USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Leyden > History of Leyden, Massachusetts, 1676-1959 > Part 15
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As soon as the town center shifted to the County Road area, the business which Fuller had enjoyed, waned, and Thomas Wells gained a monopoly of the Leyden trade. Wells' store and tavern was on "Budington's Hill" but when the Church was built at the "Old Center," town business again shifted, and we find Paul Babcock operating a store, near Carpenter's Tavern. This was the store which Reuben Sheldon took over in 1828 and operated with the first Leyden Post Office. In 1858, this store was run by "M. Carpenter." It rivalled the Union Store and Post Office of R. H. Taylor in the New Center. Here, in 1871, U. T. Darling, Jr., sold "boots, dry goods, nails, meal and shoes." In 1883 the new center store housed not only the Post Office and groceries, but the Library as well! Will Barber took over the business in the late 1890's and Edwin P. Howes bought it in 1903.
Due to a prospering trade, Clifford C. Howes of Florida Mountain built an addition to the store in 1910. Soon after this, however, when the automobile became prevalent, the people of the village began to shop at the larger stores in "town" where variety was greater and prices less. From that time on,
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business in the hill town country store dropped off sharply. Today the Leyden store has been remodelled and serves as a comfortable home for descendants of the Howes family.
We have already spoken of the Thomas Wells Tavern on Budington's Hill. It was probably the first tavern in Leyden, but when business slackened it was taken over, about 1820, by the Tanners. At this time the chief tavern business had gravitated toward the "Old Center" where Carpenter's Tavern stood op- posite the Baptist Church. It is said Town Meetings were held in this tavern and there are records which prove that auctions were held there also. From this spot, hardy Leyden yeomen set out for Boston with ox carts laden with farm produce. In 1829, Carpenter's Tavern burned, but was rebuilt immediately. Business was brisk until 1846 when the Connecticut Valley Railway was put through in neighboring Bernardston. This sapped the stagecoach business on Ethan Allen Highway and Carpenter's Tavern soon became a private dwelling. It still stands today, the only remnant of Leyden's "Old Center" and of the pioneer stagecoach days.
Leyden Shops and Manufacturing Establishments: Besides the "Glen Spring Cheese Factory," Leyden has housed a number of interesting shops and plants. Old-time blacksmith shops, as listed in 1858, include one at the head of Meetinghouse Hill; one at the top of the hill on Keet's Brook Road and one near the old Babcock place in West Leyden. Today, one of the few remain- ing blacksmith shops in the area is carried on by Henry Glabach near the site of the original shop on Meetinghouse Hill. In 1858, a gun shop was located near the West Leyden bridge, and in this same location in the late 19th Century, three Lynde brothers, Bert, Cleveland and Charles, built up a wooden box shop which thrived until paper boxes were introduced.
A "Pots Pearl Ash Works" is said to have prospered in Beaver Meadow from 1790 to about 1810. The function of this plant was to filter, with brook water, the potassium carbonate from wood ashes. The lye thus obtained was used in making soap and other household products.
One business which ended in complete failure was a Poor House, built at great expense. The owner could find no tenants, and it is said the proprietor died in it penniless himself!
Grist, Saw, Fulling and Paper Mills in Review: The story of Leyden's mills begins with the 1766 record of Samuel Cunna- bell's saw mill on Couches Brook - close to the spot where the
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Deerfield captives crossed in 1704. By 1792, this mill had been superseded by Cunnabell grist and saw mills on what is now Shattuck Brook. By 1811, Samuell Cunnabell sold his mills to Rufus Shattuck who lived on the present Leach place. Rufus was the son of the Dorrilite, Ezra Shattuck. In 1830, a fulling mill to process cloth was added to Shattuck's mills.
According to Thurman H. Keet, a descendant of the Leyden Keets, the Shattuck mills were purchased by Roswell Keet in 1848, and rebuilt. The up-and-down saw mill produced stone- boat plank as a specialty. It also turned out plane blocks, shingles, broom handles and lath. The companion grist, or grain processing mill, was one of the last in the area to operate as a stone grinding mill. Charges for handling raw grain were according to Mr. Keet, "one to two quarts per bushel."
After returning from the Civil War, Simon Keet, with his brothers, Charles and Henry operated the mills left to them by their father, Roswell Keet. Simon, who built the house opposite the original Keet place, ran the saw mill; Charles ran a turning mill which produced broom handles; and Henry, who married into the well-known Tyler family, ran the toll grist mill. Edric W. Cook, a great-grandson of Roswell Keet, recounts that teams were sometimes lined up for half a mile from the mills waiting their turns. Private mill business fell off sharply in the 20th Cen- tury, and by 1906 the Keet Mills became silent forever. One of the huge mill stones which operated the Keet grist mill, now in Mr. Cook's dooryard, is a silent reminder of the days that are no more.
The second largest mill site in Leyden was near the "Ten Mile" or West Leyden Bridge. In 1790, Jonathan Richardson operated a "saw and corn mill" on this spot. In 1810, John Mowry took over the business and, in competition with Shattuck in East Leyden, added a cloth fulling mill. According to recent findings, the Richmond family operated these mills in mid- nineteenth century. By 1871, however, the Denisons had taken over. In 1892, all mills had vanished from the site.
In the early days, there were mills at odd locations along the Green River. In 1785, pioneer William Clark operated a saw mill at the foot of Lamb Road. This was taken over a few years later by John Matthews of Colrain. In 1792, the first Denison mill of the area was opened at the foot of Katley Road near the river. In 1785, a saw mill belonging to Asher Corse - the Glen Brook
The Newcomb Homestead - East Leyden
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Saw Mill - is mentioned in old town records. The 1794 map of Leyden locates most of these early mills.
The West Leyden Thorn mills, shown on the 1830 Leyden maps by Hoyt and Newcomb, indicate two mills on Thorn Brook. A turning lathe was added by 1842. On the west branch of Glen Brook, Jonathan Budington was operating two mills be- tween 1825 and 1830. In 1871, Joseph O. Carpenter operated a saw mill on the Budington mill site, but by 1892 this mill had disappeared. In 1879 there were three saw mills, and three grist mills in Leyden, but in 1906 all water-powered mills were gone.
Clifford C. Carey of Colrain tells us of unusual plants and mills in and near Leyden. There was a large tannery just north of the Leyden-Vermont line, he recalls; and on the Thorn Brook opposite the entrance to the copper mine was a small mill which manufactured a coarse, brown paper. This was a rare establishment for the Leyden area. Mr. Carey also tells of a grist mill which stood near the Green River at the foot of the old Gates Road. This was built, in all probability, by an an- cestor of Leyden's John L. Riddell.
Leyden Houses-Old and New: In Leyden today, there are over fifteen original, pioneer-built homes. Many of the oldest houses are the Cape Cod type and still contain such interesting features as great oak summer beams and huge square chim- neys. The Newcomb house in East Leyden (the only American Leyden house built by a Leiden, Holland Pilgrim descendant) has a solid oak summer beam over thirty feet long. The Peter Gates house in West Leyden, home of John Riddell's mother, was torn down in 1908, but it is said to have been an exact replica of the Newcomb house. When demolished, many un- usual antiques, including spinning wheels, oxen equipment and old-time utensils were discovered in the walls. A typical Leyden Cape Cod house, the pioneer Newcomb home in East Leyden, is pictured on the opposite page.
Of the Leyden houses with original central chimneys, a number remain. These include the old Cunnabell (McDonald) house on Couch Brook, the Britton house, the Hine home, the Sloane's, and Louise Johnson's. Hand-wrought Norfolk latches still remain in a number of the oldest homes, but the Blake machine-made latch has been substituted in many instances.
A perfect specimen of a late model kitchen fireplace, installed after parlor stoves were invented in 1816, and before
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1860 cook stoves appeared, may be seen in the West Leyden Carpenter house, now owned by Mrs. Arthur Snow.
The oldest Leyden houses, together with ten or a dozen newer homes, have been rebuilt or renovated within the past decade. But no one in Leyden has yet followed the ludicrous practice of dressing up simple New England homes with plushy, millionaire accouterments!
Though the water-wheel mills, the store and tavern no longer operate in Leyden, there has been a definite upsurge in Leyden building since 1945. Besides reconstructed old homes, over 15 new private houses have been erected. A modern garage and cinder block fire house also have gone up.
Indicative of this new spirit of rebuilding in Leyden, several houses have lately been built on old foundations - on walls as true today as when laid nearly two centuries ago. Slowly but surely Leyden is building itself up - on its own power.
CHAPTER XI
Leyden's Natural History
W hile rapid material progress has been noted in Leyden's hills since the end of World War II, progress in the arts and in nature study has been more marked than at any time in Ley- den's history. Though modern machinery roars and grinds in Leyden's woods and fields, and atom-minded men roam the hills with Geiger counters, a different, and to some, more sig- nificant progress, has been taking place in Leyden during the past decade: A number of Leyden's citizens have begun to work with pastels and paints; others have roamed the fields and woods and have made the first surveys of Leyden's rocks, ferns, birds and trees. One or two have taken to writing. This history is, in fact, an outcrop of Leyden's post-war "renaissance."
As a background to the artist's Leyden, we speak here of some of Leyden's outstanding places of beauty. Perhaps the most spectacular views are seen from East Hill looking toward Mt. Monadnock; and from Gates Hill in West Leyden looking toward Mt. Greylock and the Green Mountains of Vermont. A fine, cool northern vista may be seen from the Glabach pasture as one looks straight down into the gorge of Shattuck Brook; and a beautiful pastoral scene unfolds westward from the top of the Frizzell Hill paved road. Still another unforgettable view opens up from the summit of Daniel's Peak. Here one looks down on cozy little Beaver Meadow with its lush green fields, tiny white schoolhouse, and picketed burying ground where the pioneers of Leyden lie sleeping.
At the eastern gateway to Leyden, the Couch Brook Road, another beauty spot, winds westward from the New York to Montreal highway. Except in short stretches where trees have been cut, the entire length of the Couch Brook Road is a para- dise for horseback riders. Another beautiful area, seldom seen even by the people of Leyden, is a high plateau meadow at the top of the old Paige Road. Here, the land rises gently toward the north from the dooryard of a curious square house under a huge tamarack tree. Comparable, but less spectacular than the Couch Brook Road is the old Eden Trail near the "lost water- fall." This trail follows an old Indian foot path which wound up the southeastern Leyden slopes. Along these ancient trails one
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still may see an occasional giant chestnut, beech or maple, - remnants of the great, proud forest which guarded the Leyden hills in days gone by.
Perhaps best known of Leyden's beauty spots, was the Leyden Glen where deer and colorful birds once held sway. Judge Francis Thompson writes of the Glen: "Until the hand of man entered its royal gorge, it was celebrated far and wide for its wildness and picturesque beauty. In the summer it was the scene of pleasure parties and the upper part was known for its fine fishing. Now it is the property of a fire district ... the wild scenery has been robbed of its charm to accomodate two lines of cast iron pipe."
Leyden's oldest roads still hold interest and beauty. Origin- ally Indian trails, Scout Paths and Bridle Trails, many of these roads are mistaken for "wood roads" today. One such road lies along the "Clark Brook" on the Rhodes place in West Leyden; another passes through the Glabach pasture in East Leyden; a third runs along the west slope of Frizzell Hill. Nostalgic places all, alive with echoes of Indian and pioneer days. One can al- most hear the rattle of the ox cart along these roads, if one listens long enough. Just as other relics of pioneer days are preserved, parts of these old roads, with their bordering stone walls, should be saved as monuments to our top-soil ancestors.
The Rocks of Leyden: Earlier in this book we spoke of Leyden's Silurian, 350-million-year-old rocks. We told that in the east part of town, the soft, slaty, sedimentary stone was named Leyden Argillite because of its prevalence in this area. A short distance to the north, in Guilford, Vermont, the Leyden Argillite becomes very hard and is quarried for fine roof slate; to the south, after passing under miles of younger rock strata, it appears unexpectedly in the beautiful Whately Glen. West- ward, beyond the summit of Frizzell Hill, the character of Leyden's Argillite changes, and is known as Conway Schist. This interesting rock is described by President Emerson of Amherst College as "a rusty, dark gray, mica-schist with fre- quent garnets, rarely spangled and filled with quartz veins . . . abounding in black graphite and impure limestone beds." This rock is clearly visible on the right-hand side of the road above the Douglas Barton place.
At the top of Frizzell Hill, broad outcrops of white quartz veins reveal smooth, polished surfaces where giant glaciers, 20,000 years ago, ground and smoothed the hard, quartz rock.
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Occasionally, one discovers an erratic granite boulder atop these mountain ledges - dropped there eons ago by the mile- high ice Goliaths. The largest of such Leyden rocks, known locally as "The Tipping Rock," lies half a mile east of Buding- ton's Brook. It weighs well over twenty tons and can be moved by a push of a finger.
Edward Hitchcock, pioneer geologist in Hampshire County, discovered an unusual rock bed in West Leyden. This he des- cribed as a "light-colored, fine-grained gneiss." A 13-rod band of this rock crossed the old road west of the R. A. Gates or Capt. Joseph Babcock place. This was about a mile west of the Plum farm on Ethan Allen Highway, and is in the general area of the mysterious man-made Leyden "cave." Because gneiss rock was the favorite building stone of the strange troglodyte Culdee monks, the proximity of the gneiss bed in this particular area has strengthened the argument of Culdee en- thusiasts as to the origin of the Leyden "cave." (See "Man- Made Rock Structures," page 163.)
Colorful rocks, never before noted, have been found in Leyden recently east of Frizzell Hill brook. This ledge stone ranges in color from red to orange and orange-yellow. A fine, silky mica-schist of a fleshy rose color also is found in the same area; and nearby, are flat pieces of white sandstone containing rectangular holes once filled with soluble minerals. A sample of the red-orange rock was sent to the Geology Department of the University of Massachusetts.
While digging a well on the eastern slope of Frizzell Hill in 1953, the author found a large crumbling rock resting on ledge nine feet below the surface of the earth. This disintegrating boulder, deposited by glaciers thousands of years ago, was shoveled into buckets. Other interesting rocks found in this well were bog iron, limonite, and chunks of Leyden Argillite spark- ling with crystalized quartz spangles.
In southeastern Leyden, on what is known as "Dyer's Brook," specimens of Mesozoic sandstone have been found recently. This is a puddingstone variety of Sugarloaf Arkose, but the general character is similar to the pinkish-red sandstone of the Connecticut Valley. This rock is younger by 200 million years than the Silurian formations in the Leyden hills. It also represents one of the "far north" extensions of this particular stone.
The History of the Connecticut Valley refers to a Leyden
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quarry which furnished stone for the bridges of the Connecticut River Railway about 1845. This quarry was abandoned because of transportation difficulties but the granite for the bridge abut- ments doubtless came from the area of huge monolithic dolmen- like rocks northeast of the Douglas Barton farm. Here, and northwest of the Spencer Howes home, there are evidences of definite granite quarry excavations.
Natural Rock Formations: Leyden has a number of very interesting natural rock formations. Outstanding is the great Meetinghouse Rock in the southwest Leyden wilds. Here early churchgoers met, before church buildings could be erected. Three caves also are found in Leyden. Legend has it that Wil- liam Dorril often slept in the deep "Bear's Den" near the Leyden line on the south side of Shattuck Brook. It is also said that Dorril "retired," on occasion, to the cave opposite the present Caron place. Near Green River in the extreme southwest corner of the town there is a cave called "Rattlesnake's Den." A severe forest fire in the area is said to have driven the reptiles from this lair, but as far as we know, no one has crawled into the den of late to check the truth of this statement!
On the Strange-Croutworst place, near an abandoned road leading southward from Eden Trail, is an erratic granite block, 3 feet high and 2.5 feet thick, with chair-like gouges cut on two sides. This stone is known as "Sweetheart's Chair." Legend has it that lovers of old used this curious stone as a favorite rendezvous.
"Leyden Mines": Aside from the copper and gold mining described in Leyden's 1910 activities, placer gold mining was reported in Leyden's eastern ravines during the late 19th Century. One elderly man, panning for gold along the lower reaches of Couch Brook is said to have taken out a good day's pay over a considerable length of time.
The magnetite iron mine just over the eastern borders of Leyden is of special interest. This mine was opened during the early years of the American Revolution when the colonists were forced to rely upon their own resources for war materials. So rich is this vein that lands below the mine turn red for acres around when water filters through the iron-saturated rock above. Near the magnetite vein there are Devonian limestone beds which contain ancient fossils of corals, crinoid stems and brachiopods - sea creatures which inhabited our primeval seas millions of years ago.
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So valuable are these ancient fossils for scientific study that students from leading New England colleges gather the aquatic remains for study in geology classes. Such an area would be an ideal spot for a "Church Woods" reservation.
Other unusual mineral deposits in Leyden are indicated by reports from West Leyden of "fairly encouraging results" by Geiger counter "prospectors." In East Leyden, aviators report that planes flying low near Daniel's Peak are thrown off course by the odd behavior of compasses which dance and spin erratically. Such compass action usually indicates the proximity of lodestone deposits.
Man-Made Rock Structures: First in this category is the so- called Indian hole, alias wine cellar, alias vegetable cellar, alias "Culdee cave." This stone structure, built in the side of a brook bank near the West Leyden hermitage of anchorite Dorril, is about 15 deep and five feet wide. A large hard wood stump is embedded in the face of the rock structure near the entrance. The old road passing near the cave, probably laid out on an Indian trail, was in use by the colonists from 1780 till the early 19th Century. It is on this road, a short distance above the cave that the Leyden gneiss bed is located.
As we have pointed out, the proximity of this gneiss bed to the mysterious man-made cave, adds to the fascinating theory that the cave may have been built by the Irish Culdee monks, a strange half pagan, half Christian sect said to have landed in America at least 600 years before Columbus spied our shores. It has been suggested that such a cave might have been con- verted into a storage cellar by the colonists who found it already built when they arrived. Such a theory is, of course, pure supposition, but worthy of consideration because of the numer- ous "Culdee" structures in the nearby hill towns of Wendell, Shutesbury, Leverett and New Salem. A second unexplained Leyden rock structure of possible Culdee origin is in East Ley- den. This is a circular structure on the Croutworst farm. It is built on ledge and no one can explain its purpose.
The terrain of the Leyden area is similar to Northern Ireland from whence the Culdees came. This similarity may have attracted the monks to this area, Culdee enthusiasts point out.
The "1471" dated granite boulder on the old Shattuck place is another Leyden rock curiosity. It was suggested earlier that the date probably was carved by the scribe, John Lee, a 1741 settler who cut the date backwards in jest. When boric acid
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powder was rubbed into the face of this stone, drawings of a crude house and a rough cross appeared. It has been suggested that these latter inscriptions may have been added after the 1471 date - during the Dorrilite regime when wooden-shoe- maker Shattuck lived on the spot.
Old Stone Foundations: Roaming through the warm, autumn Leyden woods when the leaves are gone and the last hardy flowers seek shelter from frost near a strong-backed wall or stone foundation, one can easily find the places where pioneer settlers laid up their sturdy walls - some with Leyden Argil- lite, some with thin, dark blue bricks made from the clay of Beaver Meadow Brook or Frizzell Hill Swamp. Many of these foundations are worthy of study for their fine craftsmanship. To cover up this "artistry" with refuse seems a kind of heedless sacrilege. Such practice, sad to say, is common in many New England hill towns.
In the northwest corner of Leyden, amid a tangle of Virgin's- bower and Blue Gentians, close to the merry Thorn Brook, is the fine stonework of the Thorn mills, now as sound as though laid yesterday. Southward, down the River Road, in a thicket where the Fringed Gentians bloom in lonely clearings, one finds all that is left of the once proud Crandall farm - 18th Century center of activity in the busy pioneer community. Here, in the midst of the cellar is an arched vault, used, some say, for wine storage or for preserving hams and bacon. The vault is ten feet deep with a single huge capstone.
Below the Leyden-Vermont line, just off Ethan Allen High- way, rock foundations mark the quarters of negro slaves, banned from residence in Vermont even before the Civil War.
One might wander, mile after mile, following Leyden's stone walls laid up so strongly, a little sad at heart perhaps that little is left of the pioneers' work but these rough monuments of laid glacial stone; yet glad we have such tokens of the strength and vitality of these stalwart men.
On a warm October day, we pause, perhaps near the old cellar hole and see the crumbling fireplace where H. K. Brown made his first sketch; or we travel northward to the Walsworth site nearby and rest on the houseless doorstep. There is a certain mysterious beauty which clings to such pioneer sites on quiet autumn days when "the leaves lie brown upon the lawn."
Continuing our nostalgic stroll, we come perhaps to the Beaver Meadow graveyard, and after reading the names of early
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Leyden men inscribed on slaty Argillite, we come to that part of the yard, so common in New England cemeteries, where dozens of rough, nameless boulders mark the resting-places of hardy pioneers-graves of "unknown soldiers," whom we should respect, with the others, and not forget.
The Ferns of Leyden: As the fern was one of the earliest forms of life, we note next on our "stroll" the twenty-odd varieties growing in the Leyden hills. This is by no means a complete record, but does represent 85% of Leyden's fern life. Identification, with identification of area wild flowers, shrubs and trees, is the result of 25 years' study which began under the tutelage of the late naturalist, Viola F. Richards of Deerfield and Grace G. Stanford of Rowe.
Four large Osmundas - Interrupted, Royal, Cinnamon and Ostrich - lead the list of Leyden ferns. Next come the Hay- scented and New York ferns, found along roadways; then Eagle Fern, in dry pastures; Rattlesnake Fern, along moist, shady lanes; Lady Fern, meadow borders; Sensitive Fern, in moist meadows; Beech Fern, moist open woodlands; Grape Fern, "sour" meadows; Clinton's, Christmas, Spinulose and Evergreen Wood Ferns, in rocky forests; Polypody, on mountain rocks; Silvery Spleenwort, woodland borders; Maidenhair, rich, moist woods; Bulbet Bladder and Common Bladder Ferns, near rocky brooks and waterfalls; Marsh Fern, in wet meadows; Oak Fern, shady, moist woods; Lance-leaved Grape Fern, cold rich woods near water.
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