USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1800 to the year 1876 > Part 67
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The removal of the seat of the county-courts to Lenox, in 1787, soon became a source of conflict between the northern and southern portions of the county, which continued until the year 1868-a period of eighty-one years-with serious evils to the county.
The jail having been burned, Dr. Timothy Childs and others, in the year 1812, memorialized the legislature, stating that the public good required that the public buildings of the county of Berkshire should be located in Pittsfield. They said, " we state it to be an incontrovertible fact that this town is more con- veniently situated for the transaction of all concerns in the courts of law and in the public offices than the town of Lenox. This is apparent from the peculiar local situation of this town, it being a spacious common center for the people of the county of Berk- shire to assemble for the transaction of all public business."
These brief sentences were the basis of all the arguments of the people of Pittsfield, and of northern Berkshire, in favor of the
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
change in the county-seat, which were repeated and amplified and sustained by redoubled proof, until they were finally successful.
The petitioners further stated that the citizens of Pittsfield would erect pleasant and suitable buildings at their own expense, and in turn, only asked that the county-property at Lenox should be transferred to them ; " together with the money lately granted for crecting fire-proof offices for the public records, together with such sums as an impartial committee might judge necessary for rendering the jail secure ; and for altering, repairing and render- ing convenient the present court-house." They therefore asked the appointment of a legislative committee to view the situation, and examine all the circumstances touching and relating to the subject.
The desired committee was appointed, and at the April town- meeting of 1813, the following committee was chosen to pre- sent the case of the town before them : Timothy Childs, Thomas Gold, Ezekiel Bacon, John W. Hulbert, John B. Root, Ebenezer Center, Joshua Danforth, William C. Jarvis and Jonathan Allen.
The viewing-committee reported to the legislature that under certain conditions, provision should be made at the ensuing ses- sion of the legislature for the removal of the courts from Lenox to Pittsfield. Among these provisions were the following :
First, that Pittsfield should build on a suitable lot, of not less than one acre, and adjoining The Green so-called, a court-house of solid materials, with two jury-rooms, and all such fire-proof offices as are required by law, besides a jail and jail-house of such dimensions as the legislature might direct; and further to pay the town of Lenox two thousand six hundred and sixty-six dol- lars.
At a town-meeting held November 15, 1813, the following gentlemen were appointed to take the report into consideration : John C. Williams, John W. Hulbert, Oliver Root, Capt. John Churchill, Hosea Merrill, Butler Goodrich, Ezekiel Bacon, Thomas Gold, Oren Goodrich, Joseph Shearer, Simeon Griswold and Joseph Merrick. This committee thought that it would cost fourteen thousand dollars to comply with these conditions. A private subscription of nine thousand dollars had been raised towards this fund. The committee believed that if the town were authorized to use the money voted by the county for fire- proof offices, and to sell and use the old county-buildings, the
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
whole expense of removal would be provided for. The location on the green was objected to, as it did not seem practicable to procure a site there of the required size. The committee also thought it might be shown that the required payment of two thousand six hundred and sixty-six dollars to the town of Lenox was unjust. These views were presented at the spring session of the legislature of 1814 ; and together with petitions in aid of the proposed removal, from the towns of Lanesboro, Dalton, Hinsdale, Washington, Peru, Savoy and Adams, were referred to the suc- ceeding session, with due order of notice. But in the meanwhile the towns were directed to hold meetings to ascertain the opinion of the voters upon the propriety and expediency of the measure.
At this time, twenty citizens of Lenox banded themselves together with the resolution that while they lived, Lenox should remain the county-seat. But indeed, the whole town seems to have been actuated by the same spirit. And it had citizens who acted as leaders, and who were unsurpassed in ability and influ- ence in the county. And as the preponderance of population had not passed absolutely to northern Berkshire, they labored for and obtained this practical reference of the matter to the people. By their efforts, also, it became prestige, and long continued the essential obstacle to the removal ; and the legislature clung to it long after it became apparent, to the whole commonwealth, that the public interests demanded a change. In its first operation, its effect was decided by the vote of the town of Richmond; several citizens of Lenox having given a bond to that town agreeing to idemnify it for its share of expense in erecting new buildings, at Lenox. The vote was, therefore, against the removal, and the new county-buildings were erected, and occu- pied in 1816.
The question was revived in 1826, when Pittsfield voted to petition the legislature for the removal of the county-seat, and appointed Jonathan Allen, John Churchill, Lemuel Pomeroy, Joseph Merrick and Henry Hubbard to manage the matter. There was an earnest but brief attempt to carry out the desires of the town; but at the February session of the legislature, the petitioners had leave to withdraw.
In December, 1842, the completion of the Western railroad, having given Pittsfield great additional advantages, and the county-commissioners having contracted for remodeling the jail
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
as a house of correction, at a cost of five thousand two hundred and fifty dollars, and the citizens of Pittsfield and other towns having subscribed more than the same sum for the purpose of removing the county-seat to Pittsfield, on motion of M. R. Lanck- ton, the town agreed to guarantee its payment; and also voted to give a durable lease of land between the store of Tracy & West and the First Church, for a court-house, and to furnish a suitable site for the jail. The following committee was appointed to for- ward the removal by all honorable means: Hosea Merrill, Jr., E. H. Kellogg, J. D. Colt 2d, Lemuel Pomeroy, Lyman War- riner and George Campbell.
The following extract from the town-records tells the remainder of the story :
Whereas, by a resolve passed by the legislature, the removal of the county-buildings is submitted to a vote of the people on the 3d of April, and the almost impassable state of the roads has prevented the friends of removal from giving that information to the voters necessary for a fair understanding of the question; therefore, resolved, that we, the citizens of Pittsfield, in legal town-meeting assembled, decline voting on the subject.
Resolved, That, in the opinion of this meeting, the necessities of the county do not require the immediate erection of a house of correction, at a cost of five thousand dollars, and the county-commissioners are requested to postpone action until such time as a full, fair and deliber- ate decision upon the location of all the county-buildings can be had by the citizens of this county.
And then the matter rested again, although not very quietly, until the year 1854, when-the Housatonic railroad having been extended through southern Berkshire to Pittsfield-the agita- tion was revived; several towns, Great Barrington taking the lead, petitioning the legislature for a change in the county-seat. In February, a Pittsfield town-meeting, on motion of Hon. Julius Rockwell, passed a long series of resolutions favoring the move- ment, and declaring that the town ought to take action without delay. These resolutions declared, that while the citizens of the town sincerely regretted that a movement of this kind must be attended with a collision of local interests, and some excitement of personal and local feeling, all must be aware that questions of this kind must be determined by the general interests of the peo- ple of the whole county and state, and that the interest of par-
87
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ticular towns must yield to the general public accommodation. Upon this predicate, the resolutions argued that the question of the location of county-seats belonged to the legislature exclu- sively ; and that it ought to keep in view the "interests of the commonwealth, at whose expense, and by whose judges and other officers the laws are administered ; and for this end it should pro- vide the location where the business could be most conveniently transacted, with the most economy of the valuable time of the judges." They fully recognized, however, the interest of the people of the county in the question; but considered that the proper mode for the people to represent their wishes, was by peti- tion to the legislature, and not by a final reference of the ques- tion to their decision.
It was further resolved, that there ought to be no farther delay in the removal of the county-seat; and a committee of thirty was appointed, with full powers and an ample appropriation of money, to procure that result. This committee consisted of Wellington H. Tyler, George S. Willis, John V. Barker, Theodore Pomeroy, Hosea Merrill, James Francis, David Campbell, N. G. Brown, R. W. Adam, S. A. Churchill, Henry Stearns, Edwin Clapp, Henry Colt, Elisha S. Tracy, M. R. Lanckton, Calvin Martin, Thomas G. Atwood, Henry Noble, William M. Walker, O. W. Robbins, John Weller, P. L. Page, F. W. Gibbs, William R. Plunkett, H. S. Briggs, John C. West, Joel Stevens, Jerome Hulburt, Josiah Carter, Elisha Peck.
At the March meeting of 1855, the following gentlemen were appointed to meet a committee of the legislature at Lenox, and were authorized to expend five hundred dollars to further the objects of the petitioners for removal: S. L. Russell, James Francis, Thomas Colt, George S. Willis, John E. Dodge, Robert Pomeroy, Julius Rockwell, and S. A. Churchill.
The whole subject was fully discussed in the newspapers of the county, and produced much angry discussion ; but the legislature finally submitted the following questions to town-meetings of the people of the county, November 8, 1854.
"Do you desire a removal of the courts from Lenox ; and, if so, name the town or towns to which they shall be removed."
In Pittsfield the vote stood for removal six hundred and fifty- eight; against it, three. There were three hundred and eighty- one votes in favor of the removal to Pittsfield, and two hundred
EAST ST
M. BRADLEY SO
BERKSHIRE COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
and fifty-five for double county-seats, at Pittsfield and Great Bar- rington. The county decided, by a majority of about fifteen hundred, in favor of Lenox. No further decided movement was made in favor of a change, until the year 1868; but public opin- ion constantly tended in that direction, and in that year, when Hon. T. F. Plunkett made a movement in the legislature to effect it, the opposition was comparatively feeble. Mr. Plunkett man- aged the matter with great discretion, and was aided in the same spirit by other gentlemen of the county. The propriety of the measure was generally recognized; and, by a direct vote of the legislature, the county-seat was established at Pittsfield, on con- dition that the town should furnish suitable sites for the court- house and jail, and provide rooms for the courts, until a court- house could be built.
We forbear comment upon the mean's by which this result was so long delayed, and also upon the cost which the delay imposed upon the county and its citizens.
The town accepted, without hesitation, the conditions upon which the change was to be made, and appointed the following committee to select and purchase the sites for the court-house and jail : S. W. Bowerman, Theodore Pomeroy, Thomas Colt, John C. West, J. V. Barker, E. H. Kellogg, Edwin Clapp, John E. Merrill, W. B. Cooley, Owen Coogan, and Abraham Burbank. The committee manifested a most liberal spirit, and the town sustained them in selecting the best and most costly sites, which were demanded for those purposes. Thirty-five thousand dollars were paid for the John Chandler Williams place, with its noble surrounding of elms, on the corner of Park square and East street, as a location for a court-house. Six thousand five hun- dred dollars were paid Abraham Burbank for a site for a jail and house of correction.
The legislature granted three hundred and fifty thousand dol- lars, to be assessed on the county, for the erection of the county- buildings. One hundred and ninety thousand dollars were ex- pended for the jail, and the remainder for the court-house. Sub- sequently twenty-eight thousand dollars were appropriated for furnishing the buildings, of which the greater portion was ex- pended for the court-house.
Architectural plans were furnished for the buildings by Louis Weisbein of Boston, and the contract for constructing them was
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awarded to A. B. & D. C. Munyan. They were completed in the fall of 1871. The court-house, which is one of the finest in the commonwealth, is constructed of white marble, from Sheffield, resting on a basement of light-blue marble from the same town. It was first occupied at the September term of the supreme court, in 1871, all the judges being present, and Henry W. Taft, Esq., delivering an historical address.
The jail, which stands on North Second street, is built of mar- ble and pressed brick; the latter material being chiefly uscd.
The business brought to the town by the establishment of the county-seat, is not more valued than the accession of citizens of high character, which it involved in the residence of such officers as High-Sheriff Graham A. Root; Henry W. Taft, the clerk of the courts ; Andrew J. Waterman, register of probate; George S. Tucker, register of deeds.
Some idea of the growth of the town, in its later decades, may be obtained from the following statistics: In 1865, the popula- tion was 9,679; the valuation was $6,402,666. The taxes were $84,197. The valuation per capita $661. In 1875, the popula- tion was 12,267, and the valuation $8,412,236. The total tax was $111,309, and the valuation per capita was $685.
We have thus traced the progress of the town from its early hopes and early disappointments, to a success and position which the best might envy. We should have been glad to have given, more in detail, the account of the manufacturing enterprises which, in later years, have aided in building up its prosperity. But space, and the plan to which we are limited, forbid. We may, however, mention that among them are the tannery, which Mr. Owen Coogan has carried on as the successor of James and Simeon Brown ; the shoe-factory established by Robbins & Kellogg; the manufactory of magic oil, and other medical and essential preparations carried on for twenty-five years by William Renne ; the carriage-factories of Ebenezer Dunham and George Van Valkenberg; the boiler-manufactory by Hezekiah Russell ; the machine-works by E. D. Jones and W. H. Clark; and the foundry of E. D. Bonney. Other gentlemen, engaged in profes- sional and mercantile business, may have contributed as much or more to the prosperity of the town, but there is a certain perma- nence and distinction in manufacturing-enterprise, which permits it to be more positively recognized.
THE ACADEMY OF MUSIC.
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
The elder citizens of Pittsfield, in 1875, remember with delight literary and artistic entertainments in the old South-street lec- ture-room, in the two town-halls, in the more commodious halls provided by Messrs. Burbank and West, and in some smaller rooms of the same class. There are many who even remember joyous hours in the old assembly rooms over the Female Academy, and the Berkshire Hotel. Nor are the chapel and gymnasium of Maplewood forgotten. But, until 1872, the town was entirely without any building approaching the character of a theater or any hall well fitted for a dramatic or musical entertainment of a high character. In that year, by private enterprise, it obtained an opera-house as spacious as the requirements of the location demanded, and worthy to rank in other respects with the best edifices of its class.
It was styled the Academy of Music, and was built in the sum- mer of 1872, by Cebra Quackenbush and Messrs. A. B. and D. C. Munyan. The Messrs. Munyan were the practical builders and the capital was furnished by Mr. Quackenbush, who subsequently became the sole owner. The builders took great pride in their work, and by a very liberal expenditure the town was furnished with one of the most beautiful and commodious buildings of its class in the country. It is one hundred and thirty-two feet long, eighty feet deep, and seventy high. The materials are brick and iron with dressings of blue stone and tile, and richly ornamented. The lower story contains six large stores. The theater, with its parlors and offices, occupies the whole of the upper portion of the building, except that in the mansard roof. The auditorium, which is very elegantly finished and furnished, affords eleven hundred and fourteen seats. The stage is eighty feet wide, by thirty-six deep. The parlors are handsome and commodious, and the manager's and other offices are large and convenient. The stairways are of liberal proportion and of easy ascent. In beauty, comfort, and convenience, the Pittsfield Academy of Music is unexcelled by any edifice of its class in the country. Its acoustic properties and the capabilities of its stage are particularly admired.
The story of the academy in the mansard roof is occupied by a smaller hall, so far as it is not required by stage-machinery.
There is one other gentleman whose services to the town, dur- ing a not very extended residence, were so marked that they
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
ought to be recognized, and will create a desire to know more of him. John C. Hoadley was the son of Lester Hoadley and the grandson of Philemon Hoadley, the fourth in descent from Wil- liam Hoadley, who was a resident of Saybrook, Conn., in 1663, and in 1664 became one of the founders of the town of Bradford. John C. Hoadley was born in Martinsburg, Lewis county, N. Y., in December, 1818. He learned to read at his mother's knee, and had read the New Testament through before his fourth birthday. His subsequent education was eclectic ; being partly gathered at the academies at Potsdam and Utica, but chiefly wherever he could find a teacher in men, books, or nature. In 1835, he was employed as chainman and rodman in the preliminary survey of the railway from Utica to Binghamton. In May, 1836, he entered the service of the State of New York, on the surveys for the enlargement of the Erie canal. This work being completed in 1842, he was retained in the employ of the canal board. But in December, 1844, he took charge of the mills at Leominster, Mass., then erecting by H. N. & E. B. Bigelow, where he remained until 1848, when he removed to Pittsfield, and became a partner of Gordon McKay, in his machine-works. Here he was enthusi- , astically devoted to all the interests of the town. A part, and only a part of these services appear in these pages. In 1852, together with Mr. McKay, he removed to the city of Lawrence, where he became interested in a series of manufactures. He was elected a member of the legislature in 1858, and presidential elector in 1872. He married in 1847, a daughter of Rev. Dan- iel Kimball, of Needham, who died June 12, 1848. On the 15th of September, 1853, he married Catherine Gansevoort, daughter of Allan Melville and Catherine Gansevoort.
APPENDIX.
LIST OF PITTSFIELD SOLDIERS WHO SERVED IN THE WAR FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE UNION.
[1861-1865.]
-
EIGHTH REGIMENT INFANTRY, M. V. M.
ALLEN GUARD.
Henry S. Briggs, Captain : Colonel 10th Mass. Vols., June 12, 1861. Henry H. Richardson, 1st Lieutenaut : Captain, June 15, 1861. Robert Bache, 2d Lieutenant : 1st Lieutenant, June 15, 1861. Alonzo E. Goodrich, 1st Sergeant : 2d Lieutenant, June 15, 1861.
Non-Commissioned Officers.
Daniel J. Dodge, Sergeant.
Frederick Smith, Corporal.
Samuel M. Wardwell, "
Israel C. Weller,
Charles R. Strong,
Musician. Edwin Merry.
Privates.
Alden, Henry
Butler, Lafayette
Atwood, Andrew J.
Chamberlain, Robert
Barnard, William E.
Clark, W. H.
Bassett, Almon F.
Castello, William
Bentley, Perry C.
Davis, Charles H.
Blinn, George
Dodge, Emerson J.
Bonney, Harvey
Fuller, Andrew J.
Bonney, Nicholas
Garrett, William H. H.
Booth, Dexter F.
Goggins, James
Brown, Charles
Greelis, Robert
Burbank, George W.
Harrington, William F.
Cornelius Burley, Albert Howe,
-
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
Hemenway, Elbert O.
Hemenway, F. A.
Randall, Jason B. Reed, George Read, William D.
IIemenway, Harrison Hopkins, Chester H.
Reynolds, George
Hughes, Daniel Joyce, Thomas Jordan, Dwight
Lee, John M.
Lloyd, Frank
Marks, Constant R.
Mullany, Anthony
McIntosh, Hobart H.
Volk, Abraham
McKenna, James
Wark, John
McKenna, William
Wells, John
Mitchell, Wells B.
Whipple, Albert H.
Montville, Mitchell
Whittlesey, Elihu B.
Morse, J. A.
Wood, Thaddeus
Nichols, Abram J.
Wright, Theodore S.
EIGHTH REGIMENT INFANTRY, M. V. M. (100 Days.)
Lafayette Butler, Captain. William D. Reed, 1st Lieutenant. James Kittle, 2d Lieutenant.
Non-Commissioned Officers.
Edward B. Mead, 1st Sergeant.
Timothy Drew, Corporal.
George A. Holland,
Edwin F. Russell, "
George S. Willis, Jr., 66
William D. Bliss,
John T. Power, 66
Dwight Holland, Corporal.
John L. Dalrymple,
Privates.
Adams, John H.
Collins, John
Aldrich, Cornelius S.
Curron, Marcus
Barber, Joseph
Fabricius, William
Bardeau, Peter
Fagan, Alonzo D. E.
Broad, Charles C.
Forward, William
Brian, Isadore
Gallipaux, Lewis
Burbank, Charles H.
Goodrich, Frank H.
Burt, Charles A.
Green, William H.
Casey, Patrick
Gunn, Charles H.
Hemenway, Willard F.
Chickering, John A.
John K. Packard,
Orson B. Kendall,
John S. Smith,
Powers, Richard
Rockwell, William W. Ronse, John T.
Sedgwick, Irving M. Skinner, Frederick A. Taylor, Charles H. Van Loon, Lyman W.
Vedder, Jacob
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APPENDIX.
Houlohan, James Jeffers, Edgar Kendall, Eben W. Labare, John J. Lawrence, Joseph E. Mallison, Lugene Marshall, Alfred Massey, Milo T.
McDonald, Frank Meeks, Thomas
Moore, Albert
Moore, Charles
Moore, John 1st
Moore, John 2d
Morgan, Daniel S. Murphy, Joseph P. Prentiss, Charles Pritchard, Allen
Rensehansen, Henry
Rockwell, Charles A.
Rolland, Ausanda E.
Ryan, Edward J.
Ryan, John
Sears, James H. Smith, Henry H. Smith, William H.
Walker, Eleazer
FORTY-NINTH REGIMENT INFANTRY, M. V. M.
[This being a nine-months regiment, raised exclusively in Berkshire county, we give the roll of staff and field officers and the Pittsfield members by companies.] Field and Staff.
Colonel, William F. Bartlett, Boston.
Lieutenant-Colonel, Samuel B. Sumner, Great Barrington.
Major, Charles T. Plunkett, Pittsfield. Surgeon, Frederic Winsor, Boston. Adjutant, Benjamin C. Miflin, Boston.
Quartermaster, Henry B. Brewster, Pittsfield.
Sergeant-Major, Henry J. Wylie, Pittsfield.
Quartermaster-Sergeant, George E. Howard, Pittsfield.
Hospital-Steward, Albert J. Morey, Lee. Pittsfield Roll. COMPANY A.
Israel C. Weller, Captain. George W. Clark, 1st Lieutenant. Frederick A. Francis, 2d Lieut. Sept. 18, 1862; 1st Lieut. Dec. 31, 1862. George Reed, 1st Sergeant, Sept. 18, 1862 ; 2d Lieut. May 23, 1863. Non-Commissioned Officers.
Albert Howe, 1st Sergeant. Charles P. Adams,
David Greber,
Thomas Biety, 66 Henry J. Wylie,
George E. Howard, John Priestly, Corporal. Erastus D. Barnes, 88
George H. Kearn, Corporal. Lyman J. Read,
Michael F. Dailey,
John B. Scace, William E. Tillotson,
James Kittle,
66
Joseph H. Allen,
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HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD.
Musicians.
John C. Merry, Michael H. Hanley,
Emile Neuber.
Privates.
Abbe, Merrick L.
Macoy, Martin
Aldrich, Cornelius S.
Malcomb, Joseph
Bailey, Julius F.
Marion, Andrew
Bassett, James W.
Marion, Lewis
Blake, Frank V.
Maxwell, John
Bogard, Robert
Nicholas, William
Bryce, John, Jr.
Noble, Samuel G.
Burt, Orville D.
O'Brien, William
Clamann, William
Packard, John K.
Clark, John B.
Platt, Charles E.
Clark, William E.
Rairden, Hugh
Coleman, Charles A.
Rairden, Timothy
Colt, Merrick R.
Reed, William
Daniels, Peter
Rheel, Henry
Davis, Luther M.
Root, Henry L.
Drew, Timothy
Robbins, Henry M.
Dunlap, Thomas
Rechsteshell, Henry
Endie, Emile
Rogers, Judson B.
Fuller, George
Rogers, John
Green, Robert A.
Shaw, William
Grewe, Henry
Swart, John
Hall, Thomas E.
Swart, John W.
Holland, George A.
Stupka, William
Hubbard, Lewis F.
Taylor, William
Hufneagle, Frederick
Tnggey, William
Jones, Seth R.
Vanderburg, Charles B.
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