History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Vol. II, Part 5

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 5

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Among the names of worthy, prominent, and successful physicians who have been citizens of Franklin County, men- tioned by Dr. Stephen W. Williams in his medical biog- raphies, are Dr. Mattoon, of Northfield; Dr. Pomeroy, of Warwick; Dr. Ebenezer Barnard and Dr. Elihu Ashley, of Deerfield ; Dr. Ebenezer Childs, of Shelburne; Dr. Stephen Bates, of Charlemont ; Dr. Porter, of Wendell; Dr. Moses Hayden and Dr. Samuel Ware, of Conway; Dr. Ross, of Coleraine; Dr. Ilarwood, of Whately; and Dr. Brooks, of Orange.

Of a few of these we have been able to procure sufficient information for brief notices, and regret that we cannot speak understandingly of all.

DR. ROSWELL FIELD .- In connection with the wonderful fossil foot-prints of the Connecticut Valley, the name of Ros- well Field deserves honorable mention.

lle comes of the Northfield stock, and was born in that historie town in 1804. For the past forty-five years his res- idence has been in the vicinity of Turner's Falls; and for thirty-six years he has lived on the place now owned by him, a little over a mile from the Falls, in the town of Gill, and not far from the place where fossil foot-marks were first dis- covered about 1835, in the shaly strata of the sand-rock forma- tion underlying the valley from near the north line of Massa- chusetts to Long Island Sound. By common consent Mr. Field has received the honorary title of doctor, though he never studied medicine, and makes no profession of anything beyond what belongs to every respectable citizen. He believes that the first investigations and description of the foot-prints of the valley were by Dr. James Deane, an eminent physician of Greenfield, now deceased, though this honor is accredited to others. Dr. Field's investigations began about 1842, and his practical and continuous connection with this interesting subject has been carried into extreme old age, with an in- terest that has never diminished, and a zeal and intelligence rarely surpassed. He claims (very modestly, however)-and no doubt justly-to have been the first to advance the theory that the foot-prints were those of quadrupeds or reptiles. Up to the year 1845 it was generally supposed that they were mostly those of various species of bipeds now extinet, and the elder Professor Hitchcock classified and described many varieties.

The first printed paper taking the ground that they were the tracks of quadrupeds or reptiles was written by Dr. Fiekl, and read at a meeting of the " American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science," held in Springfield, Mass., in August, 1859, and published in the record of its proceedings.

This theory, though at first received with almost univer- sal unbelief, has at length come to be generally accepted. The late Professor Louis Agassiz was among the first to accept the theory and reasoning of Dr. Field ; and it is interesting to watch the quiet twinkle in the eye of the veteran archeolo- gist as he relates his first interview with that eminent scientist.

Many distinguished men have been visitors at the Field farm, where several quarries have been opened ; among whom may be mentioned the names of Professors Hitchcock, father

MANSION HOUSE

ERTORBES

MANSION HOUSE , GREENFIELD,

G.T.C. HOLDEN , PROPRIETOR

577

HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY.

and son, Agassiz, Marsh, Redfield, Dana, Huxley, Warren, and many others, " names known to fame," who have come from near and far to examine one of the most noted localities for geological study to be found in the world.

Dr. Field relates how Professor Iluxley, when first shown

the foot-prints, called for a piece of chalk, and rapidly sketched the saurian who might have made them. Dr. Field is an honorary member of the American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science, and corresponding member of various other scientific bodies.

HISTORY OF THE TOWNS OF FRANKLIN COUNTY.

GREENFIELD .*

GEOGRAPHICAL.

GREENFIELD, the shire-town of Franklin County, is situ- ated west of the Connecticut River. It is bounded on the north by Bernardston and Leyden, on the west by Shelburne, on the south by Deerfield, and on the east by the Connecticut River and Gill. It contains about 173 square miles and 11,325 acres.

NATURAL FEATURES.

The Green River, a branch of the Deerfield, flows through the west part, from north to south. The broad interval on each side of the river is the most fertile portion of the town, and is well adapted to agricultural purposes. A little stream called Fall River flows through the northeast part of the town into the Connecticut River, opposite Turner's Falls. These streams receive several brooks that flow into them, so that the town is well watered. The surface is moderately level except along the eastern border, where a ridge of trap-rock extends parallel to the Connecticut River, and from a few rods to a mile distant from it, rising quite abruptly at some points to a height of 200 feet above the plain on the west side, sloping off more gradually to the river on the east. This ridge is called " Rocky Mountain." The highest point, about a mile north- east of the village, is known as " Poet's Seat," and commands a beautiful view in all directions. Looking toward the west, the visitor sees the village of Greenfield lying quite near, em- bowered in trees, the valley of the Green River, with its fer- tile fields, and beyond them the picturesque Shelburne Hills ; to the north, the Leyden and Bernardston Hills ; to the south he sees the famous broad Deerfield meadows, with the crooked stream of the Deerfield River gliding in and out among the hills and trees ; farther along, the quiet village of old Deer- field, with its classic spire peering above the forest of elms and maples for which the town is justly celebrated. Turning now to the east, one sees near at hand, though several hundred feet below him, the broad stream of the Connecticut dashing over the rocks and forming beautiful cascades. Beyond the river is the little village of Montague City, a monument of dis- appointed hopes and ambitions. Farther to the north is the new and thriving village of Turner's Falls. Over the roofs of its factories is had a distant view of " Mount Grace," and farther on Monadnock rears its hoary head. To the south- east is the village of Montague, and beyond it Mount Toby or Mettawampe looms up proudly, and the course of the Connecticut is traced to Mount Tom and the Holyoke range. There is no view in the region, on the whole, so commanding and beautiful and so easy of access as the one from " Poet's Seat." A carriage-road is opened to it, and it is the daily

resort in summer of young and old, seeking exercise and pleasure.

The soil, especially near the streams, is quite fertile, but in the northern part of the town it is light and gravelly. It con- tains 344 acres of unimprovable land, chiefly on Rocky Moun- tains, while 5389 acres are unimproved,-that is, lying idle or in pasturing. There are 1981 acres of woodland and 3529 acres under erops. The people are largely engaged in agricul- tural pursuits. It appears from the census of 1875 that the yearly product of butter for sale was 48,739 pounds; for home use, 10,386 pounds; total, 59,119 pounds. The yearly product of milk is 62,618 gallons; of tobacco, 98,047 pounds, of the value of $19,000 .;

Manufacturing is carried on only to a limited extent. There are forty-six manufacturing establishments in town, represent- ing a capital of $354,800, producing goods to the value yearly of $308,634. The leading manufactures are of carpenters' planes and plow-irons, with a capital of 877,800; value of goods made yearly, $25,000. Children's carriages, with a capi- tal of $16,000, and an annual value of goods made of $28,000. Hardware trimmings for children's carriages, capital $62,500; goods made yearly, $47,145.

EARLY HISTORY.

The history of Greenfield up to 1753 is identified with that of the mother-town of Deerfield, whose troublesome and way- ward child she was. In 1673 a new grant of land was made to Deerfield by the General Court, so that the original 8000 acres should make a township seven miles square. In 1665, Maj. Pynchon, of Springfield, had heen employed to survey the land and fix the boundaries, and in 1672 the present boundary-line was established between Deerfield and the Green River district, as it was then called. The condition of this additional grant then was, "provided that an able orthodox minister be settled among them within three years, and that a farm of 250 acres be laid out for the country's use." This grant includes the towns of Greenfield, Gill, and a part of Shelburne. The act of 1673 provides that William Allis and others be appointed " to lay out the farm, admit inhabi- tants, grant land, and order the prudential affairs till they shall be in a capacity of meet persons among themselves to manage their own affairs."

The first record of any land granted to any person within the present limits of Greenfield is in 1686,-of a " tract of 20 acres to Mr. Nathaniel Brooks, at Green River." IIe was probably the first settler. Tradition fixes his dwelling on the west side of the road to Cheapeside, north of Furn Ilall. The

+ Sce General Chapter XXIII.

* By Rev. J. F. Moors.

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HISTORY OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.

well now existing there is supposed to be the first one dug in this town. In the same year-1686-grants were made of 20 acres each to John and Edward Allyn, and to Joseph and Robert Goddard, on condition of their paying taxes. It is not known that these grants were ever taken.

In 1687 the land on the west end of Main Street was taken up. Beginning on the south side, the first lot was taken by Ebenezer Wells. The house now standing on that lot, and known as the Coombs house, is the oldest dwelling-house in the village, and is still often called by the name of its builder and former owner,-the " Wells house." The lot re- mained for several generations in the family of the original proprietor. The second lot east was taken by David Iloyt, of Deerfield, who did not become a resident; the third and fourth lots by William Brooks, of whom I can learn nothing; the fifth by Edward Allyn. His lot came up to " Arms' Cor- ner." His house probably stood where Mr. Hollister now lives. He died December, 1756, aged sixty-nine, and was buried in the old cemetery near Mr. Osterhout's house. The stone that marks his grave is the oldest I find in this, the oldest burial-place in town.

On the north side of Main Street, the first lot-that on which Maj. Keith now lives-was taken by Samuel Smead. The next is called on the old records the " Mill lot." Why so ealled is not known. Then come Josiah and Robert Goddard's lots. They did not become residents. Then John Severance, whose descendants have held the place till quite recently. Then the lots of Jeremiah Hall and John Allen. The eastern boundary of these lots 1 do not know.

In May, 1723, at a meeting of the proprietors in Deerfield, it was voted "to lay out to the proprietors a tract of land lying upon ' Green River,' bounded north upon the ' Country Farms,' west by the ridge of hills west of Green River, the first lot to begin at the north end of said plat." The proprietors drew lots for their land, and Judah Wright, of Deerfield, drew the first lot.

It is a mystery what became of the farm of 250 acres that was set apart for the country's use. It was diverted from this purpose at an early period, and nothing but the name has been preserved.

It would take too long to tell how the land on both sides of Green River was distributed, but it can all be found in the county register's office, copied from the proprietors' book by the hand of Dr. Charles Williams, lately deceased, of Deer- field.

In 1743 a petition was presented, by those living in what was known as the " Green River district," to be set off as a sepa- rate town, and it was voted in town-meeting in Deerfield, November 15th, to grant the request. But for some reason' nothing was done about it till ten years later, when a com- mittee of three disinterested persons was appointed to deter- mine where the dividing line should be, where the meeting- house should be placed, and various other matters. This committee reported April 18, 1753, and the following warrant was issued :

" HAMPSHIRE, 88. :

"To Ens. Ebeneezer Smead, of the district of G'f'd, in the county of Hamp- shire, greeting : You are hereby required in his Majesty's name to warn all the freeholders and other inhabitants of said district qualified by law to vote the choice of district officers to meet together att the house of James Corse, in said district, on Tuesday, the 3d day of July next, att one of the clock in the after- noon, then and there, after a moderator is chosen, to choose all such officers as by law are to be chose for the managing the affair of said district, also to doo wbat shall be thoat necessary to be done in order to provide preaching in said district. Hereof fail not, and make return of this warrant att the time and place afuresaid.

"Given under my hand and seal att D'f'd, this 26th day of June, 1753, ELIJAH WILLIAMS, wbo am by law authorized to graut this warrant."

Under this order the first town-meeting was held July 3, 1753. The business transacted reveals the men and public measures of that day. Benjamin Hastings was chosen mod- erator.

" Voted that Benj. Jastings should be Town Clark ; that Ebenezer Smead, Samu'l Hinsdale, and Daniel Nash be Selectmen and Assessors; that Ebenezeer Arms should be town treasurer ; that Benjamin Hastings should be Constable ; that Na- thaniel Brooks and Shubael Atherton should be tithingmen ; that James Corse, Johnathan Smead, and Eleazer Wells be fence-viewers; that Amos Allen and Ebe- nezer Wells be surveyors of the Highways; that Aarou Denio should be dear-reaf ; that James Corse and Amos Allen should be hog-reafs ; that Joshua Wells should be sealer of weights and measures ; that Benjamin Hastings should be sealer of leather; that Themas Nims aml Gad Corse should be field-drivers; that Daniel Graves, Daniel Nash, and Aaron Denio be a committee to supply us with preach- ing for the present year."

Happy town-meeting ! Not a word about taxes, nor roads, nor schools, which so vex the spirit of the modern citizen ; and offices enough, apparently, to go round, giving each citi- zen at least one. It is not easy to see the need of a treasurer ; but if there was no treasury, there were no debts. The meet- ing was held, as were subsequent meetings, at the house of James Corse, which stood where the Leavitt House now stands, east of the Mansion House.

The town records were kept for many years in the clear, strong handwriting of Benjamin Hastings, who may well be considered one of the fathers of the town. But the records are very meagre and formal. They tell us with great scru- pulousness who were chosen hog-reeves, fence-viewers, and the like, but tell us very little of what we would like to know of the people and their way of life.

The committee appointed to fix the conditions of separation were not citizens of either town, and doubtless they tried to be fair and impartial, but their report furnished an ever- fruitful source of controversy between the two towns for more than a century. Happily, to all appearance, the controversy is ended; and certainly we, who have inherited none of the bad blood created by either party, can speak dispassionately of the subject in dispute.

The committee reported that the dividing line between the two towns should be what is known as the 8000-acre line, which is the line to this day between these towns, and that said district shall have the improvement of one-half of the sequestered lands of Deerfield lying north of Deerfield River.

The report also fixed the place for the meeting-house at a place called Trap Plaîn, on a spot in the public highway op- posite the honse now occupied by Lemuel A. Long. This report, as I have said, gave rise to great controversy, espe- cially that portion of it relating to the sequestered land,-i.e., some land set apart for the use of the ministry, and lying just west of Green River and south of the lowest Green River bridge, in Cheapside.

This report was accepted by the town of Deerfield in De- cember, 1753, and in that year the town of Greenfield was in- corporated, but the wording of the act of incorporation was evidently not so carefully watched by the Greenfield people as hy those of Deerfield. It does not appear on the town rec- ords till ten years later, and then it appears that the act of incorporation does not agree with the conditions recommended in the report of the committee. The committee had reported that Greenfield should have the improvement of one-half of the sequestered lands. In the act of incorporation it reads, that " Greenfield shall have the improvement of one-half of the sequestered lands until there shall be another district or parish made out of the town of Deerfield." The Greenfield people-innocent souls1-thought that if a third district or parish were to be made out of Deerfield, each one would have a third part of the income of the seqnestered land.

In 1767, Conway was set off, and then, instead of dividing the income of this land into three parts, Deerfield claimed the whole. What must have been the astonishment of our wise and virtuous fathers when they saw their good mother, whom they were expected to revere, appropriating what they honestly thought was a part of their patrimony ! Who should have the crop from that 30 acres of meadow-land ? became the occasion of heated and prolonged controversy.

Greenfield sued for it in the courts, but was always defeated

579

HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY.

at the trial. The war was not always with words only; but tradition relates that when one party had mowed the grass, the other party attempted to carry it off, and rakes and pitch- forks were freely used by zealous combatants on both sides. The erop, when seeured, was to go to support the minister.

This controversy continued till 1771, when a final settle- ment was made of all the suits then pending, by the town of Greenfield paying to Deerfield £40 for all trespasses committed on the town land by any of the inhabitants of Greenfield, from the beginning of the year 1768 till the 4th day of De- cember, 1770; but this not to affect the title to said land.

The controversy did not end with the lawsuit of 1770. We find frequent notiees in the town records of committees chosen to examine and prosecute the claims of Greenfield to that land. In 1782 it was voted " to make a trial for a certain piece of land the town of Deerfield has taken, in manner as followeth : that David Smead, Esq., is chosen to act diseretionally for the town, to bring on a trial before the General Court, and make a report of his proceedings, and likewise to keep an aeeount of his expenses." But nothing came of it. The old quarrel went on. People now living reeall the fact that they received it almost as a dying legaey from their fathers not to give up that claim. Fortunately, the rivalries and animosities of those days have passed away. The people of these towns are pretty good friends now, though if a Greenfield man should speak the fatal word " Cheapside" in old Deerfield Street, he would possibly find that the old fires only smouldered, and had not gone entirely out. As for that land, the water has opened a gully in the bank near by, and the elay has washed down and eovered the soil, so that the land is not worth mueh. The Deerfield people can have it. The grapes the fox couldn't get he pronounced sour.

In 1836 an effort was made in the Legislature by persons in the interest of Greenfield to have all that part of Deerfield north of Deerfield River, ealled Cheapside, annexed to Green- field. The effort was pushed with energy and resisted with equal power. The attempt failed, with no result but to renew the old bitterness of feeling between the two towns. It was renewed in 1850 with like vigor, and with the same result. The old 8000-acre line still remains the boundary between the mother-town and her restless and rebellious child.

Our town had its birth and childhood in a period of colonial darkness and danger. It was at the time of the long, bloody French-and-Indian war. England and France were engaged in a death-struggle to seeure supremaey on this eontinent. It was just at the time that the name of Washington begins to figure in history.

Braddoek's defeat occurred in July, 1755, and two years earlier, in 1753,* the year in which our town was incorpo- rated, at the suggestion of Franklin, a Provincial Congress was held at Albany,-a remarkable gathering of the leading men of that day,-and the first steps were taken for a eonfed- eration of the colonies.

Our fathers lived and had their being in scenes of war and bloodshed. They endured all the hardships of frontier-life, knowing that a savage foe, inspired by a rival nation, hostile in race, language, and religion, was lurking in the forests about them.

INDIAN WARFARE.

Our town has not a great deal of exciting history of Indian warfare. In 1676, during King Philip's war, the soldiers under Capt. Turner, who assaulted the Indians at the Falls, came up on the west side of the Green River and erossed near what is now kuown as Nash's Mill, then turned to the east, through the forest, following an Indian trail upon the north edge of the swamp till they reached the level ground north- west of Factory village. Dismounting here, and leaving

their horses in charge of a small guard, they hastened noise- lessly down into the hollow, forded Fall River just above the upper bridge, sealed the abrupt bank on the opposite side, and then reached the summit north of where Mr. Stoughton's house now stands, just as the day was dawning.

The white soldiers were completely successful in destroying the Indian eamp. They returned to the place where they had left their horses to commence a triumphant march homeward. Just then an unaccountable panie seized upon the men, and the victory of the morning became a stampede for personal safety. The tradition is that a party of the soldiers were lost in the woods and swamps, were taken prisoners, and were burned to death.

Capt. William Turner, who commanded the English foree, was a Boston man, "a tailor by trade, but one that for his valor has left behind him an honorable memory." He had been prominent in the controversy respecting Baptism which had agitated the Massachusetts colony a few years before. He came from Dartmouth, England, "having been a regular walker in the Baptist order before he came to this country." The magistrates, with the mistaken idea that they could anni- hilate obnoxious opinions by severe measures against the holders of those opinions, proceeded in October, 1665, to disfranchise five persons who held the obnoxious doctrine of baptism by immersion; of these, Wm. Turner was one. Shortly after, we find him in prison for his heretical opinions. How long he remained in prison I am unable to learn ; but he seems to have been active in maintaining worship after the Baptist form in the spring of 1668. A publie dispute was held in the meeting-house of the First Church, in Boston, be- tween six of the ministers of that region and a company of Baptists. The dispute lasted two days, and, strange to say, came to nothing. The Baptists would not be converted to the doctrines of their opponents, who, being the stronger party, proceeded to sentence them to banishment from the colony, and declared them liable to imprisonment if they returned. The sentence of banishment is a euriosity. I give only the sub- stance : " Whereas, the eouneil did appoint a meeting of divers elders, and whereas, Thomas Gould, William Turner (and others), obstinate and turbulent Ana-Baptists, did assert their former practice before these elders, to the great grief and offense of the godly Orthodox,-to the disturbanee and de- struetion of the churches,-this council do judge it neces- sary that they be removed to some other part of this eountry, and do accordingly order said Gould, Turner, etc., to remove themselves out of this jurisdiction." Among those on whom this sentence was passed was Wm. Turner. But so strong was the remonstrance against such oppressive proceedings that the sentence was never carried into execution. This was the end of the controversy with the Baptists.

The persecuted tailor of 1668 appears again as Capt. Turner in the spring of 1676, leading 89 foot-soldiers from Marlboro' to Northampton, and is soon in command of the troops at Hadley. Bachus, in his " History of the Baptists of New England," from which I get this information, relates that " in the beginning of the war this William Turner gathered a company of volunteers, but was denied a commission and discouraged because the chief of the company were Ana- baptists. Afterward, when the war grew more general and destructive, and the country in very great distress, he was desired to accept a commission." Under date of April 25, 1676, he wrote to the council of Massachusetts as follows: " The soldiers here are in great distress for want of clothing, both woolen and linen. Some has been brought from Quabaug (Brookfield), but not an eighth of what we want. I beseech your llonors that my wife may have my wages due, to supply the wants of my family. I should be glad if some better person might be found for this employment, for my weakness of body and often infirmities will hardly suffer me to do my duty as I ought, and it would grieve me to negleet anything

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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 5

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