USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Great Barrington > History of Great Barrington, (Berkshire County,) Massachusetts > Part 11
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Thomas Pier, commonly known by his military ti- tle of "Sergeant," had land on the east side of the road, extending northerly from the "Great Hollow," including the present house lot of Frederick Kellogg and the plain land north of it. Mr. Pier is supposed to have built and dwelt where Mr. Kellogg now lives. A very old house formerly occupied this site, the resi-
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DAVID KING.
dence sixty year ago, of Peyton P. Wheeler, and after- wards of Jesse Ford. This is presumed to have been the original dwelling of Thomas Pier; it was taken down about forty years since. Mr. Pier died in the autumn of 1778. He was the father of Thomas, David, Solomon, Oliver, Ethan, and of Rhoda, the wife of Benjamin Tremain of Egremont. Thomas Pier, Jun'r, at a very early date, settled on the farm lately owned by George G. Pierce, deceased, on the road to North Egremont, where he was living as late as 1785. One of his sons-Levi-removed to Cooperstown, N. Y., as early as 1794. Mr. Pier's house stood a few feet west from the Pierce house. These were all the locations made, west of the Green River, by the first settlers.
David King of Westfield,-son of John King of Northampton, born in 1681,-was the first inhabitant in the central or business part of the village. His lo- cation was in the vicinity of the Berkshire House, where his son Stephen-as mentioned beyond-after- wards lived. Mr. King had, in Westfield, a family of nine children, of whom Moses, Stephen and Gideon- the youngest-came and resided here. We have al- ready mentioned the death of David King, which oc- curred in 1730. Three years later, when the records of the settling committee were written, one half of his right belonged to Moses Ingersoll, and the larger part of the remainder, including his dwelling house, was owned by his son Stephen King, whilst a small tract, of ten acres, now a part of the Sanford farm, west of the village, was set apart to the son Gideon, then a lad of eleven years, who afterwards resided in the west part of the town on the Alford road. Stephen King, as we have intimated, succeeded to the occupancy of his father's homestead. The King house lot, of twelve acres, bounded northerly on the highway,-which has been described as running from a point north of the Berkshire House, easterly across the river at the ford- way,-westerly on the Main street, and southerly upon a hollow,-probably the so-called Silver Hollow, south of Mrs. McLean's house,-and with thirteen acres of adjoining meadow, reached easterly to the river. By
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
additions afterwards made, this lot was extended southerly to the meadow south of the Miss Nancy Kel- logg house. Mr. King also owned on the west side of the street, a lot of ten acres-forty rods square-hav- ing its northern boundary at the center of Castle street, and its southern limit a little north of the premises of Frederick T. Whiting. The site of his house is near where the Berkshire House stands. Here Mr. King resided until about 1744, when he sold his house, land and right to Aaron Sheldon. Three years earlier, he had bought land-the Alanson Church place-on the road to Green River, to which he removed, and on which he resided as late as 1785. He also at the same time made a purchase of ten acres lying on both sides of Green River, where the Kellogg mill stands. Here a fulling mill was afterwards erected, which Mr. King -who was a weaver by trade-is supposed to have operated for a time. Of the family of Stephen King we have but little information. The Sheffield records contain the marriage of Stephen King and Widow Esther Miller, March 26, 1752; probably his second marriage. His daughter Abigail-"Nabby"-married Thomas Baker of this town, and was mother of the wife of the late Captain Richard Bump.
John Granger, proprietor of one right, settled on the east side of the river, where lands, including a home lot of twelve acres, were laid out to him, opposite the fordway. The north line of his land appears to have been where the north line of the Catholic church pro- perty now is. Granger's house is believed to have stood a few rods south from the house built and owned by Jason Cooley, where evidences of a former habita- tion were visible within the knowledge of persons now living.
Moses King, one of the sons of David King, is pre- sumed to have come here with his father from West- field, though the earliest evidence we find of his resi- dence here is in 1733, when he bought of John Granger his land and improvements on the east side of the river, where he had a house standing in that year, supposed to be the same built by Granger, the location of which is above described. At a little later date, Mr. King re-
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MOSES AND WILLIAM KING.
sided a short distance further north. In 1736, his dwelling is incidentally mentioned in a survey by Timo- thy Dwight, who describes a monument of stones, east of the river, in the divisional line between the Upper and Lower Townships, as standing sixty rods north of Moses King's house. From this and other circum- stances we conclude that Mr. King's residence was in the vicinity where Mrs. Thomas Siggins now lives, on the old road leading southerly from the bridge. Here he resided and kept a tavern until 1742, when his pro- perty, incumbered by mortgage, went into the posses- sion of other members of the King family, and he re- moved across the river, to the house which has been mentioned, built by Joseph Sheldon, near where the railroad crosses South street. Moses King died about 1751 ; his wife was Esther, daughter of Matthew Noble, the first settler in Sheffield.
Another family-thongh not properly classed amongst the first settlers-is that of William King, perhaps a son of William of Northampton, and cousin of David King of this town. This William King is sup- posed to have come here from Westfield about 1740, and to have had his residence at the Bung Hill corner, opposite the place lately Charles Pixley's. He was not a proprietor; was in very moderate circumstances, but was, nevertheless, a man of some consequence in the
parish, of which he was the clerk for nine years-1745- 54. , He died September 1769, aged 80. His wife- Esther-survived him, and died December, 1773, at the age of 76. Mr. King had a family of four sons and one daughter,-Asahel, George, Reuben, Wil- liam and Huldah,-all of whom resided here, and were persons of more than ordinary intelligence. Of these, Asahel, the eldest, had his residence on the east side of the old road, which leads from the bridge southerly between the mountains. His house is reputed to have stood just north of a little run of water which crosses the road: its locality is still marked by a few antiqua- ted apple trees. Asahel King was, perhaps, as promi- nent as any young man in the parish ; he was one of the original founders of the church, and was selectman and assessor in the old town of Sheffield. Mr. King
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
died at the age of 36, October 30th, 1756. He had been the warm friend and earnest supporter of the Rev. Sam- uel Hopkins. The death of John Pixley, another of the original members of the church, occurred on the day following that of Mr. King. The loss of these men was a severe affliction to the minister : and the esteem in which they were held by him is expressed in the following abstract from his private diary. quoted by Professor Parke in his life of Hopkins :
" Monday, November 1, 1756. Attended the funeral of Ser- geant John Pixley, who died last night about nine o'clock. Asa- hel King and John Pixley were members of this church, and both friendly to me and the interest of religion, and were some of the most constant attenders on public worship. Asahel King was a man of more than common good sense, and promised to be a useful man in church and state. I and the interest of religion have received a greater loss in his death than we should have received, perhaps, in the loss of any other. I have in him lost my greatest and ablest friend in this place. A prince is fallen and I am weak."
The wife of Asahel King was Rebecca Nash of this town, (perhaps a daughter of Daniel Nash,) whom he married July 7, 1744. Their children were :
Chloe, married Ehud Hopkins, Esq., of this town, who also resided in Egremont and Alford.
Kesiah, born December 4, 1745; married Samuel Harmon of Sheffield.
Joseph, born April 16, 1747; resided in this town.
Lucius, born April 16, 1749 : he became a prominent citizen of the town ; removed about 1826 to Malone, N. Y.
Elizabeth, born September 7, 1751 ; married Lieut. John Powell ; resided in this town and in New Marlboro.
Asahel, born September 25, 1754.
Reuben, born August 15. 1756; died January 22, 1759.
Capt. George King, son of William, had his resi- dence until 1770, on the east side of the old road, on land now owned by the Berkshire Woolen Compa- ny, about one hundred rods south of the old meeting house, where Lucius King afterwards lived. His house, a small old-fashioned building, standing close upon the road, disappeared thirty or forty years since. He removed, about 1770, to the Bung Hill corner, where his father had previously lived. Capt. King, who was a carpenter by occupation, had somewhat of the adventurous in his disposition ; was constable and
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GEORGE AND REUBEN KING.
sheriff in early times ; entered the service in the Rev- olution, and died at Ticonderoga, January 17, 1777, at the age of 54. A tombstone in the upper burial ground informs us that George-a son of Capt. George King -" perished on the East Mountain in this town, in April 1777, in the 4th year of his age." The family of Capt. King at that time resided at the Bung Hill cor- ner, and, as the tradition is, were engaged in sugar making on the mountain south of the house; the child, in endeavoring to follow the workman to the sap-bush, wandered from the path and was lost; and although the neighbors turned out in large numbers, and dili- gent search was made, all efforts to find him proved fruitless. Several months after, his remains were dis- covered beside a fallen tree on the mountain side. Reuben King, son of William, mentioned in early deeds as a "trader " of Westfield, came to this town about 1741-2, and jointly with his brothers, Asahel and George, purchased the farm on the east side of the river, previously owned by Moses King. He apparent- ly had his residence where Moses King had formerly dwelt, fifty or sixty rods south of the old meeting house. He was an energetic man, engaged in trading, and his name-during the few years of his residence here-fre- quently appears in the deeds and real estate changes .of that period. His wife was Sarah Mosley of West- field, to whom he was married October 11, 1742. A stone to the memory of Reuben King, in the upper burial ground, gives the date of his decease 1747, and his age 30 years ; but there is reason to believe that his death occurred a year or two previous to that date. This, with other memorial stones of the King family, was erected more than sixty years after the death of Reuben, in accordance with provisions made in the will of his sister, Huldah. After the death of her husband, Mrs. King, with her two children, Bohan and Esther, removed to Westfield. Major William King, son of William, born about 1729, became a leading citizen of the town, and his name is intimately associated with its history during and after the Revolutionary period. He married, January 16, 1755, Rachel, daughter of Samuel Lee of this town, and died in 1810, leaving no
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
descendants. He will be more particularly mentioned hereafter.
David Ingersoll, (or Ingersole) who was one of the most enterprising men of the parish, in its earlier years, and who, perhaps, exercised a wider influence than any other of its inhabitants, was a son of Thomas Ingersoll, of Westfield, and brother of Moses Ingersoll, who has been mentioned as one of the very early settlers of the town. The first mention we find of David Ingersoll is as a trader, of Springfield, in 1731 ; he was soon after a resident of Brookfield,-1732-4-and removed to this town, possibly, as early as 1735. In that year his house, near where Warren Crissey now resides, on the road to Stockbridge, is mentioned in the records of the Upper propriety, but it is not certain that he was then living there. His first appearance as a prominent man in the settlement is in 1739 ; and from that time, for a period of fifteen years, his name is connected with most of its business interests. He became the owner of five rights in the Upper, as well as a large land- holder in the Lower township. With an eye to busi- ness, Mr. Ingersoll, early in 1739, under a title of ex- tremely doubtful validity, obtained possession of the water power, now occupied by the Berkshire Woolen Company, where he built a dam, erected a saw-mill and grist-mill, and also a forge and trip-hammer for the manufacture of bar-iron. These works, which were on the east bank of the river, below the bridge, were soon completed, and in 1740 he made iron at his forge from ore obtained from the bed east of Lebbeus M. Pixley's. He had also a store and small stock of goods near by, and was, for the time, quite extensively engaged in business.
Mr. Ingersoll built his house in 1739, on the west side of the way in Water street. This house, a low one and one-half story building, with a porch in front formed by a long sloping roof, stood directly in front . of the site of the dwelling house next north of the old Gorham tavern, and partly within the present high- way. It was taken down about 1828, by the late Charles W. Hopkins, Esq., who built the present house standing nearly upon the site of the old one. Here
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DAVID INGERSOLL.
Mr. Ingersoll resided for ten years, until 1749, when he sold the house to Deacon Timothy Hopkins, and re- moved to another part of the town.
Mr. Ingersoll was the first clerk of the Upper pro- priety. chosen in 1742; one of the committee for build- ing the meeting house, and for providing a minister, and is reputed to have donated the land on which the meeting-house was erected. He was the first magis- trate residing within the bounds of the parish, having been commissioned a Justice of the Peace September 8, 1749, an office, at that time, of honor and trust, which conferred dignity and importance upon its in- cumbent, and entitled him to consideration and respect. In his individual as well as official capacity he was en- gaged in the interest of some of the tenants of Living- ston's manor -- who were then presumed to reside with- in the limits of Massachusetts-in their quarrels with their landlord, and incurred the displeasure of Mr. Livingston, who, in a letter to Lt. Gov. Delancey, de- nounced him as "that wicked varlet David Engersoll." He was a captain of militia, and also a selectman of the town of Sheffield.
Mr. Ingersoll was not permanently successful in hi business enterprises, and in 1755, his mills and other property were taken on execution to satisfy the de- mands of creditors. At about the same time,-August 15, 1755,-in consequence of some irregularities in his transactions with the government, in his official capaci- ty as selectman of Sheffield,-tradition says in a mat ter of bounties on wolf scalps-David Ingersoll was, by order of the General Court, removed from the offices of Justice of the Peace and Captain of militia, and thereafter disqualified from holding any office of honor or profit under the government. From this time his influence waned, and his name seldom appears in parish or town history. He afterwards, for a time, resided upon the farm lately David Leavitt's, south of the vil- lage, which he owned in connection with a large tract of land to the southward; the whole, embracing some five hundred acres, was commonly known as "Inger- soll's great farm."
The first wife of David Ingersoll-Lydia Child-
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
whom he married February, 1721, is supposed to have died before his removal to this place. His second wife was Submit Horton, daughter of Thomas Horton of Springfield and of this town; she died Nov. 23, 1770. Mr. Ingersoll died March 23, 1773, aged 73 years. By his first marriage Mr. Ingersoll had a son William, who became a prominent man in this town, and after 1769, an influential citizen of Lee, for whom his father built a house, apparently near where Seneca Nodine lives, on Christian Hill, and to whom he deeded land in that locality in 1744. The children of David Ingersoll, by his second marriage, were :
Thomas Horton, born June 30, 1740.
Deodat, born April 18, 1744 ; resided in this town and in Al- ford.
David, born Sept. 26, 1742 ; a lawyer and magistrate of this town ; went to England in 1774.
Stephen, born Sept. 17, 1745; died July 1, 1755.
Sarah, born Jan'y 24, 1746-7 ; married Doctor Barnard of Deerfield.
Lovisa, born Oct. 14, 1751 ; married William Schermerhorn, Sept. 24, 1774.
Oliver, born Dec. 10, 1752 ; resided in Seekonk.
Stephen, 2d, born July 24, 1755.
The locations which have been described were all in the Lower Township. North of the bridge, in the Upper Township, as we have before remarked, the forty proprietary rights were owned by a few individuals, some of them non-residents, and as the records of that township were not completed until 1742,-many years after settlements were made-it is impossible to de- termine, from that source, in what year individual set- tlers came into this part of the town.
On the Van Deusenville road, Hezekiah Phelps, from Westfield, had a house lot of six acres, on the east side of the way, opposite the present residence of Frederick Abbey. The site of his house,-standing in 1735,-was evidently near where Mr. Abbey's barn stands. He had also a home lot of 100 acres, includ- ing the dwelling place of Mr. Abbey, extending 100 rods southerly, along the west side of the highway, and 160 rods westerly. Mr. Phelps appears to have died about 1746, and eleven years later, his farm was
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JOHN WILLIAMS.
in possession of Israel Dewey, who was soon after suc- ceeded by his son Benedict, who built the house in which Mr. Abbey now lives. A home lot was laid out to Stephen Vanhall (or Van Allen), apparently where Jared Lewis resides, but by whom first occupied we have not ascertained, Other lands in that part of the town belonged to Daniel Sackett of Westfield and Aaron Van Dyck of Kinderhook; these or a large part of them, were afterwards owned by John Williams.
John Williams was from Westfield; originally the proprietor of one right, he became a large land holder and an influential citizen. His homestead included the premises lately occupied by Mark Hollenbeck, and his house,-mentioned in the records 1735-stood where the Hollenbeck house now does ; the road at that time, and for many years afterwards, ran east of that house. His son-in-law, Solomon Williams, resided upon the place as late as 1781. The proprietors, in 1749, grant- ed to John Williams a mill site on "the old saw-mill brook,"-now the Williams river,-on condition that he should erect a grist-mill and saw-mill within one year. Mr. Williams soon after erected the mills on the north side of the stream at Van Deusenville. He was active in the formation and building of the Epis- copal church, and was the largest resident contributor towards its erection. Mr. Williams died about 1775, at least earlier than 1781. His estate, appraised in the latter year, amounted to £1,900; and his then surviv- ing children were: John; Hannah, the wife of Solo- mon Williams; Desire, wife of John Freese of Lee; Content, wife of - Van Deusen, resided in Salis- bury, Ct. Two of his sons, Warham and Bill, had pre- viously died.
At Van Deusenville a home lot of twenty acres, bounding north on "the mill-brook"-Williams River -was set to one of the rights of David Ingersoll, and also another tract of the same quantity on the north side of the stream. This last tract belonged to the es- tate of Bill Williams, deceased, in 1781. These were the most northerly divisions of land made by the set- tling committee, on the west side of the river.
On the east side of the river, Derrick Hogaboom, a
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
Dutchman from the state of New York, is reputed to have been one of the earliest settlers. He owned one right in the original division of lands, which was in possession of David Ingersoll in 1735. This right of 400 acres, part of which was improved, and then occu- pied by Joseph Sheldon, was conveyed to Ingersoll by Aaron Van Dyck of Kinderhook, March 17, 1742, (per- haps in fulfillment of a contract of an earlier date) for the sum of £63, New York currency, equal to$157.50.
Hogaboom's location was near where the new dwell- ing house of Warren Crissey stands. His home lot of twelve acres bounded southerly upon the highway, which then-and until 1812-turned east, below Mr. Crissey's house, and ran out by the old Levi Hyde place, now owned by Mr. Crissey. Hogaboom had disappeared before 1735, and we have no further in- formation of him. Further south, where Edson Sex- ton, John H. Hyde and William I. Walker now reside, Josiah Phelps, from Westfield, who was the owner of two and one half rights, had lands on both sides of the street, fifty rods in width north and south. Mr. Phelps is supposed to have resided upon the spot where Mr. Sexton's house stands, and where his son Josiah after- wards lived. Josiah Phelps died about 1760. His son, Josiah Phelps, Jun'r, married Elizabeth Pixley January 1, 1746, and had daughters, Anna and Rhoda; the former became the wife of Deacon William Remele, and the latter married Benajah Dunham. Mr. Phelps remained upon the old homestead, and was succeeded by Deacon Remele, who died there at the age of 85, in 1832. The Phelps and Remele mansion was taken down by the late William Walker, about 1851, who erected upon its site the house now Mr. Sexton's. The old "roof tree," a stately elm, then cut down to make place for a modern piazza, numbered the circles of 132 years at its base.
About 1730, Joseph Pixley came from Westfield, with a family of eight children, several of them grown to manhood, and settled north of the Pixley Brook. From this family that part of the town called Pixley Street derived its name. The descendants of this fami- ly have been very numerous in this town. Joseph
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JOSEPH PIXLEY.
Pixley-born March 9, 1676-was a son of William Pixley of Hadley. The names of his children, in the order of their births, all of whom are said to have re- moved with him to this place, were: Jonah, Joseph, Abigail, Moses, John, Jonathan, David and Clark. Joseph Pixley was the owner of three rights, and his son Jonah of one. To these rights lands were as- signed, extending from the Josiah Phelps home lot southerly, on both sides of the highway eighty rods, nearly to the Pixley Brook. These lands included the present dwelling places of the late Lewis G. Ramsey and Lebbeus M. Pixley, and perhaps also those of Mark Humphrey and Jeremiah Atwood.
In this part of the town the settling committee es- tablished another highway-never much used-run- ning north and south along the hill, eighty rods east of the County road, upon which the lands of Phelps and the Pixleys abutted eastwardly. The home lot assigned to Jonah Pixley apparently included the prem- ises occupied by the late Lewis G. Ramsey and Leb- beus M. Pixley; and the lots owned by his father lay directly south of and adjoining to this. Moses Pixley, son of Joseph, is said to have had his house a few rods north of Jeremiah Atwood's, where his children, Irena and Erastus afterwards lived; he died in 1771. Jona- than Pixley, son of Joseph, and grandfather of Leb- beus M. Pixley, built in 1763, a brick house, since taken down, upon the spot where the late Lewis G. Ramsey's house stands. He was killed by the over- turning of a load of rails in descending the hill east of the house of L. M. Pixley, on the day of the battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775.
One of this family-Isaac Pixley-settled where Mark Humphrey now lives, and kept a tavern there. His house was burned in 1787, and he then built the old red house, in which David Humphrey for many years resided, which has been recently taken down. The burning of this tavern is said to have been incen- diary.
The selectmen, of whom Isaac Pixley was one, had issued their warrant,-August 3, 1787,-to Ezra Kel- logg, the constable, requiring him to notify several
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
persons, who were without visible means of support to depart the limits of. the town; and the warrant had been duly served. Amongst those thus warned out of town was one Daniel Forgison and his wife; and For -- gison is reputed to have retaliated upon Mr. Pixley by burning his dwelling. But the fire was productive of greater disaster than its originator intended, as one Peter Orcut, who had been engaged in celebrating his. twenty-first birth day, and who had indulged too free -- ly in his cups, had, that night, been put to bed in the garret of the tavern, where he perished in the flames. Another of the early Pixleys, is supposed to have re- sided where Jeremiah Atwood now does.
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