and located just north of the Stockbridge line. His daughter. Elizabeth, was the first white child born in the town.
In the autumn of the same year Ichabod Wood came from Rehoboth, and settled on the farm on which was afterward built the Congregational church. The next summer came John Chamberlain, in whose house was held the first town meeting ; also Elijah and Isaac Brown, David Pixley, Joseph Patterson, Daniel. Timothy, and Aaron Rowley, in 1761, chose homesteads in the southern part of the town. In 1762 Samnel and Joseph Cogswell, Joseph and Paul Raymond, with John and Daniel Slosson, be came settlers ; in the next two years Prince and Jonathan West, Jacob Redington, Stephen Benton, and John Higby. These twenty families, all with Bible christian names, save one, and he a Prince, were in the town before 1765, in which year John Bacon was added, and also a new name, Richmont, was given to the town by the Legislature, June 20th, just three months after the passage in Parliament of the Stamp Act. This last statement may serve to show why settlements were not more frequent in the recent purchase.
In 1760 mutual jealousies appeared between the colonists and the mother country on so sweet a matter as duties on sugar and molasses. In 1761, during a speech of James Otis on the same subject. " American independence was born." In 1762 Governor Bernard avowed the opinion
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TOWN OF RICHMOND.
that Parliament had full power to alter the colonial governments and to change their respective boundaries, and advised the union of smaller provinces to make one more respectable and more easily governed. The publication of these opinions was nourishing food for the young Inde- pendence, not yet old enough for a public christening. In 1764 Lord Grenville gave notice to the American agents in London that at the next session of Parliament he should propose a duty on stamps, and on the 22d of the next month the Stamp Act was passed; and on the same night Dr. Franklin wrote home: "The sun of liberty is set ; you must light up the candles of industry and economy." Two months later spoke Patrick Henry. In such an excited and uncertain condition of affairs throughout the country one need hardly wonder at the slow progress of immigration, or the paucity of new settlers.
The new name of Richmont was given by the Legislature, whether by their own choice or the petition of its citizens we cannot learn from the lost records of that time. Why named after the Duke of Richmond ? Hayward says his popularity deprived the poor Indian (Yokun) of the honor of its name. Which Duke of Richmond ? or what the popularity ? Charles Lennox, son of a British general, born February 22d. 1735. was at that time Dnke of Richmond. He was a great-grandson of Charles II .. and at the time he honored the town with his name was but thirty years of age ; old enough to be in the House of Lords at the time the obnoxious bill passed : yet among the lords not a single dissenting voice was heard. and only fifty of the three hundred in the House of Commons. His must have been one of those prophetic lives whose " coming events cast their shadows before." Twelve years later we hear his voice in behalf
of America. In November, 1777, the Parliament was opened by the king. Three plans were advocated : one by the king, to continue the war of subjugation : one by Chatham. to conciliate America by a change of ministry; the third by the Duke of Richmond, who said : " Lest silence should be deemed acquiescence. I must declare I would sooner give up my claim to America than to continue an unjust and cruel war." This was twelve days before England had heard of Burgoyne's defeat at Ben- nington. On the 11th of December, in debate, the duke argued for "a peace on the terms of independence and such an alliance or federal union as would be for the mutual interest of both countries." The next year. 1778, he proposed to recognize the independence of the revolted Amer- ican colonies. Thus he appears as the friend of liberty and peace. Per- haps this early love of peace was the reason why " His Grace," at the coronation of George III .. September 22d, 1761, carried the sceptre with the dove, symbols of power and peace. Four years later he was ap. pointed ambassador extraordinary to France on a mission of peace. News of all this may have touched our people with something like respect for the land of their fathers. At any rate Richmond has no rea- son to be ashamed of its patronymic. Though, after this brief review of facts, we are uncertain that the name of Richmont had anything to do
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
with the Duke of Richmond, yet when, March 3d, 1785, two years after American independence was fully acknowledged, the Legislature changed the name from Richmont to Richmond, there was left no doubt whom the town was meant to honor.
February 26th, 1767, by an act of the Legislature, this town was di- vided, and the eastern valley was named Lenox. the family name of the Duke of Richmond. Lennox was the ancient name of the county of Dumbarton, Scotland, including parts of Stirling. Perth, and Renfrew. Going up the Clyde one sees the famous Dumbarton Castle, Scotland's stronghold for a thousand years. So after all Richmond and Lenox are more historic names than Mount Ephraim and Yokuntown. In the divi sion of the town some 1,900 acres of the Yoknu purchase were included in the Richmond portion, thus bringing the dividing line nearly on the mountain ridge which separates them. A look at the map will show this line quite irregular, almost like a stairway, made so as to accommo- date the landowners. Richmond now contains about four and one half square miles.
Richmond is mostly an agricultural town. It has, however, two beds of iron ore, which are successfully worked, and in which about fifty men are employed. They are worked by the Richmond Iron Company, which was organized in 1829, and incorporated in 1842. Originally this company operated only one furnace, that in Richmond ; but in 1842 one in Van Deusenville was added. and in 1863 another in Cheshire. In ad- dition to the ore beds in Richmond, this company works a bed in the adjoining town of West Stockbridge. In all their works they employ about 700 hands, and their annual product is about 12,000 tons of iron.
The town has no village, but at Richmond post office is a station on the Boston & Albany Railroad. a store, etc. The post office was es- tablished in 1806. At Richmond Furnace post office, in the southwestern part of the town, is a store and a small collection of houses, mostly resi- dences of the employes of the Richmond Iron Company.
The history of the church in Richmond begins with the first anthor- ized meeting of the proprietors, held in January, 1764, where among other acts we find a rate of £25 assessed on the proprietors, to be expended for " preaching for the year ensuing." Jacob Bacon, Elijah Brown, and Ephraim Seeley were authorized to employ some one to preach as much as he could for that money. Who the preacher was we cannot say. . 1 place to meet seemed next to require their united action; so, four months later, the proprietors met again and voted to build two meeting houses, one in each section of the township ; the houses to be alike in structure, 45 by 35 feet, and twenty shillings on each one hundred acres to be paid in eight months as the building fund. Said fund would be about 5230, or $1.150 for the two houses. They were erected near where the Congre- gational churches in Lenox and Richmond now are. Within six months of the vote to build they made a separate vote for their worship in Mount Ephraim of 41s., 6d., which sum met their wants till April, 1765, when $6
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were raised, lasting till July, when $20 were assessed. That year a church was organized, and Job Swift, a native of Sandwich, and a graduate that year of Yale College, was called as their teacher. In June of that year came the separation of the township, and the next June. 1765, for sup. porting Job Swift it was voted to raise 7s., 6d., on each one hundred acres, amounting to $40. The next year the same was raised, and the title, Reverend, was given to Job Swift by ordination. He was their pastor for seven years. From " Swift's Life and Sermons" we extract the fol- lowing :
" His prospects of usefulness in this place were for a time favorable. That he might more readily lead the minds of his people to a proper understanding of the Christian doctrines, he lent his aid in favor of religious conferences, in which ques- tions on doctrinal subjects were freely discussed. By his unwearied exertions a great part of his people in a short time became well indoctrinated, and some few of them the hopeful subjects of gospel grace. But the scene was soon changed, and he had to encounter those afflictive difficulties which so often fall to the faithful ministers of Christ. The difficulties arose solely from his strict and conscientious adherence to what he judged divine truth. Having set himself for the defense of the gospel of Christ he could not be persuaded to accommodate himself to the feelings of those who opposed it in its true forms. This seemed to increase their dissatisfaction, and they at length declared themselves irreconcilable, and he was soon dismissed from his pastoral charge."
This was in 1774. For the next sixteen years he was pastor of a church in Bennington, Vermont, and while there was made a D. D. by and a member of the corporation of Williams College. That he was a pastor of learning is seen in the fact that he was a trustee of Williams, Middlebury, and Dartmouth Colleges. President Dwight says he " was one of the best and most useful men whom we knew ; good men loved him and delighted in his society, and the worst of men acknowledged his worth." The next settled pastor, Rev. David Perry, was installed in August. 1784, and dismissed January 1st, 1816, because of age and de- clining health. He died in June of the next year, aged seventy-one. He was not a controversialist, did not try to do good by strong arguments, but by presenting motives of duty. As a consequence the wars of con- troversy subsided, and during almost a generation his people working with him made him a successful pastor, baptizing 377, and admitting into the church 186. His successor, Rev. E. W. Dwight, has said of him : " The religious character of Mr. Perry was such as to furnish a bright. example to every gospel minister. He was eminent for his expressions and daily exhibitions of piety, and eminently devoted and faithful as a minister of Christ. In one of the last days of his life, in the midst of severe pains and almost dying agonies, he called his children and grand- children around his bed, and putting his hand upon the head of each of them successively, offered a short and comprehensive prayer for each. commending them all to the God of Jacob. Israel's God has not forgot. ten to be gracious to his descendants." This was said more than half a
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
century ago. He had twelve children like Jacob. whose God he invoked and in like manner. With a salary never exceeding $400 he sent several of his boys through college, and gave his daughters a good educational start in life.
The next settled pastor was Rev. Edwin W. Dwight, brother of Colo- nel Dwight, and father of Henry W. Dwight, of Pittsfield. He served successfully from January, 1819, to April, 1837, gathering into church fellowship 188. Succeeding him was Rev. Eber L. Clark, born in Dalton. serving fifteen years, and closing his pastorate at the beginning of 1853. having added to the membership fifty-three. He came to the church just after the financial crisis of 1837, to a people much disheartened, and made more so by that terrible scourge the typhoid fever immediately sue- ceeding, to which one in every twenty fell a victim. Yet amid this two- fold cause of discouragement and gloom he was a faithful and devoted pastor with more than ordinary preaching gifts and acquirements.
In 1853 Rev. Charles S. Renshaw was installed as their pastor. Coming from a large city, with the highest culture and all the graces and refine- ment which would make such a man the choice of a city parish, it always seemed a wonder why he should choose Richmond as his home. But a large family of children away from city temptations would be in greater safety. He believed in caring for the children God had given him, and so, no doubt, for their good he left the city and chose for them the grander scenes of a rural life. Their after history has justified his wise choice. For nearly seven years he led his people into green pas- tures and beside still waters, and then " was not, for God took him." In the cemetery of the people among whom he labored lies all that remains of his mortality; but alas ! over those remains rises no monument to tell his name to generations following him.
In 1869 Rev. L. W. Curtis was called to the pastorate and has since remained with this church.
The deacons of this church have been : Silas Parmlee. James Gates, John Hall, William Osburne, John Gaston. Noah Rossiter, Ebenezer Hotelkins, Zebulon Bacon, Samuel Bartlett, Chandeler Bacon, Samuel Gates, Hiram Norton, John Sharp, John S. Nichols. George Cook, and Franklin Barnes. Sixteen of God's noblemen who have freely given their services, their means, and their prayers for the building and main- tenance of the church.
Early in December, 1882, the old church, built in 1795, was destroyed by fire, with all its ancient architecture and modern improvements. Cap- tain Asa Perry and Widow Loomis lived to see the beginning an l end of the second edifice. The Congregational society, as it now is, was organ- ized in 1824, because of a law then passed requiring religions bodies to be organized. William S. Leadbetter, justice of the peace. drew the war- rant to Abraham Rossiter to warn the first meeting. Among those at this meeting were Ebenezer Hotelkin, Vine Branch, Cyprian Branch, Nathan . iel Redington, Walter Chapin. John Bacon, John Nichols, Zachariah
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Pierson, Linus Hall, Nathaniel Bishop, and Samnel Bartlett. Abraham Rossiter was the first moderator, and the late Hon. Henry W. Bishop first clerk. Horace Rossiter. Eleazer Williams, and the present incum- bent have been the clerks. Mr. H. L. Salmon, the present clerk. has served for 22 years, and William H. Nichols and George Cook have for the same time been active trustees, all prosperous citizens. " They shall prosper that love thee."
The corner stone of the new church was laid May 10th, 1883, at three o'clock P. M., by Capt. Asa Perry (died in spring of 1885), then in his ninety-fifth year, and the only surviving son of the second pastor. Rev. David Perry. The original corner stone of the old church was used. and was mortised to receive a box inclosing the church manual, records, an original copy of the hymn sung first at the dedication of the old church in 1795, and again at the dedication of the new church, a copy of the Pittsfield Sun of December 21st, 1882, having in it a poem on the burn- ing of the old church. by A. G. Sharp, and a letter written in Richmond. October 12th, 1795, by a lad of eleven years, named Franklin Pierson. It was to his grandmother, Abigail Howell, on Long Island. "We have got a very fine meeting house ; we got a new bell weighing seventy-seven pounds, and they broke it before they got it hung, and they have sent down for another. They expect to dedicate the meeting house in about three weeks." December 5th, a little less than seven months from the laying of the corner stone, the new church was dedicated. Costing over $11,000, it was dedicated free from debt. The largest contribution was $1,000, by Miss C. H. Pierson, besides that of the organ costing $900. and the bell costing 8330. This Miss Pierson was one of the three daughters of Nathan Pierson. one of the pioneer settlers in Richmond. Never hav. ing a husband to support, she has had the means and disposition to do good in her old age. She still lives to witness and enjoy the results of her benefactions. Love for the old church and the town of their nativity appears in the gifts of persons far away. Dora Tracy, from Toledo, Ohio, a descendant of the early Tracy family, gave the pulpit and chairs. So the early John and David Williams appear in the gift of John C. and George W. Williams, of Ohio, of the handsome clock. Julius L. Clark, son of a former pastor, gave the pulpit Bible. Mr. Dudley, of New York. for gets not his ancestor. John, and gives a Bible and concordance. J. H. Cogswell and his sister, Charlotte M. (Cogswell) Fowler, of Pennsyl- vania, gave an elegant copy of the church hymns for the pulpit, in mem- ory of their father and mother, Samuel O. and Sarah (Bliss) Cogswell, members there until 1827.
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