USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Great Barrington > History of Great Barrington, (Berkshire County,) Massachusetts > Part 13
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As a secure place of refuge in case of an attack, a Block-house-called "the fort"-was built, apparently in the spring of 1755. This stood on the west side of the road leading to Van Deusenville, about fifteen rods north of the residence of Frederick Abbey. Its site is still indicated by a slight depression in the ground, and also by a small old pear tree which grew near the west side of the building. This was a strong, substan- tial structure, built of square timbers; in size about thirty to thirty-five feet square on the ground, its upper story surmounted by a watch tower. It was loop-holed for musketry, and under it was a cellar; there was also a well near by. This building, afterwards used as a county jail, a small pox hospital in the Revolution, and later as a dwelling house and mechanic shop-was taken down nearly fifty years ago. From among other circumstances recorded by Mr. Hopkins we select the following :
Lord's Day, February 23, 1755. A great number of Con- necticut soldiers were at meeting, who are going to Stockbridge and Pontoosuk, to build forts and scout &c."
1755. "July 9. Heard to-day that the Indians have taken a man and woman, and child, about ten miles to the west of us. It was done yesterday, and one Indian was killed by the hus- band, while he was attempting to carry off his wife a captive. One woman is also wounded. Two or three Indians chased a man about a mile and a half west of my house. Upon this news we think it not prudent to live at my house and have therefore concluded to lodge at Mother Ingersoll's this night."
The house of Mr. Hopkins was where Walter W. Hollenbeck now resides, on Castle street hill, and his mother-in law-Mrs. Ingersoll-then lived on the east side of the street south of Mount Peter. Alarms similar to those narrated, were very frequent, and common throughout the war. The first news which arrived
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AMHERST'S ENCAMPMENT.
here of the battle of Lake George-September 8, 1755, -was adverse to the English, and many men from this region hurried forward to the assistance of their coun- trymen; but intelligence of the victory was soon after received, and on Sunday the 14th, it was made the theme of the minister's discourse. The great local event of the war was the march of General Amherst and his army through the parish on his way to attack Ticonderoga in 1758. The troops of General Amherst, at that time, encamped east of the Green River bridge, on both sides of the road leading to Egremont; and the late venerable Moses Hopkins, Esq.,-then a lad of seven years-well remembered riding over on horse- back with his father, to see the General and his army. Within the knowledge of the writer, musket balls in considerable quantity, supposed to be relics of this en- campment, have twice been plowed up on the meadows of J. M. Mackie in that vicinity.
In 1755, December 5th, Mr. Hopkins records "More than twenty soldiers lodged at my house last night, on their return from the camp at Lake George, and a number are here again to-night." And again, "Lord's Day, March 16th, 1756, A great number of soldiers at meeting, both forenoon and afternoon, who are on their march to Crown Point. Two captains and their com- panies desire prayers in their behalf this afternoon." The small pox, the great scourge of the army, was oc- casionally brought here by the soldiers, some of whom died here. Tomb stones marking the graves of two of the victims of this disease, are to be seen in the south burial ground. The inscriptions are as follows:
"Lt. Davenport Williams, son of Rev. Stephen Williams of Springfield, who on his return from the army, died at Sheffield Oct. 18th, 1758, in the 28th year of his age."
"Mr. Oliver Chapin, son of Lt. Noah Chapin of Somers, who on his return from the army, died at Sheffield Dec. 7th, 1758, in the 20th year of his age."
Others who died here in that same campaign, are presumed to have been buried in proximity to those named above, though no monumental stones mark their graves. A hospital was established here, in which sev- enteen soldiers died in less than a year in 1756-57-
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
(Judd's History of Hadley.) Capt. Stephen Gunn, said to have been a soldier in the French war, and who re- sided where Ralph Taylor now does, died of the small pox November 11, 1759, and was buried a few rods west of his dwelling house. The exact spot of his in- terment is unknown, though his tombstone-broken down more than sixty years ago-is still preserved upon the premises. Pest houses, for the reception and care of those taken with the small pox, were established in out of the way places. One of these is reputed to have stood near the old marble quarry, on the farm of J. M. Mackie, three-fourths of a mile north of the bridge over Green River, and some persons are known to have died there and to have been buried near by.
The wars with the French and Indians were the schools in which many of the officers and soldiers after- wards conspicuous in the Revolution, acquired that military experience and training without which the final success of the Americans in the unequal contest with Great Britain, would have been impossible.
We have gathered but little information as to the service performed by the inhabitants of the parish in the French and Indian wars; but from a cursory ex- amination of the rolls of soldiers in these wars, in the office of the Secretary of State at Boston, it appears that Sheffield was well represented in the various expe- ditions of 1755-8, and that the North Parish in propor- tion to its population furnished very respectable quotas of men. Thus we find the following names of resi- dents of the North Parish doing service in a Sheffield company in the campaign of 1755: John Pixley, Sam- uel Younglove, William King, Jr., David Pier, William Brunson, Samuel Dewey, Jr., Moses Olds; in 1756- John Shevalee, Samuel Dewey, Samuel Dewey, Jr., Moses Olds, David Pier, Timothy Younglove, William Brunson, William [Bill] Williams, Peter Ingersoll, David Walker, [Walter] Oliver Watson. Amongst the field and staff officers of Col. Joseph Dwight's regi- ment in the expedition against Crown Point in 1756, we have Doct. Samuel Breck-of the North Parish- surgeon, and Elijah Dwight, afterwards of this town, commissary of the hospital.
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SOLDIERS.
In an account of the men of Capt. Joseph Dwight's company-for he was Capt. of the first company as well as Colonel of the regiment-dated Fort William Henry, October 11, 1756, the following appear from the North Parish: John Pixley, Sergt., "sick at Albany." Oliver Watson, "sick at Albany." Moses Old, "gone to Albany, wounded ; "William King. In two rolls of the company of Capt. Benjamin Day, in the "Regiment for the Reduction of Canada"-William Williams, Col., in service from April to October, 1758, we identify the following from the North Parish: Lieut. George King, David Ingersoll, Titus Younglove, Eli Noble, Oliver Watson "emprest May 2d, joined the army 19th Sept.," Jonathan Pixley, Daniel Morris.
On their return from these expeditions large bodies of soldiery frequently passed through the parish; and in one of the books of French war rolls-No. 96, page 360-appears the billeting bill of Aaron Sheldon, (who kept a tavern where the Berkshire House stands); for 1126 meals at 6d each furnished the passing soldiers .on their return home in 1758, and for nursing several sick soldiers, one of whom died in his care.
CHAPTER XII.
GREAT BARRINGTON AS THE NORTH PARISH OF " SHEFFIELD.
1743-1761.
The country, into which the pioneers of 1726 en- tered with their families and such scanty household goods as they were able to transport through the woods, was an unbroken wilderness. The mountains and up- . lands were covered with a heavy growth of timber, and the lowlands, bordering upon the streams were for the . most part swamps and morasses. The rivers in many places obstructed with drift-wood and fallen trees, spread their waters over a wide area. The mountains. were the homes of wild beasts : bears, wolves and deer were common, and the smaller animals abounded.
Save the intricate bridle path which formed the- means of communication between the Connecticut River Valley and the settlements on the New York border, no. roads crossed this wide expanse ; and for many years after the commencement of settlements there were no towns nearer than Claverack and Kinderhook on the- west, or Westfield on the east. And so late as 1735, when the first road from Westfield to Sheffield was cut through the forest, there was but one house on the route, and that in Blandford fifteen miles this side of Westfield. (1) Few of the early settlers possessed an
(1) The route from Hartford and Springfield towards Albany was then as it very long had been, through Westfield. Blandford, Otis, Monterey, Great Barrington, and Egremont to Kinderhook. The road of 1735, following somewhat nearly this route, became a County road in 1754, and was called "the Great Road from Boston to Albany." In the Spring of 1737 ten inhabitants of Sheffield and Stockbridge ( six of them of the North Parish) . petitioned the Legislature, stating that they, in the preceding .: winter, had "at their own expense made a sleigh road from .. Sheffield to New Glascow" (Blandford) over which "more than twenty well loaded sleighs passed and repassed to and from Westfield," and asked for remuneration.
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CONDITION OF INHABITANTS.
abundance of worldly goods ; none were rich ; some of them were poor. Their lands cost them but a nominal sum-five dollars per hundred acres; and the prospect of obtaining good land at a low rate, coupled with the love of adventure and that inherent desire for change which characterizes the New Englanders, was the in- ducement which led them hither.
Amongst these first inhabitants were no liberally ed- ucated men ; all were from the common walks of life. But that strong common sense, and that superior edu- cation acquired by observation and experience rather than from books, which, better than the training of colleges and schools, fitted them to encounter and en- dure the privations and hardships of frontier life, was not wanting among them. With the erection of saw- mills, and increase of means, the dwellings of the set- tlers-at first of logs-gave place to more commodious framed structures; and houses sided with plank and clap-boarded were common during the last century. These were called plank houses.
Brick were doubtless made in several places where deposits of clay, suitable for the purpose were found ; but the first brick-kiln of which we have knowledge, was on the west side of the river, east of the highway and north of the house of James H. Beckwith. Here brick were burned in 1763, and probably much earlier; and a kiln has been in use at the same spot within the past fifty years. Limestone was abundant, from which the settlers easily supplied themselves with the lime needed for their buildings. A lime kiln, the first of which we have knowledge, stood upon the hill west of Parley A. Russell's house, from which the land in that vicinity came to be known as the "Lime Kiln Lot" at a very early date. Thus we read in the Proprietors' records'-March 1749-of a tract of ten acres laid out to the Rev. Samuel Hopkins "to correct an error in the Lime Kiln Lot." The business of the parish so far as obtaining such supplies as the industry of its in- habitants was incompetent to produce, was for the most part with Kinderhook ; but after the opening of the road of 1735, communication with Westfield and Springfield was not infrequent.
10
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
The requirements of the people were simple; their habits and style both of dress and living were inex- pensive, and were necessarily limited by a want of means, of which none possessed a surplus. Their household manufactures furnished most that was re- quired for clothing, and the products of their lands sufficed for provisions. The various mechanical in- dustries were well represented; carpenters, black- smiths, shoemakers, and tanners were amongst the early inhabitants, and many were capable of turning their hands to any ordinary employment. The active men in the conduct of parish business in the earliest years of its existence, and whose names appear most frequently on the parish records, were David and Moses Ingersoll, Josiah Phelps, Jonah Pixley, Joseph and Luke Noble, Daniel Nash and Aaron Sheldon.
Previous to the formation of the parish, we find in the records of Sheffield frequent mention of individual inhabitants of the north part of that town, some of whom were occasionally chosen to town offices ; thus :
1734. Joseph Noble and Samuel Dewey a committee to build a bridge over the Green River near the Indian Land ;
1735. Moses King chosen fence viewer;
1736. Moses Ingersoll chosen constable and highway surveyor; Thomas Pier tythingman ;
1737. Coonrod Burghardt and his sons acquitted from the payment of minister's rates ;
1739. David Ingersoll appointed to obtain town weights and measures .. After the annexation of the North Parish to Sheffield. 1753. Asahel King selectman and assessor; Hewit Root hog reeve ;
1754. David Ingersoll selectman, Luke Noble constable ;
1755. Stephen Gun fence viewer;
1756. Timothy Hopkins selectman ;
1758. Joseph Dwight, selectman and moderator.
Schools.
Previous to the incorporation of the North Parish, schools were to some extent maintained by the town of Sheffield in that part of the parish which lies south of the Great Bridge, and there is some reason to sup- pose that a schoolhouse had been built in that part of
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SCHOOLS.
the town. But in the Upper Township no public pro- visions were made for schooling though it is probable that schools were maintained by private enterprise.
In 1740, Sheffield provided for a school to be kept in the upper part of the town; and in 1743 having raised the sum of £35 Old Tenor for schools, voted that the "Inhabitants of the town of Sheffield dwelling north of the Indian Land or Beech Tree, (1) shall have the benefit of drawing the money they are assest, pro- vided they put it to the use of schooling." This pro- vision seems to convey a gentle insinuation that the people living north of the "Beech Tree" took no great in- terest in the matter of education. From 1743 forward, the North Parish shared equally with other sections of the town of Sheffield, in all appropriations made by the town for the support of schools, and the inhabitants of the parish were treated with as much liberality as were those of other parts of the town. But these appropri- ations were small, made at irregular intervals, and the schools were consequently irregularly kept. The sparse population was scattered over so large an area that the children could not be conveniently assembled at any one place for instruction; school-houses had not been built in different parts of the parish, and the appropri- ations made for schooling were inadequate to the em- ployment of a number of teachers. The custom then prevailed-which was continued in later years-of gathering the children of a certain section at some dwelling house, or other place conveniently located for the purpose, where they were taught for a stated length of time; at the expiration of this period the teacher removed to another part of the parish, where the children from that part were assembled and instructed; by this method the children enjoyed nearly equal ad- vantages ; the teacher itinerated, and one "master, mistress or dame" sufficed for nearly the whole of the parish.
In April 1744, Sheffield granted £30 Old Tenor for a school in the North Parish, and appointed Moses In-
(1.) The Beech tree-a boundary in the south line of the parish.
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
gersoll, Jonah Pixley and Isaac Van Deusen a commit- tee "to see that there is a school-master or school- mistress or dame provided, and also to see it be kept in such places as shall be thought necessary and con- venient in said Parish." Again the next year, Sheffield appropriated £50 Old Tenor for the support of schools in the North Parish and appointed a committee of the parish to see that the money was properly expended. In 1752, a grammar school was provided for by the town of Sheffield, to be kept four months in the Upper Parish, five months in the middle and three months at the south end of the town. In 1753, provision was again made for a grammar school to be kept in each, the Upper Parish, the middle and south parts of the town. In several of the years in which the parish formed a part of Sheffield, no appropriations for the support of schools were made, and if such were main- tained, it may be presumed to have been done by volun- tary contribution of the inhabitants.
But few votes, passed by the parish relating to schools are recorded. Jonathan Willard, Jun'r was allowed-March 9, 1748-"twenty shillings Old Tenor for making table for the school." In 1752 it was voted "to divide the school, one at Younglove's, the other at John Burghardt's house or thereabouts." Young- love's was Samuel Younglove opposite the Agricul- tural ground, and south of the cemetery ; "John Burghardt's" was the old Beckwith house on the road to Stockbridge. From these votes, and the expression "the school" it may be inferred that but one school was then regularly maintained. The earliest school- house, of which we have positive information, seems to have been built in 1748. No vote authorizing its erec- tion is found; but that it was built, and at the expense of the parish, appears from the following from the parish records, December 22d 1748:
" Voted to give fifteen shillings Old Tenor, to those men that built the school house ; fifteen shillings per day each man, and withal to pay for the Glass, Nails and Plates, and Beams, and Posts, Boards, Hooks, Hinges at a reasonable rate."
March 28, 1749. " Voted to John Pixley one pound old Tenor for making School-House Hearth."
"Vot. to Sergeant Henry Borghghardt for Oct. 27, 1749.
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FIRST SCHOOL-HOUSE.
four boards for the School House teen shillings old tenor," also "to Josiah Phelps, Lime, Boards and work to the school twenty two shillings old tenor."
The location of this school-house is now unknown; but it is not improbable that it stood on the east bank of the river a short distance south of the Great Bridge. This spot was then central with reference to popula- tion, and was the site of a school-house for many years of the last and early part of the present century.
We have remarked that there is some reason for supposing that an earlier school-house was standing, built perhaps before the parish had an existence. In June, 1757, the parish voted "to sell the old school house at a vendue," and appointed Israel Dewey to make the sale. The house was accordingly sold, and for the sum of eighteen shillings, as appears from the records of the next year, when the parish directed "that the eighteen shillings, the old school-house was sold for, be laid out on the Parish Meeting-House by the meeting-house committee." The school-house erect- ed in 1748, was then standing and no other had since been built. The expression-twice used in the record -"the old school-house," indicates that another, and older house, than the one built in 1748, was then stand- ing. It is also evident, from the paltry sum for which this house was sold, that it was older, more dilapidated and less valuable than the house built in 1748, could have become in nine years' time. Further, four years later, in 1761, the town of Great Barrington, then recently incorporated passed a vote "that the school for the present be kept in the school-house now built," from which we infer that there was one and but one school- house then standing, and that this was the house which was built in 1748. We may therefore conclude that the house sold in 1757 was in existence previous to the in- corporation of the parish. It is to be presumed that it was built under the auspices of the town of Sheffield, and that its location was south of the Great Bridge,- probably in the south part of the present village.
Highways.
In making provisions for highways in the Lower Township, the settling committee left lands for that
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
purpose in such places as they thought needful; and, in dividing the lands, they made allowance in the measure "so that the town is not to be at any charge for paying for the land upon which the highways shall go." They also decreed that in the meadow lands the highways should be but two rods, and in the uplands but four rods in width. But no surveys or records of these highways were made, and it is to be presumed that many of the earlier roads-mere paths at first- became such by virtue of occupancy and use. These highways were afterwards laid out and recorded by the town of Sheffield, and new ones were from time to time established as the necessities of the inhabitants re- quired. But as neither courses or distances are defini- tely given in the records of the earlier highways, it is in some instances, difficult to determine their loca- tions. On the meadow road to Sheffield, the first bridge over the Green River of which mention is found, was built in 1734, by Joseph Noble and Samuel Dewey, who were appointed by the town of Sheffield to over- see the work, and on the road leading to Egremont the Green River was bridged as early as 1742. An early path, through the southerly part of the village, which crossed the river near the foot of Church street, has been mentioned. In March, 1737, the town of Sheffield accepted a report made by its selectmen of the first road regularly laid out through this part of the Main street of the village. This was substantially the present meadow road between Great Barrington and Sheffield; coming from the southward, it ran "northerly to the fence at the northwest corner of Joseph Sheldon's meadow lot, and from thence running as the fence now is till it comes to the top of the hill (1) above Samuel Younglove's, to a Bush marked, and from thence run- ning to the upper side of Joshua White's right (2) to a pine stump marked, and from thence strait to Moses Ingersole (3) by the fence up to the Brook (4)
(1) The hill opposite the south burial ground.
(2) The upper side of Joshua White's right ; 18 rods north of the corner by the burial ground.
(3) Moses Ingersole ; where Ebenezer Pope lately dwelt.
(4) The brook which crosses the road south of the late Dr. Collins' stone cottage.
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HIGHWAYS.
to a black oak tree marked, and running by marked trees west of Stephen King's barn (1) to a pine tree marked, and from thence to a stump and stones, and so turning easterly, so running to the River and there a Pine tree marked, then crossing the River to a white tree marked, so running northerly to a Heap of Stones, (2) it being a monument between this town and the upper town." This highway from its beginning to the "top of the hill above Younglove's" was laid out four rods wide; from that point to the "Great Hollow" in front of Ralph Taylor's house, it was eight rods wide ; and from thence to its northern terminus it had the liberal width of ten rods. Down to about this time the river was not bridged, and the crossing place was at the fordway-the same which had been in use from the commencement of settlements,-where the "path by the Great Wigwam," mentioned by the settling com- mittee, had existed for untold years. After crossing the river it continued -- as the path had formerly been -along the east bank of the stream to the divisional line between the townships. The road through Water street, which had been in use several years before the river was bridged, was laid out by the selectmen of Sheffield, and confirmed by the town in March 1745. This road began at a heap of stones, about sixty rods north of Moses King's, (3)-near where the Berkshire House stands-and ran northerly to a point near the spring, (4) at the foot of the hill in Water street-and thence north-easterly to a corner of the stoop of David Ingersoll's house (5) and continued in that direction to
(1) Stephen King's barn stood near where the Berkshire House does.
(2) This heap of stones, was 60 rods north of Moses King's house, and a little east of the Great Bridge ; a land mark in the divisional line of the townships occasionally referred to in 'early surveys.
(3) Moses King had then removed-from the east to the west side of the river-to the house built by Joseph Sheldon, near where George Church now lives.
(4) This spring, frequently mentioned in early records, was a short distance north of the residence of the late Gideon M. Whiting.
(5) A corner of the stoop of Ingersoll's house, is mentioned as a boundary in all the records of this road made previous to 1829.
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
the town line, thence easterly across the river "where the Bridge now stands" to the corner of the mountain. This road was laid eight rods in width, and from the spring northerly bounded east on the river. On the east side of the river David Ingersoll's iron works and coal shed, near the bridge, stood within the eight rods limit of the highway, and by special provision, were permitted to remain there. At the same time with the establishment of this highway, the road leading north- erly from the fordway, along the east bank of the river, was discontinued, as a bridge had then been built over the river which rendered the further use of this road unnecessary.
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