USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Lee > Lee : the centennial celebration and centennial history of the town of Lee, Mass. > Part 12
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In 1875 the attempt was finally successful, and new County buildings were erected at Pittsfield, where also now the Courts are held. Joseph Whiton, of Lee, was one of the Associate Justices of the Court of Sessions, 1814-1817, and 1819-1828.
THE FIRST SETTLERS AND THEIR LOCATION.
The territory south of Lee had been settled thirty years ; Stockbridge, on the west, twenty years, before any English settlement on the land within the present township lines of Lee. In 1760, Isaac Davis came from Tyringham. He located himself quite in the south part of the town on the banks of Hop Brook, and built the first frame house in town, on the farm now owned by Henry McAllister. He died at Chenango, August, 1801. Reuben Pixley, son of Jonathan Pixley of Great Barrington, also located in the Hoplands, and gave his name to Pixley's Mountain. He built where the late Deacon Nathan Bassett lived, on the farm now owned by Hon. Harrison Garfield. John Coffey, the Irishman, settled on the farm lately occupied by James H. Royce. Hope Davis, from Tyringham, located in the old orchard, about 46 rods east of Messrs. May's paper mill. Aaron Benedict and George Parker settled near him.
William Chanter, the Quaker, had been a Quaker preacher on the Cape, but silenced for some irregularity. He lived on what is now called the Snow farm, adjoining Deacon Culver's. He died September 10, 1806, aged 82 years.
Mr. Atkins took up his abode nearly opposite the old Shaylor tavern in Cape street. Lemuel Crocker, from Barnstable, found a home where Wm. Perry now resides. Asahel Dodge located north of the old Barlow house. He was a blacksmith, and the stone he used for an anvil is now part of a stone wall near the site of his shop.
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Samuel . Stanley was a tanner and currier, and had his shop in a lot now belonging to Marshall Foote, which Stanley bought in 1779, June 16, of John Coltraine, of Tolland, Conn., who had bought the 114 acres of John Baker, Jr., of Tolland.
When John Winegar came into town in 1770, he found only thirteen families living on this territory. He bought 1771, April 4, of Pelatiah West and Joseph Hatch, 50 acres on the west side of the Housatonic River. Peter Wilcox, at whose house the first town meeting was held, lived in "a log-house with only one room in it, and that not so large as some of our parlors." It was on what is now Main street, corner Franklin street, where now stands the house owned by Elizur Smith, and occupied by Thomas Wilson.
Jonathan Foote* occupied a rude structure where
*In the Foote "Genealogy " and in Gale's History of Lee, it is stated that Nathaniel Foote, the grandfather of this Jonathan Foote, put Charles the Second, King of England, into an oak to shield him from his pursuers. Afterwards, when the King was in a situation to do so, he remembered his preserver, and granted him a tract of land in Connecticut. The Foote family have for their coat of arms, a design representing an oak and Charles the Second, and Nathan Foote endeavor- ing to assist Charles into the oak. There is a well remembered couplet in the old Primer :
" The Royal Oak, it was the tree,
That saved his Royal Majesty."
The story of the oak is pleasant and plausible, but Mr. H. W. Taft of Pittsfield himself a descendant of the hero of the story, and an expert antiquarian, desires that we should refute it, and we can do no better than insert his letter :
PITTSFIELD, August 31, 1877.
My Dear Sir :- Won't you try to put an end to that absurd and impossible story about the Foote emigrant ancestor, helping King Charles into the oak, etc. At least see to it that it don't get into the Lee History, and so start out on a new tour. I think it is dead sometimes, and then it starts off as good as new, to my infinite disgust, for he was my ancestor, and I don't want him made game of, and history turned into fable. Here are two or three reasons why it can't well be true :
1. Nathaniel Foote, the emigrant and ancestor of the Lee Footes, was in Water- town before September, 1634, and never returned to England.
2. Charles 2d, the oak tree man, was born May 29, 1630. Put these two facts together.
3. Nathaniel Foote died in Weathersfield, in 1644, when Charles was about 14 years old.
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Theron L. Foote now lives. Elisha Freeman owned the farm where his grandson, John B. Freeman, now lives. Two rude log huts stood near William Bartlett's present residence. In and around the present village site there were not five acres of cleared land. A log tavern, six- teen feet square, was erected about this time.
1771, April 4, Pelatiah West and Joseph Hatch sold to Richard Howk, of Kinderhook, 170 acres of land for £270. He afterwards boughtother pieces till at one time he owned 1,000 acres. His son, Isaac Howk, resided on the place lately owned by John C. Stevens. His large Dutch barn gave to his homestead the name of the "Howk Barracks," and it served as a sort of landmark in this region. 1774, June 1, Josiah Yale, late of Wallingford, Conn., bought of William Andrus, of Lenox, 50 acres of the Williams' or Ministers' Grant. 1773, December 20, Jesse Bradley, of New Haven, Conn., bought of Melatiah Hatch, of Hart- wood, 24 1-2 acres with 1-4 of the saw-mill on the river, near Bradley street. Elisha Bradley, also, of New Haven, bought land in Stockbridge. 1774, May 25, Wil- liam Ingersoll sold to Aaron Wormer, 45 acres in the Hoplands. Other names of those who came to town dur- ing this period are Ball, Backus, Barlow, Bassett, Gifford, Hamblin, Jenkins.
" When John Winegar was living at Crow Hollow, he was persuaded by an Indian to accompany him upon the mountain to hunt deer. The Indian soon left Mr. Wine- gar alone, and for three days in mid-winter, with the thermometer below zero, he wandered without fire or food, unable to find his home. When found by his friends, his
4. The Battle of Worcester (after which Charles hid in the oak), was fought September 3, 1651, when Nathaniel Foote had been dead seven years.
5. Nathaniel was a Puritan, and if he had been alive and in England, would have been on Cromwell's side and not with Charles.
There are a great many more reasons, but perhaps these will do.
Yours truly,
HENRY W. TAFT.
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feet and other parts of his body were so badly frozen as to cause him to be a cripple for life. He however recovered sufficiently to attend to his ordinary business." He was 29 years old at the time. He lost both his feet, and his constitution was shattered : yet he lived to be 55 years old, dying 1798, March 14.
" John Winegar built the first grist mill. It was erected a few rods above the Columbia paper mill. His log house, the eleventh log house in Lee, was built against a perpendicular rock on the east side of the road as we pass around the cove beyond the mill. That rock served as the back part of the house and chimney, which was so constructed that the wood could be drawn up on the hill in the rear, and precipitated down the chimney to the place for the fire. This process saved the time and labor of cutting and splitting the wood. Mr. Winegar five years after built another grist mill, were John McLaugh- lin's machine shop now stands, and he also erected the dwelling-house lately standing in front of it, which is the oldest building in town. When Mr. Winegar built this house, the nearest place that he could find stone for the cellar was on Pixley Mountain. The leaves and moss in the forests probably concealed the stone from public view."
FAMILIES FROM CAPE COD.
The Revolutionary War brought peculiar distress to the population of Cape Cod. Not only did they suffer the burdens of the war, such as fell upon the whole state, the drain of men and money, but their principal occupa- tions, fishing and coasting, were almost entirely broken up. With the loss of all ordinary means of livelihood, and the constantly depreciating currency, they were com- pelled to seek some other location, where willingness to work and persevering diligence would be in themselves,
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resources more valuable than money. Yet some money they seem to have had. 1780, May 2, John Crosby, of Barnstable, bought of Prince West, for £100 silver money, Lot No. 2 in Hartwood, 150 acres at the north- west corner of Sylvanus Gifford's land.
Marvelous stories, transcending any fish stories, had been carried to Cape Cod in regard to the fertility of the soil of the new lands on the Housatonic. It was averred that the soil was so rich that a sod hung up in the sun would drip grease: that hogs fattened so quickly that they ran around, squealing, " kill me ! kill me !"
But the reality, was a hard and trying experience of obstacles and difficulties which only undaunted persever- ance, strong arms and stout hearts could overcome. The snows were deep and lay long on the hill-sides. It was no easy matter to travel any distance, even with the aid of snow shoes.
When James Goodspeed came in sight of the log house where his Uncle Hamblin lived, he asked " Whose hog-pen is that with a chimney to it ?" "Be quiet," was the reply; " that is where your uncle lives." The children were so thoroughly tanned by exposure to wind and sun, that he took them at first to be Indian pappooses. Many are the family traditions, still handed down, though now known only to a few, in relation to these Cape Cod fishermen, and their perils by sea and land. The grandfathers of those who are now the grandfathers of this generation, told fifty years ago many grandfather's tales, that had for the young hearers of those days, and for all hearers in all time, that incommunicable charm which belongs to all first experiences. How they laughed, as with every narration, there came up the vivid remem- brance of Joe Crocker, blown off by the gases from the dead whale into which he had thrust his spade, or the appearance of this region as they first visited it in the
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hard Winter of 1780, and walked on snow shoes over snow eight feet deep.
The name of Cape Street was given to the eastern section of the town, because so largely occupied by people from Cape Cod. Capt. Joseph Crocker, who settled on the William Cone farm, moved his family from Cape Cod in an ox cart. He and his aged mother came in advance of the rest of the family, both riding upon the same horse.
The people lived in small log houses, mostly located upon the sides of the mountains. Marked trees served for roads, and a tree felled so as to fall across the river, served for a bridge, where such a contrivance was nec- essary or convenient.
When the later settlers came in, they adopted the easier method of sending their household articles by vessel to Hudson, N. Y., whence they could be transported with less time and fatigue to the new country. The first burial in the cemetery was of a child of Mr. Handy, who fell from a load of furniture. In crossing the river, the jolting of the cart as it struck a stone, threw her off. She fell on the stones, and was instantly killed. Some of the furni- ture brought from the Cape, is still in existence. Some of it has been put to strange uses ; most of it has long ago been put out of the way. Grandmother Crosby would hardly recognize her old spinning wheel, or its rim, now honored in Mr. Henry Smith's house as a picture-frame for a photograph of one of Thorwaldsen's celebrated bas- reliefs, " Night and Morning."
Cape Street was for a time the most populous part of the town. Here lived the blacksmith, shoemaker, tanner and currier. Here it was proposed to build the meeting house. But "Dodgetown," as this section was then called, has seen a change come "o'er the spirit of its dream." The homes that once were established in loving
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neighborhood on the hill-top, have now disappeared, or all fallen into ruin, save two or three. The roads that led to them, or led past them, have been discontinued. The unfrequent traveler over the mountain road is seldom seen, while the iron horse whizzes through the valley, and large manufactories afford employment to hundreds that the barren hill-sides could not feed.
Cornelius Bassett and Nathan Dillingham, in 1778, built the "Red Lion" tavern on what is now Mr. Pease's lot. It was occupied as a tavern stand till 1833. This was the first two-story house built in Lee, and in it was the first store, kept in the buttery. Job Hamblin went to Boston to get a load of salt, and it required forty days to make the journey.
Barlow and Bassett had together bought a farm in Sandwich, on a part of which is now the establishment of the Sandwich Glass Company. Through some chicanery they found themselves without any legal title to the property for which they had paid, as they supposed, a fair equivalent. Abandoning their old home, they came to this newly opened territory and built in this wilder- ness region. John Crosby, who came during this period, was the "house-wright and joiner," for the community generally. Some of the frames he put up are still stand- ing. Timber was abundant, when rafters as commonly made, were seven inches in width by nine in depth.
John Freese, who married Desire Williams of Stock- bridge, and was thus allied to " the blue blood " of Berk- shire County, was a tailor and tavern keeper in Egre- mont, in 1776. He came to this town during the Revolutionary war and became a very large landholder. The house he first occupied stood near the present brick school-house of the first district in the Hoplands. He afterwards lived on the spot where is now Mr. Henry Smith's house. He owned that farm, and south across the river
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to the top of Beartown Mountain. The road from South Lee to the present village then came up from the river as far west as the brick school-house. The Freese family were of Dutch descent, among the early settlers of Lunenburgh, now Athens, N. Y. With real Dutch fore- thought, and quaint ideas of propriety, they brought with them from the old country, mahogany coffins and satin grave-clothes. The family name has entirely disappeared fron the town, since their removal in 1814, to Brunswick, Ohio. Miss Sarah Goodspeed is the only immediate descendant left.
David Baker, long known as the shoemaker of the town, came into the place in 1783, from Barnstable. He had there done military duty in the early part of the Revolution. He married Sylvia Crocker, and on land given her by her father, John Crosby built a house for the newly-wedded pair. He lost largely by the Continental money. He gave a hundred dollars in bills for half a dozen cups.
James Percival, who came from the Cape, and built the lower part of the house where Captain Bradley once lived, went to Hudson on horseback by marked trees. The bag of pork he carried with him he exchanged for a bag of shad. The people from the Cape hankered after the fish, so long their customary food, and never relished the flavor of game. Job Childs came with Anthony Good- speed from Barnstable, and spent the first night on the Crosby farm, where Mr. Gousset now lives. He worked at first for Mr. Van Dusen. Finally he bought of Reuben Pixley the farm, of which he sold half to Cornelius Bassett.
ORGANIZATION OF THE TOWN.
It was not till two months after the act of incorpora- tion, that in accordance with its provisions, the first town meeting was held 1777, December 22, at the house of
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Peter Wilcox, a log-house with only one room. What the population was at that time cannot now be stated with any certainty; 45 signed the petition for incor- poration, but between that date, 1774, Jan. 26, and the organization of the town in 1777, many others had doubtless come into town. Judging from the votes for governor, recorded during the first years, the number of persons resident in the place and qualified to vote, could not be much more than 40. There was, perhaps, a total population of about 200. William Ingersoll was Moder- ator of the first town meeting. Prince West was chosen Clerk. These two, with three others, Jesse Bradley, Oli- ver West and Amos Porter, were chosen Selectmen. William Ingersoll was chosen Treasurer ; Reuben Pixley, James Penoyer, Constables ; Daniel Church, Job Hamblin, John Nye, William Ingersoll, Highway Surveyors; Abijah Tomlinson, Samuel Stanley, Tythingmen ; Samuel Stan- ley, Leather Sealer; William Ingersoll, Jesse Bradley, Oliver West, Committee of Correspondence.
1780, June 15, we find a record, indicating, probably, an evident increase in the voting population of the town. Having met according to the warrant, the first vote passed was to adjourn for eight minutes to meet in Peter Wilcox's barn. The next place of meeting selected was Major Dillingham's tavern, and then "the meeting-house" (the Congregational Church).
The twenty-five offices named in the records of the first meeting were intrusted to twelve officials, offices now more desirable, though not perhaps any more eagerly sought, are in much smaller proportion to the number of office-seekers. But here were enough to give the town, from the start, a thorough organization, after the usual fashion of Massachusetts towns. The records of the first meetings do not show any very great literary skill, or knowledge of official routine. Not till 1814, is the
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warrant for calling any town meeting entered upon record. It is often a matter of as much interest to know what business was proposed, as what was transacted. Meetings were first notified by posting a notice on the whipping post (near the meeting-house), chosen because of its lo- cation ; not because of suggestive appropriateness in the post itself. Notices were to be posted also at the two grist mills in the town. Not until 1816, is the giving no- tice of town meeting on the outside of the meeting-house and at the inn of Wm. Merrill, at the south part, suffi- cient. The cost of managing town affairs was ridicu- lously small, as compared with the present expenditures.
1783, March 3, voted to choose a constable by bidding downwards. Peter Wilcox, for £8, agreed to take the office. The chief duty was not the arrest of criminals, but the collection of the taxes. As money was scarce, and tax paying was no more agreeable then than now, the collection of the " rates " was not a specially desira- ble undertaking. The constable was personally respon- sible for the whole amount he was instructed to collect. Assessments were made for the different taxes at differ- ent seasons of the year. Farm laborers, engaged only for the Summer months, were disposed to slip out of town with their poll tax unpaid. It was no easier matter then than now, to adjust the proportionate share of public expenditures so that no class or no individual should pos- sibly escape paying their proper proportion.
PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION.
The appointment of a Committee of Correspondence, so called, or more fully designated, of Correspondence, Inspection and Safety, at the first town meeting, indicates that the organization of the town was at the beginning of the Revolutionary period of our national history. The battle of Lexington, the opening scene in this drama, was
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fought 1775, April 19, two years and a half before the incorporation of the town, but the men of the Glassworks Grant were equally ready with those of the Hoplands, of Hartwood, and the incorporated towns of Berkshire county, to do their full share of military service. Many of them had taken active part in the French and Indian war from 1754 to 1763.
1780, June 19, the town voted " to come into a way to raise the men now called for." Each one was to have in hand £12 hard money. £108 were assessed, to be paid before January Ist. As a committee to raise the nine men required, the three commissioned officers of the mi- litia company were chosen. July 11, two men to serve six months, were to have the same bounty other six months men had received. The three months men were to have 40s. per month hard money, in addition to their wages, or a "grain equivalent." This was to be raised " by way of fines " [on those who would not volunteer], and if the amount thus raised fell short, the town was to make up the deficiency. When, in connection with this, we take the fact that the whole vote cast for governor at this meeting numbered only 30, we can have some con- ception of the extent of the sacrifices our fathers were willing to make to secure for themselves and their chil- dren the priceless boon of liberty.
1780, November 2, under a requisition from the State authorities, demanding from each town a certain number of pounds of beef for the army, it was voted to raise for this purpose £55 in silver money. The straits to which the people were driven appear evident from the fact that in 1781, January 20, the three months men and six months men were to receive orders on the Treasurer for their bounty. £6,818 were to be assessed, but grain was to be received in payment at fixed prices. Wheat was valued at 47s. per bushel, rye 40, Indian corn 26, oats 27.
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The depreciated Continental money had almost ceased to have any value. As General Washington is reported to have said, it took a wagon load of money to purchase a wagon load of provisions. So grievous were the burdens that it was voted to send a petition to the General Court, seeking some redress.
1781, July 14, five men were to be enlisted from this town as its quota for reinforcing the Continental army. The town, for this purpose, was divided into four classes, each class to raise one man, and the fifth man to be raised by the town at large, to have the rank of sergeant. . Af- ter a similar fashion, the town voted to comply with the requisition made for beef for the army; six classes were each for themselves to provide their equal proportion of beef. August 28, it was voted to raise £42 to pay for three horses bought by the selectmen, for the use of the State.
From the Revolutionary Muster-Rolls in the Secre- tary's Office at Boston, it appears that all through the period of the war the men of Lee were often called out for duty as soldiers in the militia, and a goodly number served a three years' enlistment in the Continental Army. In Col. Patterson's Regiment, under Capt. W. Goodrich and Ensign Isaac Davis, 6 men from Glassworks, and 1 from Hoplands served 8 months from May 5, 1775, (Roll 15 : 14), Nathan Bennett, Jesse Clark, Fenner Foote, Josiah Root, Benjamin Fuller, John Percival, from Glass- works : and Nathan Davis from the Hoplands. In 1776, May 4, in the list of officers of the militia, in Berkshire County, we find Capt. Jesse Bradley and Lieutenants Levi Nye and Elisha West, with 20 men from Glassworks. (Roll 42 : 177). The only instance of reluctance to render ready service at the call of the authorities, is when under Col. Simonds, of Williamstown, a detachment of Berk- shire Militia were ordered to reinforce the Northern
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Army, May 1, 1777. There were 8 privates from Glass- works who refused to march. (Roll 42 : 202.)
They were not in this, acting in any very singular man- ner : for the militia were called out just at planting time, and food for their families was as pressing a duty as the country's call in its hour of need. Out of 345 men called out, 60 refused. There were others who went, whose names appear in Capt. Aaron Rowley's Com- pany. Later in the year. 1777, July 8, in Capt. Job Woodbridge's Company that marched from Stockbridge, are the names of several men from Glassworks. A whole company, not all from Lee, under Capt. Jesse Bradley, were mustered into service 1777, July 20, in Col. John Brown's Regiment. Still others are to be found in Capt. Oliver Belden's Company, who enlisted 1777, September 21. It will be remembered that it was about this time the Battle of Bennington was fought, 1777, August 16. The Berkshire Militia constituted no small part of Gen. Stark's forces on that occasion. They participated also in the hardships and perils of the campaign that ended so gloriously in the surrender of Burgoyne, 1777, October 17. In the list of officers under date of 1778, April, Jesse Bradley appears as Captain, Amos Porter, First Lieuten- ant, and Theophilus Mansfield, Second Lieutenant. The names of men from Lee are given also in the pay-roll of Capt. Enoch Noble's Company, who served at Peekskill N. Y., 8 months from May 15, 1778. In this year there was, 1778, August 16, an alarm at Bennington, and the militia were ordered out to defend their homes against a supposed invasion. Lieutenant Ezekiel Crocker was the officer in command. In 1779, April 1, a committee ap- pointed by the Legislature report 9 men from Lee in the Continental Army. 1779, July 16, the muster-master at Springfield acknowledges three men from Lee, whose de- scriptive list gives their names and ages, as Jedidiah
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Crocker 18, Braddock Williams 20, John Ellis 17. These were in Capt. Bradley's Company, in Col. Rossiter's Regi- ment. 1780, January 4, the Selectmen of Lee, Jesse Bradley, Amos Mansfield, and Josiah Yale certify the pay- ment of 11 men for 6 months' service from date. 1780, August 29, nine others are registered as belonging to the new levies for 6 months. So peremptory was the demand for men, that the Legislature passed a law, 1780, June 22, to raise immediately 4,726 men. If any man was drafted who could not pass muster, he was to hire some able- bodied man to take his place, or pay a fine of $150.00 within 24 hours. 1780, October 18, there was another false alarm in Berkshire, and Capt. Amos Porter's Com- pany of 25 men started out with ready courage to ward off the supposed peril. In 1781, enlistments grew to be so infrequent that in accordance with an act passed 1780, December 20, the town was divided into 4 classes, (1781, June 1,) each class to raise its quota by bounties offered, or by volunteers. These four classes raised, as the select- men certify, £240, hard money. In the same volume are the receipts of men who had received the bounty offered. Six of them joined Capt. Porter's Company, in Col. Rossiter's Regiment. Again alarm came from the north- ward, from near Stillwater, and the militia companies (Roll 23 : 186) of Lee and Lenox marched at once under Capt. Josiah Yale on what proved to be another false alarm. Others marched also with equal promptness, enlisted in Capt. John Bacon's Company : others still (Roll 21: 175) enlisted in Capt. Thomas Ingersoll's Company.
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