USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Rowe > History of Rowe, Massachusetts > Part 7
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Tradition has it that Eldad Corbet was the first pio- neer to follow Cornelius Jones. He took up land a short distance north of the subsequent location of the meeting house, and either he or Capt. Nathaniel Corbet built the old stone house. We find him a highway sur- veyor in 1785.
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Little is known of Henry Wilson outside of the fact that he was a deacon in the early days. In January 1786 the town allowed him £2-0-8 " for services which he has done for the Town in the course of seven years past." He held various offices including chairman of the selectmen from 1792 to 1794 and of the school com- mittee.
It is difficult to state who was the first physician in Rowe. Dr. I. Ward Clary was an early settler and he is mentioned in March 1786 in the description of the road east of the meeting house. He had children born in Rowe in 1785 and 1789. He was elected town clerk in 1788. Dr. Heaton is mentioned in March 1787 as living a short distance north of the meeting house. Dr. Pardon Haynes was elected hogrief in 1790. Can it be that this region supported three doctors? Mrs. Archi- bald Thomas antedated them all, if the brewing of herbs is considered the work of a medical practitioner. As a testimony to her skill, she lived to be 106. Her neighbor Judah Goodspeed, who dwelt south of Adams Mountain, lived so long (to the age of 101), that he was wont to say, " God has forgotten me."
Pardon Haynes was the town physician for many years, namely from about 1790 to 1832. In the seating of the meeting house in 1820 he was rated second only to Rev. Preserved Smith. The town in 1825 allowed only a part of his bill of $81.87 " for doctoring " vari- ous families in the town and he was obliged to enter suit in order to collect the whole. He was born in New London, Conn. in 1762 and when 15, came with his father to Hoosac. He studied medicine with a brother; and after a short practice in Hebron, N. Y. he came to Rowe where he built up a large practice. His travel- ling was mostly by horseback and in winter occasion- ally on snow-shoes ; and many tales are told of his nar-
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row escapes when fording the Deerfield or the like. Under commissions from Governors John Hancock and Samuel Adams he commanded the military com- pany and had the best-disciplined company in Gen. Mattoon's regiment. We must not confuse old Doctor Haynes with his son Pardon Haynes who was a practi- cal joker. The son lived on the Canedy farm on the County Road (be careful of using this term loosely for more than one road was thus called in the old records). Often preferring to work than to attend church, the younger Haynes one Sunday perceived his neighbor Josiah Carpenter approaching on his way to the sanctuary. Being in the potato patch, he had no time to dodge behind the house, but sought a hiding place in a hogshead. Now his brother Anson Haynes who was known to be a little " queer," took in the situation and quietly came up and set the hogshead rolling down hill. The sequel may be left to the reader's imagina- tion. Pardon Haynes liked to play jokes on the other fellow. It seems that Abijah Burnap was elected to the school committee which was an agreeable job, all except travelling to obtain new teachers, for he had no team. He was heard to complain on this score and thought that some of his neighbors might lend him a horse. One morning he found a horse of wood near his door with tail and mane made of small spruce trees. Grandma Grundy says that it was the work of " that Pardon Haynes."
Dr. Humphrey Gould came to Rowe as successor to Dr. Haynes, whose daughter he married. He also lived on the farm now owned by Edward Wright and his daughter, the latter married. The old inhabitants remember Dr. Gould as " a fine courtly man, well edu- cated, a good neighbor," and a constant attendant at church. He was absent-minded and of course this led
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to many ludicrous mistakes. He was usually the first one to bring out his sleigh, after the first fall of snow. The writer's grandmother was born in Monroe in 1833 and Dr. Gould assisted on that occasion. Amzi Lang- don one day came for the doctor in great haste and said that the well-sweep had fallen on his wife and knocked her sensible! Dr. Gould died in 1874 at the ripe age of 77.
The Langdons cannot be passed by without mention- ing Gideon Langdon, a name which strikes the ear as most euphonious. All that is left of his homestead is a cellar-hole with the remains of a once massive chim- ney. His was the next house north of Preserved Smith's on the old Readsboro road. The late Joseph A. Sibley, one-time blacksmith and a good friend of. the writer, used to point out the abandoned farms along this once populous road; and pointing to this one said, " When a boy I often used to toast my shins in front of Mrs. Langdon's fire." One Monday morn- ing Gideon Langdon and his wife drove to church " all dressed up in their Sunday best," and did not dis- cover their mistake until they saw the usual week-day activities around the store.
Deacon John Thomas, the grandson of Deacon Arch- ibald Thomas, was born in Rowe in 1774 and lived to the good old age of 86. It is said that he did not attend school until he was fourteen, so that he had to study hard to make up and ever after took an interest in local education. He taught the north school when there were many scholars, was captain in the militia, selectman and town clerk, superintendent of schools, and what he probably desired to be remembered chiefly for, was superintendent of the Sabbath School in the Church. His old two-story house still stands in the north part of the town on the Potter-Porter cross road,
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defying the winter winds in its exposed position. A later tenant once remarked, " Yes, it is a real sightly spot."
Before giving our attention to the later worthies, it might be of interest to touch upon the early lay-out of the town. Cornelius Jones held on to what is now known as the Wells-Ford farm, a half-mile east of the meeting house, and his mowing lots were perhaps the nearest to level land of any in town. Gideon and Shadrach Chapin took land east of him. William and John Tay- lor located north of them and Matthew Barr to the northeast bordering on " No. 9 " in Heath. Artemas Ward settled to the southward of the centre and he became the first miller. Abijah, Levi, Jedediah and Jonathan also settled in the neighborhood of Factory Village. Deacon Jonas Gleason settled west of the centre and Aaron Gleason to the east of the Chapins towards the Green and Walker Grant. Later, in 1794, Deacon Gleason built the house since occupied by David Henry and George Stanford. John Adams set- tled on the southwestern slope of Adams Mountain. An old story has it that nearer the top and on the northeast slope is springy land which sends up a mist before stormy weather, and neighbors would say, " Old John is putting on his night-cap, a storm is brewing." John Adams died in 1813 at the age of 93. Dr. Clary lived between Jones and the meeting house. Reuben Clark lived on the Sanford-Legate-Newell place this side of the top of the hill leading down to Mon- roe Bridge, but soon moved down onto the Zoar road. Obed Foote is said to have built the first two-story house in town near Cornelius Jones. He sold his farm to Samuel Wells in 1791 when he left town. The Cor- bets lived a short distance north of the meeting house, in the old stone house. For some years the town devel-
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oped more rapidly to the east and north of the centre.
John Henry Haynes was born in Rowe in 1849, the son of John W. and Emily Taylor Haynes. He grew up on his father's farm, attending the district school, and entered Drury Academy in North Adams in 1868 where he graduated in 1872. He then entered Williams College and took his degree in 1876. Thereafter he served as principal of the Williamstown High School for four years. After a brief period in South Hadley Falls, he took charge of an exploratory expedition to Crete; but owing to Turkish opposition, was forced to remain in Constantinople, where he acted as tutor in Robert College. Later he taught in a small College in Syria. In 1888 he became business manager of the first and second archeological expeditions under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania. He was United States Consul at Bagdad from 1888 to 1892; but that for which he is best remembered is his director- ship of the Nippur expeditions from 1893 to 1895 and from 1899 to 1900. He returned to North Adams where he lived quietly until his death, June 29, 1910. Many scientific men paid tributes to this well-known archeologist, and contributed to the cost of his monu- ment which is a replica of the black obelisk of Shal- maneser who lived in Babylonia in 850 B. C.
Another graduate of Williams College was John Wells. Born on the old Wells farm in Rowe which once was the Cornelius Jones homestead, he attended the centre school and later took his bachelor's degree at Williams College in 1838, when he delivered the val- edictory address. After a short period of teaching, he studied law in the Greenfield office of his uncle Daniel Wells and at the Harvard Law School. He then practised law in Chicopee with George M. Stearns and with Judge A. L. Soule in Springfield. He represented
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Chicopee in the Legislature in 1849, 1851 and 1857. When the probate and insolvency judgeships were united the following year, John Wells was appointed to the position. He attended the Chicago Convention which nominated Lincoln in 1860 as an alternate dele- gate, and in 1864 he was a Presidential elector. The next year he was returned to the Legislature, but the following year was defeated as a result of his cour- ageous stand on the question of volunteer bounties. His ambition, however, was achieved by his selection in 1866 for the State Supreme Court, a choice which pleased the entire bar of western Massachusetts.
As a judge he was just and considerate although perhaps not brilliant. To quote an associate, - " His opinions contain few dicta, which as has often hap- pened to many showy judges, . . . will have here- after to be denied, qualified or explained." Judge Wells was one of the founders of the Chicopee Unitar- ian Church, for many years superintendent of the Sun- day School and leader in the choir. He was president of the old Cabot bank, treasurer of the Cabot and West Springfield bridge, president of the American Unitar- ian and of the Williams College Alumni associations.
The Amidons came to Rowe from Readsboro. Their first house lot was southeast of the town pound and on the crest of the knoll, and the cellar-hole is still to be seen. A pretty jingle goes like this, - Amidon Roger, Amidon Joseph, Amidon Daniel D., Amidon Harry, Amidon Elbert, Amidon Edmund E. The latter, known to all as Uncle Ed, injured his leg during logging oper- ations so he kept the store from 1852. He had previ- ously worked in the saw-mill, and in 1849 turned out wooden bowls which were forwarded to James Ford in California for the purpose of " washing " gold.
Jim Zeland was an " itinerant cobbler " going from
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house to house with his kit of tools and probably car- rying a few lasts in a leather apron slung over his back. We can picture the barefoot boy standing on the kitchen floor or on a paper having the shape of his foot outlined with charcoal. The cobbler measured the long slender foot of Mrs. Amidon three times, then held up the string and said, "Ah-mazing! "
The tailoress followed the cobbler, with goose, buck- ram and shears, cutting and making the garments of homespun. Prudy Fellows is remembered as one who " went around sewing," and an earlier tailoress was Jemima Middleditch who lived " over west." She re- ceived an offer of marriage from a widower with sev- eral children; and in her indecision as to the wisdom of accepting, she sought outside advice. She was told that if she refused, she would probably regret it, and if she accepted the result would be similar; so she chose the latter course with the conclusion that if re- grets were inevitable, it were better to have help in bearing them.
Lucinda Bullard was born in Rowe, March 17, 1835 in the picturesque old stone house which was an object of interest for many years after the family moved away from it to another farm and it gradually fell to ruins. It was built entirely of field stone and dates from the latter part of the eighteenth century at which time such a structure was rare indeed. Her girlhood was spent in Rowe and she had only the advantages of a district school education, but she was a natural stu- dent and was always studying as long as she lived. She taught herself Latin and Botany after she reached middle life, and was especially keen in mathematics. As was the custom of the bright village girls, she taught school while still very young and was very suc- cessful. At nineteen, she was married in the stone
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house to Stephen J. Ballou (grandson of Nathan the pioneer) of Monroe and went there for a time to live with his parents. Later, they moved to Eastern Mas- sachusetts where her husband engaged in various busi- ness enterprises. He was never a robust man and died at the age of forty-six. To him, and to their three children, she was a devoted wife and mother. After his death, she took up the study of medicine and be- came a successful homeopathic physician until ill health came upon her and she passed away at the age of fifty-four. She had great strength of character, an active and fearless mind, and a tender and loving heart. Her life held many disappointments and much sorrow, but she rose above all and was always brave, strong, and hopeful. Besides the closer relationships, she was a devoted daughter to her husband's parents in their old age, and the true and valued friend of her patients. In the days when it took courage to stand for temperance principles she was one of their staunch- est supporters, and never allowed self-interest to silence her voice or mar her influence. She had much musical talent and was for years the leading singer in Concord where she lived, though she never had the time or money to cultivate her voice as she longed to do. A splendid type of strong, intelligent, conscien- tious woman - Rowe may well be proud of her as a daughter.
No history of Rowe would be complete without a sketch of the centennial celebration in 1885. Although incorporated in February 1785, the town chose to cele- brate at a more propitious season and selected August 26th. A cash appropriation of one hundred dollars was made at the March town meeting and the arrange- ments were entrusted to a committee consisting of J. Frank Brown, chairman; J. Herbert Starr, Secretary
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and Treasurer; Christopher C. Wheaton, Assistant Secretary ; Charles Demons, E. E. Amidon, Obed Peck, R. J. Smith, Reuel Bullard and David Henry. Every- body assembled at the old centre near Ford Hall and the procession headed by Chief Marshal J. F. Brown with five aids and the Colrain Band, marched to the grove on the Robert Wells farm. A large flag bearing the word " Welcome " was stretched above the road, a flag was flying from a staff at the grove, and behind the speakers' stand, in letters of evergreen, was the motto, " Love and good-will to all." Probably fifteen hundred people were here assembled.
A salute was fired at the grove at ten o'clock to announce the commencement of the exercises. After a prayer by Rev. Jacob Davis of Rowe, J. H. Starr, the President of the Day extended a hearty greeting to all, and then introduced Hon. Silas Bullard of Menasha, Wisconsin, as the historian of the day. This address. was followed by vocal music furnished by a young male quartette who were spending their vacation in Rowe, and then all adjourned for dinner. Some 250 not hav- ing lunch baskets were accommodated by a Charle- mont caterer in Ford Hall. The afternoon program included a Traditional Address by Percy F. Bicknell, a recent graduate of Williams College and son of Rowe's Unitarian minister, a poem by Mrs. Georgia A. Peck of Westfield, some brief remarks from Rev. Rus- sell A. Ballou of Boston and toasts and responses with Benjamin T. Henry acting as toast-master. Cordial greetings and old-time hospitality marked the day throughout.
The evening was given over to a ball in Ford Hall with John S. Hunt as Floor Manager, assisted by five aids, Charles A. Brown, Alfred Reed, Fred L. Tyler, Joseph A. Sibley and Ashton Reed.
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The first store was at the old center probably as early as 1790. It was kept by one Ransom and was continued by William Langdon. Later the Tuttles built a large building for mercantile purposes, a part of which today is known as Ford Hall. In this have traded Langdon & Bradley, Olds, Barrett & Hall, Reed & Chandler, and Ruel Darling. In 1832 we find S. and S. H. Reed assessed $800. on their " Store Potash and Barn," $75. on two acres of land, and $2500. on " stock in trade." Bearing in mind the greater purchasing power of the dollar in those times, that must have been a substantial amount of goods in stock. In 1836 Sam- uel Reed alone is assessed and the following year the firm becomes Reed and Drury. John Ballou was the last to keep a store there probably as late as 1863 and he died in 1888. The Atlas of 1871 shows his " mer- chant tailor " shop in "Fords Hall " at the old centre.
Cyrus Ballou about 1845 came to Rowe from Whit- ingham where he had been connected with that unsuc- cessful undertaking known as the " Farmers Inter- est." He was probably the first to keep a store at the new centre, but he soon sold out to E. E. Amidon in 1852 and took to farming, having purchased the Adams property. Benjamin T. Henry bought out Uncle Ed Amidon in 1882, and he in turn sold out to George Arthur Rice in 1917.
The question as to when the present centre of the town supplanted the old centre is an interesting one. The centre schoolhouse was moved down the hill to its present location in the fall of 1872. August 9, 1873 the town meeting was held in this centre schoolhouse and it was then " voted that the town hold no more meet- ings in any Schoolhouse." The meeting on August 22, 1873 accordingly was held in the " Union Hall in
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Factory Village in said Rowe." The Pond Road was built in 1873 and the road to Mrs. Nancy Brown's in 1874, and the road easterly from the latter point across the brook to Edward Wright's was discontinued the same year, so that the old centre became a memory of the past.
The old inhabitants remember the flood rains of Oc- tober 1869. In that year the newly-built covered bridge across the Deerfield above Zoar went out, and one Rowe schoolmistress who was teaching in Florida was obliged for several months to walk up the track nearly to the Tunnel and there be ferried across. The mill below Charles King's on the road to Zoar was swept away, together with owner Hyde and his wife, who were endeavoring to save the machinery. A spe- cial town meeting was held November 2, 1869 to borrow $1,000 to repair the roads and bridges which had been " damaged by the heavy rains."
In 1901 the Monroe bridge across the Deerfield was carried away and the present structure was built the following year. A big wind February 2, 1876 dam- aged seventeen barns and one house. John Brown- ing's house and barn were consumed by fire three weeks later.
The Silk tragedy was so recent that it is well remem- bered. Michael Silk, an old veteran of the Civil War, for many years made a living by cutting timber. He once built a log cabin near the spring at the south- western base of Adams Mountain, but in recent years he lived in a hut near Pelham Brook on the road to Zoar. Although a recluse and given to an occasional spree at North Adams, he was looked upon favorably as a hardworking wood-chopper with money laid by for a rainy day. Poor health overtook him in the last years of his life; and in February 1921, encouraged by
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the selectmen, he went to live with his brother Thomas in a lonely shack in Stephenstown, New York. Now Michael was eighty-one and his brother was seventy- five, yet within a day or two a dispute arose over some money and titles to woodlots held by Michael; and the brothers fought to a finish; first with fists and then with sticks of hickory. Michael fell and expired. Thomas the survivor was shortly taken into custody, and after due trial was sent to prison, where he has since died.
Ambrose Potter had the first public-house (near where Edward Wright now lives) as early as 1780. (Pardon Haynes, the old doctor, built the Wright house and the Frank Brown house south of it about 1800). Ezra Tuttle kept an inn at the old center about 1806 and was followed by Thomas Riddle. On the road east, the Langdons and others kept taverns. At Zoar, E. S. Hawks opened a tavern about 1812 in the ell of the Hawks-Morrison house three-quarters of a mile east of Zoar station, which he continued for over 30 years. Then there was no public-house until 1860, when H. M. Livermore opened an inn, store and post office, about where the talc mill was later located, but kept these only a few years. S. D. Negus, I. D. Hawks, J. C. Bryant, Cressy, and Miller have carried on mer- chandising at Zoar. At Hoosac Tunnel, the Hoosac Tunnel House flourished in the last of the stage coach days.
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CHAPTER XI.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.
" Make your own sugar, and send not to the Indies for it." Old Farmer's Almanack.
In this twentieth century with its ever increasing urban populations and its decline in the rural com- munities, it is difficult to realize the mad desire for land one hundred and twenty-five years ago. A typi- cal example of this is that of the Ballous* who left Richmond, New Hampshire, itself a small community, to take up land and clear the forests in that section which was then the western part of Rowe, and is now the township of Monroe. Our ancestors were tough as well as aggressive. The men could hew beams and lay stone-walls ; the women could spin and weave and bring up large families.
The rise of the tide to New England hilltops seems to have reached the full about 1830 to 1845. In 1830 the population of Rowe was 716. In the election of 1816 there were 135 ballots cast. This number had in- creased to 138 in 1832; 149 in 1840; and to 162 in 1844, the high-water mark. (See Appendix B.)
Barber's Historical Collections published in 1839 mentions four meeting houses in Rowe and places the population at 688. In 1837 there were 302 Saxony, 1630 merino, and 364 of other kinds of sheep, produc- ing wool to the value of $4,249.80
Nason's Gazeteer of 1874 mentions a chair and a basket factory but describes the chief industries as " farming and lumbering." There were then 92 farms. " The number of sheep in 1865 was 1818 which in 1872 had fallen to 412." In 1920 there were only 110 sheep
* Nathan Ballou was the author's great-great-grandfather.
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of all kinds. The town had 109 dwelling-houses, three churches and seven schoolhouses in 1872. In 1920 there were 120 dwelling-houses, two churches and five schoolhouses of which but four were in full use.
Before the advent of the railroad in 1868 and the completion of Hoosac Tunnel in 1875 communication with the outside world was difficult. The road to Bos- ton led through Charlemont and Shelburne to Deer- field, and thence by way of Montague, Shutesbury, New Salem, Petersham, Templeton, Westminster, Lancas- ter, etc., or by way of Sunderland, Amherst, Shutes- bury, New Salem, Petersham, Oakham, Rutland, Hol- den, Shrewsbury, Marlborough, etc., according to Ames' Almanac for 1765.
The " Fifth Massachusetts Turnpike " was built in 1800 through the towns of Athol, Orange, Wendell, Erving to Greenfield. The "Second Massachusetts Turnpike," or " Col. White's Turnpike Road across Hoosack Mountain " as it was written in the Rowe records, was incorporated in 1797 to build from the west line of Charlemont to the west foot of Hoosac Mountain and became the route for several of the stages from Boston to Albany. The first wagon road over Hoosac Mountain was built probably in 1793, but there must have been a wagon road from Charlemont to Deerfield many years previous. Sheldon records the selection of a committee of Deerfield citizens in 1752 " to look out and mark a Rhode to Charlemont, also to Hunt's town, and to clear the Roads of logs and bushes fit for a Riding Rhode."
Loammi Baldwin, in his time a high authority in construction engineering, advanced the idea of a canal running the length of Massachusetts and using the Millers and Deerfield Rivers. He would bore a tunnel through Hoosac Mountain at a cost of a million dol-
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lars! Various surveys were made and plans sug- gested, but the railroad era had dawned before a de- cision had been made. In 1848 a charter was asked for to build a railroad from Greenfield to Williams- town by one of two routes, one by a tunnel through Hoosac Mountain, the other following the Deerfield through Readsboro, Stamford and Clarksburg. The state was not ready, however, and granted the peti- tioners permission to build west only to Shelburne Falls.
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