USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Leyden > History of Leyden, Massachusetts, 1676-1959 > Part 2
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First Proprietors' Meetings: On Christmas Eve, in the year 1735, Captain Thomas Wells, a leading citizen of Deerfield and one who had seen service as a dragoon in the French and Indian wars, was directed by the General Court to notify the grantees of Falls Fight Town to appear "at some town in the County of Hampshire ... to chuse a Moderator and Clerk and to
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HISTORY OF LEYDEN
agree upon effectual methods for the laying out and fulfilling of their grant, and to call meetings for the future."
Though the grantees lived in twenty-one different Massa- chusetts townships and thirteen in Connecticut, Captain Wells carried out his commission promptly and the Grantees were soon notified of the first proprietors' meeting to be held January 27, 1736 at the home of Benjamin Stebbins in the then county seat at Northampton.
At this meeting, Thomas Wells, Samuel Field and Jonathan Hoit of Deerfield were elected to "examine ye place agreeable to ye act of ye Genll Asembly where ye Town Shall Ly and then They by viewing, obtain satisfaction where to lay sd Town, then to Gett itt laid out by a Surveyor and chainmen upon oath." It might be noted here that the initial grant to be surveyed in- cluded lands covering the present town of Bernardston, part of Leyden and a narrow strip over the "Vermont" line where the official boundary was not established till 1741.
The second proprietors' meeting was held October 6th and all were warned to come prepared to "Pay Ye First Charge For Laying out Sd Township and to consider a petition for an ad- ditional grant," necessitated by the large number of proprietors. This additional grant was in Boston Township #2 and lay with- in Coleraine Township then being settled by Scotch-Irish from Northern Ireland.
At the second proprietors' meeting, it was decided that part of the original grant be laid out in 50-acre house lots and that meadow lands should be laid out separately with each lot. These were to be known as First and Second Division lots, res- pectively. No homes were to be laid out on streams where mills might be erected. Such sites were reserved for public use. An unusually fair system of land distribution was adopted whereby the Committee in charge was requested to note in all instances the quality of land drawn. Whenever a man drew inferior lots, they were to be offset by an additional grant, so all might be as equal as possible. A sum of three pounds was charged each proprietor for admittance to the lot drawing.
1737: By May 4th, exactly 97 men had proved their just claims to proprietorship in Fall Town, so it was decided the lands should be divided into 100 lots - 97 proprietary and 3 public lots for church, minister and school. Showing an ad- vanced sense of conservation, it also was voted at the May
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HISTORY OF LEYDEN
meeting "to preserve wood and timber, and prosecute those who committed any waste thereof."
The list of 97 proprietors represented men from the Massa- chusetts towns of Deerfield, Dorchester, Springfield, Hadley, Hatfield, Malden, Boston, Roxbury, Concord, Northampton, West- field, Charlestown, Almsbury, Swansey, Newton and Tewksbury. Connecticut towns represented were: Middleton, Watertown, Wethersfield, Colchester, Lebanon, Enfield, Wallingford, Had- dam, Stamford, Stafford, Windham, Glastonbury, Newbury, "El- bows," Durham, Westford and New Haven. Long Island also was represented.
At the first drawing on May 4th, Samuel Cunnabell, later a pioneer in the maple sugar industry, drew his frontier lot, and by the next day, 60 settling proprietors had agreed to pay set- tling bonds, build suitable houses and "bring their land up to ploughing and mowing."
Meetings now followed thick and fast. On October 12th it was voted to lay out 5-acre "Medow Lands;" provision was made for a saw and grist mill; and it was voted to "allow Prop- rietors to cut wood and timber from undivided lands in the Township provided there was no "stripping or waste." On Octo- ber 18, the meadow lots were drawn, each proprietor paying 10 shillings a throw. At this drawing, Hezekiah Newcomb of Leba- non, Connecticut, drew meadow lot 98 in Beaver Meadow. Later tenanted by his son, Silas, this proved to be the first "settled" lot in the East Leyden area.
The Year 1738: By October 19, all the first and second divi- sion lots had been drawn. The 97 proprietors of the entire Fall Town district were divided into two categories: settlers and non-settlers.
The following list, made up from Franklin County Registry records includes only those first division lots which lay in East Leyden. The original owner of each lot is listed first; other known owners, down to those of today, follow.
Lot numbers are not consecutive because many of the plots were laid out in eastern Fall Town. We do not pretend to list all the lot owners, only those which have been verified. An elipsis (three dots) is used to indicate unknowns. The initials "B.M." following lot numbers stand for Beaver Meadow; "G.B." stands for Glen Brook area; and "F.H." stands for the entire East Hill area, originally known as Frizzell Hill. "H.L." stands for House Lot; "OHL" stands for old house lot; "P." for pasture land.
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HISTORY OF LEYDEN
Lot 50 (FH-P) Samuel Crow; John Perry; Calvin Howland . .. C. W. Severance ... Arthur Howes
Lot 51 (FH-HL) Benj. Rugg; Shem Chapin; John Perry; Ger- sham Orvis; Abel Perry; Ebenezer Martindale; Sam Dimick; Peter Tyler; Rufus Frizzell ... Arthur Howes
Lot 52 (FH-P) Wm. Jones; Esther Williams; Hezekiah New- comb ... Donald Herron
Lot 53 (FH-P) Nath'l Sutliff; Peter Tyler; Hezekiah Newcomb
Lot 54 (FH-HL) Samuel Hunt; Oliver Brewster; Samuel Guild; Reuben Frizzell; Ezra Shattuck; Samuel Hastings; Newton Carson ... Henry Campbell; Louis Black
Lot 56 (FH-HL) Capt. Preserved Clapp; Timothy Bascom; Gersham Orvis; Hezekiah Newcomb . .. George Smith; Donald Herron ... William Arms
Lot 57 (FH-HL) Sam'l Blanchard; Israel Bagg; David Potter; ... Alfred Black .. . David Baker
Lot 58 (FH-HL) Thomas Alvord; Gersham Orvis; Benjamin Grinnel ... Harold Pratt; Donald Herron; Harry Garr
Lot 59 (FH-HL) John Baker; Gersham Orvis; Edward Nel- son; Robert Strange; William Croutworst
Lot 60 (FH-P) The original School lot of Fall Town: leased out; now owned by Arthur Howes & Son
Lot 64 (FH-HL) Ebenezer Smead; John Pressy; Michael Friz- zell; Reuben Parmenter; Edward Newton; John Glabach
Lot 72 (FH-HL) John Lee; Ezra Shattuck; Jotham Carpenter .. . Fayette Potter; Roy Hine
Lot 73 (FH-OHL) Thomas French; Nath'l Chamberlain; Michael Frizzell ... James McDonald
Lot 74 (FH-HL) Joseph Crowfoot; Josiah Griswold; Timothy Bigelow; John Cunnabell; Caleb Willis; Marcus Frizzell James McDonald; Edgar Collis
Lot 75 (FH-P) Joseph Leeds ... John Glabach
Lot 77 (FH-P) Joseph Kellogg; Reuben Shattuck; Michael Frizzell . .. John Glabach
Lot 78 (GB-HL) William Dickinson; Stephen Dorril . . . Wil- liam Campbell ... James Britton
Lot 79 (KB-HL) Samuel Bedortha; Jonathan White; David Paige . .
Lot 83 (FH-OHL) Aaron Stebbins; Reuben Parmenter; Wil- liam Dorril; Ezra Shattuck; Asahel Newton . . . John Glabach
Lot 84 (BM-P) Samuel Pierce; Thos. Goodwin; Selah Chapin
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HISTORY OF LEYDEN
Lot 85 (FH-P) Ministry Lot; John Scott; Wm. Scott Robert Strange ... William Croutworst
Lot 89 (BM-OHL) John Lyman; Silas Newcomb; Daniel New- comb ... Wayne Fisher; Arnold Studer
Lot 91 (BM-OHL) Isaac Burnap; Daniel Chapin (?) ... Hugh Sloane
Lot 93 (BM-HL) Joseph Fuller ... Selah Chapin ... Hugh Sloane
Lot 94 (BM-HL) Aaron Smith; Benj. Thomas; Elisha Burn- ham ... Edward Smith
Lot 96 (BM-HL) E. Mattoon; Daniel Chapin . . Edric Cook Lot 97 (BM-OHL) Stephen Noble; John Hunt David G. Baker ...
The above first division lots (with the original meadow lots) represented the best farming lands in eastern Leyden during the formative years. The Leyden map in front of the book shows the approximate area these lots covered-roughly, one half the present area of Leyden Township. These lots were drawn before the Mass-Hampshire survey of 1741, so Lot 97 and others which ran over the line, lost part of their acreage to western Hamp- shire-later to become the State of Vermont.
Because of unsettled times, the threat of Indians, and wild animals, only four men with lots in Leyden paid the settlers' bond of 100 pounds in 1738. After an uneasy peace of nearly fourteen years, England and France again were sabre-rattling. No one knew when war would flare up once more, and the In- dians, spurred on by the French, would again attack every isolated homestead. Though there is no material evidence that the four bondsmen (Thomas French, Joseph Bascom, Ebenezer Smead and Aaron Stebbins) actually braved the Leyden Hills in 1738, brief settlement was possible. For the first definite record of settlement in Leyden we have to wait until the year 1741.
1739-Early Maps: As in most New England towns, early maps and plans were primitive and difficult to read. The oldest known map of the Leyden area, dated 1736, was drawn up in accordance with instructions from the General Court, by survey- or Nathaniel Kellogg. A copy, found in the Franklin Registry, shows very little detail. The Grant is represented in the shape of a trapezium, with the inlets and outlets of Fall River and Glen Brook. The outlet of the latter stream is close to the western boundary of the grant showing that originally the Leyden bound-
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HISTORY OF LEYDEN
ary did not run west of this brook. However, a dotted line, west of the original Grant Line forms a triangle or "Gore" marked 4833 acres. This was doubtless the additional grant in Boston Township #2 for which Thomas Wells petitioned the General Court.
The second map of the Fall Town Grant, drawn up in the Summer of 1739, shows specific First Division house lots which cover, roughly, the eastern section of Leyden south to Leyden Glen. This map makes it clear that the original school lot for the entire township was first located on the west slope of Ley- den's highest elevation (Frizzell Hill); and that the ministry lot was originally laid out on a high spot nearby. As in most early New England towns, the first thought was to "head for the highest mountain" where Indian attack was least likely. Ap- parently Leyden was no exception.
The third early map, a companion piece to the 1739 house lot survey, is a masterpiece of confusion. It is labeled "A Plan of One Hundred Lots of Medoe Lands Laid Out in Faull Town." The lots, like disconnected vertebrae, are arranged on the map without any geographical association, and appear like scattered fragments a child might have cut out for paper dolls. Only the numbers on the irregular segments suggest a plan, and after careful search of old records, one can tie in some of these lots- the choicest land in the town-with specific owners and definite geographic features. From such study it is clear that "Medoe Lot" numbers 96 through 100 lay in the rich intervale lands of Beaver Meadow where Leyden's first bold settler, Silas New- comb, found sanctuary with his Huguenot wife.
A circumstance doubtless common in most early town drawings, found those who had drawn House Lots in one sec- tion of the town, had "Medoe" lands in some other section. Hence, there was, necessarily, much swapping and Yankee "horse-trading" after the drawings.
Proprietors' Meetings in Deerfield: Before launching into the story of Leyden's first settlement, a few notes from the ancient record books will help set the stage. June 13, 1739, a Fall Town Proprietors' Meeting was held in the historic town of Deerfield. It was voted to "lay out roads and build a Meeting House 50 x 40 x 23 between joints" in the Eastern part of Fall Town. The next year, on October 14, it was voted at a Deerfield meeting to "Build a grist mill and Bridge over Fall River, get a preacher and tax each proprietor 22 pounds extra." Next day (Oct. 15th)
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HISTORY OF LEYDEN
it was voted to Meet at the House of Ebenezer Sheldon in Fall Town (the first mention of a dwelling house in the township); and on the 17th it was voted to send a petition for an "additional Gore between Fall Fight Town and Boston Township #2." It was also voted that any timber already cut on undivided lands should be free to any Proprietor who wished to use it.
With roads, a meeting-house, a grist mill and a minister, forming the nucleus of Fall Fight Town, the story can now go forward with an account of the first settlements in the west part of the town. The curtain goes up on the first Leyden of America.
CHAPTER II
First Settlements in the Leyden Hills 1741 -1759
T hough one New England historian states that Leyden's earliest settlers were of the Frizzell and Coolidge families, no records have thus far been found or presented which show that the Frizzells, valiant pioneers though they were, settled in Ley- den before 1764. The Coolidges did not arrive in Leyden until 1771, thirty years after the first log cabin settler.
Until now, no one has suggested that there could have been settlements in the Leyden Hills as early as 1741. Yet careful research reveals an official record of the birth of a baby boy in November of that year in those very hills. The child, a direct descendant of Governor William Bradford, was undoubtedly Leyden's first white child. His parents were Silas Bradford New- comb, of Leyden Pilgrim stock, and Submit Pineo, daughter of a French Huguenot, exiled from France during the great religious upheaval of the 18th Century. The story of the heroic struggle of this pioneer Leyden family is here recorded for the first time.
Silas Newcomb was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, Septem- ber 2, 1717. He was the son of Hezekiah Newcomb and Jerusha Bradford. Though Hezekiah bought much land in Fall Town, he let his sons, Silas and Peter, settle the claims. Silas was in town on June 20th, 1739 when his signature appears on proprietor's records. It is likely, therefore, that with the help of his brother, Peter, he began clearing his land in Leyden that year.
It was about this time that Silas married Submit Pineo. The famed Reverend Eleazer Wheelock, who later founded Dart- mouth College, performed the ceremony. "Soon after the birth of their first child, in the Spring of 1741, Silas and Submit New- comb removed from Lebanon to Falltown (now Leyden in Frank- lin County, Mass.) where their second and third children were born." Thus states the family genealogy by John Bearse New- comb (page 71).
The pioneer road into Leyden which the Newcombs fol- lowed is of interest, not only locally, but also to all Americans. This road or scout path was a spur of the well-known Mohawk Trail and ran along the northern fringe of American coloniza-
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HISTORY OF LEYDEN
tion. It was the pioneer road, dividing the vast wilderness of the north from the scattered English settlements on the south, and was a link between Fort Dummer on the Connecticut River and forts on the interior western frontier.
It seems certain that this road which the Newcombs tra- versed led from the Fall River directly up the Couch Brook, crossed the brook near Peter Newcomb's lot (see map) and wound north and west along the crest of the hills till it dipped down into Beaver Meadow.
Some 300 yards from the mouth of Couch Brook, close to Leyden's eastern gateway, the Newcombs passed the deep historic gorge, most picturesquely described by Major Stephen Webster, Fall Town's unpublished historian:
"In a verey short distance," he writes, "the Warter falls more than one hundred and fifty feet - its fall is like going down a pair of Stairs & is one of natures Cureyoseteys - the Warter being forced through as it wair, a solad mountain of roks the banks being of solad roks & formed as by the hand of arte & not more than ten or twelve feat wide at top. Over this astonishing gulf we are told the Indians passed with their Captives after Destroying Deerfield . . . "
Past this historic spot, then, scarcely two score years after the fatal Indian massacre in Deerfield, the Silas and Peter New- combs wended their way cautiously toward their homes in the wilderness - trail blazers - following a path which only yester- day was alive with the white man's foe.
On an alluvial flat, near the spot where the road turned north and crossed the Couch Brook, under the shadow of Wild Cat Mountain, Peter Newcomb halted with his family. Here, doubtless with his brother's help, he had previously cleared a piece of land and built a log cabin. After a short period of rest, Silas with his wife and year-old baby, set out over the mountain to the home Silas had prepared in Leyden's green meadows.
The original scout path did not follow straight up the brook as the road is laid now, but probably wound over the drumlin hills down into Beaver Meadow. Ever alert for wolves, bear and Indians, Silas and Submit followed this road and soon found themselves in their beautiful valley home. And here it was on November 18, 1741 that Submit Newcomb gave birth to her
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HISTORY OF LEYDEN
second child, Daniel. For him the highest point east of the valley was named Daniel's Peak.
The first Leyden child was doubtless christened by Minister Norton who only a few weeks before had been established as Fall Town's pastor "with 200 pounds advanced for a house and a 'sallery' of 130 pounds for five years."
In order to determine the location of this first Leyden settle- ment, much time was spent perusing old deeds and maps. The first clue turned up on the 1831 Leyden map drawn up by Rep- resentative Hezekiah Newcomb. In the area east of Beaver Meadow atop the highest hill was the appellation "Uncle Daniels Peque." Since Hezekiah Newcomb was a grand nephew of Daniel Newcomb, it seemed conclusive that the mountain had been named for the Beaver Meadow son of Silas Newcomb.
A search of deeds at the Franklin County Registry indicated that the Silas Newcomb lot definitely was located on the west side of Beaver Meadow (near lots 89 in the first and 98 in the second divisions). This was further confirmed by the following, found in the Leyden town records:
" ... rec'd of the District of Leyden ten shillings, six pense, in full for 26 rods of ground at the northeast corner of my home farm for the purpose of a Burying Ground." [signed ] Dan'l Newcomb
The "Burying Ground" to which reference is made was part of Beaver Meadow Cemetery and by mapping out the section sold by Daniel Newcomb to the town in 1791, it became clear that this lot (the lot on which his father, Silas, settled) was south- west of the present cemetery. The cabin in which Daniel was born stood on rising ground north of the Beaver Meadow school- house. In fact, when excavations were made in the area recent- ly, a crude foundation was discovered near the very spot where Silas Newcomb probably built his home - a spot on the northernmost New England frontier, on the road linking the forts between east and west.
While the paternal ancestors of Silas Newcomb were sea- faring men of standing from Kittery, Maine and Martha's Vine- yard, Massachusetts, his maternal ancestor was William Brad- ford, Mayflower Pilgrim from Leiden, Holland and Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It is very likely, therefore, that Silas Newcomb, a direct descendant of Pilgrim Bradford, named
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HISTORY OF LEYDEN
the hills in which be settled "Leyden" in honor of : city which had given sanctuary to the forebears Re too, font Silas" wie's parents were Ing om persecu
France the nome Leyden bad
As early as September 23, 1741, Peter Depomb, of Sias, is listed in the old toim rec builder of the district. Peter, who Had seried on the ecsism slopes of Leyden's bills, bod mommie Dorer nome, so his progeny bod double" Mayflower comnet-
tions - Brough bot be Brodard
Mre Sice, wos married by the Reverend E per Wheelock founder of Dortmonth College, and wos the best of many of Leyden's prominent Wenncombs
1742: in February of this year, h is recorded 1 Sims New- comb served on a co
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-
==
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HISTORY OF LEYDEN
and was later owned by Reuben Frizzell; Lot 2 became the Cun- nabell house site; Lot 63 near Beaver Meadow, became the site of the "Hunt" place; Lot 92 became the Cunnabell millsite on lower Couch Brook, and Lot 112 became the property of the pioneer Newcombs. About 40 third division lots were drawn in. the old Leyden area. Three more lot drawings were to follow in Leyden - a record of intricacy, no doubt, for land division. in any New England town.
Probable Neighbors of the Newcomb Brothers: Though tradi- tion has it that fear of Indians and wild animals prevented many early settlements in Leyden, there is evidence that other cou- rageous men, besides the Newcombs, braved the Leyden wilds at an early date. Such names as Hunt, Lee and Perry appear on the records in this connection.
Descendants of Samuel Hunt, the man who first petitioned the General Court for the Fall Town Grant, were doubtless early settlers in Leyden. Petitioner Hunt drew Lot 54 in the first divi- sion. It was a plot favorably situated on the eastern slopes of Leyden's hills. The petitoner's son, Samuel Hunt, was about the same age as Silas Newcomb and was a native of the same town (Lebanon, Connecticut). It is more than likely, therefore, that he may have followed the Newcombs north and built a: cabin on his hilltop tract, remaining until driven out by hostile. Indians.
John Lee of West Springfield drew Lot 72 in the first Leyden division. A recent discovery of a dated rock on his tract, sug- gests he may have settled in Leyden as early as 1741. The in- scription on the boulder reads: "Made in 1471," but since the numbers are written upside down, it is likely the figures were written backwards, perhaps in jest. Moss and lichens had near- ly covered the inscription when discovered by Ursula Fritz of Leyden in 1956.
The location of the Lee place probably was at the junction of roads leading from the east and south, and close to the road. which linked the defense forts on America's northern frontier.
In the History of Bernardston, John Lee is listed as a "scribe and accountant" who married, September 15, 1736, Elizabeth, sister of pioneer Samuel Cunnabell. On May 9, 1745, Lee sold. his Leyden lot to Jonathan Ashley of Deerfield. He died during the American Revolution.
The third possible early Leyden settler was John Perry of Hadley who in 1742 bought Lots 50 and 51 on the "Old Proprie-
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HISTORY OF LEYDEN
tor's Road" in Leyden. Perry pledged to build on Lot 50 and gave a settler's bond to that effect, December 20, 1742. If Perry actually settled on Leyden's East Hill, it was for a short time, as war broke out in the spring of '44, and the next we hear of him he was at the "front." Of John Perry, Lucy Kellogg writes: "He was one of the earliest settlers in Fall Town. At the time of the storming of Fort Massachusetts, August 19 and 20, 1746, he was captured with his wife, Rebecca, and taken to Canada. She died in captivity in Quebec, December 23, 1746." When taken, Perry was listed as "a carptenter and soldier from Fall Town."
1743: During this year, it was recorded that there were 17 families settled in Fall Town. In the Leyden section, and the approaches to Leyden, lived Samuel Cunnabell at his fortified house; Major John Burk on the "Plains of Abraham"; James Couch, at the mouth of Couch Brook; Peter Newcomb, half way up the Couch Brook Road; John Lee at the head of Couch Brook; John Perry and Samuel Hunt, probably south of Lee on the Old Proprietor's Road; and Silas Newcomb, on the frontier road in his Beaver Meadow stockaded cabin.
In the eastern section of Fall Town lived the forebears of families which later settled in Leyden. These men were: Lieu- tenant Ebenezer Sheldon; Caleb Chapin (a descendant of Samuel Chapin, early settler of Springfield); Captain Eddy Newcomb (brother-in-law of Silas and Peter Newcomb); Cor- poral Alexander, who, according to official records was "ordered to Fall Town in 1745 by reason that his family resided there." It is possible that Samuel Frizzell, forebear of the Leyden Friz- zells, was an early Fall Town settler, but of him we have no actual records at this time.
It is probable that other transient settlers put up rude shelters in Leyden. While roaming through the fields and woods, and along the old roads of the East Leyden area, small excava- tions have been found with primitive stone work enclosing them. One such excavation was discovered on the right hand side of the primeval Eden Trail. North of this site, a short distance to the left of a swampy meadow, is stone work suggestive of crude well masonry built up three or four feet above ground. Another unidentified habitation site is on the west slope of Frizzell hill where a stone foundation outline was discovered in deep woods; and on the old "frontier road" north of Couch Brook is a cabin hole of unkown origin. No one knows who lived in these spots- but it is fascinating to picture the hardy pioneers who might
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