USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Volume II pt 2 > Part 28
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TOWN OF STOCKBRIDGE.
Sergeant's agency. went the famous Indian apostle David Brainard, who had caught inspiration by personal visits to Stockbridge and practice with the Indians at Kannaumeek or Lebanon.
The success of Sergeant's enterprise greatly interested divers good men in England, and Rev. Isaac Hollis, of London, engaged to pay $25 per annum each. for the instruction of twelve Indian youths. This prompted Sergeant, in 1735, to organize a special school at Stockbridge; but the consummation was deferred until he had built his own capacious house in 1737. which is still standing, and now known as "Edwards Hall." The twelve boys came in January following, and Sergeant taught them personally for a year. But this addition to his other labors proving too great a strain upon him, several of the pupils were placed in families else- where for education and acquiring the arts of self-support, as General Armstrong in our time, with the same intent, locates the Indian pupils of the Hampton school among the farmers of Berkshire. The remainder became members of Mr. Woodbridge's school, the clothing of all being supplied by the Hollis fund. One of them became Brainard's interpreter in his labors on the Susquehanna.
Mr. Sergeant's next project was a regular boarding school-for boys first, and, when well established, for girls also, and connected with a farm of 200 acres, given by the Indians from their unappropriated lands. The proposition found favor abroad, Mr. Hollis turning his donations in snp- port, and another coadjutor-Samuel Holden, Esq., of London -- adding £100. To it. also, the Prince of Wales and his brother, the Duke of Cum- berland, subscribed twenty guineas each, and other noblemen smaller sums. The English residents in Stockbridge gave $115. 10s .. and the fund was still increased by contributions from New York and Connecticut. Trustees of this money were appointed and a school house 36 by 38 feet was erected a little south of the present residence of L. Tuckerman, Esq. To it, in March, 1738, were removed twelve boys, already selected and awaiting the completion of the building. Captain Martin Kellogg, who had been instructing them at Newington, Conn., accompanied them hither, and remained until superseded by Mr. Gideon Hawley in 1751. Proposals were made to the Six Nations in Central New York to send their sons, and to the Mohawks and Oneidas to remove to Stockbridge. They did not comply as communities ; but individuals came. the number of Mohawks at one time resident here reaching ninety. Among them was Hendrick, the famous chief, who was killed at Lake George in 1755. in the same battle with the French under Connt Dieskau, in which Colo- nel Williams, the founder of Williams College, fell. Various causes, however, chiefly Mr. Sergeant's death in 1749, and the outbreak of the French war, contributed to interrupt the scheme, and it failed before the establishment of the girls' department had been effected. Several of the pupils are enrolled among the alumni of Harvard and Dartmouth : among them John Konkapot, son of the old sachem. and Peter Pohqnonnopeet.
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
subsequently a prominent man in town affairs and a deacon in the mis- sion church.
The mission received a terrible blow in the death of Sergeant. His superabundant labors of fifteen years continuance at length induced a nervous fever lasting twenty days and closing his life, July 27th. 1749, in the fortieth year of his age. The universal anxiety and affection of his flock found expression in their daily gathering during his sickness, for prayer in his behalf, their lamentation at his burial. and their subse- quent desire to be laid as near his sacred dust as possible, so as to appear in his immediate company at the final resurrection. His quaint epitaph in eight Alexandrine lines is said to have been written by one of the chil- dren of the forest, whose darkened soul he had led to the morning.
The leader had fallen, but his work went on. Jonathan Edwards, his successor (1751-8), assumed and conducted it on substantially the same methods, and following him Rev. Stephen West, pastor from 1759 to 1818, was the spiritual overseer till 1775. A school was continued under several instructors, among them Mr. John Kirkland, father of Pres- ident Kirkland of Harvard University, and lastly, Mr. John Sergeant, son of the missionary, who removed with the tribe to the Oneida country in 1786. became their pastor in 1788, and died there in 1824.
It seems inevitable that when civilized and savage communities are brought into contiguity, the latter must yield and disappear. The whites and Indians have never flourished together. The English population of Stockbridge. constantly enlarged by births and immigration and territori- ally by the continual purchase by them of Indian lands, acquired in the course of years a preponderance both in numbers and in property. These, with other considerations hereafter mentioned, indneed the native proprietors, in 1785, to accept the offer of their friends, the Oneidas, of a township on the latter's reservation in Central New York. In conse- quence, during the years 1786-8. a general emigration thither took place: a few stragglers only remaining. in whom the love of their old homes and the burial places of their fathers overrode all other considerations.
And here closes their connection with the Stockbridge history and mission ; but it is not impertinent to say, in turning the page that records their remarkable story that repeated removals carried them to the banks of the White River, in Ohio ; to Green Bay. Mich .: to Lake Winnebago; and lastly to Shawnee county, Wisconsin, where some 250 of them now compose a little Christian community, living a gradually fading existence. rich only in the sunlit memories of the past.
It is difficult to give exact statistics of the results of the Indian missions in our valley. We know, however, that during Sergeant's time the number of native families had increased to more than fifty: that they had assumed a stable character as a society ; had twenty framed houses, and that many had made noticeable progress in agriculture. Fifty or sixty converts had nnited with the church. and 182, old and young. had been baptized. The church records of several years of his two immedi-
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ate successors are lost, so that the subsequent increase is not now known. Those still preserved bear the name of fifty or more, some of whom were among the magnates of the tribe. But the value of this civilized native community upon our colonial border is better known and appreciated. Their friendly posture toward the whites antedated the establishment of the mission and continued withont interruption till their removal from the valley. They were of more service than a line of forts in forefonding the incursions of the French and their savage allies from the northward. In 1755, Governor Shirley had nearly every warrior among them in his expedition against Niagara. They were invaluable as scouts and rangers to the regular troops. At the outbreak of the Revolution they espoused the side of the colonies. sent a delegation of their number to the Provin- cial Congress, and tendered the services of the tribe in a speech of shrewd eloquence which was recorded as a lesson for declamation in the school books of sixty years ago. A company of them fought through all the war, threaded the wilderness with Arnold to Canada, aided in compelling the surrender of Burgoyne, and made the Jersey campaigns with Wash- ington. Four of them were killed at White Plains, and others died in hospitals. In testimony of their devotion, Washington, on the declara- tion of peace. ordered the gratuity of an ox for a barbecue with whiskey rations, that they might celebrate the event after their own customs. The ceremonies were performed on their council ground at the slope of Lanrel Hill, when, after abundance of good cheer, they shot, scalpel. and burned an effigy of Arnold. and consigned the war hatchet to a burial that has never since known a resurrection.
Enjoying, as they did, citizenship coequal with their white brethren, we find their quaint, longisyllabic names among the officials of the church, and the selectmen, assessors, constables, and minor officers of the town. For aught that appears, they proved as capable and efficient in the performance of these duties as their coadjutors of a paler skin.
As originally laid out in 1736, Stockbridge was exactly six miles square, embracing 23.040 acres. In 1774 this territory was divided and a new township, six by two and a half miles, called West Stockbridge. incorporated, deducting 9,600 acres from the parent town and leaving 13,440 as its present area. Stockbridge was incorporated in 1739, and the original charter, bearing the signature of Governor Belcher, now hangs on the walls of its public library. It is a namesake of Stockbridge, Hampshire or Hants county. England."
* The reason for the adoption of the name is thus suggested by Rev. Arthur Lawrence, of this town, who has given the subject much attention. A branch of the Woodbridge fam- ils emigrated from Andover. England, and settled Andover, Mass., giving it the name of their birthdaye. Andover, England, adjoins Stockbridge there. Woodbridges from our Andover were among the first settlers of West Springfield, whence came Timothy Woord- bridge to teach the mission school at Stockbridge. When the town was about to be incorpo- rated, with a distinctive name, what more probable than that the two promment men of the locality should be consulted, or that Mr. Woodbridge, since the name of his ancestral town had already been perpetuated in the Province. should have recommended that of its adjoining sister muni nachts in England, whose natural features its proposed namesake is said in many respects to resemble.
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
The four white families, besides the missionary and teacher, to whom lands had been allotted by the commissioners, arrived and took possession in 1737-S, viz. : Joseph Woodbridge from West Springfield, Col mel Ephraim Williams from Newton, Josiah Jones from Weston, and Eph- raim (soon succeeded by his brother, Deacon Samuel) Brown from Spen- cer. At Mr. Sergeant's death the number of families had increasel to twelve, comprising, besides those above mentioned, that of John Cham- berlain from Spencer, David Pixley from Westfield, John Willard from Canaan, Conn., John Taylor and Jacob Cooper from West Springfield. Elijah, son of the above named Josiah Jones, bom in 1742, was the first white male child who saw the light in Stockbridge.
By virtue of a provincial warrant, the first town meeting was held July 11tb, 1739, when Ephraim Williams was chosen moderator : Timo- thy Woodbridge, town clerk ; Captain John Konkapot and Aaron Um- pachenee, selectmen ; and Josiah Jones, constable. Thus was the munic- ipal machine put in motion, its diverse hned materials from the start thenceforward working in complete harmony.
At a town meeting, March, 1744, the Indian proprietors were directed "to lay out 1,200 acres of land in one piece for themselves, and then the English proprietors to lay out the remaining part of their rights." At the same meeting a committee consisting of two whites and three Indians was appointed " to run the line between the Upper Housatunnack (Great Barrington) and this town."
Roads ere long became a necessity, and the earliest public ways into and out of the county seem to have mainly followed the old Indian trails. The first highway into Berkshire was built by act of the Provincial Council in 1735. It began at Westfield and passed through the present towns of Tyringham, Monterey, and Great Barrington. From this a branch was run, in 1742, to Stockbridge, leaving the forementioned road "about 13 miles east of Brewer's Pond (now Lake Garfield) and tend- ing northward through Tyringham Center and over Beartown to Stock- bridge."* The remains of this road are still traceable near the acque- duct reservoir.
The first vote of the town concerning highways and bridges was passed at its annual meeting in 1744, when a committee was appointed to erect a bridge over the Housatonic south of the village. In 1762, Elihu Parsons and Benjamin Willard were empowered to construct another on the road leading westward from the Plain. Thirty pounds were appro- priated therefor and a guarantee required of the builders for its safety for one year. Four pounds were also appropriated for an approach to it by a causeway. This bridge was rebuilt in 1771, and fifty aeres of unap- propriated land were ordered to be sold to pay for it. In 1745 it is re- corded " that the highways laid out by the (word obliterated) be con- firmed and established as follows." Then succeeds the record of the laying ont of a plat 26 rods square, including the meeting house and the
*For this fact I am indebted to the recent investigations of H. F. Keith, E.g., C. E.
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TOWN OF STOCKBRIDGE.
southwestern portion of the cemetery, and bounded westward by the premises of Colonel J. F. Dwight, J. C. Canning, and Mrs. S. M. Nor- ton. From this as the initial spot, a road-now the main street-was located eastward to the grist mill on Mill Brook. now S. W. Comstock's: another tending north toward Curtisville and West Stockbridge : a third across the hill and entering the main road eastward at H. D. Cone's cor ner ; a fourth, the present road from the Plain up the hill, and lastly a highway toward Great Barrington.
The primitive method of defining these roads is worthy of notice, and betokens the fact that the compass and theodolite were scarce im- plements in those days. Here is a specimen : "Beginning, &c .-- and from thence to a white pine tree standing on the edge of a pond : then to a white oak ; then to a black oak stump, both markt ; and then to a white oak ; and then to another white oak, both markt ; and then to a black oak, markt ; and then to a white oak ; and then to a white oak. both markt : and then to a white oak markt ; and then to another white oak markt, standing by a small brook "-and thus on for a foolseap page.
The middle road toward Lenox and that beyond the west bridge southwestward, were laid out and accepted by the town in 1745. The latter was directed to be a " shut-pent road" as far as its turn into the main road toward Great Barrington.
When, by the act of 1735, the township had been granted to the In- dians, thirteen of them, as appears from the records, had claimed and received an aggregate of 1.670 acres-probably as an offset to lands sur rendered in the two lower Housatonic grants. The six English families had, most likely, been allotted their one sixtieth stipulated portion. But. until 1750, no lots in severalty had been apportioned to the other Indian beneficiaries of the township grant. In compliance, therefore, with a petition of the " English and Indian inhabitants of Stockbridge," the General Court, by an order approved December 30th. 1749. directed Tim- othy Dwight to proceed thither, notify a meeting of the proprietors. ascertain their number, determine " by a major vote" what each one's proportion should be, choose a clerk, record all votes, and arrange for regular meetings and action thereafter.
In pursuance of these orders, Mr. Dwight met the proprietors June 11th, 1750, and proceeded to execute his commission. Besides the thir- teen claimants before mentioned. forty-two others, with designations un- pronounceable in these days, were enrolled, and one negro who had married an Indian. These all received individual allotments of from ten to eighty acres-mostly fifty-each, aggregating about 2.500 acres. This distribution comprised all the present village lots and lands abutting on the newly marked highways leading out of it. Indians from else where were admitted to the same privileges with this proviso -- " that in case the grantee or his descendants shall leave the settlement and remove from said town of Stockbridge, they shall not have power of alienting
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
or any ways disposing of said granted lands ; but the same shall revert to the proprietors." No grantee could receive more than 100 acres.
The old " Book of Proprietors" records their meetings and proceed - ings for forty years, the last entry dating January 4th, 1790. Timothy Woodbridge was moderator and proprietors' clerk to the year of his death. 1774. The index contains eighty-four names of Indians and two negro landholders besides the fifty five original grantees, showing 141 non- English proprietors from the commencement to the end of their tribal residence in town. It is defective. however, for one leaf, registering from R to V inclusive, is missing, leaving the exact number problematical, but warranting the assertion that at the time of their removal the Indian pop- ulation was about 400. These records prove that gradually the outlying lands to the borders of the town were taken up by the original Indian owners, or purchased of them by the whites. We find occasionally re- corded that, in consequence of lawful debts, more rarely of legal penalties for crimes, or as the alternative of imprisonment. paid or assumed by their English neighbors, a number of grants lapsed from their owners to their sponsors. Others were parted with through the Indian preference of the shining coin to possessions which involved constant and uncongen- ial labor; leaving it probable that finally by far the most valuable lands of the town became the property of their shrewder brethren of the paler race.
Of the white inhabitants the Williamses, the Joneses, in his earlier residence Mr. Woodbridge, and, in his last years, Mr. Sergeant, lived upon the hill north of the village. But the next comers located mostly on the Plain or not far out. The Indian dwellings were scattered-some on the Plain, others on the meadows near the river, and a few about Mill Brook. The site of Konkapot's house has already been mentioned. Kok - kewenaunaunt, or "King Ben." a successor, occupied the present site of "Cherry Cottage," the birth place of ex-President and Professor Hopkins. He died in 1781, aged 104. Ten years previously he had resigned his authority to " King Solomon " (Unhaunauwaunut), whose headquarters were near the bank of the river opposite Laurel Hill.
In 1751 the town invited Rev. Jonathan Edwards, whom irreconcil- able divisions in his church at Northampton had driven thence, to suc- ceed the missionary, Sergeant. He accepted, and was installed August Sth of the same year. How much of his salary was paid by the For- eign Society has not been ascertained ; but the town records state that "the English inhabitants will give him $6, 13s . 4d. per year Lawfull money," and that " the Indians and English will get 100 slay loads of fire-wood annually and carry it to his dwelling house in Stockbridge ; that is to say, the Indians are to get 80 loads and the English 20."
Mr. Edwards took the house first built by Sergeant on the Plain. and erected an addition thereto for his growing family. He never fully learned the native language, but preached through an interpreter. and labored to have the Indian portion of his charge taught to understand
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him in English. In a closet in his house, 6 by 15 feet, he wrote, in 1752-3, his immortal work on "The Freedom of Will," which was followed by " God's End in Creation," and " The Nature of Virtue." He reviewed and prefaced his treatise on " Original Sin," the " Harmony of the Old and New Testaments." and prepared for the press his sermons on " The His. tory of Redemption." Edwards, like many other men of profound thought, knew very little of the economies of every day life; but for- tunately his deficiencies in this respect were amply compensated by the eminent abilities of his excellent consort. It is said that he never knew how many cows he owned, and that he was so absorbed in his mental ponderings as to nullify the effect of the out-of-door exercise prescribed by his physician. A single anecdote in illustration .-- At one time, ri ling on horseback, he took a path leading through a pasture, to which access opened by a gate. Here he encountered a lad who respectfully lifted his hat and opened the gate for him. The great man, who was never lacking in courtesy, recognized the favor, and asked whose son he was. On be- ing told, he thanked the boy and rode on. Returning not long after, the lad was still there ; the same proceedings were repeated and the same question again asked. Unappreciative of his interrogator's peculiarity, the answer was rendered with surprise-" Why, sir, I am the same man's son I was fifteen minutes ago."
It does not appear that Mr. Edwards achieved any marked success as a missionary, and indeed his metaphysical cast of mind might pre- clude eminence in that direction. But he was faithful in his spiritual labors and much beloved by the English portion of his flock ; while the mighty products of his mind begotten here, though mysteries to the chil- dren of the forest, have quickened the thoughtful intellect of the world. Mr. E., after much hesitation, accepted a call to the presidency of Prince- ton College, N. J .; was dismissed from Stockbridge January 4th, 1758, and died at his new post, of small pox, on the 22d of March, following, aged 54.
At Mr. Edwards' dismissal the number of English families here was eighteen ; among the later arrivals being those of Stephen Nash and Matthew Cadwell, from Westfield, Elihu Parsons, from Northampton, and Gen. Joseph Dwight, from Brookfield.
President Edwards' successor was Rev. Stephen West, a native of Tolland, Conn., and a graduate of Yale in 1755. He was settled over the Indian and English church here, June 13th, 1759. To the natives he preached through an interpreter until 1775, when that charge was com- mitted to Rev. John Sergeant, a son of the missionary, who had learned their language with his own, and who followed them in their removal to the Oneida reservation. Dr. West was a Christian gentleman of the old school, eminent for his courteous manners, his profound knowledge of the Scriptures and ability in their exposition, and for his pastoral excel lence. His ministry covered the Revolutionary period, during which his loyalty to his country was shown perspicuously in his leadership both
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
by precept and by example. For the sixty years of his office his house was a veritable " school of the prophets ;" since in lieu of theological seminaries, then unknown, students in divinity had recourse to promi- nent divines for instruction. Dr. West's pupils, many of whom became celebrated throughout the land, were numbered almost by scores. His protracted labors closed May 13th, 1819, in the 84th year of his age.
During bis pastorate, in 1784, the Indian meeting house was succeeded by a new edifice which stood half a mile farther north, on the town por- tion of the Field Park. In excavating for its foundations a quantity of bones was unearthed. supposed to be the relies of Major Talcott's battle in August, 1675. Some 200 of King Philip's warriors, fleeing from the Connecticut River valley for refuge among the western tribes, were over- taken and surprised "on the Ausotunnoog (Housatonic, river, " says Hubbard, the historian, about sixty of them being killed and captured with the loss of only one man. Tradition has made this the scene of the incident.
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The majority of the people of Stockbridge have ever been of the or- thodox Congregational order, and, until 1824, the worshipers formed one parish with one house of worship. The growing infirmities of Dr. West led, in 1810, to the settlement of Rev. E. G. Swift as colleague, and the joint ministrations continued till their simultaneous dismission in ISIS. Their successors in order have been the following : Rev. David D. Field, D. D., 1819 to 1837 ; Rev. Tertius S. Clarke, D. D., 1837 to 1850 ; Rev. Al- fred H. Dashiell, 1850 to 1860: Rev. N. H. Eggleston, 1860 to 1860 : Rev. E. C. Hooker, 1870 to 1873; Rev. J. C. Bodwell, 1874 to 1877 ; Rev. F. B. Perkins, 1SS0.
In 1823 a new house of worship became necessary, and the next year the present building was erected. In consequence of divided sentiment as to its location, most of the members of the society residing in the northern part of the town, to the number of sixty-three, separated from the old organization, formed a second society, and built another house at Curtisville. Its pastors have been : Rev. Nathan Shaw, 1827 to 1831 : Rev. Joseph Hurlburt, 1838 to 1840 ; Rev. Joel T. Headley, 1840 to 1842 : Rev. Ralph Smith, 1844 to 1845; Rev. Samuel P. Giddings, 1846 to 1849 : Rev. Winthrop H. Phelps. 1849 to 1854. Since 1854 the pulpit has been served by various clergymen as " acting pastors " or "stated supplies."
In February, 1834. St. Paul's Episcopal Society was organized and held service in the upper room of the old academy until the erection of its first church edifice in 1844. Rev. (afterward Dr. ) Sammel P. Parker officiated until 1846, except during two years (1834-6), when service was performed by Rev. Calvin Wolcott, who also taught the Academy. The incumbents since have been : Rev. Justin Field. 1846-1849 : Rev. T. R. Pynchon, D. D., 1849-1855 ; Rev. J. A. Penniman. 1856-1858: Rev. Dr. S. P. Parker, 1858-1865 ; Rev. Henry F. Allen, 1865-1872: Rev. Arthur Lawrence, 1872.
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