USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Cheshire > History of the town of Cheshire, Berkshire County, Mass. > Part 2
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One of the witnesses to the deed is Richard Stafford, perhaps his son, and it is acknowledged before Ezra Barker, as a justice, a son of one of his
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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
Rhode Island compatriots. Richard Stafford seems to have married Susan- nah, daughter of Elisha Brown, another of the Rhode Island people, and in 1823 they were living at Canajoharie, N. Y.
Tradition preserves a pleasant account of his introduction of Mrs. Staf- ford to her new home on the summit of New Providence Hill. While he was mapping out the purchase, and erecting a house on the Lots, to which lie took title, his wife remained in Rhode Island. When the new building was ready for occupaney he returned for his family. As they journeyed on the good woman wished to know, and sought for an exact description of the new house she was to occupy and of its surroundings. But the Captain did not see fit to gratify her curiosity, and as they approached their desti- nation, sought her opinion of the different dwellings, and locations which they found upon the way. At last Mrs. Stafford found one which delighted her exceedingly, and after the Captain had stopped to allow her to examine and admire it she exclaimed, " Oh ! if I could only live there I would be perfectly satisfied." Whereupon the Captain turned into the inclosure and informed her that they were at home.
It was from this home-whence he could see the summits of the Gray- lock range apparently on a level with him at the west, and the valley of the Hoosuck nestling beneath them at the north, with glimpses of the vales at the south where rises the Housatonic-that Colonel Stafford went with the Berkshire men to the battle of Bennington, where he fought and was wounded. Let us hope that it was from this home that in the golden autumn days of 1801. three months after he had parted with his last acre of land-his neighbors and the old pastor, whom he had helped to bring from Rhode Island, at their head, carried the departed Colonel down the southern slope of the hill to the peaceful burying ground where his remains now repose.
At the southernmost foot of the hill, on a gentle eminence, around which curves a babbling, crystal-watered brook is one of the ancient burial places in Cheshire where sleeps this man, who according to the inscription on his tombstone, (a stone almost bowed to the earth as though it sought to keep closer company with the dust of him whom it commemorates, so that he who reads it must perforce kneel) :
" Fought and bled in his country's cause at the battle of Bennington, and descended to his tomb with an unsullied reputation."
In front of him curves a splendid amphitheater of wooded hills. their forest covering almost unbroken, extending from Whitford's rocks on the east, to the high pinnacle of quartz which glistens like a jewel in the sun above the present village of Cheshire. Behind him rise the slopes of the hill which he surveyed and helped to clear and settle, great fields of pasturage from
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INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
which now almost every dwelling has disappeared ; but rarely vexed with the plough, and trodden but seldom by any feet save those of lowing kine and bleating sheep.
A great beech tree on the edge of the bank above the brook shades him from the morning sun, and so sequestered is the spot that at this moment a golden-winged woodpecker has her nest in a decayed portion of the tree, her notes the only sound but that of the rippling brook to break the abso- lute silence of his long home. A peaceful and an appropriate resting place for the patriot and the pioneer; but one which might well receive some care from those who are enjoying the fruit of the labors and sacrifices of him and his associates.
In the lot of the Bennet family in this old graveyard we find many Quakers, and the quaint simplicity of the Quaker thought is shown in the inscriptions.
About the John Wells who died the 17th of the seventh month 1813, in the 69th year of his age, and Frances his widow who survived him, living to the advanced age of 98, there is this tradition :
Frances was a sister of Daniel Brown. These Browns were well to do people. John Wells had nothing but an honest heart, a clear head, and a strong arm with which to make his way. They were married against the wishes of her father and family. So distasteful was the match that she was refused even the smallest setting out. So with nothing but themselves and their love the newly wedded pair, mounted upon one horse and with no other worldly goods, made the journey from Rhode Island to New Prov- idence. Another sister married Caleb Tibbets, who was accounted well off and who also removed to New Providence, but remained only a short time, returning to the older settlements where he could enjoy more of the luxu- ries of life. He took back the opinion that probably Mr. and Mrs. Wells would get along, as Wells had made a clearing, put up a log house, and had
one cow. The years passed by; John Wells worked his farm by daylight and made shoes by fire light. Frances Wells managed the house and the dairy, and earned money as a tailoress. They added farm to farm, and accumulated money until, when John died, his estate was one of the most considerable in Berkshire county, and with all this, both Frances and him- self had gained the respect of all. Meantime, poor Caleb Tibbets had wasted his substance, and it was found that the daughter who had ridden portion- less away behind her lover had made the better match.
Leaving this quiet burial place, let us retrace our steps to the old Bennet house, one of the few original ones yet remaining, and follow the road lead- ing from it to the north along the western side of the hill. We shall not pursue it a great distance before we shall cross the line which marks the
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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
southern boundary of the New Providence Purchase, the old north line of No. 4, or Windsor, and a continuation easterly of the old north line of New Framingham, or Lanesborough. It can be traced on the ground at present for miles to the westward until it disappears at the summit of the hill lying to the west of Cheshire. On our right rise the grassy slopes of Stafford's Hill, a few apple trees on the summit being all that from this point is visi- ble to indicate that it has been the site of a village. On the left rises Mount Amos, wooded on its northern slope, but clear and smooth on its southern, where, among the maple trees, the early settlers used to keep the sugar boil- ing while the wolves howled around the fires in the night. Far below, at the north, is the Adams valley and, perhaps, a mile in advance of you, if your eyes are keen, you can see rows of white stones by the roadside, another resting place of these first settlers of New Providence. It occupies a little plateau with but a gentle slope toward the west, the road sweeping around it down the hill with a dark, solemn spruce tree standing in the background.
It was here that these Rhode Islanders of the Baptist denomination planted their first church and set up the public worship of God No trace remains npon the spot of the ancient building, nor any mark by which to fix its location, but tradition says that it was next to the road and that its site is now occupied by graves.
The building, however. is now standing on the northern slope of the hill to which it was removed, and where, as a two-story red farm house. it still does duty in the cause for which it was framed and raised. It has changed its uniform, but still does service in sustaining the preaching of the word in the New Providence Purchase.
Before we enter this village of the dead, let us gather something of the work which they who rest there did in the foundation and maintenance of a church which has been the thing that, more than anything else, must have educated the men and women of Cheshire and moulded the life of the town. The New Providence Purchase, not having been constituted as a district, or to worship by itself, or included in the limits of any such com- munity, was not under the obligation ordinarily imposed, of devoting a por- tion of its land to the support of the ministry, or of maintaining public worship. Whatever its inhabitants did in the cause of religion was, there- fore. a free gift. and was done because of the moving of the Spirit. As be- fore stated, many of the more prominent of the carly settlers were Baptists. They had no thought of escaping the burden of supporting public worship, and the story of the church that they founded is best told by its records. Theso records are in the possession of Mr. Shubael W. Lincoln, whose house. in the extreme easternmost part of Cheshire, on the mountain side opposite the north slope of the Stafford Hill, looks across to Graylock. * Mr.
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INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
Lincoln has gathered together many documents and relics of this early church and its members, and many a tradition of its early history.
Elder Peter Werden continued to be the pastor of this flock for nearly 40 years, until his death, on the 21st of February, 1808. He was a remarkable man ; somewhat unlettered, perhaps, but full of grace and zeal, and actu- ated by love of God and man, His epitaph is said to have been composed by himself before he left Coventry. The discipline of his church was strict, and it cannot be doubted that its work was of the utmost importance to the well being of the community. An unbroken service, that spanned a cen- tury, was devoted to religious uses by a modest donation, a fact from which the charitably inclined may take courage.
As we have seen, the proprietors of the purchase were not obliged to de- vote a part of it to the support of the gospel; but Nicholas Cook and Joseph Bennet learning that a church had been thus founded at New Provi- dence, gave by deed* on the 17th of January 1770, 50 acres of their best land on the northern slope of the hill to Joab Stafford, in trust as a ministerial lot or glebe land for the support of a preacher of the Anabaptist denomination.
Upon this land lived Elder Peter Werden, and from it he obtained his subsistence. He was succeeded in the ministry by Elder Braman, and he by Elder Bross, described as a stirring practical man, under whose adminis- tration the old church building was removed to the glebe land, a new church having been erected sometime before on the top of the hill where was a flourishing and beautiful village-the village of Cheshire. It had be-
sides its church its post office and its masonic lodge. Of all the buildings which then crowned the summit of the hill not one remains. The new church decayed and fell, and most of the farm houses were removed to Adams, and after a time the church organization became moribund. Elder John Leland supplied the pulpit for some time, but was never settled as pastor of the church. Elder Sweet also preached for them after the destruc- tion of the new church building. However, a claim was made by the heirs of the donors of the glebe that the condition of the deed of trust had been broken, and the land forfeited. This claim was successfully resisted in the courts, and Shubael W. Lincoln appointed trustee. He now holds the trust, and applies the income of the fifty acres to the support of preaching in the school house hard by, looking hopefully for the time when he may see a tasteful chapel again crowning the old hill.
Let us enter the sacred ground and spend a few minutes with the pastor and his flock. But we must first record an episode of their work and dis- cipline which throws light upon the manner of men they were and the views they held. Col. Samuel Low was one of the most wealthy and prominent
*The copy of this deed verbatim is in Barker's article on the early settlement, page 85.
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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
of those who founded the settlement and its church. His residence was nearest its site. In 1763 he was entrusted with the duty of organizing a lottery to raise and grade the streets of Providence, Rhode Island. In New Providence he owned slaves-four at least-William Dimon, Molly Dimon and their two children, one of whom was Antony. About 1790, he removed to Palatine, New York, having freed old William and Molly, but taking Antony and the girl with him. He afterward applied to the church for dismis- sal, but it was refused unless he would free the two slaves. A long corres- pondence between him and Elder Werden ensued of which this is a sample :
" DEAR BROTHER-We received your letter and the brethren hath heard it red. That part that concerneth Antony and it doth not serve our minds. Our minds is that your duty was to have set him at liberty at the age of twenty-one which was about a year ago. And as to the bills of cost that you speak of you and he must settle that yourselves. We look upon it that we have nothing to do in that matter. We wish you, very dear brother, to attend to the proposition that you mentioned- all men are born free. Therefore our request and desire is that you liberate him em- mediately to ease our sister and ourselves of our pain, as we think it will dishonor our profession if it is not dun. *",
ADAMS, MARCH 2d, 1792.
It may be well here to refer to a brief account of Elder Peter Werden, given by Elder John Leland in his works :
" Here lies the body of Peter Werden, late pastor of the Church of Christ in Cheshire. He was born June 6th, 1728. Converted by the mighty power of God in the Lord Jesus Christ May 9th, 1748. In the month of May 1751 he was ordained to the work of the ministry in Warwick, and continued measurably faithful in his pas- toral charge to the close of his life, which was February 21. 1808.
His soul to God he used to send, To cry for grace for friend and foe, But blessed be the God of love, His sont is now with Christ above.
This crumbling senlpture keeps the clay That used to honse the noble mind, But at the resurrection day. A nobler body he shall find.
Descending from the village of the dead toward the southwest the road passes around Mount Amos, and overlooks the valley in which is the present flourishing village of Cheshire. This village lies in the valley of the Hoosuck, and is in that part of the town formerly called Lanesborough. There was very early a road following the stream and leading from the cen- ter of the county to East Hoosnek. Crossing this is a road over the foot- hills of Graylock, from Lanesborongh, and the present village has grown up at the four corners made by the intersection of these roads. When New Providence Hill was popular and flourishing it is said that there was not a
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INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
single house where the present village stands. It is difficult to trace the early settlement of this portion of the town, at least without more time than the present writer has been able to devote to the task.
The early settlers were citizens of a large town, the social and political center of which was over the hill to the west. They differed from the most of their fellow citizens in religious belief, and in the early records of the Six Principle and the Second Baptist churches would probably be the richest field for investigation as to their names and acts.
CHAPTER I.
FROM 1767-1777.
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, NEW PROVIDENCE. CAUSES PREVENTING THE SETTLEMENT OF BERKSHIRE. GEOLOGICAL FORMATION. EARLY SET- TLERS. INCIDENTS OF THEIR JOURNEY THITHER. INVENTIONS AND INDUSTRIES. AMUSEMENTS. HIGHWAYS. SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH ESTABLISHED. INNS. STOCKBRIDGE CONVENTION. COLONEL PATTER- SON'S REGIMENT.
We have, in our introductory chapter, given almost verbatim the interest- ing article from the pen of Judge Barker of Pittsfield, in which he tells us of the little band of pioneers coming through the hostile wilderness from Rhode Island, and building for themselves and families a home upon the hill-top, which, as a quaint old chronicler has it, they named New Provi- dence. " Partly in loving remembrance of the place of their nativity, and partly owing to the sweet Providence of God in prospering their undertak- ing." Here they established their church and sent for the pions Werden. their former pastor, who ministered to them in spiritual things until in 1808, the Master called him home. The following is a list of the members of this church in the wilds of Berkshire, the First Baptist Church of the present Cheshire, as they came from Coventry : Rev. Peter Werden. Eunice Bennet, Joab Stafford, John Lee, Betsy Read. Samuel Low, John Bnoklin, Deliverance Nichols. Joseph Bennet. Merey Werden. Martha Lee. John Day. Alma Low. These members organized the church Angust 28th, 1:69, and Elder Peter Werden, of Warwick, became their pastor in March, 17:0.
The discipline of this church was strong, and on the pages of their books, yellow with time, we find, in characters that seem stern and stiff as the writers, these records :
" Brother B. was brought before the church for his disagreeable conduct in his disguising himself with spiritnous liquors, and quarrelling in Col. Remington's tavern."
"Sister Mehitable B. was admonished for withdrawing herself from the church. and going into vain company of merryment, and refusing to return."
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FROM 1767-1777.
"The church voted for admonishing George and Johanna his wife for their for- saking their travel with the church, and falling into idolatory."
" To Brother and Sister Joseph and Unice Bennet, and Sister Hannah Warren, they publicly declare that they cannot walk with the church because of their leaning toward that remarkable woman, generally known as Mother Ann, and said to be the Quean at the right hand of Christ, to whom, the church conclude, her followers go to confess their sins."
Judge Barker has left but little for us to tell of the New Providence, or, as it is more familiarly known, the Stafford's Hill settlement. The hill, surrounded by towering mountain peaks, remains the same as of yore. The summer sun shines upon the meadows, the glebe land is still cultivated, and its earnings cast in as a tithe for the Great Master; but the houses are deserted or removed, even the ancient church, as such, exists no longer, while pastor and flock lie, with folded hands, in the silent city on the hill, where the roll of carriage wheels is never heard, and the low doors of the houses open no more for the inhabitants. The store, the forge, the school house, are all gone from this Berkshire hill-top, and over the hills, along the winding valley road to the west, we find another village, gray with age and whispering of ante-revolution days.
Around every new genesis clusters a deep interest, strengthened as years pass on, and the drowsy indistinctness of age places the facts connected with it nearly beyond our reach. To gather some facts relating to these people who came from the smiling farms of Rehoboth and Warwick to the wilds of Berkshire, and securely garland them ere they slip forever from this generation, is what we hope to do.
With such merciless cruelty did the savage foe meet the pale-face coming to his country, that it was one hundred years after that grim December day, that Miles Standish and Mary Chatworth stepped from their tiny shallop onto Plymouth Rock, ere the Hoosacs were reached and crossed.
The county of Berkshire was the last settled in Massachusetts, a fact due to a variety of causes. The common claim Jaid to boundary lands was due largely, to the ignorance of English Kings and Dukes concerning America. In almost every case the different nations took possession, in the beginning of tracts extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the St. Law- rence to the Gulf of Mexico, giving land reaching from the Hudson to the Delaware to one party one day the next conveying land extending from the Connecticut to the Delaware to another, thus making conflicting claims inevitable.
Berkshire County was far remote from civilization, rough and rocky in its surface, and covered in places with dense forests. The boundary line between it and New York was unsettled. The Dutch already located on the Hudson with a prospect of moving eastward, were a powerful and disa-
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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
greeable neighbor that the English dreaded and disliked. The French with their Indian allies, coming from Canada by the way of Lake Cham- plain and the Hudson, found easy access to the county by following the Hoosac River.
The ever-dreaded, fierce Huron-Iroquois traveling along the line marked by Fort Massachusetts, and sister forts to the Connecticut, could easily turn aside for a day and put the settler to the tomahawk and the torture. All agree that Indians often traversed this region. All believe that they came in bands at different seasons to hunt the game, native to the wilds. and catch the fish that flashed in the crystal streams. Many, however. claim that these children of the forest never made the county, in its north- ern half. an abiding home.
On the border line, between New Framingham and the present town of Cheshire, the bodies of two red men were found, evidently murdered; bnt it was at an early period, and they were doubtless two hunters who had straved from some distant tribe. On the farm owned by Mr. Ira Richardson was a meadow to which the name of the " Hnt Meadow," was given because there were so many evidences found there of its having been occupied at some remote time as a camping-ground by the Indians. Perhaps their wigwams were erected here during some summer season while the braves followed the hunt or fished in the mountain streams, possibly the dusky squaw turned over the earth, and sowed her corn which she gathered before they left the meadow on the Hoosac in the fall. However this may be, many weapons of their crude manufacture have been plowed up as the farmer turned the furrow along the "Hut Meadow :" and one day, when at work there, a tall Indian, wrapped in his blanket. appeared npon the scene. stalked across the field, seated himself upon the hillside just beyond. and sat in stoical silence, gazing upon the river and the meadow, brooding over some past memory, and apparently recalling a time when to his fathers be- longed the river and the valley. He came in silence, and departed as he came with no word of explanation.
During the war between George II. of England and the French-known as the French and Indian war-which ended with the peace at Paris in 1763, large bodies of troops passed over the line through this county on their way to the northward. This movement tended to aid in settling the hitherto unknown land-large tracts of which were bestowed upon com- panies and individuals as a compensation for hardships endured and services rendered the government. The wave that began at that period to rise. flowed into Berkshire county, carrying on its billow the advance guards. who on the ontposts of civilization prepared the way for thousands more to follow.
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FROM 1767-1777.
The face of the country, around the town of which this history tells, is uneven, but it is a picturesque and an arable succession of hill and dale with smooth uplands sweeping up to the feet of the wooded mountains. The distinct ranges are the Hoosac on the east, and the Taconics on the west, with hoary old Graylock looking down the valley. The southern and principal branch of the Hoosac-or as the Indians had it-the " Ashuewil- ticook," flowed through the meadows, golden with flowers, when the settlers first located their lands in the valley, choosing the sunny fields and low lying hills rather than the wind-swept pastures on the high hill-tops.
This river is an important one on account of its descent, and frequent overflowings caused by heavy rains, melting snows and the rapid rising of many mountain brooks tributary to it. The overflow enriches the fine alluvial meadows which are especially adapted to the growth of grass, while the higher lands produce corn, rye, barley, sometimes wheat and tobacco. Roaming through the forests, and over the mountains were the bear, the deer and wolf. The fox was often roused from his lair, woodchucks burrowed in their holes, squirrels hopped from branch to branch, and chattered along the forest paths. Muskrats, minks and weasels builded their homes unmolested. The porcupine was sometimes seen on the dusty hills, and the terrible wild cat crouched at night on the boughs of the forest trees. Wild turkeys made their nests in the meadow-grass, and the king- fisher laid her eggs in the deep holes she made along the river bank ; the loons called their mates from the shores of the ponds. The gray eagle perched on the lone rocks. The summer birds sang in the sunny fields, the red headed woodpecker tapped at the trees, the partridge drummed in the smoky dells, and the lonely note of the whippoorwill sounded at sunset as it did in far away Rehoboth. The fire-fly glimmered at night, the locust and grasshopper frequented their fields of grass, oats and buckwheat, sometimes committing great depredations.
Except a small tract along the Hoosac the whole town belongs to the primitive formation. No animal or vegetable remains have ever been found in its rock and strata. Mica, slate and limestone are the principal rocks. Quartz is found in quantity, forming huge beds of sand said to be the finest the world knows. Iron ore is also found. Potter's clay is common in stream and low ground.
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