USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Cheshire > History of the town of Cheshire, Berkshire County, Mass. > Part 6
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Occupying a prominent position, always generous, Col. Joab Stafford was
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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
often called upon by his country to assist in her times of need. To these calls he turned no deaf ear. He already was called captain when he came up from Rhode Island in 1767, whether from actual service as commander of some training band, or as master of a ship is not known.
The first Stafford coming to America was Thomas Stafford. He brought with him the coat-of-arms of the English family engraved on wood and mounted on a panel a foot square it bore the words: "Virtue the Corner Stone of Life."
Samuel, the son of Thomas married Mercy, daughter of Stukely Wescott. This Stukely Wescott and wife were banished from the Salem colony with Roger Williams and followed him to Providence. Here it was that Samuel Stafford met and married Mercy Wescott. From this Stukely Wescott descended Benedict Arnold. Thomas, son of Samuel and Mercy Stafford, married Audrey Green, and was the father of Col. Joab Stafford, who mar- ried Susannah Spencer, a pretty quakeress, and became the father of ten children.
Thomas Stafford died in 1765, and in 1267 Joab joined his friends and neighbors in seeking a home in Berkshire. He bought of Joseph Bennet and Nicholas Cook three lots of land on the hill which has always borne his name. He came from the revolutionary struggle as colonel, and when the war was actually over he found himself rich in an exploded cur- rency, but poor in reality for little was left, save his real estate, of a prop- erty by no means small as he had been successful in early life as a lumber merchant, and as a voyager to foreign countries from whence he brought many curious and rare articles that are treasured by his descendents as precious heir looms. Col. Joab handed down the cout-of-arms of the family, and it is now in possession of Mrs. Edward Doolittle of Bergen, N. J. Among the pioneers who entered Berkshire during the years following 1767, was a Stukely Wescott, who owned land, and whose descendents have dwelled always in this vicinity.
The Stukely Wescott banished with Williams, being grandfather of Col. Joab Stafford, the families were, no doubt, neighbors and friends intimately known in addition to the relationship, and, as such, joined the exodus com- ing up at a little later date than Joab himself. Stukely settled near his neighbor Stafford, and there are deeds and deeds-on the records-of farms deeded to his various sons by Stukely Senior.
Col. Joab was declared a revolutionary pensioner in 1794, and applied to Congress for back pay between the dates of 1794 and 1776, this request was denied. Col. Stafford then sold two of his farms on the hill, and removed to Albany, N. Y., where his name appears repeatedly in connection with the commissioner of Land Patents. In 1800, he returned to Cheshire to
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FROM 1777-1787.
the house of his son Richard, who lived at " The Notch," just below the hill. The wife of his youth died at Albany just before this, and the brave pioneer and patriot feeling his health impaired, overcome by disease, perhaps, felt in his loneliness a longing for the home and scenes he appears to have loved. At all events he never again left them. In 1800, he parted with the last farm, the spot on the very top of the hill where he had kept the tavern and store. This is the farm now occupied by Mr. Frank Prince, and is only a stone's throw from the site of the meeting house built in 1786. Joab Staf- ford also owned a house on the opposite side of the street, this he sold to Timothy Mason, who kept open house there for many years, and in 1801. when the November leaves were falling, they bore the brave pioneer and gallant soldier over the fields to the Notch burying ground where "they left him alone in his glory," with the simple stone to tell through all the years the story of his death.
Richard Stafford left Cheshire in 1815, for Palatine Bridge, N. Y., where he died in 1826. His wife was Susan Brown, daughter of Elisha Brown of Cheshire. His descendents still reside in Canajoharie and vicinity.
Col. Brown of Berkshire, was stationed in the fall of 1780 at Fort Paris on the hills north of the Mohawk River, and ordered to assist Gen. Van Rensselaer in heading off Johnson and his Tory band.
No section of the country was more bitter against the colonial cause than the magnificent valley of the Mohawk, swept through and through by John- son's hordes, scoured by sullen bands of Indians, traitors lurked at every corner and menaced the Patriots at every turn. That Col. Brown in the prime of his noble strength, foreseeing and vigilant as he was-reading with unerring certainty the characters of those about him-with the fate of Braddock, and the more recent tragedy of the gallant Herkimer at Oriskany before him as warnings, should listen to the beguiling words of the foe without one questioning word must ever remain a mystery-a mystery made doubly strange from the fact that a faithful soldier had entered his tent that morning and warned him of danger at hand ; but the brave general refused to listen to what seemed idle forebodings, and on the morning of the 19th of October started with his troops to effect the junction with Van Rensselaer: These troops numbered about 300, and were largely New Eng- land levies with a goodly number from Lanesborough and New Providence. On this same morning Sir John Johnson crossed the Mohawk at a rift near the spot where now stands the village of Spraker's Basin. The march of his Tories, Indians and Loyalists along the Susquehanna and Scoharie Creek to the Mohawk had been a desolating one, he had camped at the Nose the previous night, and marched directly on toward Fort Paris the morning of the 19th.
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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
Gen. Van Rensselaer encamped at Fultonville on the night of the 18th, only fourteen miles east of the enemy, and he might easily have overtaken them, and with his vastly superior force might, it would seem, have averted the fall of Col. Brown, but while we know that he succeeded in reaching Fort Plain, only three miles from the battle-field, while the noise of the carnage, and the Indian war-whoop were still sounding through the valley from the Palatine Hills and dined with a friend, we must remember that at the court of inquiry held at Albany to ascertain the cause of his slow march he was exonerated from all blame.
Col. Brown prompt to obey his commanding officer started from Fort Paris at an early hour. It was his thirty-sixth birthday that was to be the day of his death. Clad in his official uniform, mounted on his black charger he rode leisurely over the breezy knolls, through the hollows in the dense thickets of the new country, along the road expressly marked out by Gen. Van Rensselaer. At his side in unbroken silence rode the friend whose dream had foretold hidden danger or ambuscade.
Marching down toward the Mohawk, they soon passed the little stockade of Fort Keyser, and looking for the enemy expecting Van Rensselaer to be in their rear he hastened on when he came suddenly around a turn in the road. Just before him and where the highway branched off. on a command- ing knoll stood a farm-house, its old-fashioned front rose straight for two stories, upon it rested its antique roof with deep dormer windows, over it great trees tossed their glossy boughs, before it swept a fresh open meadow, and to the westward the placid Cayuga Creek wound its way to the Mohawk scarcely two miles away. Beneath a gnarled hickory tree, before this house was gathered what seemed a family party. Grand parents and children. fathers, mothers and servants, in their midst a mounted horseman speaking his last good-bye to a weeping woman. The horseman galloped forward, and delivered to Col. Brown the following message: "Gen. Van Rensselaer bade me tarry until you came up to tell you to bring your troops by this road rather than the one you are pursuing." Death walked by that way- side but no one saw him, only the faithful soldier who had warned his colonel, yet again that morning, felt his blighting shadow, but with no other word he rode with his officer and friend into the fatal ambush from which neither would ever emerge in life. So palpable seems the plot it ap- pears that the voice of the horseman could hardly fail to tremble in pro- nouncing the lie, lest the usually far-seeing Colonel should deteet the rose. He who said of Benedict Arnold, years before he acted the role of traitor, "So great is his greed for gold, so black his heart, I fear if the British meet and know him he would sell his country," read no guile in the traitor who addressed him that October morning. Surely, "Whom the Gods destroy
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FROM 1777-1787.
they first make mad." The gallant colonel turned down the road followed by his men and in silence rode into " The valley of Death."
A little later the Indian whoop, the whizzing arrow, and rattle of mus- ket shot told the story of a deadly ambuscade. Bewildered, unprepared, there was nothing left but flight or death with, alas ! no choice for some. Col. Brown and his friend fell at the first fire .* Nehemiah Richardson, of Cheshire, tall, muscular and fleet, used his limbs to the best advantage, and escaped unharmed, so did Amos Pettibone. Tradition says that Moses Wol- cott fared hard in the scramble for life because of his slight stature, and would have hardly come out of the melee only that the bright idea occurred to him of pressing the fleet legs of Nehemiah Richardson into his service. He caught his coat-tails as he dashed past him in hot haste and clung to them with all the tenacity that the "Old man of the Sea," did to Sinbad the Sailor.
Nehemiah objected at first, and as the burden grew heavy and trouble- some protested against the arrangement, when Uncle Moses would exclaim as he gathered the skirts in a tighter clutch.
" I snore! I snore! Nehemiah, that's wrong, now, to throw a neighbor off. Don't you do it. Don't you jump me."
Perhaps it would have taken longer to cast him off than to go on with him, and perhaps the kind heart of the tall man would not allow such a move. It was remarked once by an old man whose peculiar temperament did not allow him to progress pleasantly with all of his neighbors and who did not acquiesce in the religious opinions of the Richardsons:
" Well, there's no use in arguing-them Richardsons were born Chris- tians from the beginning, and that ends it." At all events, whatever prompted Mr. Richardson he allowed the little man to ride out on his coat skirts and they reached a place of safety together. It is said that Amos Pettibone never wearied of recounting this wonderful story.
Like the tale of " Horatius at the Bridge," ever repeated by the Roman firesides when the nights were long, when the good wife knit her stockings, and the good man mended the bow, so with this more modern battle in the little brown farm house by the open kitchen fire of piled up maple logs, this story of the " Brave days of old," and Little Moses' strange ride at Stoney Araby was told again and again until the teller won for himself the soubri- quet of Stoney Araby.
It is comparatively easy to record those who came home from this dread- ful battle-field, and quite impossible to find which of the Berkshire boys fell in death. It is known, however, that there were some, and in the lan-
*Col. Brown had with him that morning 250 or 300 men, 45 were slain and scalped, the rest took refuge in flight. Six were slain by the Indians when found behind a rock, where they had hidden.
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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
guage of one of Berkshire's orators, "John Brown sleeps not alone at Stone Arabia. Many a Berkshire boy fell with him. Many a Berkshire mother's heart sunk within her at the news of that day's work."
On the 30th day of June, 1777, Captain Samuel Low's company marched to the St. Croix where they remained in service until the 14th day of August, when they were dismissed just in time to be summoned from that place to Bennington, where they fought, and were in service from the 14th to the 19th of the same month (August).
On the 5th day of September came the alarm all down the county from Pawlet, the head-quarters of Gen. Lincoln. Troops were needed to defend the frontier from Burgoyne and his horde of Tories and lawless savages, a merciless foe to send out in civilized warfare; but one which the minister. at the Conrt of St. James declared to be a proper one to fight the colonists of England, " On principle."
Again Capt. Low's troops started for the front, and remained from the 5th of September until the 5th of October, Twice during the month of October, 1780, Capt. Low's company were called to the northward under orders of Gen. Fellows.
On the 16th of July, 1777, a company of volunteers under Capt. Joab Stafford marched from New Providence to re-enforce Col. Warner's men at Manchester, by order of Gen. Schuyler.
On September 5th, 1777, Capt. Daniel Brown marched with his company to Pawlet, the head-quarters of Gen. Lincoln. Many brilliant exploits were performed by the Berkshire detachments during the month included from September 5th to October 5th.
On October 13th, 20th and 27th, 1:80, Capt. Daniel Brown and his com- pany were called for and marched to the relief.
On July 13th, 1779, Capt. Brown's company commanded by Lieut. White were sent to New Haven.
The men of Cheshire who went out in this command were Silas Barker, Jeremiah Read. Joshua Read and Newhall Barker. In a company under Lient. Jeremiah Brown, in Col. Asa Barnes' regiment, which was detached on an alarm on the 13th day of October, 1781, and joined Gen. Stark at Saratoga, were Rufus Carpenter, Levi Wilmarth, Joseph Spencer, Jonathan Smith, Benjamin Bowen, Jonathan Richardson, Daniel Biddlecome, John Wilmarth. JJeremiah Smith, Joab Stafford. Jr., and John Richardson who were detailed to take care of the baggage and paid twelve shillings.
On the 19th of October was the fatal battle of Stone Arabia, in which were engaged, from New Providence and Lanesborongh, Nehemiah Richardson, Calvin Hall, Daniel Reid, Benjamin Carpenter, Charles Thrasher, Amos Pettybone, Moses Wolcott, Simeon Smith, and Roger Pettybone. Tradition
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FROM 1777-1787.
says that Lieut. Nathaniel Bliss was also in this engagement. His name does not appear on the pay rolls.
In 1784 of this decade Deacon Daniel Coman put up the house where Mr. James Wells now resides, he having purchased the farm of 250 acres from the heirs of Deacon Coman in 1844. The deacon is described by a contem- porary as a wealthy farmer devoted to his church, first in all good works and deeds of charity. A large family filled the house which stands upon the original site and is but little changed. It is among the oldest houses in the
town; for this is its centennial year. The farm is beautifully located, and is approached by a grassy lane lined with trees on either side, and gorgeous in the October days with the wealth of blooming golden rod and crimson sumac leaves. The fields and meadows sweep away from the house like some vast amphitheatre, at the foot of a little incline and in easy view from the house is the fish pond, a sparkling sheet of blue water, which glints in the sunshine as it did a hundred years ago, when the deacon walked upon its brink, and the children paddled across it in the boat always floating there. It is never dry, is twenty feet deep, and is fed from invisible springs with no apparent outlet.
The house upon this farm is an ancient landmark that has been protected with the most generous care by its present owner, Mr. Wells. The flat door stone of half circular shape is mortised into the massive cellar wall, and ap- pears none the worse for all the feet that have crossed it. Entering the door one is plunged headlong into an antiquarian mine, which the owner patiently goes over with the descendants of the Coman family, whose name is legion. The parlor with its fire place and little handirons, its tiny win- dow panes, the old wainscoting with its dark blue paint, the very cat holes in the doors, the wooden hinges, and quaint latches where the latch string was always out, with some of the chairs, the tables and stands, reach back to the days when the Comans lived beneath the roof and laid their plans for work and pleasure. Across that corner in the little parlor stood the happy bride, beneath that window they placed the burial case, and in yonder bed- room Deacon Coman, like a shock of corn fully ripe, bade good-bye to life. In the chamber above are coats of home-made broadcloth, bell crowned hats and bonnets, grown old like the faces that wore them, which bring your an- cestors around you clad as of old in their high heeled shoes, and short gowns and petticoats.
Going up the lane, on the right hand side, lies the family burying ground. The Comans, Whipples and Angels of those days rest there beneath the sod, a goodly company, the gray haired man and the little babe, the soldier scarcely at the prime of life, and the young maiden. Over them all nod the trees set out by hands long since dust. The Coman family went out from
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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
this homestead one by one, to form homes for themselves, seeking as their fathers had done before them, a new country. Mercy Coman married Ar- nold Mason, son of one of the early settlers on Pork Lane, and started at once for Central New York, crossing the Hudson at Albany on the ice, trav- eling with an ox team. They made their home where the spires and chim- neys of Utica now rise, which with the means for traveling they had at their command was a great distance from the farm house in the Berkshire settle- ment; the way was difficult at the best for the journey must be made with oxen or on horseback, it was only the favored few who had private carriages, and public conveyances were not provided. But when sickness entered the home, and a sister lay at the point of death, distance and danger were for- gotten, and Mrs. Mason mounted her pony, took her youngest child, a babe of little more than three months, and so, on horseback, rode the entire dis- tance from Utica to Lanesborough, reaching her destination in safety, while neither herself nor child was the worse for the brave undertaking.
The same year that Deacon Coman came to Cheshire, Stephen Whipple bought land at what is always called Muddy Brook from the brownish yel- low color that the stream takes on at that point. The farm that he bought proved to be a valuable investment for Mr. Whipple, although not an alto- gether satisfactory sale to the owner, Dr. Lyon. Mr. Whipple, it appears, either took the papers, or, with native shrewdness that taught him to go through the world with his eyes well open, learned that the money of the States, Continental currency as they called it, and which had been as good as gold, was rapidly depreciating, and he must make use of what he had soon, or it would be a dead letter on his hands. So, taking his way up to Lanesborough, he made an offer for this Muddy Brook farm which was accepted and for which he paid the. cash. Ere many months elapsed the money became so utterly useless, that from that time to the present, the most emphatic way to express the entire nothingness of any article has been to say, "Its not worth a continental," and Mr. Whipple's predecessor found that the money he had so gladly received was nothing but dust, that like the Dead Sea fruit had turned to ashes in his hands.
It was the ancestor of these Whipples who spilled the first blood of the Revolutionary war. Capt. Whipple of the schooner, Defense, in Charleston harbor was ordered to use all military precaution to oppose the passage of the British toward Fort Johnson. He executed the order, and as it was be- fore the Declaration of Independence, it opened the war at the south. There have been three Baptist ministers in the family, Rev. Madison Whipple. Roswell Whipple and Rev. Alden B. Whipple of Pittsfield, a historian of several of the Berkshire towns.
Deacon Stephen Carpenter, an early comer, was at this time a man of note
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FROM 1777-1787.
and influence, successful in a worldly way, his family are said to have been among the most aristocratic people. He settled north of the village in New Providence, and his home was built just below the point where Pork Lane merges into the old road to Adams. This street, so much traveled then, is now a grassy, country lane, the houses are old, some of them have tum- bled down, the stone walls are overgrown with bushes and mountain flowers, still some good farms and farmers are found there at the present time. Mr. George Carpenter, a great grandson of the deacon lives in one of them.
Pork Lane received its name because from days immemorial the people have inclined to pork and beans, which the housewives all up and down its borders are said to excel in preparing. In 1782 Stephen Ingalls came to Cheshire with his parents. He grew up here and his name is often seen: He raised a large family on a farm at the west of Cheshire, and his sons and daughters have been among the substantial families of the town. Some of his sons are living on fine farms, some interested in manufacturing, others in buying and selling dairies. Capt. Darius Bucklin was a man of note in town. The Lincolns, too, settled at New Providence, early, and lived upon the farm and in the house which was the stopping place for stages when first put upon the road. David Dunnell of Stafford's Hill was a soldier that the town may well be proud of. He joined the regular army, served through the entire revolutionary war, and received his discharge in 1783 signed by Washington's own hand.
With the return of peace in 1783, the outlook was a sorry one for the men of New England. All private affairs had been sadly neglected through- out the colonial conflict, all business was disarranged, buildings had fallen into decay, and the farms into neglect, debts had been contracted, interest piled upon interest, towns were involved by the large quota of men pro- vided, and for whose maintenance they were held responsible, crops had failed and famine stalked in at their doors, add to all these the consolidated debt of the State, and it is not difficult to see that millions of dollars stared them in the face, with no sale for their produce, and a rapidly depreciating paper currency.
The Berkshire men were honest and sturdy ; but how were they to pay these debts, and at the same time keep absolute starvation from their wives and babes ? Impossibilities cannot be accomplished, and when the laws admitted of the seizing of their crops and cattle for the payment of these debts, groups of men gathered, " under the rose," refused to pay their taxes, and threatened to overthrow the government which, but a little while ago they were willing to lay down their lives for. Unduly influenced by false leaders what wonder that they should in a moment of desperation fail to see the folly and mischief involved in the insurrection of Daniel Shays ?
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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE.
It is true, that a few men from these settlements joined the disaffected, and followed their fortunes until after considerable skirmishing and some fighting, the insurgents were disbanded. Some of the leading spirits were held for punishment, and a few condemned to death, although afterward pardoned. However, those engaged were filled with terror, and feared the worst in case they should be arrested. Hearing that officers were in town searching for the rebels some of the guilty men hastened to a house on Pork Lane where lived a resolute, cool-headed man, who was a sympathizer with the insurrectionists. Considering the attempt to escape from town too hazardous, the old man, Jessie Mason, conducted them to the kitchen, and removing some bricks from an oven that had passed into disuse concealed the Tories there until the search and excitement was over. This house is now occupied by Mr. Leroy Northrop.
Two others fled to the Hoosac mountains hoping in the fastnesses to find shelter and security. There was a driving autumnal storm that night, the wind was piercing, and the wanderers suffered from the severe cold. Ap- proaching a hut that had been used by mountain choppers they entered, built a fire on the hearth, propped up the door to keep out the wind and snow, they lay down upon the floor before the fire, and weary with their long tramp soon fell into a deep sleep. The fire burned low, some charcoal had been used in its construction, and the fumes of the dying flames in the tight apartment generated a poison that filled the air, and days after the poor fellows were found suffocated.
During the year 1779, the New Providence people were anxious to annex themselves to the town of Adams. Several meetings were called, and the subject considered. There appears to have been decided " pros" and quite as many " cons," for there were meetings and meetings where lively, spirited debates were held ; but they all ended in discussion, and the folks went home. The fact of the union seemed to be substantiated because the dwellers on Stafford's Hill dated their letters at Adams, all deeds after this time were made out at Adams, and the church on New Providence Hill was referred to as the First Baptist church of Adams, beside the significant fact that all votes were cast at that village. After much eager search, at last, through the appreciative interest and care of Mr. Joseph Northrop, Town Clerk of Cheshire, au old paper, yellowed by time, and creased with mani- fold foldings, was unearthed which proved to be the veritable document, the legal instrument by which Stafford's Hill was added to the town of Adanis. Lest this paper may go a straying during the coming hundred years, and journey too far to be reclaimed by the searcher after antiquarian lore at that period a verbatim copy is given below:
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