History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. II, Part 45

Author: L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts
Number of Pages: 896

USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. II > Part 45

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IION. JOHN H. SANDERSON

was born in Petersham, Worcester Co., Mass., on the 10th of July, 1814. IFis paternal grandparents were Jonathan Sand- erson (born Sept. 6, 1740) and Molly Curtis, his wife (born March 13, 1748). JJonathan was a Revolutionary soldier. llis maternal grandfather was Dr. Joshua Morton, who re- moved from Hatfield, Mass., to Athol, and was one of the early settlers of that town.

John Sanderson, Sr., was the eldest of six children, and was born May 21, 1769. He married Lydia Morton, and had two sons, the elder of whom is the subject of this biography; the younger died in boyhood. John Sanderson, Sr., was a man of sterling integrity and great financial ability. He started in life comparatively poor, and during his comparatively short life amassed what was considered quite a property in his time. He acquired this principally in working at the tanner's trade, which he learned from a colored man in his employ, and after- ward in farming. He was among the first to join in the temperance reform and to give up the custom of supplying the men in his employ with intoxicating drinks. lle was killed in his own barn by a pair of oxen on the 25th of July, 1831.

Thus, at the early age of seventeen, the subject of this notice was called upon to take charge of a somewhat extensive busi- ness (his mother having been appointed administratrix of the estate), and in addition the care of his grandparents, then living at a very advanced age, both feeble and infirm. After their decease he removed with his mother to Bernardston, and

for several years resided in the family of Col. Aretas Ferry. In October, 1840, he married Mary Osgood, daughter of Elihu Osgood, of Wendell, Mass., and finally settled in Bernardston. His homestead consists of a valuable piece of meadow-land in the very centre of the village (which was reclaimed by him from an almost worthless swamp and brought to a high state of cultivation), a fine house-lot, and substantial buildings, his barn being perhaps the first in that vicinity built with an underground cellar and a slate roof. These, with large pas- tures, woodlands, etc., in other parts of the town, constitute one of the largest, most valuable, and finest estates in that section. This being especially a grass-farm. he has devoted his attention to stock-raising, and in addition to this he has a farm in Barre, Mass., of about four hundred acres, also well adapted to grazing, etc. As a product of his farm he raised in 1862, and sold to Bryan Lawrence, of New York City, the great ox " Constitution," pronounced the handsomest, as his dressed weight showed that he was the largest, ox ever slaughtered in America. His live weight, upon shipment from Bernardston, was three thousand eight hundred and sixty pounds. Mr. Lawrence at first intended to give the beef to the needy families of absent volunteers from New York City, but, as it brought a very high price, he used the proceeds therefrom, with which he purchased over twelve thousand pounds of meat. The animal's skin was stuffed and placed in a building in Central Park.

Mr. Sanderson has never held any regular town office, though often solicited to do so; but he has been constantly connected with many public interests of the town, and has aided pecuniarily and otherwise almost all valuable enter- prises therein. He has contributed liberally to the support of Powers Institute, and has been especially instrumental in obtaining for it good teachers. At one time, in order to se- cure the services of Prof. L. F. Ward, one 'of the earliest, ablest, and best known of its teachers, he paid a bonus of three hundred dollars over and above what the trustees had been able to offer.

He has been closely identified with the First Congrega- tional (Unitarian) Society, though not a member of the church, having been parish clerk and treasurer for twenty years or more, and has been known as one anxious to obtain and keep good, sound preachers of the gospel. In addition to this he was one of the committee appointed to build the church edifice for the Baptist Society, of which his mother and wife were members, and here, as elsewhere, he gave unosten- tatiously, but with a liberal hand, besides taking upon him- self much pecuniary risk in building the same. The present Sanderson Hall, over Cushman's Library, was built by him fully as much in the interests of the town as in his own, they baving the privilege at any time to buy it at cost. In public enterprise and in charitable interests he has always been among the first to be called upon to contribute, and although he al- ways exercises good judgment in giving he has seldom failed to respond in a substantial and liberal manner. Mr. Sander- son was president of Powers Institute from the deccase of Gov. Cushman, the first president, until 1877, a period of nearly ten years, and has been a member of the board of trustees of that institution from its beginning; is trustee of the Cushman Library, and was appointed one of the executors of the will of the late Henry W. Cushman. He is president of the Bernardston Cemetery Association, and has held the same office in the Farmers' Club for many years.

Mr. Sanderson was Senator from Franklin County during the important period of 1861. Ile is honorary trustee and life-member of the Franklin County Agricultural Society, and life-member of the Worcester West Agricultural Society. He was formerly trustee in the Franklin Institute for Savings, but upon the organization of the Greenfield Savings-Bank he became president of the latter, and has since that time been annually chosen to fill that office. lle is also a director

John glandersen

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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY.

of the Franklin County National Bank. It can be said with- out exaggeration that the interests with which he has been connected are almost numberless, and that, like the " tree whose branches are shaken by the storms of many winters," he has taken deep root in the confidence and affection of the commu- nity. Of the nine children born to him only seven are living at present (February, 1879). They were John, Horatio (now one of the Warner Manufacturing Company, of Greenfield), La Valette O. (died Oct. 14, 1874), Lucien Morton (died Feb. 19, 1857), Henry Hunt (a farmer residing in Bernardston), Mary Osgood (wife of A. J. Woods, late of Bath, N. Il., now of Bernardston), Ellery Herbert (member of the firm of Walker & Sanderson, of Northfield), Maria Cushman, at home, Lydia, wife of Charles W. Scott, of Dummerston, Vt., and Lucien, clerk in the employ of II. A. Turner & Co., of Boston.

HION. HENRY W. CUSHMAN,

the only child of llon. Polycarpus L. Cushman and Sally Wyles Cushman, born in Bernardston, Aug. 9, 1805, was in his day, and for many years, one of the most active, in- fluential, and useful citizens of Bernardston, and no citizen of the town was more widely known or more highly respected.

He was a lineal descendant of Robert Cushman,-the first of the name who came to this country, and who was " one of the most active promoters of the migration from Holland, in 1620, of the Pilgrims of the ' Mayflower,'"-as follows : Robert Cushman, Elder Thomas Cushman, Rev. Isaac Cushman, Lieut. Isaac Cushman, Capt. Nathaniel Cushman, Dr. Poly- carpus Cushman, Hon. Polycarpus Cushman, and Henry Wyles Cushman.

He received his early education in the common schools, and in the well-known academies of Deerfield and New Salem. At the age of eighteen he entered the military academy of Capt. Alden Partridge, at Norwich, Vt., where he pursued his studies for two years. From this institution, in 1827, he received the honorary degree of Master of Arts.

After leaving the military academy, he for some years labored on his father's farm in the summers and taught school in the winters. Then, for a short time, he had charge of a public-house in Bernardston, which, under his eare, was noted for perfection of management ; then, and to the close of his life, he devoted himself to political and publie trusts, to the care of his own means and of the means of others, to literary and antiquarian researches, to a round of recurring duties, public and private, which he discharged with unfailing pre- cision, honesty, and judgment. The mention of a portion of the offices and trusts which he filled will best indicate the amount and variety of his labors. He was for nineteen years the clerk and treasurer of his town, and for fifteen years a member of its school committee. In 1837, 1839, 1840, and 1844 he represented his town in the State Legislature. In 1844 he was chosen by the Legislature to fill a vacancy in the Sen- ate eaused by the death of IIon. William Whitaker. Here, by a singular coincidence, he sat side by side with his father, Hon. P. L. Cushman, of opposite politics, who had been elected to the Senate for that term by the votes of the people of Frank- lin County. In 1847, and for five years thereafter, he was the Democratic candidate for lientenant-governor; and in 1851- 52, there having been no choice by the people, he was elected by the Legislature to that office. In 1853 he represented his town as a delegate to the convention held for the purpose of revising the State constitution. His legislative record is that of an industrious and judicious legislator. He was a director of the State Life Assurance Company, at Worcester, and of the Conway Fire Insurance Company, and a member of the State .

Board of Agriculture, which he actively aided in founding in 1852. He was a trustee of the New Salem and Deerfield Academies, a resident member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and a corresponding member of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. He became, in 1849, the first president of the Franklin County Bank, located at Greenfield, and so continued by annual re-elections till his death. He was for many years a trustee of the Franklin Savings Institution, and president of it when he died. Ile was also for many years president of the Franklin County Agricultural Society, and held that position when he died. He held for many years the position of a trustee of the State Reform School at Westboro'. He gave much of his time and attention to the Powers Institute, an institution of education situated in his own town, and also to the Common School Association of Franklin County. In his own religious de- nomination his views were well defined, and his labors inces- sunt. For many years he was superintendent of the Sabbath- school of his religious society. Ile was a life member of the American Unitarian Association and of the American Bible Society. He was much resorted to for the settlement and management of estates, and as an arbiter in controversies be- tween men; and all that he undertook to do was sure to be faithfully and exactly performed.

In 1834, Mr. Cushman published in the Franklin Mercury, a newspaper printed in Greenfield, an historical sketch of Ber- nardston, carefully prepared and constituting the foundation of a more elaborate work, which he had nearly completed at the time of his death. He prepared and delivered several able and instructive lectures, among them a lecture on " The Shays Insurrection," which combined and preserved many interesting local details. He prepared and published, in 1855, in a volume of 650 pages, embodying a vast amount of labor, a genealogy of the Cushman family, from 1617 to 1855, a work remarkable for accuracy and thoroughness. In 1855 and 1858 he was active in promoting, and presided at, the great gather- ings, at Plymouth, Mass., of members of the Cushman family, who then assembled from all parts of the United States to do honor to the ancestry whose virtues had rendered the name illustrious.

In August, 1863, one of the most cherished plans of his life took shape in the completion and dedication of a public library, now well known as the " Cushman Library, " which he had endowed and presented to the town of Bernardston, under conditions and limitations which make it practically certain that all the people, without distinction of seet or posi- tion, will, for generations to come, enjoy the benefits of his wise beneficence.

In his domestic relations Mr. Cushman was fortunate and happy. In 1828, June 16th, he married Miss Maria Louisa Dickman, daughter of Thomas Diekman, Esq., whose tomb- stone bears the record that he was " the first printer, the first bookseller, and the first postmaster of Greenfield." This lady died Oct. 11, 1855. In 1858, June 2d, he married Miss Anne Williams Fettyplace, daughter of the late Thomas Fettyplace, Esq., of Salem, who is (in 1879) still living. lle left no chil- dren. Ile died in Bernardston, Nov. 21, 1863, after a severe illness of some weeks' duration, and was followed to the grave by the regrets of the community in which his life had been passed, and on which he had exerted an influence equally con- spicuous and beneficial. In his will, prepared by himself not long before his death, leaving the bulk of his large estate to public uses, is embodied the prevailing idea to which the labors and economies of his life were mainly directed, -- that, in the region where he and so many successive generations of his ancestors had lived, the name of Cushman " should be identi- fied from generation to generation, and from age to age, with education, and with the moral and industrial progress of the people." " And his works do follow him. "

BUCKLAND.

GEOGRAPHICAL.

This town occupies an interior position west of the centre of the county, and lies south and west of Deerfield River, which separates it from Charlemont and Shelburne. On the southeast is the town of Conway, south is Ashfield, and west are the towns of Hawley and that part of Charlemont lying south of the Deerfield River.

As incorporated April 14, 1779, it embraced a part of Charle- mont and the unsurveyed territory lying between that town and AAshfield, known as " No Town." The area is small, and the surface is broken by many hills, rising to a height which renders them untillable. The most prominent are Moonshine, in the southeast, Putnam, near the centre, and Johnson's Hill, in the northeastern part, all terminating in well-defined peaks. West of the centre of the town is a range of hills of great elevation extending nearly across the town. These modify the course of the principal stream, Clesson's Brook, which, flowing from Hawley castward, is bent to the southern line of the town, and then flows northward to the Deerfield River, through a small but fertile valley. In this valley, and along the Deerfield, are the principal settlements. Other streams are the First, Seeond, Third, and Clark's Brooks, all draining into the Deerfield River. Agriculture is at present the chief pursuit of the people.

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

The better parts of the present town were originally com- prised in small grants, whose bounds were extremely vague. In that part belonging to Charlemont were the Taylor grants and several public lots, one of the latter being at Shelburne Falls. South of the Taylor grant, along Clesson's Brook, was a tract of 400 aeres belonging to parties in Hatfield, the southern line of which was described as Ashfield; and in the southwestern part of the town Col. Jonathan Ward, of South Boro', had received a grant of 100 acres, located almost in the form of a square. On this the first settlement was made, about 1769, by Capt. Nahum Ward, of Upton. He was a relative of General Artemas Ward, and had served in the French-and-Indian war when a minor. Hle loeated east of the present residenee of G. K. Ward, who is a descendant of the same family. Here was born, Jan. 24, 1770, the first child, which was named Jonathan Ward. Another child, Anna Ward, was born here in 1773. About 1771, Capt. Ward moved to Charlemont, and seven years later returned to Upton, where he died.

About the same time Gershom Ward settled on the western part of the Ward grant, and died in that part of the town in 1806. It is said that one of his children died soon after his settlement, and this was probably the first death in the town.

About 1773, John Ward brought his family from Upton and settled on the place now owned by Arnold Smith, where he died in 1805. Ile had sons named Luke, Jeremiah, and Josiah. The first removed to the West in 1800; the others remained.

Daniel Ward, a brother of the above, eame at a later period, and settled on Clesson's Brook, on the present E. M. Smith farm. ITis sons, living in Buckland, were John and Alexan- der. From this family came the Rev. Windsor Ward, a Methodist clergyman of distinction.

In 1789, Kerly Ward, a nephew of Capt. Nahum Ward, the first settler, came from Upton, with his family,-consisting of Hannah, John, Graham, Jonathan, Jesse, Samuel, Catherine, and Jane,-and settled on the Ward grant. Much of this became the property of Jonathan, and is now owned by his son, Graham K. Ward.

In 1783, Edward Forbes settled near the east end of what is now known as High Street, on the farm at present owned by his grandson, Caleb E. Forbes, and which has never been out of the family. Edward Forbes had three children,-a daughter, named Sarah; Edward, who became a famous teacher in Boston, and was known as Master Forbes; and William, who remained on the homestead.

Other early settlers in this part of the town were Elisha Smith, Amos Wood, Joseph Shepard, Seth Knowles, and Jasper Taylor.

At the centre Samuel Taylor was an early settler, and in his day one of the most prominent men in town. He was a son of Capt. Othniel Taylor, of Charlemont; was born in Deerfield in September, 1744; and died at Buckland in 1837. llis wife ( Esther White) died in 1830. They reared a large family. The oldest daughter, Mary, married the Rev. Jona- than Grout, of Hawley. One of their sons, Samuel, lived to be more than ninety years old, and another, Henry, about eighty. One of the latter's sons, Lawrence, is still a resident of town, nearly all the rest of the onee numerous Taylor family having removed or died.

Lemuel Taylor, born in 1749, married Abigail White, and settled in the northern part of the town, on the present Deacon Purrington place. lle was a brother of Samuel, and the second son of Capt. Taylor, and was also prominent in early town affairs. He had sons named Lemuel, Othniel, and Eras- tus, none of whom remained in town. Lemuel Taylor died July 26, 1834.

A third son of Capt. Taylor, Enos, lived in Buekland, on the Eber Stratton place. He was born in Charlemont in 1751, and died at his home in 1831. His wife was Eunice Longley, of lawley, and they had sons named Asa, Enos, Joseph, and Josephus, and two daughters.

William Taylor, a brother of the foregoing, was born in 1758, lived in Buckland, on the R. N. Allen place, and died in 1826. lle had sons named Orrin and Hart, and five daughters.

John Taylor, of another family, was an early settler on the the tract owned by A. S. Warfield. His tather, Rev. James Taylor, visited him in 1785, and while assisting in clearing a piece of ground was killed by a falling limb. This is said to have been the first death of an adult in town. John Taylor soon after removed to New York.

In 1772, Gardner Wilder, of Worcester County, purchased 200 acres of land, south of the Taylor grant, on C'lesson's Brook, and some years after came to live with his two sons and two daughters. One of his sons, Nathaniel, moved to New York ; the other, Gardner, remained on the homestead, which is now occupied by his son, Charles. His brother, Gardner, lives near the centre of the town. Wilder was ac- companied from Leominster by Elias and Elisha Carter. The former lived until his death on the Samuel Wood place, and Elisha on a farm near the village. Both were active citizens.

West of the village were Samuel, James, Benjamin, Nathan,

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IHISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY.

and Jonathan Bracket,-early settlers and participants in the Revolutionary struggle.

In the northern part of the town, cast of the Clesson Brook, Josiah Johnson, who married Martha, the daughter of Capt. Othniel Taylor, settled after 1774. He had a family of four- teen children, and his son, Josiah, had sixteen. Near by lived Othniel Johnson, a brother of the former, with a family of thirteen, children. Farther eastward were Elijah Thayer and his son Elijah and Capt. Zebulon White, a mariner,-all early settlers. The latter was killed near his home by a fall- ing tree. Daniel Woodward also lived in this locality ; and near the Falls were Nathaniel and Gershom Coleman and Ste- phen Allix, pioneers in that part of the town.

Daniel Trowbridge came from Deerfield to Buckland about 1783, and settled on the place now occupied by his son, Deacon Silas, who was born there, in 1799. Another son, Rufus, died in town, at the age of eighty-seven.

At the " Pine Mill-, " Benjamin Ellis was an early settler, and later lived here Capt. Levi White, the father of seven sons, the youngest of whom, Bushnell, became a noted lawyer in Ohio. In the northern part of the town were also Solo- mon Ilastings and Daniel Townsley, the latter having sons named Dan, Newell, Abner, Enoch, and Gad, some of whom bocame largely identified with the interests of the town. In the northwest part Benjamin and Joseph Ballard are re- ported among the first settlers, and descendants of the latter still remain.

In the neighborhood of the village lived Nathan Batchelor, with whom was John Porter, as an adopted son; and abont 1785, Elias Griswold, of Litchfield, Conn., with his sons Elias, Simeon, Whiting, Horace, and Joseph, came to this locality. The latter reared a large family, and some of the sons became men of note in the county. Among his neighbors were the Brooks families, Alpheus having sixteen children, and Jabez a less number, whose worth is well remembered. Southeast, on the hill which yet bears his name, settled Wm. Putnam, the father of Elisha, William, Abner, and Daniel Putnam. The latter married a sister of Mary Lyon, and also lived in this neighborhood.

Beyond the hill, and not far from the Ashfield line, settled Nathan and Aaron Lyon, some time about 1780. They were farmers of small means, but bore excellent characters, and were much esteemed for their integrity. The latter died here in 1802. He was the father of that noble Christian woman, Mary Lyon, who was born on this bleak mountain farm Feb. 28, 1797, the fifth of seven children, one of whom was a son, who moved to New York in 1819. The life and character of Mary Lyon, better known as the founder of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, are elsewhere portrayed in this book, but the honor of having given birth to one of the purest and most worthy women of the State must ever belong to Buckland. The old Lyon place has been altogether abandoned, hardly anything of the original surroundings remaining except a few apple-trees and the okl stone fence, near where the little brown house stood.

Down the slope of the hill, and in the " Four Corners" neighborhood, lived Peter Butler, a Revolutionary pensioner, Enos Pomeroy, Chandler Burgin, Jonathan Whiting, Jacob Spafford, Thomas Oreutt, Seth Wyman, and Samuel Perkins, -all early settlers. There were also in town at that period (1784) Eli Butler, Isaac Alden, John Blackmer, six families bearing the name of Cook, Abel Cross, Josiah Drake, Jesse Edson, and the Jones, Me Nitt, Sprague, Savage, Ware, Wood, and Veber families, all living east of Clesson Brook. In 1790 the population was 718, and rapidly increased during the fol- lowing years. It is now nearly treble that number.

CIVIL GOVERNMENT.

The entire records of the town from its organization, in 1779, to July 22, 1876,-a period of alnost one hundred years,

-were destroyed by fire at the last-mentioned date ; and the possibility of giving a civil list and much other matter of interest pertaining to roads, schools, etc., is, therefore, pre- cluded. It is said that Samuel Taylor held the office of town clerk from 1779-1820, and that the subsequent clerks were John Porter, Ames Shepard, Ezra Ilowes, William Sherwin, Ebenezer Maynard, Josiah W. Griswold, Samuel L. Bardwell, Samuel Tobey, and, since 1868, R. L. Packard.

The selectinen since 1876 have been J. W. Griswoldl, A. W. Ward, E. D. Bement, and, in 1878, S. W. MeKnight, William B. Caswell, and Zophar Woodward.

Lemuel Tryon and Samuel Taylor were among the carly justices, and the latter was also one of the first representatives to the General Court.

The basement of the Congregational Church at the centre is used for a town-hall ; and there is a poor-farm of 70 acres, half a mile west of this place, which is the property of the town, and on which from ten to fifteen persons are supported an- nually. The entire amount expended for this purpose in 1878 was $1830.47, which gave full support to 13 persons, partial to 22, and relieved 180 vagrants.

The town has a debt of $15,000, and in 1878 appropriated $5000 to defray its expenses, $1600 for schools, and $1000 for highways. Most of the roads are in good condition, and the streams are well bridged. The town owns half of the bridge at Scott's, which was first built in 1830, and also of the one at Shelburne Falls, first built in 1822, both spanning the Deer- field River. At the latter place is a fine iron structure, erec- ted after the freshet in 1809, and improved three years later.

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History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. II, Part 45

Author: L.H. Everts & Co Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts Number of Pages: 896

Author: L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia : Louis H. Everts
Number of Pages: 896