USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Cheshire > History of the town of Cheshire, Berkshire County, Mass. > Part 17
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The Cole Brothers entered into a partnership in the tannery business with Nathan Mason, at the Kitchen, in 1853. This was an old established business, one of the first industries of the town. During this decade Mr. Allen Brown moved the store, occupied first by Russell Brown, on the hill to Depot street, where he opened a tin store.
Hiram Brown owned a cabinet shop which was quite an industry in the village for sometime. Jessie Jenks came into the place with his family and bought a home on Main street. Frank Pettibone bought a shop on Main street carried on a wagon maker's establishment and kept a forge. Peter Trotier also was in nearly the same business in an adjoining building; they consolidated at last and went on together for a time.
Rufus Glover kept a smithy's forge at Scrabbletown for a long term of years.
Cheshire, whether fortunately or the reverse, must be a matter of opinion, has never been infested to any great degree, by lawyers. In 1854 G. E. Cole. a young man who had just completed his studies, opened a law office in a room above the store of R. C. Brown. What his success in the village might have been can hardly be told, as his stay was so short. In 1857 he anticipated the oft reiterated advice of Horace Greeley to young men, to "go west," and found a wider field of action in the, then, territory of Minnesota.
John C. Wolcott who, blessed with ability and talents far more than or- dinary, has been a character of somewhat erratic light, is the only lawyer that the town can boast. Well educated, a student by nature, heir at differ- ent times to large estates, had he lived up to the possibilities of his life he might have stood to-day where the rivers of success flow, and his name been written high on the ladder of fame. Returning from college in 1844. he fitted up the low store for his office and occupied it for some years as his den.
CHAPTER X.
FROM 1857-1867.
COUNTRY LIFE. GEORGE W. GORDON BUYS SAND BED. R. A. BURGET. BUSINESS CHANGES. STAFFORD HILL CHURCH TORN DOWN. THIRD CHURCH. TEMPERANCE CAUSE. UNIVERSALIST. METHODIST. CATHOLIC. STEAM MILLS. PUBLIC LIBRARY. NEW CEMETERY LAID OUT. BREAKING OUT OF WAR. OUR BOYS IN BLUE.
And now the farms laid out in the woods had grown to be pleasant dwel- ling places, the days and the work went on pleasantly, the progress made was strong and firm. The amphitheatre of the pastures with the circling boundaries of woods, pierced on the horizon by the creeping railroad trains came to be considered better even than before, by the farmers who at first had rebelled at the thought of having their noble meadows crossed by the iron steed, or the pastures where their herds fed cut in two by the track.
It was rather an advantage than otherwise, after all, they concluded. The long, crumbly, soft slopes of the ploughed land that could just as well stretch up to the woods, as down in the valley, were as mellow as need be.
The little home landscapes were as snug, and the rich, billowing fields with their patches of wide-leaved clover looked just as well to these farmers, indeed, they rather enjoyed sitting on the porch with their wives, when the churning was done, and the meals were over, and watch the engine going up the valley, leaving its train of smoke behind it like a long silver cloud.
These same farmers had said in the beginning that the smoke, dust and cinders would fill the springs that run by the wayside and spoil the water that they drank, that the smell of the smoke would fill the air and destroy the sweet summery odors, that the sparks would set fire to the sheds, pens and woodhouses, and so forth, but the buildings never took fire, the water trickled through the limestone just as pure, the spicy furs and lilacs were as sweet and the unmown. blossoms along the farmers' willowy, bushy, seedy back roads filled the air with their usual perfume.
Besides the market was higher for their produce, and far easier of access. The floors for the iron track had to be laid, and the water for the tanks at
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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
the station below carried from the highland springs across the intervales, and these farms were well timbered and watered. still more the generous sum paid for damages made a little nest egg for a rainy day, and smoothed up rough angles wonderfully.
In blissful ignorance of what was going to happen in the near future, little dreaming that the country was soon to be made sick with the terrible flavors and blood of war, they lived on in their quiet comfort, increasing their friendships and affections, delighting in their merry makings and careless hospitalities, enjoying their books and work and country sports.
The sympathy sometimes expressed for the lack of excitement and variety of American country life is all bosh ! As life goes on, in the prosperous country homes, be they in the village or on the farm, nothing could be more delightful. Trained to hardships in early life, the men, are perhaps, indifferent to luxury, care little for outside form and would despise city rules of etiquette, but no dread privation stalks through their halls, nor carping care sits at their board. Masters of comfortable homes, fathers of blooming girls and stalwart boys, they are content. Pleasure is found for them in driving over the shadowy green fields their gentle Alderneys and Jerseys with eyes like a gazelle, their short horned Durhams and beautifully formed Devons all of which are too good to sell.
These men were not conventional and cared not for society, but they were descendants of those who sailed in the " Mayflower that day, " and were full of self respect and simple dignity. They were true and brave, and when the issue came would take their muskets on the shoulder and enter in the rank and file of the army.
The best families of the town were of high refinement, endowed with good health and sense. The ladies were fond of dress and company in a sufficient degree to keep the village society moving. The girls were stylish and had been educated in good schools, at home or at some boarding school abroad, they gave entertainments that were attractive with music, refreshments, bright conversation and so on, thus keeping things lively for those who en- joyed social life, and those who did not, kept away, as from something that did not concern them.
So while all things seemed well with them they came down toward the year 1860. Trees were standing in the woods, but they would grow and the chopper would ent them down that they might help to build the car which soldiers should ride forth to victory or to death.
Blankets laid away in bureau drawers, when the soldiers of 1812 required them no more, waited through all the years wrapped in cedar shavings, but the day was surely coming when they would be taken ont to do service again. Bundles of linen and balls of lint, in the depths of dark chests, redolent with
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FROM 1857-1867.
lavender and bergamot, were tossed about by the careful housewife from time to time while she wondered for what she saved them. She did, and the cry would soon come up from Southern hospitals for just these things.
An old lady sat by her chimney corner fashioning warm, soft socks and mittens. "For whom are you knitting Granny Owens ?" some one asked one day. "Oh, for our boys, for John, and Joe, and Bill, they are in the meadow yonder raking hay." John and Joe and Bill had lived to elderly men and died, all past the three-score given to man. Many a day had passed since they had raked the hay in the meadow. The poor old mother, almost a hundred years old lived in a dream. To her it was very real that her boys stood by her chair on the shadowy stoop, and came up from the ten acre lot at nightfall. Therefore the pile of stockings and mittens, knit soft and warm, and long, just as "our boys " loved to have them grew, as the years were numbered, and they would be needed, surely needed for the tramp, tramp of Uncle Abraham's fifty thousand more, was soon to be echoed across a continent. In the meantime daily life went on.
On October 4th, 1858, George W. Gordon of Boston, bought of the Berk- shire Glass Company all rights of sand belonging to them, and shortly after all the land. In the same year Mr. Gordon employed R. C. Brown as his agent. Men were employed to work the bed. Sand was dug, washed and shipped to the different markets.
There was quite an extensive revival of religion among the Methodist people during the latter part of this decade. In 1858 Rev. J. B. Wood was minister at both South Adams and Cheshire. In 1860 Rev. Henry Johns was located at Cheshire. He enlisted as chaplain of the 49th, a Berkshire regiment, and at the close of the war wrote a history of their life in the camp and field. In 1862 Mr. Ransom was pastor, 1863 Rev. Mr. Taylor, 1864 Rev. Mr. Osborne, 1865 Rev. Aaron Hall, 1867 Rev. Mr. Hurd.
The church on Stafford's Hill had no thrilling events to record for many years before its demise. Through the storms of half a century it had stood upon the hill-top, builded there in 1786, rather than where it stood first by the church yard in the northern slope, because of the village around it. It had seen house after house go down, family after family remove, until its windows looked upon a bare hillside. Neglected and forsaken, it stood upon the highest point, a land mark for miles and miles around. The shutters high up in the belfry tower flapped and banged in the blasts of November, the great doors creaked and groaned, the pulpit from which the " Arduous Werden" preached, where, too, was often heard the voice of the "pleasing Covell," where the "pious Mason," plead with sinners and the popular Leland spoke to the breathless throng that packed the pews and aisles below, was dusty and cobwebbed still more, was shaky and
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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
tottering. the glory of the old church had departed. It could not be re- built by empty fields, and wind-tossed trees, so it was torn down, and just one puny tree marks its site. a little to the north of the isolated farm house.
Rev. Noah Bushnell lived at the hill, after the church was gone, upon the church farm : but as he too, grew toward old age he left it for a home at the newer village, where he died at an advanced age. The church farm was managed by Shnbal Lincoln as trustee. He rented it. looked after necessary repairs, kept the houses in comfortable order. and what surplus of money there may be is used for the support of the faith of the early owners of the soil.
The Third Cheshire church was visited in 1858 by Rev. Emerson An- drews, an evangelist. Quite a large number of conversions followed his labors, and several additions were made to the church. Later in the decade, about 1866-67, there was still another quite strong religions feeling. Union meetings were held in the churches, and much interest was manifested among the young.
Elder Fernando Bestor was seenred as pastor of the Third church in 1858. He was a devoted Christian worker, and an able man. He remained however only seven years, for in 1865 he was succeeded by the Rev. O. C. Kirkham. During this decade the parsonage at the foot of the hill was purchased. The Rev. Mr. Ballon was stationed as pastor of the Universalist church in the early part of the decade, and later Mr. Stoddard, they were both energetic, working pastors. For a short time during the stay of Mr. Stoddard, Rev. Mr. Bondrie was supplying the Methodist pulpit, and being a strong and deeply interested worker in the temperance movement, he in- terested Mr. Stoddard, and some of the influential people of the town, so that with a united, vigorons effort, they organized a real, live and effi- cient temperance society, with its Band of Hope for the children, and a meeting for older people, in which the members took a lively and abiding interest.
Mr. Warner opened in 1859, a school in the basement of the Baptist church which was well sustained and after he closed his connection with it, it was carried on by Miss Jane Martin for many successive years, and until the present system of grade schools were inaugurated, this school was an in- stitution here. Mr. Albert Wells also taught a select school on Main street.
In 1859 Dexter Angel kept the hotel at the Wolcott stand. In 1862 Nathan Angel was the landlord, and in 1864 Daniel Morey. With the exit of the last named proprietor, this time honored inn closed its public record. after this date it was occupied by the family.
The Catholics bought in 1860 the Allen Brown hall where they held ser- vices with Father Purcell of Pittsfield until 1866, then they hired the
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FROM 1857-1867.
Universalist house, as so many members of that church had died-so many moved from town, that the burden fell very heavy upon the few who were left to sustain regular service, and they decided to give up the attempt for a time and rent their house.
In 1860, on the 30th of March, Homer Jenks who had commenced busi- ness, (dry goods and groceries,) in the store built by Otis Cole on Depot street, was appointed postmaster, this office he held only one year. Mr. Peter Trotier living where Mr. Nathan Harkness now lives, opened a temperance house and received the appointment of postmaster on December 24, 1861.
In 1861 another pleasant and valuable addition was made to the town and its society in the families of Mr. John Bucklin and Mr. H. C. Bowen. Mr. Bowen going into business at the stand of E. D. Foster. The recently published Bowen memorial traces back the family to Wales, in the eleventh century, and gives their coat of arms. H. C. Bowen is descended from Griffith Bowen.
In 1862 George Martin bought of A. P. Dean his share in the steam mill and the firm of Dean & Martin was established. In 1863 G. Z. Dean en- tered the mercantile firm of J. B. Dean, the firm being known as Dean & Son.
After five years of silence, in 1862, J. N. Richmond started up the glass factory again. He, however, gave it only a short trial and sold out, March, 1864, leaving it in the proprietorship of J. B. Dean, George Martin, Daniel Burt and George Reed.
For another year it went on its way, this was its final effort, and with the end of 1865, the Union Crystal Glass Company closed its varied career and fell into oblivion.
July 23d, 1863, the Richmond Iron Company bought the furnace which had been lying idle so long, and sent R. A. Burget here as their agent. A fortunate step for the Iron Company and an especially fortunate one for the town, as it gave to Cheshire an energetic, whole souled and useful citizen. One who has ever been among the first to act in all steps leading to the im- provement and welfare of the town, ever ready to bear his share of every burden and expense.
Mr. Burget is a descendant of Coenreat Boryhghardt, who first settled in Kinderhook, N. Y. We find in Mr. C. J. Taylor's able " History of Great Barrington," that "this Coenreat Boryhghardt is mentioned in the Docu- mentary History of New York, as a prominent resident of Kinderhook in 1702, and again in 1720. He was an active agent in purchasing the Hous- atonic township of the Indians, and was afterward employed to make pur- chase of a tract of land further north. These Indian owners, thirty-one in number, came to his house in Kinderhook, in 1731, and were entertained
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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
by him for seventeen days 'with great fatigue and trouble to himself.' In 1742, the General Court, in consideration of his services, granted him a tract of land of 200 acres, lying (if we mistake not) in the town of Rich- mond. After his removal to Great Barrington he added other lands, and at his death appears to have been the most wealthy of all the settlers, and to have maintained an influential position among them."
In 1865 the steam mill of Augustus Loyd burned. He in company with F. F. Petitclerc rebuilt the mill. They increased the business, made fel- loes in addition to the sawing of Inmber and other items. In 1867 Mr. Petitelere sold out to Mr. Frank Jenks.
Early in this decade W. F. Richmond carried on a carriage trimming and harness-maker's shop on Main street. In 1867 he kept a restaurant on Main street. In 1866 Mr. J. D. Northup left the farm npon which the family had lived since the earliest days of the settlement, when the pioneer, Stephen Northup, constructed the ernde box and built the midnight fire to foil the ravenous wolves. There came also Harry Ingalls, his brother-in- law, son of Stephen Ingalls, Mr. Northup's nearest neighbor. These two made their homes on Depot street.
In 1866 another institution was organized, of which it is a pleasure to speak. This is the public library. A village library is nothing new under the sun. This village has been blessed with one before, but a library as successful in all points as this one has been, is somewhat rare. In the district library's history may be read that of the large majority. A few hundred books are purchased, so few that they do not require one especially to care for them, therefore, on the counter of some store they find room with an arrangement by which some clerk will look after and give them out once a week either gratuitously or for a nominal sum. An arrangement that runs well for a little time then the interest of the public dies away, the attention of the clerk gives place to inattention, and the books one by one are neglected. misplaced and forgotten. So it had fared with the books belonging to the original first library. In this day of books, when every family is pro- vided with many, a public library must of necessity have a considerable variety and number of volumes on its shelves, even at the very outset ; must be of sufficient value to make all feel the importance of caring for it. and of making additions to it. Something like this was the start of this library in 1866.
A stock company was formed, each member to pay $5 a share, subject to $1 per year tax. This did not give a fabulous sum to purchase books with in the offset. However, the books were obtained, selected with great care : A building erected especially for them and a librarian procured, who made the care of the books secondary to nothing.
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FROM 1857-1867.
For a short time the library was kept in the store of J. B. Dean, Mr. William Martin, librarian. It was then removed to the building now used, but which stood then upon the present site of the Catholic church, Miss Kate Richmond, librarian. When the building was purchased for the library it was moved to its present lot. Mr. Martin took charge of it again, after which it fell to the care of Miss Richmond until she left town. Miss Jennie Foster and Miss Eva Cummings were librarians at different times. Miss Mary Martin succeeded and held the post until the fall of 1883, when she was succeeded by her sister, Miss Emma Martin. What would have been the ulti- mate fate of this library had it not have had as the most interested of workers in its behalf our whole souled philanthropic townsman, E. D. Foster, Esq., cannot be predicted. Throwing his whole heart into the work, he has talked and planned and begged for the Cheshire library. Situated as but few are he could command the attention of some of the leading men of the state, poets, writers and historians. He used the fluent language ever ready upon his lips to its utmost possibility, and the books came pouring in from all di- rections. Authors donated to Mr. Foster their works. People who were in position to command duplicate copies of desirable works handed them to Foster for his pet project, the Cheshire library. Talented men who pre- pared a lecture in the fall to deliver through the winter, upon some occasions gave their lecture for the benefit of the library. General Foster had many strings to his bow and he managed them admirably.
After the removal of Dr. Bowker, Dr. Phillips entered Cheshire as a med- ical practitioner. He was a young man, a grandson of Dr. Tyler of Adams, who was well known through the the valley. Much of the time Dr. H. Y. Phillips has been alone in his profession. Sometimes he has had competition.
In 1859, the town voted to purchase a lot for a new cemetery. The fol- lowing committee was chosen: Daniel B. Brown, Alanson P. Dean, Calvin Ingalls, Return M. Cole, Andrew Bennet. Alanson P. Dean was appointed to take charge and direct oversight of the drafting of the cemetery when the lot was decided upon.
On the crest of a hill, at the base of which the village lies, a desirable spot was found, of fine rolling ground. Six acres were purchased of the Wolcotts for $750. During the year 1859, the expenses of laying out, enclosing and adorning amounted to $775.44. During 1860 the amount was $656.45. It reaches from the brook on one side, to the highway on the other. Gray willows stretch their arms over the brook in the ravine below, and round-topped maples grow on the hillside. It is laid out with great taste and has all the beauty of a park. The monuments are notice- able for the variety shown both in their form and surroundings. Slab, and shaft, gleam through willow, evergreens and shrubbery, and through the
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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
soft, warm days steals the fragrance of flowers, cultivated there by loving hands. Trees shade the winding paths and driveways, and over it all lingers an air of peaceful rest and quiet beauty, the hush only broken by the mur- mer of the bnsy brook and the humming of the brown bees.
The ancient burial place, across from the church, still remains in its neglected field. The pathless, half-walled inclosure is overgrown with rank grass and tall weeds. Now and then a stone cants sideways, and again one has toppled over. It has a feeling of unrest and neglect, as though it doubted the interest of the present generation. But its occupants sleep their dreamless sleep. rarely visited save by some explorer who kneels to read the inscriptions engraved on the bowed and mossy tombstones, upon which the dead tallied the years for a century, but where they keep the score no more.
In the new cemetery, beneath the turf and the bloom, lie our soldiers who came back to us no more, and with every returning spring, upon their graves are placed fresh garlands, and above their ashes memory's wreaths are twined anew.
With this decade a century closes since the history of our town began. and with the year 1867 ends a decade of years, for which can be claimed a position unequalled throughout the records of time. The interest of his- tory has always seemed to cluster around some few periods.
The ten years from 1490 to 1500 gave America to the world; taught Vasco da Gama the water route to the Indies, and made changes among the crowned heads of Europe, that altered the whole type of the times.
That from 1640 to 1650 developed the long Parliament, and gave Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector to England. That from 1265 to 1775, that led up to our own revolutionary struggle, was full of interest to a world looking on, and they were all fraught with momentous issues. But the one of which we write leads them all, and contains more to excite the sympathy and arouse the wonder of man than any other. There is not time to look at the changes made among the powers in the old world, and the interests uprooted there; but in our own America, continental railways were organ- ized, the remotest nations conversed with us through cables laid in the deep green sea-the sea that man was once afraid to navigate. Marvellons inventions and discoveries in science have been made by which man will take gigantic strides in the mission given him, to reclaim and possess the world, and an unparalleled war been fonght on new principles and with new weapons.
In 1856, the Republican party, that had just then sprung into existence, was beaten, but showed so strong that it frightened the slaveholders and their allies. In 1860 the Democratic party allowed it to beat by splitting
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FROM 1857-1867.
at the Charleston Convention, intending to make the election of the repub- lican president a plea to demand that the slave-holding States might leave the Union.
When on the 9th of January, 1861, the "Star of the East " stole along the waters of Charleston harbor, seeking to carry provisions to the garrison at Sumter, and received the fire of the rebel batteries, the war actually dated; but not until the guns, aimed at Sumter itself, sent out their wild alarum in April of '61 did the people spring to action. Then excitement ran at flood tide, a mighty war broke out and darkened the land.
England virtually made herself a party to this war. France acknowledged the confederacy as a belligerent, sent Maxamillian to Mexico, showing a desire to aid the South and threaten us with a European war in our time of trouble.
It was in 1862, after the battle of Antietam, and the vow of Abraham Lincoln, that the Emancipation Proclamation startled the world. The hundred days of grace were not accepted; had they been, probably, slavery would have been fixed upon America for time. The first great blow was the proclamation, the second was putting colored troops into the field.
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