USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Volume II pt 2 > Part 18
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About 1817 the few Methodists in the town began to have occasional preaching, and by 1825 were able to build a meeting house. three fourths of a mile southwest of the center. The house, with a seating capacity for 200, is still doing good service for the society, which has earned and deserved its present prosperity. To name all the preachers would be to repeat the names of many men whose record forms part of the history of
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other churches and other towns in the county. Its first pastor was Rev. D. Avery, and its present membership is about forty.
Schools and their results claim a place in this history. In 1781 the town was divided into seven districts, and money was appropriated for their maintenance. Nine years later they were condensed to five districts and so remained till 1815 when, because of an increase in population about the iron works. a sixth district was established in its vicinity. About 8500 per year is the amount raised for schools, with an average at- tendance of less than 200. In his report Rev. E. W. Dwight says : "It is thought just to say that particular care is taken in the selection and examination of teachers, and that more than usual attention is paid by the visiting committee, consisting of one from each district, to the exam- ination and improvement of the schools." Besides the public schools private ones have aided much in cultivating a love for learning, which has mlade noteworthy the following names. James Ford, from Norwich. Com., was among the first to locate in Richmond. To him was born in March, 1776. a son, whom he named Simeon, and who graduated from Williams in the class of 179S. He settled as a lawyer in Herkimer. N. Y., became prominent, and at one time was employed by the State to super- intend the salt works at Salina. He died in October, 1841.
In the same class was David L. Perry, who came with his father. Rev. David Perry, into Richmond from Harwinton, Con., in 1784, when but seven years of age. After graduating he was for three years tutor in Williams College. He afterward became a preacher, settled in Sharon. Conn .. and married the only daughter of Rev. Dr. Strong, of Hartford. After more than thirty one years of continuous service he died, in 1835. as pastor of his only church.
Henry W. Bishop, born in Richmond in 1796, graduated at Williams in 1817, with the valedietory, "On the influence of the Association of Ideas." He was admitted to the bar in 1821, and practiced in Richmond till 1826, when, appointed register of probate, he removed to Lenox. He was honored with the title LL. D., by Williams College, in 1865.
Frederic Perry, son of Rev. David, graduated in the class of 1802. studied theology, but was never licensed. He taught the academy in Williamstown in 1804, and the next year was tutor in his Alma Mater. In 1807 he became a merchant in Richmond. and four years later in Len- ox, and in 1815 moved to Stockbridge and became a manufacturer of cotton there.
Samuel Rossiter Betts was born in Richmond in 1787, fitted for col- lege at Lenox, and graduated in 1806. He was a lawyer in Sullivan connty, N. Y. In 1812 he took up the weapons of a soldier, on Long Island, and shortly afterward was appointed judge advocate by the gov. ernor. In 1815 he was a member of Congress for Orange and Sullivan counties. He was afterward one of the cirenit judges of New York, and then a judge of the District Court. He was for forty-one years the re-
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vered and upright judge of that cont. He died in New Haven in 1858, at the age of 81.
Rufus Raymond, whose ancestors entered town in 1762, graduated in the class of 1807. studied law, and died in Richmond in 1812, aged twenty-five.
Joseph Sherrill, born in Richmond in 1793, was in the class of 1814. in Williams College, studied Jaw. farmed it some in Richmond, taught some in Virginia, was a clerk in the Post Office Department at Washing. ton by appointment in 1828, and died there with cholera in 1832.
Augustus Sherrill, his elder brother, was a graduate of Yale and a lawyer. He practiced for a time in Stockbridge, and thence removed to Ithica. N. Y.
Franklin Sherrill, born in 1796 in Richmond, had the second honor of his class of 1815. He taught in the academy at Westfield, and was afterward tutor in Middlebury College, and later a teacher in Madison, where he died in 1850.
Edward W. Rossiter, son of Nathan and grandson of David, was born in Richmond, and graduated at Williams in 1815. He studied theology with Dr. Hyde, of Lee, and settled in Granville, N. Y. He died in New York in 1821.
Joseph Pierson, a graduate of Union College, became an Episcopal minister, and died in early life at Washington.
John Hotchkin, a graduate of Union. read theology at Andover, but taught the academy at Lenox for thirty years.
Alonzo Crittenden, also of Union, was for many years principal of the Albany Female Seminary, and afterward of a similar institution in Brooklyn, the Packer Institute.
Henry Raymond was a graduate of Union. He settled as a lawyer in Williamstown, and died in 1836.
Hiram P. Goodrich, of Richmond, graduated at Union, studied for the ministry, and went south.
William N. Edwards, born July 4th, 1812, in Richmond, graduated in 1838, taught two years, then studied theology in Auburn ; but on ar- count of poor health gave up the ministry, took to teaching again in the West, and in 1852, was elected superintendent of the Union School in Troy. Ohio. He married a school teacher in 1853, anl diel in 1867.
Hubbard Beebe, born in Richmond in 1808, graduated in 1833 at Williams, and in 1837 at the Andover Theological Seminary. He settled first at Longmeadow. After various settlements he was made district secretary for the A. S. S. Union, and served from 1857 to 1861. He was agent of the American Bible Society from 1852 to ISBS, and in 1868 was made associate secretary of the American Seaman's Friend Society for western New England.
Albert Perry, a native of Richmond, graduated at Williams in the class of 1845. He is now a lawyer in Utica, N. Y.
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Samnel G. Cone. of Richmond, graduated at Williams in the class of 1848. He became a merchant in Manchester, Vt.
George Perry, born in Richmond in 1527, gradnated with the class of 1849. Soon afterward he was connected with the Home Journal, of New York, and is now editor. He has translated several important French works.
Charles C. Dwight, son of Rev. E. W. Dwight, was born in Richmond, in 1830. He was a Williams graduate in 1850 : moved to Anburn. N. Y., and was made county judge in 1859. He was captain of a company en. listed by himself in 1861, served in the department of the Gulf, was com - missioned adjutant general in 1862, and became colonel of the 160th New York Infantry, serving till the war closed. In 1867 he was chosen a member of the New York Constitutional Convention, and in 1868 justice of the Supreme Court. He lives in Auburn.
Besides gradnates there have been educated men, self taught beyond the schools, such as Alfred Perry, Beriah Bishop, Hubbard Bartlett, and John Ingram, physicians : Benjamin Raymond, surveyor and engineer, county judge in St. Lawrence county, N. Y., an early and earnest advo- cate of the Erie Canal, and who died while constructive engineer of the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal ; Hon. Samuel Gates, twice a member of the Executive Council : James P. Leadbetter. attorney, twice a member of Congress from Ohio ; and Franklin E. Plummer, twice a member of Congress from Mississippi.
Dr. Stephen Reid. a graduate of Yale, studied medicine and prac- ticed in various places. He came to Richmond in 1830, and in 1833 mar- ried Miss Sarah Chapin, of Richmond, and then for ten years taught a private school with marked success. He then moved to Pittsfield. became the editor of an agricultural paper, and died in 1877 at the age of seven- ty-seven. To Dr. S. Reid is credited the first notice to geologists of the Richmond boulder trains. His first published article was in the Berk- shire Farmer, Lenox. 1842. Edward Hitchcock, State geologist, visited the region and reported on these trains in a paper read in Washington, D. C., in 1844, and printed in the American Journal of Science, with a sketch map, in 1845. The same year Dr. Reid read a paper before the American Association of Geologists and Naturalists in Washington, D. C. In Boston, before the Massachusetts Historical Society, a paper on this subject was read, December, 1845, by Professors H. D. and W. B. Rog. ers, which was printed in the Boston Journal of Natural History, in June, 1846. Sir Charles Lyell, of England, having visited the town by Dr. Reid's invitation. gave his views in a paper to the Royal Institution of Great Britain, in April. 1855, and in his ". Antiquity of Man, " in 1871. Other geologists, such as Emmons, Agassiz, and Dr. Hall. of Albany, with Dr. Reid traversed the line of boulders and made them a study. Surely then they are worth a little place in the history of Berkshire county. The tracing of them to their source, their directim, their termination, and their geologie classification were well done by Dr. Reid in the papers
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published by him. An account of these is given in the chapter on geology.
The Cogswell family of Richmond have a genealogical record by which they can go beyond the " big seas" far into the past. Those in this country trace back to John, who came with wife and eight children to this country in the Angel Gabriel (built by Sir Walter Raleigh) in 1635, and were wrecked and the shp lost. Among the company was Parson Avery, whose death in the storm of August 15th gave occasion for Whittier's poem, "The Swan Song of Parson AAvery." From six of John Cogswell's children, then landing here, come the generations following :
One daughter. Hannah, married a Deacon Waldo, a farmer, whose fourth daughter, Rebecca, married Edward Emerson, who had three sons, all of whom became clergymen, and William, the second son, was father of Ralph Waldo Emerson. William's second daughter, Hester, married a Mr. Samuel Bishop. and had a son who married a Lathrop, whose daughter married Captain David Holmes, D. D., of Cambridge, Mass., the father of Oliver Wendell Holmes. Hon. Rufus Choate's father mar- ried a Cogswell. President William Henry Harrison was of Cogswell descent, as also " Warrington" John Wentworth, of Chicago, and a long list of names famous in history. That 2,600 Cogswells married into 960 names may suggest the expansiveness of one family in 250 years. Na- than C., born in Southington, Conn., in 1744, married Anna Smith, who bore him Elisha, Smith, and Salmon. In 1785 he married his second wife. Eunice Lord, who bore him a daughter. Eunice, and died. In 1787 he married Miriam Smith, by whom he had Arabella, Julius, and Samnel, and she died. In 1803 he married Mrs. Mary (Tarbell) Waters. He was a blacksmith, a man of tireless energy, and noble qualities of character. In the cemetery of Richmond one can find and read the following in- scriptions :
" IN MEMORY OF NATHAN COGSWELL, WHO DIED MARCH 29, IS22, AGED 78 YEARS."
"The end of the upright man is peace."
IN MEMORY OF MRS. ANNA WIFE OF MR. NATHAN COGSWELL WHO DIED MAR. 27 1785 IN THE 40TH YEAR OF HER AGE.
IN MEMORY OF MRS. EUNICE WIFE OF MR. NATHAN COGSWELL WHO DIED MARCH IST 1787 IN THE BIST YEAR OF HER AGE.
" We mourn not as wretchess do Whose vicious lives all hope deny A falling tear is nature's due: While faith looks up to joys on high."
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"IN MEMORY OF MRS. NATHAN COGSWELL
WHO DIED MAY 20TH 1852 IN THE 49TH YEAR
OF HER AGE. SHE WAS HIS THIRD WIFE AND MOTHER OF THEIR LITTLE SON JULIE'S WHO LIES AT HER LEFT HAND, WHO DIED NOV. 7TH, 1792 IN THE 13TH MONTH OF HIS AGE."
His fourth wife died, and was buried in New Lebanon, N. Y .. Jan- uary 1st, 1848. Samuel Cogswell. born May 234. 1713. in Farmington. Conn., married Mary Langdon in 1734, and had 17 children, all born be- fore he came into Richmond, in 1702. Seven lived to marry. His time of coming is inferred from this:
" Know ye that I John Chamberlain of Stockbridge, Co. of Berkshire, for the consideration of Forty Five Pounds Lawful money paid me by Joseph & Samuel Cogswell, both of Farmington in the Colony of Conn., do grant, bargain & sell all my right & title to land situated in Mount Ephraim herewith I set my hand this 15th day of May A. D. 1762.
" JOHN CHAMBERLAIN."
Joseph, his fourth child, born in Southington, Conn., in 1753, came with his father to Richmond in 1762, married Chloe Hill in 1772. and with his family of three children moved to Vermont in 1790. Mary, the fifth child, was married to Joseph Barnitt, and lived in Richmond. Asahel, the sixth, married Dorcas Fuller. He was a farmer with three children. in Richmond. Rhoda, the seventh, was married to Isaac Doty. Isaac. the eighth, married Molly Loomis, and had four children. Lydia, the eleventh, married Dr. Hackley, and lived in Richmond. Samuel, the twelfth, married Sarah Lydia Olmstead, had three children, and lived in Richmond. With his brother, Isaac, he was a soldier in the Revolution. in Capt. Aaron Rowley's company, Colonel Symond's regiment. called ont by General Gates from April 26th to May 19th, 1777. Reuben, the thirteenth, had two daughters, lived in Richmond till 1781. was in the Revolutionary service, enlisting April 22d, 1775, and marched to Cam- bridge as one of Captain Noble's minute men. Levi, the fourteenth. also a soldier, married Rachel F. Whittlesey, had eight children, and lived in Windsor. Jerusha, the sixteenth, married Jonathan Skeel, and lived in Richmond. Elisha, son of Nathan 2d, born in Richmond, married Phoebe Ann Redington, and had five children. Smith C .. brother of Elisha, married Phoebe Wells. He carried on the iron works in Albany and Troy, and in the war of 1812 made many guns for the United States Government. Salmon, another brother, married Sarah Soullard in Feb- ruary, 1798, and had five children. Charlotte, the youngest, was married to Lawyer Silas H. Gardner, of Hancock, where she still resides, having three children, Sarah, Charles, and Mary, now the wife of H. L. Lewis, Esq., of Chicago.
David Rossiter was born in 1736. When about thirty years of age he came to Richmond from North Guilford, Conn., and from the first made his influence felt in town affairs. He was captain of a company of
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militia which marched to Cambridge immediately after the battle of Lex- ington. He rose to the rank of brigadier general and was a successful leader in the battle of Bennington. He represented his town in the Leg- islature often, and twice as senator. As early as 1774 he, with Captain Elisha Brown and Nathaniel Wilson, was a delegate from Richmond to a county convention at Stockbridge, for securing a redress of increasing grievances. He was the second justice of the peace in Richmond, and held the trust till he died. March 8th, 1811, at the age of seventy-five. Of him it is said that no man looked more for the interest of the town and church, though he was not a member of it.
The Williams family has a very ancient lineage. Burke's Book of Peerage and Baronage says of Sir Robert Williams, the ninth baronet of the house of Williams of Penrhyn, that " his family is lineally descended from Marchudel of Cyan, Lord of Abergelen in Denbighshire, one of the fif- teen tribes of North Wales, who lived in the times of Roderic Manr. king of the Britains about 849. Of him was descended Ednyfid Fycham, from whom was descended the royal house of Tudor." This same family in the same work is traced back to the first king of the island, 1,100 years before Christ. As a royal family they had a coat of arms-a shield with a lion rampant, and surmounted with a cock watching for a chance to fight : underneath the shield "Cognozce Occasionem"; under that the name Williams ; and lower on a scroll, in Welsh, " Y fyno Dwy Y fydd." "What God willeth will be." Robert Williams, of Roxbury, came to this country about 1638. He had three boys, Samuel. Isaac, and Stephen. Samuel was born in England in 1632. married Theoda Park, became a deacon, and died at the age of 75. He had eleven children. Deborah, the eighth, was grandmother of General Joseph Warren of Bunker Hill fame. Samuel, his second child, had eight children. The fourth. Eben- ezer, was a graduate of Harvard. and a minister in Pomfret, Conn. He had five children. Ebenezer, the third son. became a colonel, and had command of Fort Edward in 1757. He married Jerusha Porter, who bore him thirteen children. Nehemiah, the ninth, was born in 1766, moved to Richmond, and died there in 1802. His children were Eleazer and Ebenezer K.
In the early history of this county the Williams family finds most honorable record. Colonel Ephraim Williams, founder of Williams Col- lege, was killed at Lake George in 1755. Dr. Thomas Williams, his brother, was there as surgeon. Stephen Williams, afterward a D. D., was chaplain of Colonel Ephraim's regiment. The Sunday before the Colonel's death he preached to the Indians. The next year he was chap- lain in the regiment commanded by Dr. Thomas Williams. Stephen was the principal means of sending a missionary to the Stockbridge Indians. engaging Rev. John Sergeant for that purpose in 1734. Hon William Williams, son in-law of Governor Trumbull, of Connectient, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, was in the battle of Lake George, on the staff of Col. Ephraim Williams. The next year, when only 25.
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he was chosen clerk in his own town of Lebanon, Conn., and held the office 45 years. About the same time he was chosen to the General As- sembly, then clerk, and sometimes speaker, and in 1780 was transferred to the Upper House, made an assistant, and annually reelected for 24 years. This is his record, "that for more than ninety sessions he was scarcely absent from his seat in the legislature excepting when he was a member of the Continental Congress, in 1776 and 1777." One evening, talking with Messrs. Hillhouse and Huntington, he said. .. Well, if they succeed it is pretty evident what will be my fate. I have done much to prosecute the contest, and one thing I have done which the British will never pardon-I have signed the Declaration of Independence. I shall be hung." Mr. Hillhouse expressed a hope that America would yet be successful. Mr. Huntington observed that in case of ill success he should be exempt from the gallows, as his signature was not attached to the Declaration of Independence, nor had he written anything against the British government. To this Mr. Williams replied, "Then. sir, you de- serve to be hung for not having done your duty."
With such men as founders of the Williams family no wonder that by 1846 there had been 24 members of Congress from ten different States found of the name of Williams, and to the same date more than 250 with college degrees from colleges in the United States, 109 graduates of Cambridge, England, 85, including Roger Williams, from Oxford College, England, and 11 members of the Royal Society, London. What other family name can show a like record ?
William Fitch and Jabez Brooks, the latter a Revolutionary soldier. were early settlers in Richmond, both being natives of Connecticut. Wil- liam, son of the former, married Almeda, daughter of the latter, and settled in Lenox. Their son, Chester, was born in Richmond. February 14th, 1808, and graduated from Williams College in 1834. He was for twelve years pastor of the Congregational church in New Marlborough, and has labored in the ministry since about 1840. He was married to Sarah Sheldon, of New Marlborough, and now resides in Rockford, Ill. Four of his children are now living: Henry, a graduate of Michigan State University, physician and druggist at Utica, N. Y .; Elizabeth, Ben- jamin, and Camilla W., who reside with their parents.
Henry Pierson was in the company which, in 1640, left Lynn, Mass., to lay the foundations of Southampton, L. I. He remained in Southamp- ton till his death, in 1680, at which time he was clerk of Suffolk county. Before leaving Lynn he had married Mary, daughter of John Cooper, one of the most influential men of the colony. And of this union were born : John, Joseph, Daniel. Henry, Theodore, and Sarah. Henry was born at Southampton, L. I., in 1652, married Susannah Howell, and became one of the settlers of Bridgehampton, at which place he died in 1701. He was an active and influential citizen, for many years a member and speaker of the Provincial Assembly, and was universally known as Colo-
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RESIDENCE OF MISS CATHERINE H. PIERSON, RICHMOND.
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nel Henry Pierson. To him were born: John. David, Theophilus, Abram, and Josiah.
Josiah was born at Bridgehampton, L. I., in 1695, and died in 1776, having had four wives and seventeen children. Of these children Benja- min was born January 15th, 1741. He married Sarah Gilbert, of Newark, N. J .; removed from Newark to Richmond. Mass., in 1772 ; lived in New York city about 1790 ; and died at Ballston, N. Y., in 1797, leaving nine children : Josiah G., Jeremiah H., Mary, Isaac, Caleb, John, Joseph, Sarah, and Lydia. Jeremiah H. went from Richmond to New York in April, 1795, and in May of the same year went to Ramapo, Rockland county, N. Y., to take charge of the extensive iron works then in process of erection at that place. He died at Ramapo, December 12th, 1855. He married, at Richmond, in 1792. Sarah, daughter of Jabez Colt. Their children were : Elizabeth, wife of Eleazar Lord, first president of the Erie Railroad ; Josiah G., Jeremiah H., Theodore, Henry and Lewis (twins), and Benjamin.
From the first mentioned Henry, through Henry 2d, Theophilus, Nathan, and Nathan 2d, descended Catharine, mentioned in connection with the present meeting house.
The house now occupied by Miss Pierson, of which we give an illus- tration on another page, is a somewhat remarkable edifice, and was erected for her father, Nathan Pierson, in 1790, by Jeremiah H. Pierson. This house is to all appearances in as good condition as it was when built. It has always been the home of Miss Pierson, who has been care- ful to preserve it in its original state.
CHAPTER XXVI.
TOWN OF SANDISFIELD.
BY GEORGE A. SHEPARD.
Grants, Surveys, Sales .- Incorporation and First Town Meeting .- Location and Physical Features .- Productions .-- Manners and Customs .- Dwellings of the Settlers .- First Births, Marriages. and Deaths .- War Record .- Congregational Churches and Ministers. -Baptist Church .- Episcopal Church .- Physicians and Lawyers, -- Schools .- Libra- ries .- Post Offices .- Roads and Bridges .- Early Settlers, and Early and Later Business. -Magistrates .- Town Officers .- Biographical.
O N the 15th day of January, 1735, " At a Great and General Court assembled for his Majestie's Provinces of the Massachusetts Bay in New England." Edmund Quincy, Esq., from the committee of both Houses, made report on the petition for a grant of land lying between Westfield and Sheffield. The committee were of opin- ion that there should be four townships of land opened upon the road between those towns, and that "they be contiguous to one another or either join to Sheffield or to the township lately granted to the propri- etors of Suffield, and each of the contents of six miles square, " and that they be " situated as near the road as the land will allow, and that there be 63 home lots laid out in each township, one of which to be for the first settled minister, one for the second settled minister, one for the school and one for each grantee who shall draw equal shares in all future divisions," said lots to be laid out in a " regular, compact and defensible manner as may be," and that they give security to the value of forty pounds to perform all things on their lots and within their respective township, wherein they are admitted, in the same manner as the " Grantees in any of the towns between the rivers Connecticut and Mer- rimack," and that a committee of five suitable persons be appointed by the court for the service aforesaid, and " impowered and obliged as is before provided for. with respect to bringing forward the line of towns between the rivers aforesaid."
In 1737 an allowance was made to this township, 111 rods wide at
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the south end, " for ponds and swag of chain which was omitted in the first measuring."
January 16th. 1735. a committee was appointed to attend to the busi- ness set forth in the report of the committee of both Houses in behalf of the petitioners for said grant. They were to be allowed " fifteen shillings per diem for every day they were in the woods, and subsistence."
The first meeting of the proprietors, legally called by order of the General Court, was at Westboro, September 14th, 1737, at the holts of John Maynard. Daniel Denny was chosen moderator of said meeting. and Daniel Stewart, clerk. Daniel Denny. Thomas Hapgood. Moses Rice, Daniel Stewart, Daniel Bartlett. William Earl, and James Miller were appointed a committee to lay out the lots and perform other service. A committee was appointed to call future meetings,
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