USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1800 to the year 1876 > Part 19
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UNCLE ARTHUR,
At Goodrich's factory, one mile north of the meeting-house, will card or manufacture, either by the yard or on shares, either in the flannel or finished. And for carding, if it will accommodate customers, I will take half in such produce as I shall want for my family. The other half must be cash when the rolls are delivered ; for oil is a cash article, and must be paid for. ARTHUR SCHOLFIELD.
Pittsfield, June 3, 1821.
In such humble manner was the father of the Pittsfield woolen manufacture struggling for a livelihood in his old age. And thus he struggled on to the last.
Mr. Scholfield died, March 27, 1827, at the age of seventy years and six months, and was buried in the old first burial ground in the rear of the Baptist church. When that ground was secular- ized, his remains were removed to the new Pittsfield cemetery.
CHAPTER IX. BEFORE THE WAR.
[1800-1812.]
Business-activity-Establishment and failure of the Berkshire bank-Other business-losses-Building of a democratic hotel-Names of prominent dem- ocrats-Park square and its business-surroundings-Drum-factory-Jona- than Allen, 2d-Pomeroy's gun-factory-Ordination of Rev. William Allen.
A BOUT 1806, banking institutions were springing up, in most of the towns of New England where a little capital had been accumulated; and, in February of that year, Gov. Strong signed the charter of the Berkshire bank; the corpora- tors named being Simon Larned, Timothy Childs, Joshua Dan- forth, Daniel Pepoon, David Campbell, Jr., James D. Colt, Jr., Thomas Allen, Jr., Theodore Hinsdale, Jr., Ebenezer Center and Joseph Merrick. The capital stock was fixed at seventy-five thousand dollars, all to be paid in gold and silver coin previous to October 6, 1806, and the issue of bills was restricted to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The bank was organized July 5, 1807, by the choice of the following directors : Simon Larned, John W. Hulbert, Joshua Danforth and Daniel Pepoon of Pittsfield, Joseph Goodwin of Lenox, Andrew Dexter of Boston, and James D. Colt, Jr., of Pittsfield. Simon Larned was chosen president, and Ebenezer Center cashier. The influ- ence of political feeling was indicated by the fact that here, where a harmonious co-operation was essential, democrats and federalists were carefully made to alternate in the board of directors ; while the president being a democrat, the cashier was selected from the federalists.1
1 This happy spirit of conciliation was imitated in the management of the high-schools, the water-works and the library, and might with profit have been followed still further.
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Messrs. Hulbert and Larned, the two directors first named, were not specially distinguished for business-talent, but they were leaders on opposite sides in politics, and were both high- spirited, genial gentlemen, ambitious and popular. The other members of the board, resident in the county, were among its most thorough, systematic and capable business men ; but none of them had any practical knowledge of banking. For this they relied upon Mr. Dexter. This person was still a young man, but was in the flush of his fame as a successful financier ; and his brother-directors placed in him the most implicit confidence ; a confidence which led to their ruin. Mr. Dexter was engaged in operations gigantic for that period : among others, the building of the Boston Exchange, which required the expenditure of large sums of money. To procure this, he became connected with sey- eral country-banks, which he dextrously made to contribute largely to his necessities. The methods by which this was effect- ed seem to have been among those cases in which illegal irregu- larities become so common as to be condoned by public opinion until the inevitable ruin excites public indignation.
But, perhaps, in the case of the Berkshire bank, something stronger may be said. Mr. Dexter was carrying on a business in Boston, which required a deposit of a certain amount of money in bank-bills. In order to meet this obligation, he made an arrange- ment with the Berkshire bank by which he received two hundred thousand dollars in their bills, with the agreement that they should be kept in the original packages, and not put in circula- tion. They were merely to be held to satisfy the requisition of the law in regard to private bankers. In making this deposit with Mr. Dexter, the directors clearly violated the provisions of their charter, however innocent their intentions may have been; and they suffered the consequences.
In the year 1809, the bills of the bank, like those of many others, began to be discredited; and were returned for redemption in such amounts that the institution was seriously embarrassed. Finally, so hard was the run upon it that, in one day, more of its bills were placed in the hands of John Chandler Williams for collection, than appeared from its books to be in circulation.
In February, 1810, the legislature appointed a committee to investigate its affairs, together with those of the Northampton bank, which was involved in similar trouble. Their report was
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somewhat confused ; but it clearly says that "there is a consider- able demand for Berkshire bank-bills, which the directors state are fully secured ; but, of the probable payment of these bills it is difficult to judge."
The directors did indeed fully believe that their bank was per- fectly secured. That much of confidence in Andrew Dexter, Jr., they still retained. But it appeared, on examination, that his property was entirely absorbed by mortgages prior to theirs : and the crash could no longer be postponed. Col. Larned, writing to Dr. Timothy Childs, shortly after the report was submitted to the legislature, says :
Under all the circumstances, I cannot say but that it was as favora- ble as we could reasonably expect; but it will not appear too much so without explanation. We should be willing to have the report lie over to next session. We do not hesitate to acknowledge that, by placing too high confidence in A. D., we are bankrupt to a considerable amount; but we are making an attempt to compromise at twenty-five cents on the dollar, which will take nearly or quite all our several properties : though, could the report be suffered to remain on the table until next session, we should by that time have so far proceeded in our attempt at compromise as would bring the issue within the reach of probable conjecture.
The matter was practically postponed in the legislature for one year ; but the charter of the bank was finally vacated, and, the directors being personally responsible, their property was seized for the payment of its debts. This not proving sufficient, in accordance with the custom of the day in regard to imprisonment for debt, all the Berkshire directors were committed to jail at Lenox. When they were liberated, six gentlemen who, a few years before, were accounted among the most prosperous in Berk- shire, returned to their homes pecuniarily ruined.
Most of them, however, afterwards recovered their prosperity ; and the loss of fortune does not seem to have in the least dimin- ished their influence or the respect in which they were previously held. An attempt was made to obtain the removal of Col. Larned from his office of Sheriff, but it miserably failed, and he held the position until he was appointed to a command in the army. Mr. Hulbert was, soon after, elected to congress against unusual odds, although the Sun cited his connection with the Berkshire bank against him.
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The neat little banking-house built for the Berkshire bank in 1806, afterwards harbored more successful financial institutions -- the Agricultural bank and then the Berkshire Mutual Fire Insur- ance company. It was removed in 1874, to give place to the Berkshire Athenæum.
Ebenezer Center, the cashier of the bank, was a merchant doing business on Bank row. He afterwards removed to Hud- son, but before his death, he returned to Pittsfield. He was an upright and excellent man, with many popular qualities, but was unsuccessful in business.
James Buel, clerk and teller of the bank, was born at Litch- fiekl, Connecticut, in 1787, and removed to Pittsfield in 1807 or 1808. From 1810 to 1812, he resided in Hudson, N. Y. In 1812, he began business again in Pittsfield, with David Campbell, on Exchange row, as successors to S. D. and J. D. Colt. From 1814 to 1816, he was treasurer and general agent of the Pitts- field Cotton and Woolen Manufacturing company. He afterwards spent some years in New Orleans and Connecticut, but returning to Pittsfield, entered into partnership with Ezekiel R. Colt, with whom he continued in business on Bank row, for twenty-five years. He was commissioned notary public by Governor Brooks in the year 1820, and held the office by successive re-appoint- ments until 1870. Pittsfield never had a citizen of more perfect uprightness, and scrupulous integrity, than James Buel.
The affair of the Berkshire bank was not the only one in which large sums were abstracted from the capital of Pittsfield by wrong- doing abroad. In June, 1806, Thompson J. Skinner, of Wil- liamstown, who had represented the Berkshire district in con- gress, from 1797 to 1799, was chosen treasurer and receiver-gen- eral of the commonwealth ; and among his bondsmen for the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, were Ezekiel Bacon, Dr. Timothy Childs, Simeon Griswold, and perhaps other citizens of Pittsfield.
At the close of Mr. Skinner's first term, the usual committee to examine the accounts of the treasurer were prevented from reporting by an early adjournment of the legislature, and a second committee appointed nine months later reported them all cor- rect ; although afterwards, in the course of legal proceedings, it appeared that they had made no personal examination of the funds in the treasury.
In June, 1809, however, it was discovered-a new treasurer
Ing & by HHHall & Sans 62 Fulton St NY
Sam Bul
3
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having been elected-that Mr. Skinner was a defaulter to the amount of sixty thousand dollars, while the assets to be obtained from his estate were only twenty thousand. The deficit of forty thousand dollars, his bondsmen were called upon to pay ; and, refusing, were sued for that amount. They defended on the ground that the treasurer was solely the servant of the state-gov- ernment, and in nowise amenable to his sureties, who had no means of bringing him to account; but that this was the duty of the legislature, by whose neglect to perform it at the usual and proper time, and by the false statements of whose committee, the fraud was concealed until Skinner was able to convey and actually did convey, a large portion of his property out of the state, thereby greatly increasing the burden imposed upon the bondsmen. This apparently just plea was rejected by the courts, and after- wards by the legislature, to which body application was made for relief in equity. Executions were issued against each of the sureties for the sum of ten thousand dollars, and they were put in force in the year 1812. Several other citizens of Pittsfield suf- fered in smaller amounts as endorsers of Skinner's private paper.
Drains like these upon the resources of the most enterprising and public-spirited citizens-small as the amounts absolutely involved may now appear-could not fail to have a sensible effect upon the material progress of the town ; and some valuable citi- zens were led by them to seek their fortunes elsewhere.
There would seem to have been at all times an abundance of hotels in Pittsfield; and in the earliest years of the nineteenth century, the section about the park seems to have been particu- larly well supplied. Captain Campbell's coffee-house on Bank row, was a handsome and commodious tavern. The gambrel- roofed inn on the corner of North and West streets, was popular under the charge of Captain Joseph Merrick. Captain Merrick's popularity as a landlord was even so great that the democrats were accustomed to hold their public dinners with him, althoughi he was known to be a moderate federalist.
In the year 1808, however, political feeling had grown so warm that it was alleged that Captain Merrick had refused to furnish the usual Fourth of July dinner for the democrats. Great indig- nation ensued, and the excluded party celebrated the Fourth with more spirit than even they had ever before exhibited; "although the morning was threatening, and the latter part of the day
24
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extremely inclement." The latter circumstance decidedly marred the festivities ; for the dinner being prepared by Captain Jared Ingersoll, the elder, who had ceased to keep a public house, was spread in his orchard,1 within a rustic bower, which had been handsomely constructed with evergreen boughs and beautifully decorated with flags, mottoes and flowers. It was extremely pretty and very romantic ; but it was unhappily but ill-adapted to the protection of the guests from the torrents of rain which fell while they honored "with fervor and unanimity " seventeen patriotic toasts each followed by the booming of cannon.
The result of this experience was a determination which, formed under such circumstances, was not likely to fail, that the republicans of Pittsfield would no longer depend upon federalists for a place for their patriotic festivities.2 For this purpose sub- stantial members of the party contributed freely ; and in October, 1808, Rev. Thomas Allen sold to them a piece of land on the south-west corner of his home-lot, with a front of eighty-two feet on East street, and twenty rods deep. The price was sixteen hundred dollars, and the property was conveyed in four hundred and forty-five undivided parts, of which individuals held from one to five each. The following are the names of the . purchasers : Simon Larned, Joshua Danforth, Ezekiel Bacon, John B. Root, Jared Ingersoll, Phinchas Allen, Simeon Brown, Oramel Fan- ning, Septemius Bingham, James Brown, Timothy Childs, John Dickinson, Henry H. Childs, Charles Bishop, Robert Merriam, John Chamberlain, Seth Montague, Daniel Sackett, Oren Good- rich, James Root, Joel Stevens, William Stevens, Timothy Hurl- but, Simeon Butler, John Eells, David Pierson, Jr., William Francis, Jr., Oliver Root, Jesse Goodrich, Seth Moore, Elijah Bagg, Horace Allen, Eldad Francis, Joshua Baker, Oswald Wil- liams, Samuel Williams, James Hubbard, Richard Robbins, William D. Robbins, Elijah Robbins, Jonathan Yale Clark, John Churchill, 2d, Silvester Robbins, James Hubbard, Jr., Robert
1This orchard covered the space west of North street between Railroad street and Depot street.
2" Our friends can have no cause of present or future regret, that the doors of public houses of entertainment where they usually resorted on similar occasions have this year been closed upon them; and they trust that before another anniversary of this joyful day returns, they shall have provided themselves with more lasting habitations than they have hitherto relied upon."-Report of celebration, in the Sun.
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Francis, Ichabod Chapman, Stephen Hurlbut, Josialt Francis, Jr., Thomas Stockin, Amasa Jeffords, Daniel Stearns, Simon Lang- worthy, William Janes, Ethan Janes, Silvester Langworthy, Avery Welch, Alpheus Weller, Enoch Weller, Constant Luce, William Griswold, Uriah Lathrop, Linus Parker, Tertullus Hubby, David Bush, Royal Millard, Gideon Gunn, William Brat- tle, Appleton Tracy, Joseph Shearer, James Moseley, Zebulon Herrick, Ludowick Stanton, Oliver P. Dickinson, Simeon Gris- wold, Elias Keeler, Hosea Merrill, Sr., Robert Stanton.1
The Sun was disappointed in its expectation that before the fourth of July, 1809, its party would be provided with a hotel of its own ; and that year the democrats dined at a small tavern kept by William Clark on East street, nearly opposite the head of Pomeroy avenue. But, the next summer "The Pittsfield Hotel," built by the above-named democratic gentlemen, was opened by Simeon Griswold. It was a large three-story build- ing, and in his advertisement, Mr. Griswold justly boasted that it had as airy and convenient rooms as any country-hotel in New England. He further stated that it was "supplied with most of the principal American newspapers of all political parties ;" and that " no exertions would be spared to render the stock of liquors of the very best quality."
The Pittsfield Hotel was really a superior house for that day, and Mr. Griswold intimated that he relied for its support rather upon general than partisan patronage. It was, however, chiefly resorted to by democrats. In the war of 1812, the officers and soldiers of the Cantonment flocked to it, while the British officers on parole took their ease, and their wine, at Captain Campbell's coffee-house. When the "era of good-will " put an end to the partisan-divisions of the town, the Pittsfield Hotel felt the effect of an excess of hotel accommodations-as the Union church did of religious-and it maintained a languishing existence until 1822, when it was sold to the trustees of the medical college.
Between the years 1800 and 1812, the appearance of Park
1The lot thus purchased is now a portion of the grounds attached to the residence of Ilon. Thomas Allen, and lies in the angle formed by East and School streets. Upon it stood the gambrel-roof cottage, occupied by Phine- has Allen as a dwelling-house. The office of the Sun had been removed in 1807, to " Mr. Griswold's elegant new building on the corner west of the meeting-house."
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square had been greatly changed, although it was still an open, ungraded space, through which roads dividing at the head of East street ran to West street, and to the corner of North street. The old Elm had but a single companion, which stood in the south-east corner of the square. When the first soldiers for the war of 1812 entered Pittsfield, they found a moderately-compact central village with a brisk country-business. The north side of the square, in addition to the church and the town-house, had on the corner of North street, the "elegant store" built by Simeon Griswold : a plain wooden structure which long held its place ; being occupied by Josiah Bissell & Son, and by John C. West and Brother. The Pittsfield Hotel had taken the place of the printing-office on the east side. On the south, next to the grounds of John Chandler Williams, stood the Female Academy. Then came the Berkshire bank building, the "bookstore" of J. and R. Warriner, and the "medicine-store" of Henry James & Co., Captain Campbell's coffee-house and the two-story (Stoddard) store occupied by Nathan Willis and son. David Campbell and James Buel had succeeded J. D. and S. D. Colt, in the store built by them on the west side of the square. North of this, on the south corner of West street, still stood the gambrel-roof cottage owned by John W. Hulbert who had collected upon the premises materials for a handsome stone-mansion, when the failure of the Berkshire bank dissipated this, with many another pleasant Pittsfield hope. North of West street, stood Captain Merrick's inn, and the Bush building, with its two tenements occupied respectively by a shoemaker and a goldsmith.
It will thus be seen that the four sides of Park square were pretty closely surrounded with buildings chiefly devoted to busi- ness-purposes. But the business of the town was far from being confined to Park square. Colonel Danforth still continued his store on East street, and John B. Root and James McKnight occupied that built by Colonel Larned. Elder Robert Green hav- ing recently purchased the stock of Ahab Jinks, kept quite an extensive assortment on Elm street, as Horace Allen did on West street.
Early in 1809, Abner Stevens removed the drum-making busi- ness, which he had for some years carried on at Hancock, to Pitts- field, where he built a shop on North street, between Fenn street and the Boston and Albany railroad. Under the militia-laws,
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which then existed in all the states, every town had at least one military company ; and the most essential of all its equipments was the drum. The captain's sword or the private's musket might be supplied by some imperfect substitute ; but a drum, and a passably good one, could not be dispensed with. Mr. Stevens made a good rattling instrument, and his business could not but thrive. The war added the national government to the number of his patrons ; and, being industrious and economical, he made a handsome fortune. Under the perpetual incitement of the mar- tial music of his own manufacture, he was of course an ardent war-democrat.
Another valuable accession to the ranks of the democrats, was Jonathan Allen, 2d. This gentleman was born at Northampton, September 26, 1786; his father being Elisha Allen. In 1801, at the age of fifteen, he walked from Northampton to Pittsfield, where he learned the clothier's business as an apprentice of Dea- con Eli Maynard, with whom he entered into partnership, on attaining his majority, in 1807. Deacon Maynard retired in 1810, and the firm became Allen and (Roswell) Knight. Mr. Knight left the firm in 1811; after which, Mr. Allen carrying on the business alone, accumulated a competent fortune. In 1812, he married Clarissa Arms, of Conway. Mr. Allen, besides being a good business man, possessed some literary taste and was a good writer. Many of the best articles contributed to the Sun in its first half century were from his pen. He held many town- offices, and was active in town-affairs as well as in national poli- tics. He died October 17, 1866.
Before 1812, there had grown up in Pittsfield, a manufactory of muskets, which, although not so extensive as it afterwards became, was of essential service in supplying some of the states with arms. In 1806, Jason Mills, from Springfield, purchased the old Whitney forge, and established upon the site a small gun- shop for the manufacture principally of fowling-pieces and other custom-work, for the neighboring country. In 1808, Lemuel Pomeroy purchased the place, of the representatives of Mills, and extended the works to the manufacture of muskets, for which he had contracts with Massachusetts and other states. The extent of the production was about two thousand stand annually.
In 1816, Mr. Pomeroy obtained a contract for supplying the United States government with two thousand stand annually for
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a term of five years. This contract was renewed for terms of five years, until 1846, although the amount of production was reduced in 1839, to fifteen hundred stand, but of a more expensive qual- ity. In addition to the muskets made for the government, Mr. Pomeroy supplied two hundred stand annually to the trade.
In 1846, the government introducing the percussion-musket, the manufacture of which would have required changes in Mr. Pomeroy's works costing twenty-five thousand dollars, he declined any further contract. He would, however, have made the neces- sary expenditure, and continued the business, if it had not been that the government about the same time placed the armory at Springfield, which had previously been conducted by civilians, in charge of the war-department, who subjected it to strict military rule. Mr. Pomeroy was satisfied that this course would render the national armory so efficient as to place private competition out of the question. This opinion Mr. Pomeroy expressed to the board who had the question of the change under consideration, and it had great influence upon their decision. The officials were greatly astonished that Mr. Pomeroy should give evidence so detrimental to his own pecuniary interest; but they did not know the man.
While the business was in the full tide of success in 1823, Mr. Pomeroy erected, for its better prosecution, a brick-building fifty feet by forty in size ; and in 1828, he added a brick trip-hammer shop; these were called the water-shops, the machinery being driven by the water-power since used by the Taconic factory. The muskets were finished at a wooden-shop, two stories in height, on the corner of East street and Pomeroy avenue. In 1846, the brick water-shop was burned, and Mr. Pomeroy aban- doned the manufacture of muskets ; but for about ten years longer the trip-hammer shop was used for the manufacture of iron-axles.
The armory, which employed about thirty gunsmiths, was very profitable from the first, both to its proprietor and the town. From it Mr. Pomeroy obtained a portion of those resources, which under adverse circumstances, enabled him to lay the foundations of his woolen-manufactures. The trade of the gunsmith was hereditary in the Pomeroy family ; the muskets manufactured by Mr. Pomeroy's grandfather, General Seth Pomeroy, having been famous throughout New England and the Canadas in the French and Indian wars. Those manufactured by the grandson were
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