USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Volume II pt 2 > Part 38
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The history of the Baptist church is only incidentally found in the town records. The earliest notice of it is in connection with the forma tion of the Baptist church in New Providence (Cheshire). In its record we find members " from distant places." Among them was Elihin Wil- liams. of Windsor baptized April, 1972 ; before him is recorded Willing Hanks, without date ; next Thomas Bussey, baptized in October, 1775.
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Records show a faithful watch over the members " from distant places."
After the adoption of the bill of rights and the constitution of the State, in 1780, the opposition to the ministerial tax increased. as many were taxed to support a creed not in harmony with their own. The pro- vision that each society might support by tax or subscription its own teacher induced many to certify, as the law required, where or under whom they sat for religions teachings. By May 5th, 1805, we find forty. one names to a petition that they " may be incorporated into a religions society by the name of the Baptist Society in Windsor." This request wormed its way through opposition at home and in the Legislature, in about two years. April 14th, 1807, the first meeting of the society voted a committee to procure preaching for the year ensuing. The records of the society are continuous till it ceased to be. Before 1809 we find fifty members. In 1819, voted to build a meeting house. In May, 1821. the society met in their meeting house. At this time there were 264 members of the society ; all save one-a widow-were men, forming a majority of the voters in the town. In August, 1821, " then met in the Baptist meet- ing house in Windsor and according to the vote of the Baptist church in Hinsdale, those members belonging to said church and living in and could be better accommodated in Windsor were set off as a branch of said church in Hinsdale to enjoy the privileges of the Gospel." They chose Joshma Beals deacon. In November following Elder Bushnell was ordained.and on February 26th, 1823, the church became independent. The next June we find a committee inquiring into the case of Brother Elijah Turner for intemperance, and of Sister Adeline Jordan for a deception in reeling yarn. They report that Brother Turner had been overtaken with liquor which he confessed, and Sister Jordan also " maid " confession ; no doubt she was a spinster, and Brother Turner might have told a reeling yarn, for he was often overtaken with liquor. Also, "voted that Brother Asa Beals should take the lead of sining in church and covenant meetings." In 1825, Elder Bushnell was dismissed to Cheshire, where he was a sue- cessful laborer, and several times represented the town in General Court.
During all these years the Baptists had been largely encouraged by opposition. Parson Dorrance felt it his duty to aid by preaching from the text -- " Those that turn the world upside down have come hither also." It was quite a refreshing treat to the hungry Baptists, and no doubt, as they waxed fat they kicked, till a charge was brought against them that the Baptist society was not a religious society, and therefore not legally exempt from taxation for the standing order. They survived. nevertheless. In April, 1826, Elder Hosea Trumbell began to preach in Windsor. He was dismissed with commendation. After a time supplies were had till September, 1831, when George Walker was ordained, and in August, 1835, dismissed with letters of good will. From October Elder Keys was preacher till April, 1836. In June, 1838, Elder Henry Cady took pastoral charge, and was the last settled pastor. The last church meeting, for dissolution of the fourtesh members, was helt December
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30th, 1851. The society held meetings till March 22d, 1852, when they voted to sell the honse for the benefit of the society and pewholders.
In 1860, the old meeting house, which had crowned the hill for forty years, was taken down and moved eastward a mile, where it was fashioned into a farmer's house on a foundation left bare by the burning of the house of Norman Miner, to whom the church Bible was given : it did not perish in the flames. Thus have we noted the birth, growth, and death of the Baptist church in Windsor ; born at a time and in a town humanly averse to its existence. It grew, like many children, in spite of opposi- tion. A sense of right preceded the development of might. From 1780, when the bill of rights was adopted, compelling every one to support religious teachings by tax on polls and property, till 1833, when that ar- ticle was rescinded, that society grew till more than one half of the votes of the town were with it. The Standing Order were taxed on all the property held : Baptists on all property paid for, though more frequently by a voluntary subscription ; and so it cannot be proven that love for money did not enter as a factor in enlarging the Baptist society. A cheaper rate of taxation or the voluntary subscription principle must be credited as joining forces with the idea of soul liberty ; and when the contest was ended favorably, what wonder that the mercenary party re- turned with their share of the spoils, and left the conscience party to enjoy their spiritual victory.
When the school district system shall have become a past history, it will not be uninteresting reading to gather up the record books of each district and read therefrom. Each school meeting was as duly warned as the town meeting. In 1805 Obadiah Johnson was notified to warn the inhabitants of District No. 9 to meet at the house of Shadrack Pierce, etc. Of this Obadiah an anecdote is told. not touching schools, but as a fact, in a parenthesis. A heavy snowstorm rendered the roads impassa- ble for a few days, Sunday included. Of this storm Mr. Johnson said : " It was so drifted that we could not go to the house of God, if we went to the devil." A few samples from No. 9 are here given : " Voted 5thly that the School Daim should Bord among the inhabitants that send Scholars to school." 1807. 5th, " Voted that one worning should be sit upon our school house Dore to worn school meatings for the futur and that shall be sufishent for the hole." Gthly, " voted that the Con- stitution Book Sent the Destriet by the Ginneral Cort should be Maid up of in Going Round to Evry hous in the Destrict two weaks at a hous." We must appeal to the secretary of the board of education for an explanation of this ". Constitution Book." " Voted to accept the 5 Dollars Given to have the Schul house sit where it now stands." In 1809, "Voted to bord the school master. Enos Hathaway, Equal parts of the two months this winter, Upon Mr. Hathaway (father Giving the Destrict a good pair of tongs for the use of the school house." "Tongs" were a consideration, if not a qualification, in teaching in No. 9. In 1842, it was " Voted that the old bachelors shall wait on the
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teacher to and from her boarding place every morning and night ; that the old bachelors shall get a cord of wood each ; voted that the district would build a barn for to keep their horses in." She must have boarded some distance away. Passing over another generation to 1875. "Voted to jump accounts with the town." "Voted to choose a committee to jump." "Chosen D. H. Capen." When it is known that he weighed something like 250 pounds the joke of the vote is casily seen.
Perhaps the schools were bet. er than the record books, for from them started some prominent men. Hon. Byram Green, born in Windsor, graduated at Williams College in 1808, and in 1811 settled in Sodus, N. Y., sleeping the first summer in a hollow log: in 1817, 1818. 1819. and 1820. was a legislator, and in 1822 State senator and chairman of the commit- tee on colleges, academies, and common schools ; afterward a justice in the county courts, and in 1843 a member of Congress ; and though a democrat he voted against the annexation of Texas and the extension of slavery. In the general corn failure, 1815, his farm had an unusually large crop, for which he was offered 81.50 per bushel ; but he refused. selling it all to his needy townsmen at $1.00 per bushel. In 1854. he visited Williamstown and identified the spot where the farmers' hay- stack prayer meeting was held, and placed the stake with his own hand. What he told about it may be found in the history of Williams College. His brother, Dr. Joseph Green, was educated in Windsor.
Worthington Wright, son of Dr. Asahel Wright, born in Windsor, graduated at Williams in 1806, studied theology, and preached till his eyes failed. He became a physician for fifteen years, and then resumed preaching.
Gardiner Dorrance, born in Windsor, graduated at Williams in 1820, received an M. D. in 1826. From 1834 to 18443 he resided in Alli- herst, being several times the liberty party candidate for Congress in Hampshire county.
John L. T. Phillips was born in Windsor in 1827, and graduated at Williams in 1847. In 1857 he was appointed Greek professor there, and died in 1879.
Charles H. Baldwin was born in Windsor in 1838 and graduated at Williams in 1863. He is now a preacher at Amsterdam, N. Y.
More than a dozen names of doctors might be given, but space is precious. Lawyers also might be named, though not college graduates. From schools and scholars we turn to settlements.
The northeast part of the town is called the Bush. It was settled in 1785, by Samnel Dawes, John Dawes, and Amos Ford, who each had a hundred aere farm. Afterward a fourth farm was divided equally among them, and paid for in wheat at seventy-five cents per bushel. carried to Cummington on horseback. One of these farms bordered a pond of some hundred acres area, then called " Skeeter Pond:" south of it the trees were girdled, dead. A den- undergrowth sprang up. People south of the pond, going to fish, passed through this undergrowth, and hence called
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TOWN OF WINDSOR.
.it the Bush. and sometimes the Girdle. It lies north of the Westfield River, and forms District No. 6.
The first death, in 1790, was a child of Samuel Dawes. A bridle path was cut to a burial place, half a mile north from his home, and there the first boy was left in his last sleep. Mr. Dawes built the first frame barn in town, hewing all the timber himself, braces included. The Bush was soon thickly settled, and well it might be, if all had as many children as three neighbors, Ebenezer Bird, Israel Vining, and Samuel Snow, each having fifteen children. Near them resided Mr. Luther Tery, blacksmith, from Bridgewater, who made the first borer in the United States for fit- ting cannon. He died at the age of ninety-two, in 1825. and his wife. Dorothy, in 1838, aged 106. On her one hundredth birthday party she spun tow, flax, and wool on the large and small spinning wheels, now in the family of Sammuel Dawes, the 3d.
In the same burial place are some two hundred engraved names, with more or less poetry, of which we give one specimen. from the headstone of Sarah Pratt, who died 1831, aged thirty-six.
" Now she is dead, she cannot stir ; Her cheeks were like the fading rose ; Which of us next must follow her, The Lord Almighty only knows."
As a farming town, with but few mechanics' shops or mills, the changes must be few. Saw mills and grist mills disappear, but farms re- main. As they grow less productive two or more farms are united, or some of them are allowed to revert to forests ; and, as a consequence, the population decreases year by year. The changes which such causes pro- duce may be inferred by a thoughtful perusal of these closing statistics : Population in 1790, 916 : 1800, 961 ; 1810, 1,108 ; 1820, 1.085 ; 1830, 1,042 ; 1840, 872; 1850, 807 ; 1860, 839; 1870, 686 ; 1880. 614.
CHAPTER XXXV.
TOWN OF WILLIAMSTOWN.
BY BENJAMIN F. MILLS, A. M.
Laying out the Land .- First Meeting of the Proprietors .- Natural Features .-- Indian Hos- tilities .- Early Settlers .- The Civil War .- Churches .- Cemeteries .- Schools .-- Library. -Bank .- Industries .- Roads and Bridges .- Town House .- Williams College.
HE history of Williamstown may be traced to the early part of the year 1740. On the 18th of April in that year the General Court passed an order directing the laying out of two townships near Hoosuck "of the contents of six miles square." This order and the report of the committee appointed to lay out the townships have been given in the his- tory of Adams, Volume I, pages 446 and 447.
Williamstown is the " West Township " referred to. As laid out by the committee it was eight and one eighth miles in length, from north to south, and nearly five and one fourth miles in width, from east to west. and of a rectangular form except a small piece at the northwest corner cut off by the line of the State of New York. When first surveyed in 1749-and until 1838-it was bounded north by Pownal in the State of Vermont, east by Clarksburg and Adams, south by New Ashford and Hancock, and on the west it was separated from the State of New York by a gore of unincorporated land 446 rods in width at the south end and terminating in a point one and a half miles from the north end of the town, which distance was bounded by Petersburgh in New York.
The gore was annexed to this town by an act of the Legislature. April 9th. 1838. The present boundaries are : North by Pownal, east by Clarksburg, North Adams, and Adams, south by New Ashford and Han- cock, and west by Berlin and Petersburgh in the State of New York.
At the next session of the Provincial Legislature, in 1750, a commit- tee was appointed
" To lay out sixty-three house lots in the westernmost township (each house lot to draw one sixty- third part of said township , one for the first settled minister, one for the ministry, and one for the school, as near the center of the township as may be with convenience, the said lots to contain to or te acres as the committee shall best
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judge, said house lots to be adjoining, and also that said committee be directed to lay out such highways, streets, and lanes to and amongst the house lots as shall be necessary and convenient, and that said committee have power to admit sixty settlers or inhabitants into said township, each of them shall be entitled to one sixty- third part of said township upon the conditions following, viz .: That each settler pay the committee upon his being admitted £6, 135., 6d. lawful money for the use of the Government, and that he shall within the space of two years from the time of his being admitted build a house 18 feet long, 15 feet wide and 7 feet stud, and shall fence five acres of his said house lot and bring the same to English grass or fit it for plowing or raising of wheat or other corn, and shall actually by themselves or assigns reside on said house lot five years in seven from the time of their being ad- mitted, and that they do settle a learned and orthodox minister in said township within five years from the time of their being admitted."
The sixty-three house lots were laid out by the committee on each side of a principal street in the north part of the town. The street was fifteen rods in width and one and three eighths miles in length, reaching from the " Green River" on the east to " Hemlock Brook " on the west. This street was crossed by another, perpendicular to it, six rods in width, and extending as far as the house lots, which were 120 rods in length and thirteen and one third rods in width, upon the principal street, contain- ing ten acres each. Seventeen Jots were laid on each side of the principal street and west of the "cross street" (so called), seventeen were laid on the north side of the principal street between the cross street and Green River, and eleven were laid on the south side of the principal street be- tween the cross street and the corner on which the Methodist church now stands, and one was laid lengthwise on the principal street, and extended from those last mentioned to Green River. The lots were numbered from 1 to 03, beginning at the cross street, going west to Hemlock Brook, the odd numbers on the south side and the even numbers on the north side of the street, and from the cross street easterly the odd numbers from 35 to 57 on the south, and the even numbers from 36 to 58 on the north side of the street. The numbers 59, 60, 61, 62, and 63 were between No. 58 and Green River. They were laid out some time between 1749 and 1753, and the first settlements in the town were mostly made on them. The names of forty-six persons are given in the records as having drawn sixty of these lots (one being reserved for the first settled minister, one for the ministry, and one for the school, and these forty six persons were probably the proprietors of the town, and of these thirteen, viz., Dr. Seth Hudson, Lient. Samuel Brown, jr., Lient. Isaac Wyman, Ezekiel Foster, John Chamberlin, Benjamin Simonds, Thomas Train, Micah Harrington, Capt. Elisha Chapin, Samuel Taylor, John Crofoot or Crofford, Daniel Donillson, and Ebenezer Graves became actual settlers.
The proprietors, in September, 1753, presented a petition to " The Great and General Court," in which, after referring to their inability to call a legal meeting, they say :
" We therefore Humbly pray yr Excel. and Honors to appoint some
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
proper person to call a meeting of said proprietors for such purposes as may be necessary and direct a method of calling meetings of said proprs. in future." This petition was granted, and William Williams, Esq., of Poontoosuck, one of his Majesty's justices of the peace for the county of Hampshire was directed to "Issue his warrant for calling a meeting of the Proprietors of the West Township at Hoosnek."
The warrant was issued to Isaac Wyman, who was a lientenant stationed at Fort Massachusetts, and an original proprietor of the town, he having drawn house lots Nos. 2 and 28. The first meeting of the pro- prietors was held December 5th, 1753, at the house of Seth Hudson, who lived on lot No. 9, west of the former site of the Congregational meet - ing house.
The following is a full record of this first meeting :
" At a Proprietors meeting Lawfully warned in the west township at hocsuck so called December the fifth 1753
" Voted by the major part of the proprietors at Sd meetin the foure going articles vizt. :
" First. Voted and chose Allen Curtise Moderator for Sd meetin.
"Second. Voted and chose Isaac Wyman Proprietors Clerk.
"Thirdly. Voted by the proprietors to Lay out all the meadow land Lying upon the main River and the meadow land Lying upon green River as far as the first Brook or Croch in Equal purposhon to each Right in said Township and one hundred acors of upland to each Right ajoying to the medow land or as Near as they can to Lay out the best land.
"Fourthly. Voted to Leave it to the Commite to Lay out the Land in one Di- vision or two as they shall Judge best.
"sly. Voted and Chose Allen Curtise, Seth Hudson, Jonathan Mechom, Eze- kiel Foster, Jabez Warren the Commite to Lay out the Land of Sd Township.
"6ly. Voted and Chose Samuel Taylor, Gidion Warrin and Jonathan Mechom the Commite to Lay out highways in Sd Township that shall be Necessary.
" zly. Voted and Chose Allen Curtise Sevayor to clear the Roads in said Town- ship.
" Sly. Voted at Sd meeting to Lay the Roads at the End of Each main Street foure Kods Wide in said Township.
"gly. Voted that the Roads to accommodate the medow land shall be But two Rods wide and all the Roads to accommodate the other Divisions two Rods wide allso.
" Voted to Raise a Rate of Eight shillings upon Each Proprietors Right in Sd Town to pay the Charges that may arise by Laying out Sd Land.
" Voted to Rase ten shillings to pay for a Proprietors Book.
" Voted and Chose Isaac Wyman Proprietors Treasurer.
" Voted and Chose Thomas Train, Josiah Deean, Collectors for said Pro- prietors.
"Voted and Chose Ebenezer Graves, Allen Curtise and Ezekiel Foster assessors for said Proprietors.
" Voted at said meetin that five or seven of the proprietors of said town makin application to the Clerk of said Proprietors for calling meetings for the future.
" Voted at said meetin to Lay out the Land in said Town as soon as may be convenient.
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" At a meeting held at West Hoosuck Pursuant to the Court order on the fifth day of December 1753, the above said votes paist in a Legial manor.
" Test
" ALLEN CURTISE, moderator for said meetin. " ISAAC WYMAN, Prop. Clerk."
In accordance with the votes of the proprietors, as above mentioned. and by subsequent votes, the greater part of the remaining and more val- uable lands in the town were divided into seven divisions, and each division into sixty three lots, corresponding to the number of house lots, and the proprietor of each house lot was entitled to draw one lot in each of these divisions. These divisions were named as follows, the house lots consti- unting the first division :
Second Division, or meadow lots ; Third Division, or first division of fifty acre lots ; Fourth Division, or second division of fifty acre lots ; Fifth Division, or one hundred acre lots; Sixth Division, or pine lots ; Seventh Division, or oak iots ; Eighth Division, or sixty acre lots.
After the surveys of these divisions were completed, and the lots dis- tributed. at a meeting of the proprietors on the 220 of November, 1771. it was voted to allow the proprietor of each house lot to lay out from the undivided land a "Pitch" in one, two, or three pieces, as he should choose. These were named the Ninth Division.
The lands that formed the Gore were conveyel from the common- wealth to individual purchasers by Ebenezer Pierce, Israel Jones, and Daniel Brown, a committee appointed by the Legislature for that pur- pose. The deeds were made in 1794. The boundary lines of the town are far up the sides of the mountains by which it is almost surrounded. The northwest corner is on the eastern slope of the Taconic range, a half mile from the summit. The north line runs across " Northwest Hill" and passes south of the top of Mason's Hill in Pownal. The northeast corner is far up on the western side of "Mount Hazen" (named for the surveyor who first run the boundary line of Massachusetts and New Hampshire in 1741). The east line passes a little west of ". Pine Cobble," and between the two great ridges of Saddle Mountain, "Mount Wil- liams" and "Greylock," on the east of the live, with " Prospect " and "Bald" west of the line. The south line crosses the highest part of South Mountain or Stratton Mountain, the modern name of the mountain which separates New Ashford from Hancock, and the west line through its whole length is near the summit of the Taconic range. The town may therefore be described as a valley having four passages from it -- one on the north, by which the Hoosick passes into Pownal ; a second on the east, by which the Hoosick come, in from North Adams ; a third and fourth on the south, by which the east and west branches of Green River come in from New Ashford and Hancock. "Greylock," the highest peak of Saddle Mountain, is 3,500 feet above tide water and nearly 2.700 feet above the Hoosick where it enters the town. Mount Hopkins, the highest peak of the Taconic range on the west of the town. is 2.700 feet
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
above tide water. Within the limits of the town and on'its eastern bor- der are Prospect and Bald Mountains, the latter of which is 2,600 feet above tide water. These two mountains on the north and;south, with the slope of Greylock on the east, and "Deer Hill" on the west, form the "Hopper." Midway between the two villages is "Stone Hill," of irregular form and great extent. Its extreme northern and southern points are nearly four miles distant, and approach the two villages. "Birch Hill " and " Bee Hill" are spurs of the Taconic range, shooting off toward the southeast, and reaching almost to " Stone Hill."
The Hoosick, which in the early proprietors' records is called "Great River," enters the town on the east from North Adams, and after a course of nearly four miles crosses the north line into Vermont. Its descent in this distance is ninety-four feet, and its usual width one hundred feet. Its largest tributary is Green River, which has its sources in New Ash- ford and Hancock, and, passing between Stone Hill and Saddle Mountain, enters the Hoosick about two miles from the east line of the town.
At " Sweet's Corners," formerly called " Kriggers' Mills," and in the early records named " Taylor's Crotch," it receives a considerable stream from the cast, which issues from the " Hopper."
"Hemlock Brook," formerly called " Doctor's Brook," issues from "Treadwell Hollow," and passing near the south base of "Bee Hill," turning north finds its way into the Hoosick about a mile before it enters Pownal.
Broad Brook receives its waters from the mountains which lie north and northeast of the town, and is tributary to the Hoosick.
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