USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1800 to the year 1876 > Part 4
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The first issue of the Chronicle is missing, but most of the numbers, from May 15, 1788, to June 17, 1790, are preserved.
For the first thirty numbers the new paper was only twelve inches by eight in size; but with the thirty-first number, Decem- ber 19, 1788, it was enlarged to the respectable dimensions of eighteen inches by ten.
Throughout its course the Chronicle exhibited marked editorial skill, tact and spirit. The motto,-
" Free as the savage roams his native wood, Or finny nations cleave the briny floo'l,"
· gave promise of something not quite so ponderous as the essays of the Centinel; and the expectation excited was satisfied by able moral, political and economical articles, relieved by lighter sketches, anecdotes and verses, and by the foreign and domestic news of that exciting period, all prepared in compact and reada- ble form. The local columns, although not so full as we could wish them for our present purpose, were more so than those of later Pittsfield journals. The advertisements came from all parts of the county, although few were from the extreme southern towns. Many of them were of a character which shows that the cost of advertising must have been small; but no tariff of prices was given, and it is probable that special bargains were made in each case ; legal, mercantile and other classes of advertisements paying different rates,-a practice of which some relics remained, until very recently, in the newspaper business of the county.
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
The editor manifested a lively interest in that great advance of the industrial arts which was then beginning under the ardent, laborious and intelligent efforts of the best and most patriotic minds in the country. In the first number of his paper, he gave emphatic notice that "the printer would be happy to receive and publish any communications of improvements in the arts, espe- cially those of agriculture and manufactures;" and the essays which he did publish, although not original, were not far behind those of later days.
In the number for September 14, 1789, were published eleven excellent rules, by the celebrated Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, for the conduct of a newspaper, and, however it may have been in · regard to some of the others, the editor faithfully followed the ninth : "Let the advancement of agriculture, manufactures and commerce be the principal objects of your paper. A receipt to destroy the insects which feed upon the turnip, or to prevent the rot in sheep, will be more useful to America than all the in- ventions for destroying the human species which so often fill the columns of European newspapers." Mr. Storrs, however, seems, as a practical editor, to have very well known that, whatever may be the principal aim of a newspaper, that aim will be best attained by devoting a considerable, perhaps the greater, portion of its space to other subjects. A paper devoted entirely to the discus- sion of the gravest objects, as recommended by Dr. Rush, would have soon met the fate of Mr. Russell's Centinel, and left its aims to such help as they could get from technical essays. The Chronicle, on the contrary, with its racy variety, must have been a welcome visitor in every home; a pleasant companion to the apple-basket and cider-mug, in the broad and cheery blaze which illumined Berkshire firesides in those old winter evenings ; while withal, its usefulness was enhanced rather than impaired by its genial traits.
But newspaper-publishing in 1789 had its troubles and its difficulties among the Berkshire hills. There was but a single post-office in all Western Massachusetts-that at Springfield, to which all mail-matter for the present counties of Hampshire, Berkshire, Hampden and Franklin was sent. Post-riders, not employed by the government but a sort of private mail-carriers, obtained the letters and newspapers of their customers from the Springfield office, and, riding their several routes on horseback,
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
distributed them at the doors of those to whom they were direct- · ed. The same important agents took the local newspapers from the printing-offices, and delivered them to subscribers. Often they purchased the papers from the publisher, and dealt directly with their customers at their own risk. In regard to the circula- tion of his paper, and the collection of his dues, these agents were a great convenience ; but as the rider from Berkshire only visited Springfield once a week, and the chances for his delay by storms or otherwise were great, the facilities for obtaining news from abroad might well be considered small and precarious. Even in winter the post generally rode his circuit on horseback, but so bulky was the currency of the interior at this period that an occasional trip with some vehicle was indispensable. Thus on· February 13, 1789, " Alvin Wolcott, post-rider," informed his customers that he "proposed, the next week, to go his circuit in a sleigh, for the purpose of transporting the pay which shall be ready for him at that time." The printer, like the merchant and others, was obliged to take the greater part of his dues in prod- uce ; and he was very glad if it was in linen rags-as yet cotton was not in general use-for which he also offered to exchange good writing paper. There was great scarcity of printing paper, and the newspapers, whose publishers experienced great trouble from this source, constantly urged housewives carefully to save their rags; an economy which they seem to have learned with difficulty. So great was the dearth of paper that in March, 1789, Mr. Storrs gave notice that, for this reason, he " would for the present publish only half a sheet, but as soon as these obstacles were removed, would print a half-sheet extraordinary."
The scarcity of paper was not the only difficulty with which Mr. Storrs had to contend. On the 15th of May, 1789, he, at the close of his first volume, thanking his "subscribers for their past favors," informed them that the paper would be suspended for two or three weeks, during which he asked a payment of old dues, and an addition of new subscribers." "It must," he observed, " be apparent to every person of discernment that the establishment of a new and precarious business, in an infant country, must be attended with many difficulties and expenses unexperienced in those more populated and matured ; " for which reason he hoped his customers would more readily comply with his request. He had engaged a supply of paper, and the diffi-
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
culty of obtaining it being removed, he expected in future to serve his customers without interruption. The publication was resumed and continued, at least until June 17, 1790. The number printed on that day was the fifty-first of the second vol- ume. Whether it was continued longer is uncertain, but the last issue showed no signs of flagging. In politics the Chronicle was federal, but moderate, although earnest. In morals it opposed intemperance, and the still more fashionable vice of gambling; including lotteries, although their advertisements were found in its columns, and they were patronized and conducted then, and for many years afterwards, by the gravest personages in church and state.
The influence of this excellent journal upon the town must have been large, and its citizens should enroll the name of Roger Storrs among those entitled to their grateful remembrance.
The Chronicle was succeeded by a paper whose very name is forgotten, but of which we have a vague tradition as published for a time by a Mr. Spooner, who removed to Windsor, Vermont.
On the 18th of January, Nathaniel Holly, Orsemus C. Merrill and Chester Smith issued the first number of the Berkshire Gazette, a sheet of nineteen inches by twelve, bearing the mys- terious motto, " Man is man, and who is more." Sixteen numbers of the Gazette are preserved, and represent a respectable news- paper. But we miss the pleasant and varied miscellany of the Chronicle, its practical essays upon arts, agriculture and morals, and especially its lively interest in home affairs. The only inform- ation we are able to gather from it concerning local matters is derived from the advertisements. But the increasing violence of party spirit is clearly shown in the political articles.
Mr. Merrill withdrew from the firm in June, 1798, and Mr. Holly, in March, 1799. Mr. Smith, in assuming the sole charge of the paper, made the subscription-price, delivered at the office, one dollar per annum, " as previously ; " one dollar and fifty cents if delivered by carrier or post-rider. Advertisements not exceed- ing twelve lines were inserted three times for one dollar, and three weeks longer for thirty-eight cents ; longer advertisements in proportion. This was the first time that the price of subserip- tion or of advertising was mentioned in the Pittsfield newspapers.
The Gazette ended with the year 1799, and in the following October, J. D. & S. D. Colt called upon those indebted to its
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
publisher, for payment, by an advertisement in the Pittsfield Sun, which then succeeded to the printing-office ; but by no means to the political principles or the ephemeral existence of its pred- ecessors.
Four newspapers were thus printed in Pittsfield between the years 1787 and 1800. And small as their pecuniary success seems to have been, their influence upon the town for good was not slight. They attracted attention to it as a business and polit- ical center, extended intelligence among its people, and fostered all its best interests.
Among the incidental benefits which they bestowed were increased postal facilities. When the Chronicle was established, not only was there no post-office in the county, but the post-riders were very irregular in their circuits, their visits being sometimes at long intervals. But in January, 1790, Mr. Storrs, with exeus- able pride, announced that "the printer of the Chronicle, ever endeavoring to furnish his customers with the earliest intelli- genee, had engaged a post to ride weekly from his office in Pitts- field to Springfield on Mondays, and return on Wednesdays, with the papers published in the different states of the Union; when matters of importance [brought] by them will be published in the Chronicle on Thursday, and immediately circulated to the several towns by the different post-riders."
The local newspapers in 1790 furnished their own postal facili- ties, and the people could obtain their letters and other mail matter by the agencies thus provided. The first post-office in Berkshire was established at Stockbridge in 1792, probably through the influence of Hon. Theodore Sedgwick, of that town, who was the first representative in Congress from the district. The second was at Pittsfield, in 1794 ; and it is fair to infer that the publication here of the newspaper had its influence in obtain- ing it. A post-office was established at Great Barrington in 1797, and at Williamstown in 1798. There was no other in the county until 1800, when one was opened at Lenox, which had been made the shire town in 1786, for its "central position." Lanesboro, in 1801 obtained the same favor.
CHAPTER III. AGRICULTURE-MANUFACTURES-MERCANTILE AFFAIRS.
[1787-1805.]
Farming universal-Deterioration of soils-Agricultural teachings-Products -Price of land-Prices of stock and farm products-Fulling.mills-Iron forges-Tanneries-Potasheries-Oil-mills-Nail.factory-Early mercantile business-Trade by barter-Patriotic merchants-What goods were sent to market-Joshua Danforth-Simon Larned-Jolin B. Root-Trade in 1798- 1805.
AGRICULTURE.
COMMERCE and manufactures were, even prior to the nineteenth century, no mean elements in the business of Pittsfield. Still agriculture was the chief employment of its people. Even those engaged in other avocations were generally also practical farmers. The clergyman was an enthusiastic, skill- ful, and personally-industrious farmer. The lawyer, the merchant and the physician each owned and cultivated his farm. So did the clothiers, the tanners, and most, or all, of the iron-masters.
Of the character of the cultivation bestowed on the fields, we can aver with some positiveness that it was not altogether so rude and unintelligent as is often represented.
Secretary Charles L. Flint thus epitomizes the history of the deterioration of New England soils : "The soil [originally ] was rich in mould-the accumulation of ages-and did not require very careful cultivation to secure an abundant return. But years of constant cropping exhausted its productiveness when other lands were taken, to be subjected to the same process. The farmer raised wheat, year after year, upon the same land, till the soil became too poor, and then he planted corn; and when it would no longer grow corn he sowed barley or rye; and so on to beans."
Owing to the later settlement of Berkshire, this process of de-
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
terioration, on a greater portion of its soil, did not pass much beyond the first stage before it was arrested by intelligent manur- ing. Nevertheless the unthrifty practice of constant cropping without the application of fertilizers was general in Berkshire quite as late as 1800. We have the diaries of three Pittsfield farmers of good repute, between the years 1777 and 1798, and there is no mention in them of any artificial enrichment of the soil, although the dates of other farm operations are minutely given. Indeed, it is said to have been a question with some whether it were better to remove an old barn to a new location, or haul away the accumulations around it, which were considered merely a worthless nuisance. Any use of the valuable agents provided by nature for the nourishment and renovation of the soil was contemned by the masses as mere fancy farming,-good enough for gentlemen of leisure, but a waste of labor for hard- worked men.
Of course, the cultivation of wheat upon soils thus drained of all wheat-producing elements, grew unprofitable, and was aban- doned. But before the second step had been taken in the down- ward path, more intelligent views began to prevail. And the germs of this reform were sown, not only long before the institu- tion of the Berkshire Agricultural Society, but more than ten years before the opening of the nineteenth century. The Chron- icle, on the fifteenth of May, 1788, began the publication of a series of essays upon agriculture, copied from a work then just issued in New York; and they extended through ten numbers of the paper, filling from one and a half to three columns in each issue. "The success of farming," said the writer, in introducing his subject, "depends principally upon the collecting of manure ; on a proper change of crops; on good tillage, or ploughing the ground properly, and keeping it clean ; on the choice and man- agement of stock; and on the management of the orchard and its produce." "Upon these articles" he "made some notes, chiefly collected from Mr. Young's Farmer's Tour through Europe, published in 1771." These notes contained axioms and instruc- tions, not essentially differing from those given in the most recent agricultural text-books. Great economy and thoroughness in the saving of manures was emphatically urged; directions were given for composting ; the value of liquid manures was explained, and some modes of saving that of the stable were pointed out-among
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which the simple expedient of absorbents was, however, not men- tioned. Of the rotation of crops it was said : "A succession of the same sort of crops will speedily exhaust the best land. For this reason the skillful farmer changes his crops every year." The order of succession most approved was that practiced in Norfolk, England : "1, turnips ; 2, barley, with clover feed; 3, clover ; 4, wheat." Some preferred in the third and fourth years clover, and in the fifth wheat. Others found the following form- ula extremely beneficial : "1, turnips ; 2, barley ; 3, clover two years ; 4, buckwheat."
Carrots, cabbages, beans, peas, etc., were recommended to vary the ordinary hay-diet of stock. Carrots were specially com- mended. "No milk, cream or butter," it is said, "can be richer than what is got from carrots, all through the winter and spring; no food will carry on a hog quicker or fat him better than raw carrots ; cows and oxen may be fattened on them completely ; horses do very well on them ; and sheep eat them very greedily." "When the soil is rich and deep, the culture of carrots is very profitable."
The following are the author's instructions as to manuring with lime: "I have in the course of seven years put on as many thousand bushels of lime, in a great variety of modes. With reference to farming for wheat, rye or corn, every one takes his own method. It is impossible to form any general rule to suit all soils. The method must depend on the quality of your land. If the land be much worn out, it will take the less quantity of lime. The soil best adapted for lime is a loamy ground inclining to sand. At least, I have found it to answer best; although I have heard of great things being done with lime on clay. Deep ploughing in the first instance ought to be practiced, but shallow ploughing after the lime is laid on." Other directions for the use of lime are given, and also elaborate instruction as to the proper treatment of particular crops, as well as upon other agri- cultural topics.
Such was the agricultural reading which the Pittsfield news- paper furnished, three years before the organization of the New York Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts and Manu- factures, and twenty-three years before the Berkshire County Society was incorporated. The meetings of the former society, commencing in 1791, elicited by their discussions a great fund of
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
information, the result of experiments made by men of unusual ability, and sufficient pecuniary means. This information, print- ed in their " Transactions " and other publications, and in the newspapers, scattered agricultural knowledge throughout the country, awakened thought, and, although more slowly than could have been wished, brought about improved practices.
Although it cannot be pretended that the advice and instruc- tion so lavishly bestowed on the farmers was very speedily adopted by them, to the displacement of life-long practices and hereditary prejudice, it cannot, on the other hand, be supposed that men like Charles Goodrich, Eli and Oliver Root, the Cad- wells, the Fairfields, Hosea Merrill, the Wrights, the Churchills, and a host of other intelligent Pittsfield farmers, were slow to examine, to discuss, and perhaps experiment upon, the new theo- ries. And in fact we find them gradually adopted years before the institution of the Agricultural Society, and preparing the way for the co-operation of the best farmers of the county with Mr. Watson in that undertaking. Of course then, as now-and doubtless in greater numbers-there were instances in which obstinate stupidity persisted in robbing the earth until there was nothing more left which it had the skill to abstract ; but it is not true that the mass of Pittsfield farmers pursued this course. There never was a time, except in exceptionally cold seasons, like those of 1816 and a few succeeding years, when Indian corn was not a successful crop on most farms whose soil had been originally adapted to it. The " run-down" farms were a more infrequent exception in the earlier than the later portions of the century. And for this stay of the downward progress of its agriculture, the county was indebted in a great measure to the teachings of pamphlets and newspapers, which we may be sure were fully dis- cussed in the nightly gatherings at the village stores and taverns, and in neighborly visits around the great farm-house fireplaces.
And, if the teachings of the writers had all been rejected, still the mere incitement to thought would have been of incalculable advantage ; for while the new theories were considered, the old practices must have also been reviewed, and the reasons for them questioned, with the result sometimes of modification, and some- times of entire change, whether in the manner recommended, or on some original plan.
Some of the farmers kept journals of their work, giving the
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
dates at which they began and ended planting, hoeing and har- vesting each particular crop, some of their operations in stock- raising, observations on the weather, and the like ; but little is to be gathered from them concerning the methods of cultivation or amount of product. We learn, however, that the principal crops were Indian corn, flax, barley, oats, hay, buckwheat and apples. Wheat also continued to be a staple crop on many farms. Mr. Cadwell records, that in the spring of 1794 he paid eight dollars for his seed-wheat. No mention is made in any of the diaries which we have of potatoes, pumpkins, squashes, turnips or beans, nor of peas as a farm-product, although considerable crops of most of these articles appear from other evidence to have been raised.
Of garden luxuries, green corn, green peas and cucumbers were the chief, and the first appearance of each is every year chronicled with marked glee.
Great attention was paid to the breeding of horses and mules, many of which were sent to the West India and other markets. Some of the wealthiest farmers made a specialty of this branch of their business. The newspapers were filled with glowing advertisements of the qualities and pedigrees of favorite stallions. The Narragansett stock was particularly prized for hardihood, bottom and speed; and the justice of this reputation is proved by the rather startling story that Capt. Charles Goodrich, when eighty years old, rode a horse of this breed, one summer day, from Pittsfield, Vermont, to Pittsfield, Massachusetts-one hun- dred and four miles-starting after sunrise in the morning, and sleeping at home the same night.
The beef-packing of the merchants, and the use of hides by the tanners greatly encouraged the raising of cattle, and also led to the profitable practice of purchasing lean or young cattle from the drovers, to be fattened for sale. And the animals raised, although by no means equal to those of our present pastures, were quite as far from being the scrawny, ill-conditioned beasts which they have sometimes been represented. The Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt says that the county of Hampshire fat- tened large numbers of cattle, yearly, for the market; and, speaking of the whole state, adds, that "the pastures were cov- ered with a fine breed of cattle, and also a large number of horses, which latter he did not think remarkable for beauty; " excellent
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testimony to the character of Massachusetts cattle from one familiar with the best herds of Europe.
On the western side of Berkshire, the Dutch, before the trans- fer of the province to the English, had imported from Holland a small plump breed, many of whose descendants found their way to Pittsfield, where the cows were highly prized as milkers. Indeed, the "little Dutchies " were the favorites of many dairies. With the Dutch and English imported breeds, the Berkshire hills were not, in 1800, without very fair cattle.
Sheep were found on every farm sufficient to supply the domes- tic loom with a coarse wool, and the farmer's table with quite as coarse mutton. The Merinoes did not reach Berkshire until several years later. The swine were a " coarse, long-legged, large-boned, slab-sided, flab-eared, sharp-nosed generation, better fitted for sub-soiling than to fill a pork barrel ;" so that, while beef-packing was a large and profitable business, pork afforded but an unimportant item. Mr. William Cadwell records in his diary in 1793, the slaughter of one hog weighing two hundred and forty-one pounds, and of another which weighed two hundred and five pounds. These seemed to have been considered of fair size, although they appear strangely small in comparison with the ordinary weights of the later breeds; not to speak of the monstrous masses of fat which attain the honor of cattle-show prizes and newspaper-paragraphs.1
The price of land is stated by the French author, whom we have before quoted, at " from six to twenty-five dollars an acre- the same as in New Lebanon ; " and his statement is confirmed by such deeds of that period as we have had opportunity to ex- amine.
The following " list of prices for 1795," was found in the town assessor's book for that year :
Middling (average?) horse, $30.00 | Middling cows, $12.00
Three-year-old, do. 15.00 Three-year-old cattle, 12.00
Yearling, do. 10.00 Two-year-old cattle,. 7.50
Middling oxen,
40.00 Yearling cattle, 4.00
1 In May, 1795, Mr. Cadwell, who was a skillful and prosperous farmer, although not among the richest in the town, gives the following list of his cattle : "2 oxen, 5 cows, 4 three-year-olds, 9 two-year-olds, 4 yearlings, 6 calves, 1 bull." At the same time he had about thirty sheep, "a few swine, turkeys, geese, hens," and undoubtedly one or more horses.
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