USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Greenfield > History of Greenfield : shire town of Franklin county, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 35
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MITCHELL
Michael Mitchell married a daughter of John Catlin and was an early settler in Deerfield. His whole family escaped unharmed when Deerfield was sacked in 1704. His son Michael was a soldier in Father Rasles's War. Elijah, a grand- son, was the settler on the family lands at Green River. He was a Revolutionary soldier, and eight children were born to him. His two sons, Moses Miller and William, settled in Greenfield; their descendants still may be found in Greenfield and Shelburne.
MUNN
Benjamin Munn settled in Springfield in 1649. He was a soldier in the Pequot War in 1637, and was probably killed by Indians in November, 1675. His sons James and John were both in the fight at Turners Falls, and James was afterwards a soldier in King Williams' War. John, the son of John, was in the Meadow fight in 1704. Benjamin, the son of John, was the first settler of the name in Deerfield, and living in a half underground house, drifted over with snow, he and his wife, Thankful, daughter of Godfrey Nims, and their little babe, escaped the notice of the savages when Deerfield was sacked in 1704. This underground hut was the original home of Godfrey Nims. He was a soldier in the French war, selectman, and removed to Northfield, where he died in 1774. His son John who was a soldier at Fort Dummer, settled in Northfield, while his sons, John, Noah and Elisha settled in that part of Greenfield which is now Gill.
Samuel, another son of Benjamin, the Deerfield settler, was a soldier in the French and Indian wars, settled in Gill, and was the father of fifteen children.
Benjamin, a son of Benjamin, the settler, lived in Deerfield, and was a carpenter. He had a son Benjamin who was a sol- dier at Lake George and was in the " Bloody Morning Scout ;" also at the disastrous attack on " Old Ti," July 8, 1758, and was also one of Rogers Rangers. He joined a party that was
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marching to Bunker Hill and took in the excitement of that fight. He went to Maine and from thence to Nova Scotia, and was missing for about forty years. When about eighty years of age he returned to Boston, and walked from thence to Deerfield. He fell from an embankment in Shelburne, and was found dead July 26, 1824.
Phineas, a son of Benjamin, the settler, was a soldier in the French war, was with Colonel Williams when he was killed, but was a Tory and was mobbed in 1774. He fled to Bur- goyne, was captured and committed to Northampton jail, but returned to Deerfield in 1778. Asa, a son of Samuel before named, was a Greenfield settler and a Revolutionary soldier. No Munns remain in Greenfield, but the family name is pre- served in Gill.
NASH
Daniel Nash, the progenitor of the Greenfield Nashes, was an early settler in Greenfield. He was son of Daniel Nash of Northampton, born September 13, 1715. He was a sol- dier in the old French war, and died July 1, 1790. He was delegate to the Provincial Congress which met at Salem in 1774, and a member of Greenfield's first board of selectmen, and a very prominent man of business, owning the mills at Mill Brook Falls, and giving his name to "Nash's Mills." He had a family of thirteen children. One of his grandsons, Sylvanus Nash, was an adherent of Daniel Shays while his brother Tubal was an officer in Captain Arms Company of loyal militia. The descendants of Daniel Nash are quite numerous in Greenfield and vicinity, and they have well sustained the character of their progenitor as sagacious business men and worthy citizens.
NIMS
Godfrey Nims, first heard of at Northampton, 1667, where he was granted a home lot, is supposed to be the ancestor of all of that name in this country. He was the third settler at
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Deerfield. He was in the " Falls Fight" in 1676, bought lots No. 27 and 28 in the old street, and built himself a house which was burned in 1693-4, and in it perished Jeremiah Hull, his four year old stepson. His second house, built upon the same spot, was burned by the enemy in 1704, and his children, Mehitable, aged eight, and Mary and Mercy, twins, aged six, were smothered in the cellar. His wife, Me- hitable (widow of Jeremiah Hull), was taken prisoner and killed on the way to Canada. His daughter Rebecca and her husband, Philip Mattoon, living in his family, were both killed. His son Henry, twenty-two, was also killed. Abigail, a daughter of four years, was taken to Canada, became a nun, and the romantic story of her life is most interestingly told in the works of Miss C. Alice Baker. Ebenezer, son of God- frey, and about seventeen, was also taken prisoner to Canada, where he remained until 1714. His fellow prisoner, Sarah Hoyt, of his own age, was persistently urged by the French priests to marry, and finally she announced in public that she would marry if any of her fellow captives would take her. Ebenezer promptly stepped forward and claimed her for his bride, and they were married on the spot. The priests thought the matter might have been prearranged by the young couple. Their son, Elisha, was killed at Fort Massachusetts, June 10, 1746. The second son of Ebenezer and Sarah, named David, settled at Keene, N. H., in 1737, and was the ancestor of the New Hampshire branch of the family. His son Asahel was killed at the battle of Bunker Hill. Reverend J. L. Sewell, the historian of Sullivan, N. H., says of the Deerfield settler : " In that great immigration of Hugenots there came a lad named Godefroi de Nismes, or as known here, Godfrey Nims, who is first mentioned in the records of Northampton under the date of September 4, 1667. He came from that same part of France in which is situated the city of Nismes, from which place the family name, de Nismes (contracted into Nims), is taken." In a personal letter to the writer Mr. Seward says :
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" As the tradition came alike through two branches of the fam- ily, I think there can be but little doubt that it is correct. The name de Nismes, would imply that some ancestor of the name was a person ' of the city of Nismes.' Tradition made him a Huguenot from the south of France. While I could not say that this tradition is a known and authenticated fact, it certainly has the appearance of being very reliable and I shall speak of it as probably true."
Godfrey was the father of eleven children. Elizabeth Hull, sixteen, the daughter of Mrs. Nims, was also made prisoner and taken to Canada. There she met her step- brother, John Nims, who was taken captive in 1703 and was still a prisoner when the attack was made on Deerfield. He made his escape in 1705, and December 19, 1707, he married Elizabeth Hull, and from this union sprang the Greenfield branch of the Nims family. John and Elizabeth had eleven children. John was very prosperous and took largely of the lands laid out at Green River, and through his wife became in- terested in the Jeremiah Hull homestead, the lot on which the First Baptist Church in Greenfield now stands. Here Thomas Nims, a son of John and Elizabeth, settled about 1740. He married Esther Martindale of Westfield, and they had seven children. Thomas was a leading man in town af- fairs, selectman, assessor and tithingman. He served as a soldier in the Indian wars. Only one son, Hull, arrived at man's estate, and he was the father of the late Thomas, Al- bert H. and Lucius Nims. Thomas Nims's house standing where the First Baptist Church now does was palisaded dur- ing the French and Indian wars, and the large barn was re- moved from the Hull place to the ancestral farm in the mead- ows. The original house on the meadow farm was burned in 1810, and the present one was built the same year. Many of Godfrey's descendants were soldiers in the French and In- dian and the Revolutionary wars, and several did honorable service in the War of the Rebellion.
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NEWTON
About 1769 Isaac Newton, a nephew of Reverend Roger Newton, came to Greenfield, and with John Newton purchased from Simeon Burt, by three deeds, land just north of the old meetinghouse place, then a dense wilderness, and cleared the lands which for more than one hundred years were occupied by their descendants. Isaac was a captain in the Revolution- ary war ; was at Fort Edward when Burgoyne was taken, and at West Point, where he first saw Washington, when Arnold fled on board the Vulture. His father John and his two broth- ers, John and Samuel, are buried in the graveyard near the four corners. This Newton family have always maintained a high standing in town, the late Hervey C. Newton, who was an able man and thoroughly devoted to the interests of the town, being of this family.
There is another Newton family who have lived both in this town and in Deerfield, generally on or about Petty's Plain. The first of this branch of the Newton family were patriotic soldiers in the Revolutionary Army, and their descendants seem to have inherited the valor of their ancestors, for no other family in town furnished more soldiers than this during the War of the Rebellion.
The James Newton family, a distinct branch, came here from Hubbardston in 1835. The sons of James Newton became early invested in Holyoke where they became prominent and active citizens adding luster to the family name.
PETTY
Joseph Petty, from whom " Petty's Plain " obtained its name, while never a resident of this town, was largely inter- ested in the apportionment of the lands here.
PICKETT
Samuel Pickett came to Greenfield from Durham, Conn. He purchased lot No. 92, containing twenty-seven acres, from William and Eunice Felton in 1777, and lot No. 10, second
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division, containing seventy acres. He was the ancestor of the Greenfield Picketts of which family Job Pickett is a worthy member.
POMROY
Joshua Pomroy enjoys the distinction of having built the first house at Green River, in 1686. Joshua was son of Elt- wed of Dorchester, and was one of Deerfield's first board of selectmen, and a very prominent man in the affairs of the settlement. His son Joshua with his young wife were taken prisoners in 1704, she being killed on the march. Nathaniel, another son, was killed at Pomeroy's Island, July 16, 1698. The race is prominent in Northfield, but none of the name now reside in Greenfield.
RYTHER
James Rider (son of Daniel, born in 1683, in Sherborn) changed to Ryther, settled in Greenfield before 1766. He was a sergeant at Fort Pedham in 1749 and a soldier in the last French war. He married Mary, daughter of Deacon Thomas French, had ten children and died in Bernardston, Febru- ary 15, 1820, aged ninety.
His son, David, a Revolutionary soldier, removed to Ber- nardston, where the name was a prominent one.
RUSSELL
John Russell, major in the militia, jeweller, established his home in Greenfield before 1794. Although not one of the earliest settlers, the name has been made one of the most prominent in the town, by the remarkable ability of his chil- dren and descendants.
SCOTT
Aaron Scott was an early settler in Greenfield, afterwards lived in Wisdom. He married Elizabeth, daughter of James Corse, was one of Captain John Burke's Rangers during the last French war. His son Jonathan was a Revolutionary soldier.
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SEVERANCE
Ebenezer Severance was the grandson of that John Severns who was a settler at Salisbury, Mass., in 1639. Ebenezer was born in 1673, and came to Deerfield with his father (John), about 1689 ; in 1702 he had a grant of forty acres of land on Green River. He moved to Northfield in 1718. He was a soldier under Captain Wright, in 1709, and was killed by Indians October 23, 1723, while at work in his cornfield. His son, Daniel, born in 1701, was a soldier under Captain Joseph Kellogg from 1723 to 1730, and for two years was a lieutenant in command of forty-two men who garrisoned the forts in Colrain. He was transferred to the command of Cap- tain Ephraim Williams, and was one of the brave defenders of Fort Massachusetts, when attacked by the French and In- dians in August, 1748. Reverend J. F. Severance, the fam- ily historian, says : "Colonel Patridge, in whose regiment he served, said in his report: ' We have some disorderly men, in particular one Daniel Severance, who declares openly that he will kill ye Indian who scalped his father if he kills the whole race. I have given him warning that if he should do such a thing in time of peace, he must go on trial for his life.' His reply was, I will go on trial then for they killed my father in time of peace."
Joseph Severance, brother of Ebenezer, a tailor in Deerfield and Northfield, was wounded in the Deerfield meadow fight in 1704, and crippled for life. The General Court granted hin 200 acres of land in Northfield. His children were born in Deerfield, but he died in Montague in 1766. His son, Joseph, born in 1713, was the first of the name to settle in the Green River district. He, like so many of his race, was a soldier in the French and Indian wars. He was made captive at Fort William Henry in 1757, taken to Canada, escaped and returned. His daughters married early settlers at Green River; Eunice to Moses Bascom; Chloe to Dan Corse; Joanna to David Allen ; Mary to Oliver Atherton.
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Joseph Severance's son, Martin, was one of the first settlers at Salmon (now Shelburne) Falls. He was born in 1718 and when he was twenty years of age was with Captain Kel- logg at Fort Dummer. He was a member of the celebrated military organization, known as the " Rogers Rangers," which gained such lasting renown in the French and Indian wars. He, and his nephew, Matthew, Agrippa Wells and William Clark, of Colrain, were taken prisoners while on a scout in 1758, and in rowing across the lake his captors compelled him to assist. While so employed one of the Indians vexed him, and Sev- erance resented the insolence, when the Indian slapped his face and knocked off his hat. Severance raised his oar and striking the Indian over his head knocked him overboard, where he was left to his fate. When they arrived in Canada, Matthew and others were compelled to run the gauntlet, but Martin refused and dared them to make the effort to com- pel him to run. He was excused. After being in captivity two years he returned by way of Quebec, France and Eng- land.
He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and it is said that one time while in camp and very short of food, he and some companions went foraging and conveyed home their plunder in a coffin shaped box. When they approached a sentinel Severance cried out " Stand aside-dead man-small- pox-" and they were given abundance of room to pass. He died at Shelburne Falls, April 8, 1810, aged ninety-two years.
Jonathan Severance, the brother of Martin, settled on the family lands at Green River. He was born in 1725, was a lieutenant in the Indian wars, but it is said that " after the bat- tle of Lexington, he stood aloof from military service " dur- ing the Revolutionary War. He was nine years selectman, and lived on the farm in the meadows now owned by Frank Kingsley. He had thirteen children, and died at Truxton, N. Y., April 2, 1822, aged ninety-six years, nine months and twenty days.
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Moses Severance, brother of Jonathan, was a soldier in Burk's Rangers, lived in Greenfield one year, and settled in Montague.
Matthew, grandson of Joseph the tailor, already mentioned as taken captive by the Indians, made his escape by secreting himself in a hollow log, backing in feet foremost and pulling in weeds and brush to cover the opening. Here he laid two days and three nights, the Indians at one time sitting on the log in which he was hiding. He married Experience, daugh- ter of Daniel Nash, lived in Greenfield until 1807 and moved to Leyden where he died in 1816, aged eighty-one. He was the father of Matthew, born in Greenfield in 1765, who set- tled in Leyden, and whose son Chester, born in Greenfield in 1799 and removed to Leyden, became the father of Dr. Wil- liam S. Severance, who so worthily represents that branch of the family in our village to-day.
Jonathan Severance born in 1750, son of Jonathan, moved with his father to Truxton, N.Y., in 1801. Jonathan Sr., and his son both lived in Greenfield, and it is said first built a mill at Nash's Mills. Elizabeth, daughter of Jonathan, Jr., born in Greenfield, was the mother of Robert M. Stewart, governor of Missouri in 1858-9.
Joseph Severance, son of Jonathan Sr., born in 1760, was the father of Joseph and Pliny, hatters ; and of Horace, shoe- maker, known to the older generation of Greenfield people now living. Elihu, another son of Jonathan Sr., was the father of Ptolemy Philadelphus, who built the mansion house, now the Franklin County Public Hospital. His youngest daughter is the wife of Honorable Herbert C. Parsons. She was born on the original Severance lot, which remained in the family from the first settlement until within a few years. An- other daughter, Elizabeth, now deceased, was the wife of Wil- liam A. Ames.
P. P. Severance had two sons; Edward H. was a lieuten- ant in the 24th Regt. Ohio Vols .; and Franklin C. who grad-
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uated at Amherst in 1863, and was first lieutenant in Co .- A, 52d Mass. Vols. After the close of the war the latter became a clerk in the Treasury Department at Washington. The father was quite a prominent man in his day, serving the town as selectman, assessor, and in the care of the highways. He built the Greenfield portion of the road to Turners Falls, and was for several years superintendent of the Montague canal. He died May 4, 1883.
The early generations of this family were prolific; families of eight to fourteen children were not unusual, there being eighty of the family name indexed in the probate records of this county ; the family name is common in all the western states, and representatives of the blood can be found in the Sandwich Islands and Japan.
SHATTUCK
Samuel Shattuck, son of Samuel and Sarah (Clesson) Shat- tuck of Deerfield, was born September 18, 1741, and early set- tled in Greenfield, where all his nine children were born. He was a miller, and married Chloe Field, a granddaughter of Ebenezer Field, who was killed by Indians at Bloody Brook, October 26, 1708. Shattuck was a soldier in the French and Revolutionary wars and was at the battle of Bunker Hill. William Shattuck, brother of Samuel, was a major and promi- nent as an officer under the state of New York in the troubles in southern Vermont. He married Lydia, daughter of Eliph-
alet and Mary (Brooks) Allis of Montague. This Mary Brooks was said to have been the first child of English birth born in Greenfield. Her daughter, Sophia, married Otis Doolittle of Hinsdale, N. H., when thirteen years, five months and twenty-seven days old, and became the mother of eighteen children, of whom sixteen lived to reach mature age. She was the grandmother of Andrew J. Doolittle of this town.
Captain Job Shattuck of this blood was one of Daniel Shays's most trusted lieutenants during the Shays rebellion, and resisting the party sent to arrest him, he was severely
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wounded. He was tried for treason, and being condemned was sentenced to be hanged, but was pardoned by Governor Hancock.
SHELDON
None of the descendants of Isaac Sheldon of Dorchester, which family was, and is, so prominent in Deerfield, and whose representative, Ebenezer, born in 1691, had a large interest in the Green River lands, seem to have settled in what is now Greenfield, if we except Izatus who came here before 1846, married Mary Pickett and went to Minnesota where he died in 1877. Major Ora Sheldon, an expert bridge builder, also settled in Cheapside, on the place now occupied by his son, George B. The honorable historian of Deerfield has within the last few years, sent to us a most worthy repre- sentative of the family in the person of his son, John Sheldon, of the firm of Sheldon & Newcomb.
SMEAD
William, the son of Widow Judith Smead of Dorchester, born in 1635, was an early permanent settler of Deerfield. He died before 1704, having been the father of ten children. His daughter Mehitable married Jeremiah Hull, and after his death she married Godfrey Nims. Samuel, son of William, had a house lot granted him at Green River, but it is not thought that he ever removed there. His mother, wife and two children were smothered in the cellar when Deerfield was destroyed in 1704. John, another son of William, was in the Meadow fight, was badly wounded and afterward the General Court allowed John's son John 200 acres of land on account of his father's services and sufferings. The elder John was selectman, assessor, etc. Ebenezer, another son of William, was also a prominent man, serving as selectman, constable and moderator of town meetings. John, the son of John, was a soldier at Fort Massachusetts, and he with his wife and five children were taken prisoners at the surrender of the fort, were kindly treated by the enemy and taken to Canada. His
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wife was delivered of a child on the second days' march, and they called her name "Captivity." The mother and child were carried on a couch made of poles covered with bear skins. The family were redeemed in 1747 and seven weeks later the father was killed by Indians near the mouth of Mil- lers river.
Ebenezer, the son of Ebenezer, with his brother Jonathan, were settlers in the Green River district. Ebenezer was an ensign in the Louisburg Expedition in 1745, was one of the first board of Greenfield selectmen and a leading man in all district affairs. Jonathan married Mehitable, daughter of John Nims, and her daughter of the same name married Captain Agrippa Wells. Jonathan and Mehitable had twelve children. "Esquire " David Smead, son of Ebenezer, was a man " of intelligence, talents and worth," a deacon in the church, representative for ten years and state senator. He was the father of Honorable Solomon Smead, the first judge of probate of Franklin county, and also of Major Julia Smead, a leading man in his day and generation. Albert Smead, son of Major Julia, was a man of retiring disposition, but of sterling worth. He served the town as assessor and selectman, and was the father of Deputy Sheriff Wm. M. Smead. Jonathan, Lemuel and Daniel, sons of Jonathan, the settler, were all prominent men in the affairs of the town, and their blood flows in the veins of some of our most respected citizens.
STARR
William Starr of Middletown, Conn., was for a few years after 1793 a resident of Greenfield, but removed to Deerfield. He was Revolutionary soldier, and died June 23, 1831.
STEBBINS
The Stebbins family of Deerfield were largely interested in . the division of the Green River lands, but none of the name were residents until Samuel, son of John, born in 1725, be- came a settler on the family lands in the upper meadows, at
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what is now known as Bassville. He had seven children, all daughters but one, and the family name is extinct in this town, unless it is borne by persons who may have recently come here.
SWAN
Benjamin and Joseph Swan, coopers, settled at Cheapside before 1796. William Elliot married the daughter of Joseph, and granddaughter of Jonathan Hoyt.
WAIT
William Wait, another cooper, was at Cheapside as early as 1795 ; also his brother David, who was the toll gatherer at the bridge. Thomas, son of William, for many years did a large freighting business between Greenfield and Boston, be- fore the railroad days. Afterward he became a grocery mer- chant. David R. Wait, another son, owned the fine Cheap- side meadow farm and was a prominent business man. Their descendants still reside in Greenfield.
WELLS
Hugh Wells was in Hartford in 1636. His grandson, Thomas, was a soldier in the Falls Fight, and one of the first permanent settlers of Deerfield. Thomas was one of the principal men of the settlement and was military commander of Deerfield at the time of his death in 1691.
The heart-rending account of the Indian attack upon the family of his widow and the Broughton family may be found in Sheldon's history, vol. I, p. 230. Jonathan, son of Thomas, was the " boy hero " of the Turners Falls fight, the story of which is told in this history of Greenfield.
Ebenezer, son of Thomas, was the Green River settler. He was granted a home lot and twenty acres on condition that he occupy it three years after he became twenty-one years old. Joshua, son of Ebenezer, lived where Arthur D. Potter's house now stands, and his house was a fort during the Indian wars. He had a family of fourteen children. Simeon, son of
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Ebenezer, was killed with Colonel Ephraim Williams Septem- ber 8, 1755, in the " Bloody Morning Scout." John, another son of Ebenezer, was a soldier in Father Rasle's War and colonel in the militia. He had eight children, one of whom, Daniel, was also killed with Colonel Williams. Ebenezer, son of Joshua, was a leading man of Greenfield. He was captain in the militia, and had twelve children. Joel, another son of Joshua, lived in Greenfield. Joel's son Ephraim kept a tavern nearly opposite the Elihu G. Arms place in the north meadows. Joel's daughter Catherine married Beriah Willard, and was the mother of David Willard, author of " Willard's History of Greenfield." Abner, another son of Joshua, kept a store in Greenfield. Samuel, son of Colonel John, was a lieutenant, and built the large house which stood where Baxter B. Noyes now resides. He was very prominent in town affairs. His son Samuel was a colonel in the militia, and a leading citizen and the leading man in the organization of the Second Congregational Society. Daniel, a brother of Colonel Samuel, also became a colonel, and the father of that Daniel Wells, who at the time of his death in 1854 was the Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas of this Common- wealth. Judge Wells was the father of Colonel Geogre D. Wells, killed at Cedar Creek, Va., October 13, 1864. Colonel Daniel Wells married Rhoda Newton. He was a soldier with his relative Captain Agrippa Wells, in the Revolution, al- though but fourteen and a half years old. He was town clerk and treasurer of Greenfield. His oldest son, Calvin, married a daughter of Reverend Samuel Taggart of Colrain and moved to Genesee County, N. H., in 1816. His grandson, Samuel Calvin Wells, editor of the Philadelphia Press, has recently published an interesting genealogy of the descendants of Daniel Wells. Dr. Noah S. Wells, for so many years town clerk of Greenfield, was a descendant of the Shelburne branch of the family. The name has been a prominent one in Deerfield, Greenfield, Shelburne and Rowe. John Wells of Chicopee,
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