USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Volume II pt 2 > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43
£
400
HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
In the summer of 1872 a plan elaborated by Charles T. Rathbun was adopted. The foundation and first floor were built in the fall of 1872, the mason work being done by Haskal Dodge and the wood work by James H. Butler; the aggregate cost being $10,000. The contract for building the superstructure was awarded to Mr. Butler, who contracted with Mr. Dodge and with the firm of Butler, Merrill & Co., of which he was the senior partner, for the wood work ; the aggregate price being $56,000.
Steam heating apparatus was afterward put in by Robbins, Gamwell & Co. for $3,000. The glass cost $1,500. An organ was built by Johnson & Co., of Westfield, for $5,000. And the cost of the land and founda- tion, with minor items, carried the entire cost of the work to $115, 000.
..
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
The church is built of Philadelphia pressed brick, with rich trim- mings of light drab freestone from the Amherst, O., quarries. The style is Gothic. and the ground plan is cruciform, the arms, however, being quite short. The extreme external length of the main building is 162 feet, and its width 72 feet. It has three spires, the highest of which, sur- mounting a tower which forms the main entrance, is 176 feet high.
The main audience room is 101 feet long, 68 wide, and is high. The chapel, which opens into the main room by sliding doors of its whole breadth, is 96 feet long by 48 wide. Over it are ladies' parlors and class rooms. The audience room is handsomely finished and is lighted by eight windows of stained glass of elegant designs. It has a seating capacity of 1,400, and, with the chapel, which can be easily thrown into one room
401
TOWN OF PITTSFIELD.
with it, it will furnish seats for 1.900 persons. 2, 100 were in the two rooms on the day of the dedication.
The corner stone was laid April 22d. 1873, and the church was dedi. cated May 5th. 1874.
The following list was copied principally from a manual prepared by Rev. Dr. Carhart :
Preachers on Pittsfield Circuit from its formation in 1792 to 1885 :
1792. D. Kendall, R. Dillon, and JJ. Rexford ; 1793 to 1795. J. Covel and Zadock Priest : 1795 to 1799. Joseph Sawyer. Reuben Hubbard. and Daniel Brumley : 1799 to 1801. Michael Coate and Joseph Mitchell : 1801 to 1803. Joseph Mitchell, Oliver Hall, Moses Morgan, and Elias Vander- lip : 1803 to 1805. Elias Vanderlip. E. Ward, R. Searl, Elijah Chichester. and Nehemiah W. Tompkins; 1805 to 1807, William Anson, Richard Flint, John Robinson, and James M. Smith : 1807 to 1809. Noble W. Thomas, Eben Smith, and John Crawford ; 1800 to 1811. Elijah Woolsey, Phinehas Cook, and Seth Crowell : 1811 to 1813. Samuel Cochran. C. H. Gridley, James M. Smith. and F. Draper : 1813 to 1815. Billy Hibbard, Beardsley Northrup, and John Finnegan : IS15 to 1817. Datus Ensign. John Finnegan, Lewis Pease. and James Covel : 1817 to 1818. William Ross. T. Benedict. Elisha P. Jacob, and John Matthias : 1819 to 1821. Bela Smith. Daniel Coe. T. Clark, and Daniel Kilby : 1821 to 1823. T. Clark, David Miller. William Anson, and Smith Dayton ; 1823 to 1825. Cyrus Culver, Samuel Eighmey, and Robert Jarvis : 1825 to 1827. Ger- shom Pierce, John J. Matthias, Phinehas Cook, and John Nixon : 1827 to 1829, Bradley Sillick. Peter C. Oakley : 1829 to 1831, Cyrus Prindle. Charles F. Pelton, and Noah Bigelow : 1831 to 1833, JJ. Z. Nichols : 1833 to 1835. T. Benedict and Oliver Emerson : 1835 to 1837, Henry Smith : 1839 to 1841, Luman A. Sanford : 1841 to 1842, John Pegg : 1842 to 1843. Peter M. Hitchcock : 1843 to 1845. D. D. Wheedon : 1845 to 1847. An- drew Witherspoon : 1847 to 1849. Z. Phillips : 1849 to 1850. Sanford Washburn : 1850 to 1852, Stephen Parks : 1852 to 1854. Bostwick Haw. ley ; 1854 to 1856, H. L. Starks : 1856 to 1858. R. H. Robinson : 1858 to 1860, D. Starks : 1860 to 1862, J. F. Yates : 1862 to 1864, JJ. Welsey Car hart, D. D .: 1864 to 1867, William R. Brown : 1868 to -. C. F. Burdick: 1869 to 1871, Erastus Wentworth. D. D .: 1871 to 1872, W. G. Waters ; 1872 to 1875, J. F. Clymer : 1875 to 1878, David W. Gates : 1878 to 1880. F. Widmer: ISSO to 1882, H. L. Grant ; 1882 to 1885, George Skene.
When, in 1852, the Methodist Episcopal congregation removed from the old brick church it was purchased by T. G. Atwood; Mr. James Foote, one of the original builders, purchased it from Mr. Atwoo l. and it was immediately reopened for public worship. Rev. Cyrus Prindle, who had become a minister of the Wesleyan Methodists, removed to Pittsfield in 1852. and became the pastor of the congregation which wor shiped in this house. Mr. Foote, who died soon after his purchase of the building, provided in his will that it should be based for the simple interest on $800.
402
HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
The church maintained a useful existence till the removal of Mr. Prindle from town, after which it languished, and when. in 1867, the building was demolished, religious services had not for some time been held in it.
During the political tronbles of the First Congregational Parish an unsuccessful attempt was made to establish an Episcopal parish in Pitts field. Abont 1830 Hon. Edward A. Newton, an ardent, though not an intolerant Episcopalian, earnestly undertook to found a church here. On the 25th of June, in that year, a meeting was held of those desirous of uniting with a parish of that communion. On the 6th of July a warrant was issued, by Hon. Henry Hubbard, justice of the peace, reciting that Benjamin Luce and twenty-four others had " united to form a religions society according to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Protes- tant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, under the title of St. Stephen's Church, Pittsfield."
The lecture room (old Union Church) was hired by the parish, and on the 1st of August, 1830, the first service was held therein by Rev. Theodore Edson, of Lowell. The society was incorporated by a special act, in 1832.
In 1831 Rev. George Thomas Chapman, D. D., became the rector. He resigned his charge in 1832, at which time more than fifty families had become connected with the parish.
Dr. Chapman was a rare man. He possessed the qualities that ad- mirably adapted him to the work of building up parishes where ignorance of the doctrines of the Episcopal church, and consequent prejudice against it prevailed ; and to this class of labor he devoted a large portion of his life. He was born in Devonshire. England, in 1786. came to the United States in 1795, and gradnated at Dartmouth College in 1804. He was first a lawyer, but pursued a course of theological studies and was or- dained a presbyter in 1818. In 1819-20 he preached at Lanesboro, Lenox. and Great Barrington ; his parish thus covering whatever of Episcopary there was then in Berkshire county. He then became rector of a church in Kentucky, which was attended by Henry Clay, and was, from 1825 to 1827, professor of history and antiquities in Transylvania University.
In 1831 the town offered to donate a lot to the parish for a church site, but the location of the proposed gift was not satisfactory, and the proposition was made to purchase from the town the site where the church was afterward built, on the corner of Park Place and School street. This site was, however, then occupied in part by the town house, in which the Central school district claimed an interest by virtue of its occupancy of the lower story for a school room. For this and other reasons the town did not accede to the proposition. Subsequently Lemuel Pomeroy pro- posed to ereet for the town a new hall, on certain conditions, one of which was that the site of the old hall should be conveyed to him. The propo- sition was accepted. and it was agreed that the new hall should be sixty-
403
TOWN OF PITTSFIELD.
three feet in length by forty two in width, and that the site for its erec- tion should be provided by the town. The hall was accordingly erected. and the deed of the church site was made directly to Mr. Newton. of the parish of St. Stephen's.
On this site was erected a modest Gothic structure, of Pittsfield gray limestone, sixty-seven by forty-three feet in size, with a tower eighty feet high projected from the front. The cost of the building was $4,711.25 besides 8500 that was paid for the site.
The widow of Hon. John Chandler Williams, who died in 1830, pre- sented to the church an organ, the cost of which was 8575.
Mr. Newton gave 84,000 to establish a fund for the support of public worship, to which an East Indian gentleman, whose sons were educated in Pittsfield, added 8500. Mr. Newton then added the same amount, which raised the fund to 85,000. Mr. Newton and Hosea Merrill after- ward presented to the parish a rectory, situated on North street.
The church was consecrated December 7th, 1832, and on the same day Rev. Edward Ballard was instituted rector of the parish.
Mr. Ballard was born at Hopkinton. N. H., in 1804, and received his theological education at the General Theological Seminary of the Episco- pal Church in New York. He was an excellent preacher. a faithful rec- tor, and in every good word and work he was a meek and unselfish la- borer. He resigned in 1847. In 1858 he received the degree of A. M. from Bowdoin College, and in 1865 that of D. D. from Trinity. He died at Brunswick. Maine. November 14th, 1870.
After the resignation of Mr. Ballard the wardens and vestry recalled Dr. Chapman, who returned to the scene of his early labors with some of the infirmities of age, but with an nnimpaired intellect. Under his grand preaching the parish flourished, and among its congregation were numbered many men of the highest culture.
So large had the congregation grown in 1851 that it was determined to enlarge and remodel the church. An addition of thirty feet was made to the building. A tower of stone took the place of the old one of wood. and the interior was remodeled elegantly, and in admirable architectural taste. The ladies of the parish furnished a very beautiful chancel win- dow, and Miss Lucretia Newton presented an organ better adapted to its place than that which had served since 1832. The entire cost of all the changes was something over $7,000.
An unfortunate difference arose among the members of the congrega- tion soon after these improvements had been made in the church, and Dr. Chapman resigned. He afterward founded St. George's Parish, at Lee. He died in 1872.
Rev. Robert J. Parvin was elected to succeed Dr. Chapman, but though he was a popular preacher and a faithful rector, there was a lack of harmony in the parish, and he resigned in 1856. A few years after. ward he was lost by the burning of a steamer on the Mississippi. He was succeeded by Rev. William H. H. Stewart, an Englishman, an able
6
40-1
HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
preacher and a scholar of fine attainments ; but he failed to restore har- mony in the parish and resigned in 1859. Prior to his resignation a por- tion of the parish seceded and formed the parish of Christ Church, worshiping in the town hall. They chose Rev. James. J. Bowden rec. tor. He was a man of varied learning, an effective preacher, and an earnest, consistent Christian. He so governed himself as to command the respect and finally the affection of all parties.
Rev. E. M. Peck succeeded Mr. Stewart as rector of St. Stephen's. He was an estimable pastor, but the general desire for a union under Mr. Bowden was so apparent that he resigned. The latter was chosen to fill the vacancy, and the high expectations entertained of him were not dis- appointed. He died in 1862.
Rev. John Stearns became rector in 1863, and was succeeded in March. 1865, by Rev. E. Livingston Wells, whose pastorate continued until July, 1870.
In December. 1870. Rev. Leonard K. Storrs was chosen rector, and held the office until April, 1875, when he resigned. Rev. William Me- Glathery became rector in 1875, and resigned February 27th. 1881.
During the rectorship of Mr. Storrs the church was again handsomely remodeled and decorated.
The rectory on North street was sold about 1853. During the rec- torate of Mr. Parvin a new rectory was built on Broad street. It was sold about 1864.
The beautiful stained glass window, in memory of Herbert and Louis O'Sullivan, and Isabella Cochrane, Edwin Stoughton, and Amy Hope Curtis, was placed in the church by their relatives.
Rev. William Wilberforce Newton became rector in January, 1882. and continues to hold that position. Rev. Joseph M. Turner is assistant rector.
The wardens are William T. Filley and J. A. Kernochan. The ves- trymen are Thomas A. Oman, William D. Axtell, Joseph Gregory, Thomas Learned. Gen. Morris Schaff. F. McGowan is treasurer, John Allen Root, clerk. and J. B. Shepardson, sexton.
The first mass that is known to have been celebrated in Pittsfield was at the house of a Mr. Daley, on Williams street, in 1835. Rev. Jeremiah O'Callahan, who was in charge of a mission in Vermont, was accidentally detained as he was passing through Pittsfield, and consented to remain and administer to the spiritual wants of the Roman Catholics in the town. Mr. Daley, his wife and seven children. Thomas Colman, and five or six others were present. $14 were offered to Father O'Callahan. which he finally accepted. and with it purchased a barrel of flour, which he ordered sent to Daley's house.
Services were afterward held annually by Father O'Callahan till 1839. In 1841 Rev. John D. Brady commenced as a missionary, and held services once in three months : first in a room given by L. Pomeroy & Sons, in a brick building on the present west corner of Morton place and
405
TOWN OF PITTSFIELD.
Liberty street, and afterward in a house near the rear of the church of St. John the Baptist. In 1844 Father Brady purchased a lot on Melville street for a church and burial ground, and the house of worship was erected the same year. Services were held here occasionally by Revs. Brady, Kavanagh, and Straine. Father Brady died, and the church was attended several years by Rev. Bernard Kavanagh. In 1852 Rev. Patrick Cuddihy was placed in charge of this church and of all the missions in Berkshire county. Rev. Edward H. Purcell was soon made his assistant, and in 1854 he became the pastor of the church.
1
ST. JOSEPH'S (R. C.) CHURCH AND RESIDENCE OF PASTOR.
The congregation outgrew its accommodations, and Father Purcell entered on the work of providing a larger, more commodious, and taste- ful church building. He purchased for $10,000. from Rev. W. H. Tyler. three and a half aeres on Main street, next south of the grounds of Ma-
406
HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
plewood Institute. On this ample site the present church was erected. Ground was broken in July, 1864. the corner stone was laid August 20th by the Very Rev. John Joseph Williams, then administrator-afterward bishop-of the Diocese of Boston, in the same year, and the church was consecrated November 20th, 1866.
The walls-and the tower to the height of ninety-three feet-are of light gray limestone, laid as broken ashlar. The material was quarried about two miles north from Pittsfield. The length of the church, inelud- ing the tower and two low wings in the rear, used as chapels. is 175 feet. and its breadth is 68 feet. The style is light Gothic, and the interior is elegantly finished and ornamented. The nave is los feet long, and the apex of its arched roof is 55 feet in height from the floor. It is lighted by seven stained glass windows on each side, and the chancel has three of more elaborate art.
On each side of the chancel broad arches open into chapels, designed for the children of the Sunday school, where they may join in the ser- vices of the congregation. These chapels furnish 500 seats, and the nave accommodating 1,300, the house has sittings for nearly 1,900 persons.
About 1869 Rev. Mr. Lemarque, assistant pastor of St. Joseph's Church, collected a number of French Catholics in the town into a con- gregation by themselves, and preached to them in their own language. His successors were Rev. Mr. De Benil, Rev. Joseph Quevillon, and Rev. A. I. Desaulniers, the present pastor. This congregation, which took the name of St. Jean Le Baptiste. purchased and occupied the old convenient wooden church of St. Joseph's Society. Father Quevillon resigned in 1882, and Father Desaulniers, who had been his assistant for six months. became pastor of the church.
In 1858 the Protestant German population of Pittsfield was about 400. In that year they commenced holding services in their own language in private houses, receiving occasional visits from clergymen. In April, 1859, Rev. Augustus Grotrian organized the German Evangelical Church of Pittsfield. on the basis of the Augsburg Confession. By invitation of the First Congregational Parish the services were held in its lecture room. A site for a church, in the corner of the First street burial ground, was granted by the town. The church was built at a cost of $2,374, and was dedicated September 14th, 1865. People of other denominations contrib. uted liberally toward the erection of this church
Mr. Grotrian resigned in April, 1885. Rev. A. Kretchner was pastor from September, 1865. to April, 1866, and Rev. J. T. Simon from June, 1866, to October, 1868.
Rev. John David Haeger was called to the pastorate, and commenced his labors December 20th, 1863. Early in his pastorate the church voted to place itself under the jurisdiction of the Synodl of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the State of New York, and assumed the name of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Pittsfield.
In November, 1869, the Jewish citizens of the town, for the better
TOWN OF PITTSFIELD.
observance of divine worship, according to their peculiar rites, organized the society Ansha Amonium ; the officers being Edward Friend, presi- dent : Louis England. secretary ; Moses England, treasurer. This society includes some of the most substantial and respectable citizens of the town.
CEMETERIES.
The first burial place in Pittsfield was established in the early days of the settlement near the first meeting house. It continued in use till 1834. In the eastern part was another grave yard, established about the same time, in which repose the remains of the first white woman who made her home in the town. Two were also used. at different times, in the west part. All of these were small, and one, in the west part. is overgrown with woods.
In 1826 an unsuccessful movement for a new burial ground was made. In 1830 Nathan Willis, Calvin Martin. John Churchill, Lemuel Pomeroy, Samuel M. MeKay, E. R Colt, and Butler Goodrich were appointed to report upon a proposed enlargement of the old ground. Nothing came of it that year: but in 1831 Edward A. Newton, Simeon Brown, and S. L. Russell, who were appointed a committee on the same subject, report- ed before the adjournment of the meeting. recommending the purchase of a new ground. and the planting of shade trees on it.
In 1833 another committee, consisting of Nathan Willis, Thomas B. Strong, Oren Benedict, Edward A. Newton, and John B. Root, was ap- pointed to consider the matter. This committee strongly advocated the establishment of a new cemetery, and recommended the purchase of a lot of about eight acres in the southeast corner of the estate of Thomas Melville. This ground was purchased at $125 per acre. and established as a burying ground. A few years later an addition of five acres on the north of this was purchased of the Melville estate, for $1.144. The higher price was the consequence of competition by the railroad com. pany, who desired to purchase it for a gravel bed.
This plot was never used for burial purposes ; but became known as the Town Lot, and was the scene of cattle shows, menageries, and circuses until it was sold, in 1863, to Samuel W. Bowerman and Robert W. Adam.
Encroachments on the old first burial ground commenced. in 1790. with the taking from it of a portion for the park. They were continued from time to time, by leases and sales to individuals, and grants to the different parishes, and for other purposes, till the whole of the western border, to the depth of 76 feet, was disposed of.
All, or nearly all these appropriations of the burial ground to the purposes of the living required the removal of the dead, at first to other portions of the old ground, and to the new ground after that was opened.
These removals of their deceased friends were generally acquiesced in, though very reluctantly. In the spring of 1849. however. Mr. Joel
408
HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
Stevens positively forbade the disturbance of the graves of deceased members of his grandfather's and father's families, saying to the chair- man of the selectmen : " If you wish to see the title to that ground, read it on the moss-covered headstones. Remove these remains as you pro- pose, and in ten years you must remove them again. Then what will you find to remove ?"
Mr. Stevens afterward expressed his willingness that these remains should be removed if a sufficiently spacious cemetery could be provided to suffice the town for some hundreds of years, so that the dead might rest undisturbed. He drew up a petition to the selectinen requesting the call of a town meeting to consider the matter, and procured the necessary signatures to this perition.
The meeting was held, and Thomas B. Strong, Thomas A. Gold, Sam- uel A. Churchill, Ensign H. Kellogg, and Joel Stevens were appointed a committee to elaborate and report a plan for a permanent resting place for the dead. They reported in September, 1849, recommending the pur- chase of the farm of George W. Campbell, on the west side of Wahconah street. three quarters of a mile north of the park. They were discharged at their own request, and Solomon L. Russell, Thomas F. Plunkett, and Oliver S. Root were appointed in their stead.
In April, 1850, the last named committee reported, sustaining the recommendations of its predecessor as to the necessity of a cemetery and the advantages of Mr. Campbell's farm as a location. This farm con- tained one hundred and thirty-two and three fourths acres of land. of which one hundred would make good burial ground. It was at a convenient distance from the village, and its general features were fa- vorable for making it meet the requirements of taste ; the land being rolling. having two or three small groves and facilities for two or three fountains.
The report of the committee was accepted, the farm was purchased at a cost of $5.550, and a committee of ten was appointed to convey this farm, on certain conditions, to a cemetery corporation, when it should be formed. Such corporation was organized, under the general law, on the 28th of April, 1850, and the following officers were elected : Calvin Mar- tin, president ; James H. Dunham, treasurer ; Elias Merwin, secretary : Solomon L. Russell, M. H. Baldwin, O. S. Root, Thomas F. Plunkett. George W. Campbell. N. S. Dodge, Henry Clark, Robert Colt, and David Campbell, directors. The grounds were accepted on the prescribed terms. and the work of transforming them into a rural cemetery was entrusted to the directors. About three acres north of and adjoining the cemetery were purchased of John Weller August 14th, 1850.
Dr. Horatio Stone, of New York, was engaged. first to prepare the designs, and then to carry them into execution ; and to lus artistic skill and experience are largely due the beauties which the place was made to assume. Such was the energy and activity of the board of directors that at the close of the summer of 1850 the work was sufficiently advanced in
409
TOWN OF PITTSFIELD.
warrant the consecration and opening for use of the cemetery. Although much remained to be done much also had been accomplished. Without trenching upon their wild wood character the groves had been rounded into grace and freed from the unsightliness of decay and of careless de. struction. Man had restored to nature something of the symmetry of which his rude and hasty greed had robbed her. The waters of Onota Brook had been trained in a winding stream to a beantifnl lawn, where they spread into a small lake, reflecting its fringe of trees in mirror-like perfection. Miles of roads and paths wound in gentle curves through every part of the grounds ; while along its western border one broad straight avenue was prepared to receive its long vista of trees. Every- where the beautiful present prophesied a more beautiful future, which has since been realized.
On the 7th of September the cemetery was dedicated with appropri- ate ceremonies, in which eloquence and poetry mingled to constitute a scene Jong to be remembered by those present. The orator of the day was Rev. Henry Neill, of Lenox, and the poet was O. W. Holmes.
Elisha S. Tracy, by his will, bequeathed to the corporation ten acres of land lying south of the cemetery.
Calvin Martin continned in the office of president of the corporation till his death, in 1868, when he was succeeded by George W. Campbell. Mr. Campbell was sneceeded by Thomas Allen. in 1880, and by John R. Warriner, the present inenmbent, in 1883.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.