USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Greenfield > History of Greenfield : shire town of Franklin county, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 23
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957
A HERO OF THE REVOLUTION
LIEUTENANT JOHN CLARK
John Clark was born in Andover, and his father, after living in several places, moved with his family to Colrain. In 1746 a relative, Matthew Clark, was killed, and his wife and daugh- ter badly wounded by Indians, and Mr. Clark deemed it wise to remove his family to Hatfield. Young Clark enlisted at the commencement of the war of 1755, in the provincial regiment then being raised in old Hampshire county, under the command of Colonel Ephraim Williams, for an attack on Crown Point, under command of General Johnson. Being young and small of stature, his father went as his substitute, but in 1756 he went into the service and made the campaign under General Winslow, serving at Lake George and about the Hudson. In 1757 he again enlisted, and was in Colonel Frye's regiment, on the old grounds, under General Webb. Luckily for him he was on a detachment down the Hudson, when after a siege, Fort William Henry was captured, and he escaped the risk of losing his life in the horrible massacre of that garrison by Montcalm's Indians. In 1758 he was again in service in the regiment of Colonel William Williams, in the army of General Abercrombie, and took part in that fear- ful attack on the abattis before Fort Ticonderoga, when two thousand of the English were killed and wounded.
He was employed in the Batteau service in connection with General Amherst's army, on its expedition up the Mo- hawk, until the war closed by the surrender at Quebec and Montreal. He immediately joined the army, at the com- mencement of the Revolution, and was commissioned a lieu- tenant in Colonel Brewer's regiment, and was in the Bunker Hill fight. The same year he was detached to serve under Arnold on his disastrous expedition against Quebec, by way of the Kennebec river, where the men suffered untold miseries from hunger and exposure. He was in the brave but unsuc- cessful attack on the fortress under General Montgomery. He led a party of 25 men, followed by Morgan's riflemen
958
AN OLD-TIME LANDLORD
and Lamb's artillery, through deep snow, and stormed a bat- tery in the lower town, but fighting bravely, they were out- numbered, and nearly the whole party were taken prisoners.
He remained in Quebec a prisoner, until 1776, when Sir Guy Carlton sent the captured men to New York, and they went to their homes. He returned to the army, and was in the retreat before Burgoyne, down the Hudson under Schuy- ler. He then returned for a few weeks to Hadley, but on the call for volunteers to defend against Burgoyne's army, he again became attached to a body of militia, with whom he remained until the surrender of Burgoyne. Retiring from the army, he established himself in Greenfield, at what was for- merly known as the Bascom place, on the stage road, where he kept a tavern for several years. He afterwards " rode post " between Boston and western Massachusetts towns. He was an ardent patriot and did good service for the govern- ment during Shays's rebellion as an express rider for General Shepard. Before the country made provision for the sus- tenance of retired officers, he became very poor and lived with relatives in New York and Vermont, but in after years he obtained a pension which gave him comfortable support. His last years were spent in Deerfield, where he often enter- tained his hearers with stories of his chequered career. Be- fore his dicease he had every article for his burial prepared, even to his coffin, grave clothes and tombstones. He died January 19, 1829, loved and respected by all, aged 91 years.
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CHAPTER LXI
OLD HOMES AND HOMESTEADS
' An old home is like an old violin, The music of the past is wrought into it."
A LARGE proportion of the first settlers upon the Green river lands were sons or grandsons of the original planters at Deerfield. Soon after the close of Queen Anne's war, in 1713, the proprietors began apportioning among them- selves the rich meadows lying along the Green river. These lands were, during this interval of peace, farmed to some extent by their owners, while they still kept their residence on the old street, in Deerfield. Without doubt, these people built for their temporary occupation small log huts, which later became the nucleus of a new home. As the young men married and new homes became a necessity, these temporary cabins gave way to more permanent and more convenient structures. When time and means permitted, a place was selected, generally near some spring of water, and always close beside the travelled way, for the location of the family home.
During Queen Anne's reign a law had been enacted requir- ing a tax to be levied upon all two-story houses, and in order to evade this provision, that form of house known in Con- · necticut as the "salt box" became the prevailing style of architecture. Two stories in front, while a long sloping roof covered what was known as a " lean-to " in the rear, the eaves of which were scarcely higher than a man's head. The loca- tion for the house having been determined, a cellar was ex-
959
960
BUILDING THE HOME
cavated at least six feet in depth, for the houses were but slightly elevated above the ground, so that they could be easily " banked up " in the fall. In the middle of the cellar was laid the foundation of the immense chimney, generally of solid stone and from ten to fourteen feet square. When the walls of this foundation were raised to within two feet of the lower floor of the intended house, huge beams of hewn oak were laid side by side upon the walls, with ends projecting sufficiently to sustain the hearth stones in the rooms above. On this solid foundation was erected the great brick chimney, around which the house seemed to be built as an after-thought. As the walls rose to the level of the floors above, the great fireplace and the brick oven with its ash hole below, the smaller fireplaces for the parlor and the spare room were planned out, and with great mechanical skill the flues for each, with proper space and guards against a back draft, were connected with the great central chimney. At a later period of time, separate flues were carried up in the main chimney for each fireplace.
Often times the carpenters in finishing the house, took ad- vantage of the vacant space about the chimney for cupboards and closets. Generally the oven and the sides and tops of the fireplaces were covered in with sand. The front door resting under the rising sun window, was in the center of the house front, and in the better houses the front hall extended through to the living room. In others it served only as an entrance to the rooms on either side, and from it ran a narrow flight of stairs, which by two turns reached the upper floor. Under these stairs there was frequently located a dark closet, which was the particular domain of the mistress of the house- hold. In the construction of the fireplace in the parlor, the mason displayed to the utmost his skill as an artist in brick and mortar, and the joiner, using the choicest selected stock, worked out in the wainscotting and panels his ideas of beauty and harmony in wood.
961
THE LIVING ROOM
All the beadings and mouldings were worked patiently and slowly by hand, and all sashes and casings were constructed from rough lumber as it came from the saw. The paneled doors were manufactured entirely by hand work, and the hinges and trimmings were made by the village blacksmith. It is no longer a wonder that an apprenticeship of seven years was required to qualify a young man to become a journeyman in the mechanical arts. The living room, or winter kitchen, was the most useful and important room in the house. On one side was the great fireplace with its neighbor, the oven, at its side. Built of brick, this great cavern was each Satur- day filled with fine oven-wood and heated for the family bak- ing. When its thick walls had become thoroughly filled with latent heat, it was carefully swept with a great birch broom, and upon the bare brick bottom were placed the loaves of rye and Indian bread and whatever else the careful housewife had prepared for the family consumption. The brown earthern milkpan of pork and beans for the Sunday dinner was never forgotten.
During the summer the unfinished room in the lean-to was used as the work room. In the long cold winter evenings the family gathered around the big fireplace in the living room. The opening of the fireplace was sometimes five feet in height and six feet in length. Immense andirons stood in front of the large backlog which lay bedded in the ashes at the back of the fireplace, and on the andirons lay the fore- stick, a sizable log. Between, in cold nights, was piled ordinary four-foot wood, without thought of extravagancy, the time when wood would command six, eight and ten dollars a cord. The big high-backed settle stood at one side the fire, the corners next the fire being carefully reserved for the older mem- bers of the family. The seat of the settle oft times held the smaller pots and kettles of the culinary department. Nails driven into the jambs of the fireplace contained numerous articles necessary and convenient in doing the work of the
61
962
THE FIREPLACE
family. On the great crane which was so hung as to swing out over the hearth, suspended by a chain with a hook, was the great iron pot in which puffed and sizzled the hasty pudding, which was a staple article of food. On hooks over the mantel hung the long firelock musket, and the powder horn and the bullet pouch were near at hand. Ordinary baking and roasting was done in a tin oven placed before the fire. Bread and often potatoes and other vegetables were baked in a dutch oven, a heavy cast-iron kettle, quite shallow, and having a cover with a raised rim which would hold coals and hot ashes piled upon it as it set in the hot ashes on the hearth. Meats were roasted by hanging them in the throat of the great chimney, and machines were contrived so that the hot air would keep the meat turning as it cooked. Great care was taken that the fire was not lost, for if lost, coals must be brought from some neighbor's fire or a spark struck from a flint and steel,-the latter a troublesome undertaking. Open- ing into the living room was a large and generally unfinished summer kitchen, with its back pantry located in the lean-to' or in the long woodshed, and into this room generally came the water supply, either furnished from a well with a long sweep, or from a neighboring spring through wooden logs bored for that purpose. The front rooms in the house were seldom used except upon state occasions. Sometimes a family would occupy one of the front rooms of their house as a sit- ting room, but such common use was looked upon as an ex- hibition of extravagance, and was disapproved of by the gen- eral community. The front rooms of the second story were spotlessly clean and neatly furnished. The high post bed- steads carried ticks of oat straw or husks surmounted by live geese feather beds selected by the housewife with the greatest care, from their numerous flock.
The furnishings were often a portion of the dowry of the bride and usually the handiwork of the mistress of the house. The elegance and neatness of the room indicated the accom-
963
THE WOODSHED AND SHOP
plishment of the mistress in the arts and crafts of the day. The fine linen, the soft woolen and the beautifully woven spread were the work of her own hand, and her pride and satisfac- tion in the result was well and nobly earned.
From the lean-to kitchen stretched the long woodshed, and
the shop beyond. The open fireplaces demanded great quantities of wood. It was the winter's work to get up a supply for the ensuing year. Great log piles of eight-foot lengths were drawn to the yard, and during the spring days cut into convenient lengths for use. These lay in the pile all summer to dry, and in the fall were stowed in the wood- house. Forty cords was not an unusual supply. In the shop was fixed up a work bench, supplied with the few tools then within the means of the owner. These he used to repair the tools and utensils necessary to carry on the work of the farm. Overhead were stored choice bits of lumber, natural crooks for sleds and cradle fingers, walnut butts which he intended to work up into axe helves during the long winter evenings, be- fore the kitchen fire, a few pairs of ox-bows securely tied to keep them from spreading, a yoke for the steers, a few gam- brels, a cant hook, a sleigh pole, and the thousand and one things which will gather in such a place. The " old iron box " was a curiosity shop of itself. Rusty screws, crooked wrought- iron nails, broken hinges, old bolts with and without keys, little pieces of red and of white chalk, a broken chalk line, a worn-out file, and cast off horseshoes, and seemingly every other conceivable thing which is never wanted.
The great barn was frequently located at an angle of forty- five degrees with the house and sheds, so, it was said, to give a warm place for the barnyard. It was built of heavy timbers and covered with wide pine boards, the edges of each cham- fered, so that the board would lap over the one below it, and all were held in place by wrought-iron nails driven into the oak studding of the frame. On one side of the threshing floor of the barn were the stables for the horses and cattle and
964
THE BIG BARN
upon the other the great haymow. On the scaffold over the stables the " horse hay " was garnered, and upon the " little scaffold " over the far end of the barn floor were nicely piled the bound sheaves of wheat, rye or barley, the butts all placed outward so as to hinder the entrance of the mice. Over the great beams were scaffolds made of round poles and pieces of waste lumber, generally, in such condition as to make a first- class man trap. On this scaffold was heaped the crop of oats, all awaiting the thrashing by the hand flail, the use of which generally began about Thanksgiving time. Who, raised on a farm, does not remember the miseries of the boy who mowed away the hay, about the time the mow hole was filled and pitching over the great beams commenced. The hot hole of Calcutta was no comparison to it.
Only one set of these old farm buildings still remain in Greenfield. What has recently been known as the William Smead place, on Irish Plain, in the north meadows, still re- tains its ancient appearance. The house was probably built by Jonathan Smead about 1740, and remained in the Smead family until January 1, 1900, when William Smead sold the homestead of his great-great-grandfather to George A. Gunn.
Several houses were built in the meadows about 1728 to 1740. Among others, the Daniel Nash house which stood a few rods southerly of the present residence of Jonathan E. Nash. The lands still remain in the family name. This house was taken down some time in the fifties and I have a brick taken from its old chimney which is two inches thick, eight and a half inches long and seven inches wide.
People have often expressed surprise that the settlers in the early days were able to build such costly residences. In those times no other investment for surplus funds than real estate ex- isted, except to people along the coast, who might invest in ships ; and the records show that it was quite common for settlers to mortgage their real estate to persons living in the places from whence they came, so that money for the improvement
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965
OLD MANSIONS
of the settler's holdings was easily obtained at reasonable rates of interest.
THE HOLLISTER HOUSE
On the 30th of May, 1793, the large square framed house, now standing on the north side of Newton place, was raised and was to be the residence of Rev. Roger Newton, minister of the town. Its original location was where the courthouse now stands and Mr. Newton owned the original lot granted to Edward Allen. He also owned the next three lots west, ex- tending as far as the Wells lot, about where the Elliott house now stands. Two of the lots he obtained February 16, 1764, by a deed from Samuel Munn. All the lots extended from Main to Mill streets. Dr. Newton's well was just inside his dooryard fence, about three feet east of the south end of the courthouse steps. He moved into his new house, Au- gust 24, 1794. His old house, which stood where the Hol- lister house now does, was the old Edward Allen fort.
The situation of the old fort was one of great beauty. An elevated plateau, with an uninterrupted view of the Pocumtuck hills and the beautiful Green river valley, the steep descent to the south being covered with immense walnut trees. No more charming spot for the location of an ideal home could be found. In this age all was sweet and fresh and clean. The smoke and grim and clatter of modern times had not then reached Utopia.
William Coleman, the first lawyer of Greenfield, realized all this beauty, and having as he thought cleared from his Virginia land speculation at least $30,000, he determined to erect on this lovely spot a residence worthy of the location. He employed as his architect, Asher Benjamin, a resident of Greenfield, who published in this town in 1797, " The Country Builder's Assistant," of which the eminent architect, E. C. Gardner, says in an article in the New England Magazine of November, 1898, " To this, which is a thoroughly practical
966
ASHER BENJAMIN : ARCHITECT
treatise, and to its author, who was a no less practical builder, is due by far the greater part of the good colonial architecture in western New England. How much further its influence extended, no man can say." On the 2d of May, 1796, Mr. Coleman, for the sum of $1,500, obtained from Mr. New- ton one and a quarter acres, the southeast corner of Mr. Newton's home lot. Here he began the erection of the noble mansion which still ornaments the premises after the lapse of a hundred years.
Before the completion of the house, the Virginia land scheme bubble had burst, and Mr. Coleman was compelled to con- vey the property to a creditor, Stephen R. Bradley, of West- minister, Vt. Within six months the property was relin- quished to Colonel Eliel Gilbert, R. E. Newcomb and John E. Hall. Mr. Hall, who was a merchant, mill owner, and spec- ulator, soon acquired the interest of his associates, and occupied the premises as his residence and in it kept his general store. Colonel Spencer Root purchased the property February 9, 1827, and threw it open to the public as a tavern, under the name of " The Franklin House." A newspaper article of the time describes it as peculiarly impressive "to see the great four house stages roll up before the door of this elegant establishment." It did not long remain a public house, as in October, 1828, Colonel Root conveyed it to an association of gentlemen who announced the following May that "The Proprietors of the Greenfield Academy for Young Ladies," would soon open a first class " High School for Young La- dies." The notice was signed by Elijah Alvord, Franklin Ripley, Elijah A. Gould, and Horatio G. Newcomb, as com- mittee for the association.
The premises were occupied for school purposes for about fifteen years, during which time a long three-story wing was erected for school purposes. * The mansion then passed into the hands of Almon Brainard, Esq., at that time county treasurer
* Now standing on Newton Place.
967
THE LEAVITT HOUSE
and register of deeds. On the 7th of October, 1864, Mr. J. H. Hollister purchased the property of Mr. Brainard, and it has since remained in the Hollister family.
The grounds have been somewhat encroached upon by the railroads and by business extensions, but the fine old colonial mansion remains in all its pristine beauty as one of the finest specimens of the artistic taste of a builder of a past genera- tion.
HOVEY HOUSE
The Leavitt house, known of late years as the Hovey place, was built at the same time as the Hollister house, after plans by the same architect. Its builder was Honorable Jonathan Leavitt, judge of the Court of Common Pleas of old Hampshire county, and the second judge of the Probate Court of Franklin. To this elegant mansion he brought as his wife a daughter of President Stiles, of Yale College, and for years this home was the center of the social life of the vicinity. In the western wing, the judge had his law office. It occupied land once within the palisades of the Corse fort. While its interior is not planned and finished with the lavish manner exhibited in the Hollister house, it is a mansion which im- mediately attracts the eye of the stranger as one of beautiful proportions, and an ornament to the village.
CHAPTER LXII
FOSSIL FOOTPRINTS IN THE NEW RED SANDSTONE
T HE discovery of " bird tracks" in the new red sand- stone of the Connecticut Valley, in the early part of the nineteenth century, created great interest among scientists in this and foreign lands. Before these discoveries were made public, it was not believed that air breathing animals existed before the oölite period. While the greater part of the honor and glory of these interesting discoveries added ad- ditional lustre to the names of men like Professors Hitchcock and Silliman, men already illustrious in the fields of science, who were called in consultation by the uneducated men who first became interested in this subject, and who had instinctive comprehension of the importance of their discovery, and who possessed the zeal and energy necessary to bring the matter to the attention of these scientists, it is evident that these men ought of right to receive that meed of praise which is justly their due.
Undoubtedly among the early observers of these impres- sions upon the sandstone of the valley, the name of Dexter Marsh of Greenfield stands pre-eminent as the man who brought to the attention of the world these interesting dis- coveries. In my investigations relating to these discoveries, I find that one Pliny Moody, as early as 1800, discovered what he called "bird tracks" in the river sandstone, but that he failed to excite any public interest in his discovery. The late William W. Draper in 1835 called public attention to the fact that "bird tracks" were to be found in the stones 968
969
DEXTER MARSH
which came from the river bank. It is asserted that he called the attention of William Wilson and Dexter Marsh to this fact, but he gave the subject no further study or development. However Dexter Marsh may have come by his knowledge of the existence of these " tracks," the fact excited in his active mind the importance of the discovery, and during the remain- der of his active life, all his energy, spare time and money, were given to the study and collection of specimens of rock containing undisputable evidence of his theory, that these " tracks " were made by living animals.
He immediately enlisted the attention of Dr. James Deane in his theory, and working together they fully established the fact of the existence of curious animals upon the earth, during the formative period of the new red sandstone.
A few of the elder people of the town will remember a small cottage which stood in a yard upon the right-hand side of Clay Hill as you approached the village from the south. An addition to the original house had been built, extending almost to the sidewalk, and about its door and leaning against the building were large and small slabs of the new red sand- stone of the Connecticut valley. Inside, the room was filled with a motley collection of curiosities of various kinds, in great part received by the owner in exchange for specimens of his " bird tracks."
This was the " Museum" of Dexter Marsh. His name is now held in honor among scientific men throughout the world. He is called the " Hugh Miller of the New Red Sandstone." Mr. Marsh was the son of Joshua Marsh of Montague, a man who was so poorly endowed with worldly goods that his son was deprived of even a good common school education. Dexter Marsh came to Greenfield in 1834, and with his own hands built the house in which he dwelt until his death. He remained a day laborer all his life, but from the avails of this labor, beyond the support of his family, he found means to gather the most complete and valuable collection of specimens
970
DR. JAMES DEANE
of fossil footprints ever collected. His theories and his rea- sonings have been accepted by students of fossil geology the world over.
It is said that in 1835, while laying some flagging stones upon the sidewalk on Clay Hill, he first noticed upon the stone what he took to be footprints of a bird. Although he had no knowledge of geology, he was an original thinker and possessed a scrutinizing mind. He was convinced that the impressions upon the stone which had been gathered from a quarry, then several feet below the surface, were made by a bird. How it came about he knew not. He found other footprints about the village walks, and through the aid of Dr. Deane, who took plaster casts of the impressions, and for- warded them for proof, they obtained the attention of Drs. Hitchcock and Silliman. Mr. Marsh employed all his spare time in the collection of additional specimens. He built himself a flat bottomed boat in which he travelled, carrying with him drills, wedges, powder and provisions, searching along the river banks from the northern line of the state to Weathersfield, Conn. He obtained one slab in Gill which was ten feet long by six in width and contained fifty perfect tracks. Four of the tracks were twelve inches in length. When this slab was split in two, it showed perfectly the relief and the intaglio sides. When his collection was sold, this slab was purchased Mr. Alger of Boston for $375. Prof. Oliver Marcy, of Evanstown University, in an article in the National Magazine, says : "In 1851 his cabinet contained from four to five hundred slabs of stone upon which were one thousand tracks of birds and quadrupeds ; some of the slabs weighed less than an ounce, and others two tons, and contained from one to fifty tracks each, from one half inch to nineteen inches in length; also two hundred fossil fishes, three thousand sea shells, twenty-six hundred rock crystals, two hundred specimens of Indian antiquities, besides num- erous specimens of zoology and botany, minerals and fossils
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