USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Cheshire > History of the town of Cheshire, Berkshire County, Mass. > Part 4
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Matches were unknown. Fires were started by flint, or an old match- lock was often made to do duty in lighting the morning fire. Provided with dry whittlings, a bunch of tow and the old fire lock, or flint, a spark of fire would be obtained which tonched to the tow would ignite at once. Sometimes by rubbing two sticks of punk together the spark was caught. The careful housewife covered the fire at night with ashes thus rarely al- lowing it to go out. Those who were more thoughtless sometimes found themselves with no fire on the hearth, no flint or punkwood. In such a case some of the children were bundled up, given an iron kettle with a cover and sent to the nearest neighbor with the message: "Please will yon lend ns a fire-brand?"
Among the dangers that awaited the back woodsman, it is said, there were none greater than the falling of forest trees. Sometimes grown rotten with age, the branches weakened by storms, or made heavy by snow, the- giant tree would stand until the jar caused by the hunter's tread would be sufficient to send it crashing through the air and upon the unsuspecting walker below. Sometimes in entting down a tall tree the chopper would not run in the right direction, and overtaken by the heavy boughs, was killed outright, or so pinioned by them that he was powerless to escape.
During the first winter of the settlement while clearing land in the close vicinity of Stafford's Hill, one among some men who were felling a tree was killed in this way. His companions scooped ont the trunk of a tree for a burial case, laid him in it, dug a grave in which at night they lowered the coffin. and lest it might be disturbed by prowling beasts or stray Indians, levelled it like a ploughed field and took turns in watching it for some nights.
The descendants of men who trod the decks of the Mayflower and the Speedwell could not be other than grim and austere. Rugged and angular as the encircling mountains, they were striet in morals. A man was not allowed to shoot on Sunday, and the tithing man collected his tax from any who travelled on that holy day save to the house of prayer. Wines and liquors were " set ont," for one's friends, and drinking an every day
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FROM 1767-1777.
affair, still drunkenness, it is claimed, was not as prevalent as at the present time. Journeys were made on horseback. Ladies rode on a pillion placed behind the gentleman's saddle. This was considered decidedly grand.
The day on which the Governor was elected, called Election Day, and " general training " were days given to amusement, for although it was a grave thing to dwell under the blue laws of the Puritans, the young people had their sports. Thanksgiving Day itself must be spent demurely, given to prayer and praise, but the following day might be devoted to pleasure and frolic. Husking and paring bees, quilting parties and singing schools, were allowed, and after the ears of corn were husked, sometimes the fiddle's loudest notes sounded beneath the rafters of the huge barn, and many feet tripped in time to Money Musk, and whirled through Virginia Reel. So time passed on, and the fathers of the hamlet, after laying out their farms and erecting their houses, turned their attention to the making of highways. These were made with difficulty, usually along the hills and high grounds to escape the mud and marshes of the low lands. They were narrow and winding, following generally, some Indian trail or cow path or mountain way amid the rocks, trodden by the sheep of the early dwellers. Since that day many have been changed; some shortened by running along the river banks, some however, follow the hills, rocky and steep, as of old.
Among the first, surveyed as early as 1770, is that going north from New Providence Hill for a distance, then turning to the westward it ran along the northern line of Lanesborough as it was before the division of towns, and can be traced now over the hills beyond the present village of Cheshire. A road at a later date was surveyed that followed the brow of the hill to the south, descending into the valley of the Hoosac, where, making a direct westward turn it crossed the river and passed through the village. Keep- ing well to the north, it cut the lot now occupied by the residence of Mrs. R. C. Brown. On the right hand was the burying ground then in use, but of which no vestige remains, a field of grain and carefully tended garden marking the spot to-day. From this point the road climbed the westward hill close by what is known as the old grave yard. A line of bushes marks its course to-day as it went on through the land of Liberty Hammond, de- scended just beyond into a hollow among the hills to which the pioneers gave the name of "The Kitchen;" from thence on through Lanesborough, Hancock and Stephentown to the New York line. There was also a contin- uation of this road toward the east from Stafford's Hill, leading through Savoy, Plainfield and on to Northampton and Springfield. Although not a turnpike this was an important and much traveled road. Long before the whistle of the engine was heard in the valley it was the regular stage route from Albany to Springfield, on which a line of well filled coaches, drawn
1158882
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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
by four horses, rolled along at a fine speed over the hard, white roads, stop- ping at the inns of the hamlets, and forming the sensation of the day.
At an equally early period a road from north to south was laid out. Striking the town at its southern line it run over the hills. The main road is used at the present as it was in early days, and is known as the " Old Road." A few cross lanes leading from it have been discontinued. It · passed through the village, crossing the first road from east to west at right angles, thus forming the four corners, which gave the place the name of The Four Corners, or The Corners as an abbreviation. Going on to the north it passed around the valley, turned over the hills at the James Cole farm, and by the Fisk place, entered the south village in the town of Adams. The road that goes through the present village of Cheshire is just the same as when first laid ont more than a hundred years ago, through the then wooded paths of New Providence Grant.
This village belongs to the " long ago," and as one walks down the quiet streets the thoughts revert to the anxious times of fear and care that marked its settlement. Many of the houses go back to the beginning of, and some precede the nineteenth century by many years. Occasionally one retains its great square chimney, its box-like entry, narrow windows and massive frame, and it is not difficult to see, in imagination, the tall forms of the pioneers, in their high hats, and swallow tailed coats, the first Stafford, Low, or Brown, Bneklin, Bennet, Wells, Barker, Richardson and all the rest, as they marched down this same street, or wended their way to the cold meeting house on Stafford's Hill, where was a line of comfortable farm houses, a big tavern, and some stores.
Around the corners clustered the new village as the old one at Stafford's declined. From the Kitchen, in the hollow, a country lane was opened with a northerly course, and joining the old road to Adams. This rejoiced in the euphonius title of "Pork Lane," and here for many years a gay portion of the young people were centered. Substantial farmers purchased the land all along this street, builded their honses, and reared their famihes, good old-fashioned families, they were too, seventeen and eighteen active boys and girls to a house. They were not afraid of sons and daughters in those days. In 1971 came Elder Nathan Mason of Swansey, Mass., with a band of twelve devoted brethren, brought back with him when he returned from his labors upon the bleak Nova Scotia coast, and finding six more Swansey brethren, believers in the same faith, he formed a church of eighteen members, which convened itself with the Rhode Island yearly meeting of Siv Principle Baptists. The Sixth Principle made the laying on of hands after baptism requisite to communion.
On the then populous, " Pork Lane," they built their " meeting house." a
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FROM 1767-1777.
square, barn like building with benches, and three legged stools for seats, with no shades to temper the heat of the summer sun, or stoves to take the chill from the desolate room when winter gales were blowing. Just before the junction of the main street and "Pork Lane," they placed it, and of the character of the pioneer preacher, its founder, Elder Leland, a contempo- rary says:
""He was a man of peace and godliness, preaching seven days of the week by his life and conversation."
This church was known, when first organized as the First Lanesborough Baptist Church.
Inns were built at an early day. Colonel Remington and Captain Joab Stafford kept tavern in the thriving boro' on Stafford's Hill, and both, no doubt, found plenty of custom. Captain Stafford's tavern was on the very summit of the hill, on the site of the only dwelling house now standing. The Stafford House was a commodious one and its owner combined the occupations of farmer, storekeeper and landlord. In the newer village be- ginning to gather around the corners, Medad King established himself in a public house by the side of the highway leading down the valley from south . to north, and along which emigrants to Vermont and Lake Champlain found easy travelling. Medad King's inn was a low, rambling building, with a large, grass plat before the door, and towering trees that cast their shadows over house and fields through the summer days. Built in 1768, it was one of the first frame houses and the very first inn at the new village.
Redeeming their lands from the wilderness, building houses, new settlers joining them, planning for meeting houses and schools, and for the future support of the gospel, time passed rapidly away, while the murmurings of discontent grew audible among the colonists, in consequence of the oppres- sion of the Mother Country. Little by little the oppressive taxes placed upon the colonists had increased until they reached a culmination. Far away over the storm-tossed Atlantic, in the city of London, laws were made for them in which they had no part, and were not allowed representation. The scene in Boston Harbor at midnight, the closing of Boston as a port of entry, and troops in the uniform of King George, filling the streets of the city, told in unmistakable language of the approaching conflict. The discipline of the colonists, during the war only closed in '63, had been good, and taught them a spirit of independence which increased, now, with every added burden, so that when the call came at last, every patriot ear heard, and every patriot heart responded.
Delegates from all the towns of Berkshire were sent to a convention held in Stockbridge, in July, 1774. Cheshire, as a town, did not then exist, but was included in the towns of New Framingham (now Lanesborough), East
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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
Hoosuck (now Adams), New Ashford and Windsor. To this convention, · from Lanesborough, were sent as delegates, Gideon Wheeler, Peter Curtiss and Dr. Francis Guittau. From Adams, Elial Todd. At this convention they pledged themselves in behalf of their constituents to raise with the most prudent care, sheep and flax that they might be able to manufacture necessary cloth, and from all who refused to indorse the movement the pat- ronage of the people should be withdrawn. If merchants, no article of British or East India goods should be purchased from them. They pledged and agreed that they would neither import, purchase or consume articles sent from Great Britain to Amerien ; a covenant that was literally observed. The women refused to use imported teas or sule sugar, using the herbs that grew upon their farms for the former and sugar made from maple syrup and pumpkins.
Neither did their patriotism exhaust itself in conventions and pledges. As news of the increasing strife of feeling reached the settlers, during all the long, cold winter the hardy backwoodsmen gathered around the mam- moth fires of maple logs, and canvassed it as it came to them. Their hearts beat responsive as they declared their readiness to stand as one man against the oppressor. for the homes they were establishing. With the opening spring came the beginning of the conflict. Every body knows the story of Concord : everybody can tell the running fight of Lexington, and how the news flashed along the travelled roads and forest paths, repeating itself from hamlet to hamlet and from farm to farm, caught up by travellers along the green woods and told from point to point, it was not long in reaching the sturdy, frontier yeomanry, who with one accord gathered on the green to declare their determination to defend their rights, and thus enjoy the lands they had subdued, and the future for which they had so successfully laid the foundation.
The battle of Lexington was fought on the 19th of April, 1775. On the afternoon of the 21st the tidings reached Berkshire, and when the sun climbed the hills next morning it shone upon a scene of wild excitement in place of the clearings of the settlers in their usual peace and quiet.
Many of the New Providence and Lanesborongh men added their names to the enlistment rolls, and some of them joined the regiment at Pittsfield. which, on the morning of the 22d, stood with muskets and uniforms in battle array, ten companies strong. It was officered by Colonel Patterson and reported at Cambridge. There were other voluntary enlistments for longer or shorter terms as the emergency seemed to demand.
All who were able were willing to defend their country. Women who could not go on to the battle-field turned from the sorrowful goodbye to husband, brother, or lover to finish the half-turned furrow, or put the crops
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FROM 1767-1777.
in the field, side by side with those who were too aged or infirm to join the warfare. This Berkshire regiment was employed at Bunker Hill, and from it men were drafted in the fall of 1775, to join the ill-starred expedition of Benedict Arnold. With such a fearless commander to lead they fought their way up the ice-bound Kennebec, across the desolate, unfriendly wilds from the scattered settlements in Maine to Canada.
After the disastrous battle of Quebec, with one commander slain upon the snow-whitened plains, bearing one disabled with them, and leaving the flag of the Briton to float undisturbed over all the Canadas, they slowly re- treated to Crown Point and Ticonderoga. Isolated men were sent thence eastward to join Washington in his Christmas campaign, and participate in the brilliant battles of Trenton and Princeton. A glorious stroke by which Gen. Washington outgeneraled the great Cornwallis, and left him watch- ing the camp-fires until the booming of cannon on the midnight air told him that " That Fox" had sprung from his lair, and with blanching cheeks he listened to Erskine, standing in the door of his tent and crying, "To arms ! General, to arms ! Fly to the rescue at Princeton." An exploit that would read well on the page of military history, side by side with the deeds of Alexander of Macedon or the great Napoleon. When we add that some of these heroes were in at the surrender of Burgoyne in the fall of 1777, it is surely a tale of glory sufficient for one soldier.
Among those who entered the settlement prior to the breaking out of the war was the family of Nathan Mason. Nathan, the father, never tried the new country, but his sons, Samson, Barnet, Jessie, Nathan, Levi, Pardon and Aaron made for themselves homes at New Providence or Lanesborough. These brothers, with the exception of Samson, were in several engagements during the war of the Revolution and saw some severe fighting. Their names appear, again and again, upon the pay-rolls. They were in the hot fight at Bennington, and were so begrimed with the powder which cov- ered their faces that they did not know one another when they met upon the field after the battle was over.
They were all at the Bennington fight, save Nathan who was unable to go in consequence of a lameness brought on by some rheumatic difficulty. Grave fears were entertained by some that if the British won the day they would advance across the border line into Massachusetts, and thus sweep on up the county of Berkshire. So the brothers, in a family conclave hastily gathered before leaving home, arranged with Nathan to hold the ox team in readiness, so that at a moment's warning of the approach of the dreaded foe he could gather in the capacious cart the members of the vari- ous families, and be off toward the south.
Samson Mason's name never appears in the annals of the town, either by
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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE,
tradition or record : his stay was probably short. Pardon Mason returned to Providence. Of Aaron Mason their is nothing definite after his return from the war.
Barnet. Levi. Nathan, and Jessie Mason located on, or near " Pork Lane." Barnet' married Biah Werden. Werden Mason was their son, who was father of Barnet ?. Calvin. John and Alden, Jesse' Mason, who lived upon the farm now occupied by Leroy Northrop, was the father of Nathan? and Sherborn. Nathan' Mason was the father of Abner, Nathan?, Barnets, Isaiah, Eda. Desire.
Levi Mason married Amy Gilson, and their large family was reared in a honse on the corner of " Pork Lane" and the main road, now owned by Lib- erty Hammond. There was Levi, Roswell, Silas, Pardon, Isaac and Arnold, Phelinda, Lovina, Lanra, Lucinda, Merinda.
Nathan Mason?, son of Nathan', married a daughter of James Mason, who had settled at the " Kitchen" a place where his son Joshna, and again his grandson Nathan lived upon the land, carried on the tanning business, and where, now. a member of the family in the fourth generation resides. Nathan Mason? was the father of Rev. Almond W. Mason, Dr. Ira N. Mason, Ethan A., Desire, and Robie.
Melanethon, son of Silas Mason, became a successful mechanical engineer, and was the inventor of the locomotive head-light. He had the supervision of the car shops of the New York Central Railroad at Auburn, for a long term of years.
CHAPTER II.
FROM 1777-1787.
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BURGOYNE'S ADVANCE. BAUM'S ATTACK UPON BENNINGTON. STARK'S CALL FOR BERKSHIRE MILITIA. COL. JOAB STAFFORD'S INDEPENDENT COMPANY. CAPT. SAM. LOW'S COMPANY. CAPT. DANIEL BROWN'S COM- PANY. RICHARD STAFFORD'S ACCOUNT OF BENNINGTON BATTLE. AC- COUNT OF A TORY IN THE FORT. COL. STAFFORD, HENRY TIBBITS. CHESHIRE AT STONE ARABIA. CAPT. LOW'S COMPANY AT ST. CROIX. COL. STAFFORD RE-INFORCES COL. WARNER. CAPT. BROWN'S MARCH TO PAWLET. CAPT. BROWN'S COMPANY SENT TO NEW HAVEN. LIEUT. JERE- MIAH BROWN'S COMPANY JOIN STARK AT SARATOGA. DEACON DANIEL COMAN. SAMUEL WHIPPLE, DEACON CARPENTER, STEPHEN INGALLS, DAVID DUNNELL'S RECORD. SHAY'S INSURRECTION. ANNEXATION OF NEW PROVIDENCE TO ADAMS. JOHN WELLS, DANIEL AND NATHAN WOOD, WILLIAM JACQUES.
It was August, 1777, that Gen. Burgoyne was toiling over the road from Ticonderoga to Albany, his objective point, and the city where, in the brilliant scheme he portrayed for the British Parliament, he was to meet the triumphant army of Clinton ascending the Hudson, and, thus uniting, crush the back bone of the rebellion by separating the eastern from the middle States.
His advance was laborious over the road blocked up by the enemy, and gave Gen. Schuyler ample time to gather the yeomanry to oppose his ap- proach. Reaching Fort Ann, a point midway between Skeenesboro and Fort Edward, Burgoyne proposed to send a force of Brunswickers under Lieutenant Col. Baum to Bennington, to capture some stores that the Americans had concealed at that place. To this diversion his generals were positively opposed and advised pushing rapidly upon Albany, before Schuy- ler had sufficient time to gather his forces at the front. Burgoyne, how- ever, was obstinate and would not change his plans. The magazine at Bennington must be surprised and captured, and at the same time his Brunswick dragoons remounted. In vain did Riedesel, the commander of
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the Hessian allies, plead for the dragoons to be left behind on this mission, where everything depended upon light, swift action-in vain did Phillips suggest that the lightly equipped rangers would be the most efficient soldiers for the occasion. Against the urgent advice of Riedesel and Phil- lips the haughty, self-confident Burgoyne sent his order to Baum :
" You are to disconcert the enemy, to mount the Riedesel's dragoons, to complete Peter's corps, and to obtain large supplies of cattle, horses, and carriages. Your detachments must bring in to you all horses fit to mount your dragoons, also saddles and bridles. The dragoons themselves must ride and take care of the horses of the regiment. Scour the country from Rockingham to Otter Creek. The corps under Mr. Warner said to be at Manchester will probably retreat before you. Should any troops from Mr. Warner's or Mr. Arnold's army post themselves in an advantageons position to intercept you it is left to your discretion to attack them or not, always remembering that your corps is too valuable to let any considerable loss be hazarded on this occasion. You will send off cattle or carriages to prevent being too much incum- bered, and will give me as frequent intelligence of your situation as possible. If, con- trary to expectations, you are attacked send me the quickest intelligence, and you may depend upon me to sustain you. Go down the Connecticut River as far as Brattle- boro. Send to me as prisoners all officers, civil and military, acting under Congress, and returning over the big road, meet me at Albany on the Hudson."
" Britons never go back," Burgoyne had said, as floating merrily down the Champlain, he looked with pride upon the flying colors, and glistening arms of his invading army-8000 strong. He anticipated no defeat.
In obedience to this great order, Baum and his meu, dismounted dragoons and infantry, Hessians and Indians, marched across the Batten Kill through the pleasant summer weather, little dreaming of the fate to which they went, or how worthy was their foemen's steel.
The Brunswick dragoons, clad in their leather jerkins, their high jack- boots, and tall hats, heavy with ornamental feathers. their massive carbines strapped across their shoulders, and unwieldly broad swords trailing at their sides, dragged along the dusty highway, encumbered by the flour they were compelled to carry, and the herd of cattle they drove for their daily main- tenance. The result might have been foreseen. " Contrary to expecta- tion," Mr. Stark and Mr. Warner did not remain quietly at Bennington, and the Manchester Pass, and allow Baum and his heavy dragoons to sweep by them in safety. By a rapid and well concerted movement on the part of the Americans under these shrewd generals, Baum was cut off from his English allies, who fled, and left him and his awkward squad to their fate. Of 400 men, who halted on the hill at Bennington, with Baum, 360 were killed, and when Burgoyne gathered his army again on the other bank of the Hudson, he only needed twenty horses to mount all the dragoons that were left to that glorious army of the Britons who nerer went back.
The people of New Hampshire had sent Gen. Stark, who had so gallantly
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FROM 1777-1787.
maintained their honor at Bunker Hill, with a company of volunteers to check the progress of Burgoyne and guard the western frontier prior to any hint of this expedition.
It was on the 13th of August that Gen. Stark learned of the presence of a body of Indians twelve miles north west of Bennington, and the same night was notified by an express messenger that a large force of British was in their rear. Stark sent upon the instant to Manchester for Warner's men, while relays mounted on the fleetest steeds fled along the country roads to bear the warning.
Living in the town called, now, New Ashford, near the foot of Graylock, was a patriot by the name of Tyler,-great uncle of Dr. Phillips of Ches- hire-who as soon as the word reached the low farm house saddled his horse, and was off in the night, over the hills, down the stony mountain paths, through the country known now as Cheshire. A clatter of hoofs up the door yard drive, a knock at the door, a flash from the grated lan- ern, a word of warning, "The Regulars are advancing on the New York frontier." The place of rendezvous, was all that the dwellers by the way heard. It was all that they needed to hear, but it was enough to create the wildest commotion. In many a house the fire of pine knots was kept all night, and before it was melted all the family pewter, brought forward by anxious mothers and weeping wives, to be run into bullets for the com- ing conflict. Elder Peter Werden set the example of loyalty to his flock by sending three sturdy sons, Peter, Judah, and Richmond, with all the pewter teaspoons, and that this example was eagerly followed by his people the muster roll of Col. Stafford and Capt. Low abundantly proves. From Stafford's Hill went Daniel Reed, who had already participated in some of the most stirring events of the war, being one of the party commanded by Ethan Allen at the capture of Ticonderoga, and serving in the memorable expedition against Quebec under Arnold. His grandnephew, Steward White, still occupies the farm that he then owned. Before the dew was dry on the greensward beneath the tall trees that overshadowed the tavern of Medad King the boom of the signal gun announced to the eager watchers upon the hillsides, and in the valley that the moment for decisive action had come, and singly, or in squads of twos and threes with hastily seized guns the minute men were on their way to Bennington.
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