USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > History of the town of Pittsfield, in Berkshire County, Mass., with a map of the county > Part 5
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DISTINGUISHED INDIVIDUALS.
A number of gentlemen in this town have been greatly employed and honored in public life. Among these the Hon. Wm. Williams deserves to be particularly mentioned. His father, of the same name, was pastor of the church in Weston; and his grandfather, also of the same name, was pastor of the church in Hatfeld. In 1729 he was graduated at Harvard College-soon after which he settled as a mer- chant in Boston, where he became a member of the West church in that town. About. 1744 he removed to Deerfield, and thence to this place in 1753. Upon his first coming here he lived in a house, used as a fort in the second French war, standing where Mr. Levi Goodrich now dwells, and then near the " Four corners," where Joseph Shearer, Esq. recently resided. In 1740, during the war between Great Britain and
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Spain, he went in the great but as it proved unfortunate ex- pedition against the Spanish West Indies. In what capaci- ty he entered the service is unknown, but while the forces from Great Britain and the Colonies were at Port Royal in Jamaica, he was honored with an ensign's commission in the regiment of foot commanded by Col. Wm. Gooch. In 1744, when France became united with Spain in this con- troversy, he was appointed Major of the forces in the ser- vice of government posted on the line of forts between Connecticut river and the river Hoosic-and in the course of that year was authorized to erect a fortification in Cole- raine. The next year he was made a Lieut. Colonel of the 8th regiment raised in Massachusetts for the expedition against Cape Breton. In 1758, (in the second French war,) he marched at the head of a regiment to Canada. In 1763 he was constituted colonel of the regiment of militia in the County of Berkshire ; and in 1771, when probably the regi- ment was divided, Colonel of the northern regiment in the County ; the southern it is understood being placed at that time under the command of his cousin, Col. Elijah Will- iams, then of West Stockbridge. When an attempt was made by forces from New York to drive off settlers from Egremont, under pretence that the town lay within the limits of that colony, he was active in repelling the inva- sion. How he discharged the various duties devolved upon him by these appointments, it may be difficult now precise- ly to ascertain. The appointments themselves are an hon- orable testimony to his abilities. According to tradition he possessed to a high degree the attributes of a good officer. The civil duties to which he was called were also numerous and important. In 1748, while living at Deerfield, he was made a justice of the peace for the County of Hampshire, an office which he probably retained after his removal to Pittsfield, until the formation of this County, as Pittsfield belonged to the former County until that period. At that time he was appointed a Judge of the County Court for Berkshire, and upon the death of Gen. Joseph Dwight, in
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1765, he became the presiding Judge of this Court, and also Judge of Probate. The first office he held until 1781 : the second he gave up three years previous. For a long time he was the principal magistrate in the northern part of the County. His death occurred April 5th 1784, at the age of seventy-five. In recommending him to the church in Pitts- field, the Rev. Jonathan Mayhew declares, " that his life and conversation were as becomes a professor of the gos- pel." The Rev. Mr. Allen says, " he was a gentleman of liberal education and cultivated understanding, of great generosity, a friend of religious order and of the happiness of the town."
Charles Goodrich, Esq. came to this town in 1752, a year before Col. Williams, as has been stated, and lived for a time likewise in a house used as a fortification in the second French war, constructed of squared logs, and standing a lit- tle south-east of the dwelling-house of Mr. Hosea Merrill, Jr. ; though he spent most of his days in the dwelling near the " Four Corners," recently occupied by his son, the Rev. Charles Goodrich. He was the proprietor of several lots of land in the township ; and in 1761 he obtained a grant of the southern part of Hancock, probably with a view to the ac- commodation of some of his relatives. He was a member of the Provincial Congress which met at Concord April 12, 1774, and he repeatedly represented the town at the Gener- al Court. From 1774 till 1778, he was a Judge of the County Court. He died Nov. 16, 1816, aged ninety-six.
Col. Oliver Root was distinguished as a military man. In early life he served two campaigns in the second French war. He was a native of Westfield, and it is worthy of a passing notice, that in going onward to the north, he and others with him came to this town as is supposed, on the route now occupied by the Rail Road, having an Indian guide and also aid from marked trees. They encamped one night near the eastern line of the town in Dalton. He crossed Lake George under Gen. Abercrombie in his great
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and imposing flotilla of boats, in his approach to Ticonde- roga, and was in the disastrous battle which followed, under the walls of that fortress, where nearly 2000 men in the army of that unfortunate commander were either killed or wounded. Col. Root's services on the lines were principal- ly in the corps of rangers under Maj. Rodgers, an arduous situation for a youth of sixteen and seventeen years of age and full of temptations, but he had resolution, and through the blessing of God, strength to bear hardship, and principle to resist temptation. Integrity marked his conduct on his return.
In the early part of the Revolutionary war he bore a part in the capacity of a captain in the operations in the vicinity of New York, and was among the troops who marched into the city when it was evacuated by the British. He was at Bennington near the time of the battle, but for reasons which circumstances would doubtless satisfactorily explain, not in season to take a part in the action, and he afterwards had the satisfaction of witnessing the surrender of Gen. Bur- goyne at Saratoga. He was a Major under Col. Brown when that brave officer fell at Stone Arabia; succeeding to the command, he successfully conducted the retreat, and by his wisdom, saved the block-house and his men. Having only one brass piece and three cartridges of powder, he or- dered his men to break up their pots and kettles for balls, and by the firing of this single piece, so intimidated an overwhelming force while deliberating about an attack up- on the block-house, that they withdrew. That force the next day was overcome by Gen Van Rensellaer.
Col. Root was an acting magistrate ; and while he main- tained religious order in his family, was a constant at- tendant upon the worship of God. His death occurred May 2, 1826, at the age of eighty-five.
Woodbridge Little, Esq., a native of Lebanon, Ct., came here about 1766. He was the first gentleman who settled in the town as a lawyer. The inhabitants in several in- stances appointed him a representative to the General Court.
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He was a trustee and benefactor of Williams College, the Corporation of which have preserved the leading facts in his history in a marble tablet inserted in the wall of the College Chapel, on the left of the desk, over against the tablet of Col. Ephraim Williams on the right. " To the memory of the venerable Woodbridge Little, Esq. who was graduated at Yale College in 1760, was early licensed to preach the gospel ; afterwards became a distinguished law- yer and public benefactor ; and died at Pittsfield, June 21, 1813, aged seventy two. Not satisfied with giving his prop- erty to Christ when he could no longer hold it himself, he presented to this College in his life time $2500, and at his death raised the sum to near $5100, for the education of pious and promising youth for the gospel ministry ; a char- ity which will extend an incalculable influence through ages that will never end."
Hon. Timothy Childs, M. D. entered Harvard College in 1764. Having studied physic with Dr. Thomas Williams, physician in Deerfield, his native town, he commenced practice here in 1771. In 1774 he took a commission in a company of minute men under the command of Capt. Da- vid Noble, and upon the news of the battle of Lexington went with this company to Boston, where he was soon after appointed a surgeon of the army. In 1777 he left the army and resumed his practice in this town, in which he continu- ed until within less than a week of his death, Feb. 20, 1821, at the age of seventy-three. He was repeatedly a member of the General Court in both branches-a member of the Medical Society of the State, and president of the District Society.
Col. John Brown was probably born in Brimfield or Gran- ville, as his parents removed to those towns from Woodstock, Ct. before they settled in Sandisfield, where he spent his early youth. After graduating at Yale College in 1771, he studied law with Oliver Arnold in Providence, and com- menced the practice at Caughnawaga, now Johnstown, N.
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York, and was appointed King's Attorney. Here he be- came acquainted with Sir John Johnson, through whose wickedness he and numbers under him were afterwards massacred. About 1773 he moved to Pittsfield, where there was no lawyer excepting Mr. Little. Excited by the ag- gressions of Great Britain, now beginning to be deeply felt in the Colonies, he resolved to hazard every thing for the welfare of his country. Bold and prudent, and having a fine personal appearance, he was selected by the State Committee of correspondence in 1774, for the hazardous enterprize of going to Canada to induce the people of that province to unite with the inhabitants of the States against the mother country. His pretence was the purchase of horses ; but the Canadians remarked, that he was a singu- lar jockey, for the horses never suited him. Once indeed the house in which he lodged, was assailed ; but he made his escape. He was delegate to the Provincial Congress, Feb. 15, 1775. Immediately after the battle of Lexington, Capts. Edward Mott and Noah Phelps of Hartford, Ct. with others, formed the purpose of taking Ticonderoga and Crown Point by surprise. They marched privately April 29, with sixteen unarmed men. Arriving at Pittsfield, they commu- nicated the project to Mr. Brown and Col. James Easton ; also to Col. Ethan Allen, who was then in this place. These gentlemen immediately engaged to co-operate, and to raise men for the purpose. Of the Berkshire men and the Green Mountain boys 230 were collected under the command of Allen, and proceeded to Castleton. Here they were unex- pectedly joined by Col. Arnold, who had been commission- ed by the Massachusetts Committee to raise 400 men and effect the same object, which was now about to be accom- plished. As he had not raised the men, he was admitted only to act as an assistant to Col. Allen. They reached the lake opposite Ticonderoga on Tuesday evening May 9, 1775, and the next day Ticonderoga was taken, and a day or two after, Crown Point; soon a sloop of war, which made Allen and his brave party complete masters of lake Cham- plain. Mr. Brown was intrusted with the business of
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conveying away the prisoners, and was also sent as express to the General Congress at Philadelphia, where he arrived May 17th. In July he and Allen were despatched through the woods into Canada to assure the Canadians, that their religion and liberties should not be impaired by the ap- proaching army. On the 24th of Sept. he took Fort Cham- blee. 'The next day Allen, who expected the co-operation of Brown, marched upon Montreal, but was attacked by a superior force and taken prisoner. As this was an expedi- tion unauthorized by any higher authority, Allen was treat- ed with great severity.
While Arnold was before Quebec, Brown, then a Major, arrived from Sorrel and joined him : Montgomery had ar- rived two days before. In the attack on Quebec, Dec. 31, Major Brown with a part of a regiment of Boston troops was directed to co-operate by making a false attack upon the walls to the south of St. John's gate, and to set fire to the gate with combustibles prepared for the purpose. He executed his part in the enterprize : Col. Livingston, owing to the depth of the snow, failed in his. In this assault Montgomery fell. The Congress, Aug. 1, 1776, voted him a commission of Lieut. Colonel, with rank and pay in the continental army from Nov. 1775. In Dec. 1776 he con- ducted a regiment of militia to Fort Independence. After the defeat of Col. Baum at Bennington, in 1777, he was despatched by Gen. Lincoln from Paulet to the north end of Lake George with 500 men to relieve our prisoners. By marching all night he attacked the enemy at break of day Sept. 17th, at the landing three miles from Ticonderoga ; set at liberty 100 of our men ; made prisoners of 293; took the landing, Mount Defiance, Mount Hope, the English lines, and the block-house; 200 batteaux, an armed sloop, sever- al gun-boats, a few cannon, and a vast quantity of plunder. His letter to Gen. Gates Sept. 18, describes his success, which tended to raise the spirit of the troops and to excite the militia to join their brethren. After this exploit he joined the main army. In the next month Burgoyne was captured.
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Soon after this event Col. Brown retired from the service on account of his detestation of Arnold. In the campaign in Canada in 1776, he had become acquainted with his char- acter ; and it is remarkable, that at this period, three years before the treason of Arnold, he published a handbill of thirteen or fourteen articles against him, in the height of his fame, charging him with levying contributions on the Canadians for his own private use and benefit. He said that Arnold would prove a traitor, for he had sold many a life for money. The people of La Prairie had submitted on the promise of good quarters ; but their village was plundered and burnt and lives were destroyed. After this Col. Brown was occasionally employed in the Massachusetts service. He was chosen a member of the General Court in 1778.
In the fall of 1780 he marched up the Mohawk, it is un- derstood, for the relief of fort Schuyler, (at Utica) endan- gered by the invasion of Sir John Johnson and Brandt, with their horde of regulars, tories and Indians, who were carry- ing war and desolation among the settlements eastward on that river. Brandt had already desolated the settements south of the Mohawk, and Sir John was engaged in the work of ruin on the north of it. Col. Brown advanced as far as the small palisade fort at Stone Arabia in Palatine, where he had under him 130 men. Apprised about this time of the proceedings of the enemy, Gen. Van Renssel- aer collected the militia of Claverack and Schenectady, and proceeded as far as Caughnawaga. From this place he wrote to Col. Brown to turn out and check the advance of the enemy, and he would support him from the rear ; in at- tempting to execute this order he was led by a traitor into an ambuscade of Johnson's men, before whom he fell, fight- ing manfully at the head of his little band, on his birth day, Oct. 19, 1780, aged thirty-six years. Forty-five of his men, many of whom marched from Berkshire the week before, were also killed. The rest unable to oppose a much larger force retreated. The next day Gen. Van Rensselaer, who, owing to some delay, had failed of supporting Brown, ob-
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tained a victory over this force at Fox's mills, a few miles distant.
When Johnson found that his former friend was slain, it is said his savage heart for a moment relented, and that he gave way to the emotion of grief.
The death of Col. Brown, in such a manner, is one of the mysterious events of Providence. Few if any in the county had such prospects of distinction and honor in life.
Col. Brown left a widow, (late wife of Capt. Jared In- gersoll) and four children, two daughters and two sons. The daughters married Wm. Butler, printer, Northampton, and Dr. Hooker of Rutland, Vt. The youngest son, Maj. Henry C. Brown, was for a long time the Sheriff of the County.
Col. Simon Larned, a native of Thompson, Ct., came to this town in 1784, and engaged in the business of merchan- dize. He was for many years Sheriff of the County, and in one instance, represented this district in the Congress of the United States. Before settling here he was an officer of merit in the Revolutionary war-and upon the commence- ment of the late war with Great Britain, he was appointed Colonel of the 9th regiment of United States infantry, and remained in the service until the war was closed. He died Nov. 16, 1817, aged sixty-one.
The Rev. Sylvester Larned, son of the preceding, minis- ter of the first Presbyterian church in the city of New Or- leans, was greatly distinguished for talents and moving elo- quence. He entered Williams College at an early age, but soon left that institution and united himself with the college in Middlebury, where he was graduated with a high repu- tation as a scholar in 1813. In the last year of his college life he became the hopeful subject of grace. Having stud- ied theology for a time at Andover and then at Princeton, he was licensed to preach the gospel in 1817. Wherever he went preaching, a high popularity followed him-and efforts were made to secure him as pastor by churches in
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Boston, Baltimore and Alexandria. In Jan. 1818 he visited New Orleans, where he united in accomplishing the plan, which Mr. Cornelius had started a few weeks before, of forming a Presbyterian congregation in that place. The work was soon done, and he became the pastor. In the fol- lowing summer he visited New England, and procured ma- terials for the erection of a church, the corner stone of which was laid Jan. 8, 1819. But he was not suffered long to live to exert a blessed influence in the great emporium of the west. He fell a victim of the yellow fever Aug. 31, 1820, aged 24. Few men in our country ever attained so soon to equal celebrity, and promised so much usefulness to the church. His widow, Sarah Wyer, of Newburyport, died at the city of Washington, Jan. 20, 1825, aged twenty-five.
Gen. Charles Larned, an elder brother of Sylvester, died at Detroit on the 13th of Sept. 1834, in the forty-third year of his age. He also entered Williams College at an early pe- riod, where he industriously pursued his classical studies. On leaving college he studied law with the Hon. Jno. Hunt, then of Stockbridge, about two years. He then went to Lexington, Ky., with a view of pursuing his studies, but was soon made, first a Lieutenant and then Adjutant, in a regiment of volunteers, under the command of Col. Owen. The regiment joined the army on the frontiers in Aug. 1813, and participated in most of the events of the northwestern campaign. Lieut. Larned was present with it at the battle of the Moravian Towns on the Thames, and at different pe- riods was despatched with small bodies of men to protect the terrified inhabitants, and to quiet the fears of the de- fenceless women and children in the interior, every where exhibiting the utmost coolness and intrepidity. He remain- ed attached to the army till some time in the year 1814, when he resigned his commission to devote himself to the practice of law in Detroit. In Dec. on the re-organization of the government, he was appointed by Gov. Cass, Attor- ney General of the Territory of Michigan, an office which
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he held up to the year 182-, when he resigned. Subse- quently he was appointed to other offices civil and military ; he became a Brig. General of militia. He stood very high at the Michigan bar, as an able and eloquent advocate. He was a liberal supporter of religious institutions, a friend and successful promoter of the temperance reformation, a patron of enterprizing youth, striving to rise in the world by personal and commendable exertions-faithful and happy in the duties of domestic and relative life.
Solomon Metcalf Allen, son of the first minister of this town, a particular friend and classmate of Sylvester Lar- ned, was destined by his father to be a farmer, being athletic and fond of active life ; but after he became pious, his friends wishing that he should receive a collegiate education, he commenced the study of Latin at the age of twenty. At college he was distinguished among his fellows in the ac- quisition of knowledge. During a year spent at Andover, besides attending to the customary studies, he read a part of the New Testament in the Syriac language. After offi- ciating for two years as tutor, he was chosen in 1816, profes- sor of the ancient languages, having risen to this honor in sev- en years after commencing the study of Latin. But he was hardly permitted to enter upon the duties of this professor- ship. Induced, on account of a defect in the chimney, to go imprudently upon the roof of the college building, he fell from it Sept. 23d, 1817, aged twenty-eight years. In his last hours his numerous friends crowded around him, " watching with trembling anxiety the flight of his immor- tal soul to the kindred spirits of a better world." "Under the extreme anguish of his dying moments, resigning the loveliness, which he had hoped would be shortly his own, and all the fair prospects of this world, he exclaimed-' The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice ! O Father, thy will be ". done! So seemeth it good in thy sight, O Lord.'" Professor Allen was a sound and thorough scholar.
Allen S. Larned, Alexander M. Fisher, Levi Parsons,
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Pliny Fisk and Joseph R. Andrus, students at Andover, are alluded to by Carlos Wilcox in the following lines :
"Ye were a group of stars collected here, Some mildly glowing, some sparkling bright; Here rising in a region calm and clear, Ye shone a while with intermingled light; Then parting, each pursuing his own flight O'er the wide hemisphere, ye singly shone; But, ere ye climed to half your promised height, Ye sunk again with brightening glory round you thrown, Each left a brilliant track, as each expired alone."
The Hon. Chandler Williams was a native of Roxbury and graduate of Harvard College, 1777. He was admitted to the bar, it is understood in this County, about 1783 or 4. From 1794 until 1799 he represented the town at the Gen- eral Court. He represented it again in 1800, and was a member of the Governor's Council in 1817, and 1818.
Mr. Thomas Gold was the son of Rev. Hezekiah Gold of Cornwall, Ct. While a member of Yale College, for six or seven months in 1777, he was secretary to Gen. Putnam at the Highlands in New York. After graduating in 1778 he studied law, and in 1792 came to this place. Besides filling town offices, he was president of the Agricultural Bank and of the Berkshire Agricultural Society.
The Hon. John W. Hulbert, a native of Alford, was ad- mitted to the bar in 1794. He practiced law here for sev- eral years, and was a member of Congress from 1815, to 1817. The latter part of his life he practiced law in Au- burn, New York.
Col. Samuel M. McKay " was much esteemed for his so- cial qualities, his liberality to the poor and unfortunate, and his efforts to promote and extend the prosperity of the town. He enjoyed the confidence of the people, and they bestow- ed upon him the highest offices in their gift, at various times : at the time of his decease he was one of the repre-
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sentatives in the State Legislature." He died of a consump- tion Oct. 6th. 1834, aged thirty-eight.
" Col. Joshua Danforth," to use the language of the Rev. Dr. Brinsmade, in the sermon preached at his fu- neral, "was born in Western, [now Warren,] Massachu- setts, November 26th, 1759. He was the son of Jona- than Danforth, an officer in the Revolutionary War, who acted a conspicuous part as commander of a Battalion at the Battle of Bennington. It was the intention of his father, in early life, to give this son a liberal education, and he was qualifying himself to enter College when the Revolutionary struggle commenced. It was then, when the note of war was sounded and the veteran troops of England were pouring in upon our territories, that, at the age of fifteen years, he entered the army in the capacity of clerk in his father's company. After having served several months in this office, at the same time discharging the duties of Surgeon's mate, he received, at the age of sixteen, an En- sign's commission. From this post he was promoted, and in 1778 raised to the rank of first Lieutenant, in which office he continued until 1781, when he was appointed Paymaster, with the rank of Captain. His first active services were performed at Roxbury, in June, 1775, at the time the British were throwing bombs into that place. When Gen. Wash- ington had ordered the army to remove from the place, and the last regiment had left the encampment, it was ascertain- ed that a part of the baggage had been left behind, and a detachment of men, under the command of Mr. Danforth, was ordered to go and secure it, which was done at great hazard. He remained in that vicinity until March 17, 1776, when, with the main body of the American army under Washington, he marched into Boston, as the rear of the British army left that town. He was in Boston until the following summer, and there in July heard for the first time the Declaration of Independence read to the army, which was called out for that purpose. Soon after this he went to Ticonderoga, and was at the surrender of Burgoyne in 1777. Immediately after this event, the Brigade to which he belonged was ordered to New-Jersey, and thence to
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