USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Volume II pt 2 > Part 23
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Its highlands are the water shed between the tributaries of the Deer- field and Westfield Rivers on the eastern slope, and the Hoosick on the
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TOWN OF SAVOY.
western. The eastern streams, though small. give ample water power for town needs.
Its postal needs are met by two post offices, Savoy and Savoy Center ; and no lawyer has ever ventured to settle in the town.
It is one of the seven towns forming the Fourth Berkshire District, which district has never been honored with a senator therefrom.
By the terms of sale and settlement the town was obliged to maintain schools. The first town meeting, in 1797. appropriated sso for schools, that amount. in their judgment, sufficing for the times. Year by year the appropriation was increased till it reached $250 in 1815. By the sale of the school lot, in 1821. and the minister's right, in 1826, with town appropriations, about $1,072 were raised for school use by 1830. As a re- sult schools have been well sustained.
Bradish Dunham, son of Abial, a settler of 1797, was one of the first teachers in time and ability, subsequently a justice of the peace, and to his training in part are his sons, Jarvis N. and Henry J., indebted for the foundation on which their present eminence rests. Jarvis N. Dun- ham, now of Pittsfield, is a leading lawyer, and is president of the Springfield Fire and Marine Insurance Company. Henry J., his brother, also an eminent lawyer in Stockbridge, has published " The Game Laws of Massachusetts."
John Bourne. 2d, was the first male child bom in Savoy, in 1783. His boys had their father's love for learning and teaching. Caleb teach- ing many years in town. He was able to use a musket as well as ruler. and so, in 1812, among Savoy's full quota of men with the " raw militia " he marched to the defense of threatened Boston. Ward B. was expert in mathematics, and he is now a professor in Illinois. F. C. Bonne was also a teacher, and afterward a justice of the peace. Silas J. was a practicing physician.
Snellem Babbit, born in 1760, after serving in the war of the Revolu- tion from Norton, settled in Savoy in 1787. He was well educated and energetic, and showed his energy in aiding the schools, and in public matters generally. The first town meeting, in 1797, was held in his house, and he was chosen a selectman and an assessor ; in turn receiving nearly all the offices in the gift of the voters, including member of the Legisla- ture and justice of the peace. He died in 1834, aged ninety -four. His characteristics were passed along to his children. Edward, his son, like the father, was honored with leadership in town affairs, and with success in his business enterprises : so also A. J., the son of Edward, was in his time an acknowledged town leader. As a manufacturer of axes he was as widely known and as sharp as his well known and well used .. Babbit Ax." Another of the Babbits. Snell by name, became well read in med- ical lore, and was a successful practitioner in his native towa.
About two years after the commencement of the Revolution Simeon Hodges settled in Savoy. From this family Isaac Hodges became a phy- sician, and practiced in Savoy. In June, 1818, was born Horace I. Hodges,
-
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
who entered Williams College in the class of 1838, and left it in May. 1841, because of ill health. He studied law in Northampton, was pros- perous, prominent, and influential in local polities. He was trial justice. judge of the Court of Insolvency, county commissioner, and in 1863 was commissioned quartermaster, with rank of captain, and was assigned to the department of North Carolina. He was drowned in attempting to carry a dispatch to the gunboat Miami, April 19th, 1861.
Joseph Williams, from Taunton, after serving through the war of the Revolution, came into Savoy with his three sons. William, his second son, started and kept the first hotel, being licensed thereto in 1794 ; and for many years the hotel was kept by members of said family. It was at the house of William, eight years before, that the Baptist church was organized, of which himself and wife were made members at that time.
Nathan Sherman, from Middleboro, one of the first settlers in the new State, by his descendants has formed the larger part of the people in that section ever since. Abial was son of Henry Sherman, and Henry was brother to Jacob, sen., father of Jacob 2d, Joseph, and Seth, all well known names.
Jacob, sen., was an early settler and Jacob, jr., came and settled in the north part of the town about the year 1800. Jacob, sen .. through rhenmatism, was cross-legged and wrought as a shoemaker ; he was ener- getic, self-willed, and self-poised : he reared a large family who became valuable citizens ; only two male descendants now remain living in town. and they are of the line of Jacob, jr .. who died an old man in 1873. Jacob was the father of Mrs. Leonard MeCullock now in Savoy. He was a well to do farmer, a lover and driver of good horses, by which he was killed in 1881, aged 71. N. D. Sherman was called a Universalist preacher because he preached everything. He was the son of Jacob. Seth is remembered as a soldier of 1812.
Russell Sherman, the second postmaster of the town, was from an other line of Shermans.
William Ingraham, from Rehoboth, was among the first thirty-five families moving into town. Obadiah, his son. for many years owned and run the first grist mill in the Hollow. He was a deacon in the church. and left a son, David, the present town clerk and postmaster. Elbridge. son of William 20, is on the farm first settled by Benjamin Carpenter. deacon of the First Baptist Church, the ancestor of the Carpenters now dwelling thereabouts.
Abel Carpenter (no relative of Benjamin) came into town in 1778. To him was born a son, Philo, in 1805. He went to Troy in 1828, thence to Chicago when it was only a village of log houses. He bought land. started the first Sunday school, delivered the first temperance lecture in the place, became wealthy, lived to see it a large and prosperous city, and gave for religious and educational purposes more than $100,000.
Among the older families in the south part of the town were the
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TOWN OF SAVOY.
Bowkers, whose influence in educational matters was always healthful. Liberty Bowker was from Cummington, and his sons, Melvin, Madison. David, and Calvin Bowker, in turn acceptably filled the office of post- master, except David, who kept one of the two hotels for a time in the town. The amount of postage received by the post office in the year ending April 1st, 1828, Liberty Bowker, postmaster, was $23.68 ; when postage was much higher than now, and the population about 900 ; aver- age twenty-six cents each. Two Bowkers, Charles and A. M., sons of Melvin, studied medicine, and afterward practiced in their native town. The latter, A. Melvin, also represented the town in the Legislature.
In the northern part settled William Perkins, whose son. Oriin Per- kins, became a Universalist preacher, and principal of the institute at Cooperstown, N. Y. He was at one time a member of the Legislature in New Hampshire. Afterward for a time he was associate editor of the Gospel Banner in Chicago. He died in 1880, leaving as a gift to his na- tive town of Savoy a library, to be known as the Orrin Perkins Library. He was the grandfather of O. P. Gifford. Baptist minister, formerly in Pittsfield, and now in Boston.
Into "Spruce Corner," in 1806, came E. Leonard from Raynham (River home) on the river Taunton, who loved to tell that one of his an- cestors. owned the house now ocenpied by the seventh or eighth generation from the builder, garrisoned during the Indian wars, and in which was exhibited the head of King Philip after he was slain, August 12th. 1676.
Rev. Nathaniel MeCullock came first into Savoy as a preacher in 1832-3. thence to Chesterfield, remaining there three years, and then, in 1837. back into Savoy. to a farm first settled and cleared by Hezekiah Bishop, and now occupied and owned by Leonard MeCullock, one of the sons of the elder-there being bornto him eight sons and three daughters. Leonard is one of Savoy's most prominent men. having served his town in most of the offices which the town intrusts to worthy men. including a seat in the House of Representatives, and all this without failing to be a good farmer. His son, Almiron J., a well educated and well-to-do farmer, has been, by the votes of his townsmen, made school committeeman and town treasurer. Almiron has honored his father by following his exam . ple for good and in naming his now six-year-old son Leonard M. McCul- lock. Leonard has four brothers, preachers in the west, and two sisters still living in Savoy.
Want of space, rather than want of time or inclination, forbids a long mention of noteworthy families, such as the Millers, who built and for a time ran a hotel, and of whom there are three or four families in town, and one daughter, now Mrs. Avery Wells, of Hancock, all strong and industrious people ; of the Pollys, one now a deacon, and his brother. both in the lumber business : of the Snows, and Stearns, and Cudworths. who built a tannery, turning out good work for nearly twenty years. stopping when the hills were denuded of their hemlocks; of the Blisses. one of whom, William, son of Duane, ran for lieutenant governor of
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
Nevada ; and the Bateses : of the Simons and the Bridges, of the May- nards and the Walkers, and a score of others who are making history every day for some future record.
The Baptist church was formed in Savoy, June 24th. 1786. less than nine years after the first settlement in town. Mr. Nathan Haskins, from Berkley, and later from Shutesbury, a licensed speaker, called a meeting at the house of Mr. William Williams, who, with his wife and Lucinda Wilbore, were from Adams: Nathan and Salmon Fay, and Benjamin Bullen, from Brimfield. Alice Read and Zechariah Paddleford, from the Baptist church in Middleboro, were examined as to their Christian faith and practice and "each one was agreed to join in church covenant and fellowship." Thus began the first religions organization in the town. 11 years before the town was incorporated. Bullock's Grant Baptist Church was the name first adopted. Nathan Haskins, whose numerous descend- ants largely populated " Spruce Corner," ministered to this church, and by ordination, January 28th, 1789, became their first pastor (receiving as such 380 acres for the first minister), and remained so till his death among them, December 10th, 1802, the membership then numbering 32. His reputation was that of a pions and godly man. Three years before his death the name was changed to the First Baptist Church, Savoy. Under supplies, evangelists probably, for the next eight years the num- bers increased ; and in 1804 the first meeting house was built. near the S. W. Bates place. That year the membership was 112. the largest number ever reported. In 1807, with 107 members, the first donation of one dollar for benevolent purposes was reported. In 1811 Elder Philip Pearce, from Rehoboth, became pastor over 39 members. He left them increased to 44 in 1817. Amos Todd was pastor in 1820 and 1821. David Wood- bury's pastorate included 1823 and 1824. The membership was then 71. Twenty-one were baptized by him, and nine were received by letter. In 1825 Benjamin F. Remington, licentiate from the church in North Adams. was ordained, and he remained five years. He was a reformer, and on the temperance question he was radical. In 1825 he reporiel 100 mem- bers, and in 1829 the church united with the Berkshire Association with 101. George Walker. a licentiate. preached in 1831, Nathaniel MeCul- lock in 1832-33, Roswell P. Whipple in 1834-37, when there were 74 members. From 1S38 to 1852 Elder Amos Deming was pastor, and there were 82 members. In 1848, when the membership was 97. the meeting house was moved to its present location in Savoy Hollow. During his term 54 were added by baptism. Since then there have been supplies and short pastorates by Revs. Foskett. Walker, Sweet, Amsden. Baker. Pease, Bonny, Maine, Tandy, Fitz, Brainerd, and now (1885) Rev. Mr. Walker.
To accommodate those living remote from the first church, a second church, of twenty-four members, was organized some five miles further northward in May, 1832, with Rev. N. McCullock as first pastor. The first clerk and deacon was James Cain ; he is still living, aged eighty-four,
TOWN OF SAVOY.
widely known and greatly respected. Rev. N. McCullock served, at this time, as pastor for both churches. In 1834 Elder Amos Deming was made pastor of this church ; he left in 1838 to be pastor of the First Church. In 1842 a meeting honse was completed and worshiped in. In 1848 Edgar Cady was the third pastor ; followed in 1849 by Rev. J. M. Whipple, with a membership of sixty-one. After 1852 Elder Amos Deming served them again till they were unable to pay a needed salary, when the church dis- banded, taking letters to the First Church. In disbanding the church property was deeded to the Fifth School District, till it should be wanted again for a Baptist church. . The house was repaired about 1850, and is now used as a Union Church.
Amos Deming was the son of Captain John Deming, of Connecticut. coming to Savoy in 1811, with three boys. The elder was always a man of mark and power in town as in pulpit matters, and a frequent writer of verse. The writer of this work, with many others, met him on one of his birthdays, on which occasion he read a poem of no little worth. He was living with his sons, Mark and Amos, who honored their father by love and industry. He died in 1883, aged ninety-two. He married more than 150 couples, buried more than 150 persons, and baptized over 200.
A church was begun in Savoy in 1810 by a notorious Joseph Smith, in the northwest portion of the town. He claimed to be a Baptist minis- ter from Vermont. Having tact and something magnetic about him, his meetings drew crowds, and some conversions resulted. A church was organized, and it bade fair to prosper. He married one of his converts. Soon a prior Mrs. Joseph Smith, in person or by proxy, made herself known among the members of the new society. He was a kind of fore- runner of the real Joe Smith, at that time only five years old, and also from Vermont. He left Savoy people, in the " New State," in a kind of wild religious excitement, shouting, seeing visions, prophesying, and speaking in unknown tongues.
The Shakers of New Lebanon, hearing of this, felt it in the line of their mission to come and establish from the remnant of Smith's followers a community after their kind; so true is it that one extreme follows another. In 1815 they built a grist mill. a shop, and a place for worship, now used for other needs, on H. Ford's place. Their community did not prosper, and in 1820, with some Savoy families, they returned to Lebanon. wiser if not better men and women. Later, some of those families re- turned, and resuming their ante-Smith standard of life, helpel to heal the moral disease at one time so contagious, and cause social health in all the town.
The First Congregational Society was formed February 18th. 1811, of families in the northeast part of Windsor, called " The Bush." and some of the families of Savoy, worshiping in a dwelling house on the line dividing the towns. In the fall of the same year a church was organized with twenty members, mostly from Windsor, and soon after they erected a meeting house. Rev. Jepthah Poole, from Plainfield, was their only
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
pastor, serving from 1811 to 1816, when he was dismissed because of their inability or unwillingness to continue his support. Through missionary aid the pulpit was irregularly supplied, and before 1840 the church was disorganized, most of the members worshiping in West Cummington.
About 1830 William Miller, relative of the Savoy Millers, born in Pittsfield, began to publish his views concerning Christ's second coming in 1843-4. In 1840 the first general conference of Second Advent believers was held in Boston. In 1841 and 1842 meetings were numerous in New England, and field preachers multiplied. Some of these penetrated Savoy and found ready listeners. A society was organized, held meetings in the Union Church, and became prosperous with such elders as Eusebins McCullock, now over a church in Bridgeport. R. Starks, and Mrs. E. A. Warren. Later, at Spruce Corner, another society built a place for wor- ship, where they still hold service. The theme and the way of presenting it appealed strongly to the imagination, though seemingly under the calm logic of mathematical reasoning.
The Methodist church seems to have originated in a protracted meet- ing led by Rev. Philo Hawkes and Zeba Loveland, in the winter of 1834. causing an extensive revival. A class was formed and soon a society was organized and joined to the Buckland Circuit, and in 1835 they built a house of worship in Savoy Hollow, and became a separate station. To give the names of all the preachers would be only to name those whose successful work has given them honored names in many a town in West- ern Massachusetts. The past sixteen years their meetings have been quite irregular, though now they have a pastor among them, and a member- ship not large.
A comparison with other mountain towns in matters of religion shows Savoy to be a remarkable exception to the general establishment of one church, or at best but two. It has been a good starting place for "isms." but a poor place for their abiding support. There are now fonf churches for 200 families, and five clergymen, one of whom, Rev. H. K. Flagg. an Adventist, has a small printing office for the publication of tracts, &c. His place is in the eastern part of the town.
Savoy Hollow, a small village and the only one in the town, is watered by the beginnings of the Westfield River. Its one hotel is of late years becoming more and more the resort of tourists who like quiet, pure air, and mountain scenery.
Savoy's Revolutionary record must be taken from other towns, be- cause it was settled too late to take part, though 'tis said a pioneer was clearing land in Savoy when volunteers were calledl for to defend the military stores. With heroic boldness he left his axe in the stump. shouldered his gun and started-unlike General Putnam-for his mother's home in Norton. It has been said elsewhere that Savoy furnished her share of men for the war of 1812-14. For service in the lite Rebellion she furnished seventy men, eleven of whom fell on the field or died in service.
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CHAPTER XXVHIL
TOWN OF SHEFFIELD.
BY HERBERT F. KEITH, C. E.
Geographical and Descriptive .- Roads .-- Villages .- Settlement .- Changes in Boundary .- Churches .- Cemeteries .- Schools .- Sheffield Friendly Union .- Slavery .- Action of Town Prior to Revolution .- Shetfield in the Revolution .- The Shays Rebellion .- The Ashleys .- War of 1812 .- Post Office and Stage Routes .- Hotels and Early Proprietors. -Manufacturing .- Quarries .- Creamery .- The Rebellion .- Hon. Daniel Dewey .- Chester Dewey .- Orvill Dewey .- Daniel Dewey Barnard .--- Frederick A. P. Barnard. - Gen. J. G. Barnard .- Bishop Janes .- Orren Curtiss .- J. Leland Miller, M. D.
S HEFFIELD is one of the southern towns in Berkshire county. It lies between Great Barrington and Egremont on the north, and the Con- nectient State line on the south : and between New Marlborough on the east and Egremont and Mount Washington on the west. It has a length from north to south of eight miles, and an average width between east and west of seven miles. The Housatonic valley extends through the town in a northerly and southerly direction, and has an average width of five or six miles. The eastern part of the town is quite hilly and broken. the highest point being Pool Mountain, in the northeast part. some 1,700 feet above the level of the sea. or 1, 100 feet above the Housatonic valley. Along the western border of the town extends the Taconic range of mountains. The valley is level and has a sandy but fertile soil. well adapted to the production of the cereals which flourish in this latitude ; and the hilly region east from it is also fertile, but by reason of its un- evenness it is better adapted to grazing.
The Housatonic River runs through the central valley, and with its affluents drains the town. The current of this river through Sheffield is not rapid, for it has only a decent of twelve feet in the town, and of course it affords no water power. The waters of its affluents only have been utiliz of for the mills that have been built in the town.
The principal streams that empty into the Housatonic in Sheffield are the Roaring Brook, which drains the northeastera part of the town, and has its mouth a short distance below Sheffield village ; Williams
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
Creek, which comes from the northwestern part : and Bishop Creek. through which are discharged the waters of the southwestern part. These streams unite in the village of Sheffield and empty into the river through a common trunk.
Three small lakes, or ponds, known as Spurr Lake, Harmon's Pond. and Davis Pond, are in the northwestern portion of the town, and in the northeastern part is a larger one called Three Mile Lake.
There are in the town several mountains which are worthy of note both because of their romantic appearance and the fine views which their summits afford. One of these is called the Dome of the Tagheonics. This is in the northwestern part of the town, near the line of Mount Washington. It was thus described, some years since, by Mr. Headiey :
"Two or three miles from Bash Bish is the dome of the Taghconics, a lofty mountain, rising, precisely like a dome, from the ridge of which it forms a pirt. It is, in our estimation, far superior to the Catskill, for you have from a single spot a perfect panorama below you; you have only to turn on your feet, and east and west, north and south, an almost endless prospect spreads away on the vision. You are the center of a circle of at least three hundred and fifty miles in circumference; and such a circle! The mountains that stretch along between the horizon between the Connecticut and Hoosac Rivers, on the northeast fade away as the northern Tagh- conics. The Berlin and the Canaan mountains greet you in the northwest; and these in turn are forgotten as your eye falls on the dark mass of the Catskill showing its huge proportions against the western horizon.
"And then between is such a wealth of scenery. The valley of the Hoasitonic, for miles and miles, spreads all its loveliness before you. There too, are the two settlements of Canaan, and still farther up-a mere spot on the lin Iscipe-Sheffield; and, still farther up, Great Barrington, hardly visible amid its forest of oll elms. while the white cliffs of Monument Mountain shut out old Stockbridge from view, and the distant spire of Lenox church closes the long train of villages.
"Old Saddle Back of Williamstown (the Greylock Range in Adams, North Adams, and Williamstown) stands up to its full height against the misty mountains that repose farther off in the horizon a peculiar feature of the landscape. Egremont stands alone in the valley of the Green River, but its sloping land and swelling hills present a still lovelier variety. A low line of mist is dimly seen stretching along the black base of the Catskills, so indistinct that you would scarcely observe it, and yet that is the lordly Hudson, heaving its mighty side seaward, laden with the commerce of a nation. A mere pencil mark in the landscape here, it gives no token of the haste and busy life on its surface. Close under the foot of the mountain on the south sweep the sweet lakes of Salisbury, while other lakes dot the horizon in every direction.
" But I cannot tell you of the prodigality of beauty which meets the eye at every turn. You seem to look on the outer wall of creation, and this old dome seems to be the spot on which nature set her great compasses when she drew the circle of the heavens. A more beautiful horizon I have never seen than sweeps around you from this spot. The charm of the[view is perfect on every side-a panorama, which be- comes a moving one, if you will but take the trouble to tarn it round."
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TOWN OF SHEFFIELD.
Half a mile northwest from Sheffield village is Barnard Mountain. so named because it was formerly owned by the Barnard family.
Half a mile west from this is the mountain known as Bear Den. This rises from a plain to the height of 200 feet. and its rocky sides are in some places precipitous. On the east side of this mountain the rock is micaceons, and on the west it is lime rock or marble, with an abrupt line of separation. Geologists are not agreed as to the reason of this phenome- non. On the western side of this mountain is a deep ravine, and in the rocks on the precipitous sides of this are many fissures, some of them of considerable extent, having almost the character of caverns. In one of these bears formerly hibernated in winter, and nursed their young in summer, hence the name, Bear Den. Near to this cave are many smaller fissures which are even now the retreat of wild cats.
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