USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1800 to the year 1876 > Part 63
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Soon after their organization, the trustees of the athenæum began to take measures for the extension of their grounds ; partly in order to control the use of the neighboring property, and partly in anticipation of a larger edifice ; and in June, 1872, a committee was appointed to carry out the latter purpose. In December, 1873, Mr. Allen addressed a letter to his associates, offering to erect a suitable building, at his own personal cost, not exceeding fifty thousand dollars ; and make a free gift of it to the institu- · tion, if satisfactory assurance was given within a reasonable time, that a sufficient fund would be raised to free the site from incum- brance, and maintain the athenæum in perpetuity.
In 1872, Phinehas Allen died, leaving an estate valued at over seventy-one thousand dollars; and making the athenæum his residuary legatee, after the payment of certain legacies, and the ter- mination of three annuities, which were secured to relatives of the testator for their lives. After the payment of the legacies, about fifty thousand dollars of the estate remained, which is man- aged by Elias Merwin of Boston, and Edwin Clapp of Pittsfield, as trustees, until the bequest to the athenæum shall take effect.
Under these circumstances, the trustees of the athenæum instructed William R. Plunkett, Esq., to submit to the town a plan for making Thomas Allen's offer immediately available ; and, on Mr. Plunkett's motion, the following votes were passed at the annual town-meeting of 1874 :
Voted, That Theodore Pomeroy, Owen Coogan, William H. Mur- ray, Robert W. Adam, and Jarvis N. Dunham, be a committee with power to direct the treasurer of the town, who is hereby duly author- ized to issue its obligations in such form as said committee may direct, as follows :
First, To the amount of sixteen thousand dollars for the discharge of
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the mortgage now upon the land of the trustees of the Berkshire Athe- næum.
Second, For a reasonable sum to be paid for the conveyance to said trustees of the land now owned by the Berkshire Mutual Fire Insur- ance Company.
Third, For a reasonable sum to be paid for the conveyance to said trustees, of a strip of land in the rear of land now owned by said trus- tecs, to be used for the purposes of a new athenæum:
Provided, that the obligations, so to be issued by the treasurer afore- said, shall not exceed twenty-four thousand dollars in amount; and pro- vided, also, that said committee shall be satisfied that a suitable build- ing for the athenæum and free library of said trustees, will be erected within a reasonable time, without expense to the town of Pittsfield ;
And that, upon the erection of a new athenæum-building without expense to the town of Pittsfield, for a free library for all its citizens, and for other purposes, the town hereby agrees to pay annually to the trustees of the Berkshire Athenæum, for the maintenance of said free library, and the care of said building, the sum of two thousand dollars annually, until such time as said trustees shall receive the bequest of the late Phinehas Allen, Esq., or such portion thereof as shall enable them to realize from the increase thereof, the said sum of two thousand . dollars yearly ; and the erection of said building shall bind the town to the agreement in this vote contained.
Under this vote, the trustees enlarged their estate, free of mortgage, to a frontage of one hundred and forty-four feet, with a uniform depth of ninety-nine feet and six inches, as follows : They had purchased, in 1871, the lots west of their library-build- ing, on which stood two old wooden stores, for twenty thousand dollars, of which they paid four thousand dollars, obtained from the sale of the Medical College; securing the remainder by a mortgage, from which the town now freed them. Between these lots and the atheneum was the office of the Berkshire Mutual Fire Insurance Company, which was bought for four thousand dollars ; and twenty-four hundred dollars were paid the heirs of Calvin Martin for a strip of land in the rear; making the amount paid by the town twenty-two thousand and four hundred dollars.
In the spring of 1874, the library was removed to the wooden store which occupied a space which is finally to be left vacant ; and all the other buildings were demolished or removed.
After considering many designs for the proposed structure, Mr. Allen finally accepted one submitted by William A. Potter of
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THE BERKSHIRE ATHENAEUM.
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New York, a gentleman specially distinguished in library-archi -- tecture. The contract for the erection of the athenæum was was awarded to A. B. & D. C. Munyan, who associated with themselves, Patrick Treanor of Boston, by whom it was com- pleted.1
A very solid foundation was built in the fall of 1874, and the superstructure was nearly completed in the following year. The general appearance of this noble monument to the gentlemen to whom it owes its erection, and in which centers so much evidence of the love of the citizens of Pittsfield for the town, will be best shown by the accompanying beautiful and accurate engraving. It is a much admired specimen of the richer Gothic style, and has few equals among the public libraries of Massachusetts. The chief material is the dark blue lime-stone of Great Barrington, · left with a rock face, and laid in courses, while the same stone hammered, and thus becoming a lighter blue, forms a portion of the dressing. The remainder of the ornamental stone-work is of the red Longmeadow free-stone, and the red granite of Missouri ; the latter of which is almost identical, in character, with the Aberdeen granite of Scotland. The frontage of the building is ninety feet, and the general depth sixty feet. A projection in the rear gives a depth of eighty feet to the main library-room, which is thirty feet wide.
The other principal divisions of the first story are a reading- room, trustees' room, librarian's room, consulting room, janitor's room, and a spacious entrance-hall. In the second story are two halls, which are to be devoted to natural and general history. Between them is a large apartment designed for a fine art gallery. It is lighted entirely from the roof, which, above the gallery, is constructed of Lenox plate-glass. The library-room furnishes space for about thirty thousand volumes, and the other rooms are amply spacious for the purposes for which they are designed.
The nucleus of the library was that of the Pittsfield Athe- næum, which was transferred to the new organization in Novem- ber, 1872, on condition that it should be kept free to the citizens of the town. It contained four thousand and two hundred vol- umes, of which the greater part were of a choice character, and
1 Mr. Treanor obtained his first reputation as a builder, by the construction of St. Joseph's Church, Pittsfield. He was afterwards the builder of the cathedral at Boston, and other noted public edifices.
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" scarcely any worthless. To these was afterwards added the Med- ical College library, of about a thousand volumes, of which a por- tion were medical works, many of them obsolete. But beside these, it contained a very valuable collection of pamphlets upon general subjects, dating back to the beginning of the century, and some rare books. Hon. H. L. Dawes subsequently presented to the institution about fifteen hundred volumes of public docu- ments, among which were some very valuable series. Mr. Phin- ehas Allen presented the complete files of the Pittsfield Sun, from 1800 to 1872, and a few other rare newspapers. Rev. E. Livingston Wells, presented several files of leading newspapers of dates previous to 1820. Hon. Thomas Allen, among other books, presented an interesting collection of French pamphlets of the era of the Consulate and Empire. Hon. Thomas Colt pre- sented a rich collection of historical manuscripts, pertaining chiefly to western Massachusetts, and the French and Indian wars in New York. Franklin E. Taylor, of New York, gave the splendid work of Luigi Canina, on the edifices of ancient Rome.
Dr. W. E. Vermilye gave the natural and documentary his- tories of the State of New York. The trustees received the loan from the state-department at Boston, of the duplicate files of the Boston Advertiser from 1844 to 1871. There has been a very liberal contribution of smaller but exceedingly interesting donations, including the earlier newspapers of Pittsfield and Stockbridge; and the library contains much to interest the general, as well as the local, historian ; a very unusual amount, indeed, for an institu- tion of so recent a date. The cabinets are also of great value, although the classification of that of mineralogy has been post- poned until the completion of the new building. It includes the collection made for the medical college, principally under the direction of Professor Dewey ; the small but rich collection made by the scientific section of the Young Men's Association ; several hundred specimens gathered by the national survey of the fortieth parallel ; and many fine single specimens contributed by individ- uals. Among the most notable of these is a very large and beautiful polished fortification agate, given by Mr. B. C. Blodgett, who bought it in the rough at Mount Blanc. A thorough examin- ation of the collection of agates in the British museum failed to discover its equal.
The athenæum is still in a somewhat inchoate state ; but it has
RESIDENCE OF HON. THOMAS ALLEN.
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been placed upon a foundation which renders its permanence secure. We proceed to give sketches of its principal bene- factors.
Hon. Jonathan Allen first married Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Perez Marsh of Dalton, and a granddaughter of Col. Israel Wil- liams of Hatfield. His second wife, Eunice Williams, daughter of Darius Larned of Pittsfield, was also a granddaughter of Colonel Williams. There were two children of the first marriage, and eight of the second; of which the third, Thomas, was born August 29, 1813. After preparation at the Berkshire gymnasium, then just established by Professor Dewey, he entered Union College in 1829, and graduated in 1832. He commenced the study of the law at Albany; but its prosecution was interrupted by the approach of cholera to that city in its first fearful visitation to America. Family misfortunes, involving much loss of property, rendered it impossible for Mr. Allen to resume his studies as before ; and with twenty-five dollars only for capital, he repaired to the city of New York, where he was able to earn a salary of three hundred dollars per annum as copying-clerk in a lawyer's office. He was also for eighteen months editor of The Family Magazine, a very popular illustrated monthly journal; and, by this and other literary work, contrived to live. For editing a digest of the decisions of the New York courts, he received a small but select law-library.
In 1835, he was admitted to the bar ; and in 1836, his uncle by marriage, General Ripley, then a representative in congress from Louisiana, offered to resign to him his law-practice in New Orleans. Intending to accept this office, Mr. Allen spent the winter of 1836-7 in Washington, observing the short but excited session of congress. But General Ripley's health failing in the spring of 1837, and his death soon following, Mr. Allen gave over his project of removing to Louisiana, and undertook the publication and editor- ship of the Madisonian newspaper ; the first number being issued August 16, 1837. In the ensuing election for congressional prin- ter, Mr. Allen was chosen, after three days' contest ; the other can- didates being the veteran publishers, Blair & Rives of the Globe, and Gale & Seaton of the National Intelligencer.
The Madisonian obtained a remarkably large circulation for that era, and contributed greatly to the election of President Harrison. But Mr. Allen left it in 1842, and removed to St.
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Louis, where, on the 12th of July, he married Miss Ann C., daughter of William Russell, Esq.
At St. Louis, he soon gave up the practice of the law and devoted himself to public interests, prominently in connection with railroad-projects. After several years of study and preliminary measures, he commenced in 1848, those public labors in that direc- tion, which have accomplished results then hardly hoped for by the most sanguine. The United States had then only about seven thousand miles of railroad, of which not a mile was beyond the Mississippi. Various projects had been broached for a line to the Pacific coast; but they were almost universally scouted as impracticable, and it was very largely through his influence that the first road of that character was begun in 1850, by a company of which he was president, and which obtained aid from congress, and the state-legislature, mainly by his efforts. When he resigned its presidency in 1854, thirty-eight miles of the road were in operation, and over one hundred more under construction.
In 1850, he was chosen state-senator from St. Louis, for four years, during which he served as chairman of the committee of internal improvements. In 1854, he declined a re-nomination, and for several years gave his attention to his private affairs, which had suffered from his absorption in the business of the Pacific railroad ; his property consisting in great part of city- lots then unoccupied. In 1858, he founded the well-known bank- ing-house of Allen, Copp & Nisbet, of which he is still the head.
Meanwhile, in 1855, he commenced at Pittsfield, a spacious and elegant mansion, on the lands received by his grandfather as the first settled minister of the town. A considerable portion of these grounds had always remained attached to the homestead; and, by re-purchasing the portion sold for a democratic hotel in 1809, Mr. Allen rendered them ample, and opened the view to Park square. The house, which is an excellent specimen of the Elizabethan style, is constructed of the peculiar dark-blue lime- stone of Great Barrington, one of the most admired building- stones of Berkshire. It was completed in 1858, and Mr. Allen has since occupied it in summer ; retaining his winter-residence in St. Louis.
Mr. Allen continued this double residence during the civil war, and manifested in St. Louis the same zeal for the Union which he exhibited in Pittsfield ; and in the same practical manner.
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On the completion of his house at Pittsfield, Mr. Allen intended to pause in his business-career, and give himself up to literary and rural pursuits. But he was soon tempted from that life by an opportunity to purchase the Iron Mountain and St. Louis railroad. We will not attempt to relate the story of his management of that great work or its extension, by means of the Cairo and Fulton road, across the state of Arkansas to the north- ern border of Texas. His labors in completing these roads have been enormous, and form a conspicuous feature in the his- tory of the Mississippi valley.
Besides the places of trust and power of which we have spoken, Mr. Allen has held numerous others of great importance to the state of Missouri and the country. The railroads of which he is president have an aggregate length of over seven hundred miles ; and, including these, he is president of nine different corpora- tions, which employ a very large number of men. The amount of other .property, besides his own personal estate, which is administered by him, is also great. But in these numerous and arduous labors for the development of the material resources of his adopted state, he has not forgotten the interests of science. By persistent effort, he carried through the legislature in 1852, a bill for the geological survey of Missouri. In 1871, he endowed a chair of mining and metallurgy in Washington University at St. Louis. In 1872, he was chosen president of the newly-formed university-club of St. Louis, and at the opening of their club- house, delivered a philosophical address which was published and made a deep impression. Indeed, wherever he has had opportunity he has manifested a warm interest in all institutions intended to · promote classical learning or practical science; and his addres- ses at their public meetings have been numerous and valuable.
Calvin Martin was born in Hancock, August 7, 1787, and was admitted to the Berkshire bar in 1814. From that time to his death, September 6, 1867, he was a lawyer and a prosperous citi- zen of Pittsfield. He was a director of the Agricultural Bank, and the first president of the cemetery-corporation. Throughout his life he was a friend of popular education, and his gift to the athenæum was a proof that his interest in that subject continued to the end.
Phinehas Allen, the younger, was born in 1807, in the gam- brel-roof cottage, which had served as a printing-office for four
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newspapers. At the age of six years, he began to be initiated into the mysteries of the printer's craft; a pedestal of boxes being built to enable him to reach the type in their cases. He soon became an enthusiast in the art; and, long after his pecuniary means freed him from the necessity of mechanical labor, he was accustomed, on many days, for mere pleasure, to set more type than is the ordinary task of a journeyman. In 1829, his father, the founder of the Sun, admitted him as a partner in its publica- tion and editorship.
Filial love and reverence were among the most prominent traits in his character, and he adopted without reserve the political opinions and business-habits of his father. Even after his father's death, the bookstore and newspaper were conducted under the old firm name of P. Allen & Son, and as nearly as the junior partner could judge, as his father would have done in the same circumstances. The younger Mr. Allen was of course an unfail- ing supporter of the democratic party, and for many years a prominent member of its managing committees in the state, as well as the county.
On the death of Hon. Jonathan Allen, in 1845, he was appointed postmaster, and held the office, except for a brief interval, till 1861, performing its duties in all respects so as to command the popular appreciation. In the estimation of the department he ranked as second among the postmasters of the Union in point of faithfulness and accuracy. Neither partisan jealousy or private pique could find anything in his administration to impeach. His views of editorial duty were not always in accord with popular opinions ; but none doubted his sincerity. His conduct towards all institutions for the public good, from those for the support of religion, morality and education, down to those of a minor, but still important, character was uniformly generous. His views of life were genial and charitable, and his personal character was beyond reproach. He was a firm and faithful friend, and his affection for those whom he especially esteemed, was most ardent and trusting.
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He married, in 1833, Miss Maria, daughter of Jason Clapp, who died in 1866. He died July 4, 1873.
His last act in the endowment of the public library, after a just provision for those who had claims upon him, was consistent with his whole life.
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In one of the later years of the eighteenth century, Hon. Wil- liam Walker of Lenox, needing a farmer upon his place, obtained the services of Patrick Plunkett, a young Irishman, of whom we have the following spirited story :
He had come out to America " to see the world," in compauy witli a fellow-countryman named Gracie-a " scribe," who had lived in Lenox, and knowing that Judge Walker wanted a capable helper, recom- mended Plunkett. He was thoroughly honest, and, although unedu- cated, had the naturally sagacious judgment which places a just estimate on the best things in life.
A kind Providence, and his own wise instinct, helped him in choos- ing for his wife one who was in all respects a remarkable woman. Patrick had worked for Judge Walker two or three years, when an irrepressible longing to see somebody from the old country seized him. He was then the only Irishman in all this region, and he resolved on a trip to New York. Just then-1795-6-7-many were fleeing from Ire- land, driven forth by the disorders of the rebellion ; and among those who sought refuge in New York, were a well-to-do gentleman and his wife, who had brought with them their fatherless niece, Mary Robin- son, whose brothers were active participants in that struggle. They were all boarding in New York, with no thought but to return to green Erin as soon as the country should be pacified ; when the homesick young man from Lenox arrived in town he saw the blooming Miss Mary ; was conquered, and asked for her hand. He was bidden by her prudent guardians to wait awhile; but he returned to Lenox, with a new hope in his heart, and a new light in his eye, literally to labor and to wait ; and to add to the tidy sum which he had already saved.
On the day after Christmas, 1799, he married Mary Robinson, and, from that hour, wisely gave himself up to the guidance and inspiration of a superior spirit. She was an industrious, frugal, resolute, God- fearing woman ; and seldom did heat or cold, or storm detain her or her household from the ministrations of Doctor Shepard-a sample Puri- tain-in the meeting-house on the hill. The stern doctrines of the assembly's catechism were learned in the district-school by every pupil; and they must have helped to mould the minds which so received them.
Both Mrs. Plunkett and her husband had an almost superstitious reverence for that wisdom which is condensed between the covers of books. They lived isolated, on a farm, and were the only Irish family in the region ; so that they had little temptation to spend their even- ings abroad. And; as soon as the children could read well, these evenings were consecrated to the acquisition of that wonderful book, knowledge, which to their unlettered parents, seemed a talisman, sure
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to put its possessors ahead in the race of life. At that day the Lenox library could all have been carried in a bushel-basket ; but it contained some of the old matchless masterpieces : the Spectator, Doctor John- son's works, and the like. One by one, these were carried to the cot- tage of the Plunketts, and read aloud to the household-circle. The father and mother listening as eagerly as the children, until every book- no matter how obstruse, had been mastered; so that when the sons went forth to seek their fortunes on the broad arena of the world, they had no mean portion of the culture which comes from acquaintance with the best literary models. And the useful and honorable careers of these sons, and the steps which each took, in his own town, to promote the diffusion of knowledge is a priceless comment on their influence and value.
These sons were William C. of South Adams, Charles H. of Hinsdale, and Thomas F. of Pittsfield, all of whom worked their way to wealth and honorable position. The youngest, Thomas F., was born at Lenox in 1804. His education, so far as schools went, was simply what could be obtained from that excellent insti- tution, the Lenox Academy. For the rest we quote from the account of which we have already made use.
At the age of eighteen, after two years of vain endeavor to like a mechanical handicraft, he entered the broad field of the world ; travel- ing from town to town through eastern New York ; conducting a trade with householders and country-dealers, which, in those days of infrequent communication, rose to considerable proportions ; meeting at the country-inns the more social spirits of each village, and listening with the hungry eagerness of youth to discussions of questions of the day, often viewed from stand-points novel to him.
It was during these five years of sharp apprenticeship to life that Mr. Plunkett gained a shrewd knowledge of men, a keen tact in influenc- ing them, and a small moneyed capital. He always declared that this was the great labor of his life. With it he went to Chester, Mass., and commenced the manufacture of slat window-shades. When these passed out of fashion, he purchased a small cotton-factory ; and, in it, in eight years, accumulated a moderate fortune, with which he felt that he was free to choose a home from the wide world. And he came to Pittsfield in 1836. A landed domain had always been one of his dreams, and he purchased the farm on Unkamet street, next east of the railroad.
But he soon wearied of the slow processes of agriculture, and, in 1839, commenced the cotton-manufacture, as we have related
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in the proper connection. In 1866, he closed his business in Pittsfield as a manufacturer. But he had previously become senior-partner in the firm of Plunkett, Wyllys & Co., cotton-man- ufacturers at South Glastonbury, Conn., of which his son, Major Charles T. Plunkett, is business-manager. Without removing from Pittsfield, he continued this business until his death; and also invested largely in the Union Manufacturing Company of North Manchester, Conn., of which his son Thomas F., is treas- urer and agent, and of which Mr. Plunkett was president at the time of his death.
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