USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Rowe > History of Rowe, Massachusetts, third ed > Part 9
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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 hearting 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
*J. H. Starr attended the sesqui-centennial in 1935.
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their vacation in Rowe, and then all adjourned for dinner. Some 250 not having lunch baskets were accommodated by a Charlemont caterer in Ford Hall. The afternoon program included a Traditional Address by Percy F. Bicknell, a re- cent graduate of Williams College and son of Rowe's Uni- tarian minister, a poem by Mrs. Georgia A. Peck of Westfield, some brief remarks from Rev. Russell 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.
In 1935 the Sesquicentennial was a gala occasion celebrat- ed with "Old Home Day" in August. The afternoon enter- tainment was a fine pageant of eight scenes depicting the early settlement and history of the town followed by the dedication of the new Library building. The author was Master of Ceremonies of the Day, and Mrs. Anna L. Henry delivered an address on the history of the library in Rowe and the prayer of dedication was given by Rev. George A. Tuttle, former resident.
In July 1952 the Volunteer Firemen's Association had their first annual Firemen's Field Day and Old Timers Reunion. This has been held each year since and become known as "Old Home Day" with events including a parade, band con- cert, gymkhana, buffet supper, vesper service and ending with fireworks over Pelham Lake. More recently the His- torical Society has held its Annual Meeting on this day and other organizations including the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Firemen, the Grange, the Library Trustees and the churches have all joined in helping make this an outstanding day for both residents and old timers.
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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 has been known as Ford Hall. In this have traded Langdon & Bradley, Olds, Barrett & Hall, Chandler & Reed, and Ruel Darling. A deed of conveyance dated December 1807 mentions "Solomon Reed, merchant." A memorandum listing the expenses of the estate of John Wells, dated February 1818, mentions "Chandler & Reed." 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 Samuel Reed alone is assessed and the following year the firm becomes Reed & Drury. A Justice's writ dated December 1848 mentions "the store of J. C. Drury in Rowe," and "Solomon R. and John C. Drury of Rowe late joint partners in trade, under the name of S. R. & J. C. Drury." Also in a deed of 1851, mention is made of the
store of John C. Drury. Samuel H. Reed, a native of Petersham, came to Rowe as a clerk in the store of his brother Solomon, and soon became a partner. Later they became interested in the Franklin Manufacturing Co. At the death of Solomon, the business being somewhat involved by the decline of their manufacturing interest, Samuel settled up the affairs of the firm, paying all debts in full, which re- quired nearly all his resources, and remained in business under his own name. In 1847, he was appointed Sheriff of the County and removed to Greenfield, where he held various offices including the presidency of the Franklin Fire Insur- ance Co. 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 "merchant tailor" shop in "Fords Hall"
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at the old centre .*
Cyrus Ballou about 1845 came to Rowe from Whitingham where he had been connected with that unsuccessful under- taking known as the "Farmers Interest." 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, purchasing the Adams property in January 1853. Benjamin T. Henry bought out Uncle Ed Amidon in 1882, and he in turn sold out to George Arthur Rice in 1917. He was succeeded by B. S. Tower in 1923 and later William Janovsky. The build- ing burned in 1936. 6 Charles Newell ran another general store in the thirties on the site of John Richards Blacksmith Shop which he sold to Lynton Martin who kept the business a short time until it burned in 1941. When Mrs. Augusta Bjork took over the Post Office in the old Baptist Parsonage building in 1940 she carried ice cream and gifts and later groceries when the other store burned. She was followed by her son, Wendell, who in 1954 constructed the present Village Store on the same property.
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 meetings in any schoolhouse." The meeting on August 22, 1873 accordingly was held in the "Union Hall in 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 hardly remember the flood rains of October 1869. In that year the newly-built covered bridge across the Deerfield above Zoar went out, and one Rowe *A large portion of Ford Hall fell in during the winter of 1930-31; a part was taken down during 1931; and by September 1932 it was completely demolished.
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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 machin- ery. A special 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."
The flood rains of October 1955 inflicted damage to the roads estimated at $7,500. But the big flood of 1938 des- troyed a section of the Zoar road below Steel Brook which led to State Aid and two fine new bridges over Pelham Brook and a new road on the left bank.
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 damaged seventeen barns and one house. John Browning's house and barn were consum- ed by fire three weeks later.
The Silk tragedy was recent enough for it to be remember- ed. 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 southwestern base of Adams Mountain, but in later 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, encourag- ed by 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 short-
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ly taken into custody, and after due trial was sent to prison, where he soon died.
Ambrose Potter had the first public-house (near where Henry Wright formerly lived) as early as 1780 .* (Pardon Haynes, the old doctor, built the Wright house and the Brown-Potter house south of it about 1800). Ezra Tuttle kept an inn at the old center about 1806 and was followed by Thomas Riddell .** 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 Hawkes-Morrison house three- quarters of a mile east of Zoar station, which he continued for over 30 years. The ell was demolished in 1946. 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, Albert Cressy, and George C. Miller have carried on merchandising at Zoar. At Hoosac Tunnel, the Hoosac Tunnel House flourished in the last of the stage coach days and while the tunnel was being built. Across the river in Florida until 1933 stood the Jenks & Rice Hotel, latterly used as a dwellinghouse. The writer remembers stopping there in 1894, when Land- lord Rice was proprietor.
According to Beer's Atlas of Berkshire County, printed in 1876, but prepared before the opening of the Tunnel in 1875. it was called Rice's Hotel; and close to it on the west was the Engineers' Office. About 120 rods further up the road towards East Portal was Tower's Hotel, A. D. Tower, Proprietor.
*Dr. Haynes sometimes was called Captain. Henry Wright sold his farm in 1943. Examination of his deeds indicates the Am- brose Potter house on the same lot, probably the same site. One of the rooms of the present house is of older construction and may be part of the previous structure.
** Thomas Riddell is a witness on a deed dated February 1818.
*** Midway between Zoar Station and Pelham Brook, between the highway and the railroad. The highway through Zoar formerly was nearer the river bank. where the railroad now is located.
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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 the ever increasing urban populations and the decline in the rural communities, it is difficult to realize the mad desire* for land one hundred and fifty years ago. A typical 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 ancesters 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 increased 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, producing 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
*William Porter (father of Veniah M. Porter) was reputed to be "land crazy," and in the words of his neighbors, tried to buy all the land that adjoined him.
** Nathan Bollou was the author's great-great-grandfather. His deed of purchase from Ebenezer Hayward is dated May 7, 1803.
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lumbering." There were then 92 farms. "The number of sheep in 1865 was 1818 which in 1872 had fallen to 412." In 1934 there were 77 sheep of all kinds, 161 cows, 93 neat cattle, 55 horses and 6 swine. In 1956 there were 55 cows, 28 heifers, 24 horses, 4 sheep and 4 goats. The town had 109 dwelling-houses, three churches and seven schoolhouses in 1872. In 1934 there were 113 dwelling-houses, two churches and five schoolhouses of which but two were in full use, the Village and the East. In 1954 there were 163 dwelling-houses, two churches and one schoolhouse.
Before the advent of the railroad in 1868, and the com- pletion of Hoosac Tunnel in 1875, communication with the outside world was difficult. The road to Boston led through Charlemont and Shelburne to Deerfield, and thence by way of Montague, Shutesbury, New Salem, Petersham, Temple- ton, Westminister, Lancaster, etc., or by way of Sunderland, Amherst, Shutesbury, New Salem, Petersham, Oakham, Rut- land, Holden, 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 com- mittee of Deerfield citizens in 1752 "to look out and mark a
*Col. Asaph White of Heath was a "man of remarkable executive and business ability," and "was connected with almost every enter- prise of a public nature in this region." (From Historical Address of John H. Thompson at Heath Centennial 1885.)
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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 construc- tion 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 dollars! Surveys were made and plans suggested, but the railroad era dawned before a decision was made. In 1848 a charter was applied for to build a railroad from Greenfield to Williamstown 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 petition- ers permission to build west only to Shelburne Falls.
Western migration had serious effect on the agricultural districts in the East. The total population of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, in 1800 was 50,000. In 1820 it amounted to 792,000 and by 1840 it had increased to 2,967,000. Western soil is much richer and New England hill-towns have found it difficult to compete. Then too, the increase in mills and factories in the valley towns has drawn from Rowe's younger generations. North Adams, Shelburne Falls, Greenfield, Deerfield, Millers Falls, Athol, Orange, Northampton and Springfield, have become the homes of Rowe's sons and daughters.
One hundred and fifty years ago, Rowe was largely self- supporting and economically independent. Here was pro- duced practically all the necessary food, wool for clothing, leather for shoes, lumber for building. Sugar was extract- ed from sugar maples. Salt and iron implements were pur- chased with the surplus produce. There was little cash and trade was a system of barter. (See Appendix C.)
As the town was far from the metropolis, modern inven- tions were slow to come into use. The cradle scythe, for instance, was invented in 1803 but it was not used in Rowe
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until some years later. Nearly every part of the work of the farm except plowing, harrowing and drawing heavy loads, was done by hand, that is with tools handled by human muscles. Small grain was sown broadcast, reaped with a cradle, and threshed with a flail. Hay was mown with a scythe (often by several mowers advancing in echelon for- mation), raked and pitched by hand. The cast-iron plow was invented in 1797 but was not in general use in this country until 1825 *. A list of farming tools in 1800 would probably include the clumsy plow with wrought-iron share, wooden mold-board, and heavy beam and handles; the wood- en rake and wooden fork; the scythe, sickle and flail. It required great strength to use these primitive tools, and one often hears the opinion expressed nowadays that our grand- fathers were stronger and tougher than men of the present generation. Yet we doubt if this would be admitted by any citizen of the present century who has hayed on a hot day in July and raced to the barn before a thunder shower, or has cut his season's supply of fire-wood and has buck-sawed it and piled it laboriously in the wood-shed. However, the
portable power saw has come into use. The building of stone-walls is a thing of the past, with barbed-wire available at relatively low prices; and some of the old walls by the roadside have been used in making the foundations for the reconstructed highways, some of which have a bituminous surface.
The first mowing machine was patented in 1831 but did not come into general use for many years .** In the Beers' Atlas of Franklin County in 1871, James M. Ford of Rowe is put down as the agent for Patent Sugar Evaporators, "Tot- man's Horse Power and Wood Mill," and "Whittemore,
*The first cast-iron plows sold in Charlemont in 1824 by William Riddell. (Gazette and Courier, May 7, 1877.)
** Cyrus Ballou is credited with having purchased the first mowing machine in Rowe about 1870, called the "Meadow King."
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Belcher and Company's Agricultural Implements." A few of Walter A. Wood's machines have come onto Rowe farms. These have been manufactured since 1851 in the neighbor- ing towns of Hoosick Falls, N. Y. Western products includ- ing such makes as Adriance, Deering and McCormick, are also well known.
In the Atlas of 1871, E. E. Amidon is described as a "Deal- er in Dry Goods, Groceries, Hardware, Crockery, Women's and Children's Boots and Shoes, Kerosene Oil and all its Fixtures, and all goods usually found in a country store." George Browning is described as a "Harness Manufacturer," David Henry is a "Manufacturer and Dealer in Lumber, Flour, Feed and Meal;" and H. A. Kendrick is a "Manufactur- er and Dealer in all kinds of Lumber, Chair Stock, Broom Handles, etc."
The railroad from Fitchburg to Greenfield (Vermont and Massachusetts R. R.) was opened in April 1849. In 1847 Rowe citizens first began to talk of a railroad up the Deer- field valley through Zoar. The Troy and Greenfield charter was granted in 1848 and the company organized the follow- ing year. The section from North Adams to the State Line, about six miles in length, was opened in 1859, and the sec- tion from the Tunnel to Greenfield in 1868. Rowe in common with her neighbors, had been asked to contribute to the expense of construction, but she declined. The Zoar station which was a scant four miles from the Rowe post office was really the port of entry and departure for the Romans (Rowe-mans), yet it was in the township of Charlemont .* Hoosac Tunnel Station, located a half mile from the Eastern Portal on the left bank of the Deerfield, is within the borders of Rowe.
*Zoar for years supported a station, a freight-house, and a telegraph- er-station-agent combined. All are gone. All buildings were re- moved and it remained only a flag stop until the suspension of passenger service.
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Hoosac Tunnel Station is also the southern terminus of the Hoosac Tunnel and Wilmington R. R. This road was chartered in December 1886 and acquired the Massachusetts portion of the line of the Deerfield River Co., and leased the Vermont portion .* On January 1, 1892 the Deerfield River Co., and the Deerfield Valley R. R. Co. were merged. The road in general followed the Deerfield River in a north- erly direction to Wilmington, Vermont, a distance of 241/2 miles, until the construction of Whitingham Dam, complet- ed in 1925. Dec. 3, 1937 the Interstate Commerce Com- mission authorized the abandonment of 13 miles, the exten- sion from Readsboro to Wilmington. The part in Massa- chusetts, some eight miles, is located entirely in Rowe, and there is a station at Monroe Bridge, about three miles from the Rowe post office. The original survey called for two other stations in Rowe, one to be called Heywood's at the foot of the slope beneath Pulpit Rock, and one to be called Logans, some two miles north of Hoosac Tunnel Station; but the traffic has never warranted their establishment. The gauge was three feet prior to 1912-13 when at considerable expense it was changed to the standard measure of four feet, eight and one-half inches, thereby affording greater facility in the handling of freight at Hoosac Tunnel.
One young fellow whose father owned a farm a short dis- tance south of the present Baptist Church, desirous of at- tending a dance at the town hall and having no scruples against disobeying parental orders, walked to Zoar, rode by train to Hoosac Tunnel, thence by train to Monroe Bridge, and then walked up the hill to the Rowe town hall,-thus circumventing a distance of sixteen miles to reach his ob- jective point which was a scant half-mile from home.
Intoxicating liquors at times have sapped the vitality of Rowe's economic progress. Rum had to be drunk on all occasions even when the meetinghouse frame was raised.
*Built in 1884 by the Newton Bros. of Holyoke and Readsboro.
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Some men were repairing the roads and left a jug of rum on the wagon by the flat rock near the old centre, so that a iniscievous boy consumed a large amount with fatal results. Hard cider has found its way into more than one cellar. But liquor has not always been confined to public occasions; and it was with full recognition of this fact that William A. Hicks, having given bonds, was appointed by the selectmen in 1864 an "agent to purchase Intoxicating Liquors and to sell the same at his dwelling House in the town of Rowe to be used in the Arts or for Medicinal, Chemical and Mechani- cal Purposes and no other." He received a salary of $15 for this service.
George Bennet is named as a blacksmith in 1781. Eben- ezer Starr maintained a blacksmith shop near the southeast corner of the cross roads at the old centre, but with the flow of the tide to Factory Village or Slab City he moved his es- tablishment down the hill. Peter and Philo Sibley and the latter's son Joseph later conducted such a thriving business that there were three forges necessary; and it was nothing exceptional to shoe in one day 16 horses and eight, ten and even twelve yokes of oxen, besides turning the shoes and nails. Farmers drove in from Florida, Monroe, Readsboro, Whitingham and Heath. The last regular blacksmith, John Richards, left town in 1910. Charles Newell in 1922 re- opened the shop for part time work and built an adjoining store for retail merchandising.
Today, accumulated wealth usually comprises investment securities (stocks and bonds), or rented real estate. One hundred and twenty-five years ago both these forms of in- vestment were rare; and the average young man when start- ing out in life, looked forward to the time when he could claim title to a large farm, consisting not alone of buildings and cattle, but of tilled acres. It was a comparatively sim- ple matter to put up a house and barn, but it required years of effort to clear land and cultivate the soil. Witness the
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assessed valuation in 1835 of the Adams farm, one of the best in Rowe.
1 house 315 acres of land
$ 250 2000
$2250
492
2 oxen $60-24 cows $432 105 20 sheep $40-1 horse $65 4 swine $16 16
$ 2863
The land here is valued at nearly three-quarters of the total. This, then, is the key to the early economic situation, the answer to the question as to why our ancesters moved up to these rocky hills to take up large tracts of land.
In the northern part of the town was the Gideon Langdon farm on the ancient (now deserted) road to Readsboro, which in 1835 was assessed as follows- 1 house-2 barns $ 275
150 acres of land 1550
$1825
2 oxen $70-10 cows $180
$250
5 - 2 yr. olds $45-5 yearlings $25
70
10 sheep $20-2 swine $10
30
2 horses $100-1 colt $35
135
$ 485
$2310
Gideon Langdon died in 1860 aged 81.
A considerable amount of timber has been cut on the Rowe hills and the statement has been heard that there is more money in allowing pasture land to grow up to pine trees. A Massachusetts farmer some years ago sold to a man operat- ing a portable saw-mill some white pine which cut a million board feet. Instead of receiving $7000 which would have been a fair price (at $7 per thousand at that time) he accept- ed $1,200. In the future it is well to remember that advice can always be obtained from the State Forester at Boston.
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