USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1734 to the year 1800 > Part 16
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Whereas the proprietors of the sixty settling-lots in the township of Poontoosook propose speedily to build a meeting-house and settle a minister ; and whereas their present circumstances will not enable them to build a large meeting-house, neither will they have ocasion for such an one : but, inas- much as there is a prospect of a considerable number of others that will soon settle in said township, they have been advised to think of building a house of fifty-five feet one way, and forty-five feet the other, and at present only to eover the same, and to finish the same hereafter, which may probably accommodate all that may hereafter settle in sail township; which they are ready to comply with, and pay their full proportion of, so far as may be judged reasonable, provided the non-resident proprietors will be so good on their parts as to encourage the same upon this proposal. We, who are ye non-resident proprietors, upon condition a house of ye aforesaid dimensions be built, will give towards the same, provided the proprietors will give to each of us a pew in said house, what we have respectively affixed to our names, as witness our hands, this 3d of January, 1760.
MOSES GRAVES, Half ye glass. SOLOMON STODDARD, Half ye glass.
These offers did not satisfy the settlers, who voted, Jan. 17, to build the house forty-five feet long, thirty-five wide, twenty post ; and "to raise forty-five shillings on each lot to accomplish the work, half to be paid this year, half next."
1 This agreement, which was found among the Col. Williams Papers, is in the possession of Mr. J. A. Foote. A similar instrument, signed by Oliver Partridge and other non-resident proprietors, agreeing to furnish other material, was in ex- istence a few years since, but is unhappily lost.
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
Partridge and Graves, in their petition of 1762, considered that a house of the dimensions given would " scarcely hold the people when sixty families should be in town ; " and alleged that " one of the inhabitants, not a proprietor of the settling-lots, begged of the settlers to allow him to add twenty feet to the length, at his own charge, which they utterly refused, greatly to the damage of the original proprietors and their assigns, upon whose lands, in various parts of the town, many were [1762] settling; so that it was prob- able that the meeting-house would soon be useless."
The settlers, however, voted, Dec. 8, "That the committee be allowed to build the meeting-honse fifty-five feet long, and forty- five broad, with proportionate post, provided the non-resident pro- prietors will give £80, lawful money, towards enabling them to build, cover, and close the same; they, in consideration, to have four pews."
This arrangement being declined, a proposition was introduced, May 29, 1761, for a house probably intended to serve a tempo- rary purpose, - to be forty feet long, thirty broad, and fifteen-feet post, and to be covered with feather-edged boards only. This plan, also, was voted down; and, June 15, it was resolved, "That four shillings be raised on each lot, to pay for raising the meeting-house ; and every man who comes early to have three shillings credit, per diem, till the house be raised, and the com- mittee to take account of each man's labor, - the other shilling to be paid for rum and sugar."
And so, with labor duly cheered according to the custom of the day, the first Pittsfield meeting-house was raised in the summer of 1761; and covered and floored before the first of the next March, when a town-meeting was held in it. At a meeting of the proprietors, May 3, Mr. Jesse Sackett having greatly neglected to comply with his agreement to " clear, close, and clean an acre and a half for a meeting-house spot," the building was stated to be in great peril from wind and fire; but Mr. Sackett, promising to fulfil his engagement as soon as possible, was allowed until the 1st of November to do so.1
1 A reason appears in this statement for the completeness with which the pioneers were wont to denude their farms, which does not imply that lack of taste of which they are often impeached. Even in burnings of less extent than those fearful conflagrations which sometimes swept over the new country, the flames might readily be communicated, by means of a few trees, to the buildings of the
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
And probably, by the time specified, the meeting-house lot was denuded of all its trees; and the building was only shaded by the grand old elm, which, standing in the street before it, had, with a single smaller companion, been spared for its majestic beauty.
Nothing further appears to have been done towards finishing the meeting-house until May, 1764, when Col. Williams obtained the privilege of building a pew upon lot No. 16 in the ground-plan, for the use of himself and family, but to be relinquished to the town, if, upon the completion of the house, it did not fall to him of right. Capt. Charles Goodrich had lot No. 1 upon the same terms.
Other gentlemen craved similar privileges ; and, in December, it was determined to finish the house below and the front seats of the gallery, defraying the expense by the sale of pews. The first
I 6/2 × 6
16 6 /2 ×6
PULPIT
15 6 '/2 X5'/2
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3 6'/2×5'/2
14 6'|2 X5'|2
WEST DOOR
EAST DOOR
5 8 X15 /2
6 8 X5/2
7 8 X 5'/2
8 8 X 5'12
4 6 '/2X512
13 6/2×5'/2
GALLERY STAIRS
9 6 '/2×8
10 6/2X8
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FRONT DOOR
PLAN OF THE FIRST PITTSFIELD MEETING-HOUSE.
farmer who permitted himself to be seduced by their beauty to spare them. And a still further wisdom in thorough clearing appears from the necessity of laying bare to the cleansing sunlight as much as possible of a soil matted with a sponge- like covering of decaying leaves, dank with putrid moisture, and charged with noxious vapors, which even the pure sunlight could not cast ont, without first, for a time, redoubling their malignancy.
2
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
sale of pews in a Pittsfield meeting-house accordingly took place on Monday, Feb. 4, 1765, by auction, to the highest bidder.1
The result was as follows : -
No. 1. Sold to David Bush & Co.
£10 50
“ 2. Caleb Waddams & Co. 4 15 0
3. Joseph Keelar & Co. 4 10 0
4. Zebediah and Ephraim Stiles
2 10 0
66 5. Amos Root & Co.
4 00
6. James Easton & Co. 4 00
7. Daniel Hubbard & Co. 8 50
" 8. Gideon Goodrich & Co. 4 00
" 10. Wm. Williams & Co.
6 10 0
" 11. Capt. Charles Goodrich & Co.
6 15 0
" 13. Wm. Williams
2 10 0
" 14. Eli Root & Co. 5 00
« 15. Daniel Hubbard, jun., & Co. 4 10 0
" 16. David Noble &. Co. 9 00
Nos. 9 and 12 were not sold; and an unnumbered square next to the pulpit was reserved for the minister's family. It was voted that William Williams should have the proceeds of the sale (£83 15), and the two spaces for pews left unsold ; he finishing the house in the usual manner within twelve months, and allowing the market-price for lime and boards to those who had bought pews, should they incline to furnish the same.
One would think that the long-desired end might now have been anticipated with tolerable certainty ; but one of those lapses which seem to have been inevitable in the history of the early public works of Pittsfield intervened, and it was many twelvemonths before the house was completed in even an imperfect manner. In 1768, Col. Williams was called upon by the town to "finish the meet- ing-house according to . contract," Deacon Easton, as sub-contract- or, having failed to do so. But, Nov. 16, 1770, as if in despair of ever seeing any other end of the matter, it agreed to " accept the house as it stood, although not completed according to contract." Besides the work performed in accordance with Col. Williams's contract, Caleb Stanley and other young men had leave, in 1765, on paying thirty shillings into the treasury, to build a pew over the
1 A plan of the pews and seats, as they were to be made, was presented to the town, and transcribed on the record-book, from which the representation here given is copied.
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
gallery stairs; and, in 1770, the young men generally, after several refusals, obtained a vote permitting them to build four pews in the front gallery, with the proviso "that they should be under the direction of the selectmen."
The practice of seating the young men in one of the galleries, . prevailed for many years ; and it is related of Rev. Mr. Allen, that on one New-Year's Sunday, after reading the usual parochial statistics of the preceding twelve months, and remarking upon the meagre record of marriages, he glanced his eye along the delin- quent ranks, and shaking his head, as much as to say, " This will never do," he remarked quietly, "Young men, young men, you are expected to do your duty."
"A custom known as "dignifying" or "seating" the meeting- house existed at this time, and long after, in almost every New- England town; which is thus described in Caulkins's excellent history of Norwich, Conn .: "When the meeting-house was finished, a committee was appointed to dignify the seats, and establish the rules for seating the people. Usually the square pew nearest the pulpit was the first in dignity ; and next to this came the second pew, and the first long scat in front of the pulpit. After this, the dignity gradually diminished as the pews receded from the pulpit. If the house was furnished, as in some instances, with square pews on each side of the outer door, fronting the pul- pit, these were equal to the second or third rank in dignity. The front seat in the gallery, and the two highest pews in the side-gal- leries, were also seats of considerable dignity.
" The rules for seating were formed on an estimate of age, rank, office, estate-list, and aid furnished in building the house. These lists were occasionally revised, and the people reseated at intervals of three or four years. Frequent disputes, and even long-continued feuds, were caused by this perplexing business of seating a con- gregation according to rank and dignity."
One can well conceive that such a result would follow. Indeed, the church-going customs and laws of early times would intolera- bly gall the spirit of a man of our day, especially if his religious faith did not accord with that of the majority. To be taxed for the building of a temple not of his own mode of worship, and the support of a minister whom he believed the preacher of heresies; to be compelled, on penalty of the stocks, to "go to meeting" - " attend on the stated ordinances of the gospel," the law phrased
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it -within certain intervals, and when there to take the seat assigned him, as an indication of his social status, by a committee for whom his respect may have been of the slightest, - such, in Provincial times, was the fate of the dissenter, and, in some of its particu- lars, of the Orthodox Congregationalist as well.
In Pittsfield, the " system of dignifying the house" was disturbed without being ameliorated by the sale of the pews, which left only the long seats to be periodically classified. The honors of the pew-holders bloomed perennially. This distinction was only an additional source of discontent and irritation ; but, notwithstanding many attempts to do away with their invidious privileges, the proprietors held on to their pews until within a few years of the demolition of the meeting-house in 1792.
Seventeen years having passed away since the first vote of "The Proprietors of settling-lots in Poontoosuck" regarding it, the meeting-house was at last, in 1770, after some rough fashion, fin- ished ; and we have the data from which to reconstruct it, with little aid of the imagination.
FIRST MEETING-HOUSE, SCHOOL-HOUSE, AND PARSONAGE.
East street then ran straight through to West; and close upon its north side, immediately in front of the present location of the First Congregational Church, stood, broadside to the street, the little meeting-house, which had come of the great travail of so many years, - a plain, angular building, " forty-five feet long, thirty-five wide, and twenty feet post;" two stories high, with roof peaked
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
after the ordinary modern style; covered with rough, unpainted clapboards, with square windows, and, in the middle of the south, east, and west sides, doors of the same Quakerish pattern ; without belfry, portico, pilaster, or bracket; with no ornamentation what- ever, but soon with a plentiful display of broken window-panes, - the ugly little barn-like structure, about to be consecrated by words and acts for freedom as bold, as pure, and as ardent as any that were ever spoken or done in American history.
The visitor entering on the Sabbath, by the south door, con- fronted, at the north end of the broad aisle, the plain but elevated pulpit, with its earnest preacher. Below, upon a slightly-raised platform, stood a deal-table, used alike for the communion service and as the clerk's desk at town-meetings. Behind it, two chairs, high backed, and, as related to the present era, antique, but mod- ern enough then, and by no means Gothic 'or massive. The pews, arranged as in the plan, and the six " long seats" before the pulpit, occupied the floor of the house. Galleries extended on the east and west ends, and along the front. The pew-holders and their families sat together as now ; but, in the galleries and long seats, the men and women were separated, Shaker fashion.1
The majority of the congregation were hardy, well-to-do farmers of respectable carriage, betokening good New-England sense and education, and weather-beaten in other fields as well as those of peaceful labor. There were some of greater wealth and refine- ment; and a few of aristocratic pretension (for aristocratic pretension budded bravely under Provincial rule) ; a few, also, whose intellectual culture and ability are still held in remembrance. Nor did the lower seats lack for those less favored by fortune in respect to social position and the possession of this world's gear : while behind the singers, who occupied the front seats in the front gallery, were bestowed the Philises, the Dinahs, the Pendars, the Blossoms, the Hartfords, the Simons, and the Hazels; for, where equality was denied to the white race among themselves, no civil rights bill could be expected to accord it to the blacks.
Retiring with the congregation, at the close of a service some-
1 In 1773, John Strong was, by vote of the town, allowed to purchase for eight pounds " the hind seat on the woman's side," in order to build a pew where it stood ; and, three years afterwards, he received permission to exchange this for " half the two hind seats," on the same side, he preferring the dignity of a square pew.
158
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
what less protracted than was customary in other pulpits of that day, the visitor found himself under the shadow of the elm which reared its grandly graceful form in the street, directly before the southern door. On the other three sides of the house, spread a widely-cleared space, still cumbered with stones and stumps, and extending to the woods upon the north, all distinction having been lost between the " meeting-house common " and the burial- ground. Here, if it were summer, at the tables offered by the broad stumps, or in the shadow of the near woods, the people, in the brief nooning between the two services, discussed their lunch- eons and the gossip of the week ; the men, however, not failing to step across the way to sip their Sunday flip at the Deacon's tavern, - a custom always held in honor until the iconoclastic days of the Temperance Reformation.
The people had come together in the morning, some on foot, many on horseback with women on their pillions, a few in wagons, and possibly one or two with more stately equipage ; and all dis- persed promptly upon the afternoon benediction : for the late Sunday-dinners were waiting sharpened appetites; and, after that, the farmer's chores must be finished by sunset. The young men and maidens had other engagements for the evening.
In such a temple as we have described, and to a congregation like this, Thomas Allen preached those sermons, and taught those lessons, which, to this day, powerfully influence the character of Pittsfield; and the earlier of which were among the chief instru- mentalities in giving the town that proud position which it holds in Revolutionary story. Here, too, was the theatre of that bold and spirited action by which Pittsfield, under the inspiring eloquence of its pastor, and the leadership of such men as Brown, Easton, Childs, Noble, Root, Goodrich, Strong, and Rathbun, responded to Faneuil Hall. As we shall recount the story, let it be remembered that its scene was in the little, plain, brown, Qua- kerish-looking meeting-house under The Elm. Nor let it be forgot- ten that near or in it rallied the minute-men on Lexington alarm; the soldiers who followed David Noble to the armies of Washing- ton, and died in the pestilence at Lake Champlain ; those who followed James Easton to Canada, and those who in Patterson's regiment fought in the battles of the Delaware ; the volunteers who conquered at Bennington, and the militia who were decimated when John Brown fell at Stone Arabia. The soldiers of Pittsfield
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in the Revolution made their rendezvous on the same spot - now her beautiful, elm-shaded Park - whence, in later times, those whom she sent to a mightier but not more glorious conflict took their departure.
The dead, in the early years of the settlement, were buried in some convenient spot near their residences when living ; and some of these primitive cemeteries still remain. At the first meeting of the Plantation in 1753, the committee intrusted with "the. affair of the meeting-house was also instructed to report, for the consideration of the Proprietors, 'a place or places to bury the dead;'" and the fact that no record of it appears affords no evidence that their report was not actually made and adopted. There is no means of determining when, how, or by whom, the site of either the meeting-house or the burial-ground was finally fixed. In 1767, a proposition either to change the location of the latter, or to fence and clear it, was referred to Deacon Josiah Wright, Capt. Israel Stoddard, and David Bush ; with whom it lingered in Committee until November, 1769, when it was voted, " forthwith to clear the ground for a burial-place, and that David Bush be a committee to see it perfect, and also fenced, and the timber thereon to be employed therefor; and that he give every man a chance to work out their proportion if they attend accord- ing to his warning." In the previous year, Eli Root was directed to provide " a spade, a howe (hoe), and a peck for digging graves, and to take charge of the same." Aaron Stiles, a person depend- ent, on account of some infirmity, upon public support, was em- ployed for many years as " saxton," both as grave-digger and in the charge of the meeting-house; and, in the latter work, seems to have had a world of trouble in keeping things in decent order.
The meeting-house commons and the graveyard, which were soon merged in each other, covered all the space embraced within North street, the old line of East Street (including the present Park Place), a line drawn past the north side of the Baptist church, and another drawn near the west side of St. Stephen's to meet it at right angles.1 The land thus described was the south-west cor- ner of the home-lot held in trust by the town for the minister who
1 The eastern part of the "Old Burial-ground" was not added until about 1812, when it was obtained from the heirs of Mr. Allen to offset the encroachment of stores upon the west.
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should first be settled in it. It was probably taken for the pur- poses named, under the authority granted to towns of appropriat- ing private property to certain public uses ; paying therefor a reasonable compensation. There may have been some doubt as to the legality of the proceeding under the circumstances; but when the title vested in Mr. Allen, upon his ordination in 1764, he made a deed of gift, conveying it to the town.1
Pittsfield found hardly less difficulty in settling its first minister than in building its first meeting-house ; but it arose from theologi- cal instead of pecuniary obstacles. What the differences of opinion which agitated the town were, or precisely how parties were arrayed in respect to them, we are not informed; but doctrinal controversies of much bitterness had long disturbed the congrega- tional fold in New England; and among those who entered most vehemently into the strife were distinguished laymen, no less than eminent divines, of the Stoddard and Williams names. And it is hardly to be questioned that the representatives in Pittsfield, of those intimately-allied families, partook of their theological acerbi- ties, and that out of this grew the opposition to several of the unsuccessful candidates for the first pastorate of the town.
The roll grew tedious before the right man presented himself. The committee of 1759 employed a Mr. Clark, who preached some time as a candidate, - or, as the phrase of the day was, " a proba- tioner," -- but was not honored with a call. In 1760, Rev. Ebenezer Garnsey preached four months, "to almost universal acceptance," said the proprietors; "but, that they might not be taxed with rash- ness in attempting to settle him, they desired that he would offer himself to the examination of the Upper Association of Ministers in Hampshire County," and " upon their recommendation," the Pro- prietors promised "to give him £90, in three annual instalments, to enable him to settle himself, and £60 salary annually, to be
1 The statement that the land was thus given was made by Rev. William Allen, D.D., in a pamphlet published during the lifetime of his father and of many others who were conversant with the facts, some of whom were in a temper promptly to deny the assertion if any doubt of its correctness could have been conjured up. But we are not aware that either Dr. Allen's account, or the tra- dition which accords with it, was ever questioned. The deed, however, has dis appeared ; and, by an omission not singular in the old time, no record of any trans- actions concerning the lands in question was ever made in the registry of deeds ; so that the precise terms of the gift are unknown, or whether any limitations were attached to it.
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increased forty shillings yearly until it should reach £80." Mr. Garnsey left for the purpose of obtaining the required sanction ; but, learning on his way that " Col. Williams was mistaken in sup- posing such a proceeding necessary," he wrote that he " had almost no objection to the settlement and salary, but that no offers must tempt him to do what appears better omitted ; that they must be aware that the steps taken are quite out of the common method ; and that he is unwilling to take too much pains, or to appear too forward, to settle among them." He had " several other objections, among which ill health was not the least; " but, as he positively declined to comply with the condition of examination which the Proprictors had proposed, he did not think it necessary to specify them.
Upon this the Proprietors acknowledged their mistake, de- clared that "their affections were still toward him," and requested him "to preach some time longer with them, in order that they might obtain a further acquaintance with him, and knowledge of his principles." Mr. Garnsey complied, and "a more personal acquaintance " with the man and knowledge of his principles having only "still further endeared him to the people," they uncondition- ally renewed their call in December. A month later, he replied that " the turn of thinking he had discovered among some particu- lar persons, he considered in such a light as rendered a happy union very difficult, and almost utterly impossible." He thought himself "happy that the discovery was made so timely that he was able to extricate himself from the difficulty in which he was like to have been involved."
Mr. Garnsey returned to his native town, Durham, Conn., and ultimately retired from the ministry. What the objectionable turn of mind he had discovered in some at Pittsfield was does not appear : but the machinations of a small though powerful minority, operating shrewdly upon a sensitive mind, are apparent in the affair and the effect must have been unhappy upon the little com- munity which had so earnestly, and with such seeming unanimity, declared its respect and affection for the preacher of their choice.
In August, 1761, the town, having been incorporated, invited Rev. Enoch Huntington of Middletown, Conn., to become its pastor. In December, Mr. Huntington replied, that "although the temporal encouragements held out at Pittsfield "-the same which had been tendered Mr. Garnsey -"were larger and better
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