USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Mount Washington > History of Taconic and Mount Washington, Berkshire County, Massachusetts : its location, scenery and history, from 1692 to 1892 > Part 2
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The tract conveyed by this deed included the whole of the towns of Sheffield, Great Barrington, Mount Washington
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and Egremont, and the greater part of Alford, etc. The Indians reserved within this tract a strip about five-eighths of a mile wide extending from the Housatonic river to the line of the state of New York, or the foot of the mountain, the north boundary of which was the present divisional line be- tween Sheffield and Great Barrington and extended west.
THE NEW YORK BOUNDARY.
The first step towards the establishment of the boundary line between New England and New York was in 1664 or 1665, by royal commissioners, which was finally placed at a general distance of 20 miles east of "Hudson's" river, but was not finally surveyed and marked until as late as 1731, when the distance was measured upon the surface of the ground with an allowance of 12 rods per mile added to bring it to an approximate horizontal measurement from the Hudson river to the old south-west corner of Massachusetts, a little south- west of the railroad station at Boston Corners, which was marked by a heap of stones which has ever since formed n important reference point in many subsequent surveys.
In pursuance of an agreement between the provinces, Connecticut ceded to New York, at the same time, a strip along her western border known as "the oblong," the width of which was "one mile, three-quarters of a mile, twenty-one rod, and five links," which established the actual north-west corner of Connecticut that distance farther to the eastward.
In 1730 and 1732 committees were appointed by the gen- eral court of Massachusetts in reference to the establishment of the boundary, but nothing whatever had been done on the part of New York.
In 1739 Governor Belcher of Massachusetts wrote to Lieutenant-Governor Clark of New York that he had for nine years been urging the New York government to take some action in respect to the boundary, and that "if after so many applications from this Government to that of New York, for an Amicable Adjustment of the Boundaries betwixt them, they will not be persuaded to do what is so reasonable, and to preserve Peace and good Neighborhood, your people must be answerable, if any Inconveniences issue upon this Govern- ment's Right to." Upon the receipt of this communication, Lieutenant-governor Clark wrote to the Lords of Trade, ask- ing for instructions from the king, and suggesting that a royal order be obtained forbidding any further surveys and settlements to be made upon the frontier by the New England people. The Lords replied in substance that Massachusetts
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had acted too hastily in the affair, and that they had directed the governor of that province to arrange the controversy amicably. And there the matter rested.
In 1740 the Massachusetts General Court again appoint- ed boundary commissioners, but when its action was laid by the governor of New York before his council, that body ex- pressed the opinion that "as the soil of this province belongs to His Majesty. His Honor cannot grant any power to the commissioners of this province to make any agreements the commissioner shall enter into conclusive, until the same shall first have received His Majesty's approbation."
From this time no official action seems to have been taken for several years by either government.
Nearly fifty years previous to this, some few straggling pioneers had found their way into Mount Washington. The burning of charcoal and mining for ore along the western base of the mountain for a blast furnace, forge and foundry erected at Ancram about this time by Philip Livingston, largely increased their number. A part of the town. although embraced within the original chartered limits of the Living- ston Manor, had never been alienated by its original owners, and was more than twenty miles east of the Hudson river, but the settlers who were located upon it were none the less claimed by Robert Livingston to be tenants, and were re- quired to pay him an annual rental for the occupancy of their farms. These people chafed under the exactions of their and the continual taunts of their eastern neighbors, who, holding their lands in fee under the "Boston government," regarded them with unconcealed con- tempt as little better than slaves and vassals of the lords of the manors. These borderers, for the most part rude, igno- rant and lawless. yet by no means lacking in personal inde- pendence and courage, were allured by promises that in case they would join in the proposed movement to establish the authority of Massachusetts over the disputed territory, they need pay no more rent to their feudal landlords, but that the absolute titles to the farms which they severally occupied would be confirmed to them on the payment once for all of a rominal sum to the proprietary. This some of the bolder spirits among them at once undertook to follow, among them George Robinson, a resident of Sky Farm, and Josiah Loomis, on the farm containing the little cemetery east of the west road, a recent emigrant from Connecticut, and Michael Hallenbeck, a tenant of thirty years standing, upon which Robert Livingston. Jr .. commenced proceedings in ejectment
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against Hallenbeck and Loomis, who occupied neighboring farms.
"This was the renewal of a dispute between the Housa- tonic proprietors and New York claimants, which occured between 1725 and 1740, over the state boundary, which was intensified this time by the presence of conditions which did not exist elsewhere. It involved not only conflict of different nationalities, but of antagonistic political institutions. To look upon this contention merely as a trial of conclusions be- tween the English and Dutch settlers and their respective descendants would be to underestimate its true significance, for it involved something far more important than this; it was nothing less than a death-struggle between the free land ten- ants and independent town organizations of the Massachu- setts colony, and the antiquated and feudal system under which the adjacent territories of the province of New York were held and governed. From beginning to end these pe- culiar political and social conditions exercised a potent influ- ence upon the character of the proceedings, and confer upon the subject a degree of historical interest and importance which under other circumstances it might not have possessed."
The following from the unpublished Massachusetts ar- chives and the published Livingston papers in the documen- tary history of New York. give an idea of these contests :
FIRST PETITION OF THE INHABITANTS, 1751. Wm. Bull's Petition .- Mass. Archives, Vol. 6, Page 32.
To his Honor Spencer Phipps, Esq., Lieutenant-Gover- nor and Commander in Chief in and over His Majesty's Province of Massachusetts Bay, and to the Hon'ble his majesty's council of the hon'ble House of Representatives in General Court assembled :
The petition of William Bull in behalf of himself and forty-four other Persons whose names are hereto annexed, humbly showeth
There is a tract of Land lying west of Sheffield within this Province which Robert Livingston, Jun., Esq., is En- deavoring to Engross and annex to his manor. and many Families are already Settled thereon, by his Encouragement. About twenty of the Persons in the annexed List are actually Settled there; but very uneasy at present heavy Rents they are obliged to pay to sd Livingston and never like to have the Gospel among them so long as they are Tenants to him and being Sensible that the Lands are Eastward of the ut-
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most extent of his Patent and within the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, are very desirous of the Protection of sd Government to Do duties or receive Privileges there; the sd Lands are capable of receiving about forty-five inhabitants and in time may make a small parish. At the instance of the sd Persons Settled on sd Land your Petitioner and others in the annexed List have been induced to seek to this Govern- ment to Assert their Right to sd Lands; and if your Honor. will be pleased to make a grant of it to the sd Persons they are willing to do such duties as you shall Enjoin them to per- form. The bounds of the Land are as follows. To begin at the Top of the first great mountain west of Sheffield in Line between this Province and Connecticut, from thence running west in sd Line five mile and three-quarters to the East Line of sd Man'r, thence northerly as the line of sd Man'r
Runs, about eight mile, to the South
End
of an
Hill called Virdribiek Berg. Thence East four mile and an
lialf, thence Southerly to the first Bounds. Your Petitioners would represent the reason for extending North and South. so far is because the most of the Land is Extremely moun- tainous and not habitable; and that part of it capable of set- tlement runs Northerly and Southerly within the mountains as will appear by the Plan herewith presented and as in Duty Bound shall ever pray.
(List of Petitioners.)
Samuel Bellows
Thomas Loomis
*Christopher Brazee
*Joseph Orcutt David Owen
+William Bull
*Andrew Race
*Jeremiah Butler
*John Race
*Jonathan Darby Cornelius Decker
*George Robinson Barnard Schivenerhoorn
Jacob Decker
Jacob Schivenerhoorn
Jared Decker
John Schivenerhoorn
John Decker
Uriah Schivenerhoorn
*Philip Fraa John Gay
Jonah Smith
John Gay, Jr.
*Nicholaus Spoor
*John Hallenbeeck
*Richard Spoor Gideon Towsley
*John Hallenbeeck, Jr.
*Matthew Hallenbeeck
Samuel Towsley
+William Bull was a young physician of Sheffield, who died May 19, 1758, aged 28 years, 5 months and 16 days, and is buried in the old cemetery east of Main street at the lower part of the village. His son, Dr. William Bull, Jr., built the house some two miles below Sheffield village now owned by Miss Dailey, a descendant.
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Samuel Brown
Henry Smith
*Michael Hallenbeeck, Jr. Elias Tucker
*Robert Hallenbeeck William Turner
*William Hallenbeeck
** James Van Dusen
*William Hallenbeeck, Jr.
*William Webb
*Zepheniah Harvey Addam Weeber
*Josiah Loomis Wynant Weeber
In response to the foregoing petition are the following reports :
(Mass. Archives, Vol. 116, Page 36.) Pursuant to the Order of the Hon'ble House of Representatives of Oct. II, 1751, I have viewed the Lands mentioned in the Petition of William Bull and Others and conferred with the inhabitants living on sd Lands, who are chiefly Dutchmen, who inform me that they were encouraged to Settle sd Land many years since by Mr. Livingston, to whome they have paid great rents from year to year, but he never gave a lease to any one of them but refuses to do it; they further informe me that upon examination they find that they are not Settled within sd Livingston's Patent, therefore divers of them the Last year have refused to pay him any rent and that he declares that he will send them all to Gaol very soon if they do not pay their Rents, they appear very solicitous to be taken under the protection of this government, as to the quality of the Lands some of them appear very good they lie on a small river or brook which heads in Taucaunuck mountain Runs northerly and southerly some miles the most valuable lands are in possession of about twenty families more than half of the Lands mentioned in sd petition are upon the Great Taucon- nuck mountain which is very high and impassible many miles together the other iands except what are under improvement as above sd are chiefly white oak Rock oak Hills Some of them pretty good other of them mean and poor.
Ov Partridge.
(Mass. Archives, Vol. 46, Page 307.) No. Houses No. Acres No. Acres Yrs in Yrs cul- Orch- No. bbls fenced improved posses- tivate by ards Syder
sion
any form
Andrew Brasee
I
70
50
30
50
I IO
Cornels Brasee
I
50
30
IO
22
Js Eliot
I
2
I
2
2
Henry Brasee
I
60
IO
15
60
I 3
Francis Brasee
I
20
15
4
4
Note :- Most of those marked thus (*) were residents of the town in 1751, and some for many years previous, as shown by the following report of Joseph Dwight, Col. Bradford and Capt. Liver- more.
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* Jeremiah Butler *Jonathan Darby I
5
I
I
I
8
7
2
2
*Jacob Decker, 2d I
I
I
I
I
Christopher Brasee I
60
20
15
60 I
2
*Philip Fraa
I 60
60
IO
IO
Js Gillet 15
7
2
2
Simon Doby-Lives with Gillet
*John Hallenbeeck . I 70 60
17
60 I
8
*Wm. Hallenbeeck, Jr .- Son to John
>Math'w Hallenbeeck I 5
I
I
I 30 I
6
*Jno Hallenbeeck, jr. *Robert Hallenbeeck
Sons to Michael.
*Wm. Hallenbeeck .. I 20
15 2
2
*Zeph Harvey I
5
4
2
2
Ambrose Hunt I
6
3
I
I
Jacob Loomis I
*Josiah Loomis I 30
20
3 cleared 9 9
Josiah Loomis, jr .- Son to Josiah ,sr, 3 acres under improve-
Louissy Newell
2
** Jo Orcutt
Trees girded
* Andrew Race I
70
4 60
16
26 I young
Andrew Race. 2d I
30 15
3
3
Comel Race I possessor with Eph
Eph Race I
60
40
16
50 I 2
*John Race-Son to Andrew
Wm. Race I
I
I I5 15
Wm. Race, jr. I
30
16
IO IO
*George Robinson 2 Dwelling houses pulled down.
. . Adam Shaver, holds under David Inger- sol
I 30
15
4
28
I
4
*Henry Smith
IO
3
I
I
*Jonas Smith I
70
50
27
27
I
8
Abrah'm Spoor I
40
30
18
60
I
*Rich'd Spoor I
40
30
18
60
I
3 3
*Nicholaus Spoor-Son to Richard.
*James VanDusen .. I Robert Van Dusen . 2
20
18
4
4
*Wm. Weeb Kyleon Wenard I
6
5
I
I I
I
I
I
-
-
'l'otal, 44 names 32
966
772
12
49
"N. B .- Those marked thus (*) are petitioners."
22
.
*Michael Hallenbeeck I 70
60
18
I
I
I
-
[ment
1
True state of ye lands contained within ye limits of Wm. Bull's petition.
Capt. Livermore
1752 Col. Bradford Com.
Joseph Dwight
The number of years in this report of 1732 that these per- sons give of their occupancy and of the total years their lands had been under cultivation, by them or their predecessors, indicates a much earlier settlement of Mount Washington than any other portion of Berkshire county. Among them Christopher and Henry Brazee, John Hallenbeeck and son, and Abraham and Richard Spoor testify that their farms had been cultivated for 60 years previous to 1752, or as early as 1692. Christopher and Henry Brazee probably occupied a part of O. C. Whitbeck's farm. John Hallenbeeck lived about Soo yards from Michael. The Documentary History of New York and other testimony says Michael's farm adjoined Jo- siah Loomis', who sold to Benjamin Osborn in 1762, who soon after built the house still standing a short distance south-east of the little cemetery. This farm is a part of the large farm which the Massachusetts commissioners laid out in 1752 and said by them to "encompass the dwellings of Michael Hallenbeeck and Josiah Loomis." and is shown on the map by the shaded lines. Abraham and Richard Spoor were probably brothers of Capt John, who had a grant of 400 acres on Egremont Plain in 1731, and Dirk, who had a grant on the Under Mountain road in Sheffield of 600 acres, which included the Berkshire Hills School and other lands.
The report of the state commissioner shows Abraham and Richard to have farms precisely alike and to have occu- pied them the same length of time, viz: 18 years, or as early as 1734, fully as early as Capt. John and Dirk in Egremont and Sheffield. They apparently succeeded to their father's farm, while their brothers took up new sites. Both Richard and his son, Nicholas, are petitioners in William Bull's pe- tition. and it would therefore appear that they must have lived somewhere in this town, probably on or near the farm of A. I. Spurr, descendant of Dirk. The old road across the mountain to Dirk Spoor's grant in Sheffield started near said Spurr's, probably being their earliest way of communication. Abraham and Richard Spoor probably removed to Copake soon after the Indian purchase, for Abraham, who died Oct. 23, 1757, and his wife, Garke, May 3, 1777, aged 63, are bur- ied in the cemetery back of the church at Copake.
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From this time active steps were taken by the state in accordance with the petitions of the settlers to sell those un- incorporated lands. A committee, in June, 1753, reports as follows upon lands not of the original west line of the two Housatonic townships, not including Mount Washington, sold and unsold :
Lands between Lower Sheff'd and ye Foot of Tauconnock, 9760 acres
Do. between Upper Sheff'd and ye foot of af'rd 4550 acres
14,310 acres
Country Grants within The above Tract. acres
viz: Major Williams, 500
Widow Owen (Patience) 100 Part of John Shepard's
Thos Ingersole, Esq'r 130
Maj'r Williams 200
Elias Vanschaack 400
Chandler & Kellogg 200
Sam'l Winchell I20
Jabez Omstead 200
Col. Timo. Dwight 200
Capt. Spoor
600 Freer Wilson & Wilcox
Col. John Alden 250
R. Treat & Sons 300
3200 3200
II,IIO Lands possessed within the above tract by intruders, 1,618
Unoccupied, 9.482
Mass. Archives, Vol. 46, Page 262.
Following which, June 19, 1753, Jacob Wendell, Esq., trom the committee appointed to consider the committee's report respecting the Western Lands, gave in the following report, viz :
"The committee appointed to take under consideration the report of a committee sent by this court to view the Province Lands west of Sheffield, &c, and also what it may be proper to do respecting the western boundary of this Province, &c, beg leave to report
That considerable improvements have been made upon the Province Lands lying west of Sheffield and Stockbridge without any grant or liberty from this Government. The
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committee therefore are of opinion that a committee be ap- pointed by this court to repair to said lands with full power to dispose of the same to the person or persons who have made or caused such improvements, in such quantities as they shall judge reasonable, for such sums of money as the land may be judged to be worth, without having respect to the improvements made upon them, and take bonds with sufficient sureties for the payment of the monies into the Province Treasury within two years; and in case any of the said per- sons refuse to purchase the same or give bond as aforesaid, that then the committee be impowered to dispose of the same to such other persons as shall appear to purchase said lands; who are also impowered in behalf of the Government to de- liver possession of the lands to the persons respectively that shall appear to purchase the same; and said committee to be further empowered to dispose of the Province Lands lying west of said township, which are not taken up by any person to such as shall appear to purchase the same, they giving bond to said committee as aforesaid for the sums they shall value the lands at, and that all the lands lying west of Shef- field be annexed to said town to do duties and receive priv- ileges there; and those lands lying west to said town of Stockbridge to do duties and receive privileges there, all of which is humbly submitted.
Jacob Wendell, per order. In the House of Representatives : Read and voted unanimous- ly that this report be accepted, and that a committee be appointed by this court for the purposes herein mention- ed."
This was the act by which the Under Mountain lands were annexed to Sheffield, and Mount Washington also, until its separate incorporation in 1779, a period of 25 years, during which its town history is a part of Sheffield's.
In the following from the third volume Documentary History of New York, page 727, we find:
"Humbly Showeth
That his late Majesty King James the Second, by his Letters Patent under the Great Seal of this Province of New York, bearing date the twentieth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand, six hundred and eighty-six, did grant and confirm unto Robert Livingston, your Petitioner's grand- father. deceased, All that Tract of Land called by the naine of the manor of Livingston, lying in the County of Albany, in the province aforesaid. about which he was at great
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-++
charge, Trouble and expense in purchasing the same from the Native Indians before he could obtain the said Grant, and particularly that part thereof which is contiguous and adjoin- ing to the colony of the Massachusetts Bay, called and known Ly the name of Tackanack.
"That the said Robert Livingston, by virtue of the said Letters Patent, was during his lifetime and at the time of his death seized of the said Tract of Land without any dis- turbance or molestation under pretence of Title of or by any person or persons whatsoever, and that on his decease the same descended (except some part thereof otherwise con- veyed or devised) to his Son. Philip Livingston, your Pe- titioner's late Father, as his eldest Son and heir-at-Law.
"That the said Philip Livingston so therefore being seized, did also die in the peaceable possession of the prem- ises. upon whose decease the same descended to your Petitioner as his eldest Son and heir-at-Law.
"That the said Tract of Land was always held and es- teemed to lye within this Province, and that accordingly your Petitioners, and his said Ancestors, have constantly paid the Quit rent for the same into his Majesty's Receivers General of this Province, and also have been at great charge and ex- pense to encourage the settlement and improvement of the said Manor, the Tenants whereof as well as your petitioner and his said Ancestors have always readily paid their pro- portionable part of the Taxes and other rates for supporting the Government. as they deemed and esteemed themselves to be within the same, and under the protection thereof. And that your Petitioner so being seized of the same as aforesaid, did peaceably possess the same, until some time in December last, since which he hath met with frequent Dis- turbance by people of the Massachusetts Colony surveying part of the said Tract of Land under pretence of its lying within the said Colony, and stirring up several of your Petitioner's Tenants, disuading them from holding the same under him, and promising them Grants and Patents under the said Colony of the Massachusetts Bay for farms held by demise from your Petitioner.
"That accordingly your Petitioner hath been informed and doth verily believe, that sundry of his said Tenants to- gether with some persons of the County of Dutchess, have petitioned the General Court at Boston for Grants and Pat- ents for the same.
"That you Petitioner hath been obliged, in order to quiet the disturbances occasioned by the said pretence of Title, and
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to assert his right to the same lands, to commence one action of Trespass, and another action of Ejection, in both of which the Defendants have compromised the matter by taking new leases from your Petitioner, and giving surety for the pay- ment of the Costs, but that his having recourse to the usual process at law is so far from being likely to put a stop to the said Disturbances, that he did lately receive a Letter signed Ol'r Partridge in the words following, to Witt: ‘March 24th, 1752. Sir, in consequence of an order of a Committee of the General Court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, to lay out Equievalents in the Province land, I have begun on the East side of Takinnich Barrich, and laid out a large Farm which encompasses the dwellings of Michael Halen- beeck and Josiah Loomis, and you may depend on it the Province will assert their right to said lands. I have heard you have sued the one, and threatened the other, which pos- sibly may not turn out to your advantage. I should have gladly seen you and talk'd of the affair with Calmness and in a friendly manner, which I hope to have an opportunity to do, in the mean time I am, Sir, your very humble servant, Ol'r Partridge,' as by the said Letter superscribed and di- rected to your Petitioner may appear.
"And your Petitioner doth further show unto your Excel- luncy that the said land said to be laid out by the said Part- ridge in the above recited letter, is part of the said Tract of land by the said recited Letters Patent granted, and the said Michael Halenbeeck and Josiah Loomis are Tenants of your Petitioners, &c.
And your Petitioners shall ever pray, &c.
Robert Livingston, Jr. New York, Apr. 16, 1752."
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PICNIC AT WHITBECK GROVE IN 1876
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