USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Heath > Sesquicentennial anniversary of the town of Heath, Massachusetts, August 25-29, 1935; addresses, speeches, letters, statistics > Part 8
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"The houses of nearly all the first settlers were of logs, and generally contained two rooms. The house which Col. Asaph White sold to Col. Maxwell was of logs, but had a frame which was boarded upon the inside. This was a kind of extravagance for those days. The most expensive items in building were nails and glass. The nails were usually ham- mered out in a blacksmith's shop, and the glass was sometimes omitted entirely ; an opening which could be closed in stormy weather doing duty as a window."
Col. Hugh Maxwell returned from the war of the Revolu- tion in 1784 and almost before he had arrived home, he was sent to Boston to help in securing the incorporation of a new town, which he was able to get through the help of his old superior officer, Gen. William Heath, and the town was named in in loving memory of him.
The first warrant for the first town meeting of the new town was directed to Asahel Thayer, "one of the principal in- habitants of the new town of Heath which was incorporated Feb. 14, 1785." The first town meeting was held March 21, 1785, at the South Schoolhouse. All that was done was to appoint town officers: town clerk and treasurer, James White; Moder- ator, Hugh Maxwell; Selectmen and Assessors, Hugh Maxwell, Asaph White and John Brown; Warden, William Buck; Tyth-
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ing Man, Benjamin White; Surveyers of Highways, Jonathan Thayer and Wm. Buck with Joseph Butler, Hogreaves, Parley Hunt and Luke White; Constable, Joseph Butler.
At the next town meeting the next week, it was voted to raise 30 pounds to defray the necessary charges of the town, also voted to raise 30 pounds for repairing highways. Voted to give four shillings a day for work done from the first of May to the first of August, and 3 shillings per day from then to the last of September and two shillings per day the rest of the year, and that a yoke of oxen shall have half the price of a man per day and that a plow and cart shall be one shilling per day for each. Voted to raise 15 pounds for schooling. In May at the fourth meeting, it was voted to raise 15 pounds for preach- ing, and before the meeing was adjourned they voted five pounds more.
By the end of the year they voted to build a school house for the north part of the town, and paid Charlemont for the south school-house which was already built when the town was incorporated, this so far as can be learned stood on the same site as the present one. The following committee was appointed, John Brown, Asaph White and Lieut. Benj. Max- well "to make preparations for the schoolhouse." Fifty pounds was raised for this, and Asaph White, Asahel Thayer and Joseph Butler appointed to "choose a spot to set the schoolhouse on." There is no record to show where the schoolhouse stood, but it is generally understood it was where Sawyer Hall now stands; to verify this there is a deed from Benjamin Maxwell to Augustus Cowles in 1796, which reads thus, "Beginning at a stake and stone on the road west of the meeting house which is the south-east corner of the premises, north 81/2 rods to stake and stones, near the schoolhouse,-west 20 rods by the road," etc. Mr. Cowles lived on the Stockwell place, so-called, just south of the Community Hall.
Then too, when the committee appointed were looking around for a place to set the meeting house on, they chose a
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spot, "about 15 rods east of the North School-house." The school-house must have been built sometime in 1786 for it was voted in town meeting in 1787, at the annual meeting to hold all town meetings in the North school-house until further notice.
Lieut. Benj. Maxwell was given $50 for an acre of land on which to set the meeting-house which was "placed on the north line of Lieut. Maxwell's lot he now lives on." This building stood a little east of the present church building. It was moved in installments and it was voted to give Lieut. Eli Gould $11 for stripping the foreside and putting it on again, Capt. Asaph White $9 for the other side, David Baldwin $18 for the roof, and Daniel Spooner $24 for the two ends, and putting it on again, but with the proviso that if the committee shall say after the work is done that it is worth but $20 he is to have no more. Col. Hugh Maxwell, Capt. Benj. White and Joseph But- ler were appointed "to provide materials for moving the meet- ing-house and setting it up again and to inspect the business." Fifty pounds were voted to pay for moving it; they also voted to postpone one half of the highway work until another year because of moving the meeting-house.
Only three years after building the North school-house, there was an increase of settlers in the east part of the town, especially in the Burnt Hill section, which, by the way, was called Burnt Hill even in the earliest deeds-the earliest legend gives it Burnt Shirt Hill. The legend ran-that a man hung his wet shirt in front of the fireplace to dry, and went out in his far lot to chop ; but the shirt was too near the heating apparatus -a spark flew onto the shirt, and away went the shirt, the house and-the legend began.
Money was appropriated to be used in this part of the town, "if they provide a place for schooling." The year after, the west wing of the town was allowed their proportion of the 25 pounds voted. In 1792 money was voted to build the east school-house on Burnt Hill, and we are reasonably certain it stood where the present building now does.
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The church was organized April 15, 1785 and called "The Church of Christ in Heath," and it consisted of 35 members. Col. Hugh Maxwell was made standing moderator. The church had several preachers, but no settled one, and Dea. John Brown thought one who lived among the people would be able to ac- complish more good. So he wrote a letter to the town in which he said, " I have considered the circumstances of the inhabit- ants of the town, and I find some to be under comfortable and some indigent circumstances, I have also considered the evil consequences of living without a minister, and I find them to be very great. I have been very desirous of settling a minister for a considerable time,-I have never urged the matter, neither do I mean to now, but if I can be instrumental of encouraging the matter I shall be glad, and for the above purpose I do pre- sent the town with a gift of 15 pounds if it may be disposed of in the manner as follows,-viz., all the cost of boarding the candidates together with the settlement and other necessary charges arising in consequence of settling a minister,-shall be made into a rate, and the selectmen or some other meet persons shall be appointed a committee to examine the circumstances of those persons in town that are not voters, and the above committee shall distribute the above 15 pounds among those that appear to them to be the most necessary, according to their discretion, and draw orders on me for the same, provided the town will allow me the privilege of boarding their candidates- (if I please) a sufficient term of time to amount to the afore- mentioned sum, at the common boarding price, and provided also that the town does settle a minister within 12 months from the date of this letter, or otherwise this offer shall be of no value."
Accordingly Rev. Joseph Strong was called in the spring of 1790. He was given 120 pounds settlement to be paid in cash or produce at following prices ; pork, six shillings per score ; beef, 15 shillings per hundred ; wheat, four shillings; rye, three
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shillings; corn, two shillings and six pence per bushel, and 60 pounds a year salary to be paid in like manner.
At town meeting 1794, 50 pounds were voted for keeping school, and 30 pounds for building the west school-house. Also each district was to appoint "a man to see that there shall be sufficient quantity of fire wood provided for the school, to be procured in good season, cut at a suitable length for the fire- place in which it is to be burned, and at three shillings and eight pence per cord."
Sometimes the logs for the fireplace were furnished by the parents of the scholars as a part of the pay for schooling, and an important part it was in the northern part of the colony, in the bitter cold winter weather, in the loosely built school- houses. Some schoolmasters, indignant at the carelessness of parents who failed to send the expected wood, banished the unfortunate child of the tardy parent to the coldest corner of the room.
The furnishings of the school-rooms were of the plainest, there were no black-boards, no maps, no globes. Faber's pencils were made as early as 1761, but lead pencils were not in common use even in city schools until the middle of the last century. In country schools copy-books were made of foolscap paper care- fully sewed into book shape, and were ruled by hand. Paper was scarce and highly prized; it was a great burden even for ministers to get what paper they needed for their sermons. Slates were not used until the 19th century-the first ones were frameless and had a hole pierced for a string on which to hang a pencil.
In olden times but one kind of a pen was used, one cut from a goose-quill pen with the feathers left on the handle. The selection and manufacture of these were a matter of con- siderable care in the beginning, and of constant watchfulness and mending till the pen was worn out. One of the indispen- sable qualities of an early schoolmaster was that he was a good penmaker and pen mender. It often took the master and helper two hours to make the pens for the school.
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Ink was not bought in liquid form, each family had to be an ink manufacturer. The favorite method of ink-making was through the dissolving of ink-powder. In remote districts feeble and pale home-made ink was made by steeping the bark of swamp maple in water, boiling it till thick, and diluting it with copperas.
A committee was appointed in 1794 to "see how they could get a schoolhouse built for the west school district."-the house was to be 24 feet by 18 and 91/2 feet stud, and the committee was to let the building of it to such persons as should perform it faithfully and on terms the most advantageous to the town. The committee reported that "the west school shall be set on a knoll near the northeast corner of William Hunt's lot on the road leading to Ziba Chapin's" (where Frank Pike is now) but it didn't appear to have been built until 1800 or finished until 1801 when at the March meeting it was voted to choose a committee of 5 to settle upon the spot to set the west school and to superintend the building of it.
The singing schools were started in 1795 when the town voted nine pounds for that purpose; John Brown was commis- sioned to hire the singing master, and the selectmen were to "ap- point the place or places for the school, and to agree to such rules and regulations as shall be proper and decent."
In 1795 there began discussions about the Center school- house. In April, a committee was appointed to "sell the Center Schoolhouse and build another or repair it where it now stands or move it and repair it on the ground it may be be moved to, as they shall think will be best for the town. Augustus Cowles to be at the cost of moving it and to risk the damage which said house may suffer from moving."
There was in December of the next year, 1796, a large number of accounts allowed for labor, material, etc., on the Center school-house, which totaled at least 85 pounds, or about $400; therefore it would appear that a new building was erected for it would not have taken that amount to merely move a
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building. A few years later they voted to clap-board three sides and repair the chimney.
New settlers were coming to town all the time, so that in 1801 the following people, Silas Allen, Moses Eldred, David Streeter and Stephen Barker, who all lived near the Center Cemetery "shall draw their school money out of the treasury to be expended in that district if it is called for." The Center district was also to receive $6 more than other districts and the rest of the money was to be equally divided between the south, east and west districts.
With still further expansion the sum of $15 was voted for the north part of the town, and also $10 was allowed again for Mr. Allen's district, so-called, with the privilege of winter schooling in the Center district.
In 1804 we note that there were six school districts for the school money was divided thus, South, East, and West were to receive $55.25 ; Center, $61.25; Mr. Allen's district, $10; and North $28.00. Then in March of the next year it was voted to build a schoolhouse for the north part of the town, and a committee appointed also to select a spot to set the building. The committee estimated the cost to build the house to be $182.91 and Nathaniel Maynard undertook to build the house for $174.00, which amount was raised at a town meeting. This was the Branch school-house but stood down on the road be- tween Frank Gleason's and George Newton's.
A pound was built in 1792, 30 feet square. It was built of stone, the wall was 31/2 feet thick at the base and two feet on top with a plate of timber eight inches square laid in stone- work and "was to be set in the most convenient place west of the brook that runs on up the road west of the meeting-house." This place selected was near the parsonage, where Mr. Dixon is now living. It was used as a pound for a great many years. Mr. Clarence Gleason has told of playing on it when he was a boy.
There is a little book, the dates beginning from 1800,
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probably made by Thomas Harrington, town clerk,-which gives the many different marks which were placed on their beasts, sheep, cows, etc. This simplified matters greatly when animals strayed and were placed in the pound. Some of them were,- Thomas Harrington for his sheep, two slits on the right ear, one on the upper part, and one on the lower, the middle piece remaining on the ear. Roger Leavitt's,-a half penny cut on the under side of the right ear,-Peter Hunt's was a three square hole through the left ear,-Samuel Kinsman's was a hole through the right ear,-Hugh Marwell's was a swallow's tail on the right ear. Jonathan White's was a hole through the left ear! In the back of this book were the nota- tions of the beasts found straying.
At this time, too, it was voted to give 17 cents for the head of each crow and six cents for the head of each blackbird that was brought to the selectmen.
The town felt the need now for another cemetery and the sum of $20 was given to Lieut. Benjamin Maxwell, near Joseph Wilder's for a burying ground which was laid out in a square form. Mr. Maxwell was to have the improvement of the land. This was the center cemetery which is situated at the top of hill on the Colrain road near Mrs. Malone's Faraway. And while we are on the subject $20 was raised in 1802 to buy a pall cloth and to trim the same, and Benj. Maxwell, Jr., was chosen to trim the cloth, and to keep it at his house.
Then it was that the difference began to seethe between the Pastor and the people, which kept up with varying degrees of animosity, until the relations between them were dissolved. They accused him of being overzealous over week-day mat- ters, but such a large family as he had to support, must have taken plenty of money. His small salary must have had to be stretched far beyond its natural limits, so together with most of the ministers of his day, he eked out his living with secular concerns. But it was never proved he did so at the expense of his duty as a minister.
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Soon the people voted to give the Rev. Moses Miller a call ; was to give him $500 settlement and $300 salary "to be paid one-half in one year from the first of March next and the other half in one year." "If he does not remain our minister ten years he shall reimburse $50 per year for the time he shall fall short of ten years. Also state to him that he, if at any time wants to remove, he may do so by giving the town one year's notice, and likewise if the town wishes to have him desist from his ministerial labor on their giving him one year notice, his salary shall cease." Number of votes in favor 33, against, 16. But before he came they changed the salary to $400 instead of $300 "as long as he remains our minister."
The south part of the town now decided they needed a new school building-accordingly a committee was appointed in 1806 "to see if there can be any advantageous alterations in the school districts and if any to make the alterations and the ex- pediency of building a school house for the south district, to fix the spot and draw a plan of the same." The next year the sum of $200 was voted to build the house, which was a brick one and $50 more was later raised for this-this was in 1807.
It was also voted in 1806 "that the center schoolhouse be moved to the center of the district." But it is most difficult to find out just what happens when the different committees are appointed, for it is rare that they make a report that is put onto the town records. So it is with these school records; the com- mittee appointed to see about whether to build a new school- house for the Center, or to move it, etc., failed to record it, so that it isn't known whether it was moved or not, but it appears that it was rebuilt on the same site, a new building, to judge by the amount spent.
There is no record showing that the town appropriated money for building the north-center schoolhouse, so-called, and it looks as though the new building at the Center might have been moved north to conform to the vote taken in 1806-that it be moved to the center of the district.
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The committee appointed in 1807 "set the bounds of the Center district, so far south as to include Lieut. Benj. Maxwell and Solomon Temple," the first where Mrs. Malone's summer home is, and the latter where Rev. Clarence Hicks' summer home is located; "north to the Branch, on the east the Center district meets the west bounds of the east district," which took in Sullivan Taft's where Col. Newland Smith now lives in sum- mer-the Cook place, so-called, etc. And "the Center School- house to stand in the most convenient place near the southwest corner of the graveyard." But they must have reconsidered this, for it stood near the corner where the road branches off the Colrain road and leads to the Center, which would be the south- east corner of the graveyard then.
Not much is known concerning this building, excepting that it was painted red, and had two ash trees near it. I have learned of but one person who taught there, among the many, and that was Lucretia Kendrick who married Henry Temple. Two other items were that Herbert Warfield of Charlemont attended school there when he was five years old ;- and Miss Anna Benson said, that when her mother went there to school, she said the boys, especially the real brave ones, dared to run over and throw stones at the hearse house, which stood on the south- east side of the cemetery !
There came so many new people to town who settled around the ox-bow road, that there began an agitation as to whether it was expedient to divide the new Center district, and a town meeting was called in the early part of 1807 concerning it. But it was passed over at the time, but later it was decided to "set off the north east part of the center district and the north part of the east district into a separate district" and a year or two later the families of Parley Hunt, Wm. Fisk and Josiah Newton were set off from the east district and added to the north-east school. Parley Hunt lived where Mrs. Ethel Schmidt now owns, Wm. Fisk at Oliver Tanner's, and Josiah lived east of Oliver Tanner's between there and the Roberts' place.
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Then in 1810 the church came under consideration again. "We are of the opinion that it is highly necessary to repair the outside of the house and that it is expedient to make the fol- lowing alterations, viz : to cut up the fore seats and improve the ground for pews, take away the stairs and improve that ground for pews, also to take the ground used for passage-ways at each end, to build a porch to communicate with the gallery, and to reserve for the use of the town two pews in front, one at the northwest and one at the northeast corner, and one where the west stairs are." Also they voted that the pew in the west gallery "be no longer considered as given to the blacks."
The school-houses were appraised in 1810 which appraisal was as follows-
"that it is our united opinion that the schoolhouse in the east district is worth $30, in the west $55, in the north, $98, the one at the Center, $70, and the one in the south, $155."
With the increase of scholars, more money was approp- riated. In 1815 $400 was voted for schools, and David Streeter, Samuel Higgins, David and Joseph Kinsman and Job Warfield were set off from the Center to the east district, and it was voted then "to divide the east district into two districts, with the proviso that they shall have no claim upon the town for assistance in building their new house."
In 1823 a committee decided that the school districts would be numbered thus: South School shall be No. 1; West, No. 2; South Center, No. 3; North east, No. 4; South east, No. 5; North center, No. 6; West middle (Branch) No. 7; North School, No. 8; North west, No. 9."
There is no record telling when the North school-house was built, or the No. 9 one. Each of them may have been built by the people in each district as was the north-east one by Col. Newland Smith's. In 1858 the school committee decided that the south and north-east school districts should combine. And the North center and South center united in 1866 and a new school-house was built in 1867 which is the present center
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school-house. Miss Anna Benson has attended school in both buildings.
The Branch district in 1873 selected a new spot for their new school-house, and they chose land belonging to Edmond Gleason, father of Clarence Gleason, which is the present Branch school-house. The present school building in the south was erected in 1877, the present one near Newland Smith's in 1883.
BAPTIST SOCIETY
The Baptist society of Heath was organized Sept. 9, 1801. In 1800 there were 29 names recorded in the book, and then follow 58 more names-evidently signed by themselves which made 87 names in all. The first names were Elder Stephen Barker, who did much to form the society, and three of his sons, Vernon and Aaron Gleason, Capt. Wm. Gleason, Solomon, Richard and David Temple, Thompson Smith, William Fox, several members of the Maxwell family, Joshua Warfield, Asa Marsh, Jr., Arad Hall, Jesse Gale, Nelson Churchill, Heze- kiah Coates and others.
At first they met around in the homes of the members. Sul- livan Taft was a prominent member and they often met at his home, and he was a deacon for many years. Hezekiah Coates was a deacon for 30 years-he was the man who proposed to a lady on the way home from his wife's funeral-and from that epi- sode arose the old classic-"Thus a long and lonesome life, Lived Deacon Coates without a wife, Full 18 days without was he, And by the help of Elder Fiske, Deacon Coates must take his risk."
The meeting-house was built about 1825 and stood on what is now Oliver Tanner's land. In 1839 they voted to move the church to the center of the town. Oliver Kendrick, Hezekiah Coates and Benj. Maxwell were the committee appointed. The committee reported that they had the deed to a piece of land of Dr. Emerson "for the purpose of settling a meeting-
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house on." So the church was taken down and moved-the depression may still be seen where the walls stood, which is on land now owned by Mrs. Charles Lamson.
Later names appearing on the church roll were Wm. M. Maxwell, Charles Hamilton, Joseph Chapin, Henry Fairbanks, Lovel and Murray Cook, Wm. Burrington, Stephen Davenport and others. In 1884 it was voted to sell all property of the Baptists, and Hugh Maxwell bought the structure and it was moved across the road, and is now the barn on the place.
The Baptist Society was one of the strongest churches of the region. It reached its largest membership in 1830 when 120 names were recorded. A good many baptisms were held in the brook near the turn to Peter Royer's on the north side of the road.
INDUSTRIES
A resume of the industries in town shows in 1826-one blacksmith shop, two tanneries, five sawmills, one store, two gristmills, one carding machine, eight shops, making 20 in- dustries in all; in 1831 there were 30-which were about the same as in 1826 with the addition of five cider mills; in that year, too, there were 165 houses in town, and sheep raising seemed to advance for there were 1750 sheep. In 1835, one hundred years ago, there was one blacksmith shop, two tan- neries, four sawmills, two stores, one grist mill, one carding machine and one clothier's shop and four other shops with 143 homes and sheep raising still advanced-with 2313 sheep.
There was a chair shop once which stood three stories high and was lined with brick. There are several people in town who tell of their grandfathers working there. There are still some chairs in town that were made there-the best of which are owned by Miss Pearl Gleason-these are made of curly maple.
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