USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1800 to the year 1876 > Part 32
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RESIDENCE OF JAMES H. HINSDALE, EsQ.
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The third method is the one at present in force ; viz .: To seat the house by a committee, under the delegated authority of the parish ; with the merits of which the parish are sufficiently familiar. Should this method be adopted, the committee recommend that the seating- committee be instructed to preserve, as far as possible, the present order of seats and seat-mates. This they believe to be very import- ant; for, should any changes be made, the hazard of producing dis- satisfaction will be very great.
And thus, so late as 1830, the parish, although it made a step in advance by changing its square and cumbrons pews into neat and commodious slips, nevertheless deliberately adhered to the antiquated practice of seating the congregation by the allotment of a committee.
Much dissatisfaction, however, continued to prevail, and com- plaint was made that Pittsfield was far behind neighboring towns which had already adopted the desired change. Dr. O. S. Root, the next year, in behalf of himself and some other young men, annoyed by the bad eminence conferred upon them by their seats in the gallery, made known their grievances through the news- papers, and were assigned places in the pews below.
Finally, in November, 1836, nearly two years after the abolition of the compulsory support of public worship-the practice of seating the congregation by a committee was entirely done away with, and the pews were leased at a fixed price, the precedence of choice being sold at auction ; a method which still prevails.
And thus ended the long contest to do away with arbitrary dis- tinctions of class in the house of God; leaving only such as inevitably and incidentally arise.
CHAPTER XV.
THE BERKSHIRE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF AGRICULTURE AND MANUFACTURES.
[1807-1830.]
Agricultural societies in Europe and America prior to the Berkshire-The just claims of the Berkshire society to precedence-Evidence and acknowl- edgment of its beneficial influence throughout the country-Biographical sketch of Elkanah Watson-His removal to Pittsfield and exhibition of merino sheep under the Elm-He advocates the establishment of an agri- cultural society and the introduction of merino sheep-Independent cattle- show in 1810-Its influence upon Berkshire sheep-culture-The society incorporated-Its first cattle-show-Premiums, and prophetic address by Elkanalı Watson-Berkshire system of agricultural fairs gradually devel- oped-Ingenious device to interest women in them-Organization of the society's work - Plowing-match and viewing-committees introduced - Marked effect of the society's efforts upon Berkshire agriculture-Pecu- niary difficulties-Contributions of Pittsfield - Aid granted by the Com- monwealth-Efforts to make the shows migratory successfully resisted- Death of Mr. Watson-Ode by William Cullen Bryant.
W HEN in the year 1807, the idea of founding, in Berkshire county, a society for the promotion of agriculture and manufactures, happily occurred to Elkanah Watson, societies for a similar purpose were by no means a new thing in the world. The Society of the Improvers of the Knowledge of Agri- culture in Scotland was formed as early as 1723. The Highland Agricultural Society, which afterwards, in 1784, became national as the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, was incor- porated in 1777, and early established an annual show of live- stock, implements of husbandry and other articles of interest to farmers. In 1777, the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society was organized, and immediately established cattle- shows. The success of these institutions was so remarkable, that similar organizations of a local character soon spread all over
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Great Britain ; and in due time national boards and societies, formed under royal patronage, assumed the lead in promoting the cause of agriculture in the United Kingdom.
The history of these bodies is still related with just pride, by British writers, and to them is attributed in great part, the marvelous perfection to which the art of agriculture has been brought in every part of their country.
Societies of the same kind were also organized in France, and their annual shows were distinguished by the pomps and splen- dors characteristic of that nation.
In America, also, state-societies for the same object were formed early. That of South Carolina dates from 1784. The Philadel- phia society, formed the following year, seems to have had some- thing of a national character; for the Pittsfield Chronicle of March, 1790, states that it had just awarded a gold medal to a Rhode Island farmer. In 1791, the celebrated New York Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Manufactures and Arts, was organized by Ezra L'Hommedieu, Chancellor Robert R. Living- ston, Samuel De Witt, Alexander McComb, and many other respectable and patriotic citizens of that state. It was incorpor- ated in 1793, and accomplished much in behalf of the interests which it was intended to foster. The Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture was incorporated in 1792, and diffused much valuable and practical information throughout the state, by means of a series of papers known as the Agricultural Repository, and afterwards by a publication styled the Massachusetts Journal of Agriculture.
These associations labored assiduously to obtain information upon agricultural topics, by the importation of the best European treatises upon farming ; by experiments which their members made, often at great personal expense, and by such other means as were within their reach. The results of their reading and experience were compared and discussed in frequent meetings, much after the manner of those recently instituted by the Board of Agriculture in Massachusetts ; and their proceedings, published in pamphlet-form, or in the newspapers, were scattered broad- cast through New York, Massachusetts, and all the more favored states, conveying a vast amount of instruction.
However it may have been with the masses, these papers show that there were then many educated and clear-headed farmers,
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whose knowledge of their art, at least as to principles, has been little bettered in those who have had sixty years of added inves- tigation and observation. And, although much jealousy of book- farming was manifested in the great body of practical farmers, thought was awakened, and even among those most prejudiced against innovation, more intelligence was employed in cultiva- tion, and essential improvements gradually won their way to adoption. Since that era, and much through the influence of organized societies, some truths have doubtless been discovered, some fallacies detected and abandoned. Some changes for the better have taken place in matters of practical detail; vast improvements have been made in the implements of agriculture ; more valuable breeds of cattle, richer varieties of fruit, grain and vegetables, have been introduced. But the farmer, well-read in the recent literature of his profession, if he should peruse the essays and discussions of sixty or seventy years ago, would be surprised to find how little positive advance has been made in agricultural science ; how few questions which were then, or have since been propounded, have been absolutely determined. There are many writers and speakers, at this day, upon agricultural topics who present as many points obnoxious to modern criticism, as are to be found in L'Hommedieu, De Witt, and other leaders of the New York Society.
For the further advance of the interests committed to their charge, the state-societies awarded premiums, medals and diplo- mas for superior farms, and for excellence in particular products. Distinguished services to the arts or to agriculture, by discoveries, inventions, importations, or otherwise, were rewarded in the same way.
In 1793, the New York Society recommended the forming of county-organizations, whose members should be ex facto members of the parent body. It offered to such counties as adopted the proposition, the nucleus of an agricultural library ; but there were - few responses. Duchess county, however, certainly formed a respectable society, and held a series of successful cattle-shows,1
1The Kingston Ulster County Plebian, in its notice of the Berkshire cattle- show of 1810, has the following paragraph, which seems to claim for the Duchess County Society the honor of having the first cattle-show in Amer- ica : "The laudable example exhibited by our sister county of Duchess in instituting a society for agricultural fairs, has been adopted in various parts
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although both were abandoned after a few years, and the latter were not resumed until 1834.
In Pennsylvania, there were several county agricultural soci- eties which held annual exhibitions. In 1805, "a society for the encouragement of domestic manufactures, economy, and the agri- culture of our country" was formed in Orleans county, Vermont, and offered three premiums for woolen cloths "of not less than a coat's cloth to be manufactured that season within the circuit of the society." It also recommended that its members should disuse foreign woolen cloths, especially the fine, as soon as may be; and that, so far as practicable, each member should at the next meet- ing appear clothed in our own manufactures. It moreover deter- mined that " the spirits to be procured for the future refreshment of the society should be of the distillation of our own country."
An association of Middlesex (Massachusetts) farmers, formed in 1794, was incorporated in 1803, as "The Western Society of Middlesex Farmers."
The Kennebec (Maine) Agricultural Society, organized in 1800, was incorporated in 1801.
Thus it will be seen that, contrary to the tradition which strangely obtained popular credence and long remained uncor- rected, the Berkshire was by no means the first agricultural society established in America ; nor did it hold the first exhibition of cattle. But these are honors which it can well afford to forego. That in which it justly claims precedence is better than mere primogeniture.
The pre-existing organizations had labored faithfully and wisely. The state-societies especially, had achieved very valuable results ; but their membership was limited, and chiefly from the richer and more cultivated classes. Their leaders were often eminent statesmen, merchants or professional gentlemen, although generally farmers as well. They held their meetings at the metropolitan centers of their respective states; working upon, rather than with and among, their fellow-agriculturists. These disadvantages were early recognized by the central soci- eties, which accordingly recommended the organization of county branches in order to diffuse their spirit and generalize their oper-
of the country with a zeal that insures the most extensive benefits. Berk- shire was among the first and most active in this praiseworthy competition, and her exertions promise to realize the most sanguine expectations."
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ations. But both the state-societies and the county-whether formed under their auspices or independently-failed to obtain any strong hold upon the popular heart; and they accomplished comparatively little in elevating the mass of the farming com- munity intellectually, socially, or indeed economically. They created no great holiday for the people; no fellowship of the farmer's craft; and thus they missed two of the most potent means of elevating the art of husbandry. In the language of the founder of the Berkshire Society, "they depended too much upon types, and did not address the interests and sentiments of the people." Their approaches were too direct. They songht to influence their humbler fellows almost entirely through the cold medium of the press; neglecting appeals to the imagination, to social sentiment, and to that love of pageantry which character- ized the period. If they sought to arouse the spirit of emulation by the offer of premiums, they missed much of the additional stimulus which the Berkshire Society provided in the character of these rewards of merit, and the manner in which they were bestowed. It remained for the Berkshire farmers-under the leadership of a gentleman singularly qualified by nature, educa- tion and social position-to work out a model which proved so well adapted to its purposes that it has been followed by all the county agricultural societies in America, and has exercised a con- trolling influence over the operations of the state-organizations.
The obligations of the country to the Berkshire Society, in this regard have, from the first, been freely and gratefully acknowl- edged. We need quote but a few of the instances in which this acknowledgment has been expressed.
On the Fourth of July, 1815, the following toast was given at Lexington, in Middlesex, in which county the Association of Husbandmen, which has been alluded to, already existed : "The Berkshire Association for the Encouragement of American Man- ufactures : May similar institutions become the bulwark of our national independence; and, under the patronage of our govern- ment, teach Great Britain that American resources and Ameri- can industry are competent to the exigencies of the United States."
In 1817, the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agri- culture acknowledged the value of the Berkshire model, and bore testimony to the esteem in which it was held throughout the
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state by announcing its first cattle-show as to be held after the plan of those established at Pittsfield.
In 1821, Hon. Jonathan Allen, in his address to the Berkshire Society, quoted the following paragraph from an oration delivered in 1820, before the Hampshire, Hampden and Franklin Society : " The Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, a similar society in Pennsylvania, and a few others, were early organized; but we witnessed little of their effects, and there still existed, among us, an extreme apathy, until our brethren in Berkshire, few in numbers, weak in funds, and apparently feeble in means, by their spirited and well-adapted measures, became the honorable and proximate cause of the interest which is now felt, and of the efforts which are now making, throughout the Union. To that society, we are unquestionably indebted ; and let the obligation be forever remembered and acknowledged."
Thomas Gold, Esq., in his address as president of the society, in 1816, said : " The respectable State of New York has adopted the society as their model ; and they are forming several institutions resembling this. And, within a few days, we have had an appli- cation from the State of Kentucky, requesting our assistance to enable them to form a society like our own."
Thus it will be seen that, in less than twelve years from the first cattle-show under the Old Elm, and the other initial move- ments, which we are about to relate, the Berkshire Agricultural Society was recognized throughout the country as having inau- gurated a new era in organizations for the improvement of Amer- ican agriculture.
In accomplishing this happy end, the most effective means was the substitution of the festival known as "The Cattle-Show and Agricultural Fair," for the occasional meager and unattractive exhibitions which few witnessed, and for the unexciting system of premiums, for which few contended, and which were offered for a very limited number of products. Interesting and pleasing to all classes from its first establishment, this holiday, by gradual accretions of alluring features, became to the farmer, all, and more than ail, that commencement-day is to the college-graduate. Fixed in date and place, the cattle-show and fair, once every year, turned the attention of the whole community to the interests of agriculture. It was the grand harvest-home of a region in which almost every man was to some extent a farmer. In it 41
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there was some pleasure and profit for all ages, for every class and for both sexes ; and it was enjoyed as no other festival-not even the " Glorious Fourth," or, it is hardly an exaggeration to add, Thanksgiving-ever was.
To the practical farmer, especially, in addition to its delights and excitements, it brought both material and intellectual profit. It collected for his examination the latest importations and inventions in the implements of his art, the best blooded stock, the latest varieties of seeds and plants. It was used to some extent for the purposes of traffic. But, more and better than all, it drew the husbandman out of his seclusion into contacts which enlarged and liberalized his mind. In conversation with his fel- lows, as well as in addresses and reports treating upon subjects of immediate interest to him, he found abundant food for thought- to be compared, on winter evenings, with books and pamphlets, and to be well digested in his lonely fields. In many ways his autumn holiday made the farmer more proud of his profession, while it rendered the profession more worthy of pride.
The gentleman to whom the county of Berkshire owes the honor of furnishing to the country the model for this most bene- ficial institution, was Elkanalı Watson, a member of the New York Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Manufactures and Art, who purchased the farm and mansion of Henry Van Schaack, and removed to Pittsfield in 1807.
Mr. Watson was born at Plymouth, January 22, 1758, and was a descendant of Governor Edward Winslow. In 1773, he was apprenticed to John Brown, an energetic and enterprising merchant of Providence, and afterwards the founder of Brown University. Mr. Brown was also an ardent and active patriot, and, having captured and burned the British schooner Gaspee, was arrested and carried to Boston, which was then in possession of General Gates. In connection with this affair, young Watson, although not enlisted in continental service, saw some pretty warm patriotic work. In 1777, at the age of nineteen, he went in charge of treasure to the amount of nearly fifty thousand dol- lars, sent by the Brown firm to their correspondents in Charles- ton, S. C .- an eventful journey through a very dangerous country, in which he kept his eyes open and his mind active.
Upon attaining his majority in 1779, Mr. Watson, having engaged in some mercantile affair with the Brown Brothers,
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went to France, where he remained until 1784. For the greater part of this time he was engaged in commercial business ; but he spent two years at Rennes, perfecting himself in the French lan- guage, and also found opportunity to travel extensively in Hol- land, Belgium and Great Britain, studying attentively whatever was worth seeing, and especially the national industries. In 1784, he returned to America, and, after spending more than a year in examining different sections of the country, settled upon a plantation in North Carolina. Two years of plantation-life were more than sufficient to satisfy him : of all modes of existence this was the least adapted to his restless mind; and in 1788, he returned to Providence. In the same year curiosity led him to the old Dutch city of Albany, which in 1789, he made his home. " At this period," says his biographer, "commenced his efforts and labors in projecting and advocating various subjects of local and general improvements of the most diversified character and objects, which were continued to the end of his life." He had, from his earliest youth, been an observant and thoughtful trav- eler. He had sought the acquaintance of the noblest men of his time, and had been greatly favored by circumstances in so doing. Washington, Franklin, Adams, Schuyler and Livingston were among the sages who gave him their counsel. And no fact, no opportunity, offered itself in vain. From paving and lighting the streets of Albany up to projecting the grand system of canals, which had so large a share in making New York the Empire state, some plan or effort for the public good always occupied his thoughts. 1
When, in 1807, he removed to Pittsfield, his conduct was marked by the same characteristics, varied in their manifestation by the changed field of action. "It was," says his son, " in accordance with a long-cherished desire, that he retired from the city in pursuit of rural occupations and felicity, and, at the age of fifty, commenced his agricultural career. His only error in the adoption of this pursuit, was, as he himself said, that he embraced it at too late a period in life : after his habits and feelings had been moulded by a long residence in cities."
This very fact, however, much as it may have impaired his suc-
1 For most of the facts previously stated regarding Mr. Watson, we are indebted to a very interesting volume entitled Men and Times of the Revolu- tion, or Memoirs of Elkanalı Watson : Edited by his son, Winslow C. Watson.
.
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cess as a practical farmer, rendered him, perhaps, better fitted to introduce the improvements and reforms which he effected in the agriculture 'of Berkshire. Mr. Watson's agricultural learning, his well-conducted experiments, his liberality and enterprise in conducting his business, may have lacked something to make his farming profitable ; but to the tiller of the soil, bred to the plow, familiar with the details and inured to the toils of a farm- er's life, they might, and did, afford lessons whose costly tuition he was himself unable to pay, but whose teachings were of untold value to him. The enlarged and quickened thought, the fruit of an energetic life and wide observation, which Mr. Watson, and after him, Major Melville, brought from abroad, combined hap- pily with the practical common-sense and homely experience of the Berkshire farmers, who, as we have shown in a former chap- ter, were also not unprepared to receive it, by some knowledge of the science of agriculture as taught in books.
For the few years preceding that in which Mr. Watson removed to Pittsfield, the attention of the New York Society for the Pro- motion of Agriculture, Arts and Manufactures was turned spe- cially and very earnestly to the improvement of the breeds of sheep in relation to the fineness of their fleece, and also to its manufacture into cloths. Mr. Watson, as a member of that society, was deeply imbued with its spirit in this respect ; and among his first acts as a farmer, was the purchase of two fine merinos-a ram, and a ewe,-the first of that breed which were ever brought to New England. These he exhibited, in the fall of 1807, on the green under the Old Elm.
" Many farmers, and even females," says Mr. Watson, " were attracted to this humble exhibition ; " and, from this lucky inci- dent, he " reasoned that, if two animals are capable of exciting so much attention, what would be the effect of a display on a large scale, of different animals." " The farmers present assented to this reasoning, and thus became acquainted with the speaker," who, it will be remembered, had been but a few months resident among them. "From that moment," said he in 1820, "to the present hour, agricultural fairs and cattle-shows, with all their connections, have predominated in my mind, greatly to the prej- udice of my private affairs."
Mr. Watson quoted the example and influence of the great European fairs and cattle-shows, as an encouragement for the
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establishment of that which he proposed in Berkshire; but he does not tell us what hints he derived from them in forming it. It would have been strange if he had not learned much, and profited much from them.1 But whatever transatlantic features Mr. Watson incorporated into his agricultural festival, we shall find to have been thoroughly Americanized ; so much so, that it may be rightly considered an independent and original creation. We proceed to a detailed account of the organization of the society.
During the winter following Mr. Watson's little exhibition under the Elm, he addressed the farmers of Berkshire, through the newspapers, "urging the spread of the merino sheep," which he considered invaluable for the hilly districts of New England. In furtherance of the same object, several gentlemen from differ- ent parts of the county, met, on the 30th of Januay, by his invitation, at the tavern of Captain Pepoon, and having elected Simon Larned president, and John W. Hulbert secretary, passed resolutions favoring the introduction of the Spanish breeds of sheep, and the establishment of agricultural societies. And, in order to make their work practical, they further resolved that an agricultural society should be established in the county of Berkshire and be called " The Berkshire Agricultural Soci- ety." To carry out this vote the meeting appointed Elkanah Watson and Alexander Ely of Pittsfield, William Walker of Lenox, Wolcott Hubbel of Lanesboro, and Nathaniel Bishop of Richmond, to report at a future session the name of a suitable person in each town of the county, to form a committee of cor- respondence.
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