USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Lanesborough > History of town of Lanesborough, Massachusetts, 1741-1905 > Part 3
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happening. Our own land, our own town has lost somewhat of the early, hardy vigor of the first settlers and begins to resemble the worn out fields. In accordance with the universal law. God is now sending to us vast hordes of new people by every white- winged messenger that crosses the Atlantic. They come here among other reasons. to supply what we lack. If we arise to our opportunities, join earnestly in the work of amalgamating, assimilating these people, receiving from them what they have to bring, and imparting to them of the fullness of our gifts, mould- ing all into one compact, American people, then the sun will have never shone upon a land as grand. as happy. as rich.and as prosperous as ours. But if we shrink from the task because it is hard, because. like a glacial epoch. the progress is unpleasing: if we leave these people as an uneducated, unchristianized. un- Americanized mass in our midst, then just as when (as in the Wizard's Glen) the glacier melts before its work is finished. there is deposited a huge mass of unground rock not only of no profit, but preventing even the little former vitality of the ground from asserting itself; so with us, we may by being derelict, have within our borders a huge, undigested foreign ele- ment, of no profit whatever, constantly a menace to our national life. and so the last state be worse than the first.
This, then, is our task, surely not less in difficulty and in im- portance than was the work our fathers did.
We may cry, alas! we are not such men as they and can never do our work as they did theirs. Yes. it may be true that since their day the changing tendency has been downward, but perhaps we may find hope in the doctrine of atavism, that though variation from the ancestral type may be always going on, yet there is after a while the tendency to revert to the par- ent type. And so perchance in our very consciousness of de- generating variation we may see the promise of the approach- ing reversion to the faith and manhood of our fathers and so rise to the hope set before us.
In thus fulfilling and carying to perfection the work they laid down, the men who went before us are even now our eager wit- nesses and ready sympathizers and glad co-workers.
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On a day like this, and in a place like this, we feel them very near, for the air about us is laden with their presence. For though in the great heavens the largest spot on earth is but a tiny speck, yet as Webster said of the Dartmouth College of his day, so we may say of this town of Lanesborough, it is a little spot. but there are those that love it. And in that love your departed sons behold your work with tender sympathy, and to your answering love no task is hopeless, and in its strength all things are possible.
At the delivery of the address at the Old Home Week Cele- bration the following words were introduced in conclusion re- ferring to the Scriptural promises of resurrection of the dead and the final Home Coming for eternal reunion at the World's end.
Ah, does not!this promise come home to our hearts with pe- culiar depth and tenderness of meaning? For as has been said what family is there so favored that allits beloved ones are safe- ly folded under one roof-tree? What home is there whose circle of happy faces is complete and from which, even if all are in this life. no one has gone forth to dwell in distant lands? Alas, for that migratory instinct which robs the home nest so sadly often! AAlas, for the river of human life so often overflowing its banks and compelling search for fresh fields in which to move! The homes and graves of those who once praved around the same fond mother's knees are now severed far and wide by ocean's waves or long leagues of equally separating land. At this moment there are hearts on the lonely deep that have been well nigh broken in the desperate wrench of departing from their na- tive land. There are eyes that gaze through bitterly burning tears on the purple hills of childhood as they grow dim and cloudlike. We hear from fand of our friends at a distance al- most as if they had lived in another world and had no longer any part or lot in the common everyday world in which we dwell. We hear from them and of them at intervals, but we scarce expect to see them, save at rare intervals, again; and however anxious they may be to revisit the scenes of childhood, although they may have many a pang of homesickness and cast many a yearning look across the blue waters or the vast prairies, still
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circumstances prevent their return. New ties, new interests, new associations spring up to chain them to their adopted home and to separate them from us forever. And how often in the solemn eventide, when memories of the past come back with thrilling power, how often on gay and festive anniversaries, when most we miss our absent and distant friends, and imagina- tion strives in vain to picture the strange scenes amid which their lot is cast. and a longing, all the stronger in that it can- not be gratified, to see the oldifamiliar faces and hear the voices we remember so well, takes possession of us all! Oh, in such hours as these |how do we yearn with our whole souls for the place where there shall be no more sea to divide the loving and the loved and make life so much of a dreary exile. Oh thrice blessed thought that the friends who bade such reluctant fare- wells to each other on earth and for so much of their lives lived apart shall meet on the eternal shore to separate no more again forever. Those whom we shall never see again in this world of partings and of tears shall be restored to our bosom in that land where the home circle shall never be broken and the inhabitants shall go no more out. For next to the bliss of enjoy- ing the vision of our God the reunion of friends will be the greatest blessing in the Heaven where there shall be no more sin, and sorrow and sighing and separation shall be no more.
APPENDIX I.
SKETCH OF GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF BAL- ANCE ROCK, LANESBOROUGH.
BY COURTESY OF REV. A. B. WHIPPLE.
"Balance Rock.' illustrated above. is a bowlder which was brought to its present location from some point east of the Hudson river by glacial action. The stone on which it rests is of a different nature from the balanced rock. It was left poised where it now is by the ice river which carried it there, melting from around it and releasing it at this spot. This was done at some time within 10,000 years. Ten thousand years from now this region will have a torrid tempeature, and twenty-three thousand years from now rivers of ice, a new system of glaciers, will fill the valley.
The rock before us is nearly wedge-shaped, 25 by 15 by 10 feet. containing about 1900 solid feet. With a specific gravity of 2.7 it will weigh not far from 165 tons.
It is called a bowlder. from bowl. to roll, as it has been bowled or moved from some more or less distant place to its present location .
This bowlder and its bed rock are both limestone, but not alike, and so we infer that one was formed here and the other brought here, by some agency.
Two theories have been advocated: one the iceberg and the other the glacial theory. We take the glacial theory, which will, be briefly explained:
Glaciers are vast frozen rivers, having their source, like riv- ers in general, among the mountains, where the accumulated snows do not melt, but by abundance and consequent pressure become compact. These masses of ice. by gravity, press toward the base of the mountains, aided by the warmeriearth beneath. They do not slide down as an avalanche does, but by the 'slow process of thawing on the sides and bottom, move onward at
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the rate of eight or ten inches per day. or about a mile in 25 years. I have seen the glaciers now moving among the Bernese Alps covering vast areas. looking. as I have seen the valley of the 'Hudson at sunrise from the summit of the Catskills, cov- ered everywhere with fog. save here and there the highest hill tops.
In their movements they conform to the valleys, and like converging streams, unite into one final glacier, whose termina- tion is far below the limit of perpetual snow and ice.
Moving slowly along the rocky sides of the mountains they collect onteach side the rocks and earth detached by frost and their own pushing power, and bear them onward. On each side of every valley there is a continuous row of these fallen rocks, called moraines. When two of these ice streams meet the in- ner moraines each unite and form a moraine out in the middle of the glacier, so there may be as many moraines as streams less one. In the high Alpine valley of the Grindelwald I saw a gla- cier 12 miles long. 4 miles broad and 700 feet thick, like a per- pendicular wall, slowly pushing its way along. and yet in sum- mer thawing faster than it moved. leaving the debris in front some distance from the glacier. In winter the thawing is less than the movement and the moraines are pushed forward. Such movements have been here in ages long past. Sometimes these glaciers reach the sea. and pushing out to a great distance, are finally broken off and become icebergs or ice mountains. There are in Greenland today such glaciers 20 miles in width.
It is not essential to the movement of a glacier that there be a down grade. The revolution of the earth is sufficient as for the waters of the Mississippi to flow south.
Dr. Hitchcock. in his Geological Survey of this State, notes that all drift is uniformly from the northwest to the southeast. and that no bowlders of any ledge are found north, east, or west of such ledge: their size and number decrease as they go south.
He notes also that the direction of the mountains has little influence on the course taken: and once more, that the present hills and valleys existed at the time or period of dispersion of
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bowlders. With these statements before us, let us study this locality and its surroundings.
Most of the small stones we have passed over on the road near here and all along the eastern slope of the Taghkanie range in this county, are compact sandstone, of sharp, silicious grains. with various markings. That kind of stone has been brought hither from/eastern New York, where the rock is of this kind, and helps illustrate the statement of Dr. Hitchcock that, gen- erally, bowlders are not transported many miles.
Let us come directly to the rocks before which are metamor- phie limestone, a kind of rock in greater abundance in Berk- shire and of better qualities than in all the other sections of the commonwealth. This bed of limestone extends north to C'an- ada, and south through eastern New York and New Jersey to Virginia. all formed at some time under the sea, and consists of the comminuted shells of marine origin. The little molusks gathered the carbonic acid of the water to form their outside bones as we form our bones of the same material.
Limestone may be known from all other minerals by its tendency to effervesce in vinegar and other acids. In its pri- mary condition it contains fossils. By means of heat it is so changed that the fossils become invisible.
The metamorphic change may reveal itself in one, or all, of three ways: Solidifying, crystalizing and coloring, as when gray clay heated becomes red brick. Sometimes there is also a change of constitution, as when silicates and carbonates. be- come glass. It is in this way gems are formed, topaz, sapphire, emerald and diamond. Crystalized limestone, when hard enough to receive a polish, is called marble. Its hardness de- pends upon the pressure at the time of metamorphic change.
For instance, limestone heated in the open air becomes quick lime and easily decomposes into powder; but under pressure the carbonic acid is retained and the mass becomes crystalline, and the greater the pressure the finer the grains. The heat cansing the change was produced at the period when the earth was;disturbed by uplifts, foldings and faultings, and so favorable to the escape of the earth's internal heat. The result
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of the uplift is seen in the bed rock supporting the boulder. An examination of the boulder and the bed rock indicate their unlikeness.
You may note a difference in the direction of its plains, as well as of its bedding and cleavage. They are quite 'unlike also in hardness and color, yet both are metamorphic.
The predominant characters of Berkshire limestone are a white color and a crystalline structure. Pure carbonate of lime or slightly mixed with magnesia, occupies the western part of the county. Dolomite is carbonite of lime and magnesia, with a tendency to crumble down and form a white sand. A law of chemical combination is, that the more numerous the ingre- dients the more feebly they are held together. 'It may be so in politics.
The most noticeable limestone in this long range is called the Stockbridge limestone, though most noticeable at Lee, where it came first into notice in 1850. It has a fine texture and is capable of enduring a pressure of 26,000 pounds to the square inch, while ordinary limestone is crushed under a pressure of 12,000 or 13,000 pounds on a square inch. Hence the public buildings in Washington are largely constructed of it.
Coming back once more to this particular boulder, let me call your attention to the water worn cavities. You may think they have been worn in its present location or during the gla- cial transportation. Neither is the fact. They were worn or formed in the bed rock before the upheaval and its movement hither . 1
In the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky I have seen many ample proofs in a great variety of water-worn forms. Indeed the whole cave itself, with more than 200 miles of water-worn passages, is a magnified example of the working of water under the surface. Last week I visited the lime quarry of Mr. Far- nam, some four or five miles east of this place. There I saw, seventy-five feet below the surface, just such water-worn cavi- ties, vertical, oblique and horizontal, where a stream of good cold drinking water is now engaged in the same work of water decomposing and wearing.
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Water has an allinity for carbonic acid and absorbs it wher- ever possible, from the atmosphere, the soil, and from carbon- iferous rocks. In this decomposing the limestone it takes up particles of lime and bears them away, till in some other place it may percolate through a gravel bed, and slowly evaporating, cement the gravel into a conglomerate rock, or through a bed of fine sand. and thus form sandstone, or evaporating from pen- dant points, form stalactites, or evaporating from the cave ceiling cause those efflorescent forms of flowers adorning the ceiling of the Rosette or Star Chamber in Mammoth Cave.
Is there is carbonic acid in falling rain we may see how, in the long centuries, the surface of this boulder and its neigh- bors can have become smooth without attributing it to glacial action.
Referring again to the section sketches we see three or four beds of limestone, one on the other side of the Taghkanicrange, described as sparry limestone, while this under the boulder is called Richmond or Stockbridge limestone. Dr. Hitchcock so names it, quoting from Dr. Dewey and his chart of Berkshire county. So also Dr. Emmons, in his survey of New York, over-stepping into Berkshire county, makes like statements and drawings. You can see by the specimens that the boulder is sparry limestone and the bed rock is not. Where then did this boulder come from? It must be from this side of the St. Law- rence river. for all limestone north of it is fossiliferous and therefore formed since the metamorphic period.
The Adirondacks are mostly of granite formation. The reg- ion east of the Hudson consists of rocks more or less metamor- phosed-the standstone passing into quartz rock-the bluestrat- ified limestones passing into the crystalline and white marbles, and the argillaceous slates of the Hudson River group passing into silicious, talcose and micaceous slates. So we find our- selves limited in our search to locations this side of the Hudson river and south of Lake Champlain. The exact spot remains for some future explorer.
In answering the question. "How long since the transporta- tion? " let me introduce a new element into the calculation.
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Evidences abound of a Torrid Zone or climate in the Arctic regions. Since then the glacial period, and now a temperate climate. The internal heat of the earth will not, satisfactorily, account for these changes. Let us turn to the science of astron- omy for help. That science has proven and illustrated what is called the Precession of the Equinoxes, showing that the axis of the earth, does not continually point to a fixed position in the northern sky we call the Pole Star. For instance the star Thu- ban, (a Draconis,) was the Pole star when the pyramids were built 4,000 years ago. That star is now 25 degrees away from the present pole star, Polaris, and ten thousand years hence Vega, (a Lyra,) will be the pole star. Vega is now 38 1-2 degrees north of the equator, that is within less than one-fourth of a degree of the zenith over Washington Observatory.
All this means that the north pole of the earth for the past 4,000 years and more has been inclining towards the sun and so receiving more direct the sun's rays and so causing a warmer climate. Indeed the word climate is from a Greek word, mean- ing inclined. This orbit of nutation requires nearly 25,000 years to complete a revolution. Ten thousand years from now this place will have a torrid temperature, and 23,000 years from now it will be a frigid zome, with all this valley filled with an- other system of glaciers. Some time within the past ten thous- and years this boulder was left here, and probably less than fifty times a hundred years.
APPENDIX II.
Genealogy of Lanesborough Family.
LANESBOROUGH.
Lanesborongh, Earl of (John-Vansittart-Danvers Butler-Dan- vers) Viscount Lanesborough, and Baron of Newtown-Butler, c. Fermanagh, in the peerage of Ireland, a representative peer, comm. R. N .: Lord Lieutenant co. Cavan: b. 18 April. 1839; s. his uncle as 6th earl, ? July, 1866: m 21 June, 1864, Anne- Elizabeth, only child of the Rev. John-Dixon Clark, of Belford Hall. Northumberland. (See Burke's "Landed Gentry"). and has had.
1. Charles-John-Brinsley, Lord Newtown-Butler. b. 12 Dec., 1865.
II. Henry-Cavendish, b. 2 June, 1868.
III. Francis-Almeric, b. 17 May, 1872.
IV. Brian Danvers, b. 18 April, 1876.
1. Ethel-Anne, b. 22 May, d. 8 June, 1867.
II. Norah, b. 23 May, d. 23 July, 1813.
ILL. Ethelred, b. 19, d. 20 Sept., 1874.
IV. Winifred, b. 19 April, 1879. LINEAGE.
Sir Stephen Butler, Knt. (descended from John Butler, of Waresly, co. Huntingdon, living in 1346), settled in Ireland, in the reign of James 1., m. Mary, dan and co-heir of Gervas Brindsley, of Brindsley. c. Nottingham: dying in 1639, was s. by his eldest son,
James Butler, Esq., of Belturbet, whose brother
Stephen Butler, Esq .. M. P. for Belturbet m. Anne dan. of the Ist Lord Santry, and was s. in 1662 by his eldest son,
Francis Butler, Esq., M. P. for Belturbet. This gentleman bore arms in the royal cause during the civil wars. He m. Jud-
--
.(VX 0%457.
First St. Luke's Church and Churchyard, as appearing about 1820.
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ith, dau. of the Right Hon. Sir Theophilus Jones, of Osbertown, co. Meath; and was s. at his decease, in 1692, by his eldest son.
Theophilus Butler, Esq., who was elevated to the peerage of Ireland, 21 Oct., 1715, as Baron of Newtown-Butler, with ro- mainder in default of issue male to the male descendants of his father, having previously represented the co. of Caven in par- liament, and being called to the privy council. His lordship m. Emilia, dau. of James Stopford, Esq., of New Hall, co. Meath; but leaving no issue at his decease, 11 March, 1723, the title de- volved upon his brother.
Brindsley-Butler. Esq., as 2nd baron, gentleman-usher of the Black Rod and col. of the battle-axe guards in Ireland; who was created Viscount Lanesborough, 12 Aug .. 1428. He m. Cath- arine, dau. and co-heir of Nelville Pooley, Esq., of the city of Dublin, barrister-at-law, and had no less than twenty-three children five only of whom, however, survived infancy, viz ..
I. Humphrey, 2nd viscount.
Il. Thomas, governor of Limerick, and adjutant-general, who d. in 1753, leaving an only daughter, Mary, m. in 1254. to John St. Leger, Esq. of Grangemellan, co. Kildare.
IL1. Robert, M. P., captain of the battle-axe guards: who m. Mary, dan. of Robert Howard, Bishop of Elphin, and widow of John Stoyte, Esq. of Street, in Westmeath.
IV. John, joint-clerk of the pipe, M. P. for Newcastle, who left one son and three daus., viz ..
1. Humphrey, who m. Alicia, dau. of Michael White gor- ernor of Montserrat, and had issue,
Theophilus, late major 4th dgn .- gds .; d. 17 May, 1848.
Robert, M. A., in holy orders, vicar of St. John's Kilkenny: m. Miss Hamilton; and d. 14 May, 1846, leaving an ouly dau .. Mary Elizabeth m. to Frederick Townsend, Esq.
Humphrey, comm. R. N .: m. 22 April, 1852. Eliza-Margaret, eldest dau. of William Tewart, Esq., of Glanton and Swinhoe. Northumberland. Maria-Frances. d. Nov. 15, 1814.
Sophia-Mary, mn. Frederick Montgomerie, Esq .. of Garbol.]- isham, co. Norfolk, and has issue.
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I. Catharine, m. to Thomas Carter, Esq. of Castle Martin, co. Kildare.
II. Harriet, m. to Henry Brooke, Esq. of Colebrooke, co. Fermanagh: who was created a Baronet in 1882: and d. in 1834.
III. Mary, who d. unm.
I. Judith, m. to B .- JJ. Cramer. Esq.
The viscount d. 6 March, 1435, and was s. by his eldest son Humphrey, 2nd viscount: who m. in 1226, Mary, dan. and heir of Richard Berry, Esq., of Wardenstown, co. Westmeath. by whom he had an only son. His lordship was created Earl of Lanesborough 20 July, 1756, and was s. by his son.
Brinsley, 2nd carl, b. 4 March, 1228. This nobleman m 22 June, 1:54, Jane, only dau. of Robert ( Rochfort), 1st Earl of Belvedere and had issue
I. Robert-Herbert, his successor.
Il. Augustus-Richard, b. 10 July, 1:26, m. 1st, in 1192, Mary. dau. and heir of Sir John Danvers, Bart., on which occa- sion he assumed the additional surname and arms of Danvers, and by her (who d. 10 May. 1802) had issue.
1. George-John-Danvers, 5th earl.
HI. George-Augustus. b. in 1198; d. young.
Mr. Butler-Danvers m. 2ndly, 24th May, 1802, Elizabeth, dan. of Humphrey Sturt, Esq .. of Critehill House, Dorset, and had by her (who d. in 1811),
1. William-Augustus, b. 1805; d. umm. in India, 9 Dec., 1838.
HI. Augustus-Richard, b. in 1807; d. young.
111. Charles-Augustus-Ashley, b. in 1808; d. young.
IV. Charles Angustis. capt. H. E. I. C. S .. raised, in 1848. to the precedence of an earl's younger son; b. 25 Sept., 1809: m. 21 July. 1838. Letitia-Rudyerd-Ross, youngest dau. of the late C'ol. Freese, and dying in 1819, left by her (who m. 2ndly, : April, 1853, the Rov. George Napleton Treweeke. rector of Swithland, Leicestershire),
John-Vansittart-Danvers, present peer.
Charles-Henry-Danvers, (Hon.), an officer 9th fot. b. 22
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Nov., 1844, m. 20 July. 1822, Alice, younger dau. of George Ward, Esq., of Redditch, Worcestershire.
Frances-Georgina-Danvers, (Hon. ), m. 3 July, 1866, to Lof- tus, youngest son of Sir Robert Fitz Wygram, Bart.
Emily-Rosa-Danvers (Hon.), m. 13 April, 1869, to William- Vinicombe Davy, Esq.
Harriet-Eliza-Danvers, (Ilon.), m. 12 July, 1876, to Francis- Mount, Barlow, Esq.
V. Henry-Cavendish, who was. in 1848, given the preced- ence of an earl's younger son, b. 18 April, 1811; m. 30 June, 1842, Cecilia Agnes, 2nd dau. of the late Lieut .- Gen., Sir John Taylor, of Castle Taylor, co. Galway, K. C. B.
1. Elizabeth-Sophia, m. in 1828 to Lieut .- Col. Henry Du- maresque, who d. in 1838. This lady was given, by royal li- cense, 24 Oct., 1866, the precedence of an earl's dau. She d. 12 March, 1877.
II. Emily-Jane, raised, in 1848, to the precedence of an earl's dau. m. in 1836, Capt. George Somerville Digby, gren .- guards, who d. 16 Nov, 1864. (See Digby, B.) He d. 25 April. 1820.
I. Mary, m. Rt. Hon. George Ponosby; and d. 1826.
HI. Catherine, m. to George Marley, Esq., who d. in 1829.
IH. Charlotte, m. in 1806 to George Debbieg, Esq .; and d in 1808.
IV. Caroline.
V. Sophia, m. in 1282, to Marquis Lewis Marescotti; and d. 17 Jan., 1840. ITis lordship d., 24 JJan., 1779 (the countess m. subsequently Jolm King, Esq., and d. in 1828), and was s. by his eldest son,
Robert-Herbert, 3rd earl, b. 1 Aug., 1:59; who m. Elizabeth. eldest dau. of the Right Hon. David Latouche, and by her (who d. in 1818), had two sons, Brind ley the 4th peer, and David deceased. His lordship d. in 1806. Ilis elder son
Brinsley, 4th earl, b. 22 Oct., 1283; d. unm., 15 June, IST; and was s. by his cousin,
George-John-Danvers, 5th earl, who was b. 6 Dec., 1294. and was a representative peer of Ireland, m. 1st, 29 Aug., 1515,
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Frances-Arabella, 3rd dau. of the late Col. Stephen-Francis- William Fremantle, who d. 5 Oct .. 1850: and 2ndly, 24 Nov., 1851, Frederica-Emma (who d. 3 Oct., 1870), relict of Sir Rich- ard Hunter, of Dulany House, Sussex, youngest dau. of the late Charles Bishop, Esq., procurator-general to his Majesty George 1III. His lordship d. s. p. ? July. 1866, and was s. by his nephew. John-Vansittart Danvers, 6th and present Earl of Lanesborough.
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