USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Great Barrington > History of Great Barrington, (Berkshire County,) Massachusetts > Part 27
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
310
HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
The Shays men arrived at Great Barrington at about ten o'clock in the forenoon, where they halt- ed to refresh themselves at the expense of the house- keepers of the village. It was an hour of gloom with the women, for the village, temporarily deserted by its able-bodied male inhabitants, was left at the mer- cy of the invaders. But, fortunately, the insurgents were in too great haste to repeat the general pillage with which they had visited the people of Stockbridge. Apprised of their coming the villagers had securely hidden their valuables. General Ives before leaving for Sheffield, placed his most important papers in a grain bag and sent John Whiting on horseback to secrete them under the roof, in the garret of the old Sanford house, on the hill. Even pewter platters were hidden, and at the Pynchon tavern, these were placed between the beds that they might not fall into the hands of the insurgents who sought them for material for bullets.
Leaving Great Barrington, the Shays men proceed- ed towards Sheffield, taking the back road west of Green River. A company of drafted men had marched from Sheffield, on the previous day, for the government headquarters, by reason of which the means of defence in the south part of the county were materially dimin- ished. This fact was known to the insurgents and doubtless emboldened them to the present incursion. At about one o'clock, p. m., the Sheffield men under Captain Goodrich were gathered, and the party ready to march. The whole body, numbering probably less than one hundred,-Berkshire History says eighty- under command of Colonel John Ashley, started in sleighs with the expectation of meeting the insurgents. We quote from the History of Berkshire the following account of the further transactions and the battle of that day:
"The insurgents were now supposed to be coming down to Sheffield, and various rumors were abroad as to the course they were taking. It was at first said they were coming down on the meadow road, and then that they had turned off by the Episco- pal church (1) westward and were making their way out of the
(1) The old Episcopal church in Great Barrington ; the in- surgents did turn to the west at the corner by the south burial ground.
/
311
THE CONFLICT.
county. Upon hearing this, Colonel Ashley turned to the left, passed hastily on to the back road, and then turning by Archer [Asher] Saxton's, drove furiously for Francis Hare's, in Egremont. (1) He had scarcely passed the brook north of the quarry [Ches- ter Goodale's quarry ] when it was announced that the insurgents were in the rear, coming after them. They had been marching towards Sheffield on the back road, but hearing of the govern- ment forces, had turned at Saxton's in pursuit of them, just af- ter Colonel Ashley had diverged at that place. A halt was im- mediately made, the sleighs were thrown out of the way, and an attempt made to form the companies. After a few moments of great confusion, Captain Goodrich directed the Sheffield company to follow him through a lot of girdled trees on the west side of the road ; and the Great Barrington company, under Captain Ingersoll, advanced through a copse of timber on the east. By this time a scattering fire commenced, and continued while the companies were advancing, with a rapid march, fifty or sixty rods, when a well directed fire from eight or ten who were fore- most, upon a considerable body of insurgents in the road, dis- comfited them and put them to flight. The whole body dis- persed at once, and fled in different directions. They left two of their number dead near the place of action, and more than thirty were wounded, among whom was Hanlin, their captain, and a man by the name of Rathbun, who died sometime after of his wounds. A body of men coming on from Lenox under Cap- tain William Walker, immediately after the skirmish, enabled the conquerors to take more than fifty prisoners. The loss to the militia was two killed and one wounded. One of the killed was a Mr. Porter of Great Barrington : the other was Mr. Solo- mon Glezen,-taken prisoner at Stockbridge. The person wounded was the late Dr. Burghardt of Richmond. He was in the company of Captain Walker, and was wounded by a small party who fired upon them before they arrived at the spot where the action was fought. This skirmish took place over a little valley, now crossed by the Hartford turnpike near the west line of Sheffield."
This engagement, insignificant as it was, was the most severe of the several conflicts at arms which oc- curred in the Shays Insurrection. It is asserted by some-on the authority of persons who were present in the action-that another collision occurred on that day, between parties of insurgents and government men, at a point on the back road, near the town line, and that Solomon Glezen was killed there; and this assertion is so well authenticated that we are con- strained to credit its truthfulness.
(1) Francis Hare kept a tavern at South Egremont.
312
HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
The Mr. Porter, mentioned in the foregoing ac- count as having been killed, was Ephraim Porter, a young man-25 years old-son-in-law of Deacon Israel Root, whose daughter Anna he had married not long before. Deacon Root resided on the back road, where Joel Baldwin now does, and Mr. Porter seems to have been living in the family. He had probably joined the government forces on their downward march in the morning, and his wife received no intimation of his death until his lifeless body was brought to the door. Mr. Porter was buried in the south cemetery, where a well preserved monument of dark slate stone is erected to his memory. The other man killed-on the side of the government-Solomon Glezen, was a school-mas- ter of Stockbridge and one of the prisoners brought down from that place by the insurgents. Hugo Burg- hardt-afterwards Doctor Burghardt of Richmond- who was wounded, was then a student in Yale college, but had been for a time an invalid at his home-the old Deacon Beckwith place-on the Stockbridge road. On the morning of that day he had started on his re- turn to college, but joined the company of Lenox men under Captain Walker, which arrived after the action, and was with them engaged in the pursuit of the fugi- tives, when he was fired upon and severely wounded.
The prisoners captured were brought to Great Barrington, and so many of them as the jail could ac- commodate were here imprisoned ; the remainder were taken to Lenox for confinement. Already the exact site of this skirmish has become a matter of question, and opinions vary in regard to it, though its general locality is well known; but without having closely investigated the subject, we will not attempt. very par- ticularly, to define it, but simply to point out the place as indicated in the foregoing account, and the routes pursued by the combatants.
At that time the "turnpike" from Sheffield to Eg- remont had not been built. The route of communica- tion between these place was by the present back road, from the " Marble Turn Out," northerly to the Adam Pitcher place-by the white school house ; thence- leaving the back road-turning directly west as the
313
SITE OF THE ACTION.
road now does, and passing through a gorge or de- pression in the range of hills, to the western slope of the hill. At this point the road forks, one branch run- ning southwesterly, the other northwesterly. Asher Saxton is said to have lived on the north side of the road just at the fork where an old cellar and well are still to be seen. From Saxton's the route to Egre- mont was by the road which runs northwesterly to, or nearly to, its intersection with the present turnpike ; but from this point, if we are not misinformed, the old road ran to the east of the turnpike, and crossed the brook further up the stream than the turnpike does. When the government men left Sheffield, on the after- noon of the skirmish-erroneously supposing that the insurgents were coming down to that place on the Meadow road-they started north on that road to meet them. But receiving information that the insur- gents had gone west from Great Barrington, and be- lieving it was their intention to escape through Egre- mont into New York, Colonel Ashley with his men " passed hastily on to the back road," which he fol- lowed as far as the white school house, and thence drove westerly, by the route we have indicated, to the Asher Saxton place, and northwesterly towards Egre- mont. In the meantime, the Shays party, leaving Great Barrington, turned west at the south burial ground, and crossing Green River, took the back road southerly towards Sheffield, which they followed as far as the white school-house. Here, learning of the route taken by Colonel Ashley, they turned to the west and boldly became the pursuers. Colonel Ashley, hast- ening towards Egremont, "had scarcely passed the brook" north of the Goodale marble quarry, when it was announced that the insurgents were in his rear and pursuing. Here a halt was made, and Colonel Ashley's men marched south on both sides of the road to the place of conflict. The turnpike-the present traveled road-crosses the lower end of "the little valley" (over which the action is said to have taken place) about 80 rods south of the bridge by the marble saw mill. The action apparently took place some dis- tance east of the turnpike, higher up and perhaps on
314
HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
the south side of the valley, and north of a cart path! which leads from the turnpike towards the marble quarry. This locality is in the northwesterly part of the town of Sheffield.
A few incidents and anecdotes connected with the : transactions of that day have been preserved. When the Shays men left Stockbridge in the morning, after a night of pillage and carousal, many of them were drunk ; and their condition, in this respect, was not / improved by the addition of exhilarating drinks plun- dered from the taverns and dwellings during their short halt at Great Barrington. It was a cold morning ; so cold (as Mrs. Mary Pynchon used to relate) that the creaking of the sleigh shoes on the snow, as the Shays men entered the village, was heard through the whole length of the street. On their arrival at Great Bar -- rington, a party of insurgents visited the jail for the purpose of liberating the prisoners confined there. The keeper of the prison, Ebenezer Bement, had gone with his neighbors to Sheffield. This party called up- on Mrs. Bement-" a bright black-eyed little woman" -and demanded the keys of the jail. She produced the keys and unlocking the door herself, sang to them as they crossed the threshold,
" Hark, from the tombs a doleful sound, My ears attend the cry Ye living men, come view the ground Where you must shortly lie,"
naively adding "for we will have you all in here before' to-morrow morning." Her wit and boldness excited their admiration, but unfortunately for the malefactors, her prophecy proved too true.
Another party called at the house of General Thomas Ives-which stood where F. T. Whiting now resides. He, too, with his sleigh loaded with men, had gone to Sheffield, taking with him as a driver John Whiting-the late General Whiting-then a lad of 16 studying law in General Ives' office. Mrs. Ives was: sick -- confined to her bed-and her household affairs were in charge of a spinster of the neighborhood. Be- fore leaving home General Ives told his temporary housekeeper that the Shays men would probably visit
315
INCIDENTS.
the house, directed her to treat them civilly, to follow them wherever they went, and to ascertain, so far as she might, who they were. He further instructed her to inform them of the illness of Mrs. Ives, and to request them to make no unnecessary disturbance. As anticipated, a large number of the insurgents came to. the house at about eleven o'clock. The housekeeper performed her mission faithfully, and followed them about the house which they searched in the hope of finding arms. Discovering an enormous hair covered. trunk-now in the possession of the writer-in which General Ives kept his papers, they determined to break it open, believing that it contained guns; but the spinster defended it stoutly, and they at length satis- fied themselves, by measuring the trunk with a musket, that it was too short to be made a receptacle for arms, and desisted from opening it. Having regaled them -- selves with such provisions as the house afforded, and a large quantity of cider, which was brought by the pailful from the celler by a boy, they departed without subjecting the family to insolence or further incon- venience. On returning home at evening, and learning from his housekeeper the names of several of the per -- sons who had visited his house, General Ives repaired to the jail-then filled with prisoners taken in the fight-and looking amongst the inmates inquired who of them had been at his house that day; all strenuously denied the imputation. He assured them that he knew that many of them had been there, and that in consid -. eration of the little disturbance they had made, he had now come to thank them and to treat them. Where- upon all immediately plead guilty, and the General treated them to their and his own satisfaction.
Another party visited the old Smith-Pynchon tavern, where the Berkshire House stands. These were turbulent and insolent. One of them drawing his ramrod thrust it into the barrel of his musket to. show the woman how heavily it was charged, telling them that he had "two bullets for the d-d rebels." Others drove Mrs. Mary Pynchon-then a young lady in the family-at the point of their bayonets to open the store of Captain Walter Pynchon, that they might
316
HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
obtain lead to make into bullets; but the lead had already been taken to Sheffield by the government men for a similar purpose.
After the battle, such of the Shays men as were not captured retreated in various directions; some went north on the old road on the east side of the river. One of these was seen fleeing on a fine gray horse which had been stolen from the barn of Colonel Elijah Dwight in the morning. One man armed and on horse- back rode furiously through the village. He was pur- sued by an unarmed citizen to Christian Hill, where, being closely pressed, he left his horse and took refuge in a pig-pen. He was arrested by his pursuer, led from his hiding place and conducted in triumph to the jail.
An amusing incident is related. which occurred dur- ing the fray, of which Moses Orcutt of this town-fa- miliarly called Mut Orcutt-was the hero. Mut had been a soldier in the Revolution, both from Tyringham and Great Barrington, and had seen much service; he was moreover a man of wit as well as an extempora- neous poet. Whilst the fight was progressing Mut stepped from the ranks and coolly kneeling down in the snow, placed his hat, powder horn and gun upon the ground, bared his bosom to the foe and defiantly and profanely called upon the Shays men to "fire upon the body of Moses;" and fire they did, wounding Mut, though not very severely. During the insurrection the Shays men were accustomed to wear in their hat bands a sprig of hemlock, and the friends of govern- ment adopted, as a distinctive badge, a piece of white paper also attached to the hat band. These simple badges were worn by the opposing parties on the day of the skirmish.
Several of the most prominent of the Berkshire ac- tors in the rebellion were tried at a session of the Su- preme Judicial Court at Great Barrington in March, 1787. Of these Nathaniel Austin of Sheffield, Peter Wilcox of Lee, Aaron Knapp of West Stockbridge, Enoch Tyler of Egremont, Joseph Williams of New Marlboro, and Samuel Rust of Pittsfield were sentenced to death for high treason; the first five for the aggra- vation of murder. But these sentences were not car-
317
A QUEER ELECTION.
ried into execution. One citizen of Great Barrington, for seditious words and practices was sentenced to pay a fine of £100, to suffer seven months imprisonment, and to give bonds of £300 for his good behavior for five years. Although the insurrection was now sub- stantially quelled, the opposition to government which it had engendered did not immediately subside. Cir- cumstances connected with the election of a delegate to represent this town in the state convention-held in January, 1788-for the purpose of ratifying or reject- ing the constitution of the United States, proposed by the Federal Congress, will serve to illustrate the state of public sentiment here at that time. At this elec- tion, held November 26th, 1787, Doctor William Whit- ing was the candidate of the opponents of the proposed constitution, and Elijah Dwight, Esq., the candidate of the party which favored its ratification; Doctor Whit- ing was elected by a small majority, and was so de- clared by the selectmen presiding, and, having been called upon to accept or decline the office, came into the meeting and accepted it publicly. A committee was appointed "to give instructions to the delegate." The committee retired, prepared their instructions, and returning to the meeting made report ; which appears not to have been acted upon at that time. These in- structions,-preserved in the town files,-are, as a lit- erary production a curiosity, but can hardly be received as a sample of the average intelligence of the party whose views the delegate was expected to represent in the convention. We copy them, verbatim et literatim, from the original:
" To William Whiting, Esq.
" Whereas the Inhabitants of this Town of Grate Barrington have this Day elected you their Dellegate to meet in Convention on the Second tewsday of January Next to take into considera- tion the new federal Constitution Lately proposed by a fedderial Convention holden at Philadelphia. We think it our Deuty to give you the following Instructions which you are to observe as the Rule of your conduct in s'd convention (viz)
" First as the Constitution of this Commonwealth Invests the Legslature with no such Power as sending Delligates To a Con- vention for the purpose of framing a New Systim of Fedderal Goverment-we conceive that the Constitution now offered us is Destituce of any Constituenal authority either states or fedderal.
:318
HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
"' 2nd had the Delligates from this state been Constituenaly ap- pointed yet their Commission extended no further than the Re- vising and amending the former articles of Confedderation-and therefore they could not pretend to the Least Colour of Right or authority from their Principles to Draw up a new form of Fed- derial Goverment.
"3d we think the Constitution Now offerd To our Exceptance and Ratification by no means Calculated to Secure to us and our Poserity those Estimable Liberties and Provileges which God and Nature have given us a Right to enjoy, Secure and defend ; for we Do not find in the said Constitution any Security for the Election of the fedderial Representatives; nor for the Privilege of tryal by Jury in Civil Causses; neither is their Security for enjoying and Preserving Enestimable Provilege the freedom of the Press. You are herefore Directed Not to give your vote for the adopting the said Constituion : and you are Likewise to move in Convention when the grand Question is Put whether said Con- stituion be adopted or not that the Question be desided by Yeas or Nays and that the Names be Published that the world may know who are friends to the Liberties of this Commonwealth and who not.
Dated at Grate Barrington Nov. 26th 1787.
Committee :- JAMES RAY, ELIZER DEMING, DANIEL CHAPMAN, JOHN VANDEUSEN. "
The meeting, evidently a stormy one, was kept open until after dark, and was finally adjourned for one week, at which time the inhabitants voted-(fifty-five to fifty- one)-not to accept the instructions of the committee to the delegate ; and also voted-(fifty-seven to forty- eight)-to reconsider all the votes passed at the former meeting. After this summary proceeding a ballot was taken for a delegate to the convention, which resulted in the election of Elijah Dwight, Esq., by a small majori- ty. When the convention assembled at Boston-Jan- uary 9th, 1778,-Colonel Dwight was present and took his seat. A remonstrance, signed by several voters of the town, was presented and read in the convention on the 11th, stating, at length, the proceedings of the town meeting, and praying that Doctor Whiting might "be admitted to his seat in the convention, the refusal of the selectmen to give him a certificate, and the pre- tended election of Elijah Dwight, Esq., to the contrary notwithstanding." The remonstrance was referred to a committee, which reported unanimously that the re- monstrance "was not supported and that the remon- strants have liberty to withdraw the same." This re-
319
ANECDOTE.
port was accepted ; Colonel Dwight retained his seat and gave his influence and his vote in favor of the adop- tion of the constitution. If the vote upon the instruc- tions, above quoted, as well as for the respective can- didates for delegate to the convention, may be consid- ered as representing the comparative strength of the Government and Shays parties in this town, they were very nearly equally balanced. The paper itself-the instructions-is indorsed in a large bold hand "Mud- dy Brook Instructions to their Delegate." Of the signers of this paper, three were residents of Muddy Brook,-the other, John Van Deusen, lived in the Pel- ton-brick-house at the foot of Monument Mountain.
The Shays Rebellion engendered a vast amount of ill feeling. It was a war of neighbor against neighbor . and family against family ; a civil war on a limited scale. In the personal animosities which attended the rebellion, a horse belonging to a friend of government, was shot and killed by his neighbor, a Shays sympathiz- er. From this arose a suit for damages brought by the former against the latter. The Shays man was known to be guilty ; but the difficulty was to prove the fact. The case came up for hearing before a Justice of the Peace, and Major William King appeared as counsel to defend the Shays man. It was proved beyond a doubt that the defendant, at the time of the killing, had been seen within half a mile of the pasture in which the horse was kept, with a gun in his hands, and that he was heard to hurrah lustily for Shays. The evidence was not very conclusive as to his guilt ; but the counsel for the plaintiff laid great stress upon it, and made a labored and lengthy argument. Rising to reply, Major King, in his laconic way, addressed the court : "May it please your Honor ; the question is simply this, whether or not hurrahing for Shays will kill a horse at half a mile ;" and resumed his seat. The . defendant was acquitted.
CHAPTER XXII.
SUPPORT OF PREACHING-FORMATION OF RELIG- IOUS SOCIETIES.
1769-1800.
In former chapters we have related the proceedings at the formation of the Congregational and Episcopal churches, and have incidentally followed the history of the former to the time of the dismissal of its first pastor-the Reverend Samuel Hopkins-in 1769, and of the latter to the decease of its first permanent mis- sionary and rector-the Reverend Gideon Bostwick -in 1793.
From 1769 to 1787, no settled minister officiated in the Congregational meeting-house, and in this period of eighteen years, its pulpit was for a great part of the time unsupplied. In 1787 the Reverend Isaac Foster was ordained over the Congregational church, but after a pastorate of only three years was dismissed in 1790, apparently for the reason that the town was un- willing to afford him an adequate support. For "Or- thodox" ministers were then still, by law, supported by towns. From the dismissal of Mr. Foster to the ordi- nation of Rev. Elijah Wheeler in 1806, another period of sixteen years elapsed, in which the Congregational -- ists were without a settled minister. It is not our in- tention, in this place, to present a detailed history of the churches, but to relate so much of the proceedings of the inhabitants, in their town meetings, pertaining to the support of Gospel ordinances, as will illustrate the spirit which moved the people, and will afford some
321
PREACHING NOT SUPPORTED.
insight to their moral and religious condition. The acrimony of feeling, which, it will be remembered, ex- isted before the Revolution, is visible in all the action of the town, and did not fully subside until within the present century.
In 1769, November 3d, the town voted "to hire a learned and orthodox minister to preach in the Pres- byterian meeting-house in said town for the space of three months," raised £20 for that purpose, appointed Jonathan Nash, David Ingersoll, Junior, Esq., Israel Dewey, Truman Wheeler, and Elijah Dwight, Esq., a committee "to agree with and hire a minister." But the vote for even this small sum seems to have caused a commotion, and the Episcopalians, apparently-and rightfully, too-objected to the payment of taxes for the support of dissenting preaching. Two months later-January, 1770-an effort was made in town meeting, and the vote carried, for raising £30, in addi- tion to the £20 already raised, for the support of preaching in the "Presbyterian meeting-house." Al- though this vote was coupled with the proviso that the professors of the Church of England should be per- mitted to draw from the town treasury such part of the £50 raised as they should be assessed, nevertheless it was immediately reconsidered. The sum of £20 was then voted, and the vote reconsidered. Then £12 was voted. and finally the meeting with all its proceedings was "dissolved."
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.