USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Pelham > History of Pelham, Mass. : from 1738 to 1898, including the early history of Prescott > Part 35
USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Prescott > History of Pelham, Mass. : from 1738 to 1898, including the early history of Prescott > Part 35
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48
Governor Bowdoin went out of office before the final decision was made concerning the cases of the two condemned rebels and they were pardoned by Governor John Hancock. The document which relieved the men from their fears and set them at liberty read sub- stantially as follows, only the important and effective portions being copied.
" We therefore by and with the advice and consent of the Council of our Special grace do hereby remit to the said Henry McCulloch and Jason Par- menter a full free and ample pardon of all the Pains and Penalties they were liable to suffer and undergo by Vertue of the Sentences and Judgements aforesaid and of which the Sheriff of our said County of Hampshire is in an especial manner to take notice. JOHN HANCOCK, Governor.
Boston, Sept. 12, 1787."
While the friends of Henry McCulloch were doing their best to get him pardoned and set at liberty during the spring and summer of 1787, the rank and file of the Pelham people who had been engaged in rebellion against the state government had taken the oath of allegiance and had been at work on their farms as law abiding citizens.
From the rolls among the records at the State House the following list of men from Pelham, who had been in rebellion, has been copied in full. Some delivered up guns they had used against the state ; some did not, while others offered such excuses as they had for their conduct.
" Pelham men who took oath of allegiance April 16, 1787, because they had been engaged in the insurrection.
Thomas Johnson, George Eliot,
Daniel Harkness Jun, David Hays, James Baker Feb. 27, 1787, Stephen Andrews,
his Joseph + Rinken, mark
John Harkness 2ª,
John Hamilton, Jun.,
James Cowan, Jun.,
James Johnston,
Joel Crawford,
Moors Johnston,
390
HISTORY OF PELHAM, MASS.
Stephen Pettingall
Jacob Edson, gun,
Abner Amsdill,
John Bruce, Gun,
Samuel Rhods, gun,
Eleakim Barton,
George Hacket, gun,
Isaac Abercrombie,
Uriah Southworth, gun,
Abiah Southworth,
Joseph Tinkham, gun,
Justus Cowan, Jonathan Baker,
John Cowan,
Eliot Gray,
Lewis Ames, gun,
John Cole, gun,
Jonathan Snow, Joel Rinken.
Thirty persons on the right hand of this column (meaning the first thirty names) Personally appeared and took and subscribed the oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth on the 16 day of April 1787. Coram (before me.) E. MATTOON. JUN., Justice Peace."
" Hugh Johnston subscribed March 14, 1787 Excepting the words ' Ecclesi- astical or Spiritual.
March 16 Ebenezer Gray carried no arms he said.
March 19 Simeon Smith delivered his Gun.
March 20 Medad Moody ' lent a gun unwillingly.'
March 21 Joshua Whitney aided only by leading home his brothers horse.
Feb 6 Elias Smith, Samuel Smith Received their arms at Amherst.
Henry Lee Never bore Arms.
March 23, 1787, Ezekiel Conkey, David Conkey,
James Abercrombie,
James McMillan,
David Pratt,
Robert Crosett,
Samuel Robins,
Jeremiah McMillan,
Eliott Gray 2ª,
Wm. McMillan,
Thomas Clelland,
Jonathan McMillan,
Joseph Johnston,
Wm. Johnston,
Ezekiel Conkey,
Elisha Gray,
Thomas Thompson,
Joseph Waiscoat,
Ezekiel Baker,
Thomas Conkey, John Hunter.
Andrew Hyde,
Before ISAAC POWERS, Justice Peace." "Sept. 10, 1787, Lieut. Timothy Packard of Pelham took oath before me E. Mattoon, Jun."
" HAMPSHIRE SS FEB. 1, 1787.
Then John Hood, Adam Johnson, Jonathan Engram, Samuel Engram of Pelham informally appeared before me and took and subcribed to the oath of Allegiance. Before me ABNER MORGAN.
ELISHA BALDWIN, !
SAMUEL WRIGHT."
Lieut. Timothy Packard was one of the last to take the oath, while Hood, Johnson and the two Ingrams were the earliest ; the date on which they subscribed to the oath of allegiance was one of the four days that Capt. Shays and his men were quartered at Pelham after his repulse at Springfield and before he marched to Petersham. Baldwin and Wright were Pelham men and doubtless subscribed to the oath but the record was not filled out.
John Thompson Jun.,
William Cowan,
HOME OF CAPTAIN SHAYS.
THE ABIAL ROBINSON FARM HOUSE.
Captain Daniel Shays.
Daniel Shays is said to have been born in Hopkinton, Mass. in 1747- His parents being poor, and his early education neglected. It is also said that he removed from Hopkinton to Great Barrington before the Revolutionary war. How long before the war his removal occurred we have no record, neither is there any means of determin- ing when he came to Pelham. But he was there when the Lexington alarm was sent out and joined a company of minute men under Capt. Reuben Dickinson of Amhetst. This Company served eleven days. Shays was an ensign in this company. Capt. Dickinson organized another company May 1, 1775, which served three months and eight days and Daniel Shays was sergeant in this company. He was promoted for bravery at the battle of Bunker Hill. Shays was in Capt. Reuben Dickinson company of Col. Ruggles Woodbridge's Regiment on the expedition to Ticonderoga in 1776 ; was appointed lieutenant in Col. Varnum's regiment in 1776 and detached on recruiting service ; enlisted a company which he took to West Point, whose engagement to serve was conditioned upon his being appoint- ed captain. He was not appointed captain and the men were appor- tioned to different corps. Shays was at the surrender of Burgoyne and at the storming of Stony Point. In 1779 he received a captain's commission and was with Col. Putnam's regiment at Newark, N. J., in 1780, when he resigned and left the service.
Capt. Shays probably returned to Pelham soon after resigning his. position in the army. Landlord Conkey was a friend of the Captain and there had been business transactions of some sort between them as shown by the following receipt :
"Sudbury February 11 1779
Received of William Conkey, Jun, the som four hundred dollars. I say Re'cd by me. ABIGAIL SHAYS."
Abigail Shays was the Captain's wife, and the dating of the paper at Sudbury may indicate her place of abode while her husband was in the army.
On the 9th of March 1781, Capt. Shays was chosen a member of Committee of Safety. at Pelham ; was chosen again in 1782 on the
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HISTORY OF PELHAM, MASS.
same committee, and the committee were directed to attend the County Convention. He was also chosen one of the town Warden for several years, and held that office the year the insurrection broke out. He was sent as a delegate to several of the conventions for the consider- ation of grievances which began to burden the people before the war closed. It was while he was a member of the Committee of Safety that he filed the following petition or bill for services at conventions :
" Pelham March 18 1782
This is to see if the town will allow me 16-17s-8d for tending the Con- vention held at Hatfield and Hadley nine days and seven nights.
DANIEL SHAYS."
March 26, 1783, Capt. Shays was allowed 12s for attending a County Convention. The last office to which he was chosen in Pel- ham was as delegate to attend a convention at Hadley in October, 1786-but he was excused and another man chosen in his place.
The farm on which Capt. Shays lived is on the Prescott side of the West Branch of Swift river; for the last hundred years known as the " Johnson place." . The farm house now on the place is not the one occupied by the rebel captain, but is only a little removed from the site of the one that preceded it. The farm lays along the middle range road and the Old Conkey Tavern was half a mile or so farther down the road in the Hollow. Capt. Shays was no stranger at Land- lord Conkey's tavern, nor at the hostelry of Dr. Nehemiah Hinds on the East Hill, living as he did between the two.
The open fire-place in the bar room of Landlord Conkey's tavern was a pleasant place during the long winter evenings, when the hard times began to be felt by the debt burdened farmers, after the war was ended. What more fitting place to talk over their troubles than beside the great open fire place with its blazing logs, and the well filled decanters on the shelves of the bar in the corner behind. Here Capt. Shays met the people who came to consult him in regard to their grievances. Here the first mutterings of opposition in this vicinity were heard, and later developed into defiance of the state government, and armed resistance to the Courts and laws. In the open space in front of the tavern Capt. Shays drilled the men in the use of arms, and as the insurrection assumed greater proportions he was called to other parts of the state to organize the excited people.
Capt. Shays was doubtless poor in a financial sense, and possibly "cramped and hampered by debts he was unabled to pay, as many of
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FACSIMILE OF CAPTAIN SHAYS HANDWRITING.
394
HISTORY OF PELHAM, MASS.
his neighbors were; and felt as keenly as they the distress caused by the lack of money and the other grievances complained of by the people. Whether he had large indebtedness is not known, but a note still in existance is evidence that he was unable to settle small indebtedness with cash.
CAPT. SHAYS' NOTE.
"For Value re'cd I promise to pay to William Conkey or Order the sum of Eighteen shillings six pence, to be paid by the first of January next with interest for the same, as witness my hand. DANIEL SHAYS.
Pelham Sept 1, 1786."
The above note was overdue when he led his deluded followers from Springfield back to Pelham on the 28th of January, 1787, and was never paid, Milo Abbott of Prescott holds the note. The small sum represented by the note may have been a loan from his friend Conkey, to whom Shays had extended aid and comfort in pre- vious years as shown by the following letter, which is of interest, being a copy of an autograph letter of the Captain while stationed at Putnams' Heights. The letter is also of use in forming an intelli- gent idea of the character and capacity of the insurgent leader ; who, though not well educated, had some military experience,-was popu- lar and companionable among the people, and had some capacity for organizing and directing the movements of the excited insurgents, but it seems fair and reasonable to admit that he was not so able a leader as might have been chosen from the large number of insur- gents in the state.
" PUTNAMS HEIGHTH'S JUNE 25th 1778.
MR. CONKEY, SIR : After my kind Requist to you I wish to inform that I am well & in good health, hoping that these will find you & your family as well as these leave me. I have wrote to you once before but hearing you have not Rec'd my Letter from me & understand that you have been Drafted with these last men I write to you now for you to inform the selectmen of the town by showing thim this Letter that you have hired Jacob Toorell for to do eighteen months service for you on consideration of your paying him ten pounds for that space of time which I saw you pay him the money.
Thinking that these few lines will be sufficient for to clear you for the present time I thought I would embrace this opportunity to write to you for your Security. Having nothing Remarkable for news & hoping these will find you and yours well I must Conclude.
Your Friend and Servant, DANIEL SHAYS. To MR. WILLIAM CONKEY, Tavern Keeper in Pelham."
-
395
CAPTAIN DANIEL SHAYS.
Capt. Daniel Shays defended his action in the rebellion in an inter- view with Gen. Rufus Putnam, the revolutionary soldier, seventeen days before the attack upon the Springfield Armory. General Put- nam reported the interview to Governor Bowdoin :
" RUTLAND, JANUARY 8, 1787.
SIR :- As I was coming through Pelham the other day I met Mr. Shays in the road alone, where we had a conversation, some of which was of a very particular kind. I shall state the whole, by way of dialog, as far as I can recollect ; but in order to understand the meaning of some parts of it, it is necessary you should know that the week before they stopped Worcester court the last time, I spent many hours with Shays and his officers, endeav- oring to dissuade them from their measures, and persuade them to return to their allegiance.
Mr. Shays-Do you know if the petition drawn up at Worcester has been sent to the governor or not?
Putnam-I am surprised to hear you inquire that of me ; you certainly ought to know whether you have sent it, or not-however, since you ask the question I tell you I have been credibly informed that so late as last Friday it had not been presented.
Shays-They promised to send it immediately, and it was very wrong they did not ; but I don't know that it will alter the case, for I don't suppose the governor and council will take any notice of it.
Putnam-You have no reason to expect they will grant the prayer of it.
Shays-Why not ?
Putnam-Because many things asked for it is out of their power to grant; and besides that since you and your party have once spurned at offered mercy, it is absurd to expect that another general pardon should be ever granted.
Shays-No! Then we must fight it out.
Putnam-That as you please, but it's impossible you should succeed, and the event will be that you must either run your country or hang, unless you are fortunate enough to bleed.
Shays-By God I'll never run my country.
Putnam-Why not? It's more honorable than to fight in a bad cause, and be the means of involving your country in a civil war; and that is a bad cause ; you have always owned to me; that is, you owned to me at Holden, the week before you stopped Worcester court, that it was wrong in the people ever to take up arms as they had.
Shays-So I did, and so I say now, and I told you then and tell you now, that the sole motive with me in taking the command at Springfield, was to prevent the shedding of blood, which would absolutely have been the case, if I had not; and I am so far from considering it as a crime, that I look upon it that the government are indebted to me for what I did there.
Putnam-If that was the case, how came you to pursue the matter? Why did you not stop there ?
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HISTORY OF PELHAM, MASS.
Shays-I did not pursue the matter ; it was noised about that the war- rants were out after me, and I was determined not to be taken.
Putnam-This won't do. How came you to write letters to several towns in the county of Hampshire, to choose officers and furnish themselves with arms and 60 rounds of ammunition ?
Shays-I never did ; it was a cursed falsehood.
Putnam-Somebody did in your name, which it can never be presumed was done without your approbation.
Shays-I never had any hand in the matter; it was done by a Committee, and Doctor Hunt and somebody else, who I don't know, put my name to the copy and sent it to the Governor and Court.
Putnam-But why did you not take the benefit of the act of indemnity, as soon as it passed ? But instead of that, you ordered the whole posse col- lected and marched as far as Shrewsbury, in order to go and stop the Court at Cambridge.
Shays-I never ordered a man to march to Shrewsbury, nor anywhere else, except when I lay at Rutland. I wrote to a few towns in the counties of Worcester and Hampshire. You are deceived; I never had half so much to do with the matter as you think for, and the people did not know of the act of indemnity before they collected.
Putnam-If they did not you did, for you told me at Holden that you knew everything that passed at Court; and that when you talked with Gen. Ward at Shrewsbury you was able to correct him in several things which he advanced.
Shays-I could tell you-but-
Putnam-I don't wish to know any of your secrets. But why did you not go home with the Hampshire people from Holden, as you told me in the evening you would the next morning ?
Shays-I can tell you, it would not have done. I have talked with Maj. Goodman. I told him what you said, and he gave it as his opinion the act would not have taken us in.
Putnam -- Suppose that to be the case, yet the General Court might have extended it to you ; the chance in your favor was much greater before than after you had stopped Worcester Court. Why did you not petition, before you added that crime to the score ?
Shays-It would have been better; but I cannot see why stopping that Court is such a crime that if I might have been pardoned before, I should be exempted now.
Putnam-When offered mercy has been once refused, and the crime repeated, Government never can with any kind of honor and safety to the community pass it over without hanging somebody ; and as you are at the head of the insurgents, and the person who directs all their movements, I cannot see you have any chance to escape.
Shays-I at their head ! I am not.
Putnam-It is said you are first in command, and it is supposed they have appointed you their General.
397
CAPTAIN DANIEL SHAYS.
Shays-I never had any appointment but that at Springfield, nor did I ever take command of any men but those of the county of Hampshire ; no General Putnam, you are deceived, I never had half so much to do with the matter as you think for, nor did I order any men to march, except when at Rutland, as I told you before.
Putnam-Did you not muster the party to go to Springfield the other day ? Shays-No, nor had I any hand in the matter, except that I rode down in a sleigh.
Putnam-But I saw your name to the request presented to the justices- that you won't deny ?
Shays-I know it was there, and Grover put it there without my knowl- edge; I wan't got into Springfield when it was done,-the matter was all over before I got there and I had no hand in it.
Putnam-But is it a truth that you did not order the men to march to Springfield the other day ?
Shays-Yes-I was sent to and refused, and told them I would have nothing to do in the matter.
Putnam-But why ?
Shays-I told them it was inconsistent after what we had agreed to peti- tion, as we did at Worcester, and promised to remain quiet and not to meddle with the courts any more, till we knew whether we could get a par- don or not.
Putnam-Have you not ordered the men to march to Worcester the.23d of this month ?
Shays-No. I was sent to from Worcester county to come down with the Hampshire men; but I told them I would not go myself nor order any men to march.
.
Putnam-Who has done it? Hampshire men are certainly ordered to march.
Shays-Upon my refusing to act they have chose a committee, who have ordered the men to march.
Putnam-But how do you get along with these people, having been with them so long ; how is it possible they will let you stay behind ?
Shays-Well enough. I tell them that I never will have anything more to do with stopping Courts, or anything else, but to defend myself, till I know whether a pardon can be obtained or not.
Putnam-And what if you can not get a pardon ?
Shays-Why, then I will collect all the force I can and fight it out; and, I swear, so would you or anybody else, rather than be hanged.
Putnam -- I will ask you one question more, you may answer it or not, as. you please-it is this-Had you an opportunity, would you accept of a par- don, and leave these people to themselves ?
Shays-Yes-in a moment.
Putnam-Then I advise you to set off this night to Boston, and throw yourself upon the mercy and under the protection of Government.
Shays-No, that is too great a risk, unless I was first assured of a pardon.
27
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HISTORY OF PELHAM, MASS.
Putnam-There is no risk in the matter, you never heard of a man who voluntarily did this, whose submission was not accepted ; and if your sub- mission is refused, I will venture to be hanged in your room.
Shays-In the first place, I don't want you hanged, and in the next place, they would not accept of you.
The only observation I shall make is, that I fully believe he may be brought off, and no doubt he is able to inform Government more of the bottom of this plot than they know at present.
I have the honor to be Sir your Ex'y's most obed't and humble servant,
RUFUS PUTNAM. Gov. BOWDOIN.
Capt. Shays retreated in much haste from Petersham as far as Winchester, N. H., after he was surprised February 4, 1787, by Gen. Lincoln's remarkable march through the snowstorm, and three days later he had nearly 300 men with him. These dispersed gradually, and Shays probably went through Vermont into New York state, as many of his followers did.
On the 9th of February 1787, Gov. Bowdoin issued a proclamation ordering the arrest of Daniel Shays of Pelham, Luke Day of West Springfield, Adam Wheeler of Hubbardston, and Eli Parsons of Adams ; designating them as " Principals and abetters," and a reward was offered for their apprehension. The reward was renewed by the state authorities in the hope that Capt. Shays might be delivered up by officers in whatever state he might be, but he escaped arrest and trial for more than a year and then Shays proffered a petition for pardon in February 1788, couched in the most humble terms. The legislature then in session failed to agree upon granting pardon to Shays, but a full pardon was granted in the summer of 1788. After he was pardoned he is said to have returned to Pelham, but there is no known record of his living in Pelham after the collapse of the rebellion. Nor is there any reliable evidence that he returned to his native state as a place of residence, though he may have done so. There is general agreement that he did not prosper in business where- ever he was located. After living in several different places in New York state he drifted to Sparta, Livingston county, where he lived in extreme poverty. He died in 1825, when he was 78 years old. His grave is said to be marked by a flat stone in the beautiful cemetery of Conesus near Scottsburg. Something like ten or twelve years ago there was a movement to set up a large boulder inscribed with his name to mark the grave of Capt. Shays ; but it may not have been accomplished. Letters of enquiry sent to the local authorities at
..
399
CAPTAIN DANIEL SHAYS.
Sparta concerning the rebel captain, his death and place of burial, were not answered, and the generally conceded statements given above must be accepted as the most authentic obtainable.
After the rebellion was quelled the movement itself and Capt. Shays in particular was the target for ridicule of all sorts. The would- be poets of the time exercised their talents upon him and various effusions of poetical doggerell have come down to the present time. " The Confession of Capt. Shays " follows; also a more extended version which was sung by the choir of the Olivet church, Spring- field, at the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the attempt of Shays upon the arsenal in January, 1887 :
C
ron Johnson
3
٢
UP THE EAST HILL, (PRESCOTT).
THE CONFESSION OF CAPT. SHAYS.
In former days my name was Shays, In Pelham I did dwell, sir ;
But now I'm forced to leave that place, Because I did rebel, sir.
But in this State I lived till late : By Satan's foul invention ;
In Pluto's cause against the laws I raised an insurrection.
.
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HISTORY OF PELHAM, MASS.
In hell 'twas planned by obscure hand All laws should fail before me, Though in disgrace the populace Like Persia did adore me.
On mountain's steed we did proceed, Our federal stores to plunder ; 1 But there we met with a back set From Shepard's warlike thunder.
They killed four ; they wounded more ; The rest they run like witches; Roswell Merrick lost his drum, And Curtis split his breeches.
Which proved too hard for my front guard, For they still growing stronger, I'm resolved to go to the shades below And stay on earth no longer.
When I arrived at the water side, Where Charon kept the ferry, I called for quick passage o'er, For I dare no longer tarry.
Then Damon came to Charon's boat, And straightly gave him orders To bring no more such rebels o'er, If they had no further orders.
For I have orders sent to me That's very strict indeed, sir, To bring no more such rebels o'er, For they're of Charon's breed, sir.
Then Damon ordered Shays away To gather up his daises ; And the service done by him is They gave him many praises.
SHAYS'S REBELLION.
My name was Shays ; in former days, In Pelham I did dwell, sir ; But now I'm forced to leave that place, Because I did rebel, sir.
Within the state I lived, of late, By Satan's foul invention, In Pluto's cause, against their laws I raised an insurrection.
401
CAPTAIN DANIEL SHAYS.
'Twas planned below, by that arch foe, All laws should fall before me ; Though in disgrace, the populace Did Persian-like adore me.
On mounted steed I did proceed The federal stores to plunder ; But there I met with a bold salute From Shepard's war-like thunder.
He kindly sent his aid-de-camp To warn me of my treason ; But when I did his favors scorn, He sent his weighty reason,
, Which proved too hard for my front guard, And they still growing stronger, I planned to go to world below And live on earth no longer.
And when I reached the river Styx, Where Charon kept the ferry, I called for speedy passage o'er And dared no longer tarry.
But Charon's boat was freighted with Four ghosts from Springfield plain, sir ; He bade me tarry on the wharf Till the boat returned again, sir.
But while I tarried on the wharf, My heart kept constant drumming, And conscious guilt made me believe 'Twas Lincoln's army coming.
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