USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Great Barrington > History of Great Barrington, (Berkshire County,) Massachusetts > Part 18
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
201
REV. SOLOMON PALMER.
Mr .- afterwards Rev'd-Gideon Bostwick, then preparing for the ministry, was officiating as Lay Reader to this church as early as June, 1765, and is supposed to have acted in that capacity to the time of his departure for England, for the purpose of taking Holy Orders, in the latter part of 1769. The Rev. Solomon Palmer, as before stated, is supposed to have visited the Episcopalians here previous to their being united into a church by Mr. Davies. He was then a missionary of the towns of New Milford, Sharon and Litchfield, but in 1761, was removed, at his own re- quest to Amboy, New Jersey, and was afterwards- 1764-established at New Haven. He was again re- moved to Litchfield (probably soon after the death of Mr. Davies, 1766)-and afterwards had charge of the church at Litchfield and at Great Barrington. He is supposed to have preached here occasionally until 1770, when the Rev. Gideon Bostwick was settled here as a missionary.
From the certificate of Mr. Davies, before quoted, we learn the names of the seventeen original members of this church, some of whom were residents of other towns; those of the number residing in Great Bar- rington were Jonathan Reed, David Ingersoll, Doctor Samuel Breck, Stephen King, Jacob Burghardt, John Williams and his sons John and Warham, Ebenezer Hamlin, Daniel Baily, and perhaps Joseph Robie-or Robin-as we find it elsewhere written. The Loomises were of Egremont or Sheffield ; John Westover resided in Egremont, and Robert Noble is supposed to have been Capt. Robert Noble, (from Sheffield) an early set- tler of Hillsdale, from whom that place derived its original name of Nobletown. It is probable that the Van Deusens, Burghardts and others of Dutch de- scent, who were active in the early history of the church united with it soon after its formation, and very considerable accessions were made to its member- ship previous to the settlement of Mr. Bostwick-in 1770. Mr. Davies, in a letter already quoted, affirms that in 1762 there were in this place "no less than forty sober and reputable families of the Church of England," but it is probable that in this estimate were
202
HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
included families from other towns who attended upone his preaching here.
In the earlier years of Mr. Bostwick's ministry- 1770-77-the persons chosen to the offices of church -- warden and clerk were David Ingersoll, Jr., Esq .. John Van Deusen, Ensign John Burghardt, John Hickox,, Martin Remelee, Peter Burghardt, Barnabas Scott. In 1771, we find Jogham Johnson chosen bell-man. This Jogham (or Jacob) Johnson filled the office of bell -- ringer and sexton for many years, and, in 1783, was. appointed by the town to keep the keys of the south burial ground; his residence was near where the dwel- ling house of Major W. H. Gibbons stands.
We have the certificate of Rev. Gideon Bostwick,. missionary, and John Hickox and Martin Remelee church wardens, dated October 24, 1775, and addressed to the town treasurer, that the following named per- sons were then "Professors of the Church of England and usually and frequently attend the Publick worship, of God on the Lord's Day with us :"
David Arnold,
John Burghardt,
Thomas Pier, Martin Remelee, Peter Sharp,
Coonrod Burghardt,
Gerredt Burghardt,
Coonrodt Sharp,
Peter Burghardt,
Thomas Sherelock,-
Jacob Burghardt,
Barnabas Scott,
Hendrick Burghardt,
Nathan Scribner,
Ensign John Burghardt,
Benjamin Stillman.
Coonrodt Burghardt, Jr.,
William Schermerhorn, .
John Burghardt, 3d,
Cornelius Sharp,
Hendrick Burghardt, Jr.,
Frederick Johnson, Isaac Van Deusen,
John Culver.
John Van Deusen,
Joseph Davis, Samuel Fowler, John Hickox,
Matthew Van Deusen,
Jacob Van Deusen,
Caleb Hill, Caleb Hall,
Jeremiah Wormer, .. Aaron Wormer.
Oliver Ingersoll, Stephen King,
Reuben Welton,. John Gun,
Samuel Lee,
Isaac Preston,
Jonathan Prindle,
James Taylor,
These were all inhabitants of Great Barrington ...
Peter Burghardt, Jr., Asa Brown, John Church,
Abraham Van Deusen,.
Coonrodt Van Deusen,
Isaac Van Deusen, Jr.,. William Whiting,
Richard Houck,
203
ERECTION OF THE CHURCH.
Notable amongst the few improvements of a public character made in the town in the last century was the erection of the first Episcopal church.
In December, 1763, John Burghardt, by deed of gift conveyed to the Society for the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts a small plot of ground upon which the church was soon afterwards built. Funds and material for its erection were liberally contributed by resident professors of the Church of England; of these John Williams was the largest contributor, (1) and Isaac Van Deusen and others are reputed to have given very freely. Aid was also received from abroad, and the glass, it is said, was furnished by some friend of the enterprise, in England. John Williams, Samuel Lee and John Burghardt constituted the building com- mittee. The house was erected in the spring and summer of 1764, and was first opened for public wor- ship at Christmas of that year. The site of this church was a few rods south of the residence of Mr. John Brewer, in the south part of the village, and nearly west of his barn. The main body of the building was forty by fifty feet on the ground exclusive of the porch and rear projection, which added, made a total length of seventy-one feet. The steeple, which was one hun- dred and ten feet in hight was surmounted by a gilded weather-cock, in the form of a rooster, and the belfry was supplied with a bell-an ordinary ship bell-the gift of some friend-the first which woke the echoes of the East Mountain or summoned the villagers to the house of prayer. The glass was freely used; the sides of the house were for the most part windows, large and high, with arched tops, and composed of very small panes, whilst in the east end, in rear of the pulpit, was a projecting window of extraordinary dimensions. So largely did the glass enter into the composition of the building that it was sometimes derisively called the "Glass house." Above the pulpit, suspended from the ceiling overhead, hung a sounding board ; and after the Revolution, a monument of wood, with a gilded ball on its top, inscribed to the memory of Washington, occu-
(1) Deposition of Rev. Gideon Bostwick, in a suit against Samuel Lee and John Burghardt, 1771.
204
HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
pied a place near the pulpit. It was some years before the church was fully completed and finished. About the year 1769, a portion of the body part of the house was provided with pews, erected by individuals at their own expense. It was a fine structure for the time in which it was erected, and, in its appearance, reflected credit upon the energy and enterprise of its builders. The weather-cock, and some other material for the building, was ordered by the building committee from Jeremiah Hogeboom, a merchant of Clavarack, N. Y .; He afterwards sued the committee to recover a balance due him for the articles furnished, and in the files of the county court we find the original order, as follows :
"Grate Barrington, May 11th, 1764.
SR :- You would grately oblege us whose names are hear under writen, who are a Committee appointed for the Building the church at Barrington to send us the following artickels viz. one whether cook and furniture exept the Iron Spindel whitch can be Procured hear with Less Cost the Dimentions of it must be Proportioned to the house on whitch it is to stand and the workman that makes it must know the Bigness of the house and height of the steple witch are as follows-Length of the house 50 feet exclusive the chansell and steple witch contain 21 feet more so that the whole Length is 71 feet the width is 40 feet the height of the steple will be 110 feet we have sent you six Pound York money in Part to Pay for the wethercook and furniture and will pay the rest when we receve them of you we also want 200 lbs of 24d nails or small Duch nails and 40 1b of 20d nails, and 200 1b of 10d nails, and 60 1b of 8d nails and 110 1b of 4d nails and four papers of 6d Brads and three Papers of 4d Brads and one Paper of 3d Brads and half a paper of 2d Brads and three lbs of Glue and we will Pay you for them when we receive them of-and we want them all in about fourteen days. Sr. your compliance will oblige yours at command.
JOHN WILLIAMS, SAMUEL LEE, JOHN BORGHARDT,"
'To Capt. Jerimiah Hogboom.
This weather cock, which was of copper, cost, as by Mr. Hogeboom's account £11 New York currency, in- cluding a charge of £5 for gilding. It did service on the church steeple until a short time previous to the demolition of the church-when it was blown down in a storm-and afterwards graced the peak of Daniel Wilcox's barn, on the David Leavitt farm. It is still in existence, though not in use.
205
REV. GIDEON BOSTWICK.
In this church the Episcopalians worshiped for nearly seventy years; it was taken down in 1833, and such of the timber, flooring and other material as were suitable for the purpose were then used in the erection of the second church -- the stone building, known as Church block-now standing on the corner of Main and Railroad streets. The little ship bell survived the demolition, and was removed to the second church, and continued in use about a dozen years, until, on one Sabbath morning, it was broken at the first stroke, and its place was soon after supplied with a larger and better one.
Rev'd Gideon Bostwick.
Reverend Gideon Bostwick, the first permanent minister of the Episcopal Church in Great Barrington, was a native of New Milford, Conn .- born in 1742- and a graduate of Yale college in 1762. He became a resident of Great Barrington as early as 1764, and if we mistake not was employed here as a teacher of a school, of a higher grade than the common schools of that time. In June, 1765, as we learn from the letters of Reverend Thomas Davies, Mr. Bostwick was offici- ating as Lay Reader in the Church and was also pre- paring for the ministry. Late in the year of 1769, he went to England, where he was ordained a Deacon by the Bishop of London, received Priest's Orders, and returning to this country in the early part of 1770, became a missionary of the society for the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts, and was placed in charge of the church at Great Barrington. The records of the missionary labors of Mr. Bostwick begin with the 17th of June, 1770, when he held services at Nobletown- now Hillsdale, N. Y .- baptized a large number of chil- dren and presided at the choice of church wardens. His first record relative to the church in Great Bar- rington is dated July 5th, 1770, when David Ingersoll, Jun'r, Esq., and John Van Deusen were chosen church wardens, Ensign John Burghardt clerk, Moses Pixley and Nathan Scribner choristers.
These records extend over the whole time of Mr. Bostwick's ministry-twenty-three years. In addition to the charge of the Church in this place, of which he
206
HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
was the first rector, Mr. Bostwick's mission extended to various other towns in this county, in the states of New York and Vermont, and occasionally to some towns in Litchfield county. His missionary labors were extremely arduous, necessitating long journeys on horseback extending to Bennington, Arlington, Manchester and other towns of Vermont on the north, the Hudson river on the west, and including twenty towns in Berkshire county. His records indicate that the performance of his duties required constant appli- cation and great industry, with protracted absences from his family; and the amount of work which he per- formed in his long journeys through a rough and sparsely settled country seems almost incredible.
In this town and the various places which he visited during his ministry, he is reputed to have baptized 81 adults, 2,274 children, to have joined in marriage 127 couples, and to have attended upon the burial of 84 persons. Mr. Bostwick preached here for the last time on Sunday the 2d of June, 1793, and on the 4th of that month attended "the annual convention of the Diocese at Middletown, Conn.," on which occasion he presented the Rev. Daniel Burhans to Bishop Seabury for Holy Orders. On his journey home he was taken sick, and died at New Milford on the 13th of June, at the age of fifty years. His remains are interred in the lower cemetery in this town. In the death of Mr. Bostwick, the church in this place suffered a severe and almost irreparable loss, for he was very popular with his peo- ple, and they were warmly attached to him. Few resi- dents of the town have been more highly or more generally esteemed than was Mr. Bostwick. He is re- puted to have been a genial, friendly and affable man, zealous and untiring in his labors, devoted to his call- ing and to his parishioners. During the twenty-three years of his ministry the church was prosperous, and as for a very large part of that time the Congregation- alists were not provided with a settled minister, this was the only church in town in which religious services were uniformly and regularly maintained. The resi- dence of Mr. Bostwick, for a time at least, was the brick house just south of the Pixley brook, on the road
207
REV. GIDEON BOSTWICK.
to Stockbridge, now occupied by Moses C. Burr. The salary paid him by the parish in this town was always small; in 1771, we find it stated at £20; but he re- ceived further support from the parent society in Lon- don, of which he was a missionary. Previous to his visit to England in 1769-but at what date we are not informed-Mr. Bostwick married Gesie Burghardt, daughter of John Burghardt, one of the early settlers · of this town, by whom he had nine children, most of whom survived him. His wife died May 16, 1787, aged thirty-nine years. The children of Gideon and Gesie Bostwick were:
Betsa Maria, baptized September 29, 1771.
Fitie - -, baptized November 28, 1773 ; married Herman
. Canfield, of Canfield, Trumbull county, Ohio.
Gesie, baptized November 19, 1775; died July, 1780.
Clarissa, baptized April 5, 1778.
John, baptized April 23, 1780.
Henry, baptized May 12, 1782 ; resided in Canada.
Gesie 2d. baptized August 1, 1784.
Elijah, baptized December 25, 1786.
.Adolphus.
CHAPTER XVII.
CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS-NEW INHABITANTS AND NEW LOCATIONS.
1761-1776.
At the time of the incorporation of the town- 1761-the straggling hamlet of Upper Sheffield-it can hardly be called a village-extended from Pixley street south to the Great Bridge and from thence to the Zina Parks' place, south of Merritt I. Wheeler's ; but with the exception of the old David Ingersoll house, which has been repeatedly mentioned, there were no dwellings between the bridge and the present Congregational Church, and the few dwellings south of that point were scattered at wide intervals. In- deed nearly all the buildings in Water street have been erected within the past fifty years. The central part, proper, of this hamlet was east of the bridge ; and its not very extensive business was mostly in that vicinity. The meeting-house, standing in the west line of the upper burial ground, the mills on the river bank, erect- ed by David Ingersoll more than twenty years before, and the very notable tavern of Captain Hewit Root at the east end of the bridge, formed a nucleus about which a few dwellings had congregated. Further east at the Bung Hill corner was another small collection of residences, a shop or two and the smithery of Jona- than Nash. In laying out the lands on the east side of the river, through Pixley street, the settling com- mittee appear to have had in view the site of a pro- spective village on the level ground in that vicinity and gave to the main road in that part of the town, a width of ten rods. The establishment of the courts and the subsequent erection of County buildings gave a slight
-1955 209
ROADS ESTABLISHED.
impulse and added somewhat to the importance of both the town and village.
In 1763, a county road was laid out from the corner by the south burial ground, running west by way of North Egremont, towards Kinderhook; another was established, the next year, through the village, crossing the river at the Great Bridge; and in 1771, another was provided from the bridge, northerly, by John Williams' mills at Van Deusenville, and Major Elijah Williams' iron works at West Stockbridge, to Richmond. These roads followed somewhat nearly the old town highways previously in use ; and that through the village had a width of six rods. Some roads were laid out in the western part of the town previous to 1770. Amongst these, the second highway located by the town authorities was that leading from the main street towards Seekonk and Alford. This road, laid in 1764, began at the corner on Castle street hill, near the residence of Henry C. Luka, while that part which lies between that corner and Main street, which had been established by the town of Shef- field in 1747-with a width of only two rods-dwin- dled to the insignificance of "the lane which leads from the town street up to Rev. Samuel Hopkins'," and so remained until 1793, when it was relaid and widened. The county road east of the bridge, as sur- veyed in 1764, infringed upon the burial ground-then much smaller than now-and in 1768 Jonathan Nash and others petitioned the Court of Sessions for an alteration at that point, alleging that within the limits of that highway, north of the meeting house, were the graves of many of the early inhabitants. The court, thereupon, authorized the selectmen to fence the high- way in such manner as would least incommode the public and at the same time preserve the graves from desecration. It is probably owing to this circumstance, that this road which was apparently located on the north side of the meeting-house, remained unused, and travel continued, as before, on the old road south of that building for more than forty years.
Simultaneously with the incorporation of the town, the business of the village, which had long been to the
14
210
HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
eastward of the bridge, began to move southward to the present Main street. The change was gradual, but with increase of population, the tendency of new settle- ments was to the south, and the erection of the court- house and jail, not long after, aided in confirming the change. As we have before stated, Daniel Allen the carpenter and cabinet maker, had already located where the house of Frederick T. Whiting stands, and General Joseph Dwight had built the Henderson house. Israel Dewey erected his dwelling in or about 1761, on the place since occupied by Major Samuel Rosseter-now Henry Dresser's-and the next year-1762-built the mills mentioned in a former chapter.
Colonel Mark Hopkins-brother of the minister- then a young lawyer, recently admitted to the bar, was settled here in practice in 1761. Four years later he married Electa Sergeant, daughter of Rev. John Serg- eant, and step-daughter of General Dwight, and at about that time built the house lately occupied by Charles W. Hopkins, Esq., which stood opposite the Congrega- tional Church. This house, somewhat remodeled, has been removed to Elm street and is now owned by Reuben R. Brewer. Colonel Hopkins was the first Register of deeds as well as Treasurer for the county, and had his office in a quaint, low, gambrel roofed build- ing, which he is supposed to have erected, and which stood where the brick house, in which Mrs. Judith Bigelow lately lived, now does. The lower floor of the building contained two rooms, the north one of which was at times used for a store; the south one served for the Registry office and also from 1797 to 1840 for the Post-office. It still stands, without material change in its appearance, on the east side of Water street, whither it was removed forty years ago, and converted into a tenement. Theodore Sedgwick- afterwards Judge Sedgwick-was a law student in the office of Colonel Hopkins, and having been admitted to the bar in September, 1765, began the practice of his profession here. He remained here about four years and removed to Sheffield. The death of General Joseph Dwight occurred June 9th, 1765; his son, Elijah Dwight, Esq., who was clerk of the county courts, re-
211
VILLAGE IMPROVEMENTS.
mained in occupancy of the homestead of his father, and was engaged in the mercantile business, having his store in the north front room of the Henderson house. We find him licensed by the court in 1765 "to sell tea, coffee, and china ware."
The court house -- erected in 1764-5-stood within the Main street opposite Castle street, and the jail- built in 1765-6-was upon the site of the present Epis- copal Church. These buildings will be more particu- larly mentioned hereafter.
The old Episcopal parsonage (taken down in 1876) apparently built by Silas Goodrich in 1763, was pur- chased by the county of Doctor Samuel Lee in 1765, and became the jail house as well as a tavern. Doctor Samuel Lee, who was from Lyme, Connecticut, and who was living here as early as 1762, appears to have owned a house where Doctor William H. Parks now resides. He was licensed as an inn-holder in 1764- perhaps occupying the jail house-but removed from town about 1768, and William Bement became the keeper of the jail and jail-house. Between the years 1761 and 1764, Joseph or Elias Gilbert-they were brothers-built the house which-though it has since been raised up and modernized-is still the main body of the late residence of the Misses Kellogg. Here Elias Gilbert seems to have dwelt until 1770, when he sold the place to David Ingersoll, Jun'r, Esq., who made it his residence to the time of his departure for England in 1774.
In 1762, Daniel Rathbun, a clothier, from Stoning- ton, Connecticut, who had a fulling mill on the Green River, where the Kellogg grist mill now stands, pur- chased a small piece of land and built a small house. This house stood on the spot where Frederick Langs- dorff now lives, and was the same, as we believe, oc- cupied by Major Thomas Ingersoll as a hatter's shop, during and after the Revolution.
Before the town was incorporated Aaron Sheldon had kept a tavern near the site of the Berkshire House, which he is supposed to have continued until 1768, when he sold his house to Daniel Rowley, with all the land on the east side of Main street between the prem-
212
HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
ises of Mrs. E. W. McLean and Frederick Langsdorff. At that time, with the exception of the Sheldon tavern, there appear to have been no dwellings upon this large section of Main street. Mr. Rowley remained here but little more than a year, when he sold the same house and land to Josiah Smith from Tyringham.
Mr. Smith moved to this place in the spring of 1770, and immediately after built a new house, where the Berkshire House stands. We have the date of the raising of this house, June 24th, 1770. Here he kept a tavein to the time of his decease, November, 1782. The house built by Mr. Smith continued, under va- rious proprietors, to be the principal hotel of this part of the village until 1839, when it was removed in sec- tions, which were converted into four separate dwel- ling houses.
Doctor Joseph Lee, a young physician, settled here in 1761, and soon after married Eunice Woodbridge, daughter of Timothy Woodbridge, Esq., of Stock- bridge; he had his residence near where the stone cot- tage of the late Dr. C. T. Collins stands, and is supposed to have built there the first house which stood upon that ground. Doctor Joseph Lee died March 6th, 1764, in the 27th year of his age. By the death of Doctor Lee and of Doctor Samuel Breck, both of which occurred at nearly the same time, an opening for an- other physician was made. This was soon filled by Doc- tor William Whiting, who came here from Hartford in 1765. Doctor Whiting lived for a few years in the house previously occupied by Doctor Joseph Lee, but in 1772 purchased land on the west side of Main Street, extending north from the Castle street corner, and in 1773 built a broad and capacious house where the "Sumner Building " now stands. On the books of Israel Dewey we find a charge to Doctor Whiting in February 1773, of " four trees for sills for your house" 4 shillings. In the improvements made about 1839, the house of Doctor Whiting was removed to Bridge street where it still stands, in a good state of preserva- tion-the old Red house-owned by Jeremiah Atwood. The name of Doctor Whiting is intimately connected with the history of the town, especially during the Rev-
213
GAMALIEL WHITING-TRUMAN WHEELER.
olutionary period, and will frequently appear hereaf- ter. Lieutenant Gamaliel Whiting, father of the late General John Whiting, having previously resided in Canaan, Connecticut, and in New Canaan, N. Y., came to this town in 1766. He was by occupation a tailor, and lived for a time in the house, before mentioned, built by Daniel Rathbun. He afterwards resided in the Doctor Samuel Lee house, which stood where Doctor William H. Parks now lives. He records the building of his shop in 1771-its site unknown-but probably at the corner of Main and Castle streets (the site since occupied by the law office of General John Whiting) where an old shop is known to have stood, in which Stephen Sibley, in 1785, carried on the busi- ness of a brazier and clock maker. About 1776-7 Mr. Whiting built the "old Whiting house"-taken down in 1874-at the time of the erection of the new Town Hall. The exact site of this house is marked by the soldiers' monument, the foundation of which covers the hearth stone in the basement of the old house. South of the Whiting house, between the soldiers' monument and the Episcopal parsonage, was another dwelling, erected at a very early date, but when or by whom built we are unable to determine. It was apparently occupied by William Whiting 2d-son of Gamaliel-in the latter part of the last century, but its existence is not now remembered by any person living.
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.