USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Great Barrington > History of Great Barrington, (Berkshire County,) Massachusetts > Part 24
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During the long period following the dismissal of the Rev. Samuel Hopkins, in which the Congregational church had no settled minister, Deacon Nash, perhaps more than any other citizen, was instrumental in main- taining preaching and Gospel ordinances in the old meeting-house, and in keeping united the few members of the church until such time as their ability, and public sentiment permitted the maintenance of an established minister. He died at the age of fifty-three years, May 6th, 1794. His wife, who survived him, and who was, equally with her husband, prominent in all good works, lived to the age of 88, dying May 29th, 1836.
The children of Deacon Daniel Nash were:
Alonson, born March 25th, 1778; died March 27th, 1780.
Lonson, born April 22d, 1781 ; a graduate of Williams college in 1801; admitted to the bar in 1805; practiced law for a time in Egremont, but removed to Gloucester, where he continued in his profession until he was 80 years old. He then returned to this: town, and died here January 31st, 1863, in his 82d year.
Amanda, born November 3d, 1785; married Rev. Sylvester- Burt (his second wife) May 18th, 1824 ; died September 3d, 1877, aged nearly 92 years.
Doctor William Whiting.
During the Revolutionary period no citizen of Great Barrington was more conspicuous in town affairs than Doctor William Whiting. He was the son of Colonel William Whiting of Bozrah, Conn., born April 8th, 1730. He studied medicine with Doctor John Bulkley of Colchester, became a physician and resided
18
274
HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
for a time in Hartford. Influenced, perhaps, by an opening for the practice of his profession in Great Barrington, occasioned by the death of Doctors Samuel Breck and Joseph Lee, both of which occurred in 1764, he soon after removed to this place and was residing here early in the year 1765. His first place of resi- dence was in the house previously occupied by Doctor Joseph Lee, on the premises of the late Doctor C. T. Collins, where he was licensed as an inn-keeper in April, 1765. Here he remained until 1773, when he built a house in the central part of the village, nearly upon the ground now covered by the Sumner building, in which he resided to the time of his decease. The house erected by Doctor Whiting was removed, nearly forty years since to the corner of Bridge and River streets -west of the Berkshire House-where it still stands in a fair state of preservation-the old Red House owned by Jeremiah Atwood. With a turn for public affairs, Doctor Whiting early took part in the transac- tion of town business, often presiding over the deliber- ations of the town meetings and serving in various official capacities. Before the breaking out of the war he was identified with those who opposed the oppressive acts of the British government, was one of the dele- gates of the town to the convention of July 1774, in which the inhabitants of the county inaugurated a con- bined opposition to those acts, and was one of the committee for drafting the non-consumption agreement adopted by that convention.
He, jointly with General John Fellows represented the towns of Sheffield, Great Barrington, Egremont and Alford in the first Provincial Congress of Massachusetts Bay-1774. The next year he was the representative of Egremont and Alford in the second congress, and in the third he again represented the four towns above named. In the proceedings of these congresses, the name of Doctor Whiting frequently appears, and he served on several important committees. Throughout the war Doctor Whiting appears to have exerted a wholesome influence in the town, and his record in that period is commendably patriotic. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace before the colonies had asserted their in-
275
DOCTOR WILLIAM WHITING.
dependence, and his commission was one of those pre- sented to the Province Council in 1776, for alteration by substituting the authority of "the Government and People of Massachusetts Bay" in place of that of "George the Third." During the five or more years in which the courts of Berkshire were suspended Doctor Whiting is said to have been "the only Justice of the Peace who ventured to officiate in the county." He was again commissioned a Justice of the Peace and of the Quorum after the adoption of the State Constitu- tion, and from 1781 to 1787 was the presiding Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the county. While acting in this capacity, he was one of the number com- pelled by a mob of Insurgents, in 1786, to sign a paper agreeing to hold no more courts until the state con- stitution should be re-formed or revised. In 1781 he represented the town in the General Court, having been the first representative elected under the new state constitution. In the disturbances occasioned by the Shay's rebellion, 1786-7, Doctor Whiting incurred the displeasure of the Government party, and was one of those against whom legal proceedings were after- wards instituted.
Doctor Whiting was a prominent member of the Episcopal church, an intelligent and skillful physician, and had a large practice in this and neighboring towns. He died December 8th, 1792, in his 62d year. The children of Doctor William Whiting were as follows :
Samuel, for several years a merchant here ; he removed to Reading, Conn., where he engaged in agriculture.
Major William, who in his old age removed to New Milford.
Mary Anna, who married Hon. Elijah Boardman of New Milford.
Abraham K., for many years a physician of this towu, whose descendants still reside here.
Elizabeth, who resided in New Milford.
Mason, who studied law, and was admitted to the Berkshire bar in 1794, but afterwards removed to Binghamton, N. Y., and was one of the early settlers of that place.
Major Thomas Ingersoll.
Thomas Ingersoll, from Westfield, who was a brother of Deacon Jonathan Ingersoll of Stockbridge and of the elder Captain Jared Ingersoll of Pittsfield, came to
276
HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
this place about the year 1774. He married February 28th 1775, Elizabeth Dewey, daughter of Israel Dewey, and in the same year bought a small piece of land, with a dwelling house-built by Daniel Rathbun-which stood near the spot on which Frederick Langsdorff now dwells. Here he settled in business as a hatter, and a few years later, having in 1782 added another small strip of land to his original purchase, erected the " old Stanley house"-the second house north of the Congregational church-now owned by Robert Girling.
Mr. Ingersoll's first appearance on the town records is as constable and tax collector in 1776; and at the con- solidation of the Great Barrington militia into one company in October, 1777, he was commissioned second Lieutenant under Captain Silas Goodrich. He became Captain of the company in 1781. We find his name repeatedly in the rolls of volunteer and of detached militia which performed service in 1777-8 and 1779 ; and he also marched with forty men of his company to Stillwater, on the occasion of an alarm in that vicinity in October 1781. Mr. Ingersoll was an energetic, en- terprising man ; he sustained various town offices, be- came a Major in the militia, and held a position of in- fluence amongst the inhabitants. In 1792 he was in- terested with Moses Hopkins, Esq., in building the old grist mill in Water street, but soon after removed from town. The wife, Elizabeth, of Major Ingersoll, died within a few years after their marriage, leaving a daugh- ter Abigail six months old, who was adopted by her aunt-Mrs. Daniel Nash-and brought up in her family. This daughter, eventually, married Guy Woodworth and removed to Waybridge, Vt.
Major Ingersoll was, afterwards, twice married, first to Mrs. Mercy Smith (widow of Josiah Smith) May 26, 1785, who died in May, 1789, and second to Mrs. Sarah Backus,-a daughter of Lieutenant Gama- liel Whiting, and sister of the late General John Whit- ing,-September 20, 1789. Some time after the close of the war, the attention of Major Ingersoll was attracted by a proclamation of the Canadian Governor Simcoe offering to persons who would settle there certain large tracts of land in Canada. He afterwards
277
MAJOR THOMAS INGERSOLL.
met the celebrated Indian chieftain, Captain Joseph Brant, who gave him information respecting the lands offered, and proposed whenever Major Ingersoll might visit Canada, to point out to him the most desirable section for settlement. Major Ingersoll went to Can- ada and presented to the Canadian Council the peti- tion of himself, the Rev. Gideon Bostwick and three others for the grant of a township. This petition was granted March 23, 1793, partly "in consideration of the well known loyalty and suffering of the Rev. Gid- eon Bostwick," who, as stated in the grant, "comes precisely under the description of persons who ought to be encouraged to settle in the Province." Major Ingersoll then called upon Captain Brant and reminded him of his promise. This chief sent six of his young men to pilot Major Ingersoll through the woods to the river La Tranche-now the Thames-where they showed him the land best adapted for a settlement. Here Major Ingersoll, with his own hands, felled the first tree ; and erected a log house to which he after- wards removed his family. The death of Mr. Bost- wick, occurring within three months after the grant was made, prevented his participation in the proposed settlement. By the terms of the grant Major Inger- soll was required to furnish forty settlers, each to have a farm of 100 or 200 acres on payment to the govern- ment of a fee of six pence per acre, and the remainder of the 66,000 acres in the township was to be held by Major Ingersoll for the benefit of himself and his associates.
In process of time Major Ingersoll succeeded in ob- taining the requisite number of settlers, to each of whom a patent was issued for the land settled on ; but in doing this, in the building of roads and in making improvements, he expended all his resources. He had also, with a view to other settlements, made arrange- ments for the sale of several thousand acres of land at fifty cents per acre. But at about this time-not far from 1806-"some busy body" had communication with the British government, representing that the course of Governor Simcoe in granting lands was likely to do much harm. In consequence of this an order
278
HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
was sent from England annulling the grant of the township. Major Ingersoll, disheartened by this act of injustice which deprived him of his property, and discouraged at the failure of an enterprise to which he had devoted years of toil and all his means, abandoned the settlement and retired to the vicinity of Toronto, where he died at the age of 63, in 1812. The site of Major Ingersoll's improvements is now the thriving town of Ingersoll, in Oxford county, with a population of five or six thousand inhabitants. By his third mar- riage Major Ingersoll had eight children, one only of whom is now living, to wit : James Ingersoll, Esq., of Woodstock, Oxford county, Canada, who was born September 10, 1801, in the log house we have men- tioned, erected by his father, and who was the first white child born in Ingersoll. In addition to many positions of honor and trust which he has filled, he he has been for forty-five years past the Registrar of Oxford county ; and from him we have derived most of the information relating to his father's experiences in Canada, contained in this article. Colonel Charles Ingersoll, another son of Major Thomas Ingersoll, was an officer in the British (Canadian) army throughout the war of 1812, and afterwards held various public offices. He was a member of the Canadian Parlia- ment in 1824, '29, '30 and '32, and died of the cholera in August, 1832.
CHAPTER XIX.
GREAT BARRINGTON THE SHIRE TOWN OF THE COUNTY.
1761-1787.
The county of Berkshire was taken from the old county of Hampshire,-of which it originally formed a part,-and erected into a separate county in April, 1761. At the time of its formation there were but four incorporated towns within its limits, to wit : Shef- field, (then including Great Barrington), Stockbridge, Egremont, and New Marlboro. To these Pittsfield was, a few days after, added ; and Great Barrington was separated from Sheffield and incorporated as a town in the month of June following. There were also some incorporated districts and plantations, but the whole population of the county did not much-if any -exceed 4,000, and much the larger proportion of this was in the south part of the county. In the bill, in- corporating the county, it was enacted that Sheffield for the present be the shire town, that the office of Register of Deeds be kept in the North Parish of Shef- field, and that a court of General Sessions of the Peace, and an Inferior Court of Common Pleas be held and. kept at the North Parish of Sheffield on the last Tues- day of April and first Tuesday of September in each year, and at Pontoosuck, (Pittsfield) on the first Tues- day of December and the first Tuesday of March.
In June following, the North Parish of Sheffield was incorporated into a town with the name of Great Barrington ; and it was enacted "that the town of Great Barrington for the present shall be the shire
280
HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
town of said county of Berkshire, and the Register's office be there kept, and the courts of General Sessions of the Peace and Inferior Courts of Common Pleas, appointed to be held and kept at the North Parish in Sheffield aforesaid, be held and kept in the town of Great Barrington on the last Tuesday of April and first Tuesday of September annually." Thus Great Barrington became the county seat, and so remained until the removal of the courts to Lenox in 1787. The first session of the court for the county was held at the old meeting-house in Great Barrington, on the first Tuesday of September, 1761, the town having, by special vote, granted the use of the house for that purpose. At this session the justices in attendance were Joseph Dwight of Great Barrington,-who was the presiding judge to the time of his decease in 1765 -William Williams of Pittsfield, John Ashley of Shef- field, and Timothy Woodbridge of Stockbridge.
Elijah Dwight of Great Barrington was the clerk of the courts, having been appointed to that office by the justices above named, at a meeting held at Stock- bridge on the 13th of July, 1761. It is probable that the sessions of the court at Great Barrington were held at the meeting house to the time of the comple- tion of the court-house in 1765.
The earliest provisions for the confinement of pris- oners were of a temporary character. Before county buildings were erected the Block house or old fort- mentioned in a former chapter-which stood a short distance north of the house, now of Frederick Abbey, on the road to Van Deusenville, though inconveniently located, was found suitable for the uses of a prison. This building, a substantial structure of squared tim- ber, belonged to Israel Dewey, who then had his dwel- ling near by. Some repairs, and such alterations as were necessary, including the laying of heavy oak floors, were made upon it in the summer of 1761, and it was converted into a jail, over which Mr. Dewey presided as prison keeper, a position which he seems to have occupied for about two years.
The following copy of Israel Dewey's account for the accommodations furnished the county during the
281
EARLY PRISONS.
first year of its corporate existence, is taken from the original on file in the county clerk's office :
"GREAT BARRINGTON, SEPT. 9th, 1762.
To the Honourable his Majestie's Justices of The Court Now Holden att Great Barrington for the County of Berkshire :
Humbly moves Israel Dewey that this Honor'd Court would allow your petitioner the sums this Honoured Court shall think proper for the following articles, Namely : £4. 0. 0
For the use of my house a year for a Goal,
For spikes and mending the Goal, 0. 5. 0
For boarding Abraham Waunaumpas Nine weeks while in Goal @ 3-6, 1 11. 6
By taking s'd Abraham by a warrant Directed to me and
carrying him into York Goverment and Delivering
him to the Sheriff of the County of Albany, 0. 9. 0
Turning ye key for Abraham, 0.3.0
Assistance in carrying s'd Abraham away Landlord Root
with Two Horses and Drink 0.12. 6
£7.1.0
And I also pray this Honoured Court to provide a Goal for the County for the future.
This from your Honour's most obedient servant.
ISRAEL DEWEY."
The modest prayer of Mr. Dewey, that another place might be provided for the jail, conveys the im- pression that he did not consider the office of prison keeper a sinecure. His account was allowed "as it now stands," and, perhaps influenced by his request, the court, at the same session, appointed Joseph Dwight and Elijah Williams, Esq.'s, "to view and look out some convenient place on which to build a County Gaol, and to provide and collect materials proper for the building the same." But another prison was not immediately provided. The jail remained as before, at the old fort, and in April, 1763, Mr. Dewey was al- lowed by the court £6, "for the use of his house as a Gaol for ye current year." Prisoners were kept at Mr. Dewey's until the summer of 1763, when a log jail was erected on the premises of Samuel Lee, adjoining to his dwelling house, and Mr. Lee was installed in the office of deputy jailer or prison keeper. This Samuel Lee (there were two of that name residing here) lived and kept a tavern in a house still standing, on the road to Sheffield, at the top of the hill south of Merritt I.
282
HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
Wheeler's,-the Zina Parks house ;- and the log jail" stood directly south of that house. This jail is sup- posed to have been built by Mr. Lee at his own ex- pense in consideration of his appointment to the office of prison keeper, and in connection with suitable ground for a prison yard, duly staked out, was leased by Mr. Lee, July 26th, 1763, to Mark Hopkins. Esq., County Treasurer, for the use of the county for a term of seven years. In the lease, which is recorded in the Registry of Deeds at Pittsfield, Book 2. page 181, the jail is described as "the New Log House"-" at the south end of said Samuel's now dwelling house." The lease also included the south-east lower room of the dwelling house for such length of time-less than seven years-as Mr. Lee should remain the prison keeper, and for three months after he should resign or be de- posed from his office. For the privileges secured by this lease, the county was to pay an " annual rent of a pepper corn, if the same shall be demanded, on the premises." Mr. Lee's log jail subserved the purposes of a prison for nearly three years, or until the spring of 1766.
In the mean time the increase of business in the courts, and the general circumstances of the county were such as to require better and permanent accom- modations for both the courts and jail. Early in 1765, the question of purchasing land with a dwelling house for the jailer, and the erection of a jail became a sub- ject of serious consideration ; and at the April term of the court of General Sessions, John Ashley, Esq. hav- ing offered to loan to the county the sum of £250, for the purpose of purchasing land and building a jail, was, in connection with John Chadwick and Elijah Williams, Esq.'s, appointed a committee to purchase some convenient place and build a jail; the work to be performed under the superintendence of Mr .. Ashley. At the September term of the court, 1765, an order was passed for the purchase, from Doctor Samu- el Lee, of one acre of land with a house and barn standing thereon ; and the purchase was accordingly consummated on the 17th of October.
Doctor Samuel Lee appears to have owned and oc-
283
BUILDING OF THE JAIL.
cupied a house which stood where Doctor W. H. Parks now resides-next south of the Episcopal church. In January, 1765, Doctor Lee purchased of Silas Good- rich the house-lately the old Episcopal parsonage- demolished in 1876-which Goodrich had built two years before. This old parsonage house, together with the land on which the church now stands and other land in the rear, to the extent of one acre in all, formed the premises which Doctor Lee conveyed to the coun- ty. On this the jail was soon after built, and the par- sonage house became the residence of the jailer. The committee above mentioned erected the jail, and had completed the building, with the exception of some inside finishing, by the following month of April. At the April term of the Court of General Sessions-1766 -the account of Daniel Allen, who was the principal architect and builder of this region, "for his labor and expense in building a Gaol for the use of s'd county," amounting to £40. 0.0
was allowed, and also the accounts of vari.
ous other persons for labor and material for
the jail, to the amount of 41. 14. 7
making the total cost of the yet unfinished
building,
£81. 14. 7 or a little less than $273.
At the same time, it was ordered by the court " that the New Gaol in this county of Berkshire be completed and finished in the following manner, viz. : that over the upper floor there be false beams bolted through, each at each end, with strong iron bolts, fore- locked, and keyed at the upper ends; that the south ends of the planks in ye same floor be effectually spiked down ; that the north end of the garret be closed tight with plank effectually secured by spikes; that the middle floor be overlaid with two inch oak plank, well spiked down with bearded spikes ; that the windows be cased round the grates, within and without, withiron bars effectually spiked on ; that each door be secured with an iron bar and a padlock ; that there be a wood- en block fitted to each door, with iron fastenings, and that Messrs. Daniel Allen and Elijah Dwight be ap- pointed to perform the same or procure the same to
284.
HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
be done at the expense of said county." The interior finishing, according to those specifications, was soon completed, and bills for the expenditures were allowed by the court at its September session.
The court at its April term-1766-directed Per- ez Marsh and John Chadwick, Esq.'s, to set out a prison yard to the new jail : which they did as follows : "Beginning at a great rock northwest of the Gaol, thence running east 15 degrees, south eleven rods to a post and heap of stones, thence on the street [south- erly] seven rods and twelve links to a stake and stones, thence west 22 degrees North ten rods to a heap of stones, from thence to the first bounds." The "great rock" above mentioned is supposed to be the same now crossed by the fence on the south line of the Town Hall ground. The prison yard, or jail ground limits, was afterwards enlarged, as will be hereafter mentioned.
The low gambrel roofed house-the old Episcopal parsonage-which occupied the ground directly in front of the present parsonage-became the jail house, and was the residence of the prison keepers, William Bement, Ebenezer Bement, and perhaps others from 1766 to 1790.
The jail was constructed of square hewn timbers, laid one upon another and doweled together. It was two stories in height, and stood fronting the street with its gables north and south, a short distance south of the jail house and a little further back from the street than the front line of that house. It extended south on to ground now covered by the Episcopal church, and was, by a passage way at its north end, connected with the kitchen of the jail house. Of its internal arrangement but little is known, but it was not, apparently, divided into cells, as are the prisons of the present day.
In September, 1768, the court appointed a com mittee with instructions "to finish the Gaol" by cov- ering the outside with rough boards, glazing the win- dows, laying a floor between the upper and lower rooms, of oak plank four inches thick, upon the floor already laid, and lathing and plastering the upper
285
JAIL BREAKING.
room. The foregoing description and abstracts from records will convey to those familiar with the locality, a tolerably correct impression of the appearance of the jail. However substantially this jail may have been constructed, it was not always proof against the inge- nuity and industry of its tenants ; and the court records of February, 1770, show that John Van Gilder, John Van Gilder, Jun'r, and one Babbitt had broken out and escaped. Whereupon it was ordered by the court to pay the High Sheriff £6, for the apprehension and recommitment of each or either of the fugitives, and measures were also adopted for repairing and strength- ening the prison.
But that the jail remained quite insecure, is shown by the following quotations from the old weather books of Lieutenant Gamaliel Whiting to which we have be- fore referred :
"1770. April 13. Davis broke jail. June 6. Tilly broke out.
1771. March 2. Shadrick Phelps broke jail.
April 28. broke jail.
Sept. 4. Wright, ye horse thief, broke jail.
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