USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Leyden > History of Leyden, Massachusetts, 1676-1959 > Part 19
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Many descendants of the Hezekiah Newcomb family live in the neighboring towns of West Deerfield, Greenfield, Bernards- ton and Shelburne. Many of these are descendants of Harris Alexander and Allen Sylvester Newcomb.
ROGERS - Early Leyden familes of this name stemmed from Rhode Island. The first local reference is to Henry Rogers of Springfield who claimed Lot #22, First Division in 1739. In 1795, on August 26th, Joseph Rogers married Content Starke of Leyden. In 1816, still another Rogers-Peter-settled near John Euda, the Hessian. In 1818, Elder Peter Rogers is recorded as having married Nancy, Grace and Hester Rogers (his daughters) to local townsmen. Hester married Ruggles Bagg, son of Leyden pioneer, Israel Bagg. She is the three times great-grandmother of Hester C. McKeage, librarian of Greenfield.
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SEVERANCE - Genealogists record that the root of the Severance name was Severns. It is known that the father of Lucius Septimus Severns, born in 146 A. D. at Septis, North Africa, was a Roman citizen. It is from this man that the Severance clan originated. The Universal Lexicon states that the Severns name was prominent in Rome as early as the 8th Century, and passed from Rome to Greece. Marcus Aurelius Severins, born in Tarsin, Italy, in 1589, was a distinguished Latin physician. From Italy, the name is traced to Denmark, and from there to England.
At the time of Henry VIII, about 1520, Thomas Severans lived in Worcester County, England. In 1634, his descendant, John Severance, sailed in the good ship "Elizabeth" for this country. In 1637, John became a member of the first military organization in America - The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. John Severance, Jr. settled in Deerfield, Massachu- setts; his son, Joseph, was in the Meadow Fight following the 1704 Deerfield Massacre. As a result of wounds received in this battle, he was granted a 200-acre tract "east of Northfield, bounded south on Mount Grace." Joseph's grandson, Matthew, was the first of his Severance generation to live in Leyden. His history is briefly enscribed on a tombstone in Leyden's South Cemetery. It reads:
"Matthew Severance, whose parents lived in Deer- field, was the first white child born in Vermont. He served in the French and Indian War and while on a scout near Lake George was taken captive by the Indians, ran the gauntlet & made his escape by hiding 3 nights & 2 days in a hollow log. In old age he came to Leyden to his sons: Born Fort Dummer, Brattleboro, Vermont, June - 1735. Died, Leyden, March 14, 1816."
Matthew's son, Matthew, purchased a 100-acre farm on the upper reaches of the Budington Brook about 1793. When Mat- thew first visited the Leyden hills, some ten years before, he wrote: "I found little accomodation or settlements in the town; the country was in a wild and uncultivated state. For human habitation there was little more pretentious than the log cabin; the traveler was guided by marked trees."
Chester, the son of Matthew, was the father of Chester Wells Severance, Leyden's first "historian." Chester W. taught school in Leyden at the age of 17 after attending the Academy
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in Shelburne Falls. In 1852, he purchased the old Perry farm atop Frizzell Hill West, and there settled with his wife, daughter of Dr. Willard A. Wilkins, prominent Leyden physician and educator. Mr. Severance was a pioneer in organizing the Ley- den Library. He was also something of a musician and taught both voice and violin. A five column summary of his Centennial address appeared in the Franklin Gazette of August 14, 1909. Charles Sidney Severance, Greenfield historian, is a direct descendant of the Leyden Severance family, as is Ella Mary Severance Davis and her children of Shelburne. Gratia (Sever- ance) Campbell, daughter of Charles F. Severance of Leyden, was an early promotor for a Leyden History. She contributed through her son, Harold, much of the above information on the Severance family.
SHATTUCK - This Leyden name was also written "Shad- hock" when the first of the clan, William, appeared in Boston about 1640. Thomas Shattuck was the pioneer in this area. In 1771 he was a resident of Petersham when he purchased a first division lot in the hills of Leyden. His son, Ezra, was the Dor- rilite shoemaker of Frizzell Hill. Ezra's son, Rufus, purchased the Cunnabell mills; Shattuck Brook, the mill site, was named in his honor. Rufus' son, Ezra became a portrait painter, but died at an early age. The Shattucks have left their mark in many sections of the country, including Berkeley, California where one of the main streets is named for a Shattuck son; and in Boston where Shattuck Street was named for Dr. Frederick C. Shattuck, prominent professor of medicine at Harvard. His son, Dr. George C. Shattuck, who is on "The Nature Conservancy" board of governors, has expressed genu- ine interest in the Leyden "Church Woods" plan.
SHELDON - Ebenezer Sheldon, a collateral ancestor of the well-known historian, was a captive in the 1704 French and Indian raid on Old Deerfield, but he returned safely and oper- ated a tavern in the Old Indian House. In 1744, he sold out and removed to Fall Fight Town where he built Sheldon's Fort. He was the only man to hold out in this fort during the last French War and was subsequently named "Old Indian Fighter." His grandson, Reuben, was Leyden's first postmaster. Salmon, Reuben's brother, joined the Dorrilites and settled in south- eastern Leyden. Here, one of his descendants made a small pond on a brook at the foot of Sheldon's Hill. On this "2 x 4" lake he used to go rowing on Sundays after church!
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STEBBINS-This line is traced back to 1080 A. D. when Henry de Ferrieres, a Stebbins ancestor, was appointed by William the Conqueror to help compile the Domesday Book - the first survey of landed property in Old England. In 1200, John de Stebbing (a descendant through the Ferrieres and Peverell families) held a moated manor house on a 4,300-acre estate. His father had been a royal consort to King Richard I, King John and King Henry III.
On this side of the water, the name was spelled Stebbins when Rowland, son of Thomas, appeared on these shores aboard the "Francis" in 1634. In 1635, he removed from Roxbury with William Pynchon to establish the settlement of Springfield, Mass. Rowland's son, John, was an early settler in Northampton, but died mysteriously, some say as the result of witchcraft. John Stebbins, Jr. was the only man to come out alive at the Bloody Brook massacre in 1675, but his entire family (which included his wife, Dorothy Alexander and six children) was captured at Deerfield in 1704, and marched through the Leyden woods toward Canada. John's grandson, Colonel Joseph Stebbins, was a hero at Bunker Hill. One of his descendants married into Ley- den's Matthew Severance clan. The Directory of Ancestral Heads of New England Families states: "The ancient gentility of this family was duly recognized as having been descended from the most ancient and celebrated houses of England."
STRANGE - Robert, first of the name in America, arrived aboard the three-masted sailing vessel "Arabia" landing in New York about 1848. He was of Scotch-Irish descent, and came on the wave of Irish immigrants of the 1848 period. His ancestors, we are told, were of French origin, but when they became small in stature, the men went to Scotland to seek tall and sturdy wives. During the Wars of the Roses, one of the clan fought so valiantly, he was dubbed "De La Strong" by the king. With this title went a fine castle where homage was paid him each year with bowers of beautiful white roses.
Attracted by the similarity of terrain with Northern Ireland, Robert Strange, though trained as a linen weaver, took up farming in the Leyden hills. Here, in 1851, he purchased a 400-acre tract on Frizzell Hill from patriarch, Edward Nelson, one-time fighter in Shays' Rebellion. Strange later married Elizabeth Black whose family also had emigrated from Ireland. Mrs. Harry Gortner, a descendant of pioneer Robert, reports that the family house in Leyden was most elaborate; that all the
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doorways, doors and paneling were of solid mahogany. The pioneer's namesake, Robert Miner Strange, lives today in a neighboring town.
THORN - The first record of this family in Leyden is in 1785 when the birth of Rebecca to Prudence and Henry Thorn is recorded. Six other children were born to this couple who settled in the northwest part of Leyden on "Thorn Brook." Here Henry built his saw and grist mill which flourished for many years. His youngest son, Avery Noyes Thorn, born in 1807, was named for two of the nearest neighbors - Nathaniel Avery and Oliver Noyes. Crandall Thorn, named for neighbor Cran- dall, is said to have smuggled his son-in-law out of the country during the Civil War. "Gore Hollow" was up in arms because of this, and lively "cross-fire" ensued. The case was never proved conclusively, however.
The Thorns married into the Miner and Denison families of Leyden. It is believed that Dr. E. C. Thorn of Greenfield was a descendant of this branch of the Thorn family.
The Leyden Cemeteries: Because old cemetery stones often reveal genealogical data not found elsewhere, we are including in this chapter the story of Leyden's graveyards with back- ground history and names of outstanding pioneers found in each burying plot.
Beaver Meadow Cemetery, the first in Leyden, was laid out in 1791 "on the northeast corner of Lieut. Daniel Newcomb's homelot and on the southeast corner of Selah Chapin's lot, both pieces joining to make one plot." On Dec. 6, 1790, Selah Chapin gave a receipt for 1 pound, 6 shillings in return for "60 rods of ground for a burying lot" and on April 27, 1791, Lieut. Dan'l Newcomb gave a receipt for 10 shillings 6 pence for 26 rods of ground for a burying lot." Austin Dobias, Sr. recently digging a grave on the south side of Beaver Meadow Cemetery, un- earthed stones which may well have been the foundations of Daniel Newcomb's homestead.
Upon the adjoining Newcomb-Chapin lots, many of Ley- den's pioneers were laid to rest. These include: Lieut. Daniel Newcomb; Capt. Soloman Alexander; Capt. Michael Frizzell; Capt. David Denison; Dr. Benjamin Morgan; Selah Chapin; Daniel Chapin; Elisha Burnham; Thomas Hunt; Reuben Sheldon; Alpheus Barstow; Joshua and Martha Enos; Ner Wells - and under the inscription "A Soldier of 1776" with Old Glory waving
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nearby, is stretched the giant frame of William Dorril - one-time fighter in His Majesty's service!
On March 15, 1792, Phineus Crumb of West Leyden signed a receipt for one pound, fifteen shillings as payment for 80 rods of land "for a buryhill" at the southeast corner of his farm. This is known today as the West Leyden Cemetery. Here lie the bones of Elder Joseph Green, Pastor Asa Hebard, pioneer Oliver Babcock, Peleg Babcock, Ezra Plumb and many of the early Clarks, Miners, Crandalls, Averys, Denisons, Stantons, Cooks, Olmsteds, Wordens, Burdicks, Gates and Potters. Here lies Abigail Brown, "relict of Joshua Brown of Rhode Island . . . a captain in the French and Indian Wars." Here, in the Thorn lot, lies the body of a young and beautiful girl whose untimely death is symbolized on her tombstone by the inscription of a drooping, budded rose.
The earliest stone in the South Cemetery is dated 1797. This stands above the grave of little Mary Henry, daughter of Andrew and Thankful Henry. Here, too, is the stone of Matthew Severance, "first white child born in Vermont." And nearby lies the body of his great-grandson, Willard, who in 1944, died in action on the fields of France. Surnames found in the old northern section of this burying ground include the Bullocks, Carpenters, Mortons, Clarks, and members of the Corse family.
On April 25, 1815, Benjamin Grennell of East Leyden, deeded a portion of his lands to the town for a burying ground on East Hill. The deed reads in part: "Beginning seven rods and ten links from the northeast corner of my holme lot (#58) on the road south of said corner, running east ten rods to a Stake & Stones . . . " In this picturesque yard where graceful white birches stand sentinel, lie the Hezekiah Newcombs, the Reuben Frizzells, the Rufus Frizzells, Julius Chapin, Benj. Grinnell, Rufus Hastings, the Nelsons, the Potters, the Sheldons and the Willises - all settlers on Frizzel Hill. One child of Abel Perry also lies here.
On January 26, 1789, the Leyden town warrant contained the following rather ghoulish article: "To see if the District will give leave to Dig up and remove their Dead that is Buried scattering about .... " Until this time no adequate measures had been taken to provide centralized burial places in Leyden. Hence, private burial plots were laid out close to the early homesteads.
Such private yards were perhaps the most expedient when
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we consider that the departed were customarily carried from their homes to their last resting places by the nearest of kin. And even after community burial lots were laid out, eight bearers were assigned the task of carrying the bier all the way to the yard. Evidence of this practice is made clear in the lay- out of a Guilford, Vt., cemetery near Packer's Corners. It is located 150 feet from the main road down a steep bank and is enclosed by a solid stone wall with only one narrow entrance gate three feet wide!
In Leyden, it was not till 1801 that the town voted to procure a hearse for public use; and it's safe to say that most, if not all, those buried before this time were lovingly carried to their rest - all the way. It was not till the late 18th Century that the departed were transported to their graves in rural New England.
Today there are a number of interesting private Leyden graveyards still intact. The Hessian Cemetery in the southeast part of town already has been described in the Hessian section of this book. Other private yards include the small Stedman lot where are the graves of Mrs. Lucy Stedman who died in 1789 "in ye 21 year of her age" and Miss Rebecca Stedman who died in 1806. On the old Enoch Briggs place, now occupied by Thomas E. List, are the gravestones of Enoch Briggs and other members of his family. A lone gravestone, found in fields south of the John Glabach farm (and subsequently used as a doorstep) bore the inscription "Newton, September 9th." A curious granite monument, 5 feet high and a foot square recently was unearthed by the Wayne Fishers in a building foundation on the old Mowry place. There was no name on the stone pillar, but on one side, inscribed in a circle were the words: "I am the Resurrection and the Life."
The Charles Packer lot on the Old County Road, contains three stones. The first reads: Charles Packer, d. Sept. 30, 1835, aged 91 years; the second reads: Mary Walworth, (wife of Charles Packer) d. March 18, 1814, aged 63 years. A third diminutive stone is marked "C.P." for Charles Packer, Jr. who died at age 4. It was on this little grave that Mary Williams Stowell, a close friend of the family, placed wild flowers each Spring.
In recent years, the Packer lot became a pasture and the gravestones were trampled into the ground. In the Summer of 1956, however, the stones were raised at our suggestion and a
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temporary enclosure built around them. It is sincerely hoped that in the future some permanent protection may be provided for the grave of Leyden's "pioneer intellectual, encourager of art, and first portrait subject of Henry Kirke Brown."
Far down the Old County Road is a "lost graveyard" where stand the stones of the early Bliss settlers of Leyden. The stone of Deacon Daniel Bliss bears the following inscription: Dan'l Bliss, d. Jan. 27, 1800, aged 77. Below is this cheering epitaph:
"Stranger see as you pass by As you are now, so once was I. As I was once, so you must be: Prepare for Death and follow me."
This epitaph, interestingly enough, is almost identical with the epitaph of Elizabeth Savery on "Burial Hill" in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Here again, Leyden reveals its ties with the Pilgrims and early Pilgrim settlement.
The Bliss burying ground has other interesting aspects be- sides its Pilgrim connections. It may be the site of the mysterious "disappearing graveyard." On April 7, 1788 the town records report that "3 pieces of ground have been laid out for the pur- pose that the inhabitants of the District may with convenience bury their dead." Two of these lots we know became the Beaver Meadow and West Leyden cemeteries. The third lot is described as part of "lot 42 owned by Job Wright containing half an acre, east of the road that goes across said lot, seven rods in width and eleven rods in length fronting the highway." Such a public burial ground east of the road does not exist - unless the Bliss stones east of the road in a hidden tangle, mark the abandoned public site of Job Wright's "buryhill."
CONCLUSION
Now that we have come to the end of this history, we review briefly the overall Leyden picture as it has been portrayed. First, we traced the early Leyden "Mayflower" settlements and told of their destruction by the Indians. Following the French and Indian wars, we described the second settlement period and the slow growth of the town. During the post-Revolutionary period, the rapid growth of Leyden was recorded, till, with the fall of William Dorril and the establishment of the church, the peak population period was described. Between 1800 and 1815, we told of Leyden's "Golden Age" when farms prospered, mills
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hummed and two of Leyden's outstanding men - Henry Kirke Brown and John L. Riddell - were born.
With the introduction of the American industrial age and the "Westward, Ho!" movement, we showed how Leyden mills began to close, roads deteriorate and population decline. But we pointed out that despite the material decline in the post- Civil War era, a cultural trend was in evidence and that this was manifest through the establishment of the library, reorganization of the church and introduction of higher institutions of learning.
We have emphasized in particular the cultural and material movement which has taken place in a growing Leyden since World War II - evidenced by the building up of old farms, re- construction and restoration of pioneer Leyden homes, erection of new schools, improvement of roads, and most interesting of all, the building of new homes on old colonial foundations. From a cultural point of view, we have underlined the introduction of summer clubs and camps, the increased number of Leyden artists, the study of nature and development of the "Church Woods" plan as significant in the Leyden post-war upsurge.
Looking ahead at this Sesquicentennial time, it is hoped that the people of Leyden, mindful of the town's great natural heritage will do all in their power to preserve that heritage. Leyden can be a sanctuary not only for people of many nation- alities, but for all wild life as well. Important as are fields and pastures to the farmer, may these never encroach on or destroy the basic natural beauty of Leyden's countryside.
The things of the spirit - the birds, wild flowers, the wood- land ferns, the Canadian violet on a sunny hillside, the sweet- briar pasture rose, the tall regenerate pine - these are beauties which we can never create and are food as vital to growth as bread. Without them we never truly live ..
Leyden retains a special aura for those who have lived here in days gone by. One native son, a direct descendant of William Bradford, remarked from a distant city where the circumstances of life had taken him: "If ever I go anywhere, it will be to Ley- den." Many Leyden devotees have carried native plants and flowers half way across the country to put them in far-off gardens. Even trees from Leyden's woods have been trans- planted hundreds of miles away.
On the old Alexander Road at a sharp bend in the highway, a huge American Elm, now over 200 years old, has witnessed the growth and struggles of Leyden since its earliest inception.
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Not long ago, there was talk of cutting this tree because one of its limbs impeded traffic. But the tree has been spared, and today the traffic goes around it. So here, the law of diminishing returns thus far has not triumphed.
In the years to come, we hope that Leyden's material and cultural rebirth will give courage to other New England hill towns whose histories closely parallel hers. Perhaps someday, what now seems like a fantastic dream may be realized, and tall "Mayflower" towers atop Leyden's hills will "broadcast" a steady stream of Church Woods fare for all "who have ears to hear."
As the world teeters on the brink of a materialistic abyss, there cannot be too much emphasis on the spiritual counter- balance. To all of us who love the hills, Leyden - with its birds, its flowers, its "Church Woods" - stands as a symbol of that counter-balance, of God in the high places.
About the Compilers of this Book (By John Bogart)
Arms, Masha E., to Leyden, 1945 from Washington, D. C. A direct descendant of Leif Eriksen, early Norwegian explorer. Mrs. Arms has won distinction, particularly in the field of portrait photography and is a pioneer in the miniature field. The child- ren of such prominent persons as Robert Frost, Bret Harte, Jr., Aldous Huxley and Marquis Childs have posed for her camera. Mrs. Arms has reproduced, photographically, a number of the George Fuller and Henry Kirke Brown paintings. While a faculty member of the King-Smith Studio School & Playhouse in Washington, she exhibited her work in Alexandria, Va., and at the Mayflower Hotel. Locally, she has shown her photographs in such public places as the Jones Library, Amherst; the Hamp- shire Bookshop, Northampton and the Greenfield Public Library. In 1958, she exhibited at her own studio in Leyden. Within the past three years she has expressed her love of nature in delicate pastel drawings wherein imagination and originality are dominant characteristics. In 1959, she was chosen a member of the committee to arrange the Leyden Sesquicentennial art show, and served as general chairman of the celebration.
Arms, William T., a direct descendant of the Falls Fight soldiers: Benjamin Waite, Godfrey Nims, Eliezer Hawks, John Munn, William Smead and William Armes; also related to the Leyden families of Sheldon, Severance and Stebbins. A direct descendant of Anneke Jans, early Dutch settler from Leiden, Holland; and a collateral descendant of Royall Tyler, American author of the Leyden area.
Mr. Arms, an alumnus of Williams College, was born in Deerfield, Massachusetts in 1904. He is the son of Winthrop Tyler and Jennie (Chapin) Arms.
During World War II, he covered Axis radio propaganda for the FBIS and wrote over 300 analytical articles for the Christian Science Monitor and the New York Times. These articles are now a part of a special collection in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton.
Since World War II, Mr. Arms has been active in historic research, involving subjects on both the east and west coasts. In 1956, he brought to light and, in published works, proved probable the legend that the guns at Bunker Hill were heard
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100 miles inland. Recently, he has written numerous historic articles including the story of the controversial Culdee monks. He also has written a number of plays. Outstanding, is his "Great God Smith," an historic drama based on life in the Deer- field Valley during the early 1920's.
In 1957, with Mrs. Arms, he originated the Leyden "Church Woods" plan, introduced throughout New England by the As- sociated Press; and nation-wide, through Nature Magazine. In Europe, this plan was publicly recognized in the Bulletin of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, published in Belgium.
INDEX
Adams, Caleb, 64, 71, 78, 82
Adams, John, 60, 64, 71, 73, 76, 82 Adams, Mass., 22, 185
Adams, Samuel, 37, 38, 54, 70
Ainsworth, Rev. Laban, 51
Albany, 2, 25, 57, 95, 104, 105
Alden family, 190
Alexander, Corp. James, 19, 27
Alexander, Nathaniel, 6
Alexander Road, 81, 112, 172, 173, 190, 194, 206 Alexander, Solomon, 65, 75, 80-81, 190, 202
Algerine Captive, 82
Allen, Ethan, 1, 55
Allen, Ozias, 100
Allen, Simeon, 48, 49, 67, 84, 100
Allen, Zebulon, 26, 36, 60
American Ass'n for Adv. of Science, 97,193
American Melting Pot, 178
American Museum of Natural His- tory, 167
American Revolution, 18, 41, 48, 56, 62, 69, 73, 76, 88, 92, 126, 162, 191 Amherst, Mass., 180, 208
Amherst, Lord Jeffrey, 28
Ancestral Heads of N. E. Families, 201
Ancient & Hon. Artillery Co., 199 Animals and Reptiles of Leyden, 171
Antioch College, 175
Arabella, 196
Arabia, 201 Armes, C. T, 105
Armes, William, 6, 208
Arms Academy, 152
Arms, Masha E., 166, 173, 208-209
Arms, Richard C., 105, 118
Arms, William T., 10, 208
Armstrong, Abigail, 139
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