USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Lee > Lee : the centennial celebration and centennial history of the town of Lee, Mass. > Part 10
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Washington Mountain, chiefly in Washington, extends south to Lee, and forms the east boundary of the Housa- tonic valley for several miles. East Mountain extends into and from Becket on the east side of the town.
The Housatonic river divides the town into two nearly
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equal parts. Its course is southerly where it first enters the town, but before reaching South Lee it turns sharply to the West. At this place it is 831 feet above tide water at Derby, Conn. In its passage through the town the Housatonic receives the waters of Laurel Lake, formerly called Scott's Pond. The outlet of this lake empties into the river at the North end of the village. Two streams come down from Washington Mountain and empty into the Housatonic near Bradley street.
Through Cape street, flows the outlet of Green Water Pond in Becket, which unites in Water street, with the outlet of Lake May and Long Pond, two natural reser- voirs artificially increased, lying partly in Lee, and partly in Tyringham. These two streams both before and after their union, furnish power for numerous mills.
Hop Brook flows down from Tyringham, and was so named from the abundance of wild hops in the low land through which it flowed. Smaller streams generally bear the name of the owners of the land through which they flow, with every change of owners changing also their names. 2
In the early settlement of the town, such wild animals as the bear, the wolf, and the deer, were occasionally seen. Some young men coming home from church saw a moose at the spring near Cornelius Hamblin's. In going through the woods at night, it was customary to carry torches to scare away the wolves. When one of the early settlers, one morning, looked out of his log-house to the new frame the carpenters had put up, he was startled to see a bear. eyeing him, deliberately standing on his haunches. Before he could get his gun and take a sight at the bear, bruin had disappeared. Uncle Joel Bradley would tell many bear stories; for along the hills these huge creatures had their dens, and gave great trouble to the first settlers by the havoc they made in the corn field.
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Lemuel Crocker is said to have suddenly met a bear, and killed him with no better weapon than a knot of wood.
The birds are such as are commonly found in Western Massachusetts, and the similar statement may be made in regard to the insects, reptiles, and fish. When the first survey was made of what is now Bradley street, the pur- chasers were told that they need not fear that they would suffer from any want of meat; the brooks were full of trout that would furnish ample supply the whole year round. The fisherman of these days finds these brooks pretty much dry in Summer, and the trout few in number and small in size.
Prof. Dewey gave in Dr. Field's History of Berkshire County, a list of various wild plants, that have their habitat in this region, together with the dates of their inflorescence. It is hoped that in the course of a few years, the pupils of the Lee High School will have made out a complete list of the rare plants to be found, and the localities where the lover of Botany may find them. This whole region was well-timbered, and the early set- tlers had great trouble in disposing of the abundant sup- ply of wood. Much of it was made into charcoal : much burned in rude tar kilns; the hardier varieties, birch,
beech, maple, were made into chair stuff. As manufac- turing increased, the forests were leveled to furnish fuel for the paper mills, and steam for drying paper and driv- ing machinery. Since the introduction of coal as fuel, both into mills and private houses, the amount of wood- land has increased. By nature's rotation of crops, white pines are taking the place of maples and other hard woods, and it is hoped that the climate of this region will be ameliorated by their influence.
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GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY.
The mountains on the east of the town are of mica slate. Two or three eminences of quartz rock in the valley project their ragged elevations. "Fern Cliff" has quartz rocks at the base, (not auriferous,) and gneiss on the summit, in which are frequent crystals of iron pyrites. In the slaty rocks above the quartz, are numerous tourma- line crystals. But limestone is the principal rock to be found rising from the low-land. If it will not take a polish, it is not fit for use as marble, nor is it fit for cut- ting if it contains fibrous and bladed crystals of tremolite, such as are to be found south-west of Gross' quarry. In Hitchcock's Geology of Massachusetts, is a detailed de- scription of the geological strata of this County, and a figure is given, illustrating Dr. Hitchcock's theory of the manner in which the strata have been distorted between the Hudson and the Connecticut by upheavals. Erosion & next removed the softer parts and gave the present topographical outline. In. Lyell's Antiquity of Man, is a sketch of the courses of erratic boulders traced from Canaan, N. Y., across the ranges of hills south-east to the Housatonic valley.
Limestone is readily obtained in various parts of the town. Much that is not valuable as building material, is suitable for making lime, and the production of lime has ever been one of the industries of the place. In former times, the limestone was burned in temporary kilns, and when a kiln was burned the fire was permitted to go out. Remains of these old kilns are found in all parts of the town, and as no lime is known to have been exported in the early times, it is supposed that lime was burned as it was wanted by an individual or a neighborhood. About the year 1840, Wm. L. Culver commenced burning lime in a patent self-feeding kiln, the fire of which is kept burning for months, the limestone being put in at the top
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of a chimney lined with fire-brick, and the lime taken out at the bottom as fast as burned. Lee lime has quite a reputation, and finds its principal market in this and the neighboring towns, much of it being used for bleach- ing rags in the manufacture of paper.
"Marble is the most valuable mineral in Lee as yet discovered. The supply is inexhaustible. It is easy of access, and for a generation, at least, it will be easily quarried, as some of this marble lies 120 feet above the river. The marble is of a superior quality. Prof. Hitch- cock says that it is ' a pure crystalline double carbonate of magnesia and lime.' It is therefore dolomite marble, 48 per cent. carbonate of lime, 49 per cent. carbonate of magnesia. Much of it is pure white and is susceptible of a very fine polish. It will also work a perfectly square arris. This renders it a desirable material for chimney- pieces, furniture, &c. Frost and heat produce little change in size and weight. It will sustain a pressure of 26,000 pounds to the square inch, while Italian marble crushes at 13,000 lbs, and most of the American mar- ble will crush at 12,000 lbs. By some of the severest tests to which marble can be put, by the chemist and architect, Lee marble was decided to be the best in the world for a building material ; hence a Congressional Committee decided that this should be the marble to be used for the enlargement of the Capitol at Washington."
Among the mineralogical specimens to be obtained may be mentioned marl, peat, micaceous limestone, mica, quartz, gray limestone, augite, bladed tremolite, radiated actinolite, dolomite, sphere.
CLIMATE.
The average temperature for the county is stated by Prof. Dewey to be 46°; ranging from 22° to 102°. The wind is from the north-west 150 days in the year. The
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average rain-fall yearly is 34 inches. The Winter of 1780 was very severe. The storm of September 22 and 23, 1815, was accompanied with very high winds. A tor- nado in 1809 did damage in Stockbridge, and a whirlwind in Lee and adjoining towns a few years later. In 1816, there was frost every month in the year. In February, 1836, it snowed every day in the month. The Housatonic valley is much sheltered from the prevailing north-west wind, and as the river flows rapidly through the town, there is comparatively little fog and miasm. No destruc- tive epidemic has ever prevailed, except in the year 1813, when typhoid pneumonia spread through this and neigh- boring towns.
LANDMARKS AND NOTEWORTHY POINTS OF VIEW.
On the west side of the Hoosac range of mountains that bound Lee on the east, there is abundant evidence in the terraces and sand-hills that most of the town was once under water, in fact that a great lake covered much of its territory, the Housatonic being dammed by the rocks and hills at the west end of South Lee. As the water deepened its channel at this outlet the lake gradu- ally subsided. The table lands near Lenox Furnace and the sand-hills near the stone factory, in Water street, are evidently the result of the action of water in large body. The eminences in Lee, as in all the towns of Berkshire, afford views of surpassing beauty. Those around Laurel Lake are seldom excelled. Other towns may be more famous, but nowhere does the landscape present more varied and charming views, and nowhere are the drives more attractive.
BOUNDARIES.
The boundary lines of the town, as found in the records of the various perambulations required by law, do not always correspond exactly with each other, nor with those
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mentioned in the act of incorporation. Some are given with great minuteness of detail. Others show unaccount- able deficiencies of necessary figures. The line on the West, the dividing line between Lee and Stockbridge, is S. 7º 30' W. about 1,550 rods. Great Barrington line on the South is E. 7º S. 757 rods. Tyringham line on the South-west corner has one re-entrant angle, and running from the corner made with Great Barrington, extends N. 37° E. 628 rods, to Deerhorn Corner, where it turns and extends E. 2º S. 1,072 rods. At this south-east point of the township it forms a corner with the Becket line, which runs N. 82° W. 376 rods. Here is met the Wash- ington town line, which runs N. 29º W. 580 rods, then makes a sharp turn on line of Lot No. 63 of the old township, S 63º W. 246 rods, then takes the same course as first given N. 29° W. 1,236 rods, to the uppermost cor- ner of the town on the East bank of the Housatonic River. From this it follows down the line of the river 1,106 rods, then across the river, enclosing a little strip between the river and a line running S. 8° W. 162 rods. Then it crosses the river again, and runs in general course W. 62º N. 563 rods. Here the line makes a double jog like two steps downward N. 6° E. 48₺ rods, S. 853º E. 52 rods, N. 10° W. 343 rods, S. 84º E. 122 rods, till it strikes the Stockbridge line.
Early Settlements in Berkshire County.
ONE hundred years, and more, elapsed after the Land- ing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, 1620, December 21, be- fore Western Massachusetts began to be settled. The rush of immigration to New England ceased about 1640. About 1636, the settlement of the Connecticut River towns began, and they continued along the river to grow for 30 years ; but for nearly half a century the new set- tlements moved no farther westward than the foot of Mt. Tekoa. During this period the population of New Eng- land increased only by the natural increase of families. The wars of the European monarchies involved the Amer- ican colonies of France and England in the turmoil and horrors of sanguinary strife. The opening of new settle- ments, or plantations, as they were sometimes called, was delayed by the necessities of the military service de- manded of the colonists, and by the dangers of exposure to the predatory and bloody incursions of a savage foe. The Indian tribes of southern New England were so thor- oughly subdued in King Philip's war, as it is called, 1675 and 1676, that very little trouble was experienced from them after that period. But in the first French war, 1690-1697, or King William's, the Indians that were in alliance with the Canadian military authorities made va- rious attacks upon the frontier settlements, as they did also in the second French war, or Queen Anne's, 1702- 1713. Besides this hindrance to settlement from fear of the Indians, other obstacles presented themselves in the uncertainty in regard to the boundary between Massa-
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chusetts and New York ; and in the broken, mountainous character of the region.
1722, January 30, Joseph Parsons and 115 others, Thomas White and 59 others, inhabitants of Hampshire county, petitioned the General Court for two townships of land situated on the Housatonic river, at the south- western corner of the Massachusetts Patent. The peti- tion was granted, and a committee appointed 1722, June 29, to lay out two townships, each seven miles square. This committee were authorized to make grants of the land to actual settlers, each grantee paying the committee 30s. for every 100 acres. This sum was to be used in buying Indian titles, and paying expenses of surveying. The remainder was to be " improved in building meeting- houses in said townships." The Indians, whose home was at Stockbridge and in that vicinity, sold for £460, three barrels of cider, and thirty quarts of rum, their title to what is now the southern half of Berkshire county. The deed, dated 1724, April 25, included part of what is now the town of Lee (the Hoplands). The western boundary of the whole territory purchased was the New York Colony Line ; the southern, the dividing line from Connecticut ; the eastern, four miles from the Housatonic, extending northward "in a general way;" while the northern line was " to the Great Mountain," now known as Rattlesnake mountain. This territory, known at first as " the Upper and Lower Housatonic Townships," was surveyed into lots for settlement. In 1731, the boundary lines were estab- lished, and settlers began to pour in. Liberal grants of land were made by the General Court to individuals. Many public men were voted such gratuities. In Jan- uary, 1733, the lower township was incorporated by the name of Sheffield. This was the first town settled and incorporated in what is now Berkshire county. The up- per township was set off 1742, January 13, as the North
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Parish in Sheffield, and incorporated as a town under the name of Great Barrington, 1761, June 30.
In 1735, a road was cut from Westfield to Sheffield, and was for fifty years the traveled road from Springfield to the Housatonic and the Hudson. 1735, January 15, the General Court ordered that four contiguous townships should be laid out upon this road, and joining either Shef- field, or the Suffield Equivalent. This last was so named originally from its being the territory granted to the pro- prietors of Suffield, Conn., for land taken from them in establishing the dividing line between Massachusetts and Connecticut. It was afterwards called Glasgow, but when incorporated, 1741, April 10, received the name of Bland- ford. The four townships were for a long time designated numerically. Tyringham was Number One; New Marl- borough, Number Two; Sandisfield, Number Three; Becket, Number Four.
It will be noticed that the territory surrounding Lee was settled thirty years before any settlement was made in this town. Stockbridge was incorporated 1739, June 22, as an Indian town, six miles square, taking off a strip 770 rods in width 'from the north line of Great Barring- ton, or the Upper Housatonic Township, as it was then called. Lenox and Richmond originally (1765, June 20) constituted one town to the north of Stockbridge, with a considerable territory intervening; that is, the southern line of Lenox was originally much farther north than the present. The western and eastern sections of Richmond, bought by Samuel Brown, Jr., of Stockbridge, in 1760, of two Stockbridge chiefs, Ephraim and Yokun, before its incorporation under the name of Richmond, were called respectively Mount Ephraim and Yokuntown. The east- ern section, or Yokuntown, was incorporated as the dis- trict of Lenox, 1767, February 26, and was so called from the family name of the Duke of Richmond. The west-
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ern part, or Mount Ephraim, of the original purchase, retained the original name of the town, Richmond. Mount Ephraim was not the name of the territory of Lee, or any part of it. What is now included in the township was " The Hoplands," originally the north-eastern part of Great Barrington; the western part of Hartwood, now Washington; the Glassworks Grant ; a part of Larrabee's Grant; and a part of the Ministers' Grant, or Williams' Grant, as it is variously called.
INDIAN OCCUPANTS.
The Indian claimants to this whole region can hardly be called occupants or owners. They were of the Mohegan race, or in the Indian pronunciation, the Mu-h-he-ka-new, " the people of the waters that ebb and flow," indicat- ing their proper home along the shores of the Hudson and the Connecticut. They are also designated the Stock- bridge tribe, from the English name of their principal set- tlement ; or the Housatonic tribe, from their residence in the valley of the Housatonic, "the river among the mountains." One of the earliest of the many forms of this river's name is that given by Hubbard, " Ausotunnoog," in his Narrative of Indian Wars. Smith, in his History of Pittsfield, Vol. i, p. 20, gives a Dutch origin to the name of the river, as if Housatonic were an Indian variation of "Westenhock," or West corner. In the Pittsfield Registry, Vol. ii, p. 12, is a deed from " Masin- amake, alias Solomon, one of the Maheckander Indians," 1738, Sept. 11, to Jacob Wendell, of land " 10 miles above the Hoplands in the upper town at Housatonic, on both sides of Westenhock, alias Sheffield River." In Vol. ii, p. 172 of the Pittsfield Registry, is a deed, dated 1763, Jan. 12, in which, for £1,800, the title to all land in Berkshire County not covered by previous purchases, is sold to the General Court by " Benjamin Kohhka-
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wenaunaut, Chief Sachem of the Mohhekunnuck River Indians, or Housatonic tribe " and others named "In- ' dian Hunters and claimers of the Lands lying in the Western part of the said Province of Massachusetts Bay from the Great River called Hudson River on the West part and a river called Westfield River in the East part." (See also Council Records at Boston, Vol. xxiv, p. 603, 1763, Feb. 17.)
At the time of the first settlements in what is now Berkshire County, the Indians had been, as is supposed, greatly reduced from their former numbers. There were only about ninety in all in 1736. Some of the Mohawk tribe from New York were induced to come to Stock- bridge in 1750, for the sake of the school and other advantages offered to them. They numbered 200 in 1747 ; 420 in 1785. At the close of this year last named they all removed to New Stockbridge, New York, on the Oneida reservation. Afterwards, in 1822, they went still farther West to Green Bay, Wisconsin ; and in 1839, a portion of the tribe removed West of the Missouri, near Fort Leavenworth.
The war paint and feathers, blanket and moccasins had long been laid aside for the dress of the pale-faces, when the territory of Lee was opened to settlement. The manners and customs of the Indians, the success of the methods adopted for their localization and elevation, are told with interesting details by Miss Jones in her His- tory of Stockbridge. They claimed as theirs by right of possession, a wide extent of territory, though they were few in number and did little more within the limits of their domain than hunt when the danger of starvation compelled them to exert themselves. Their claim to ownership was treated by the first settlers and by the Provincial authorities as valid. The Indian titles were extinguished by compensation paid and deeds of sale
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signed and recorded. It would seem, however, that though there was no permanent Indian village, some few of the tribe visited the region now occupied by this vil- lage every Spring, and built here their rude wigwams, while for four or six weeks they made maple sugar from the trees in this neighborhood ; probably from the maple orchard that only a few years ago was to be seen just south of where the trotting park is now located. Capt. Enoch Garfield, grandfather of Hon. Harrison Garfield, when a boy came from Tyringham, where his father - (Isaac Garfield first settled in Tyringham) then lived, to a five acre lot which had been cleared and mowed. He came four miles to look after cattle that were foddered from the hay which they had gathered and stacked. Having no cart they used a tree-top on which to draw the hay. Sundays they came only to fodder the cattle, not to spend the day chopping. Seeing smoke arising in this direction, young Garfield, then fourteen years old, came down to find an Indian wigwam just south of where the park now is. The old squaw, its sole inmate at the time, welcomed him hospitably and brought out from beneath her blankets some maple sugar and gave it to him. Crossing the river on a tree that had been felled to make a bridge, he found another wigwam near where the marble quarry now is. This is the first account we have, even in tradition, of this particular locality and of the first occupants of the present village. Mr. Garfield, when twenty-three years old, moved into the place and built a log-house where Mr. Nathaniel Bassett afterwards lived.
But before passing to the history of the first settlers, it may be well to complete what brief allusion remains to be made to the Indian race, and the tribe that once called this territory their home.
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" There was a time when red men climbed these hills, And wandered by these plains and rills, Or rowed the light canoe along yon river, Or rushed to conflict armed with bow and quiver ;
Or 'neath the forest leaves that o'er them hung,
They council held, or loud their war-notes rung."
About the time Lee was settled, the number of the Indians had very much decreased. They fought on the side of the English colonists in the old French and Indian wars. At the battle of White Plains a full company of Indians took an active part, and then served all through the Revolutionary war. Another company acted as ran- gers near Boston. At Gen. Washington's order, a feast was given them at Stockbridge after the war closed.
" The Indian hath gone to his lonely grave, He slumbers in dark decay ; And like the crest of the tossing wave, Like the wail of the blast from the mountain cave, Like the groan of the murdered with none to save, His people have passed away."
THE HOPLANDS.
" The Hoplands " is the territory in the south part of the town which was originally a part of Upper Housa- tonic Parish, or Great Barrington. Its southern line is the south line of the town. "The northern line com- mences near the Stockbridge boundary, about half a mile north of William Blake's, running a little north of T. M. Judd's, and thence nearly with the road to the town-house and John Baker's in Cape street ; thence southerly to the Tyringham line." William Ingersoll owned about 1,000 acres in this tract, which was enough to furnish himself and each of his seven sons with a farm of no mean dimen- sions. The name, Hopland, is derived from the great quantity of hops that formerly grew wild upon the banks of the river which flows down from Tyringham.
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Hopbrook, or North Tyringham, was left unsettled for more than twenty years. It appears from a Memorial pre- sented to the General Court, 1773, June 15, (Mass. Ar- chives, 143 : 77,) that through the malfeasance of David Ingersoll, whom the proprietors of Upper Housatonnuck Township had chosen clerk, their records were in utter confusion. A committee was ordered to proceed to Great Barrington, ascertain the facts, and recommend measures to remedy the difficulty. This committee ar- ranged, so far as possible, the records which they found of divisions of lands. These, with some changes they rec- ommended to the General Court, should be confirmed as valid. (Mass. Archives, 143 : 32). Forty Proprietors' Rights, owned by fourteen persons, covered the whole of the area of the upper township (22,120 acres). One right was allotted the first minister, one for the ministry, another for the school. David Ingersoll, father of Wil- liam Ingersoll, had five rights, or one-eighth of this quan- tity. The papers of the Committee were destroyed or burned. 1749, July 18, the Hoplands were laid out and the meadows divided, one right being set apart for schools. 1750, April 12, there was another division, and, as before, land was set apart for school purposes. 1771, February 1, the school lands in this particular district were set apart for the benefit of people residing in the district. There were six different allotments of land, . ranging from ten to forty acres at a time. The school rights reserved amounted in all to about 170 acres, which by the vote, mentioned above, became the exclu- sive property of the inhabitants of this district. Ensign William Ingersoll was a prominent man among the peo- ple of this district. His house was the work-house of Great Barrington from 1761 to 1769. The road from the Glassworks Grant, passing by Matthew Van Deusen's, passed Ingersoll's house 42 rods north-west of the river,
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