USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1800 to the year 1876 > Part 38
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But, of those most felt and least compensated, in Pittsfield, during this period, was the constant drain, especially upon the farming-portion of its population, by emigration to the west. Much as had been accomplished by the Agricultural Society, it had not been able to perform the miracle of making the soil of New England rival that of the Genessee valley and Ohio-then the wheat-growing west. Speculating companies, taking advan- tage of the severe winters and cold summers, about the year 1816, stimulated the western fever by painting the new country as at once the paradise and the El Dorado of the farmer, and, by offering lands upon the most favorable terms. And, as if this were not enough, religious enthusiasm was brought to aid in the depletion of the population of the town. In 1835, while a great revival was in progress at the Baptist church, a preacher from the west portrayed the wants of that region to the assembled crowds, so vividly that one hundred and six of the most valuable members of the church-and it is to be presumed equally valuable citi- zens-at once emigrated, and were followed soon after by a second migration in such numbers that only three men were left in the organization.1
But, however much these drawbacks retarded her increase in population, Pittsfield, between 1820 and 1840 made great and
1 Rev. Dr. Porter's Historical Sketch of the Baptist Church.
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solid progress. The First Baptist and Methodist churches were built in this period ; and some of its best secular institutions also date from it. And, to it also belongs the initiation of the first great temperance-reform.
In 1818, the legislature chartered the Agricultural Bank, whose name takes us back to the days when agriculture was still the chief pursuit of the people of Berkshire, and manufactures were struggling for existence. The corporators named in the act were Nathan Willis, Joseph Shearer, David Campbell, John B. Root, Thomas Gold, Theodore Hinsdale, Jr., Lemuel Pomeroy, Henry C. Brown, Samuel D. Colt, Josiah Bissell, Jonathan Allen, Timothy Childs, Henry H. Childs and Phinehas Allen. The capital was fixed at $100,000, and the par value of the shares at one hundred. On the 9th of March, books were opened for sub- scription to the stock, and the commissioners appointed by the corporators, Messrs. Willis, Gold and Colt, appealed, by advertise- ment in the newspapers, " to the moneyed interest of the county, to embark in the bank and rear it for the public good." " It is our object," they said, "to concentrate the money-capital of the county, and to render this bank a safe and profitable deposit. It is, therefore, desirable that no shares should be taken on specula- tion and, at present, not more than fifty by any one person." The time first fixed for closing the books was March thirtieth ; but it was afterwards extended to April twentieth; "the season having been unfavorable for traveling;" a statement which indi- cates the condition of roads in Berkshire ; although the delay may have been in part due to a lively recollection of a not very remote experience with the Berkshire Bank.
The stock was all subscribed by the twenty-seventh of April, when the stockholders unanimously chose the following board of directors : Thomas Gold, Nathan Willis, Josiah Bissell, Samuel D. Colt and Henry C. Brown ; who subsequently elected Thomas Gold president, and Ezekiel R. Colt cashier. Mr. Gold continued president until October 2, 1826, when he was succeeded by Hon. · Edward A. Newton. In 1830, Mr. Newton being about to visit Europe, was succeeded by Hon. Henry Shaw, who held the office until 1840, when Mr. Newton was re-elected. Mr. Colt continued to be cashier long past the period we are considering, and, to his financial skill, integrity, industry and firmness, was due, in a very large degree, the remarkable confidence and credit, which the
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Agricultural Bank soon acquired and still continues to hold, both with the moneyed and the general public, although his successor has eminent qualifications for the place, and the presidents of the · institution have uniformly been men of marked financial ability. The bank purchased and occupied the building erected for the Berkshire Bank.
In the early years of the nineteenth century, the destruction of property by fire, seems, in proportion to the number and value of buildings, to have been more frequent and more disastrous than in later years. Tallow-candles and oil-lamps with their exposed flames and spark-encrusted wicks, open fireplaces and wood-ashes in wooden receptacles, wood-sparks falling upon dry shingle- roofs, and imperfect means of controlling and extinguishing con- flagrations, were more powerful causes of this class of disaster than friction-matches, inflammable manufactures, kerosene oil, and fraudulent insurance. In 1819, a committee, appointed by the citizens to consider the subject of mutual insurance, reported that the losses in Pittsfield for the preceding ten years, had been thirty-three hundred dollars, or an average of three hundred and thirty dollars per annum : a considerably larger percentage on the value of combustible property than similar losses for the ten years preceding 1875 would show.
The first recorded movement to check this destruction was at the March town-meeting of 1811, when a proposition for the town to buy a fire-engine was successfully resisted.
In 1812, a movement was made to purchase an engine by sub- scription. The project lingered, however, until June, 1814, when Major Melville,-who probably had an eye to the protection of the valuable national property in the town-invited those who had subscribed to, or who were interested in, the project, to meet on the 6th of July at Captain Campbell's tavern, to take measures to carry it immediately into effect.
The engine was procured, and the town was asked, at its next meeting, to convert the small dwelling-house which stood where the Baptist church now does-and was occupied by William Smith, the sexton of the old grave-yard-into an engine-house ; and to provide buckets and other appendages for the engine, which had no suction-hose ; but both these requests were refused, by the votes of that class who always resist town-expenditures for any purpose which does not inure to their own immediate and certain
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interest. Five years afterwards, Mr. William Hollister's resi- dence, on South street, near the Housatonic river, was burned, on the afternoon of January 4, 1819, involving a loss of over two thousand dollars-no small amount for that day-and the Sun, in its account, says that the lack of complete appurtenances for the engine was severely felt.
The engine and its company, however, seem from the following card, to have done themselves credit :
To the Members of the Pittsfield Volunteer Fire-Company :
GENTLEMEN :- Permit me to express to you my warmest thanks for your good conduct at the distressing fire yesterday. Even prejudice itself is now awake in your favor. In giving me this new proof of your zeal and abilities, you have confirmed the good opinion I have ever entertained of you.1
M. R. LANCTON, Director, etc., etc.
There was a general feeling that the protection of the town against fire was insufficient, and a meeting of citizens, to consider the subject, was convened, at Captain Campbell's coffee-house.
At this meeting, William C. Jarvis, H. H. Childs and Josiah Bissell were appointed to consider the expediency of establishing a mutual fire-insurance company. In the March following, this committee published an address to the people, in which they strongly urged such a measure. The address estimated the num- ber of dwelling-houses in the town at two hundred and eighty, worth on an average, one thousand dollars each ; making an aggregate of two hundred and eighty thousand dollars of insura- ble property. They made an elaborate argument for the advan- tages of the mutual system of insurance; and closed by stating that they had procured from the legislature an act incorporating "The Pittsfield Mutual Fire-Insurance Company." The corpora- tors named in this act were Josiah Bissell, Henry H. Childs, Phin- ehas Allen, Henry C. Brown, Solomon Warriner, Ezekiel R. Colt, Moses Warner, Jason Clapp, Simeon Brown, Jonathan Allen, 2d, Thomas B. Strong, Calvin Martin and William C. Jarvis.
The company organized, March 29th, by the choice of William C. Jarvis, Josiah Bissell, Oliver P. Dickinson, Oren Benedict and
1 The services of the engine-company are commended in the newspaper- accounts of several fires during the next fifteen or twenty years, and among the others, at the burning of Ansel Nichols's tavern, a little east of the Dalton line, in 1827, when Capt. [Dr.] Robert Campbell commanded.
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John Dickinson, as directors ; Calvin Martin, secretary and treas- urer. On the 14th of April it gave notice, through the Sun, that it was prepared for business, and that it had been already offered thirty thousand dollars worth of property for insurance. Its career was, however, short, and the organization was abandoned after a trial of one or two years. It had made the fatal mistake of requiring no cash-premiums on the issue of its policies ; rely- ing upon the collection of assessments when losses actually occurred.
In 1828, Edward A. Newton, Henry Shaw, Theodore Sedg- wick, David Campbell, Jr., Lemuel Pomeroy, E. R. Colt and Henry W. Dwight were incorporated as the Berkshire Fire- Insurance Company ; a stock-institution with one hundred thou- sand dollars capital ; but it never went into operation.
In 1835, the Berkshire Mutual Fire-Insurance Company was chartered, the corporators named in the act being Nathan Willis, E. A. Newton and E. R. Colt ; Messrs. Newton and Colt, who had been engaged in both the previous attempts, having now the gratification of seeing their persistent efforts crowned by the establishment of a permanent and prosperous insurance-company ; or one destined to become so.
The new company was organized May 28, 1835, by the choice of the following directors : Nathan Willis, Edward A. Newton, Jabez Peck, Solomon L. Russell, Ezekiel R. Colt, Jason Clapp, Henry C. Brown. The directors chose Nathan Willis, president ; and Parker L. Hall, secretary and treasurer.
The succession in the chief offices has been as follows : Presi- dents, Nathan Willis, elected 1835, died 1849; Thomas B. Strong, elected 1850, died 1855; Ezekiel R. Colt, elected 1855, resigned on account of declining health, in 1860; Walter Laflin, elected 1860, died 1870; John C. West, elected 1870. Secretaries : P. L. Hall, 1835, resigned, 1846, on account of failing health ; James Buel, 1846, resigned in 1860, on account of advanced years ; John A. Walker, 1860, died 1864; Edwin F. Sandys, 1864, resigned 1872 ; Albert B. Root, 1872.
The first policy issued by the company was for the rectory of St. Stephen's church on North street, insured by the wardens, E. A. Newton and Hosea Merrill, Jr., for seven hundred and fifty dollars at the rate of one per cent. The number of policies issued by the company during the first ten years of its existence
THE PARK IN 1807.
.. .
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was seventeen hundred and eight; the number during the last decade - 1865 to 1875 - was eight thousand one hundred and ninety-eight.
The assets in cash, January 1, 1875, were fifty thousand five hundred and eighty-seven dollars ; the assets in notes, one hun- dred and thirty-seven thousand two hundred and thirty-six dollars.
In the year 1815, although the Old Elm had long been held in veneration by the citizens of Pittsfield, nothing had been done to surround it even with a level green, or to protect it from the teeth of the horses which people, trading at the village-stores, or attend- ing church, were accustomed to tie to iron-staples driven into its trunk.1
But it happened in that year, that Edward A. Newton visited the town, where he married a daughter of John C. Williams, to whom the town owed its Common ; not then known as the Park. Both Mr. Williams, and his wife the savior of the Elm, were then living, and their young son-in-law took a deep interest in it, having heard its story from their lips. It then spread its foliage in full vigor and luxuriance ; but Mr. Newton thought it in danger from the practice spoken of ; and, to protect it, he with the aid of a friend heaped around the trunk a pile of large stones, which rude device answered its purpose for a while.
The first attempt on the part of the citizens to improve the Common was in the first week of June, 1824; of which we know only what is told in the following paragraph in the Sun of the 10th of that month :
The last week was a busy one in this village, from the vigorous and patriotic efforts which were made to improve the public square and the streets. From the liberality of our fellow-citizens in the town, who cheerfully volunteered their assistance (bringing with them their teams and implements), between three and four hundred days' work were done, to the great improvement of our village, and to the honor of all who participated in the work. * * * We cannot omit noticing the liberality of our friends, the Hancock Shakers, who generously came to our aid.
At its next meeting the town voted its thanks to the Shakers and to gentlemen living outside the central highway-district, for their voluntary service in leveling the public square and grading East street.
1 Some of these were found imbedded in the tree when it fell, in 1861.
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In 1825, Mr. Newton made Pittsfield his permanent home, and soon commenced an effort to excite an interest in the improvement of the central square. Many citizens cordially joined in the movement and, in 1826, the town appointed a committee of five, to be joined by the same number appointed by the citizens of the village, to consider certain contemplated improvements. Nathan Willis, Abel West, Jonathan Yale Clark, Butler Goodrich and Charles Churchill, were the committee on the part of the town ; S. D. Colt, S. M. McKay, E. R. Colt, on the part of the village.
These committees determined to enclose a park in the center of the square, and to plant it with trees. There was much difference of opinion concerning the form to be given the enclosure, and more as to the amount of land to be withdrawn by it from the highways. Finally, it was decided that the form should be an ellipse ; and the size was fixed by a compromise between the largest and the smallest areas proposed. It has since been increased until it equals the largest proposal of 1826.
Nathan Willis, Joseph Merrick and Abel West were made a sub-committee to superintend the planting of the trees. Mr. West, who had for several years been connected with a Roches- ter nursery, was practically familiar with the work of selecting and transplanting ; and, although his own residence was three miles from the square, he was enthusiastically in favor of its improvement. Being also the youngest member of the commit- tee, while General Willis was absorbed in other duties, and Cap- tain Merrick not over sanguine as to the result of the experiment, he was permitted to assume the laboring-oar.
The young trees were planted in the spring of 1827, and although many volunteers came to his aid' and the work may be said to have been done by a general " bee " of the people, Mr. West was the master workman ; transplanting at least half of the trees with his own hands, and. carrying them from the woods upon his shoulders. All passed through his hands. Many were obtained on his own farm ; others on that of his neighbor Robert Francis. There being a scarcity of the graceful white elm, and finding a fine clump of the red or slippery elm on the eastern shore of Lake Onota, he intermixed a few of that variety, although well
1 Jonathan Yale Clark was very zealous and efficient. Mr. Clark was born at Lanesboro, in 1782, and died at Pittsfield, in 1866. He was a very active democratic politician.
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aware of its inferior quality. Recognizing the beauty and luxur- iance of the bass, or American linden, he introduced a few speci- mens of that fine tree. Only one row of lindens and elms were set, on the outer edge of the enclosure, within the fence ; the Old Elm being permitted to stand alone in the center.
In the same year many fine trees were set on South street, where others had been previously planted by Capt. John Dickin- son, Thomas B. Strong, Dr. H. H. Childs, William Hollister, Henry C. Brown and others.
Mr. E. A. Newton contributed eighty dollars toward the expense of this improvement of the park; the citizens raising an equal amount. So much of the labor, however, was performed without payment that the expenditure of -the whole sum was unnecessary ; and, two years afterwards, the surplus was, upon Mr. Newton's suggestion, applied, with an additional subscription raised by Mr. S. L. Russell, to the building of sidewalks on Park square ; the first built in town by public effort.
Abel West, to whose energy and public spirit the elms and lin- dens of the Pittsfield Park, are a monument, was, although not a native of the town, a model specimen of the Pittsfield farmers of his generation. His father, who bore the same name, was born in Vernon, Conn., in 1747. We take the following account of him from the sermon preached by Rev. Dr. Todd, at his son's funeral :
Mr. West was in early manhood when the revolutionary war broke out. The little congregation in Vernon being assembled for worship on the Sabbath, a courier rushed in and announced that the enemy were on hand, off New London, and men and help were needed. The minis- ter stopped services and exhorted his people to take their arms and go. All the men rose up and rushed to their arms, such as each man had. Young West was lame, and had nothing but a single-barreled fowling- piece, but he was there on the ground as soon as his neighbors. Gov- ernor Trumbull, seeing his lameness and weapon, assured him that he would do more for his country by going home and raising food for the army than by fighting. He took the advice, and returned home ; but the fire of patriotism glowed, and grew in intensity, till, hearing how hard it was for Washington to procure food for his army, he sold his farm, and put the avails in open wagons loaded with food, all he had in the world, and started south. When passing through New Jersey, he met a courier riding and shouting that Lord Cornwallis had surren- dered, and the war was over. The provisions would not be needed, and he need not proceed further. The government took all off his 49
$
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hands, paid him down, in Continental money, which was not worth a farthing, and the patriot returned home stripped of all he had, and was a poor man the rest of his days.1
It therefore happened that in the year 1800, his son came to Pittsfield, a poor boy. Of his early experience he writes as fol- lows, under the date of April 1, 1870:
Seventy years ago the writer of this was on his way from Washing- ton (Berkshire county) to Pittsfield, with a little bundle under his arm, to work for Col. Simon Larned, seven months, for ten dollars a month ; had to make up lost time ; four days training and Indepen- dence day. Saved thirty dollars of my wages, clothed myself and paid two dollars and eleven cents, parish, town and county taxes. The win- ter following, I went to school, and did chores for my board. The next year, I worked nine months for the same man at ten dollars a month ; and began to get rich. With less than a staff, I passed over the Jordan line of Pittsfield : and now I have become three bands-one in Massa- chusetts, one in New York, and one in Ohio.2
In 1817, Mr. West was able to purchase a farm of eighty acres on West street, in one of the best neighborhoods of the West Part. This he gradually enlarged and improved, and on it he lived until his death, in February, 1871.
Shortly after his removal to the West Part, he was chosen dis- trict school committee-man, and was re-elected for many years. He was also representative in the legislature of 1842, the town that year taking the unusual course of sending only one member. But to the office of school committee-man, he devoted himself most assiduously ; and conscious that in his own district its duties
1 Ife died at his son's house, in Pittsfield, in 1836.
2 Mr. West married Miss Matilda T. Thompson, by whom he had seven children. The eldest, Prof. Charles West, of Brooklyn, N. Y, was born in 1809, and was educated at Professor Dewey's Gymnasium, in Pittsfield, and at Union College ; graduating from the latter institution in 1832. He is at the head of the Brooklyn Heights Female Seminary, and president of the Brook- lyn Athenæum. He is widely known as one of the most successful teachers in the country, and as a man of profound scholarship and varied culture. Of Mr. Abel West's other sons, John C., long a selectman of Pittsfield, was born in 1811, and Gilbert, in 1823. They are successful merchants and real estate owners in Pittsfield. William T., born in 1815, Abel K., in 1817, and Thomas D., in 1820, are also successful merchants and real estate owners in Sandusky city, Ohio. Mr. West's only daughter, Harriet, who was born in 1813, married David Campbell, editor of the Sandusky Clarion, but is now a widow, residing in Pittsfield.
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were performed faithfully and well, he clung to the old district- system of school-management to the last. Indeed, although a whig in politics, he was strenuously opposed to all centralization of political power, whether in the town, the state, or the nation ; and held that all assemblies for debate on public affairs, from the district-school meeting up to the houses of congress, were graded schools of statesmanship.
In all respects he was a model of the old-fashioned New England farmer and father ; ruling his household with absolute authority, unbounded affection, and a profound sense of his obligation to rear his children in the fear of God, and for the good of their country.
We have given a sketch of Mr. West thus fully, not only on account of the intrinsic merits of its subject, but because he was an excellent type of the men of his class and of his generation, and because his life is otherwise illustrative of the times in which he lived.
In the year 1825-the next after the citizens of Pittsfield had turned their attention to the improvement of their park,-they enjoyed, upon it, one of those pageants for which the town is famed : the reception of the nation's guest, General La Fayette.
When the general was in Albany, in the previous year, a dele- gation from Pittsfield, of which Col. Gad Humphrey was chair- man, had invited him to visit Berkshire ; but he was then hasten- ing to Washington to pay his respects to the national authorities at whose solicitation he had crossed the Atlantic. He, however, promised that on his return north he would accept the invitation of the citizens of Pittsfield; and, on the evening of Sunday, June 14, 1825, information was received that he would reach town the next day. Preparations were immediately made to give him a suitable reception, and word was sent through the county of his expected arrival.
On Monday morning, the illustrious visitor left Albany, and was escorted by a corps of cavalry and a numerous cavalcade of gentlemen, to Lebanon Springs, which he reached at half-past two o'clock. After partaking of some refreshment, he proceeded to the state line where he was met by Col. Joshua Danforth, presi- dent of the day ; chief marshals, Hon. Jonathan Allen and 'Gen. John B. Root ; a deputation from the general committee of the citizens, composed of Messrs. Henry Hubbard, Phinehas Allen,
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Henry H. Childs and Thomas A. Gold ; High Sheriff Henry C. Brown ; Major-General Whiting and staff, with the military escort, consisting of the commissioned officers of the seventh division of Massachusetts militia, in uniform, and a troop of cav- alry, under the direction of Majors E. R. Colt and E. M. Bissell, Lieut. Lemuel Pomeroy, Jr., and Ensign Elisha Allen, as mar- shals of the day.
General La Fayette was welcomed to the county, and the com- monwealth, by Sheriff Brown, and after acknowledgments made with his usual grace and courtesy, he took his seat in an elegant coach, provided by Mr. Jason Clapp, which, richly festooned with . flowers, and drawn by four spirited greys, bore him pleasantly and rapidly to the village of Pittsfield.
The approach of the cavalcade to the village was announced by bells and cannon, and thousands of citizens from all parts of Berk- shire assembled in the park, and neighboring streets, to greet the expected guest, wlio, at a little before six o'clock, alighted from his carriage, at the door of Captain Merrick's coffee-house, amid the most enthusiastic cheers of the multitude.
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