USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Volume II pt 2 > Part 24
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From the top of this mountain, where there is a topographical sur vey station, the view is very extensive. Portions of Washington. Rich- mond, and Canaan, N. Y., are visible toward the north, and the southern view reaches into Salisbury and Canaan, Conn. Nearly all the noted sum- mits of mountains in Southern Berkshire are visible from this height, and the valley of the Housatonic. with its fertile fields, its pleasant farm houses, and its villages and hamlets, stretches away to the north and south.
Another mountain, in the southwest part of the town, is known as Alum Hill. On its summit is also a topical surveyor's station, and from that point the view in the southern part of the town and in the town of New Marlboro, as well as in that part of Connecticut that joins Berkshire county is unsurpassed. Sheffield. Ashley Falls, Canaan, Clayton, and New Marlborough Center dot the landscape to the west. south, and east, and the valley of Konkapot River may be traced for some distance. The panorama spread out before the beholder here is beautiful. The fertile farms in the valley, with their fields of waving grain, their orchards and meadows, and the green fields on the hillsides, with their grazing kine. and the neat farm buildings that appear here and there all form a picture that the beholder never wearies in gazing on.
There are six or seven principal roads that traverse the town from north to sonth.
The Pool road leads from Great Barrington southerly across the northeast part of the town. It was formerly much used as a highway to Westfield and Hartford.
The East road, so called because it lies along the east side of the Housatonie River, passes through the town in a southerly direction. It runs between Great Barrington and Clayton.
The old road between Canada and New Haven passes through the town along the western side of the Housatonic, which it crosses about a mile and a half north from the Connecticut line. This was once the prin- cipal thoroughfare through the county, and it was laid out by the orig-
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
inal proprietors eight rods in width. In many places encroachments have considerably reduced this width.
A road of some importance runs from Sheffield village to Salisbury, Conn., passing southwesterly from the former place.
What is known as the Under Mountain road passes in a nearly straight course from Egremont, along the base of the Taconic Moun- tains, through the town into the town of Salisbury, Conn.
The Egremont road leads northeasterly from the village of Sheffield, and passes through Egremont toward Hudson.
These principal highways are connected with each other by roads that pass irregularly eastward and westward in different parts of the town.
The roads in the Housatonic valley are very level, and such is the character of the soil that they are easily kept in repair, and the beauti- ful scenery east and west from the valley renders them very interesting drives.
The villages lie on the old road. Sheffield Plain, a mile north from Sheffield village, is a pleasant place of about twenty houses, mostly of farmers and retired people.
Sheffield, the largest village in the town, is on the same road, near the geographical center of the town. It has four churches, four gen- eral stores, a drug store, a fine hotel, fitted up for summer visitors, ser- eral summer boarding houses, a convenient town hall, and such mechan- ics' shops as are required to supply the wants of the surrounding region. The village extends about two miles along the old road, and through most of this distance there is a double row of elms on each side. making this one of the pleasantest streets in Western Massachusetts. So well has the attractiveness of this place come to be appreciated that it is the resort of many from cities during the heat of summer, and the number of such visitors is yearly increasing. They find in the pleasant drives through the valley, the beautiful mountain scenery on each side of it. and the bracing, healthy air of the region attractions greater than those of the crowded seaside resorts.
A large elm tree stands about one mile south from the center of the village. About thirty years since the Elm Tree Association was formed, to preserve this relic of the ancient forest, and for many years annual meetings were held under its wide spreading branches. These meetings were the occasions of speeches and songs and the planting of trees around the old elm and elsewhere in the village.
In 1884 an association was formed for the purpose of establishing a public park. The object was accomplished mainly through the liberality of Miss Mary E. Dewey, Miss Laura D. Russell. Mrs. General Barnard. Dr. J. L. Miller. Francis J. Owen, and his mother, Mrs. Owen, and Frank and Abijah Curtiss. Three acres of land. including the " Pine Knoll" and the old academy grounds, were purchased, fenced, and fitted up at an expense of $1,000, and placed in perpetual trust as a public resort.
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TOWN OF SHEFFIELD.
Ashley Falls, the original home of the Ashleys, with its water power. little used at present, was formerly the seat of its principal manufactures. The privilege just west of the village on the plain, now owned by Curtis Brothers, was early improved for a grist mill by Timothy Hubbard, a son of the first minister.
That part of Sheffield west of the Housatonic River was first granted by the governor of New York, March 6th, 1705, to certain people of that State on condition of their paying certain rents and making settlements and improvements within six years, which latter conditions appear never to have been complied with.
June 30th, 1722, on the petition of Joseph Parsons and 115 others. and of Thomas Nash and sixty others, inhabitants of Hampshire county. two tracts of land seven miles square were granted to be laid out on the Housatonic River, the first to adjoin southerly on the divisional line be- tween Massachusetts and Connecticut. This tract included the principal part of the present town of Sheffield.
In answer to this petition a committee of five was appointed to ad- . mit settlers, grant lots, etc., and to charge each grantee thirty shillings for each 100 acres. to be expended in paying the Indians, and other ex- penses.
The first meeting to initiate settlements was at the house of John Day, in Springfield, March 19th, 1723, at which meeting fifty-five persons signified their willingness to comply with the conditions of settlement. but no progress seems to have been made for the succeeding three years.
April 25th. 1724. Konkapot and twenty other Indians, in considera- tion of " Four Hundred and Sixty Pounds, Three Barrels of Sider. and thirty quarts of Rum," conveyed to Colonel John Stoddard, Captains John Ashley and Henry Dwight, and Luke Hitchcock-the committee- a traet including the present towns of Sheffield, Great Barrington, Mount Washington. Egremont, and parts of Alford, Stockbridge, West Stock bridge. and Lee, with the exception of a reservation in the northwest corner of Sheffield, bounded east by the Housatonic River. This reser- vation was purchased by the General Court in February, 1736, and the portion in Sheffield was granted to Isaac Fossberry (Vosburgh).
March 9th, 1726, at a meeting of the committee, it was determined that two of them at least should go to Housatonic to survey and lay out the lots, etc., and Captains Ashley and Pomeroy went in March, and re- ported their proceedings at a meeting held at Springfield April 8th fol- lowing.
At this meeting fifty nine proprietors drew lots for their lands, with the exception of the school and ministers' lots, and some few rights to actual settlers which were assigned by the committee. Among them was Matthew Noble, the first permanent white settler. He was from West- field. and came and spent the winter of 1725 here with no other human associates than the Indians. In the spring he went back to Westfield, and in June his daughter, afterward the wife of Deacon Daniel Kellogg,
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
returned with him, being the first white woman that came to town. She traveled from Westfield, when about sixteen years of age, on horseback. bringing a bed with her, and lodged one night in the wilderness, in what is now the east parr of Monterey.
During 1726 and the following spring many of the purchasers occu- pied their lands and made improvements. Soon after the commencement of settlements the settlers were subjected to much inconvenience and vexation by some of the Dutch inhabitants who contested their titles, claiming under the Westenhook patent of 1705 ; and by order of the gov- ernor of Massachusetts they were forbidden to make any further settle- ment, or commence any process against those who molested them. The settlement was consequently for a time much impeded. Eventually, however, these difficulties subsided, and the government not only anthor- ized but encouraged and aided the proprietors to proceed.
On the 22d of June, 1733, John Ashley and Ebenezer Pomeroy, Esqs., and Mr. Thomas Ingersoll were appointed a committee by the General Court to confirm and advance the settlement of the Lower Housatonic Township (Sheffield). This committee visited Sheffield in October, 1733, and again in 1734, and completed their work by making a full record of each proprietor's right, and confirming the settlers in the possession of their lands.
During the eight years which had elapsed from the commencement of settlements. in 1726, to the closing of the labors of this committee, in 1734, many of the proprietary rights had changed hands, by sale or otherwise, and several of the original proprietors had died ; amongst the latter were John Huggins. Joshua Root, Lawrence Suydam, Noah Phelps, Daniel Ashley, and David King.
Most of the following proprietors, whose titles were confirmed by the committee in 1733 and 1734, were then settled in the township.
In the First Division, adjoining Connecticut, John, Aaron, and Eze. kiel Ashley, Matthew Noble, Nathaniel Leonard, Joseph Taylor, John Pell, " Joseph Corbin, Jonathan Westover, Benjamin Sackett, and Chileal Smith.
Second Division : Joshua Boardman, Samuel Goodrich, John Hug. gins, deceased ; Lieutenant Thomas Ingersoll. Thomas Lee, James Smith. sen., James Smith, jr., John Smith, Joseph Seger, Zachariah Walker, and John Westover.
Third Division : Captain John Ashley, John Ashley, Anthony and Nathaniel Austin, Japhet Bush. Philip Callender, David Clark, John Day, Samuel Ferry, William Goodrich, Thomas Ingersoll. Daniel Kellogg. Matthew Noble, sen., and Obadiah and Solomon Noble, Noah Phelps, Jonathan Root, Eleazer Stockwell, Stephen Vanhall, John Huggins, de- ceased, and ministers' and school lots.
* John Pell was the surveyor, and his house, with the committee's records and papers, was burned in 1735.
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TOWN OF SHEFFIELD.
The proprietors held their first meeting May 12th, 1733, and chose Daniel Kellogg clerk.
The township was incorporated as a town, with the name of Sheffield, June 22d, 1733, and the first town meeting was held at the house of Oba- diah Noble, January 16th, 1733-4, following. At this meeting Matthew Noble was chosen moderator. Hezekiah Noble, town clerk, and John Smith, Philip Callender, and Daniel Kellogg. selectmen.
To this time no regular survey of the town had been made. A plan of the township, prepared by Captain William Chandler, presented to the General Court in 1737, was rejected. In 1739 the proprietors chose Nathaniel Austin to go to Boston to get a confirmation of Sheffield, with the overplus lands, etc., but the matter was delayed in the Legislature until 1741. when, on the 4th of August, the plan was accepted and re- ceived the approval of the governor.
Sheffield then had for its east and west boundaries the present east and west lines of the south part of Great Barrington extended to the Connecticut line and extended north to the Great Bridge (so called, across the Housatonic River, just above the Berkshire woolen mill, but it did not then include the tract along the Under Mountain road, which was laid out and sold by a special State committee to Israel Williams, Pa- tience Owen (where Rodney Sage, deceased. lived), Samuel Austin, Wil. liam Drake, and Joseph and John Owen, between 1740 and 1755, and sub- sequently was annexed to Sheffield.
Parts of the town at the northwest corner were annexed to Egremont. February 22d, 1790, and February 16th, 1824, and parts of the northeast corner to New Marlborough June 10th, 1796, and February 7th, 1798, and a considerable tract at the southeast part April 17th, 1871, which latter included Clayton and East Sheffield.
January 30th, 1733-4, money was raised to build the first meeting house, 35 by 45 feet, which was erected abont three quarters of a mile north of the present church and was occupied until 1760. It was evi- dently not erected until the following year, 1735, as the following votes passed May 22d, 1735, in regard to its location and raising indicate :
" Voted to Set the meeting House on a Certain Nole of Land Easterly of Mr. William Goodriches Dwelling House which is In the Street or Highway.
"Voted to allow three Barrels of Good Beare towards or for the Raising of the meeting house.
"Voted to allow twenty Gallons of Rhumb towards or for the Raising of the meeting house or for the towns use.
" Voted to allow twenty pounds of Sugar to go with the Rhumb and Obadiah Noble and Ensign Ashley were mide choice of to Dool out Drinks to Strangers or towns People and also to receive the money likewise Ensign Ashley to Serve as Pinman.
" Voted to allow no Drink to the Labourers after they are Dismist from Labour &c."
June 7th. 1734, they gave a call to Mr. Ebene Devotion, who preached
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
for them during some portion of that year, and was probably the first man to preach the Gospel in what is now Berkshire county. Mr. Benja. min Pomeroy followed Mr. Devotion in the fall, but both declined a call to settle.
June 26th. 1735, they extended a call to Mr. Jonathan Hubbard, who accepted and was settled and the church organized October 22d. 1735. Mr. Hubbard was a native of Sunderland and a graduate of Yale in 1724. He died July 6th. 1765, in the twenty-ninth year of his pastorate. At his installation Rev. Samuel Hopkins, uncle of the first minister of Great Barrington of the same name, and Jonathan Edwards were present as delegates, which was doubtless their first visit to Berkshire county.
January 13th. 1742, the inhabitants of the south part of Great Bar- rington, then a part of Sheffield, being at a considerable distance from church privileges, and numbering some thirty families, were formed into the North Parish of Sheffield. The dividing line between the two parishes was the same as the present line between the towns of Sheffield and Great Barrington, the latter of which was incorporated as a separate town June 20th, 1761.
In 1760, during Mr. Hubbard's ministry, a new church, 40 by 60 feet. was erected in the middle of the street, in front of where that now in use stands. This was moved back in 1820 and forms a part of the present edifice, which was then lengthened, the steeple and bell added, and which was otherwise improved. and was again improved and repaired in 1856.
After an interval of seven years Mr. Hubbard was succeeded, June 10th, 1772, by Rev. John Keep, of Longmeadow, who died while in office. September 3d, 1785. He was a graduate of Yale in 1769. was eminent as a divine, a preacher. a friend, and a Christian. Dr. West, of Stockbridge. declared him to be the best pulpit speaker he had ever heard.
After his death the pulpit was supplied constantly with some candi date, but it was not until May, 1786, that his successor. Rev. Ephraim Judson, of Woodbury, Conn., a graduate of Yale in 1763, was installed. He was mild, courteous, and hospitable. By his numerous friends he was deemed a wise counsellor, an active peace maker, and a sincere Christian. The house he erected and resided in still stands on the east side of the road. nearly opposite the training ground, on which formerly stood the first meeting house. He died in office February 23d, 1813, and was succeeded on the 13th of October following by Rev. James Bradford, a native of Rowley, and a graduate of Dartmouth in 1811. Mr. Bradford remained pastor of the church until May, 1852. While pastor he built and occupied the house recently owned and occupied by his son, Judge Bradford. Many to-day will recollect the commanding form of Mr. Brad- ford, whose flock comprised all the inhabitants-one of the last of that remarkable race of New England divines who were so influential in mould. ing and maintaining our peculiar New England institutions. All but four of these pastors elosed their life libors in this town -- in 117 years.
Until 1825 the town and the Congregational society were one and the
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TOWN OF SHEFFIELD.
same in action, but in that year the society became a separate organiza . tion.
January 26th, 1821, a Baptist society was incorporated and a church formed in the southwest part of the town, but it does not now exist.
In 1842 a second church and society was formed at the center, now the Methodist Episcopal, and recently a second Metho list society at Ash- ley Falls.
February 22d, 1814, Samuel Adams and others were incorporated as the Episcopal society, but it appears never to have been organized.
In 1866 the Rev. Mr. Eccleston, then rector of St. James' Church. Great Barrington, organized a mission chapel to that church in Sheffield. In this he received aid and encouragement from the late Mr. A. C. Rus- sell, of Great Barrington, to whom is due the credit of being the founder of the present Episcopal church.
There are several cemeteries in Sheffield, only a few of which are in- corporated. They are generally well cared for, though they are not laid ont and ornamented in the style of modern rural or metropolitan ceme- teries. Monuments and tablets are generally erected to the memory of the dead : indeed the large number of these is a noticeable feature in the burial places of the town.
There are also private or family cemeteries in various parts of the town, and in these as well as in the others, the care which has been ex- ercised in erecting memorials over the remains of the departed is remark- able.
Considerable attention was early given by the inhabitants to educa- tion. In 1750 a grammar school was commenced. and continued for a number of years. In 1827 there were thirteen school districts, instruct- ing 769 children and youth. The sum annually appropriated and raised by taxation was 8750, and in 1837 the same sum was raised by taxation and $1,275 in addition, by private subscription, at which time there were two academies or private schools, to which $300 in addition were paid for tuition. In 1839 a select school was commenced by Mr. Stone, of Litch- field, Conn .. and incorporated as the Sheffield Academy, with a capital of $10,000, March 12th, 1840, with Edward F. Ensign, Moses Forbes, and Joseph Willcox as corporators. A building was erected in the center of the square on the plain, but the school was given up some thirty years since.
During eighteen years after the close of this no high school was taught in Sheffield. In 1870, by a vote of the town, a high school was established. with Miss Ann Fitch (now Mrs. Dresser) as principal. The first term was kept at Ashley Falls, but it was then removed to Sheffield. where it has continued to the present time. The school has been pros- perous and well sustained. By a bequest of George B. Cook, in 1873. the town received a fund, the income of which is applied to the support of this school. The present principal is William W. Abbott.
Sheffield Friendly Union. - In the autumn of 1821, mainly through
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
the efforts of Dr. Orvill Dewey and his daughter. Miss Mary E. Dewey, a library and social organization under the above name was established. Its object, as set forth in its constitution, is " to increase kindly feeling and promote intelligence and cheerfulness." To accomplish this object the Union established a library and reading room, which serves as a place of meeting for social intercourse or for literary exercises, lectures, etc. Many distinguished men from abroad have from time to time lectured before the Union, and many lectures have been given by residents of the town. Such men as Dr. Bellows, of New York ; Professor Chadbourne, of Williams College; Rev. Dr. Bush, the Siamese missionary ; and Rev. Mr. Halleck, missionary to the Sandwich Islands, have lectured before the Union. Various other literary exercises are engaged in, and the so- cial entertainments and amusements are of a high order.
The Union has from its organization been highly prosperous. It has now a library of about 800 volumes. Its rooms have hitherto been rented. but the erection by the Union of a hall in memory of Dr. Dewey is con- templated.
This town was one of the earliest in its denunciation of negro slavery. and in its declaration in favor of independence.
On February 25th, 1774, a " warrant" calling the annual town meet- ing was issued, containing the following item : "10ly, to take into con- sideration the present inhuman practice of enslaving our fellow creatures, the natives of Africa." At the meeting, held March 14th. 1774, it was voted to defer action. the subject " being under the consideration of the General Court."
January 12th, 1773, more than two years before the famous " Meck- lenburg" (N. C.) declaration of independence, a committee to take into "Consideration the Grievances which the Americans in general and the Inhabitants of this province in particular labor under." was " Schozen. viz .: Theodore Sedgwick, Dr. Silas Kellogg, Colonel Ashley. Dr. Lem'l Barnard, Mr. Aaron Root, Major John Fellows. Mr. Philip Callender. Captain William Day, Deacon Ebene Smith, Captain Nath'l Austin, and Captain Stephen Dewey." This committee reported as follows :
" The Committee of this town, Appointed to take into consideration the Greviances which Americans in general and the Inhabitants of this Province in par- ticular labor under, and to make a Draught of such proceedings as they think are necessary for this Town in these critical circumstances to enter into, Report as follows, viz., that,
" This Town taking into their serious consideration and deeply lamenting the unhappy situation to which Americans in general and his Majesty's most faithful sub- jects, the Inhabitants of this Province, in particular are reduced, owing to the jealous Eye with which America has been view by several british Administrations, since the Accession of his present most Greacious Magesty to the throne and viewing with the deepest Sorrow the Design of Great Britain (which is but two apparent to every Virtuous Lover of his Country) gradually to deprive us of invaluable Rights and priviliges, which were transmitted to us by our worthy and independent Ancestors
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TOWN OF SHEFFIELD.
at the most laborious and dangerous Expence Should esteem ourselves greatly want- ing in the Duty we owe ourselves our Country and posterity, Called upon as we are by our Bretheren, the respectable Town of Boston, should we neglect with the utmost Firmness and freedom to express the Sence we have of our present Danger- ous Situation, always professing, as with Truth we do, the most emicalable Regard and Attachment to our most gracious Soverign and protestant Succession as by Law established, we have with that Deferance and Respect due to the Country on which we are and always hope to be dependent, entered into the following Resolves, viz .:
" Resolved that Mankind in a State of Nature are equal, free and independent of each other, and have a right to the undisturbed Enjoyment of their lives, their Liberty and Property.
" Resolved that the great end of political Society is to secure in a more effectual manner those rights and priviledges wherewith God and Nature have made us free.
" Resolved that it hath a tendency to subvert the good end for which Society was instituted, to have in any part of the legislative body an Interest separate from and independent of the Interest of the people in general.
" Resolved that affixing a stipend to the Office of the Governor of the province to be paid by money taken from the people without there concent creates in him an intrest Seperate from and independent of the people in general.
" Resolved that the peaceful Enjoyment of any preveliges to the people of this provence in a great measure (under God) depends upon the uprightness of and in- dependency of the Executive Officers in general, and of the Judges of the Superior Court in perticular.
" Resolved that if Salleries are affixed to the office of the Judges of the Superior Court rendering them independent of the people and dependent on the Crown for their support (which we have too much Reson to think is the Case) it is a precedent that may hereafter, conceding the Depravety of human Nature, be improved to pur- poses big with the most Obvious and fatal consequences to the people of this province.
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