USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Volume II pt 2 > Part 25
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" Resolved that Americans in general (and his Magestes Subjects the Inhabitants of this Provence in Perticuler, by there Charter) are intitled to all the Liberties, Priviledges and Immunities of Natural born british Subjects.
" Resolved that it is a well known and undoubted priviledge of the british Consti- tution that every Subject hath not only a Right to the free and uncontrolled injoy- ment use and Improvement of his estate or property so long as he shall continue in the possession of it, but that he shall not in any manner be deprived thereof in the whool or in part untill his conscent geven by himself or his Representative hath been previously for that purpous expressly obtained.
" Resolved that the late acts of the parlement of Great Breton expres porpos of Rating and regulating the colecting a Revenew in the Colonies; are unconstitu. tional as thereby the Just earning of our labours and Industry without Any Regard to our own consent are by mere power ravished from us and unlimited power by said acts and commissions put into the hands of Ministeral hirelings are the Deprivation of our inestimable and constitutional priviledge, a trial by Jury, the determination of our property by a single Judge paid by one party by Money illegally taken from the other for that purpos, and the insulting Diference made between british and Ameri- can Subjects are matters truly greavious and clearly evince a Disposition to Rule with the Iron Rod of Power.
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
" Resolved that the interduction of civil Officers unknown in the Charter of this Province with powers which Render Property, Domestic Security and Enjoyment of the Inhabitance altogether Insecure are a very great greavence.
"Resolved-that it is the Right of every subject of Great Breton to be tried by his peers of the vicinity, when charged with any crime, that any act of the parliment of Great Breton for Destroying the priviledge and tearing away Subjects from there Connections, Friends, Buisness and the possibility of evincing there Innocence, and carring them on bare suspicion to the Distance of Thousands of Miles for a trial is an troble Grevance.
" Resolved-that the Great and General Court of this Province have it in their power in consequence of Instructions from the Ministry only, too exempt any Man or Body of Men residing within and Receiving Protection from the Laws of this Pro- vince from contrebuting there equal Proportion towards the Support of Government within the same nor can any such instructions or orders from the Ministry of Great Breton Justify Such Proceedings (for) should this be the Case it will follow of con- sequence that the whole Province Tax may be laid on one or more persons as shall "Best suit with the Caprice of the Ministry.
" Resolved-that any Determination or adjudication of the King in Counsel with Regard to the Limits of Provinces in America, where by Privite Property is or may (be) affected, is a great Grevence already very severely felt by Great Numbers, who after purchasing Lands of the Only Persons whome they would sopose had any Right to Convey have on a sudding, by such. an adjudication been deprived of there whole Property and from a state of affluance reduced to a state of Beggary.
" Resolved-That the great and general Court of this Province can constitution- aly make any Laws or Regulations, Obligatory upon the inhabbitance there of residing with in the Same.
" Voted-That the Town Clark duly Record the Prosedings of This Meeting and Make a true and attested Copy There of as soon as may be and forward the same to David Ingersole Junr Esq, The Representative of This Town, at the great and general Court at Boston who is hereby Requested to consider the above Resolves as the Sence of his Constitu acts (sic) the Town of Sheffield and to the-centituonal Menes (sic) in his Power that the Greaviances complained of may be redressed, and where as the Province of New York, by the most unjustifiable Prosedings have by a late act of there general Assembly extended the Limits of the County of Albany East as far as Connecticut River and under pertence of having by that act the legual Jurisdiction within that part of this province, by Said Act included within The County of Albany have exercised Actual jurisdiction and the officers of the County of Albany without the least pretence of any Presept from the Orthority On this side the Line, by Color of a warrant, executed in that County upon suspison that a man had been guilty of a crime in this County, taken him and carried him to Albany for examination in In- ditement crimes have been tryed, to have been cometted at Sheffield in the County of Albany, Mr. Engersell is here by requested to use his Utmost Influance that the Alarming consequences from such proceedings dreaded, may be prevented & That the Fears of the people may be quieted by a speedy Determanation of that unhappy controversy And where as it hath been reported that the support given by the great and general Court to the Judges of the Superior Court hath been in addaquate to the service performed, Mr. Engersoll is here by requested that if this Report shall appear to be founded in truth ? he use his influence Saleries may be augmented, to such a sum as shall be sufficient to support the Dignity of the office."
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TOWN OF SHEFFIELD.
These remarkable resolutions, after being read twice in town meeting. were unanimously passed. The list of the names of the committee-men who drafted the preamble and resolutions, will furnish a clue, perhaps. to their remarkable character.
Theodore Sedgwick, a native of Cornwall. Conn .. then a lawyer in Sheffield. represented the town several years in the Massachusetts Legis- lature : was a member of the Continental Congress, 1785-6: member of the State Convention for ratification of the Federal Constitution. 1785 : member of Congress tat one time speaker, and a senator under that Con- stitution ; subsequently judge of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts till his death, in 1813. It was he who first as a lawyer. then as a judge. set- tled forever the question of slavery in Massachusetts.
June 18th, 1776, the citizens of the town. in town meeting, pledged their lives and fortunes to secure their independence, and on or about July 4th, 1276, erected a liberty tree, which was ent down the following night. The man who prompted the act was discovered to be the village merchant. Dan Raymond. He was made to pass between two files of all the men and boys of the town. and humbly ask the pardon of every one. The man employed to ent it down was tarred and feathered, and. mounted on a raw boned horse, was made to visit every house and ask the pardon of the occupants. Dan Raymond was for many years a man of note and high standing in the town, and from the record one is compelled to con- clude that the " Sheffield Tory " met with a change of heart. for. in 1780. he was chosen assessor, a member of the committee to "adjust town debts," and chairman of a committee to engage recruits for the Conti- mental army ; and his third son, born November Ist. 1783. was named George Washington Raymond. He built and lived in the brick house at the corner of Cook and Main streets.
News arrived of the battle of Lexington on the 20th, and in two hours twenty men collected, ready to march to Boston, and at sunrise the next morning the regiment of Southern Berkshire, commanded by Colonel. afterward General, John Fellows, was on its way to the scene of action.
General Fellows was born at Pomfret, Conn. He served the town usefully in various capacities : was a member of the Provincial Congress. which sat at Cambridge in February, 1775, a distinguished officer in the Revolutionary war. and for several years high sheriff of the county. He lived in the southwest part of the town, was an extensive land owner, and died August 1st, 1808, in his seventy-fourth year.
June 30th, 1777, the first town meeting was called in the name of the government and people of Massachusetts Bay. Dr. Lemuel Barnard was chosen moderator ; Theodore Sedgwick, Richard Jacobs, and Col. Aaron Root were chosen a committee in relation to recruits or drafted men, and additional compensation was voted to that paid by the Continental gov- ernment for a certain time.
"Jan. 9th. 1778, Theodore Sedgwick, moderator. William Bacon, Esq., one of the representatives, was instincted to use his influence in
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
ratifying the articles of Confederation and perpetual union published by order of the Hon. Congress."
March 17th, 1778, " voted to raise $500 to get a stock of powder, lead, and flints, and to supply their soldiers in the Continental service during the present year and that the committee chosen to provide for the families of these soldiers in the Continental service make such provision for their cattle as they think necessary."
May 16th, 1778, "Voted £30 to each Continental soldier raised in town, and December 3d, $500 for their families." January 16th, 1780, it was " voted to choose a committee to hire the quota of men required by the General Court and to give those who go into the Continental service for six months (in addition to the State's pay) forty shillings per month, in silver, or Continental money equivalent."
October 13th, 1780, it was " voted to raise the sum of three hundred and fifty pounds, new emission. to purchase beef for the army," &e., and to raise the sum of one hundred and forty pounds to procure clothing for the soldiers in the Continental army.
The records all through the war are filled with such votes.
In 1780 the first town meeting was called "in the name of the people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Bay." In the succeeding year, and subsequently, the time honored word " Bay " disappeared, and the style became " Commonwealth of Massachusetts."
Passing along these records we find minutes of quite another charac ter, graveand ominous.
April 1st, 1782, it was " Resolved, that in a Commonwealth to sus- pend the laws, and to stop the courts of justice, is of most fatal tendency to that County and ought by all means to be discountenanced by every one who wishes to support the liberties and happiness of the people." that the governor's salary, court charges, etc., were excessive and a peti- tion was presented to the General Court. Berkshire being the most recently settled county of Massachusetts. the evils thus depicted bore heavily upon her, which finally resulted in the Shays rebellion, the only actual fight of which, in Berkshire county, took place in the northwest corner of Sheffield. General John Ashley, who commanded the State forces at this fight, was of the third generation of that name in Sheffield. He was appointed major-general of the Massachusetts militia by Gover- nor Hancock, in 1780, and was one of the largest landholders in town. He died in 1799, aged sixty four years. Just before the the close of the rebellion the period of enlistment of his troops expired, and they were preparing to leave the army and to return to their homes. The general (for he had no means at his command for retaining them) determined to try the effect of his eloquence. Accordingly, he ordered them to parade, and then advanced to address them. He reminded them of the situation of the country, a portion of the inhabitants in arms against the paternal government ; a force of patriotic citizens with arms in their hands, pre- pared to crush them and sustain the government; the expiration of their en-
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TOWN OF SHEFFIELD. 551
listment; the rumor that a portion of them were preparing to disband and return to their homes just at the very time when success was within their grasp. But, he continued, if there were any cowards in his command, any weak and timorons men who did not dare to stay and face the enemy, they were at liberty to retire; he did not want any cowards to stay with the brave men who were to stay with him and win the gratitude of the country. " Accordingly," he said, "I am going to see who are the brave men, and who are the cowards among you. I wish you to give me your attention. When I give the word. . Shoulder arms,' let every brave man bring his musket promptly to his shoulder, and let every coward slink back out of the ranks." He stopped a moment to discover the effect of his elo- quence, then drew his sword, and added, with a strong oath, " But, 1P- member, that I'll run the first man through the body that leaves the ranks : Attention. fellow soldiers : Shoulder arms !" Every man's mus- ket sprung to the shoulder, and not a soldier broke ranks. Whether the result was owing to the eloquence of the general or to his significant ac- tion at its conclusion, did not appear; but the soldiers remained with him to crush the rebellion in the county of Berkshire.
When General Ashley became assured of the patriotic determination of his troops he proceeded firmly and vigorously to enforce the power of the government. Pursuing the policy that was enjoined upon him he re- sorted to parley, and ahnost to entreaty, in order to induce his misguided countrymen to return to their allegiance. At last, however, his efforts became unavailing. The reluctance which had restrained him from using his power upon them was attributed to a fear of the consequences and an attack was made upon his force. He then saw that the time for energetic action had come, and at last he issned that famous order which has made his name famous : "Pour in your fire, my boys, and may God have mercy on their souls !"'
General Ashley's grandfather, Captain John Ashley, was one of the original grantees and settlers.
His father, Hon. John Ashley, Esq., a graduate of Yale in 1730, set- tled on his father's estate about 1732, and often represented the town in the Legislature. Before the county was formed he was a judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the county of Hampshire. At the formation of the county he was appointed special justice in Berkshire, and in 1765 a judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Berkshire, in which office he remained until 1781. and was also colonel of the State militia. He was one of the seventeen who voted to rescind certain resolutions passed by the House of Representatives in February, 1768, which the British min- istry regarded as treasonable and rebellious, and which the Governor re- qnested should be reseinded in June following. For this vote he was severely censmed by Great Barrington, one of the towns which he repre- sented ; but before the breaking out of the war we find him an ardent and active patriot. free from any taint of toryism. He died in Sheffield in 1802, aged ninety-three years.
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
Colonel William Ashley succeeded to the paternal estate of his father, General Ashley, and sustained the honored name which is now forever perpetuated in the cognomen " Ashley Falls," by which the region where the family resided is known. Last in the male line, he died in Sheffield. 1849, aged seventy-six years. Now after an interval of over 150 years the title to the Ashley estate in Sheffield is held by a daughter tof Colonel William Ashley) residing in the town of Westfield, from which Captain John Ashley emigrated over a century and a half ago to assist in the establishment of this then new settlement in the Housatonic valley.
The war of IS12 found little favor in New England, and this town took no further part than to send its quota to Boston in 1814.
The first post office in Sheffield was established in 1794. and was kept by Elisha Lee, Esq. in his office, which stood where Dr. Beck's house now stands. He was succeeded by Drs. William Buell and Nathaniel Prester. Edward F. and Richard Ensign.
Previous to the opening of the Berkshire Railroad, in 1841, a mail stage passed back and forth through the town from Hartford to Albany every day ( Sundays excepted) half the year, and during the other half. every other day, and much of the travel from Vermont and the upper part of the county to Hartford. New Haven, and New York passed through Shefield. Among the early stage proprietors was Muss Forbes. of Sheffield, familiarly known as " the Deacon," and his brother Calein. of West Stockbridge, and Richard Coles, of New Hartford, Conn. The deacon's three sons were drivers. During this ownership a rival line was run between Hartford and Albany, passing through Sheffield every other day. This line carried the mail. Among the owners was Mr. Harvey Holmes, now of Great Barrington, a native of Sheffield.
William Fellows kept the Miller House, now much improved, asearly as 1800 : Obed Bush, the old Callender Hotel sixty of seventy years ago ; William Trowbridge. succeeded by Roswell Curtis, one at the Dacon Hoardly place, and one fourth of a mile south of this was one kept by Elisha Coles, now owned by George Blodget. James Curtis kept one near East Sheffield, and Giles Andrews is said to have kept one in the westerly part of the town. The first house south of the stores was formerly kep; as a hotel by Major Eli Ensign. Josiah Kellogg, succeeded by his wife, Silas Collar, and Sylvester Kellogg, successively, kept one at the house on the Plain now owned by Mrs. Smith.
Never a manufacturing place in the modern sense, there was a time when Sheffield made its own clothes, carriages, silver ware, etc. Grist and saw mills were early erected, and fifty years ago there were two card ing machines, two clothiers' works, and three large tanneries, one hat fac- tory, two cabinet makers' shops, all abandoned now. Nearly if not quite a century ago there were two or more forges for the making of iron. one near Ashley's Mills, another on a small stream on the east side of the Housatonic River; but they were discontinued about eighty years ago.
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TOWN OF SHEFFIELD.
Marble of an excellent quality is abundant in Sheffield. Quarries were opened at an early day, and many have, at different times, been worked in the town. Much of the marble for Girard College. Philadel- phia, for the interior finish of the Boston Custom House, and for the City Hall and Court House in New York was obtained here. None of the quarries in the town are now worked. Since the great fires in Boston and Chicago the use of marble as a building material is less common than before, for it was found to be less capable than some other building ma- terials of withstanding the effect of heat.
Lime has been manufactured from the marble here from the time of the first settlement.
Distilleries were established early, and spirits were, during many years, manufactured from grain and from cider, for use elsewhere.
The Sheffield Creamery. a mile east from Sheffield village, was first established by an association of farmers, and was conducted by this asso ciation for some years. In 1877 it came into the possession of David S. Draper, by whom it was conducted till death in 1985.
It is a depot for the collection of milk for shipment to New York, and the surplus milk is here used in the manufacture of butter and cheese. The establishment thus disposes of the milk from about 450 cows. The superintendent of the creamery is H. D. White.
At a town meeting. May 4th. 1861. Dr. Oliver Peck. moderator. W. B. Saxton, town clerk . E. E. Callender. Abner Roys, and Henry Burtch were selectmen throughout the war, it was votel that the moderator and town clerk petition the governor. in behalf of the town, to immediately assemble the Legislature.
Graham A. Root. E. F. Ensign. Zacchens Candee. Archibald Taft. and Leonard Tuttle were chosen a committee to report a series of reso- lutions.
They reported, Ist. 82,000 to be raised to equip volunteers from this town ; 2d, each volunteer to be paid $0 per month by the town : 31. fan- ilies of soldiers to receive " Comfortable assistance ;" 4th. G. A. Root. S. H. Bushnell. L. Tuttle. T. B. Strong, and H. D. Train, to be a com- mittee, with full powers to expend the money : 5th, said committee may borrow not exceeding $4,000 on the credit of the town : 6th. the commit- tee to serve without pay ; 7th, the town treasurer shall pay all orders of said committee ; Sth, the committee were " to proceed immediately to form a military company." The resolutions were adopted with but one dissenting vote.
July 22d. 1862, a bounty of $125 to each volunteer was voted, and a committee of 14 was chosen to solicit enlistments and subscriptions of money to be given to the volunteers.
August 23d, voted a bounty of $109 to each nine months' volunteer. November 4th. $2,000 for aid to soldiers families. April 4th, 1864, voted a bounty of $150 and to raise $3,000 for this purpose. December 13de. raised $4,000.
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
The town was active and patriotic throughont the war, and furnished 260 men for the military service, a surplus of eight over all demands. Four were commissioned officers.
In the production of men distinguished for literary and scientific attainments, Sheffield, in proportion to its population and educational ad- vantages, ranks high ; among some of the best known are the following :
Hon. Daniel Dewey was born January 29th, 1766, and settled in Wil- Jiamstown in the practice of law in 1787. He was connected with Williams College from its earliest days, being first secretary, and then treasurer and professor of law from 1798 to 1814. He was an active agent in procuring the earlier grants from the State, and much resorted to by President Fitch for counsel and advice. He was a member of the governor's coun- cil in 1809 and 1812. of Congress in 1813, and judge of the Supreme Court from 1814 until his decease, May 26th, 1815.
Chester Dewey, D. D., LL. D., born October 25th, 1781, was a botan- ist and teacher, professor of natural philosophy at Williams College many years, principal of the Collegiate Institute at Rochester, N. Y., from 1836 to 1850, and professor of chemistry in the University of Roch- ester from 1850 until his death in 1867.
Orvill Dewey, D. D., the distinguished Unitarian clergyman, was born in Sheffield, March 28th, 1794. He was a son of Silas, and grandson of Stephen Dewey, one of two brothers, Stephen and Daniel, the first set- tlers of the Dewey name in what is at present Sheffield. His boyhood was passed on his father's farm. By the great efforts and self sacrifice of his parents he was enabled to enter Williams College, from which he graduated in 1814. After teaching and engaging in business for two years he entered Andover Theological Seminary. Before he left the semin try his belief in the prevalent theology was shaken, ant when he had preached a year he declared himself a Unitarian. He was then employed as an assistant to Dr. Channing, of Boston, for two years. From 1823 to 1833 he preached in New Bedford. when, his health being broken by his labors, he resigned and went to Europe. In a short time after his return he was installed as pastor of the Second Unitarian Church in New York, November 3d, 1835. Here he remained for six years, when, his health again giving way, he again visited Europe with his family. AAfter an ab- sence of two years he resumed his ministerial work, but finding his strength unequal to his labors he resigned in 184Sand retired to Sheffield. In his retirement he prepared and delivered a course of lectures before the Lowell Institute, which appear in his published writings under the title. " The Problem of Human Destiny." In 1858 he took charge of a society in Boston. In 1862 he ceased to labor as a clergyman, and estab. lished his permanent home in Sheffield until his death, March 21st, 1882. He was a scholar, writer, and preacher of the first rank, an original. patient, and comprehensive thinker, and of a sincere, unselfish, and de- vout spirit. His love for his native place, and his interest in whatever tended to the improvement of the village, or of the moral and intellectual
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advancement of its inhabitants, was unfailing. For the last ten years of his life he took great pleasure in the Sheffield Friendly Union, and as long as his health permitted lectured or read several times during every winter at its meetings.
Daniel Dewey Barnard. born in 1797, graduated at Williams College in 1818 ; was a member of Congress in 1828-30, 1839, 1845, and United States minister to Prussia from 1849 to 1853. He died in 1861.
FREDERICK A. P. BARNARD, S.T.D., LL. D., L. H. D.
Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard was born in Sheffield, Mass .. May 5th, 1809 ; graduated at Yale College in 1828; tutor in Yale Col- lege in 1830; professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in the University of Alabama, 1837-48 ; professor of chemistry and natural history in the University of Mississippi, 1854-61 ; president of the Uni- versity of Mississippi. 1856-58, and chancellor of the same, 1858-61. In 1854 he took orders in the Protestant Episcopal Church, resigned his chancellorship and his chair in the University in 1861, and in 1863-4 was connected with the United States coast survey, in charge of chart print- ing and lithography. In May, 1864, he was elected president of Colum- bia College, New York, which post he still holds. He received the hon- orary degree of Doctor of Laws from Jefferson College, Mississippi. in 1855, and from Yale College in 1859 ; also the degree of Doctor of Divin- ity from the University of Mississippi in ISGL, and that of Doctor of Literature from the Regents of the University of New York in 1872. In 1860 he was a member of the eclipse expedition sent to Labrador by the United States coast survey, and during this absence was elected presi- dent of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1867 he was one of the United States commissioners to the Paris Exposi- tion, and in 1878 was assistant commissioner general from the United States. In the act of Congress establishing the National Academy of Sciences he was named as one of the original corporators, and from 1875 to 1881 was foreign secretary.
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