USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Heath > Sesquicentennial anniversary of the town of Heath, Massachusetts, August 25-29, 1935; addresses, speeches, letters, statistics > Part 4
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The following are letters which he wrote to his wife :-
Westpoint, Nov. 4, 1779.
My dearest Dorcas :---
Nineteen years ago this day expired since you and I were married. This is the fifth anniversary of this kind that I have been absent from you successively and the second since I saw you.
Little did I think when I last parted with you that it would be so long an absence. But my dear I hope by this time we have both learnt to say, The will of the Lord be done and why should not we say so, His will is certainly the best, for it is a true passage that we read in the 97th Psalm and 2nd verse, that altho clouds and darkness are round about him, yet righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. And 89th Psalm, 14th verse, that Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. The reading I take to mean, altho we cannot at first see how his every way is best for us,-but there seems to be clouds and darkness before us, yet he is just, holy, righteous and merciful; and that altho he throws disappoint- ments and crosses in our way, yet it will in the end turn out to our advantage and his glory, and we shall see it to be so.
I hope you are all well though I do not hear from you but seldom. I have heard nothing since Paul Thayer came to camp and suppose you have no opportunity to send. I wrote to you since and sent you $300 by one Miller of Colrean, hope you rec'd that and I will send you more or bring it myself as soon as possible. You may depend on it that I will do all that lies in my power to make your life as comfortable as I possibly can and wish you to make yourself as easy as you can.
I find myself growing old. I can easily see that I have other bodily feelings than what I once had or my health has not been so good for several months past, though I am able to do my duty and always have been so, but inclined to the camp's disorders or bloody flux.
I shall not set any time to come home, you may only depend on my coming as soon as possible, I can. I would have you count to make yourself
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as comfortable through the winter as your poor circumstances will permit. I think I shall be able to supply you with money enough if money is good for anything.
I lament your town quarrel-my most earnest wish is that it may soon be settled so as God may be glorified and the Church edified thereby. My love to Ben and his wife, tell him I wish he would exert himself to settle that unhappy controversy. My love to Thompson and his wife, I sup- pose that he is out of the town and so has nothing to do with it. And my love to our children. I hope I remember them all and ask your and their prayers for me.
In hope that I shall soon see you all again, I subscribe myself your own loving husband.
Hugh Maxwell.
To Mrs. Bridget Maxwell, Charlemont
Sept. 28, 1780
My Dear
I will try to tell you Some News. Last Monday was discovered at West Point one of the most horrible pieces of treachery that ever disgraced History. The command of that important post was given to Gen. Arnold last summer which he held till Monday last. For about a fortnight past he entertained a certain Mr. Andrea the Adjutant general of the British army, this same Andrea by General Arnold's assistance had taken plans of all the works on the point and also formed the mode of an attack upon the place which was to have been delivered into the hands of the enemy : But he that sitteth in the heavens laughed and had them in derision. On Saturday last as Mr. Andre was returning to New York in his disguise he was met by a scout of ours taken and discovered. General Arnold heard of this on Monday and ran immediately to his wife -- told her that his plot was discovered and that he must bid farewell to his, and America forever. He then called his barge crew, went on board it and ordered them to row down the river-when he was passing our fort at Ferry he was hailed but he shewed a white flag on which they let him pass on and he went straight on board one of the enemie's ships laying in Haverstraw Bay which immediately sailed for York. Thus he is gone off and was not suspected till he had been gone two or three hours.
It appears that the enemy only waited for the return of Mr. Andre in order to carry their plan into execution, for they had a large body of
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troops lay on board transports at Fort Washington but it is over now. Mr. Arnold is in New York, Mr. Andre is in irons and their plot detected. The snare is broken and we are escaped.
You may shew this letter to all your neighbors and let us all give thanks for the discovery.
I do not think there will be any great things done this year but cannot tell certainly, may we all be prepared for all events of that all wise providence that rules all things well.
I am your loving friend and husband
Hugh Maxwell.
In Aug. 1783 before leaving the army he received a com- mission as Lieut. Col. in the Mass. line to take rank Oct. 12, 1782 which was his rank at the close of the war.,
It was not until the spring of 1784 that he returned to his family ; his daughter Priscilla says,-"On the evening of his return he gathered us all together, and with much power of spirit gave thanks to God, who had covered his head in the time of battle, preserved his life through many dangers, and continued the lives and health of his family, given victory, peace and independence to his country and restored him to the bosom of his beloved home."
This same year (1784) he was sent to Boston to secure the incorporation of the new town to be set off from Charlemont. This he did with the assistance of his old Commander and friend, Gen. Heath, after whom the town was named.
The next honor conferred upon him may perhaps be best shown by the following :- "Be it known that Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Maxwell is a member of the Society of the Cincin- nati, instituted by the Officers of the American Army, at the period of its dissolution, as well as to commemorate the great event which gave Independence to North America, as for the laudable purpose of inculcating the duty of laying down in peace arms assumed for public defence, and of uniting in acts of brotherly affection and bonds of perpetual friendship the members constituting the same.
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In testimony whereof I, the President of said Society, have hereunto set my hand at Philadelphia in the State of Pennsyl- vania this Fifth day of May in the year of our Lord, One Thousand Seven Hundred Eighty four in the Eighth Year of the Independence of the United States.
By order,
H. Knox Sec.
G. Washington, President.
In 1788 and '89 he was employed to survey the line from Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario and in the survey and location of several towns in western New York.
At the close of his service he was offered in payment, one of the most eligibly situated townships of land on the tract. But the necessities of his family required that he should take his pay in money for present use, as the pay which he had been promised as a soldier and an officer was established on the most economical grade, and was paid in continental currency which depreciated year by year, and an officer's pay would not buy the oats to feed his horse. He was fairly entitled to an officer's pension for life on account of his wounds. At length the hard hand of necessity compelled him to petition Congress for a pension as an invalid. Accordingly on the 29th of Dec. 1794 he left home and went to Philadelphia to make a personal appli- cation but all to no avail and he came home with nothing but a pocket emptied by the expense of the journey. Still he said "May the richest blessings of Heaven be poured down on the U. S. of America and I will teach my children to say the same."
He felt that if he could but raise a few hundred dollars it would greatly help in his declining years and at length struck upon a new plan. He purchased some shipping horses and leaving home in July 1799 he sailed from Hartford for the West Indies.
He had a good and prosperous voyage but three days be- fore the vessel arrived in port, homeward bound, he was taken with a fever and on the 14th of October, died and was buried at sea.
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Col. Maxwell was very fond of singing and often did sing for his family and friends. The love of singing has continued in his descendants, and following the foregoing address, a great- grand-daughter of Col. Maxwell, Mrs. Ella (Maxwell) Ward with her three children, Mrs. Gladys (Ward) David, Mrs. Made- line (Ward) Rickett, Hugh F. Ward-and five of her grand- children, Wmn. (Maxwell) and Roberta Ward, Margaret and Kendall W. Rickett and Kenneth Davis, sang one stanza of "Faith of Our Fathers." The whole congregation joined in the last stanza.
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Heath And Its Families BY
PEARLE TANNER
Heath was originally a part of Charlemont, which was one of three townships in western Massachusetts granted to the town of Boston in 1735, and was called Boston Township No. 1. Each of the townships was 6 miles square, and Boston was to settle on each town 60 families, "each family is to build and finish a dwelling house, 18 feet square and 7 feet stud at the least, each settler was to fit for improvement, 5 acres of said home lot, either by plowing or for mowing, by stocking the same with English grass, and fence the same well in, and actually live on the spot-also that they build and finish a suit- able and convenient House for the worship of God, and settle a learned orthodox minister in each town and provide for their honorable support."
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There are two deeds at the Greenfield Courthouse which throw light on the Indian occupancy and ownership of all this section. The first follows: "Mauhametpeet, wife of Tiahpuh- caumin, and Mequisqua, Indian women of Scautecook tribe, to John Stoddard and Capt. Israel Williams, a committee appointed by the Court to bargain for Jeremiah Allen, treasurer of the province-for the consideration of 50 pounds, a certain tract or parcel of land lying and being within said province, west of the town of Deerfield and is upon the main branch of the Deer- field River-and is bounded, east at mouth of North River where it empties itself into Deerfield River, extending up said river or west to the Great Mountain-and is bounded west at the foot of the Mountain that separates and divides the waters
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that flow from thence, east into Connecticut River and west into Hudson River, and it is about 10 miles from the mouth of North River to foot of said Mountain, extending north five miles from said river, south also 5 miles from said river, which tract of land descended to us from our grandmother," Dated Aug. 6, 1735, which makes this, really, our 200th anniversary.
The other deed is of the same date, which showed that the same Indians mentioned in the last paragraph "were of the same tribe, are true, sole and rightful owners of the land here- after described." The description of this land is the same as the above deed. The land thus contains all of Charlemont, part of Colrain, Heath, Rowe, Buckland and Hawley. The deeds are of interest because they show that this land was actually bought of the Indians.
Boston didn't carry out the provisions of the grant, and the selectmen then sold Township No. 1 to John Read, Esq. for 1200 pounds or around $6000, July 1737, binding him to comply with the conditions of the original grant. Then this obligation was in turn transmitted by John Read to John Chickley or Checkley and Gershom Keyes.
Then began a series of sales and re-sales of these lots of lands which with the exception of a few buyers, were purchased mostly for speculation. Benjamin Clark, Jonas Clark and Ebenezer Storer bought 666 acres in the north-east part, which were called Clark and Storer tract; Thomas Hancock bought 500 acres which adjoined the first named tract; the Lombard tract was west and north of the two other tracts; there was a Hemenway tract which touched the Clark and Storer one, and extended up Burnt Hill; Nathaniel Cunningham bought 100 acres and later 950 acres, part of this was on the north line of Charlemont, west of Hancock's.
The Green and Walker tract was bought Jan. 14, 1742 and contained 8575 acres of land. This was sold to. Joseph Green, Isaac Walker and Byfield Lyde. The south line of this big tract was the north line of Charlemont and the north line was
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the north bounds of the province. East it bounded on Colrain. On the west side of the Green and Walker land there were three tiers of lots, or 18 lots in all, numbered from 1 to 18, and at a later division of lots, one tier of lots numbered from 29 to 42 inclusive. These were situated in Rowe.
The heirs of Lyde sold 20 lots out of the middle of this. Green and Walker tract to Thomas Bulfinch, 10 of which he later sold to John Atkinson of New York City. William Ward bought 2000 acres too, and 10 years later Joseph Wilder, Jr. of Lancaster became the owner of a large part of these Ward lands. These lands were south of the others. Richard Dana acquired a great many acres and also Caleb Dana had a sizable tract. This tract was included too in the town of Heath.
There were a number of other speculative buyers, but the first sale to an actual settler was made to Moses Rice of Rutland in 1741. The second settler who came to share the privations and dangers of the pioneer life with Capt. Rice was Othniel Taylor of Deerfield, and he was soon joined by his brother Jonathan Taylor. They probably came in the summer of 1749, and built themselves houses directly opposite the Buckland railroad station, east of where Miss Elizabeth Smith lives in East Charlemont. A garrison was built around these two houses for the protection of their families and for receiving and entertaining soldiers. The houses served as the ends of the fort, and Jonathan's house contained a watch-box which com- manded a view up and down the river.
The brothers lived here together until about 1757 when Jonathan sold out to his brother and bought land in Heath which was the place we now know as the Elmer place at the foot of Burnt Hill. He built a log house a little to the north of the present road and where the cleared land extended back toward the swamp. "The house was built of round logs locked at the angles-the roof of hemlock bark, and planks split out of logs formed the floor. The chimney was built of stones laid without mortar, and there was not a nail in the house!"
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Mr. Taylor brought his supplies monthly from Deerfield, taking a route over or near Pocumtuck. In after years Mr. Taylor built a substantial frame house and barn on the old road to Colrain, which was not very far south of the present road, and died Feb. 1810, at the age of 76. His son, Jonathan occupied the old homestead and died in 1835 and a grandson Jonathan H. Taylor lived some time on the old place and then moved West. A daughter of Jonathan Taylor, 2nd married John Temple.
Charlemont was incorporated in 1765, and Jonathan Taylor was one of the first board of selectmen.
The first white men known or supposed to have penetrated the original forests of Heath were Richard Hazen and the surveyor and chainmen and their assistants who ran the official northern line of Massachusetts. Hazen began his survey March 21, 1741, and it was on April 9th that they measured the present north line of Heath.
It soon became imperative to protect the scattered settle- ments west of the Connecticut River from the French and Indians who had several well-trod war-paths to the English settlements of the Connecticut and the Deerfield. It became therefore of great moment to Massachusetts to defend the line of the Deerfield in the French and Indian war of 1744-48 and a line of forts was built extending from Northfield to Adams.
These forts were constructed about two miles south of the line dividing this state from New Hampshire, equi-distant from each other. They included Fort Morrison in Colrain, Fort Pelham in Rowe and Fort Massachusetts in Adams. But the first regular fort built to protect the valley of the Deerfield was placed by the General Court in the north eastern part of the town of Heath, and named Fort Shirley after the new Governor who became one of the ablest and most successful of all the Colonial governors of Massachusetts.
Col. John Stoddard, Gov. Shirley's right hand man, ordered Capt. Williams "to erect as soon as may be, a blockhouse 60 feet
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square." For the outside of the fort white pine logs were scored down, and then hewn to six inches thick and 14 inches high. The walls were 12 feet high which required 9 courses of these timbers laid edgewise, one above another, each being doweled to the one below by red oak dowel-pins. The ends of these timbers that came to the four corners of the fort were dove- tailed into each other, so that there were straight lines and strong locking at the corners.
There were two mounts on two corners of the fort 12 feet square and 7 feet high ; the houses and barracks within the fort were 11 feet wide with shingled roofs; the mount-timber, the insides of the houses and the floors were all hewn, probably of the same width and thickness as the wall timbers. "No doubt the whole parade in the middle of the fort was also floored in the same way, as the site of the fort was low and wet."
At the time of the Centennial in 1885 the well was in a fair- ly good state of preservation, so one could tell somewhat ac- curately the story of its construction; "Four staddles about 6 inches in diameter, one for each corner of the well, were set upright on the ground and then ash planks rived from a log about 5 feet long were spiked on the outside of these staddles, beginning at the bottom; and the frame being placed on the ground where the well was to be, the earth was thrown out over the sides, and so the well was gradually sunk to the re- quired depth, the plank-siding being added as the shaft was lowered."
On Sept. 30th, 1744, Capt. Williams commenced to billet himself and the soldiers under his command at the fort. Because Shirley was the first fort built by the Colony in this region, and especially because Fort Massachusetts was captured and burnt by the French and Indians in 1747, Fort Shirley became very prominent in that war, and was the headquarters of the suc- cessive commanders of the line of forts.
Rev. Mr. Norton, the chaplain for these forts, and Dr. Williams and 14 men left Fort Shirley Aug. 14, 1746, for Fort
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Massachusetts where they arrived the following day. Four days later, the fort was attacked and tho the men under the command of Serg. John Hawks put up a gallant defence, they had to surrender and the garrison were taken prisoners to Canada, among them Mr. Norton.
His daughter Anna died about the time of his return and was buried in a field a little to the west of the fort.
Fort Massachusetts was rebuilt in 1747 and thereafter be- came the chief fortification. It was decided that the sites of both Shirley and Pelham were ill chosen and that the route by the Hoosac was the one to be kept open for hostile demonstration toward Crown Point and the one to be defended against hostile intent from all that quarter. ;
For a few years there were five men only at Ft Shirley and later from 1752 to 1754 only one stationed here, and it was then represented that Shirley was rotten and it was abandoned and dismantled, the men withdrawn and the guns turned over to the Governor.
Col. Asaph White when the fort was dismantled conveyed to his premises six of the timbers and put them into the frame- work of his barn, each stick telling a tale of the original con- struction. These timbers have recently been removed from the barn, and three of them are on exhibition today, 191 years after the construction of the fort!
Mrs. F. E. Welch, daughter of an early physician in Heath, Dr. Joseph Emerson, bought the lot on which the fort was built and presented it to the Heath Historical Society about 1901. The fort site is situated about two and one-fourth miles from Heath Center or about a mile and a quarter from the four- corners at Oliver Tanner's where the Ox-bow road joins the road to Colrain. There is a sign there with the words, "Fort Shirley" and an arrow pointing north. This was placed there by Frank Carpenter, recently deceased, who was much inter- ested in these mementoes of the past.
Just a word here about the defence methods of the
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early times. Our English settlers copied the Indian mode of defence, in some cases it consisted of a single line of stakes or posts set closely together in a trench and bound to each other by a horizontal fastening near the top.
This line was called a stockade or palisade and the posts, stockadoes or palisadoes indiscriminately and often the en- closure itself, was called a stockade, which in reality was a tight fence built 10 or 12 feet high, constructed of logs from 6 to 10 inches in diameter set upright in a trench which was dug to receive them, the tops of the pickets being pinned to a timber running around inside the palisade. Then our settlers improved the Indian fortification by adding a sort of bastian at the corners.
The Outagamies enclosed their wigwams by a strong fence consisting of three rows of heavy oaken palisades. This method was also used by tribes farther south. This fence for the pro- tection of their villages consisted of three rows of palisades, those on the middle row being probably planted upright, and the other two set aslant against them. Below along the inside of the triple row, ran a sort of shallow trench or rifle-pit where the defenders lay ensconced, firing through interstices left for the purpose between the palisades.
The Chickasaws built a solid wall around their villages, which was formed of trunks of trees as large as a man's body set upright, close together and made shot proof by smaller trunks, planted within so as to close the interstices of the outer row.
In all of the towns there were garrisons or garrison-houses which were private houses pierced with loopholes and having an upper story projecting over the lower, so that the defenders could fire down on assailants who were battering the door or piling fagots against the walls. When an alarm was given all of the inhabitants who had time took refuge in them with their wives and children. In Maine some of the houses were also fenced with palisades.
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In Deerfield the house where John Sheldon lived, one of the largest in the village, was made bullet proof by a layer of bricks between the outer and inner sheathing, while its small windows and its projecting upper story also helped to make it defensible.
These private fortified houses were sometimes built by the owners alone, tho more often they were the joint work of the owners and of the inhabitants to whose safety they con- tributed. In Deerfield the palisade that enclosed the central part of the village was made under the vote of the town, each inhabitant being required to do his share. And because they were impoverished by the last war, the General Court remitted for a time part of their taxes in consideration of a work which so aided the general defence.
THE WHITE FAMILY
Jonathan White came to Charlemont in 1752, and the next year was chosen one of the officers of the town. He purchased land in the southern part of Heath, or what was then called the Hill or Charlemont Hill, cleared a few acres of timber, planted an orchard and built a log house a little east of the site of the present house. This farm was the one just north of the south schoolhouse, now occupied by James Duncan.
Jonathan White, later Col. Jonathan, was born in Lancaster in 1709. John White the emigrant, the first ancestor of the family of Whites, came from the west of England and settled in Salem sometime near 1639; he later moved to Lancaster.
Jonathan White married Esther Wilder, a relative of the Wilder who bought so much land in this region, and built a house in Leominster. "He was the largest landholder, a man of wealth and education-a gentleman of the old school."
In the French and Indian war he commanded a military company in his town and was actively engaged in defending the town from the attacks of the savages. He was commis- sioned captain in the Worcester regiment of Col. Ruggles which marched for Crown Point. On the march northward, Capt.
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White was promoted and made major, and before the end of the campaign was made lieutenant-colonel Cod. White with His regiment was in the battle near Lake George, Sept. 8, 1755
Cal White was commissionell Colomel in Feb. 1756, and ordered with his regiment to Lake Champlain. He served to the close of the war, was in many battles and won a light regmi- tion as a gallant and efficient officer. At the close of the mar, Col. White found that the Indians bad raided is place de- stroging everything and even cutting down bes orthard, except- ing one lode apple tree, which remas - O Dote ap long time afterward.
After his return from the war, he Ir at Lancaster, andi often went back as! i: tto: place to Heath. Ile died in Dec. 1788, and his eleven day's be- Bore. The memains of both The in the meterr among kindred dast of later generations, the the Colooel bad given to the town in 1771.
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