USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Great Barrington > History of Great Barrington, (Berkshire County,) Massachusetts > Part 19
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In the Spring of 1764, Captain Truman Wheeler from Southbury, Connecticut, settled here as a mer- chant, having his place of business south of the village, and near where his grand-son, Merritt I. Wheeler, now resides. He built in 1771, the present Wheeler house -the frame of which was raised on the 1st of August of that year-and afterwards had his store in the north front room of that house. Captain Wheeler was Town Treasurer and county muster master in the Revolution, and his name is intimately associated with the trans- actions of the town in that period.
In that part of the town David Church, the father of Reuben, Samuel and Joseph, raised his house, the same now owned by Doctor Samuel Camp, on the 13th of June, 1771, and apparently removed to it from an
214
HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
old one which stood where Mrs. John E. Tucker lately resided. Nathaniel Lee, from Westfield, purchased in 1759, of Luke Noble, the place now Edward Manville's, on which Mr. Noble had previously dwelt, and with his shop in that vicinity for many years followed the trade of blacksmithing. David Stowe-grandfather of Rev. Calvin E. Stowe-came here at about the time of the incorporation of the town. He married Lucy Lee in 1762, and is supposed to have built the old yellow house, which stood, until within a few years påst, about fifteen rods north of Merritt I. Wheeler's. Mr. Stowe was constable and tax collector before the Rev- olution. He removed to New Haven, Vermont, about 1778, where he died as early as 1782. Captain Peter Ingersoll, son of Moses Ingersoll, who was merchant, farmer and inn-keeper, built upon the home lot of his father, the brick house in the south part of the village, lately the home of the Pope family. David Sanford, a graduate of Yale College, came here from Milford, Connecticut, as early as 1757, and in that year married Bathsheba Ingersoll, daughter of Moses Ingersoll. He settled on the hill west of the village, near the Mans- field pond, and built, as we believe, the "Sanford house" there standing and still owned by his descend- ants. His father had intended him for the ministry; and he began the study of theology with the Rev. Doctor Bellamy, but relinquished it. Later in life, and during his residence in this town, he resumed his theological studies, and after a brief preparation was licensed to preach. He removed to West Medway, Massachusetts, and was ordained over the church at that place, April 14, 1773, where he became distin- guished as an eloquent, able and useful preacher of the gospel. One of his sons-David-remained here up- on the homestead of his father, and was the ancestor of the Sanford families now residing in this town.
The principal tanner of the town, before the Revo- lution . was William Jones, whose works were on the west side of the way at the curve of the road in Water street. This tannery was in operation as early as 1760, and constituted about all the improvements then made in that vicinity. Mr. Jones appears also to have had a
215
JOSIAH MANSFIELD.
saddlery and harness shop in connection with his works. Another member of the Jones family a few years later, is reputed to have had his dwelling where Justin Dewey now resides; he too was a saddler by trade, and if we mistake not was the father of Doctor Anson Jones who emigrated to Texas, achieved political distinction and became president of the Texan Re- public. Josiah Mansfield, by occupation a blacksmith, who had lost his property by fire at Weston, Massa- chusetts, in 1765, and for whose relief a subscription paper -- still preserved-was subscribed by John Han- cock, Doctor Joseph Warren and other Boston celebri- ties, removed to this place from Lexington in 1774. He bought the house, erected by Doctor Joseph Lee, on the premises lately of Doctor C. T. Collins, and to his business of blacksmithing added that of tavern keeper, which he continued to the time of his decease in 1779. Mansfield's smith shop stood in the south end of Ralph Taylor's garden. The house occupied by Mr. Mansfield, to which additions were afterwards made, was used as a tavern during and after the Revo! lution and, perhaps with some intermissions, until later than 1830.
We have at considerable length, and at the risk of being tiresome to the reader, detailed the principal changes in inhabitants and locations, south of the bridge, from 1761 to 1774. At the latter date, with barely a score of dwellings between the south burial ground and the bridge, the place could hardly have aspired to the dignity and importance of a village. The court-house and jail in the centre, the Episcopal church at the south end of the street, the school house -near the site of the present Congregational church -and the meeting-house east of the bridge, with the town pound in the Great Hollow made up the comple- ment of its public buildings, and its taverns, in num- ber, were apparently largely disproportioned to its inhabitants. The hill-sides which environed it were still covered with timber, broken at intervals by the clearings of its dwellers ; but the forest largely pre- dominated. The Main street crossed by brooks and intersected by ravines, was rough and unattractive.
216
HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
Below the Doctor Collins house a ledge of rocks ob- structed the track, rising several feet in hight on either side, with but little more than room for a cart to pass between. In front of the residence of Ralph Taylor, the road, descending into the "Great Hollow," ran nearly on a level with the adjoining meadow : the meadow itself was a morass, almost impassable, and known as "Ash Swamp;" into this swamp a brook from the hill-side at the west, discharged its waters. This hollow was long held in ill repute by the early inhabitants, amongst whom a legend of an Indian child murdered by its mother and cast into the swamp had obtained credence. The superstitions of the time peopled it with hobgoblins and ghosts. It was said, and by many believed to be haunted, and rumors were common of strange sights and frightful sounds arising from the swamp, which here bordered the highway. It was a place to be avoided in dark nights by the timid. The hill to the south of this hollow was much steeper and higher than now, and to the north the high bank south of the Misses Kellogg house-as is still evident from its contour-continued directly across the road, presenting a formidable barrier to travel, and terminating in a high sandy knoll west of the late Mrs. Durant's residence. The formation of the ground at this point was such that water might run across the road from the premises now of F. T. Whiting to the door-yard of the Kellogg house. In front of the Hen- derson place was the "Silver Hollow," crossed-fur- ther south than now-by the "Ash Brook," the road at that point running on a level with the south part of the premises of Mrs. McLean. North of the "Silver Hollow" was a hill of considerable elevation, in front of the Episcopal church, which sloped northerly into a ravine, which formed the bed of a small brook, near- ly in front of the Town Hall. To the north of Rail- road street, skirting the foot of the hill on the west and lying between the railroad and Main street was a swamp of considerable area, first owned by Moses In- gersoll, and afterwards by Reverend Samuel Hopkins, from whom it derived its name of "Hopkins' Poplar Swamp." This extended north nearly to the foot of
217
HEWIT ROOT'S TAVERN.
the hill in Water street ; and we have heard of the remains of a corduroy road crossing this swamp in the vicinity of Elm street.
The improvements of a hundred years have reduced the hills and correspondingly filled the hollows. The Ash swamp has become a productive meadow, and the Poplar swamp is covered with streets and dwellings. East of the bridge, the tavern of Captain Hewit Root -- the building, since removed a few rods to the west, the same which now stands near the river bank on the north side of the way-was a conspicuous object and a centre of attraction to the villagers, as well as to travellers, for "Landlord Root" was a jolly man, kept a well stocked bar, and had the art of concocting vari- ous palatable drinks, the names of which are now un- known in hotel vocabulary. The books of account of Captain Root, now in the possession of the writer, show that a very large proportion of the inhabitants of the town patronized his bar, and that his tavern was often the scene of fun and jollity. It was here, or rather at the Great Bridge close by, that a circum- stance occurred, related by President Dwight-in his · Travels-which has been often in print-we quote from the History of Berkshire; "A Mr. Van Rens- eslaer, a young gentleman from Albany, came one evening into an inn, kept by a Mr. Root, just at the eastern end of the bridge. The inn-keeper, who knew him, asked him where he had crossed the river. He answered "on the bridge." Mr. Root replied that that was impossible ; because it had been raised that very day ; and that not a plank had been laid on it. Mr. Van Rensselaer said that it could not be true ; because his horse had come over without any difficulty or re- luctance; that the night was indeed so profoundly dark as to prevent him from seeing anything distinctly; but that it was incredible, if his horse could see sufficiently well to keep his footing anywhere, that he should not discern the danger, and impossible for him to pass over the bridge in that condition; Each went to bed dissatisfied; neither believing the story of the other. In the morning, Mr. Van Rensselaer went at the solic- itation of his host to view the bridge ; and finding it a
218
HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
naked frame, gazed for a moment in astonishment and' fainted." The road, as we have said, after crossing. the bridge, ran southerly to the old meeting-house, and turning at a right angle to the east, on the south side of that building, crossed the present burial ground to' the foot of the mountain and fell into the highway as now traveled near the Mrs. Burt house-now B. F. Gilmore's. On this road, directly in the rear of the Burt house, and close to the foot of the mountain, was; a quaint old structure, the former dwelling place of Noadiah Moore and of Joseph Gilbert. Here, in 1770, . Deacon Daniel Nash settled, with his wife Abigail, the daughter of Israel Dewey. The house of Deacon Nash -taken down a few years since-was uncouthly perched . among the rocks, in near proximity to the moun- tain ledges which abounded in rattlesnakes, one of which Mrs. Nash found in her cellar, on the top of her pork barrel, and killed. Deacon Nash, who was. from Hadley, a shoemaker by trade, came here about, 1767. He was one of the pillars of the church, and Town Clerk from 1776 to 1794. Captain George King, one of the early sheriffs of the town, who had previ- ously resided on the old road, (east side of the river) removed to the old L house,-still standing at the Bung Hill corner, which is also presumed to have been the dwelling place of his father-William. Captain King died in the service at Ticonderoga, January 19, 1777. To the north, towards the Pixley brook, in the now weather-beaten house of Samuel L. Dearing, lived Jonathan Nash, having his blacksmith shop near by. Mr. Nash early became prominent in town affairs, was. a member of the convention which formed the State Constitution, and afterwards for several years the principal Justice of the Peace in town. Further east, where Captain George Turner lately lived, the eccen- tric Major William King had his residence, of whom more will be said hereafter. There is on the mountain side near the Bung Hill corner a rude cavern formed by the falling together of huge masses of rock, a place of some resort, known as "Belcher's Cave," connected with which is a dim tradition that one Belcher, in time. long past, there counterfeited silver coin. But of the:
219
GILL BELCHER.
truth of this tradition or of the facts upon which it is based, but little is known. " Gill Belcher of Hebron, Connecticut, Goldsmith," as recited in an ancient deed, purchased land at the forks of the roads leading to Stockbridge and Three Mile Hill, in 1765, and for several years carried on his trade in that vicinity, do- ing such tinkering and mending as fell in his way; the earliest silver-smith in town of whom we have knowl- edge. In the weather book of an old inhabitant, who has left on record a few terse memorandums of the events of that period, pertaining somewhat particularly to the commitments, discharges, and breakings out of jail, we find the following :
"1772 July 2d Gill Belcher com't'd," (committed to Jail. ) " 1772 Aug. 3d Belcher released."
Whether for debt or misdemeanor Belcher suffered a month's imprisonment, we are not informed. A little further on in the weather book, the following en- tries cast a glimmer of light upon the tradition :
" 1772, Oct. 30. Gill Belcher, D. Lewis, J. Adams, and J. Caul com. for counterfeiting ;"
"1772, Oct. 31. Money makers went to N. Canaan."
This evidence is confirmatory of the tradition that Belcher was engaged in counterfeiting; and it is not improbable that the cave was used as his hiding place, possibly as his workshop. It may be presumed from the above quoted record, that Belcher and his con- federates had circulated their spurious coin within the borders of New York, were arrested here, and the next day, taken to New Canaan, New York, for trial. On the old road, east side of the river, Elias Ransom, from Colchester, Connecticut, located in 1770, apparently having his domicil near the south end of the Little Mountain, north easterly from the Leavitt mansion. But Mr. Ransom died in 1773, and his widow after- wards married Ichabod Hopkins and remained upon the premises. Mr. Ransom was the father of "Aunt Sal- ly," wife of Major William Whiting-a woman of re- markable kindness, benevolence and hospitality.
North of the Hopkins place, and a few rods below the brook, which there crosses the road, Ezekiel Kellogg from Colchester, Connecticut, built a small house in
220
HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
1772-the cellar hole still visible. He removed to Cooperstown, New York, about 1786. Mr. Kellogg was a brother of Ezra Kellogg, Esq., whose first ap- pearance here is in 1775, and who, four years later, married Mary-daughter of Gamaliel Whiting. Further north on this road, and opposite the village, lived Mrs. Rebecca King-widow of Asahel King; and her sons Joseph and Lucius, had their dwellings in that vicinity.
In 1772, Capt. Silas Sprague, originally from Rox- bury, settled on Christian Hill, where Seneca Nodine now lives. He remained until about 1790, and re- moved to Bloomfield, Ontario county, N. Y. Barnabas Sprague, the son of Capt. Silas Sprague, having pre- viously built the Sprague house, still standing on Chris- tian Hill, remained here after the removal of his father, and reared a family ; he was the father of William, Silas, and Thomas Sprague-all now deceased-and also of the late Asa Sprague of Rochester, N. Y., who was the proprietor of the great line of stages between Albany and Buffalo. In the period under considera- tion, many new families came into town, and with the descendants of the first settlers were scattered over its more remote parts.
As early as 1772, James and William Ray from Rhode Island, Henry McGonegal from Voluntown, Conn .. David and Hugh Humphrey, and Martin Remele had located in Muddy Brook. Avoiding the valley- then a swamp-they built along the high hill, east of the brook. Henry McGonegal, came to this town as early as 1758, and married here, in that year, Luziah Pixley. His residence was on Blue Hill, near where John B. Maley now lives. He remained here until 1792, and removed to Fabius, Onondago County, N. Y., where he died at the age of eighty-five, in 1828.
About 1776, came Hezekiah Atwood, from Newing- ton, Conn., Barnabas Chapman and Rice Hall. Mr. At- wood's residence was near the Monterey line, where the most southerly house on the Blue Hill road now stands.
By or before 1776, Elizur Deming and John Pat- terson had settled at the upper end of the Muddy Brook section, near the Stockbridge line, and Nathan
221
REDUCTION OF AREA.
Purdy had located in the vicinity where Perry G. Com- stock now lives.
About Van Deusenville, in 1772, Warham and Bill Williams-sons of John Williams-and in 1776, Asa Eddy and Roger Buttolph had their dwellings.
On the Long Pond road, in 1772, David and Dan- iel Willard-sons of Jonathan Willard-Nathan and Thomas Willcocks and Thomas Sherlock had set- tled. In the vicinity of Seekonk, Eli Lyon, John Hickox, Oliver Watson, Charles Parsons, Hendrick. Perry, and the descendants of the Burghardt and Sharp families were living in 1776. At the same time, Major John Kellogg, Timothy Younglove, David Wainwright, with Joshua, Thomas, and Israel Root-sons of Joshua Root-are found in the Green River district; and further west towards Egremont, Preserved Noble, Brian Eddy and Jonathan Younglove. On the Alford road, and in that part of the town now in Alford, sev- eral families were settled as early as 1761, on the west end of the Long Lots.
Reduction of Area.
In process of time the inhabitants of the west part of the town (now included in Alford) were desirous of being separated from Great Barrington, and incorpor- ated into a separate town. In 1769 and 70, they asked the consent of this town to the proposed separation, but their request was refused. They then made appli- cation to the General Court, to effect their purpose, and on the 27th of December, 1770, Great Barrington again took the subject into consideration and appoint- ed a committee consisting of Mark Hopkins, William King, and William Whiting to draw up the reasons, why the prayer of John Hamlin and others should not be granted, and to report to the town meeting then in session. The committee made a report which was ac- cepted, and David Ingersoll, Jun'r, Esq., (the Repre- sentative of Great Barrington, Sheffield and Egremont) was instructed to lay the same, with the full state of the case before the General Court at its next session.
222
HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
The reasons given by the committee, in their report, were in substance, as follows :
The town has no objections against the lands and the people, west of the original line of Sheffield being separated, and incor- porated as a town, " the same lands and people being originally annexed to us at the request of said people, and without our knowledge or desire," but it does object to the separation of that part of the town which was originally a part of Sheffield, be- cause the whole extent of this town will not admit of more in- habitants than are necessary for discharging the duties incum- bent upon all towns, the maintainance of schools, ministers, &c. : because, as more than one-third part of the people of this town are professed members of the Church of England, and have a missionary settled among them, the taxes for the support of preaching will necessarily be borne by a smaller number, if the proposed separation is made ; because, nearly one-quarter of the township-the north-east corner, or the Hoplands-is so situated, by nature, as to render its separation, when inhabited, a neces- sity, "and every division weakens us ;"
because a great part of the lands proposed to be set off, belong to individuals who are greatly averse to the separation ; because the people of that part of the town are not so situated, "by the make of the ground, or the distance of the way, but that they may attend publie worship and other business here, though not with such ease as if they were nigher," "for we know not of the impassable mountain, situated as mentioned in said petition ;" because this town is destitute of a dissenting minister, and if the separation is made, it will be, in a great degree, disenabled from settling such a minister ; because the proposed separation will divide about twenty-four of the west tier of Long lots obliquely, to the disadvantage of the owners.
This action, for a time, prevented the proposed separation. Alford was incorporated in 1773, having its eastern boundary on the west line of Great Bar- rington. The inhabitants of the west part of this town renewed their efforts for a separation, and in 1778, pe- titioned the General Court for that purpose; their prayer was again, though ineffectually, opposed by Great Barrington, and the lands lying west of the ridge of Long Pond Mountain were soon after annexed to Alford. Previous to this time Great Barrington ex- tended so far west as to include the ground on which the Alford meeting-house and a considerable part of the village stands. The land then taken from Great Barrington was 652 rods long with a width of 210 rods at the north and 266 rods at the south end. About
223
THE HOPLANDS.
1819, another tract-sixty rods in length-at the south end of the first, was taken from Great Barrington and added to Alford ; so that Alford now includes the west end of twenty-four of the Long lots, belonging origi- nally to the Upper Township. The former north-west corner of Great Barrington is still marked by a stone monument standing about eighty rods west from the house of Mr. Frederick Fitch in Alford. A few fami- lies settled in that part of the town lying east of Stock- bridge, and now a part of L'ee-called the Hoplands-as early as 1770. Isaac Davis, from Tyringham is reputed to have been the first settler there, and to have located on the farm now Henry McAllister's, in 1760. But it was not until ten years after that time that the inhabi- tants were sufficiently numerous to require any special town legislation in their behalf. In or about 1770, William Ingersoll, afterwards a leading citizen of Lee, removed from the central part of Great Barrington to the Hoplands. In February, 1770, the proprie- tors of the Upper Township authorized the sale of the school land in the Hoplands for the benefit of its in- habitants, and in the same year, by a vote of this town, those inhabitants were excused from the payment of ministerial, school, and highway rates. The first roads in the Hoplands were established by this town in 1771, and six years later-1777-thirty persons, inhabitants of that section, were paying poll taxes in Great Bar- rington. But the Hoplands, isolated and remote from the central part of the town, were by nature separated from it, and at the incorporation of Lee in 1777, were made a part of that town without opposition from Great Barrington.
Population-1761-1776.
The population of the town, in 1761 estimated at 500, had increased to 961, in 1776. By the census of 1764-5, the number of inhabitants was 550, and of · dwelling houses 87. In 1772, the number of polls taxed was 153, against 221, in 1776, showing a very considerable increase of population between those
224
HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
The census and valuation of 1776, is as fol- lows :
Total population, 961
Polls taxed,
221
Dwelling houses,
128
Saw mills,
3 (probably incorrect} 3
Grist mills,
Fulling mills,
1
Value of Real estate,
£9,263, 18s. Od ..
Value of personal property (including faculty,)
2.061, 6s. 6d.
Total valuation, Equal to $37,750.75.
£11,325, 48. 6d_
A few individuals were assessed for a tax upon Faculty, the valuation of which, as part of their es- tates, was as follows :
Doct. William Whiting, £15 Peter Ingersoll, £300
Timothy Younglove, 30 Daniel Nash, 20
Josiah Smith, 40) Thomas Ingersoll, 10
Josiah Mansfield, 40 Jeptha Holland, 5
Only three persons were taxed for money at inter- est, and the whole amount was but £278.
dates.
CHAPTER XVIII. THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
1768-1783.
In the few years immediately preceding the war of the Revolution, whilst the clouds were gathering-pre- cursors of the storm about to burst upon the country -the people of Berkshire, though remote from the seaboard where the oppression of Great Britain was the soonest and most severely felt, were scarcely less interested than those of the eastern part of the prov- ince. Denunciations from the pulpit were frequently directed against the aggressive measures of the British Ministry, the prints of the day were constantly agitat- ing the questions in controversy, and a large majority of the inhabitants-though loyal enough to the King -when the outbreak came, were sufficiently well in- formed upon the points at issue and were ready to meet the emergency. A smaller number, many of them at- tached to the Church of England, and through its in- fluences to the British government, and who had suf- fered, in some degree, from sectarian ill-treatment, were either neutral upon the great questions agitating the country or openly opposed to revolutionary measures.
The earliest recorded action of the town, involv- ing subjects of a revolutionary character, was with reference to the resolutions adopted by the inhabi- tants of the town of Boston, October 28th, 1767, for the encouragement of domestic industry, economy and manufactures, and for dispensing with the importation and consumption of many articles of British manufac- ture. These resolutions, together with a circular letter from the Selectmen of Boston, desiring that similar
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