REV THOMAS ALLEN. 
 
 1799.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD, 
 
 (BERKSHIRE COUNTY,) 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS, 
 
 FROM THE YEAE 1734 TO THE YEAR 1800. 
 
 COMPILED AND WRITTEN, UNDER THE GENERAL DIRECTION OF A COMMITTEE, 
 
 BY 
 I 
 
 J. E. A. SMITH. 
 
 BY AUTHORITY OF THE TOWN. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 PUBLISHED BY LEE AND SHEPARD, 
 
 149 WASHINGTON STREET. 
 1869.
 
 Entered, accoiding to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by 
 
 THE TOWN OF PITTSFIELD, 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 Stereotyped and Printed by Geo. C. Rand & Avery.
 
 PBEFACE. 
 
 AT a town meeting held in the Town Hall, in Pittsfield, 
 Aug. 25, 1866, Mr. Thomas Allen rose, and stated, that on 
 the Centennial of the First Congregational Church and Parish, 
 viz., April 18, 1864, he had been requested by a vote of the 
 parish to prepare an historical memoir of that parish and 
 church, embodying substantially, but extending, the remarks he 
 made at that meeting. He stated, that, in looking over the 
 records of the town and parish, he found them intimately con- 
 nected, so that a 'history of the one would be also a history of 
 the other ; and he had found the history of the town highly 
 interesting, and honorable to its inhabitants. True, there were 
 no classic fields in Pittsfield, consecrated by patriotic blood 
 spilled in battle in defence of the country, as in Lexington and 
 Concord, simply because no foreign foe in arms had ever invaded 
 its soil : but it was not the less true that Pittsfield had always 
 promptly performed her part, and furnished her quota of men 
 and means, in every war waged in defence of the country and 
 the Union ; and that in the intellectual contests through which the 
 just principles of republican government, and civil and religious 
 freedom, have been established in this country, the men of Pitts- 
 field, on their own ground and elsewhere, have ever borne a 
 part creditable alike to their wisdom, their sagacity, and their 
 patriotism. Pittsfield, therefore, had a history which deserved to 
 be written. The first settlers had all passed away ; and their 
 immediate descendants, witnesses of the earlier struggles, were 
 
 m
 
 iv PREFACE. 
 
 whitening with the frosts of age, and were also rapidly disap- 
 pearing. If the records of their history were to be gathered 
 together, and preserved in a durable form, it was time that the 
 duty be undertaken. He was satisfied that an honorable record 
 would appear, and worthy of the place to which God had given 
 so much that is beautiful in nature. 
 
 He therefore asked leave to introduce a resolution, of which 
 the following is a principal part, which was warmly advocated, 
 and, with great unanimity, at once adopted : 
 
 "Resolved, That a Committee of five be appointed for the purpose 
 of compiling, writing, and supervising the publication of, a history of 
 the town, and that said Committee be authorized to select and employ 
 a suitable person to aid them in the work." 
 
 The Committee, then immediately appointed, consisted of 
 Thomas Allen, Stephen Reed, Phinehas Allen, James Francis, 
 and James D. Colt. Dr. H. H. Childs was subsequently added, 
 and an appropriation made to defray the expenses of the work. 
 The Committee selected and employed Mr. J. E. A. Smith as a 
 suitable person, qualified by experience as a writer j to aid them ; 
 and by him, the work, under their general direction and superin- 
 tendence, and subject to their scrutiny, has been compiled and 
 written. The work was commenced in September ; documents 
 and books in manuscript and print, and records from private and 
 public sources, were gathered together ; and Boston, Springfield, 
 Hartford, Albany, and Lenox were visited to consult libraries, 
 authorities, and public archives. Gathering information from so 
 many and scattered sources, and reducing it to writing in chrono- 
 logical order, has been, of necessity, a work of time ; but the 
 result is that more of it has been obtained than was at first 
 anticipated. On this account, the Committee have deemed it 
 best to issue a first volume, bringing the history down only to 
 the year 1800. 
 
 Dr. Childs having departed this life in March, 1868, and Dr. 
 Reed not acting, John C. West and Thaddeus Clapp were at 
 the April meeting, 1868, added to the Committee. 
 
 The Committee and Mr. Smith desire to put on record here 
 an acknowledgment of their indebtedness to various persons for
 
 PREFACE. V 
 
 facts, and especially to mention the following as some of the 
 chief sources from whence material for this History has been 
 derived. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Allen left many papers of much historic interest, of 
 which a considerable number have been preserved, and have 
 been of the utmost service. Several of them we print in full. 
 
 Col. William Williams was one of the most prominent citizens 
 of the town from its settlement until the close of the Revolution, 
 and held offices which led him into voluminous correspondence re- 
 garding its affairs, and made him the custodian of valuable papers. 
 A great mass of these was in existence within the last twenty 
 years ; but the larger portion have since been destroyed. For- 
 tunately, however, while the work of destruction was going on, it 
 came to the knowledge of Hon. Thomas Colt, who saved a con- 
 siderable part, which forms the nucleus of his valuable historical 
 collection, and has afforded us the greatest aid in our labors. 
 Many other exceedingly valuable and serviceable documents, 
 saved from the Williams papers, have been contributed by M. R. 
 Lanckton and Henry Colt, Esqs. 
 
 The papers left by Col. John Brown to his family were inad- 
 vertently destroyed many years ago ; but Henry C. Van Schaack, 
 Esq., of Manlius, N. Y., a zealous and successful student of 
 Revolutionary history, obtained a just conception of the charac- 
 ter and services of that officer at a time when they were more, 
 obscure than they have since become, and has been for more than 
 a quarter of a century earnestly engaged in collecting documents 
 regarding them. His labors have been richly rewarded ; and he 
 has generously placed the results in our hands, together with his 
 own interesting observations upon them. To Mr. Van Schaack 
 we are also indebted for a large collection of interesting papers 
 regarding his uncle, Major Henry Van Schaack, concerning the 
 Shays Rebellion, the contest for religious equality, and other 
 matters ; many of them pertaining to the period the story of 
 which is to be given in the second volume of this work. 
 
 We are also indebted, for valuable papers, to Messrs. John P. 
 Brown, J. A. Foote, and Ambrose Cadwell, of Pittsfield ; Mrs. 
 J. V. C. Smith of New York ; Mrs. Butler of Northampton ;
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 H. W. Taft, Esq., of Lenox ; and Charles J. Taylor, Esq., of 
 Great Barrington. 
 
 We ought also to express our obligations to Mrs. Otis Peck 
 for the loan of a file of " The Pittsfield Sun ; " and to Mr. G. A. 
 Murdock, civil engineer, who superintended the enlargement of 
 the Pittsfield lakes as reservoirs, for aid in matters pertaining to 
 his profession. 
 
 The records of Pittsfield are perfect from the incorporation of 
 the plantation of Poontoosuck in 1753, with the exception of a 
 few years during the last French and Indian War ; and many 
 papers of importance are preserved in the town archives. And 
 these, of course, have furnished a general outline of its story. 
 But perhaps the richest source of information has been found in 
 the archives of the State at Boston, among which- are preserved 
 a large number of petitions, memorials, reports, and military 
 rolls, pertaining to Pittsfield. 
 
 In addition to these, we have made use of the files of the Bos- 
 ton newspapers published during the Revolution, and preserved 
 in the collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society ; the files 
 of" The Hartford Courant,"in the collection of the Connecticut 
 Historical Society ; the files of " The Pittsfield Sun ; " the county 
 records at Springfield and Lenox ; and the archives of the State 
 of New York at Albany. A large number of printed volumes 
 have also been consulted ; most of which have been found to 
 contain information valuable for our purposes. 
 
 In the course of these researches, we have received aid and 
 courtesies from many persons, and cannot refrain from express- 
 ing our obligations especially to the gentlemen connected with 
 the Massachusetts State Department, to Hon. Nathaniel B. 
 Shurtleff and Wendell Phillips, Esq., of Boston, Hon. Richard 
 Frothingham of Charlestown, J. Hammond Trumbull, Esq., of 
 Hartford, Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan, and Joel Munsel, Esq., of 
 Albany, and to Mrs. Thomas F. Plunkett of Pittsfield.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 TOPOGRAPHY. 
 
 PART I. BERKSHIRE. 
 
 Geography. Physical Structure and Scenography. Central Position of Pittsfield. 
 Manufactures. Mineral Productions. Aspect when first visited. Geographical 
 Nomenclature. Derivation of the Name " Housatonic " ...... 3 
 
 PART H. PITTSFIELD. 
 
 General Description. Adjoining Towns. Lakes, Streams, Mountains. Fish. Manu- 
 factories. Outlying Villages. Central Village. The Old Elm. Maplewood. 
 Springside. Churches. Banks and Insurance Offices. Railroads. County Build- 
 ings. Population and Valuation 22 
 
 HISTORY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ABORIGINAL OCCUPATION. 
 
 The Natives as found by the Pioneers. Relics. Villages and Burial-Grounds in Pitts- 
 field. Scantiness of Native Population to be accounted for. Mohegan Traditional 
 History. Wars of the Mohegans and Iroquois. Changes in the Condition of the 
 Mohegans of Berkshire. Hunting-System of the Mohegans. Berkshire a Hunting- 
 Ground. The Part of the Settlers of Pittsfield in various Indian Wars. Remarka- 
 ble Incidents 43 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 GRANTS. SURVEYS. SALES. [1620-1741.] 
 
 Advance of Population Westward in Massachusetts. History of the Western Boundary 
 of Massachusetts. First Settlement on the Housatonic. Disposition by the Gen- 
 eral Court of Wild Lands in Hampshire County. Jacob Wendell. John Btod- 
 dard. Grant to Stoddard. Grant to Boston. Boston sells to Wendell. Adjust- 
 ment of the Rights of Wendell, Stoddard, and Philip Livingston. Cost, Form, and 
 Dimensions of the Township ... 55 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 FIRST ATTEMPT TO SETTLE THE TOWNSHIP. [1741-1749.] 
 
 Settling-lots laid out. Description of Lots and Roads. Philip Livingston to procure 
 Settlers. Efforts to introduce Dutchmen fail. Huston induces a Company from 
 Westfield to purchase Forty Lots. Pioneers commence a Clearing. Poontoosuck as 
 it appeared in 1743. Work suspended by News of War. Col. William Williams. 
 The War of 1744-8. Building of Fort Massachusetts. Hardships of Settlers in 
 
 the War 69 
 
 vii
 
 viii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. [1749-1754.] 
 
 Return of the Pioneers. The First White Woman in Poontoosuck, and her Trials. 
 David Bush. Nathaniel Fairfield. Alone in the Woods. A Bridal Tour in 1752. 
 Zebediah Stiles. Charles Goodrich. Partition of the Commons made and an- 
 nulled. Col. Williams settles on Unkamet Street. His Property there. The 
 Plantation organized. Powers of Plantations. Votes with regard to Meeting- 
 housc, Preaching, Bridges, and Highways. The First Bridge built. Propositions 
 for a Saw and Grist Mill 85 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 SECOND FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. [1754-1759.] 
 
 State of the Plantation. Position of Housatonic Indians. -^Homicide of Waumpanm- 
 corse. Indian Massacre at Stockbridge and Hoosac. Flight from Poontoosuck. 
 Poontoosuck Military Post. Building of Fort Anson. Garrison-Life at the Fort. 
 The Settlers during the War. Fort Goodrich. Fort Fairfleld. Fort at Onota. 
 Oliver Root. William Williams 97 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE PLANTATION ORGANIZATION RESUMED. [1759-1761.] 
 
 Proprietors'-Meettngs, 1759-60. Vote to sell the Lands of Delinquent Tax-payers. 
 Committees to hire a Minister. Coi. Williams's First Election as Clerk. High- 
 ways and Bridges. Highway-Surveyors' Districts formed. Condition of the Set- 
 tlers at the Close of the War. Partition of the Commons 119 
 
 CHAPTER VH. 
 
 PITTSTTELD INCORPORATED. [1761-1774.] 
 
 Towns receive Names from the Governor. Berkshire County erected. First Pittsfleld 
 Town-Meeting. Town-Officers. Highways and Schools. Pauperism. Slavery. 
 Crimes and Misdemeanors. Cattle restrained. Wolves. Anecdote of Mrs. 
 Janes. Grist-Mills. Saw-Mills. Fulling-Mills, and Malt-House. Growth of the 
 Settlement. Col. Williams's House and Garden. Other Dwellings. Early Set- 
 tlers' Names. Condition and Prospects of the Town. Taxation of Non-resident 
 Proprietors 130 
 
 CHAPTER Vm. 
 
 FIRST MEETTNG-HODSE AND MINISTER. [1760-1768.] 
 
 Massachusetts Laws for the Support of Public Worship. Their inharmonious Opera- 
 tion in Pittsfleld. Differences between Resident and Non-resident Proprietors. 
 The Meeting-house raised. Difficulties in finishing it. First Sale of Pews. Dig- 
 nifying the Seats. Description of the Meeting-house. Burial-Ground. First 
 Attempts to settle a Minister. Ebenezer Garnsey. Enoch Huntington. Amos 
 Tomson, Daniel Collins. Thomas Allen, called and settled. Church formed. 
 Sketch of Rev. Mr. Allen 150 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ANTE-REVOLCTIONAHY POLITICS. [1761-JCNE, 1774.] 
 
 Public Sentiment. Its Leaders in Pittsfield. Israel Stoddard. Woodbridge Little. 
 William Williams. Rev. Thomas Allen. Elder Valentine Rathbun. James Eas- 
 ton. William Francis. Josiah Wright. Oliver Root. David Noble. John 
 Strong. Charles Goodrich. Israel Dickinson. Dr. Timothy Childs. John 
 Brown. Eli Root. Daniel Hubbard. Census of 1772. Censorship of the Town 
 Records. Revolutionary Measures. Instructions to Representatives. Action re- 
 garding the Boston Tea-party 169
 
 CONTENTS. ix 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 RESISTANCE TO PARLIAMENTARY AGGRESSION. [MARCH-OCTOBER, 1774.] 
 
 Boston Port-Bill and Regulating Acts. First Revolutionary Town Action of Pittsfield. 
 Committee of Correspondence appointed. The League and Covenant adopted. 
 Pittsfield contributes in Aid of the Sufferers by the Port-Bill. Obstruction of the 
 King's Court. SethPomeroy. Oliver Wendell 187 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 A SEASON OF PREPARATION. [SEPTEMBER, 1774-MAT, 1775.] 
 
 John Brown elected to the Provincial Congress. Pittsfield adopts Congressional Advice. 
 Adopts the Articles of Association. Revolutionary Committees. Pittsfield Mili- 
 tia. Generous Patriotism of Capt. Noble. The Minute-Men. Spinning-Matches 
 and Clothing-Bees. News of Lexington Fight. March of the Minute-Men. 
 Changes in Capt. Noble's Company. Proceedings against the Tories. Patriotic 
 Labors of Rev. Mr. Allen 200 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 PITTSFIELD IN ETHAN ALLEN'S TICONDEROGA CAPTURE. [DECEMBER-JUNE, 1775.] 
 
 John Brown in the Provincial Congress . On the Canada Committee. Selected to go to 
 Canada. Perilous Journey. Report of his Mission. Recommends the early 
 Capture of Ticonderoga. Arranges it with Ethan Allen. Connecticut plans the 
 capture. Connection of the two Schemes. The Commissioners visit Pittsfield. 
 John Brown and Col. Easton join the Party. Its Plans modified on their Sugges- 
 tion. Col. Easton raises Men for the Expedition. Councils of War*ln Vermont. 
 Rank of the Officers fixed. Ethan Allen. Benedict Arnold claims the Command, 
 and is resisted. Important Letter from Arnold. Allen captures the Fort. Easton 
 and Brown announce the Victory to the Continental and Provincial Congresses. 
 Reports of Col. Allen and Capt. Mott. The great Services of the Pittsfield Officers 
 officially acknowledged. Malignant Course of Arnold. He receives Troops, cap- 
 tures a King's Sloop, and sets up a rival Command. Is placed under Col. Hinman 
 of Connecticut by the Provincial Congress, and resigns. Col. Easton appointed to 
 fill the Vacancy. John Brown commissioned Major. Arnold embezzles the Pay 
 of Capt. James Noble's Pittsfield Company 211 
 
 CHAPTER Xm. 
 
 PITTSFTELD IN THE FIRST NORTHERN CAMPAIGN, AND AT THE SIEGE OF BOSTON. 
 [MAT-NOVEMBER, 1775.] 
 
 Rivalries at Ticonderoga. Col. Easton proposes an Invasion of Canada. He raises a 
 Regiment. Pittsfield Companies in it. Gen . Schuyler appointed Department Com- 
 mander. First Visit to Ticonderoga. Opinion of the Troops there. Major John 
 Brown's Second Scout in Canada. Returning, he urges an immediate Advance. 
 Appointed to command the Lake Fleet. Hastens the March of the Army. Siege 
 of St. John's commences. Major Brown again sent to Canada.. Reports to Schuy- 
 ler. Major Brown the first to lead a Detachment into Canada. Captures Stores 
 near Chamblee. Unsuccessful Plan to capture Montreal. Takes Fort Chamblee. 
 St. John's surrenders. Col.Easton's Regiment advances to the St. Lawrence. En- 
 trenches at Sorel. Its Sufferings. Blockades the British Fleet. Brilliant Services 
 of the Pittsfield Officers acknowledged. Close of the Campaign. Col. Patterson's 
 Regiment at Cambridge. Extraordinary Transmission of Sounds . . . .226
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. THE TORIES. BATTLES OF 'WHITE PLAINS 
 AND THE DELAWARE. [1776-1777.] 
 
 King George's Name expunged from Military Commissions. The Town instructs its 
 Representative in Favor of Independence and a Free Republic. Committees of Cor- 
 respondence, &c. Their Rules of Practice. The Tories. The Hue and Cry. 
 Hiding-place of the Tories. The Ban of Community. Its Effect illustrated by an 
 Incident. John Graves aids the Escape of a Royal Officer, and is punished therefor. 
 An ex-post facto Fright. Infliction of Confiscation and Banishment. Case of 
 Elisha Jones and Others. Enlistment of a Slave. Woodbridge Little and Israel 
 Stoddard. Six Tories induced by energetic Measures to take the Oath of Allegiance. 
 Anecdote of a Soldier returned from a British Prison. Mr. Allen's Diary at White 
 Plains. Patterson's Regiment rejoins Washington. Its reduced Condition . . 243 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 PITTSFIELD IN THE SECOND CANADA CAMPAIGN. ARNOLD'S PERSECUTION OF 
 BROWN AND EASTON. [SEPTEMBER, 1775-1778.] 
 
 Arnold arrives at Quebec. Montgomery arrives. Projected Assault on the City. 
 Brown charged with creating Dissensions. The Charge considered. Assault on 
 Quebec. Death of Montgomery. Arnold continues the Siege. Brown's the most 
 advanced Post. Expects to be a Uriah there. Small-Pox in the Army. Attempt 
 to set up Inoculation in Pittsfield. Patterson's Regiment marches to Canada. In 
 the Affair of the Cedars. Evacuation of Canada. Miserable Condition of the Army 
 at Crown Point. Schuyler and the Berkshire Committees. Arnold's Charges 
 against Brown and Easton. They demand a Court of Inquiry. Singular Difficulty 
 in obtaining it. Brown impeaches Arnold of Treason and other Crimes. Appeals 
 to the Public. Publishes a Hand-Bill against Arnold. Remarkable Interview be- 
 tween Brown Ad Arnold. An ex-parte Trial. Gross Injustice to Brown. His 
 spirited Remonstrance and Resignation 255 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE INVASION OF BURGOYNE, AND BATTLE OF BENNINGTON. [1777.] 
 
 Pittsfleld Soldiers for the Continental Army. Apprehensions of Invasion from Canada. 
 A Petition of 1775. Pittsfleld responds to Calls for Men. Sends Companies to 
 Ticonderoga in December and April. Burgoyne approaches. Extracts from Mr. 
 Allen's Diary at Ticonderoga. He addresses the Soldiers of the Garrison. Evacua- 
 tion of Ticonderoga. Feeling at Pittsfleld regarding it. Correspondence of Gen. 
 Schuyler. Schuyler and the Berkshire Militia. Baum's Expedition marches on 
 Bennington. Met by Stark. Rally of the Berkshire Militia. Pittsfield Volun- 
 teers. Anecdote of an Indian Scout. Anecdotes of Rev. Mr. Allen. He fires the 
 First Gun#t the Bennington Fight. Anecdote of Linus Parker. Rout of the Brit- 
 ish Forces. Effect of the Victory on the Country. Col. Brown's Lake George 
 Expedition. His Brilliant Success. Surrender of Burgoyne. His March through 
 Pittsfield. Quaint Patriotic Verses 278 
 
 CHAPTER XVn. 
 
 LAST TEARS OF THE REVOLUTION. [1777-1783.] 
 
 Battle of Stone Arabia. Death of Col. Brown. Major Oliver Root defends Fort Paris. 
 Pittsfield Militia. Pittsfield Soldiers in the Continental Army. Action of the 
 Town in filling Quotas. Hosea Merrill. Interesting Incidents. Material Contri- 
 butions of Pittefield to the War of the Revolution. Collection of Taxes. Curious 
 Papers relating thereto . 309
 
 CONTEXTS. xi 
 
 CHAPTER XVLTI. 
 
 THE BERKSHIRE CONSTITUTIONALISTS. [1775-1780.] 
 
 Political Status of the County. Its Origin in the Organization of the Provisional Pro- 
 vincial Government. The Provincial Congress. Plan devised by the Continental 
 Congress for the Government of Massachusetts. The Western Counties oppose it, 
 but yield. Reasons for reviving their Opposition. Feeling against the Provincial 
 Charter accounted for. Rev. Mr. Allen's Position. The Judicial System of the 
 Province oppressive. The Civil Administration excluded from Berkshire. The 
 Memorial of Pittsfield. Delay of other Counties in re-organizing their Courts . . 324 
 
 CHAPTER TCTX. 
 
 THE BERKSHIRE CONSTITUTIONALISTS (CONTINUED). [1775-1780.] 
 
 
 
 Pittsfield challenges legislative Attention to its Recusance. Second Memorial. Con- 
 gress practically revokes its Advice. Berkshire demands a Constitution, which the 
 General Court neglects to provide. Projected Constitution of 1777. Pittsfield 
 accepts it in Part, but the State rejects. The Non-constitutionalists memorialize. 
 Their Statement. The Legislature appeals to the People of Berkshire. Conse- 
 quent Action. Vote of the Towns still excluding the Courts. The County petitions 
 for a Constitutional Convention. Strong Language of the Petition. The Legisla- 
 ture passes an act of Pardon and Oblivion. Pittsfield denounces it as uncalled for 
 and libellous. The Legislature informs Berkshire of Measures towards complying 
 with its Demands. The County nevertheless excludes the Courts until the Constitu- 
 tion shall be actually adopted. Final Memorial to the Legislature. Instructions of 
 Pittsfield to its Delegate in the Constitutional Convention. Newspaper Libels. 
 Conclusion ............... . 350 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE BERKSHIRE CONSTITUTIONALISTS. COMMITTEE GOVERNMENT OF THE INTER- 
 REGNUM. [1774-1780.] 
 
 Committees of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety. Their Character and Origin. 
 Subordinated in 1776 to the Courts of Law. The Berkshire Committees refuse Sub- 
 mission. Their Administration of Justice. Curious Surveillance of Morals and 
 Manners. Town Court established. Its Rules of Practice and Fee-Table. Disci- 
 pline of Capt. Goodrich by the Committee. He appeals to the Legislature. De- 
 tails of the Case ............... 374 
 
 CHAPTER :x"KT- 
 
 THE SHAYS REBELLION. [1781-1786.] 
 
 Its Causes. Taxes. Private Debts. Harsh Laws and Customs. County Conven- 
 tions. Popular Outbreaks. Organized Rebellion. The Peculiar Course of Berk- 
 shire County. Convention at Lenox. Courts obstructed at Great Barrington. 
 Gen. Lincoln establishes Headquarters at Pittsfield. The Rebellion suppressed . 389 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 PITTSFIELD IN THE SHAYS REBELLION. PAROCHIAL DIFFICULTIES. [1786-1789.] 
 
 Public Sentiment of the Town. Its Comparative Prosperity. Prominent Citizens 
 labor for Law and Order Henry Van Schaack eulogizes the Town. The Male- 
 content Movement modified in Pittsfield. Instructions to Representative Childs. 
 A Stormy Town Meeting. A Conservative Re-action. Military Occupation of the 
 Town. Anecdote. Parochial Dissensions. Reconciliation effected. Joshua 
 Danforth. Henry Van Schaack ........... 408
 
 xii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XX1M. 
 
 COUNTY COURTS IN PITTSFIELD. [1761-1787.] 
 
 Courts on Unkamet Street. Peculiarities of the Court of General Sessions. Court- 
 house Scenes. Dissatisfaction with the Place of holding the Courts. Contribu- 
 tions and Plans for a New Court-House. Various Sites advocated. Change in the 
 Shire-Towns proposed. Popular and Legislative Action. A County Convention 
 decides for Lenox. Opposition. Delays. The Legislature insists. Court-House 
 and Jail built 423 
 
 CHAPTER XXiy. 
 
 THE MEETING-HOUSE OF 1790. [1789-1793.] 
 
 Accommodations for Religious ^Jbrship in 1790. Plans for a New Meeting-House. 
 Items from the Assessment of 1791. Sale of Continental Money. Materials for the 
 New Meeting-House. Location of the House. Salvation of the Elm, and Creation 
 of the Park. Building of the House. Disputes about Pews. The First Bell. 
 Destruction of the Old Meeting-House. Ball-Playing forbidden on the Common. 
 Town House and Academy erected. Protection for the Burial-Ground. John 
 Chandler Williams. Madam Williams . 434 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 STRUGGLE FOR THE EQUALITY OF RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. [1772-1811.] 
 
 State of the Law. Appropriations for the New Meeting-House resisted. Baptists, 
 Shakers, Episcopalians, and Methodists. Protest of the Dissenters. List of Dis- 
 senters in 1789. Inquisition into Religious Faith. Henry Van Schaack appeals to 
 the Courts. The Decision. State Laws for the Support of Religious Worship 
 remodelled. Pittsfield Parishes 450 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 A. Depreciation of Massachusetts Provincial Currency 467 
 
 B. Rev. Thomas Allen's Revolutionary Diary 470 
 
 C. Names of Early Settlers .475 
 
 D. Records of the Revolutionary Service of Pittsfleld in the Revolution . . . .477 
 
 E. Census of Pittsfield in 1772 .497 
 
 F. Rev. Mr. Allen's Account of the Battle of Bennington 499 
 
 G. Plan of Pittsfleld in 1794 .'501 
 
 H. Additional Incidents > 503 
 
 EXPLANATION. The initials T. C. C., refer to the Thomas Colt Historical Collection; 
 H. C. C., Henry Colt Collection; Lane. Col., Lancton Collection; Am. Ar., to the American 
 Archives of Peter Force; H. V. 8. C., to the Henry C. Van Sehaack Collection.
 
 TOPOGRAPHY.
 
 > 
 
 " TOPOGRAPHICAL pursuits, my doctor used to say, tend to preserve and promote 
 the civilization of which they are a consequence and a proof. 
 
 " They have always prospered in prosperous countries, and flourished most in 
 flourishing times, when there have been persons enough of opulence to encourage 
 such studies, and of leisure to engage in them. . . . Whatever strengthens our 
 local attachments is favorable both to individual and national character. Our 
 home, our birthplace, our native land, think for a while what the virtues are 
 which arise out of the feelings connected with these words ; and, if thou hast any 
 intellectual eyes, thou wilt then perceive the connection between topography and 
 patriotism. 
 
 " Show me a man who cares no more for one place than another, and I will show 
 you in that same person one who loves nothing but himself. Beware of those who 
 are homeless by choice : you have no hold on a human being whose affections are 
 without a tap-root." SOUTHEY : The Doctor.
 
 Must not be Loaned 
 
 T I. 
 
 BERKSHIRE. 
 
 Geography. Physical Structure and Scenography. Central Position of Pitts- 
 field. Manufactures. Mineral Productions. Aspect when first visited. 
 Geographical Nomenclature. Derivation of the Name " Housatonic." 
 
 THE fourteen counties into which Massachusetts is divided are, 
 most of them, distinguished by physical peculiarities, which 
 shape the occupations of their inhabitants, and mould their habits 
 of life and thought ; and among these subdivisions of the Com- 
 monwealth, in forming which the statute has, often with nicety, fol- 
 lowed the demarcations of Nature, not even the sandy Cape or 
 metropolitan Suffolk hardly even insular Nantucket is marked 
 by features so unlike those of its sister shires as are those which 
 characterize the county of Berkshire. 
 
 The traveller who enters the mountain-walls of its upland valley 
 soon recognizes the intense individuality of this region, and feels 
 that he is among a peculiar people as well as amid novel scenes ; 
 and this notwithstanding the large infusion of foreign population 
 into the manufacturing districts, and the constant tidal currents 
 between city and country life, which have gone far to smooth away 
 the strong although never very rugged lines that used to make 
 the aspect of society no less picturesque than that of Nature. The 
 stranger with a moderately observant eye will soon perceive 
 that the old lineaments, however softened, are still there; and he 
 may often find them starting into prominence, which leaves the 
 lineal likeness unmistakable. 
 
 The people of Berkshire are the true children of their home 
 among the hills. They are very much what its geographical and 
 
 3
 
 4 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 physical characteristics would naturally make the descendants of 
 Massachusetts Puritans. Our first consideration, then, is of the 
 influences of this kind which have tended to modify in them the 
 common type of Massachusetts man. 
 
 Berkshire, the extreme western portion of the Pilgrim Common- 
 wealth, is divided from the counties of Columbia and Rensselaer, 
 in New York, by a right line 1 which runs for fifty-one miles along 
 the summits of the Taconic Mountains. 
 
 On the north, a straight boundary of fourteen miles separates it 
 from Vermont ; but the town of Munroe, belonging to Franklin 
 County, juts into its north-eastern corner. Immediately south of 
 that point, the width of Berkshire is about eighteen miles. Thence 
 a line, rendered very irregular by numerous attempts to rectify the 
 boundaries of towns and counties, divides the Hoosac Mountains, 
 between Berkshire on the west, and Franklin, Hampden, and 
 Hampshire on the east. Upon the south, the line again becomes 
 straight, and runs for twenty-four miles along the borders of Con- 
 necticut. Thus the four cardinal boundaries of Berkshire lie 
 along four different States, including that of which it forms a part. 
 The region thus defined, containing an area of a little over nine 
 hundred and fifty square miles, forms a conspicuous feature in one 
 of the most remarkable phases of New-England geography, as 
 described, upon the authority of Prof. Guyot's observations, in 
 Palfrey's history of that section : and no better basis for a clear 
 comprehension of the physical conformation of Berkshire could be 
 desired than a slightly condensed extract from that work : 
 
 " Only moderate elevations," says Dr. Palfrey, " present them- 
 selves along the greater part of the New-England coast. Inland, 
 the great topographical feature is a double belt of highlands, sepa- 
 rated almost to their bases by the deep and broad valley of the 
 Connecticut River, and running parallel to each other from the 
 south-south-west to the north-north-east, till around the sources 
 of that river they unite in a wide space of table-land, from which 
 streams descend in different directions." . . . 
 
 " To regard these highlands, which form so important a feature 
 in New-England geography, as simply two ranges of hills, would 
 not be to conceive of them aright. They are vast swells of land, 
 of an average elevation of a thousand feet above the level of the 
 
 1 With the exception of a slight deviation at the south, caused by the cession 
 of Boston Comer.
 
 TOPOGEAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 5 
 
 sea, each with a width of forty or fifty miles, from which, as from 
 a base, mountains rise in chains or in isolated groups to an altitude 
 of several thousand feet more. 
 
 " In structure, the two belts are unlike. The western system, 
 which bears the general name of the Green Mountains, is com- 
 posed of two principal chains, 1 more or less continuous, covered, 
 like several shorter ones which run along them, with the forests 
 and herbage to which they owe their name. Between these, a 
 longitudinal valley can be traced, though with some interruptions, 
 from Connecticut to Northern Vermont. In Massachusetts, it is 
 marked by the Housatonic ; in Vermont, by the rich basins which 
 hold the villages of Bennington, Manchester, and Rutland; and, 
 farther on, by valleys of less note. . . . 
 
 " The mountains have a regular increase from south to north. 
 From a height of less than a thousand feet in Connecticut, they 
 rise to an average of twenty-five hundred feet in Massachusetts, 
 where the majestic Greylock, isolated between the two chains, 
 lifts its head to the stature of thirty-five hundred feet. In Ver- 
 mont, Equinox and Stratton Mountains, near Manchester, are 
 thirty-seven hundred feet high ; Killington Peak, near Rutland, 
 rises forty-two hundred feet ; Mansfield Mountain, at the northern 
 extremity, overtops the rest of the Green-mountain range with 
 an altitude of forty-four hundred feet. 
 
 " The rise of the valley is less regular. In Connecticut, its 
 bottom is from five hundred to seven hundred feet above the level 
 of the sea. In Southern Berkshire, it is eight hundred feet: 
 it rises thence two hundred feet to Pittsfield, and one hundred 
 more to the foot of Greylock; whence it declines to the bed of the 
 Housatonic in one direction, and to an average height of little 
 more than five hundred feet in Vermont in the other.* Thus it is 
 in Berkshire County that the western swell presents, if not the 
 most elevated peaks, yet the most compact and consolidated 
 structure." 2 
 
 A region thus constituted could not fail to be filled with lovely 
 vales; but unrivalled here, and with few rivals elsewhere, stands 
 the fame of that occupied by the county of Berkshire. And 
 nowhere else is the combination of its grand but uufrowuing 
 circumvallation of hills, with the varied beauty which it encircles, 
 
 1 The Taconics on the west, and the Hoosacs on the east. 
 
 2 Palf. Hist. N. E., i. pp. 3-5.
 
 6 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 to be observed with such completeness of effect as from points 
 near the centre of Pittsfield, where the perspective softens and 
 shapes the outlines of the view into unity and proportion, and 
 where you are free from that feeling of oppression which is apt to 
 result from the too close proximity of mountains. The spectator 
 standing on the observatory at Maplewood, on the commanding 
 
 hill above Springside, or upon 
 some similar elevation, finds no 
 words in which to express his 
 admiration of the scenes which 
 surround him. On the west 
 sweep the Taconies, in that 
 majestic curve whose grace trav- 
 ellers familiar with the mountain 
 scenery of both hemispheres 
 pronounce unequalled. On the 
 east, the Hoosacs stretch their 
 unbroken battlements with 
 white villages at their feet, and, if the sunlight favor, paths of 
 mingled lawn and wood enticing to their summits; while from 
 
 the north, 
 
 " Greylock, cloud-girdled on his purple throne," 
 
 looks grandly across the valley to the giant heights keeping watch 
 and ward over the pass where the mountains throw wide their 
 everlasting gates to let the winding Housatonic flow peacefully 
 towards the sea. 
 
 On every side, the exquisite curves of this graceful stream, and 
 the slender threads of its innumerable tributaries, embroider the 
 rich green of the meadows and the more sombre verdure of 
 the uplands ; while not far away, although not all visible, sparkle 
 the bright waters of six beautiful lakelets, companions to 
 
 " The stream whose silver-braided rills 
 Fling their unclasping bracelets from the hills, 
 Till, in one gleam, beneath the forest's wings 
 Melts the white glitter of a hundred springs." 
 
 HOLMES. 
 
 Below, the not unfitting centre of this amphitheatre of beauty, 
 lies the village of Pittsfield, with its mansions and humbler homes, 
 its marts, schools, and churches, half hidden by noble trees;
 
 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 7 
 
 among which, alas ! no longer rises the gray old elm which used 
 first to greet the traveller's eye. 
 
 A lovelier landscape one might not desire to see; and when, 
 satiated with long, luxurious gazing, the spectator seeks to analyze 
 the sources of his delight, all the elements of beauty justify his 
 praise. To the eye, the valley here presents the proportions which 
 architects love to give their favorite structures. The symmetry, 
 too, with which point answers to opposing point, exceeds the power 
 of art. Variety the most marvellous, but without confusion, 
 forbids the sense to tire. Colors the richest, softest, and most 
 delicate, charm the eye, and vary with the ever-changing conditions 
 of the atmosphere. Fertile farms and frequent villages imbue 
 the scene with the warmth of generous life ; while over all hangs 
 a subdued grandeur whicl* may well have pervaded the. souls of 
 the great and good men who have made Berkshire their home 
 since the days of Jonathan Edwards. 
 
 The emotion of sublimity is not often excited by Berkshire 
 scenery, unless the feeling inspired by the excess and over- 
 whelming profusion of beauty with which, under certain favoring 
 circumstances, it overflows, may be properly so classed. Boldness, 
 freshness, and variety are the traits by which it charms ; and they 
 are those which one would most desire to characterize his home, 
 and under whose healthful influences he would wish his children 
 to be educated. On the heights where Greylock lifts the topmost 
 summit of the State, along the valleys of the Hoosac and the 
 Housatonic, up the rude but flower-fringed wood-roads which 
 penetrate the narrowing opes * of the Green Mountains, beauty 
 is everywhere the prevailing element. The rapidly-shifting scenes 
 never tame, but rarely rugged; never altogether repulsive, but 
 
 1 The reader will pardon to necessity the employment of a word of merely 
 local authority and very infrequent use. A hope or more descriptively, with- 
 out the aspirate, an ope is a valley, which, open at one end only, loses itself 
 at the other, sloping upward to a point in the mass of the mountains. The word 
 is quite indispensable in the description of scenery like that of Berkshire ; and 
 its disuse has resulted in the adoption of such vile substitutes as " hole," " hol- 
 low," or even worse. Thus we have Biggs's Hole and Bigsby's Hollow, or more 
 probably " Holler." Surely neatly descriptive ope should not be displaced by 
 such abominable interlopers as these. 
 
 \Vi-:ijsr tu has " HOPE, n. A sloping plain between ridges of mountains. 
 [Xot in vse..} Ainsworth." But English local topographical writers sometimes 
 use the word in the sense given it in the text.
 
 8 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 often filled with all that can please the eye follow each other in 
 infinitely multiplied combinations of mountain and valley, lake 
 and stream, rock, tree, and shrub, mossy hillock and crystal 
 spring. 
 
 " The delicious surprises of Berkshire " was one of the happiest 
 phrases in the poetic rhetoric of Gov. Andrew, who knew well the 
 scenes he praised ; and the traveller along its winding roads 
 recognizes at every turn how truthful and appropriate was the 
 expression. 
 
 But we must not linger, where all love to linger, amid the 
 exceeding loveliness of Berkshire scenery ; but turn to those facts 
 regarding the geographical structure of the county, which, although 
 not devoid of scenographic interest, affect also its internal econo- 
 my, and its relations to its county-seat anfl central market-town. 
 
 Pittsfield Park, which lies very near the centre of the town, and 
 of the county as well, has an elevation above the level of the sea 
 of one thousand and forty-one feet ; and, omitting the small unin- 
 habited mountain-districts, that is not far from the average altitude 
 of the township. 
 
 Of the neighboring mountains, isolated Greylock, the highest 
 point of Massachusetts (3,505 feet above the level of the sea), 
 rises 2,464 above Pittsfield, from which it is about fourteen miles 
 distant as the crow flies. Of the Hoosacs, some of the peaks near 
 Vermont attain an altitude of two thousand feet above the val- 
 ley at their bases ; or perhaps fourteen hundred above Pittsfield. 
 Among the Taconics, Berlin Mountain in Williamstown exceeds 
 the latter level by 1,773 feet ; Perry's Peak in Richmond, famed 
 for its superb over-view, by 1,576; and, near the extreme south- 
 west, Mount Everett, the dome of the Taconics, by 1,583. 
 
 Excluding from the computation these heights, which dispropor- 
 tionately excel their neighbors, the average elevation of the moun- 
 tain-summits of Berkshire above Pittsfield Park may be about eight 
 hundred feet; which is considerably less than their altitude above 
 the level of the Berkshire Valley. 1 How slight is the depression 
 of the transverse valleys between the several peaks, massive knobs, 
 and table-lands of the Hoosacs, may be inferred from the fact, that, 
 upon the eastern declivity of the range, the Western Railroad is 
 
 1 Prof. Chester Dewey estimated the general average of the Hoosac Range above 
 the bottom of the valley at sixteen hundred feet ; that of the Taconics, at twelve or 
 fourteen hundred.
 
 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 9 
 
 compelled to almost double upon its track in order to find a gap 
 through which it may enter the county by a valley-summit whose 
 original elevation was 1,478 feet above tide-water at Albany, or 
 452 above Unkamet's Crossing. 1 The domelike summits of the 
 Taconics are more sharply divided ; but even between these the 
 depressions are so slight, that, although the locomotive finds a 
 passage at an elevation of only a hundred and twenty feet above 
 the road-bed at Pittsfield, it is the only one that is practicable 
 south of that through which the Hoosac River escapes. 
 
 Concisely to outline the geography of the Berkshire Hills, the 
 grand uplifted table-land described by Dr. Palfrey must be con- 
 sidered as here cleft above its solid substructure of a thousand 
 feet for a length of forty-eight miles, and to an average depth 
 of fifteen hundred feet ; while the longitudinal ridges thus formed 
 are serrated by transverse valleys of less than one-third that 
 average, supplemented by water-courses furrowed by the mountain- 
 torrents. 
 
 Between the longitudinal ridges known as the Hoosac and 
 Taconic Mountains lies the Berkshire Valley, having an average 
 breadth of about six miles; although, except in Pittsfield and 
 Sheffield, it is made to appear much more narrow by the spurs 
 which protrude into it, and the isolated ranges with which it is 
 thickly studded. In the basin formed by this valley and the 
 declivities which incline toward it is concentfated the mass of 
 population and wealth which lend character to the county. 
 
 The natural outlines which give unity to the region are sufficient- 
 ly well defined ; but practically it is divided into minor compart- 
 ments, so arranged, however, as to form a homogeneous whole, 
 with a common centre. In the northern section, the chief barrier 
 which governs this division is the Greylock Range, which, begin- 
 ning near the Vermont line, extends southward through Lanes- 
 borough. In the south, the less continuous Tom Ball Spur, thrown 
 off by the Taconics at Alford, after being broken through by the 
 Williams River at West Stockbridge, extends to Pittsfield, where 
 it terminates abruptly in the Cliffwood terraces of South Mountain. 
 
 Between these intersections and the exterior walls of the county 
 extend four valley-reaches, marked respectively by the east branch- 
 es of the Hoosac and the Housatonic, by the west branches of 
 
 1 Where the track crosses the east branch of the Housatonic in Pittsfield.
 
 10 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 the same rivers, by the Housatonic after the junction, and by the 
 track of the Western Railroad south-westward. Into these grand 
 subdivisions of the Berkshire Valley open a multitude of others 
 of minor importance. 
 
 Midway between the northern and southern boundaries of the 
 county, the intersecting barriers disappear; and the confluent 
 valleys merge in the six miles square occupied by the township 
 of Pittsfield, the greater part of which is of moderately uneven 
 surface, with large spaces approaching the character of plains. 
 Only rarely do the highways have to climb greater heights than 
 afford an agreeable relief to the traveller ; and few sections of the 
 town oppose more obstacles to level streets than are found in many 
 cities and towns in those portions of New England not accounted 
 mountainous. The Taconics impinge but slightly upon its western 
 border ; the Hoosacs still more slightly upon its eastern. The 
 only formidable elevations are Oceola and South Mountain, which 
 cover a small territory in the south. 
 
 It will readily be perceived that the peculiar divergence of the 
 valleys which here find their common terminus make this favored 
 locality the centre of the county in a sense and to a degree un- 
 known in regions where the direction of roads is subject to hardly 
 any other law than that which makes the shortest distance between 
 two points a straight line. Among the hills, on the conti-ary, every 
 boy who goes to mfll knows that the farthest road round is often 
 the shortest way home. 
 
 There are several flourishing centres of local traffic more con- 
 venient to their respective sections than Pittsfield is ; but it needs 
 only an inspection of the map to show how exclusively the dispo- 
 sition of the interior ridges of the county makes that the intersect- 
 ing, radiating, decussating point of the great highways of Berkshire, 
 at once the only practical thoroughfare between her northern 
 and southern divisions and the point where they meet each other. 
 The traveller at one of the extreme corners of the county, wishing 
 to reach that longitudinally opposite, will never attempt to do so 
 by the most direct route, if, indeed, any exist which at all ap- 
 proximate directness, but, at whatever cost of detour, by one of 
 those which intersect at the central town. 
 
 And, if this point is thus marked out by Nature as the centre of 
 intercommunication by the highway, still more emphatically is it 
 so for railway travel, which, by the necessities of the country, is
 
 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 11 
 
 ' compelled to wind among the mountain-defiles in a course so cir- 
 cuitous, that, of the thirty-one towns which compose the county, 
 seventeen containing 45,374 of its 56,966 people are touched 
 by the iron rails which unite at Pittsfield ; while chartered roads 
 soon to be built will add the most populous portion of the remain- 
 der to the connection. 
 
 In its intercourse with the world outside its mountains, Berk- 
 shire, before the introduction of railroads, was circumscribed almost 
 as narrowly as in its internal thoroughfares. How formidable a 
 barrier interposed between it and the rest of Massachusetts may 
 be inferred from the fact that the least difficult access was by the 
 Pontoosuck Turnpike. The Western Railroad now follows the 
 general course of this route, sacrificing directness, sometimes, in 
 order to lessen grades ; and in a distance of twenty-five miles, be- 
 tween Tekoa Mountain and Washington Summit, notwithstand- 
 ing this sacrifice and the aid of the most skilful engineering, it is 
 compelled to ascend twelve hundred and eleven feet, of which eight 
 hundred and thirty-seven are surmounted in the last half of the dis- 
 tance by a grade whose maximum is more than eighty-two feet to 
 the mile. The Pontoosuck Turnpike in its best estate was con- 
 sidered, as it really was, a marvel of engineering skill, and encoun- 
 tered no such grades as rendered the great parallel highways 
 which ran north and south of it almost impassable at certain sea- 
 sons of the year. In the last years previous to the building of 
 the railroad, the stage-route over this road was famed also for the 
 luxury of its coaches and the excellence of its horses ; a but Capt. 
 Marryatt, in his " American Diary," having graphically described 
 the horrors of stage-travel over the Hoosacs, even when mitigated 
 as perfectly as they could be, exclaimed upon " the madness of 
 certain crazy spirits who had conceived the idea of constructing a 
 railroad through this savage region." Time soon removed the im- 
 putation of madness from the splendid scheme ; but the traveller 
 gazing from the car-windows as- the locomotive with mighty throes 
 toils up the Valley of the Westfield now beneath overhang- 
 ing cliffs, and now where the little river gleams far down the deep 
 ravine will sympathize with the admiration of his British prede- 
 cessor for that daring spirit which conceived the possibility of such 
 an achievement. 
 
 1 The Albany and Boston stages, run by several noted contractors, among whom 
 Jason Clapp, Esq., still a venerable citizen of Pittsfield, was prominent.
 
 12 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Upon those sides of the county which border upon other States, 
 the passes were, as has been intimated, less difficult. The banks 
 of the Housatonic opened a convenient avenue along which inter- 
 course with the Connecticut towns was uninterrupted. So inti- 
 mate was the connection of Berkshire with Hartford at the time of 
 the Revolution that " The Courant " l was not only the medium 
 through which the political contests of Pittsfield were carried on, 
 but also contained the advertisements of the impounded cattle and 
 runaway slaves of that town and of Great Barrington. 
 
 Hartford continued to draw to itself a large portion of Berkshire 
 trade until the railroads opened new avenues in other directions ; 
 but even before that era, after the establishment of steamboats upon 
 the Hudson, it was successfully rivalled by the towns upon that 
 river : and. the tide of traffic flowed through the West-Stockbridge 
 gate of the Taconics to Hudson, Kinderhook, and Albany, and 
 thence to New York. On the north-west, the pass of the Hoosacs, 
 which, to the dismay of all Massachusetts, had long ago been found 
 out by the French and Indian foe, in later times furnished a 
 thoroughfare for more peaceful intercommunication ; but, as no 
 great markets then lay in that direction, it less affected the 
 county. 
 
 These superior facilities for intercourse with other States than 
 with Massachusetts colored not only the business-relations, but 
 the general character of the people of Berkshire; and, although 
 the traits inherited from " Old-Hampshire " ancestry still formed the 
 groundwork of thought and custom, and were continually re- 
 invigorated by fresh migrations from the old home, they were 
 modified by much which had been spontaneously engendered in 
 the isolation of the hills, or ingrafted from those with whom con- 
 tact was more frequent than with kindred in the Connecticut 
 Valley. 
 
 The Western Railroad has much reduced this disparity in the 
 external communications of the county. The journey to Boston, 
 which in the best times of staging consumed two weary days, now 
 insensibly glides away in a comfortable ride of six hours. Berkshire, 
 pleasantly conscious of the iron bands that bind her to the rest of 
 
 1 The files of " The Hartford Courant," of which two sets, nearly or quite com- 
 plete, are in existence, one in possession of the present publishers of the paper, 
 and the other in that of the Connecticut Historical Society, are full of most 
 precious matter for the historian.
 
 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 13 
 
 the Commonweath, feels herself more truly than ever a part of the 
 Old Bay State ; but still three competing lines of railroad, re-en- 
 forced in summer by steamers on the Hudson and the Sound, cause 
 the great mass of Berkshire trade and travel to seek New York as 
 its metropolis; and, as a natural result, the county receives a 
 powerful social and intellectual influence from the same centre. 
 
 Returning to the description of the interior geography of Berk- 
 shire : the bottom of the valley rises, with the bed of the Housatonic, 
 about two hundred and sixty feet from Sheffield to the forks of 
 that river at Pittsfield ; thence the bed of the western branch rises 
 over one hundred feet, to the foot of Greylock in New Ashford, 
 where it finds the summit of that division of the main valley. 
 
 The many-headed eastern branch is formed by the confluence of 
 innumerable rivulets, which spring up among the hills of Peru, 
 Washington, Windsor, and Hinsdale. In Dalton, it is of sufficient 
 capacity to drive the wheels of the large paper-manufactories of 
 that town ; and at Coltsville, where it enters Pittsfield, it furnishes 
 one of the best water-powers of the Upper Housatonic. 
 
 At this point, it receives Unkamet Brook, a large tributary which 
 rises in Partridge Meadow, in the north-eastern corner of Pittsfield. 
 This meadow is a singular formation upon the summit of the . 
 eastern water-shed of the Berkshire Valley, and about fifty feet 
 above the level of the Housatonic, at the junction of its branches. 
 Filled with pools formed by boiling springs, the common foun- 
 tains of two rivers, so level is its surface, that oftentimes it 
 depends upon chance which of the drops that bubble up side by 
 side shall flow into Unkamet Brook, and through the Housatonic 
 to the Sound ; and which into the Hoosac, and through the Hud- 
 son to the sea. So slight, indeed, is the rising of the valley-bottom 
 in this vicinity, that a dam raised four feet above the level of the 
 highway at Coltsville would turn all the waters that come in from 
 Dalton, and from Unkamet Brook, northward, into the Hoosac. 
 
 Thus the summit of the Berkshire Valley, as it rises north- 
 ward from Connecticut, and southward from the Vermont line, is 
 formed by a ridge extending diagonally from New Ashford, across 
 Lanesborough, to Coltsville ; the descent from its highest point in 
 New Ashford to Sheffield being nearly four hundred feet; and 
 upon its opposite declivity five hundred feet, to its lowest point 
 in Williamstown. 
 
 Berkshire, the mountain county of Massachusetts, is hardly less
 
 14 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 pre-eminently its lake shire ; for no less than seventy natural 
 sheets of water, lakes, or ponds fed by springs, varying in size 
 from twenty acres to nine hundred, are laid down upon its map ; some 
 shimmering upon the very tops of the mountains, some reposing 
 in the shadows of the valley. But, although they add a thousand 
 graces to the landscape, we shall not stay to describe or even 
 enumerate them. 
 
 They act, however, an important part in the economy of the 
 county ; being employed as reservoirs in which to store up the 
 waters, which, in seasons of flood, the rivers pour with wasteful 
 impetuosity to the sea. For this purpose, many of the lakes have 
 been considerably enlarged by means of dams of stone masonry 
 of sufficient strength to resist the immense pressure which is often 
 imposed upon them. Their numbers have also been re-enforced by 
 reservoirs, wholly artificial, formed by massive barriers of stone 
 thrown, at great expense, across the outlets of mountain-rivulets. 
 These parvenus of Nature often rival the ancient lakes in extent 
 of surface, and sometimes, as in Wahconah Reservoir at Windsor, 
 in depth. 
 
 The waters pent up with this costly economy, as well as those 
 which in the free streams trip with rippling laughter to their 
 tasks, are made to do giant's work before they escape out of the 
 county. Mainly by their aid, manufactures have come to be the 
 chief source of its material prosperity ; so that seventeen millions, 
 of the twenty-four million dollars returned as the value of its 
 industrial products in 1865, were derived from that source. 
 
 The principal branches into which the manufactures of Berk- 
 shire are divided are, in the order of the comparative value of their 
 products, woollen and cotton 'cloths, paper, crude iron, leather, 
 flour, lime, and glass. There is one large paper-mill in Pittsficld ; 
 but Lee and Dalton are the great paper-making towns, each sending 
 more of that product to market than any others on the continent. 
 Cylinder glass is made at East Lanesborough and Cheshire, and 
 plate glass at Lenox Furnace, from the purest and best granulated 
 quartz known, of which inexhaustible beds are scattered in Berk- 
 shire. Iron to the annual value of seven hundred and twenty-six 
 thousand dollars is made from a superior brown hematite, of which 
 deposits are abundant. Lime is made from pure carbonates to the 
 value of seventy-five thousand dollars annually; and the marble 
 quarries of Berkshire are famous.
 
 TOPOGKAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 15 
 
 In agriculture, Berkshire ranks among the foremost counties of 
 the State; although the climate of the more elevated sections 
 forbids the culture of some products which flourish in the Valley 
 of the Connecticut, and are not excluded from the farms of Shef- 
 field and Great Barrington. Facilities for the intermixture of soils, 
 and abundant deposits of marl and muck, favor the improvement 
 of inferior lands; while the mountain-grazing tracts afford cheap 
 pasturage for herds of cattle and sheep, to whose breeding much 
 successful attention has been given. Still, in spite of the never 
 glutted market furnished by the manufacturing towns and by 
 the influx of summer visitors, the total value of the agricultural 
 products of Berkshire in 1865 was only $5,374,163. 
 
 In addition to the sources of wealth of which the official statis- 
 tician takes note, that of Berkshire is augmented by the attrac- 
 tions which its superb scenery and the purity of its atmosphere 
 offer to permanent and migratory residents, summer travellers, 
 and students in its numerous literary institutions. The expendi- 
 tures incident to the working of the railroads which traverse the 
 county are also a source of no little emolument to its citizens. 
 
 The great variety of resources, thus only partially enumerated, 
 tend to prevent, in a great measure, those periods of distress 
 which are apt to overtake whole communities, when, depending 
 upon a single fountain of employment, they find that suddenly 
 dried up. Diversity of occupation has also its beneficial effect 
 upon the intellectual character of the people, in modes of operation 
 which need not be specified. 
 
 Such, analytically, is the fair county, which, in the early pages 
 of this chapter, we attempted to portray as a whole. Somewhat 
 more cheerless must have been its aspect when the white man first 
 began to penetrate its wilds ; and especially when he found it 
 shrouded in the snows of winter. There is extant an old Dutch 
 map (it sends a shudder through one to remember it), upon 
 which, across a ghastly expanse of white, denoting the whole 
 territory which is now Berkshire and Vermont, stretch in 
 frightful loneliness the frigid syllables, Win-ter-berg-e, " Winter 
 Mountains," meaning the hills which we, with a pleasant fiction 
 of perpetual summer, christen Green: a very dreary map, and 
 surely not the work of any speculator in wild lands upon the 
 Hoosac Mountains. 
 
 Yet even then Berkshire had a unity in its natural features,
 
 ,16 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 which to the observer overlooking it from some elevated spot, or 
 threading its paths as a surveyor, must have marked it out for the 
 home of a community with common interests and with a. homo- 
 geneous character. Time has developed and strengthened these 
 characteristics ; but there is no reason to doubt, that, from the first, 
 they were patent to such men as Wendell, Stoddard, Pomeroy, 
 the Williamses, and others, who, with shrewdness as well as energy, 
 pushed Massachusetts civilization towards the Hudson. 
 
 The name of the Winterberge suggests that the geographical 
 nomenclature of Berkshire has undergone great changes since the 
 days of the Dutch explorers. In the ancient records, deeds, leases, 
 and the like, of this as of other localities, the aboriginal names are 
 often spelled with lamentable carelessness or caprice ; two or three 
 forms of the same word often appearing in a single document. 
 Every provincial scrivener held himself at liberty to satisfy his 
 own notions of euphony by lopping off, eliminating, or selecting 
 from the luxuriant syllables which were said to have been grow- 
 ing since the confusion of Babel, The result is, that the dismem- 
 bered trunks of the unfortunate victims often defy recognition 
 by any except the most patient and painstaking philology. The 
 name Taconic, for instance, however regretfully, we yield the gut- 
 tural and natural gh to persistent innovation, assumes more than 
 two score of transformations in the archives of Massachusetts ; 
 now expanding to generous Taughkaughnick, and now shrinking to 
 curt Tacon : while the original form, Taghkanak, is derived from 
 Taakhan, or Taghkan, " a wood ; " and aki, " place ; " and, as ap- 
 plied to the mountains may be translated, " The Forest Hills." * 
 Poontoosuck, the aboriginal name of the site of Pittsfield, appears 
 to be derived from Poon, the Mohegan word for " winter ; " Altuck, 
 " a deer ; " and /Suck, the final syllable in which that language makes 
 its plural, and signifies " the winter deer ; " 2 or the terminal afc, 
 which indicates the name of a place, being merged in the plural 
 ending, " the haunt of the winter deer." 
 
 But the problem which has longest and most profoundly per- 
 plexed the students of our aboriginal geography concerns the 
 name of that beautiful river which is designated by syllables as 
 intricate as the windings of its graceful curves, and, in the form 
 they have finally taken, are as musical as the murmur of 
 
 1 Trans. Am. Ant. Soc., v. 2, p. 337. 
 
 2 Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan.
 
 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSF1ELD. 17 
 
 its ripples. The whole difficulty has, however, we apprehend, 
 arisen from the very natural mistake of seeking for the word 
 " Housatonic " an aboriginal derivation, while its primitive form was, 
 in fact, Dutch. In the writings of the early settlers and surveyors, 
 and even of the missionaries, no word suffered more severely from 
 the confused orthography of the period than this. Its trans- 
 mutations were innumerable. Hubbard of Ipswich, the early 
 XfW-England annalist, wrote, Ausotunnoog; which has a quasi 
 Algonquin twang, and was, doubtless, communicated to him 
 through the medium of Algonquin throats, whose owners could, 
 nevertheless, have gathered from the grating sounds only a purely 
 arbitrary meaning. If Mr. Hubbard had asked them why they 
 so designated the river, they could have given him no better 
 reason than that of the comic song, 
 
 " The reason why they called him John 
 Was because it was his name." 
 
 In the papers preserved in the archives of the Commonwealth, 
 the county, and towns, some of the more frequent forms which the 
 word assumes are Housatunnuk, Houssatonnoc, Houstunnok, 
 Hooestenok, Awoostenok, Asotonik, Ousatonac; and in all these 
 forms, the consonants, except the final, are made double or single, 
 and the terminal syllable is spelled indifferently, t'A 1 , ak, o/c, or uk. 
 Sergeant and Hopkins, the earliest preachers among the Indians, 
 wrote Housatunnok; but comparison with other forms leads to 
 the belief that what is now pronounced as the first syllable was 
 originally two, Ho-us. President Dwight preferred Hooestennuc, 
 and, probably, with good reason ; although the meaning which 
 he ascribes to the word, " the river beyond the mountains," after 
 the most patient and laborious research by the most competent 
 students, finds nothing to give it color, either in the language 
 spoken by the Mohegans or in that of their Iroquois conquerors. 
 And yet, in a certain sense, this may have been the meaning at- 
 tached to it by the Mohegans; for, if the name was bestowed 
 while the tribe, dwelling in the Valley of the Hudson, were accus- 
 tomed annually to cross the Taconics for hunting-seasons in the 
 Valley of the Housatonic, the name of the latter river, whatever, 
 may have been the original signification of its syllables, would have 
 represented to them, in ordinary thought, the river beyond the 
 mountains: precisely as when the Narragansett- slaughter was
 
 18 TOPOGEAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 called to mind, it represented the river of the massacre ; or, in 
 another mood of thought, the stream on whose banks the white 
 man preached the Christian gospel. But in process of time the 
 relation in which the river was most commonly contemplated 
 would communicate its peculiar significance to its name. And 
 thus, when President Dwight asked of some Mohegan, " What 
 do you mean by Hooestenok?" it is altogether likely that the 
 answer was, "The river beyond the mountains;" just as we should 
 reply to a similar question, " The winding river of the Berkshire 
 Valley." * 
 
 We can thus well understand how the learned president's habits 
 of investigation, while they would lead him very near to accuracy 
 in adjusting his orthography to the native pronunciation, would 
 not necessarily protect him from falling into error in the transla- 
 tion. 2 
 
 Those who read the traditions told by the Stockbridge Indians 
 will suspect them of imaginations fertile in statements adapted to 
 the tastes of their hearers ; but, to do them justice, none of them 
 (or, at least, none of any reputation) ever pretended to attribute a 
 descriptive meaning to any of the forms which the name of the 
 river of their homes put on. The chiefs Konkapot or, not to 
 dwarf their somewhat unmanageable patronymic, Poph-ue-hon- 
 nuh-woh were men of good natural parts, and received excellent 
 educations. They were also profoundly versed in all the lore of 
 their tribe. From them were obtained the names given by the 
 natives to many features of Berkshire geography, and the transla- 
 tions of their meaning ; but they could make nothing except an ar- 
 bitrary appellation of the word "Housatonic;" nor could Hendrick 
 Aupaumut, the professed chronicler of his people. Several mis- 
 sionaries familiarized themselves with the Mohegan tongue, and, 
 
 1 Since the foregoing paragraphs were written, we have been informed by Mr. 
 Charles J. Taylor, that, in the copy of the deeds of the Upper and Lower Housatonic 
 townships, the name of the river is given once as the "Housatonic or Westanock," 
 and again as the " Housatonic or Westonook." Mr. Taylor, who has given much 
 thought and investigation tq the subject, has no doubt, that, in the different deeds 
 and patents of the Livingston Manor, the words, " Wawwichtonock," " Waw- 
 yachtanock," " Wawijchtanok," and " Wawijachtanook " are as correct represen- 
 tations of the Indian pronunciation of the word we call Housatonic as the writers 
 of those papers could make with our alphabet. 
 
 3 It must be remembered that Dr. Dwight's inquiries were made by him as a 
 curious traveller, rather than as an exact philologist.
 
 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 1$ 
 
 being men of cultivated and inquiring minds, would not have left 
 so interesting a subject uninvestigated ; but they extracted no in- 
 terpretation of this word from their philological researches. 1 Mr. 
 J. Hammond Trumbull, the most eminent student at the present 
 day in the Algonquin dialects, and perhaps in all the aboriginal 
 languages of North America, confesses himself unable to find a 
 satisfactory interpretation for the refractory syllables. The most 
 plausible suggestion, which considers the word as of Algonquin 
 origin, is that of Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan, the able historian of the 
 State of New York, who supposes it to be derived from Husson, 
 " rock," and Aki, " place ; " the at being introduced for the sake of 
 euphony. This theory is favored by the fact that the Stockbridge 
 chiefs, in their address to the Commissioners of the Provinces at 
 Albany in 1754, characterized their home as "a rocky place." 
 This interpretation is, however, met by the objection, that, had it 
 been correct, it would have almost certainly been given by the 
 native chroniclers, who translated with great precision the names 
 of the Hudson and Connecticut Rivers, and affirmed the reasons for 
 them with entire positiveness. And the still more serious diffi- 
 culty lies in its way, that it is inapplicable to several of the more 
 frequent forms which the word assumes. 
 
 Now, to abandon the field which has been so faithfully explored 
 with such meagre results, let us turn to one which is at least fresh, 
 if, at first thought, less promising. 
 
 Previous to the Revolution, then, a chorographic map of the 
 Province of New York, including the disputed territory as far as 
 the Connecticut River, was, by order of Gov. Tryon, compiled from 
 actual surveys deposited in the patent office. This authoritative 
 work was published at London in 1779, and reproduced in 1849, 
 in the first volume of " The Documentary History of New York," 
 where the reader may probably have access to it. And, upon in- 
 specting the course of the Housatonic River, he will find, that near 
 its source it is styled the Stratford, and above tide-water the 
 Westenhok or Housatunnuk. 
 
 The difference, it will readily be perceived, between the Dutch 
 
 1 Rev. Dr. Field, the accurate, learned, and painstaking historian of the county, 
 is silent on this subject ; and Rev. Dr. William Allen, the best authority upon 
 matters pertaining to the early Berkshire divines, says in a note to his poem at the 
 Berkshire Jubilee, " It is remarkable that none of the teachers of the Indians have 
 in any of their writings given the meaning of the word ' Housatonic.' "
 
 20 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 WestenhoJc and President D wight's Hooestennuc, or, as it is 
 also written, Hooestenok, is barely the transfer of the aspirate 
 from the last syllable to' the first. 
 
 The inference is almost irresistible, that the long-sought deriva- 
 tion of our musical Housatonic is found in the not unmusical Dutch 
 of Westenhok ; for it is hardly possible that so close a resem- 
 blance between the two names of the river was a mere accidental 
 coincidence. The translation of the word is, " West corner," (or 
 "nook") ; and the appellation Housatonic is thus both truthfully and 
 poetically descriptive of the winding river of our western nook 
 among the mountains. 
 
 The origin and subsequent transformations of the name may 
 easily be deduced from well-authenticated facts. The capital 
 village of the Mohegans was at Schodac on the Hudson, but little 
 farther than twenty-five miles from the Housatonic at Pitts- 
 field. Here Hendrick Hudson, in 1609, visited them in The Half- 
 Moon," and, forming the chain of friendship, commenced an inter- 
 course which was kept up from that time, with little intermission, 
 by the Dutch of the New Netherlands. Trading and military posts 
 were established at Castle Island 1 in 1614, and, three years later, 
 at the mouth of the Tawasentha. In 1615, we find Jacob Elkins, 
 an active and energetic commander and commercial agent, prose- 
 cuting a quiet traffic, already commenced, with the Mohawks and 
 Mohegans ; while his " scouting-parties were constantly engaged 
 in exploring all the neighboring country, and in becoming better 
 acquainted with the savage tribes around them, with all of whom 
 it was the constant policy of the Dutch to cultivate the most 
 friendly relations." 2 
 
 These scouting-parties, traversing the forests in all directions, 
 often visited the Valley of the Housatonic; where, indeed, the Eng- 
 lish pioneers a century afterwards found Dutchmen domiciled 
 among the natives who had made them gifts of lands acting 
 as interpreters, and possessing much influence. Now, the Mohe- 
 gans, in their first intercourse with these winsome strangers, when- 
 ever they had occasion to speak of the winding-river-of-their-hunt- 
 ing-grounds-beyond-the-mountains, doubtless indicated it by some 
 
 1 A locality now so completely merged in the city of Albany as to almost lose 
 its insular character. The Tawasentha River, or Norman's Kill, enters the Hud- 
 son a few miles farther south. 
 
 - Brodhead's History of New York, pp. 55, 67, 81.
 
 . TOPOGKAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 21 
 
 phrase in their dialect as cumbrous as that which we have just 
 employed in English ; for with them every name was a phrase, and 
 was very likely to be a cumbrous one. 
 
 The clumsy appellation which we have supposed must have 
 been extremely inconvenient for the busy fur-traders, who, instead 
 of the more common practice of curtailing its undue proportions, 
 succeeded in persuading the natives to adopt in its stead the 
 simpler Westenhok ; which was the name of a tract of land that 
 lay between the Housatonic in Sheffield, and its large tributary, 
 now known as Salmon Creek, which rises on the west of the 
 Taconics, and joins the main stream at South Canaan in Connecti- 
 cut. The river thus received its name in the upper part of 'its 
 course from the district which it there washed, as, in the lower, it 
 took that of the town which stood at its mouth, Stratford. 
 When it first began to be so called is uncertain. In the grant of 
 the lands of Westenhook 1 in 1705, they are described as thus 
 known ; and both they and the river may have been so for a cen- 
 tury before inquiry began to be made into the origin and meaning 
 of the word "Housatonic." In the mean while, there was abun- 
 dant time for it to suffer stranger changes than it actually under- 
 went, in its transmission through four or five rasping generations 
 of Algonquin throats. It may be added, in further explanation of 
 the obscurity which hangs over this subject, that, if the truth con- 
 cerning it ever became known to any Massachusetts investigator 
 during the period when the New-York boundary was in dispute, 
 he would have been almost sure to suppress it, as tending to support 
 the Dutch claim to priority of occupation ; and, for the same rea- 
 son, he may have shrewdly favored that orthography which most 
 effectually concealed the European features of Westenhook under 
 an aboriginal mask. 
 
 The boundary disputes were not settled until the year previous 
 to the breaking-out of the Revolution ; and the jealousies which 
 they engendered still linger in the more old-fashioned nooks of 
 both New York and Berkshire : so that truths which are incon- 
 sistent with prejudice on either side are apt to be pushed out of 
 sight. 
 
 1 Westenhook, the more correct spelling of the word, is the least frequent upon 
 the old maps of the river.
 
 !P A. H T II. 
 
 PITTSFIELD. 
 
 General Description. Adjoining Towns. Lakes, Streams, Mountains. Fish. 
 Manufactories. Outlying Villages. Central Village. The Old Elm. 
 Maplewood. Springside. Churches. Banks and Insurance Offices. 
 Kailroads. County Buildings. Population and Valuation. 
 
 A CORRECT general idea of the position which the territory 
 J~\ whose history we are about to narrate occupies in the geo- 
 graphical and physical system of Berkshire has, we trust, been con- 
 veyed by the preceding chapter. And to most readers the name of 
 Pittsfield is familiar as that of one of the most charming country 
 towns in New England, a favorite resort of the traveller in search 
 of health or pleasure, a seat of thriving manufactories and flourish- 
 ing institutions of learning, and as, from time to time, the home 
 of men of note. A somewhat more minute description of some of 
 its physical characteristics will, however, facilitate a comprehension 
 of its story. 
 
 Pittsfield is fortunate in its neighboring towns, scarce one of 
 which but possesses some attraction for the visitor peculiar to 
 itself: while many are widely celebrated for rural loveliness and 
 exquisite scenery ; for literary, historical, and religious associa- 
 tions ; for connection with gigantic physical enterprises ; for mineral 
 wealth, or for remarkable manufactures. 
 
 Of the towns which adjoin it, Lanesborough, its next northern 
 neighbor, rivals in its natural scenery the most famous localities of 
 Berkshire; is of fine agricultural capacity; has boarding-schools of 
 much repute ; possesses superior beds of brown hematite ore, and 
 of granular quartz, with costly furnaces for their conversion respec- 
 
 22
 
 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 23 
 
 lively into crude iron and cylinder glass ; and contains also many 
 good quarries of marble and compact limestone. 
 
 Dalton of paper-making fame, and containing more than one 
 beautiful and wealthy village lies upon the east. Mountainous 
 and picturesque Washington encloses its south-eastern angle. 
 Lenox, the favorite and famous summer resort, bounds it partially 
 upon the south ; on which side it is also joined by Richmond, a 
 noble agricultural town, and rich also in iron mines and marble. On 
 the west, the long and narrow town of Hancock with its fertile 
 and beautiful valley, its romantic hills, and its neat Shaker village, 
 " the city of peace " interposes a strip barely two miles wide 
 between Pittsfield and New Lebanon, the seat of the popular 
 mineral springs and the capital of the Shaker Church. 
 
 Pittsfield has already been described as of moderately uneven 
 surface, and nearly surrounded by mountains, through which, by 
 convenient passes, narrow but rich valleys stretch away to the 
 extremities of the county. 
 
 The lakes and streams with which it abounds have as yet been, 
 equally with its central position, the sources of its material pros- 
 perity ; and we shall give them our next attention. 
 
 Six lakes or lakelets lie wholly or in part within the town : all 
 of them beautiful, and some of them noted for their graceful out- 
 lines and the delightful combinations which they form with the 
 surrounding mountains. All more or less directly feed streams 
 which furnish motive-power to large manufactories ; and four have 
 had their capacities for this purpose artificially increased. 
 
 Fanciful legends attach to some of the prettiest ; and all have 
 a veritable history of their own. 
 
 Pontoosuc, the second in size, lies upon the northern border of 
 Pittsfield, Lanesborough claiming more than half its surface. 
 Previous to its enlargement, which took place in 1867, it was a 
 mile and a quarter long, and at its broadest point three-quarters 
 of a mile wide; covering an area of four hundred and twenty-five 
 acres. It now covers five hundred and seventy-five; the increase 
 being chiefly in Lanesborough. 
 
 Before this change, two little islets dotted its bosom ; and the 
 highway, after passing a noble grove of pines, the relic of 
 one of the finest forests which ever grew in Berkshire, and some 
 much admired isolated trees of deciduous growth, skirted close 
 along the graceful windings of the whole eastern shore. The
 
 24 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 view from the southern approach was one to be remembered for its 
 beauty, and was not deficient in grandeur as the eye, glancing 
 across the quiet lake with its twin islets and grove-shaded bunks, 
 took in Constitution Hill, its crown shaven like a monk's, and 
 then swept on through a vista of twelve miles formed by Prospect, 
 St. Luke's, and Pratt's Hills, Round Rock, and other noble eleva- 
 tions, to that grand background of so many Berkshire views, 
 
 " where look majestic forth 
 
 From their twin thrones the giants of the north, 
 On the rude shapes, that, crouching at their knees, 
 Stretch their broad shoulders, rough with shaggy trees." HOLMES. 
 
 On the west, some two miles away, lay globe-crested Mount Hon- 
 wee and other Taconic summits, often reflected by the glassy lake 
 in mirror-like perfection, and if it chanced to be of a clear, still day, 
 after the mountain sides had put on their October hues, presenting 
 a spectacle of rare gorgeousness. Poutoosuc Lake, as it was, is a pic- 
 ture nay, a cabinet of pictures which lives among the choicest 
 memories of thousands. It is, perhaps, not less lovely now; but 
 all the nearer charms of the landscape are changed, and even the 
 more distant assume a new aspect. Island and pillared grove are 
 gone, submerged by the rising waters ; and the traveller passing 
 over the highway, now made to climb the neighboring hill, finds 
 new beauties, but not the same. The landscape may in time 
 become even more charming than it was of old ; although neither 
 the eye of man nor the dashing of the wavelet can at once accus- 
 tom itself to the new demarcations. 
 
 But the Pittsfield lakes, great as have been the changes in their 
 outlines, have been still more unstable in their nomenclature. 
 Thus, the Mohegan name of Pontoosuc was Shoon-keck-moon-keek ; 
 and it was so designated in the deeds which conveyed its shores to 
 their first white occupants. Some settlers from Middlesex County 
 having planted New Framingham, Shoon-keek-moon-keek was, in 
 accordance with the common fate of Indian names, soon lost 
 in Framingham Pond. The plantation developing into the town 
 of Lanesborough : then came Lanesborough Pond ; although by 
 the matter-of-fact people of Pittsfield, who always took their bear- 
 ings from their meeting-house, it was often styled the North, as 
 other sheets of water were called East, West, and South Ponds. 
 
 But, in 1824, the Pontoosuc Woollen Manufacturing Company
 
 TOPOGRAPHY OP PITTSFIELD. 25 
 
 purchased the water-privilege and adjacent lands at its outlet, 
 upon which they built the mill whose products have since made its 
 name familiar, at least in commercial circles, the country over; 
 and naturally Shoon-keek-moon-keek received probably its final 
 transformation into Pontoosuc Lake. 
 
 One of its appellations has, however, been omitted from the 
 catalogue; it having been for many years in familiar conversation 
 called "Joe Keller's Farm:" from the anecdote that a wag of that 
 name once bargained it away, and actually made a deed of it, to a 
 New-York citizen, who mistook it, when covered with snow and 
 ice, for a level expanse, and had the good taste to be charmed with 
 the singular and romantic situation of its broad surface among the 
 hills. 
 
 Lake Onota, which lies in a pretty upland basin, a little more 
 than a mile west of the Park, is the largest and most beautiful 
 sheet of water in Berkshire ; excepting, as regards size, one or two 
 artificial reservoirs. Before its enlargement, which was made in 
 1864, it was a mile and three-quarters long, and three-quarters of a 
 mile wide ; having an area of four hundred and eighty-six acres, 
 which is now increased to six hundred and eighty-three. The 
 elevation of its surface caused great changes in the outlines of its 
 northern and western shores; and destroyed its most marked 
 feature, which was a division of its waters by a causeway into two 
 independent lakes, of which the northern, and much the smaller, 1 
 was formed by a dam thrown across its outlet by those industrious 
 builders of a race now long extinct, in Berkshire, the beavers. 
 Traces of their workmanship were distinctly visible until they 
 were recently submerged by the labors of engineers as indefatiga- 
 ble and more Titanic than themselves. 
 
 On the western shore, the larger pebbles of the beach some 
 of which, indeed, might aspire to the title of boulders were 
 thrown up by the action of ice into a wall, which had all the sem- 
 blance of a work of art. Indeed, it was the old-time faith of the 
 neighborhood, that it was built by the Indians as a screen from 
 behind which they might shoot the deer which were accustomed 
 to resort to the lake, not so much to drink, which they might 
 have done as well at a hundred brooks, as to lie through the 
 heat of the summer days in its cooling waves, with their nostrils, 
 however, necessarily exposed. Certain it is, that this old wall was 
 
 1 It had an area of about thirty-four acres.
 
 26 TOPOGEAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 used as a covert, not only by the aborigines, but by the deer-slayers 
 among the eai'ly white inhabitants. 
 
 This curious illustration of the power of floating ice like the 
 causeway which used to divide the waters is now hidden when 
 the lake-surface is at its ordinary height; and possibly the same 
 agency which built, may in time remove it to the new line of the 
 shore. 
 
 But, great as have been the changes which Onota has undergone, 
 they have affected its curious rather than its picturesque features ; 
 and its beauty is increased instead of being impaired. From the 
 hill upon its south-western shore, which was fortified in the old 
 French and Indian wars, a greater number of fine views are 
 afforded than perhaps from any other spot of equal compass in 
 Berkshire ; and, of these, the most pleasing are those which em- 
 brace the lake and the mountains, which, beyond it, stretch away 
 to ever-present Greylock. 
 
 Richmond Lake, which formerly lay about equally in the town 
 of that name and in Pittsfield, was originally of a nearly circular 
 form, and had an area of ninety-eight acres. In 1865, it was 
 enlarged to .two hundred and fifty, the greater portion of the 
 addition being in Pittsfield, and lost that regular spherical figure 
 by which it used to be pleasantly recognized from the moun- 
 tain-tops. Upon the old maps, Richmond Lake is South Pond; 
 and a small body near it, now long since drained, was 
 designated Rathbun's Pond, in reference to Valentine Rathbun, 
 who, about the year 1769, built clothiers' works near it. 
 
 Silver is the pretty but not over distinctive name of the pretty 
 lakelet which the traveller over the Western Railroad observes, 
 as, entering the village from the east, he passes its northern 
 verge. It now covers about sixty acres, having been enlarged in 
 1843, as one of the reservoirs of the Pittsfield cotton-factory. It 
 was known among the first settlers as Ensign's Pond, from Jacob 
 Ensign, who built the first fulling-mill in Pittsfield, and owned 
 the land along the eastern borders of the lake. In later days, a 
 hat-factory was erected on its northern shore, and it took the 
 name of Hatter's Pond. But the hatters went elsewhere ; and the 
 name, having lost its significance, gave place to the present less ugly 
 although not strikingly novel appellation. The secluded lakelet, 
 of some thirty acres extent, about a mile east of Silver Lake, and, 
 like it, connected by a short outlet with the eastern branch of the
 
 TOPOGRAPHY OP PITTSFIELD. 27 
 
 Housatonic, is laid down on Walling's generally very accurate 
 map of Berkshire as " Sylvan Lake," although rarely so called. 
 The meadow in which it lies was, on the earliest plans, named 
 " Unkamet's ; " and the lakelet was perhaps entitled to the same 
 appellation. But it was early known as Goodrich Pond, from one 
 of the most noted settlers, who owned large tracts of land in that 
 vicinity ; and there seems no good reason why the name of the 
 stout old patriot and worthy magistrate should not continue to be 
 preserved in the name of Goodrich Lake. 
 
 Last, and among the loveliest of the group, is Melville Lake, of 
 perhaps thirty-five acres, lying east, a little to the north, of 
 South Mountain, a gem-like, crystal water, hidden among groves 
 interlaced with .frequent picturesque paths, that often debouch 
 upon sunny lawns or gravelly beaches. It has for many years 
 been a favorite haunt of some of the most celebrated men in 
 politics and literature, while guests of the broad-hailed mansion 
 in whose grounds it is included, and which has been successively 
 the hospitable home of Henry Van Schaack, Elkanah Watson, 
 Thomas and Robert Melville, and J. R. Morewood. The lakelet 
 has borne in turn the names of all these owners ; but, on the 
 county map, it appears as Lilly Bowl, an exceedingly descriptive 
 although fanciful designation bestowed by the family of the present 
 proprietor. The name of Melville is, however, surrounded by too 
 many pleasant and honorable associations to be lightly abandoned ; 
 and the people cling to it with a pertinacity which promises to be 
 lasting. Melville Lake it will doubtless continue to be in ordi- 
 nary usage ; while Lilly Bowl maybe its pet or poetic title, a 
 result which is certainly not to be regretted a3sthetically. 
 
 Melville Lake sends its surplus waters to the Housatonic 
 through Wampenum Brook, a little stream, which, on its passage 
 from above, touches its northern edge. 
 
 This brook, rising in the meadows on the north-west of South 
 Mountain, passes through a little pond of the same name at the 
 foot of the mountain, and crosses the highway a little south of the 
 Housatonic Railroad. It furnishes a small water-power, but is 
 here chiefly noted as a convenient landmark for future reference. 
 It derives its name from Wampenum, who, with Mahtookamin and 
 Cochecomeek, claimed the soil upon which Pittsfield is built, and 
 leased it to Col. John Stoddard. By the terms of the lease, 
 "the land would have long since reverted to its red owners and
 
 28 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 their heirs; but the revival of a long-dormant interest in the 
 name of these little waters is all they are likely to recover. Let 
 us not begrudge them that. 
 
 The forks of the Housatonic River unite in Pittsfield, two miles 
 north of the Lenox line, and a few rods south of the Pittsfield Cot- 
 ton Factory. The eastern, formerly known as the main, branch 
 has already been described, with its chief tributaries, Silver and 
 Goodrich Lakes and Unkamet Brook. In addition to these it 
 receives, from the eastern hills, Barton Brook at Coltsville, and 
 Brattle near Goodrich Lake. The western branch rises in New 
 Ashford, passes through Lanesborough, and enters Pittsfield in 
 Pontoosuc Lake, which is properly an expansion of its waters. 
 Issuing thence, it runs southerly, almost in a direct line, to Pom- 
 eroy's factories, where it turns abruptly to the south-east, and, after 
 the passage of about a mile, joins the main stream. This branch 
 was laid clown on some of the old maps as the Pontoosuc River. 
 Three-quarters of a mile north of the Park, it receives the waters 
 of Lake Onota through Onota Brook, a beautiful streamlet which 
 flows through the Pittsfield cemetery. A few rods south of Pom- 
 eroy's factories, it is joined by Shaker Brook ; which rises in several 
 fountains among the Taconics of Richmond and Hancock, and is 
 swollen on its way by the drainage, through a canal, of Richmond 
 Lake, and by the accession of several minor tributaries. 
 
 Down each of the Taconic gorges rushes a mountain brook, 
 often of sufficient power to run a saw-mill ; but, in order to give 
 an intelligible delineation of these, it will be necessary to interrupt 
 our tracing of the streams, that we may first fix the locations of 
 the mountains, valleys, and opes, from which they flow. 
 
 Mount Honwee is the name given, on the authority of an Indian 
 lease in which it is so called, 1 to the large rounded summit, con- 
 spicuous in the Pittsfield view of the Taconics, which, lying 
 almost entirely in Hancock, juts into the little oblong notch in the 
 north-west corner of the town boundaries. The word Honwee in 
 the Iroquois tongue signified " men," and, as here used, is perhaps a 
 fragment of the term Ongiue Honwe, men surpassing all others, 
 a title which the Iroquois arrogated to themselves, and may 
 have bestowed upon this eminence in token, that as the mountain 
 of the Iroquois surpassed the neighboring hills in magnitude and 
 symmetry, in compactness as well, so the nation excelled others 
 
 1 Williams Papers.
 
 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 29 
 
 in the same qualities. But, whether the name was assigned for this 
 or some other reason, it would be in vain now to speculate. 
 Writers of deeds in the busy times of Old-Hampshire land specu- 
 lation were wont- to mutilate names more destructively than by 
 the clean elision of one half a cumbrous compound. 
 
 The mountain immediately south of Honwee was christened in 
 this quaint wise : it was a part of the lands bequeathed by the 
 founder of Williams College ; and while, during the proceedings 
 necessary to a legal transfer of the property, the title of the trus- 
 tees was inchoate, they bargained with Capt. John Churchill to 
 convey this hill to him, for a stipulated consideration, as soon as 
 their interest in it was perfected. Capt. Churchill, in his turn, 
 made similar agi'eements with his neighbors as to portions of the 
 tract ; and, the law's delays proving more tedious than had been 
 anticipated, the mountain acquired, among the impatient expect- 
 ants, the name of " The Promised Land;" which it still retains. 
 
 Lulu Ope lies between Mount Honwee and The Promised Land, 
 and, with them, forms one of the most inviting regions in Pittsfield 
 for the lovers of pic-nic. Having climbed to the western summit of 
 The Promised Land, the excursionist finds himself by Berry Pond, 
 in Hancock, a miniature lakelet, noted for the purity of its waters-, 
 as well as for its romantic location and the beauty of the surround- 
 ing landscape. It finds its outlet westward ; but, down Lulu Ope, 
 pleasantly shaded wood-roads, opening at intervals upon fine 
 bird's-eye views, follow on either side the course of a streamlet, 
 that through amber pools and over silvery shallows, with musical 
 noises, tumbles down the steep descent, until, near the entrance of 
 the ope, it plunges over a sharp and rocky shelf, in Lulu Cascade, 
 a foam-white column, which finds its base in a circular pool of 
 black and glossy surface, overhung by a gray old bowlder and by 
 masses of tangled foliage. 
 
 Issuing from the ope, the waters chary of their maiden 
 beauty, too suddenly exposed to the ardent sunlight, plunge 
 down a narrow chasm, and wholly disappear for the space of half 
 a mile or more, while they rumble among the loose bowlders, 
 through which they have wrought a passage by washing away the 
 lighter earth. 
 
 Seven of the brooks which flow from the Taconic Opes assume 
 a subterranean character at the base of the mountains ; and their 
 courses across the fields towards Lake Onota are marked by lines
 
 30 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 of coarse bluish gravel and small bowlders, resembling the beds of 
 summer-dried rivulets. 
 
 Next south of The Promised Land is the Ope of Promise ; 
 which, after penetrating a little way into the mountain, bends 
 north-westward to the summit, and affords the most direct, 
 although an arduous path to Berry Pond. Then come Arbutus 
 Hill and Ope, so-called from the profusion of that "darling 
 of the forest," the sweet flower of May, with which they are 
 covered in the spring, when their woods are musical with the hum 
 of young voices and the laughter of children. Behind and over- 
 topping them lies " Old Tower Hill," named from its observatory, 
 which commands superb views. 
 
 Farther to the south, again, we come to Pine Mountain, famed 
 for the forests of white-pine trees with which the early lumbermen 
 found it covered, and of which they have left considerable relics 
 to their successors. Pine Ope intervenes between this and May 
 Mountain, across whose southern base the New-Lebanon highway 
 runs, through Lilly Ope. These latter names have not quite so 
 flowery derivations as one would naturally infer; the mountain 
 having been christened in honor of one of its proprietors, and the 
 ope for withered Mother Lilly, who used to live far up its recesses, 
 and objurgate the mischievous anglers who disturbed her ancient 
 solitude. But, if one inclines to romanticism, the Widow Lilly, like 
 most widows and most lilies, " had once been fair." 
 
 South of. the Lebanon Highway and Lilly Ope, swells the broad 
 elevation known to fox-hunters as Doll Mountain, derivation 
 not traced. The Shakers, having appropriated a portion of it to 
 their hill-top worship, call it Mount Zion ; and "The World's 
 People " often term it Shaker Mountain from the ownership of 
 that peculiar sect. It is a favorite ground, for fox-hunters and 
 other sportsmen, and also for hunters of the precious metals; 
 gold having been found mixed with other minerals in the quartz 
 veins with which this, like most of the Berkshire hills, is seamed. 
 
 Beyond and indenting Doll Mountain are several opes, in which 
 most of the branches of the Shaker Brook take their rise. 
 
 To resume our tracing of the Taconic brooks : the Daniels rises 
 north of Mount Honwee, and, after receiving the Churchhill, 
 flows into Lake Onota. The same reservoir gets the waters of 
 Parker Brook which rises in the Ope of Promise, and is joined 
 by the Lulu and also of the Arbutus. But the Wadham's,
 
 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 31 
 
 from Pine Ope, unites with the Lilly, and goes to swell Shaker 
 Brook. 
 
 Of the tributaries to the Housatonic in Pittsfield, after the 
 confluence of its branches, the most considerable is Sackett Brook, 
 which conies in from Washington, having first received the Ashley 
 from Lake Ashley, the fountain of the Pittsfield water-works. 
 The Sackett, once a renowned trout-stream, is altogether ex- 
 hausted by its too great reputation. The Seeley Brook is a branch 
 of the Sackett, falling into it near its junction with the Housatonic ; 
 just below which the latter receives the Cameron, the last to be 
 named of the Pittsfield streams ; that next to it southward being 
 the famous Roaring Brook of New Lenox. 
 
 The principal fish inhabiting the waters thus described, with 
 perhaps tedious minuteness, are the pickerel, trout, sucker, perch, 
 bullhead, dace, sunfish, and eel. The pickerel are not native to 
 Berkshire, but were introduced from Connecticut. Linus Parker, 
 who is still an inhabitant of the west part, placed the first ever 
 brought to Pittsfield in Lake Onota about the year 1810. A few 
 already swam in Lake Mahecanak ; 1 and Pontoosuc received 
 them two or three years later. Before 1829, they had become 
 abundant ; and they have since multiplied so prolificacy that they 
 not only afford a rich spoil for the angler, but contribute no mean 
 addition to the resources of the table in an economic point of 
 view. 
 
 Trout were formerly extremely abundant. The Housatonic 
 was alive with them. 2 As late as the opening years of the present 
 century, an hour's angling along this stream within half a mile 
 of South Street was often rewarded by as many of this dainty 
 fish as the sportsman could comfortably bear home. The stories 
 told of Sackett Brook, although substantiated by the most 
 reliable testimony, are almost incredible. Within thirty years, 
 we are assured, the numbers of its trout were so incalculable 
 that they were estimated by the " barrel-full ; " and one veteran 
 angler thinks he has seen that quantity in a single one of its 
 pools. Another still retains the profile traced with his pencil 
 
 1 Stockbridge Bowl. 
 
 2 Statements made to the contrary are completely overthrown by the evidence 
 of gentlemen like James Buell and John C. Parker, Esqs., the late Messrs. Samuel 
 A. Allen, E. R. Colt, and others, whose means of knowledge were as ample as 
 their testimony is unimpeachable.
 
 32 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 around a trout caught in Onota Brook, which weighed when 
 caught, some fifty years ago, five pounds and three-quarters ; and, 
 going over the Waltouian reminiscences of half a century, recalls 
 others nearly as magnificent, which answered to his rod at other 
 points. 
 
 The voracious and fastidious appetite of the pickerel, which will 
 be content with nothing less delicate than a troutling, has now 
 rendered the still waters untenable, except by those which find 
 protection in their size. And in the rapids, where superior 
 activity and power to resist the current give the trout the advan- 
 tage of their more sluggish enemy, the refuse of the factories has 
 driven them from their old haunts. But even these destructive 
 agencies have been less efficient, than excessive, and not always 
 legitimate, fishing ; the laws for the protection of trout having 
 been violated with impunity. Still there are few localities, so 
 thickly settled, where this favorite of the sportsman and the 
 epicure is so abundant as in the mountain brooks near Pittsfield ; 
 while, in the lakes and larger streams, specimens weighing from 
 two to three pounds are not rare. The enlargement of the lakes 
 proves very favorable to the increase of trout and pickerel, both 
 in number and size. 
 
 The sucker, highly prized at certain seasons, is at others worth- 
 less for the table, and, being thus protected by nature's game-laws, 
 thrives and multiplies. Others of the fish named as inhabitants 
 of the Berkshire waters are plentiful, but have nothing about 
 them locally peculiar. 1 
 
 The edible tortoise, common in the lakes, often attains the weight 
 of twenty pounds. One weighing thirty-three pounds after the 
 loss of his head and much blood was, a few years since, caught 
 in Lake Onota with a hook and line aided by a hatchet. It fur- 
 nished twenty pounds of excellent meat. 
 
 We have lingered to trace the picturesque and curious features 
 of the lakes and streams which we set out to describe as sources 
 of the material prosperity of Pittsfield (and by these qualities 
 they do contribute in no light measure to its wealth and popula- 
 tion) ; but let us return to a more economic view. 
 
 Shaker Brook has a fall of one hundred and forty eight feet from 
 Richmond Lake to the dam at Oceola, the lowest upon it ; Onota 
 
 1 In 1865, black bass and white fish were placed in Lakes Onota and Pontoosuc, 
 but as yet without perceptible result.
 
 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 33 
 
 Brook descends ninety-two feet from the lake to its junction with 
 the Housatonic; the fall of the West Branch of the Housatonic 
 from Poutoosuc Lake to Pomeroy's Factories is one hundred and 
 twenty-eight feet : the comparison in each case being between the 
 top of the upper dam and the foot of the lower. 
 
 The East Branch of the Housatonic of which there are no 
 complete measurements descends about forty feet between its 
 entrance of Pittsfield at Coltsville and its departure from it at New 
 Lenox. 
 
 It was in reference to the streams we have attempted to describe, 
 that Rev. Thos. Allen, in a sketch of Berkshire published in 1810, 
 foretold that Pittsfield, then mainly devoted to agriculture, would 
 become a successful manufacturing town : although there was not 
 
 ~ O 
 
 so much prophetic inspiration in this forecast as might appear at 
 first sight ; for the town had already shown no little enterprise in 
 that direction, having maintained several forges for the manufac- 
 ture of maleable iron from the ore during the Revolution, and hav- 
 ing been early noted for its fulling-mills, to which the spinsters of 
 the neighboring towns resorted with the produce of their looms. 
 In fact also, at the time of Mr. Allen's prophecy, Arthur Schofield 
 was about to set up in Pittsfield the first broad looms ever used in 
 America; being already engaged, as Mr. Allen expresses it, "in 
 forming machines to expedite the labor of spinning," making the 
 carding-machines, to wit, which preceded the looms by two or 
 three years. 
 
 There was, however, in the minister's prophecy, what was much 
 more to the purpose than inspiration, a clear foresight, resulting 
 from native acumen, and thorough study of the natural advantages 
 of the home which he loved with all the strength of his vigorous 
 understanding as well as with all the warmth of his earnest heart. 
 
 His anticipations have been amply realized; and the streams of 
 Pittsfield now furnish the motive power for eleven woollen manufac- 
 tories, -one large paper-mill, one cotton-factory manufacturing 
 cloth and one making warps, and for three large flouring-mills. 
 In addition to which, extensive manufactures of woollens, carriages, 
 leather, looms, manufacturers' materials, iron machinery, musical 
 instruments, and other articles, are carried on without the aid of 
 water-power. 
 
 The aggregate extent of manufacturing operations in Pittsfield 
 may be inferred from the following statement:
 
 34 
 
 TOPOGEAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 STATISTICS OF THE WOOLLEN BUSINESS OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 
 'S 
 
 Orf * 
 
 3 
 
 
 *jj 
 
 It 
 
 MILLS AXD FIBMS. 
 
 u 
 
 11 
 
 fl 
 
 Kind of Goods. 
 
 S 3 
 
 5 2 
 
 
 z'f. 
 
 z 
 
 13 
 
 $1 
 
 
 n 
 
 != 
 
 
 55 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i_g 
 
 &3 
 
 J. Barker & Bros 
 
 16 
 
 I 24 Broad 
 f 60 Narrow 
 
 650 000 
 
 Yards all wool and cotton 
 warp cassimeres, 
 
 $500 000 
 
 230 
 
 L. Pomeroy's Sons . . . 
 
 11 
 
 j 49 Broad 
 | 31 Narrow 
 
 225 000 
 200 000 
 
 Woollen cloth and satinets, 
 
 750 000 
 
 200 
 
 Pontoosnc W. M. Co.. 
 
 10 
 
 < 75 Broad 
 
 130 000 
 35 000 
 
 Balmoral skirts, 
 yds. Meltons and Skirtings, 
 
 475 000 
 
 200 
 
 
 
 ( 
 
 5 000 
 
 Carriage, and car blankets, 
 
 
 
 Pittsfield W. Co 
 
 8 
 
 40 Broad 
 
 175 000 
 
 Yds. 6-4 fancy cassimeres, 
 
 500 000 
 
 130 
 
 Taconic Mills 
 
 8 
 
 80 Narrow 450 000 
 
 | fancy cassimeres, 
 
 450 000 
 
 165 
 
 Stearnsville W. Co.. . . 
 
 8 
 
 60 Narrow 450 000 
 
 J Union cassimeres, 
 
 225 GUO 
 
 130 
 
 8. N. &. C. Russell . . . 
 
 6 
 
 J 22 Broad 
 / 22 Narrow 
 
 250 000 
 
 | All wool cassimeres, 
 
 250 000 
 
 125 
 
 Tillotson & Collins 
 
 3 
 
 10 Broad 
 
 100 000 
 
 J Fancy cassimeres, 
 
 100 000 
 
 40 
 
 J L Peck 
 
 3 
 
 24 Narrow 350 000 
 
 J Flannels, 
 
 105 000 
 
 40 
 
 E. B. "Whittlesey 
 
 2 
 
 11 Broad ! 100 000 
 
 6-4 Meltons. 
 
 100 000 
 
 25 
 
 Ashlar Mills 
 
 2 
 
 18 Broad 
 
 30 000 [Balmoral skirts, 
 
 45 000 
 
 23 
 
 COTTON MANUFACTORY. 
 
 J. L. Peck, 3,392 spindles, warp. Annual production, $175,000. Hands employed, 75. 
 M. Van Sickler, 100 looms, manufacturing cotton cloth. 
 
 Around most of the manufactories named, little villages have 
 grown up, some of them containing several hundred inhabitants. 
 That known as Coltsville, in the north-eastern corner of the town, 
 has a station of the North Adams Railroad, a hotel, and many resi- 
 dences of persons not connected with the paper-mill of Hon. 
 Thomas Colt, from which it derives its name. Pontoosuc is a con- 
 siderable village in size, and is of marked beauty. Below this, 
 along the highway between Lanesborough and Pittsfield, lie Taconic 
 and Wahconah; the boarding-houses of the Pittsfield Woollen Mill 
 merging in the latter, which extends south to the junction of Onota 
 Brook with the Housatonic. 
 
 Between the mouth of Onota Brook and Lake Onota lie, in the 
 order in which they are named, Russell's, Peck's, and Peck and 
 Kilbourn's villages. The dwellings connected with the Pittsfield 
 
 o o 
 
 Cotton Factory and Pomeroy's Woollen Mills form respectively the 
 south-eastern and south-western verges of the central village of 
 the town. 
 
 Upon Shaker Brook, about a mile and a quarter west of Pome- 
 roy's, is Oceola. Upon the same stream, in the south-west corner 
 of the town, is Barkersville ; and, about half a mile farther north, 
 Stearnsville, both flourishing villages, containing not only the 
 comfortable dwellings of the operatives, but the handsome resi- 
 dences of the proprietors of the mills. In Stearnsville is Emanuel 
 Chapel, an outpost of St. Stephen's (P. E.) Church.
 
 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFiELD. 35 
 
 West of Stearnsville lies Shaker Village, or West Pittsfield, 
 occupied mostly by a community of the religious sect whose name 
 it bears. 
 
 Formerly, in some of the affairs of the town, Pittsfield was 
 divided as it often still is colloquially into the East and West 
 Parts, occasionally into the East and West Parts and the Centre. 
 In ordinary conversation, the boundaries of these divisions are not 
 very exactly defined ; but as districts in the old time, for the col- 
 lection of taxes and like purposes, if two only were made, the 
 separating line was North and South Streets; if three, the Central 
 was included between the Forks of the Housatonic. The North 
 Woods embraced the region north-west of Lake Quota ; and, al- 
 though the woods have long since disappeared, the name is still 
 retained. 
 
 The Central Village, to which we shall refer when speaking 
 simply of " The Village," covers a space of something over a square 
 mile, lying chiefly between the two branches of the Housatonic, 
 and a little above their junction. 1 
 
 Within these bounds are comprised nearly all the public and 
 business edifices of the town, with the exceptions of the manufac- 
 tories dependent upon water-power, and the buildings upon the 
 Agricultural and Berkshire-Pleasure Parks. Here, too, are most 
 of the private dwellings, other than those attached to factories or 
 farms and a few costly country-seats. The Village is noted for the 
 beauty of the views which it commands, for the broad and shaded 
 avenues which branch from the pretty little park which adorns its 
 centre, for its excellent educational institutions, and for some fine 
 public and private edifices. 
 
 The Park, hallowed of Pittsfield tradition, which forms the 
 central gem of the village cluster, is shaded by an elliptical grove 
 of handsome elms, in the centre of which stood, until within a 
 few years, a veteran of the same species, which was spared by the 
 settlers from their sweeping destruction of the primeval forest. 
 It early became the pride of the villager and the admiration of 
 the stranger. Its fame went abroad. Every year added to the 
 memories which had been clustering around it since the Old 
 
 1 This thickly-peopled section is specially incorporated as " The Fire Dis- 
 trict ; " having first been established for the support of a fire-department, but 
 afterwards empowered to build and control water-works, sewers, sidewalks, and the 
 like, and to maintain street-lights.
 
 36 
 
 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 French and Indian Wars. But, in 1841, the lightning scored a 
 ghastly wound down its tall, straight trunk, and began to dry 
 up its life-blood. Limbs fell away from it from time to time; 
 and the thunderbolt again scathed it. But still the little vitality 
 which it retained was carefully cherished. In its palmiest days 
 it had risen a smooth, bare shaft of ninety feet, bearing for capital 
 a leafy coronal of branches which carried its height to one hundred 
 and twenty-eight feet. In its days of blight, when a few green 
 boughs and two or three withered and shattered limbs alone re- 
 mained to crown it, the stranger still greeted it with admiration, 
 and the citizen watched it with reverent love. And when, in July, 
 1864, it was found to be bending under its own weight, it was 
 gently lowered from its place, literally amid the tears of the 
 sternest men. 
 
 In the Park, the waters of Lake Ashley leap upward in a foun- 
 tain whose spray might have washed the topmost leaves of the 
 
 MAPLEWOOD AVEXI E. 
 
 Old Elm. Regard for the comfort of the neighborhood, however, 
 dictates ordinarily a more modest display of its powers. 1 
 
 1 Pittsfickl is supplied with the purest water in great abundance from Lake 
 Ashley, which lies upon the top of one of the Hoosac summits in Washington, at 
 a distance of seven miles from the Park, and seven hundred feet above it. The 
 lake is fed almost exclusively from springs in its own bed. The water descends 
 about four miles in Ashley Brook to a reservoir in the south-western corner of 
 Dalton, whence it is carried in pipes three miles one hundred and fifty-two rods, 
 with a fall of one hundred and thirty-six feet, to the fountain in the Park. It is 
 conveyed to all parts of the village, the length of main and distributing pipe being 
 about fifteen miles.
 
 TOPOGEAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 37 
 
 The streets which branch from this centre are shaded in great 
 part by fine elms and lindens ; but an unfortunate partiality for 
 rapid growth and luxuriant folinge has given a preponderance to the 
 maples, long ago characterized by observant Spencer as " seeldom 
 inward sound." Arbor-like streets, spacious court-yards over- 
 spread by patriarchal trees, and park-like grounds, almost em- 
 bower a bird's-eye view of the village. 
 
 Of the latter, the most admired are those of Maplewood Young 
 Ladies' Institute, whose graceful chapel, gymnasium, and half- 
 
 vine-covered dwellings gleam white through avenues and groves 
 of famed attractiveness. 
 
 An ample park, the seat of a school of a high grade for young 
 men, occupies, with a profusion of arborage which almost rivals 
 Maplewood, the southern declivity of a commanding eminence 
 north of the village, which has received the name of Springside, 
 from the abundant springs, whose waters have been turned to 
 excellent purpose in adorning the grounds. The overview from 
 Springside stretches across the lower Berkshire Valley to the 
 Connecticut hills ; glimpses of which, at a distance of twenty 
 miles, are seen through the vista formed by the grander mountains 
 which intervene.
 
 38 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Of the ten village churches, three are devoted to the Con- 
 gregational form of worship ; one of them being occupied by a 
 colored parish. Two belong to St. Joseph's Roman Catholic 
 parish; the sermons in one of them being alternately in the German 
 and French languages. The Baptists, Methodists, and Epis- 
 copalians have one each; and one belongs to the German 
 Lutherans, who form a considerable element in the population 
 of Pittsfield, and have service in their own tongue. 
 
 In 1867-8, The Berkshire Life Insurance Company erected 
 a large and costly building, one of the most perfect business 
 structures in the country, upon the corner of North and West 
 streets, long known as the site of the " Old Berkshire Hotel." In 
 it is the central office of the proprietory corporation whose busi- 
 ness ramifies into every portion of the northern section of the con- 
 tinent. It also affords spacious rooms for the post-office, luxurious 
 banking-houses for the Pittsfield and Agricultural National Banks 
 and the Berkshire County Savings Institution ; halls for several 
 Masonic bodies ; the office of the Assessor of Internal Revenue for 
 the Tenth Massachusetts District ; many other offices, and several 
 stores. 
 
 By law, the various railroads which intersect at Pittsfield are re- 
 quired to unite, previous to the year 1869, in a common passenger 
 station : and a location has been selected for that purpose upon 
 West street, about eighty rods west of the Park ; and upon that 
 site large and handsome buildings are about to be erected. 
 
 The Legislature of 1868 made Pittsfield the shire town of 
 Berkshire County, requiring the town to furnish sites for the erec- 
 tion of the court-house and jail. For the former building, the 
 beautiful elm-shaded grounds on East Street, between Park Square 
 and Williams Avenue, have been purchased at the price of thirty- 
 five thousand dollars ; for the latter, ten acres of land are pro- 
 vided on North First Street, at a cost of five thousand dollars. 
 The buildings will be commenced while this work is in press. 
 
 By the highway, the distance of Pittsfield from Boston is one 
 hundred and thirty miles ; from Albany, thirty-three. The wind- 
 ings of the railroad increase these distances to one hundred and 
 fifty from the former city, and to fifty from the latter ; requiring, 
 respectively, six and two hours for the journey. New York is 
 reached in about six hours.
 
 TOPOGRAPHY OF PITTSFIELD. 39 
 
 Pittsfield has now a population of about eleven thousand, and is 
 rated in the assessment of 1868 at a valuation of $3,473,061 in 
 personal estate ; $4,693,173, in real estate : a total valuation of 
 $8,166,234. The number of polls returned was two thousand two 
 hundred and ninety-three ; the number of dwellings, fifteen hun- 
 dred and four.
 
 HISTORY.
 
 6 
 Must not be Loaned 
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ABORIGINAL OCCUPATION. 
 
 The Natives as found by the Pioneers. Relics. Villages and Burial Grounds in 
 Pittsfield. Scantiness of Native Population to be accounted for. Mohegan 
 Traditional History. Wars of the Mohegans and Iroquois. Changes in the 
 Condition of the Mohegans of Berkshire. Hunting-System of the Mohegans. 
 Berkshire a Hunting-Ground. The Pan of the Settlers of Pittsfield in various 
 Indian Wars. Remarkable Incidents. 
 
 WHEN, in the early part of the eighteenth century, the 
 English of Massachusetts first became intimately ac- 
 quainted with the mountainous district of its Far West, they found 
 it teeming with the various species of game and fur-bearing ani- 
 mals then common in New England ; which attracted occasional 
 hunting-parties of the Mohegans and Schaghticokes, who, by ten- 
 ures which will presently appear, held a sort of confused joint 
 occupancy of the hunting-grounds. 
 
 The permanent native inhabitants were, however, sparse, even 
 beyond the ordinary meagreness of Indian populations. The petty 
 villages of a few insignificant squads, mostly of the Mohegan 
 race, scattered at wide intervals, alone broke the solitude of the 
 mountain wilderness. And of these little huddles of savage wig- 
 wams, too highly dignified by the title of village, one lay 
 between Sheffield and Great Harrington ; and the smoke of others 
 curled up among the woods where Pittsfield, Stockbridge, New 
 Marlborougb, Dalton, and perhaps other towns, now stand. 
 
 The sites of those in Pittsfield are vaguely pointed out by tradi- 
 tion, with a somewhat less vague confirmation by the discovery 
 
 43
 
 44 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 of relics, as at Unkamct's pressing around the Canoe Meadows, 
 and upon Indian Hill (the emiifenC immediately west of the Gov- 
 ernor Briggs Homestead, and a little south-east of Lake Onota). It 
 is altogether probable, however, that, in accordance with the uni- 
 versal practice of the aborigines, their lodges were removed from 
 point to point, or, rather, that the costless things were aban- 
 doned for new, as often as convenience dictated, or a chance fire 
 in the woods at once cleared and enriched new fields for their lazy 
 husbandry. 
 
 Tradition speaks confidently of household implements of stone 
 found abundantly in the olden time, especially near the Canoe 
 Meadows, whose rich soil and neighboring river made them attrac- 
 tive ; but such discoveries are rare now, although, in some fields, 
 arrow-heads are not unfrequently found, 
 
 " The pointed flints that left his fatal bow, 
 Chipped with rough art and slow barbarian toil, 
 Last of his wrecks that strew the alien soil." HOLMES. 
 
 It was for the chase or on the war-path, that the savage oftenest 
 sought the wilds of the Winterberge. But the few memorials 
 which he left of his presence on the soil of Pittsfield must be the 
 more carefully recorded for their rarity. 
 
 On Indian Hill, in 1815, Capt. Joseph Merrick turned up with 
 his plough a Jewish frontlet, which, being opened, displayed the 
 usual sentences of Hebrew scripture, beautifully inscribed upon 
 parchment, which had been kept in perfect preservation by 
 leathern casings. The theory that the American Indians are the 
 descendants of the lost tribes of Israel had then many ardent 
 supporters, who, of course, hailed Capt. Merrick's waif as confir- 
 mation of their faith, in a double sense " strong as Holy Writ." 
 Deposited with the Antiquarian Society at Worcester, it was 
 learnedly discussed ; and we still find it occasionally mentioned in 
 books. 1 
 
 1 Memoir of Elkanah Watson, Hist. Stock., etc. Other like discoveries have 
 since occurred. Dr. Lykin obtained the loan of a similar amulet which is still 
 held in great repute by the Potawatamies of Kansas Eiver ; and the writer has 
 seen one which was found about twenty-five years ago among the Penobscot (Tar- 
 atine) tribe in Maine. One cannot account with perfect confidence for the 
 dispersion of these sacred mementoes so widely among a people ignorant of their 
 significance ; but it is less difficult to assume a Hebrew shipwreck, than to inject 
 the blood of Israel into Algonquin veins. The aboriginal superstition of ascribing
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 45 
 
 In 1850, a deep cutting was made in a peat-bed a few rods north- 
 east of Indian Hill ; and a number of poles, sharpened by the aid of 
 fire, as if for the constvucfcion of wigwams, were found so far be- 
 neath the surface that they, must have been deposited there long 
 before Jacob Elkins's bold explorers could have penetrated the 
 valley. 
 
 Indian Point is the name handed down from the old time 
 of a projection into Lake Onota upon the west, where the red hun- 
 ter delighted to lie perdue behind the singular rocky screen de- 
 scribed in a previous chapter, and shoot the deer who took refuge 
 in the delicious waters from the torments of the summer-heat and 
 the swarming mosquitoes. And, doubtless, in the course of ages, 
 erring marksmen left an armory of flint arrow-heads on the grav- 
 elly bed of the lake. 
 
 Along the Housatonic, east of the former residence of Dr. O. "W. 
 Holmes, stretch what the early settlers always called the Canoe 
 Meadows; and from their level surface, upon the eastern bank 
 of the river, rises a knoll which was once used as a burial-place 
 by the Mohegans, who, after they were collected in one community 
 at Stockbridge, were accustomed to make pious pilgrimages to this 
 spot, leaving the birch-canoes, in which they had ascended the 
 river, in the Meadows to which they thus gave name. 1 
 
 Lake Shoonkeekmooukeek, with its prolific waters, must have 
 been a frequent resort for the guiders of the birch-canoe ; and by 
 its shores they buried their dead. Some of their skeletons were, a 
 few years ago, exhumed from the eastern bank of its outlet, where 
 they had been interred in the usual sitting posture. 
 
 The graves of the vanished race of which so many wild tales 
 were told, of whom so many wild deeds were personally remem- 
 bered, always had a strange fascination for the pioneers ; and those 
 of Pittsfield pointed out several in different parts of the town to 
 their children. But these were wayside resting-places, to which 
 their tenants seem to have been consigned without that reverential 
 
 the power of a " medicine," or charm, to whatever in civilized use was incomprehen- 
 sible 1 iy savage simplicity, is well-known ; and surely nothing would more probably 
 acquire this mystic character than the curious frontlets which perchance some 
 shipwrecked children of Abraham, miraculously preserved from the waves, may 
 have been, by the wondering natives, observed to hold in religious veneration. 
 
 1 Mr. William G. Backus, who, when a boy, assisted in clearing this burial- 
 knoll fur cultivation, states that the graves could then be distinctly traced.
 
 46 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 care which the men of the woods were wont to bestow upon their 
 dead. 
 
 Such are the scant memorials by which we are able to trace the 
 aboriginal occupation of the soil of Pittsfield before its history as 
 the home of civilized man commenced. But slender as these me- 
 morials are, and slight as may have been the red man's attachment 
 to the spot as a permanent home, there can be no doubt that it 
 was his choicest hunting-ground. That he has left recorded in the 
 name he bestowed upon it ; and, although another appellation has 
 usurped the place of that which the Mohegan so significantly gave 
 it, we still love to remember that this was the Indian's abundant 
 Poontoosuck, his favorite chase for deer. The names the red men 
 called them by still cling to mountain, lake, and stream, forbidding 
 us to forget the race, which, a little more than a hundred years ago, 
 imparted to this glorious landscape all of human interest that per- 
 tained to it. He must be dull of sentiment indeed, who does not 
 feel that without the old Indian story, dim though it may be, the 
 region of the Taconics and the Hoosacs, of Poontoosuck and the 
 Housatonic, of Unkamet and Honwee, would lack a charm we 
 should not willingly spare. 
 
 But aside from what may be considered mere sentimental inter- 
 est, although that, too, has its intrinsic worth, a question of 
 more material importance arises, and finds its answer in a consecu- 
 tive, although not very minute, history of the Mohegan nation. 
 The paucity of the native population found in Berkshire demands 
 an explanation, and did, in fact, early attract the attention of the 
 local historians, who, although in some respects favored, labored 
 under great difficulties from the want of those archives to which 
 later writers have access. 
 
 The- native traditions declared, and with entire truth, that for- 
 merly a thousand warriors had answered to the Mohegan battle- 
 cry, and distant tribes had sought and received the protection of 
 their arms ; but the first European explorers of their country, or 
 certainly the first English surveyors, found but a few scant hun- 
 dreds men, women, and children included remaining to tenant 
 all the ancient empire of the tribe. And a patriotic shame forbade 
 the native chroniclers to relate to the stranger the unvarnished 
 story of their humiliation. 
 
 Those among the early settlers who interested themselves in 
 such questions, thus left to their own resources, if not actually
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 47 
 
 misled, in accounting for the decadence of the population which 
 preceded them, adopted a theory utterly untenable. They fancied, 
 that, when the remnants of the Pequots and Narragansetts, spared 
 from fire and sword, were driven out of New England, the terror- 
 stricken fugitives, passing through Western Massachusetts, so 
 spread the fear of the white man's prowess and cruelty that the 
 mass of the people joined in the flight to safer regions in the West. 
 
 By a strange negligence, the fact was overlooked, that the 
 territory in question was inhabited by Mohegans, the inveterate 
 enemies of both Pequots and Narragansetts, between whom and 
 the New-Englanders they had been the chief instruments in stir- 
 ing up strife. At the very moment when they are represented as 
 joining the exiles in panic flight, they were pursuing them with 
 a vindictiveness which their white allies were, for the sake of 
 humanity, obliged to temper. It will be recollected that when, 
 in 1676, the renowned Major Talcot overtook a fugitive band 
 of two hundred wretched Narragansetts at Stockbridge, and visited 
 them with great slaughter, he was guided in the pursuit by a 
 Mohegan, and that the only man he lost in the affair was of 
 the same race. It was with good reason that the Mohegans 
 loved, and were faithful to, the white man ; for by him they 
 had been preserved from utter extermination, and, in the Valley 
 of the Connecticut at least, restored to something of their old 
 prestige as warriors. The sheep might as well have herded with 
 the wolves flying from the shepherd, as the Mohegans have joined 
 the Pequots and Narragapsetts escaping from the New-Englanders. 
 
 So far from dwindling in these old wars, the population of Mohe- 
 ganland must have been swelled by the captives who, in accordance 
 with their custom, were adopted into the victorious tribe; and, 
 owing to the humane influence of the colonial officers, the number 
 thus saved from death was greater than in most Indian wars. It 
 does not, however, appear that the villages west of the Hoosacs 
 received immediately much augmentation from this source. But 
 the Iroquois, who had become the feudal lords of the old Mohegan 
 empire, granted a refuge, in what is now the northern part of 
 Reusselaer county, to a band of exiled Narragansetts, which grew to 
 be the Schaghticoke tribe, and sent out little colonies to the Valley 
 of the Housatonic. 1 
 
 1 The principal Indian village in Sheffield was styled Scatecook ; and the 
 presence of individuals of that race in the county was the cause of the only blood-
 
 48 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 These accessions to the native population were, to be sure, not 
 large ; but they serve to strengthen our conception of the extreme 
 desolation which must have prevailed anterior to them ; and, even 
 if they were altogether inconsiderable, the fact would still be 
 plain, that such desolation was not the result of the New-England 
 wars. 
 
 The error in solving the problem arose from the mistake of 
 seeking the key if, indeed, it was sought in any documentary 
 evidence among the records of Massachusetts ; while the Mohe- 
 gans were, especially at the period of their decadence, essentially a 
 New-York tribe. 
 
 Turning to the historical collections of the latter State, we find 
 that destruction came to the aborigines of Berkshire from the 
 west, and not from the east, from the red man, and not from the 
 white : in what manner, we shall endeavor to show. 
 
 The Mohegan one of the most prominent in the history of the 
 Algonquin races was, like the others, divided into tribes or 
 nations, bearing distinctive names ; which, again, were sub- 
 divided into bands, a political organization into whose constitu- 
 tion we do not purpose to inquire. The great tribe to which 
 the appellation of Mohegan is commonly applied, and who may 
 hence be held to represent the parent stock, occupied in 1609, 
 when they were first visited by the Dutch under Ilendrick 
 Hudson, the whole territory DOW the counties of Berkshire, 
 Columbia, and Rensselaer; having their chief village, or " castle," 
 at Schodac (more musically pronounced by themselves Eskwatak, 
 
 the place of fires; i.e., council-fires), on the Hudson. And 
 they had also, at what is now Greenbush, a strongly fortified post 
 
 according to their notions of engineering against their hered- 
 itary enemies, the Mohawks, whose territory came down to the 
 opposite bank of the Hudson. 
 
 The name by which they called themselves, as nearly as English 
 type can represent its multitudinous syllables, was Mo-he-ka- 
 ncew, in the plural, Mo-he-ka-neok ; signifiying " the people of 
 the great waters which are continually in motion," that is, which 
 ebb and flow. This unwieldy patronymic was mellowed by the 
 Dutch to Mahican, as it is written in the early Pittsfield deeds ; 
 
 shed between the colonists and the children of the soil which ever occurred among 
 its hills.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 49 
 
 by the English to Mohican ; and, finally, has passed into poetry 
 and history as the sonorous Mohegan. The national tradition is, 
 that the progenitors of the race on this continent, having crossed 
 the great waters at a point in the North-west where the opposite 
 coasts approach very near to each other, were compelled by 
 famine to disperse through the wilderness, and thus lost what- 
 ever of civilized arts and manners they had previously possessed, 
 "apostatized," as their Christianized chronicler expresses it. 1 
 
 Pursuing their way to the south-east, still driven by hunger, 
 or impelled by that centrifugal restlessness which urged the na- 
 tions away from their cradle, they crossed many great waters, 
 but none which ebbed and flowed like Mohekunnuk, " the river 
 of their nativity," until they reached the Hudson. Pleased with 
 the resemblance of that noble stream, in this respect, to that which 
 ebbed and flowed in their Asian home, they called it Mahican- 
 ittuck ; anticipating a bad American practice by reduplicating, in 
 the land of their adoption, the name which had been dear in the 
 land of their birth. 
 
 Finding, in addition to the charm of association, that the shores 
 of the great river abounded in game, and its waters with fish, 
 while the soil and climate favored their easy-going agriculture, 
 the way-worn and hungry people determined here to fix their 
 permanent habitation. 
 
 Flourishing in this new home, the Mohegans ran the usual 
 career of successful Indian nationalities. Carrying carnage and 
 desolation among neighbors as savage as themselves, they de- 
 stroyed some weaker tribes, protected and affiliated others. The 
 terror of their name spread far to the east and west ; and prob- 
 ably it was at this era that one of their tribes penetrated into 
 south-eastern Connecticut, and, there establishing themselves, 
 achieved among the natives of that region the proud title of 
 Pequots, the destroyers. 
 
 On their western border, the Mohegans reduced the six nations 
 not yet confederate to the utmost straits. They even 
 threatened that afterwards-powerful empire or, rather, most of 
 its then independent parts with total extinction. But at that 
 unknown epoch when the wonderful league was formed which 
 constituted the Iroquois in war one people, one ambitious, 
 revengeful, and irresistible nation, the fortunes of the Mohegans 
 
 1 Hendrick Aupaumut in Hist. Stockbridge.
 
 50 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 began to wane ; and they were soon glad to accept the alliance, for 
 mutual defence, of the Wappingers, and other river-tribes, with 
 whom, up to that time, they had been at continual war. But the 
 combined forces of the eastern shore proved too weak to withstand 
 the enemy, to whom a wise union had suddenly given the almost 
 undisputed empire of the forest. The allies were defeated by the 
 Iroquois, in a decisive battle fought near Rhinebeck on the 
 Hudson, at a date so recent that the first Dutch farmers found their 
 fields still strewn with the bones of the slain. 
 
 The defeated party was reduced to vassalage, which, although 
 not of so degrading a character as that imposed on the unfortunate 
 Leni Lenape, who descended from the rank of warriors to the 
 political condition of squaws, must have been sufficiently 
 galling ; especially in cases like that of the treaty of Tawesentha, 
 when the belt of friendship, held at one end by the Dutch and at 
 the other by the Iroquois, rested upon the shoulders of the Mohe- 
 gans and of "the nation of women," in token of their common 
 subjugation. 
 
 Fretting under the yoke, the conquered but still high-spirited 
 race soon rebelled; and in 1625 we find them again in arms 
 against their ancient enemy. The attempt to regain their inde- 
 pendence on their own soil miserably failed. The uprising was 
 suppressed; and, after a merciless war of three years' duration, the 
 greater portion of the Mohegans were either killed or captured, 
 and the remainder were driven into the Valley of the Connecticut. 
 Here they were hospitably received by their kinsmen of the 
 previous migration, the Pequots. But difficulty soon arose from 
 the ambition of Uncas. A separation ensued, and then those 
 intrigues at Boston and Hartford which brought destruction upon 
 the Pequot branch. 
 
 If, as has been said, there was any feudal subjection of the 
 Mohegans in the Connecticut Valley to the Iroquois, it must have 
 been an uneasy and often interrupted relation ; for Arnold Mon- 
 tague, who wrote of the last days of the Dutch dominion on the 
 Hudson, and published his account in 1671, reports the Mohawks 
 as constantly at war with the Mohegans, which latter also main- 
 tained " a constant animosity against the Dutch." 
 
 At last, in 1664, as the English fleet was approaching to convert 
 the New Netherlands into New York, the Mohegans were embold- 
 ened, perhaps instigated, to harry the Province upon its opposite
 
 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 51 
 
 frontier ; and thus the old fire again broke forth. The Mohegans 
 attacked the Mohawks, destroyed cattle at Greenbush, fired a 
 barn at Claverack, and ravaged that eastern bank of the Hudson 
 which had been the home of their fathers. But, on the 8th of the 
 following September, this devastation having occurred in July, 
 the Dutch governor surrendered Fort Amsterdam, and the New 
 Netherlands ceased to be. Thenceforward the governments of 
 New York and Massachusetts, subject to the same crown, sti'ove 
 to stanch the feuds which prevailed between the tribes within 
 their borders; so that the Mohawk and the Mohegan did not 
 again meet in battle until the war of the Revolution, when the 
 former adhered to the king, and the latter espoused the cause of 
 the people. 
 
 After the forced exodus of the great body of the Mohegans, in 
 1628, their ancient hunting-grounds upon the hills seem to have 
 been occupied by the few who were released from captivity, or who 
 crept back from exile and hiding ; and, after such fierce conflicts 
 and such general expatriation, the wonder is, not that so few, but 
 that any remained. The components and form of Indian commu- 
 nities are, however, proverbially fluctuating as the sand-hills of the 
 desert; and, in -the disturbance produced by colonial agencies, 
 sources were found from which, in some small degree, to replenish 
 dispeopled Moheganland. Along the river-shore at Claverack, 
 Kinderhook, and Greenbush, the Dutch began to spread their 
 settlements, and press the natives to the hills. On the north, the 
 Schaghticokes prospered, and threw out their branches along the 
 Housatonic. Straggling Horikans, perhaps, wandered down from 
 the Upper Winterberge. Meanwhile, the relations between the 
 Iroquois and their Mohegan feudatories became more intimate 
 and genial, doubtless through the kind offices of the Oneidas, who, 
 before their incorporation into the Six Nations, had incurred a debt 
 of gratitude to the then-powerful Mohegans, which they seem now 
 faithfully to have discharged. " The Mohawks, Onondagas, Cayu- 
 gas, and Senecas are our uncles," said the Stockbridge chroniclers; 
 "but the Oneidas and Tuscaroras are our brothers." 
 
 Still the statement of the exceeding meagreness with which the 
 Indians peopled "\Yestern Massachusetts needs no qualification ; and 
 what inhabitants there were, were mostly Mohegan. Even when 
 an attempt was made, about 1750, to introduce Mohawks into the 
 mission settlement at Stockbridge, the effort met with no success,
 
 52 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 notwithstanding the strenuous exertions of the commissioners, 
 sustained by lavish appropriations of money by the General Court. 
 
 We have few data upon which to found an estimate of the 
 number of natives who, before its settlement, occupied the ter- 
 ritory now known as Berkshire. When the mission was estab- 
 lished at Stockbridge, an effort was made to gather all of the 
 nation into one community in that town; and, in 1736, ninety 
 had thus been collected. One hundred and twenty were reported 
 in 1740; and, by 1747, these had increased to -two hundred. In 
 1785, when they were about to remove to the Oneida country, the 
 community had grown to the number of four hundred and twenty 
 souls. But of these, a majority had come from beyond the Hoosacs 
 upon one side, and the Taconics on the other. 
 
 There is, indeed, no reason to believe, that, even in the palmiest 
 days of Mohegan empire, any considerable number of the tribe 
 ever dwelt permanently in the mountainous regions of their 
 country. Indeed, we have positive evidence to the contraiy in an 
 account written by Capt. Hendrick Aupaumut, one of their later 
 chroniclers, and preserved by President Dwight. As the customs 
 of the nation are described in this paper, the business of the chase 
 was pursued with system. The sanop, to be sure, might replenish 
 his larder from the neighboring woods, whenever appetite or 
 opportunity suggested. But the red deer did not, as an ordinary 
 morning occurrence, bound by the Indian village, and receive an 
 invitation in the guise of a flint arrow-head to the wigwam dinner. 
 The year was, therefore, divided into two great hunting-seasons, 
 one in the fall, when they hunted the deer, bear, beaver, otter, 
 raccoon, fisher, and martin, for winter clothing, and drying-meat; 
 the other in the spring, when they chased the moose upon the Green 
 Mountains, the Taconics and Hoosacs. The latter season com- 
 menced about the first of March, and was succeeded by a supple- 
 mentary trapping of otter, beaver, and other amphibious animals, 
 as soon as the ice broke up in the streams and lakes. Good care 
 was, however, taken that the stay among the mountains should 
 not exceed two months. 
 
 The conclusion which we reach, then, is, that the few Mohegans 
 who kept their lodges permanently at Poontoosuck lived amid an 
 abundance of game, which, throughout the year, they shared with 
 such hunting-parties of their countrymen as chose to join them, 
 which many probably did at the time of the fall hunt. But, in
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 53 
 
 the early spring, the whole valley, with its surrounding hillsides, 
 was alive with the hunters of the moose, the broad-horned 
 " winter-deer ; " and, as the ice melted from the waters, their 
 banks were lined with the forms of the trappers, as, now bending, 
 now creeping, they cautiously examined their thick-set snares. 
 
 Of what wild adventure, of what wily craft, the scenes now 
 familiar to us were witnesses in those errand hunts, or durino- the 
 
 O 7 O 
 
 desperate struggles for tribal independence which have been por- 
 trayed, imagination only can tell ; unless, indeed, antiquarian 
 research shall yet discover some fragments of the story, imbed- 
 ded perhaps, as much which goes to make up this chapter was 
 found, in documents otherwise dry as dust. 
 
 We need not here pursue the topic further. The fairest era in 
 the Mohegan's story that of his introduction to Christian civili- 
 zation belongs to the annals of Stockbridge. But, while Pitts- 
 field may well envy her beautiful sister-town, the memories of 
 that noble missionary enterprise, and of the great men who were 
 connected with it, happily she has also little of that tragic inter- 
 est, so far as events occurring upon her own soil are concerned, 
 which connects the red man so sadly with the early history of 
 many Xe\v-England towns. The first inhabitants and their 
 fathers had already, in other places, borne their full part in the 
 dangers, sufferings, and losses inflicted by savage warfare, as, in all 
 respects, they had contributed their full share in laying the foun- 
 dations of the commonwealth. The names they bore were not 
 strange to Massachusetts history, but had been hallowed in that 
 baptism of blood which, for a century of cruel years, was poured 
 out over the Valley of the Connecticut. 
 
 Military rolls almost lost among similar memorials of honor 
 which war after war has accumulated in the archives of Massachu- 
 setts still preserve the names of some, afterwards among the foun- 
 ders of Pittsfielcl, who, when younger men, of Springfield, Northamp- 
 ton, Westfield, and other towns, fought in " the old Indian wars." 
 But the record of individual suffering and achievement is scant ; 
 while of the daring women, who, with husband and son, braved 
 the dangers of that lurid frontier, only here and there an incident 
 is told: of which one, in which an ancestress of the Janes-Brown 
 families of Pittsfield was the heroine, must suffice for an illustra- 
 tion. This lady, the wife of Benjamin Janes, was, says Rev. 
 Frederic Janes (the historian of the family), conspicuous in the
 
 54 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 tragic perils and sufferings at Pasconiac, near Northampton Vil- 
 lage, in 1704, saw her four children murdered by the savages, 
 and was herself tomahawked, scalped, and left for dead ; but 
 recovered, after two years of suffering, and bore four other chil- 
 dren. One of her grandsons, Elijah, settled in Pittsfield about 
 1763, and other of her descendants at various times. 1 
 
 1 In the foregoing chapter, the accounts of the customs and pre-historic migra- 
 tions of the Mohegans are gathered from the traditions preserved by President 
 Dwight. For the story of their wars with the Iroquois, I have depended chiefly 
 upon the documentary history of New York, and the histories of that State by 
 Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan and John Komeyn Brodhead.
 
 .CHAPTER II. 
 
 GRANTS. SURVEYS. SALES. 
 [1620-1741.] 
 
 Advance of Population Westward in Massachusetts. History of the Western 
 Boundary of Massachusetts. First Settlement on the Housatonic. Disposi- 
 tion by the General Court of Wild Lands in Hampshire County. Jacob Wen- 
 dell. John Stoddard. Grant to Stoddard. Grant to Boston. Boston sells 
 to Wendell. Adjustment of the Rights of Wendell, Stoddard, and Philip 
 Livingston. Cost, Form, and Dimensions of the Township. 
 
 E tide of population, setting westward from Plymouth Rock, 
 JL in the brief space of twenty-six years advanced to the shores 
 of the Connecticut, where Springfield was founded in 1636. Thirty 
 additional years carried it forward but barely ten miles to West- 
 field, where, stayed at the base of Tekoa Mountain, it paused for 
 more than half a century, until suddenly, in 1725, it overleaped the 
 Iloosacs, and the village of Sheffield was planted upon the broadest 
 and most fertile meadows of the Housatonic. Twenty-seven years 
 more elapsed before a permanent settlement was effected at belated 
 Poontoosuok. Thus one hundred and sixteen years intervened be- 
 tween the settlement of Springfield and that of Pittsfield. The Con- 
 necticut Valley, with its people decimated by repeated massacre 
 and harried by hordes of savages, whose apparent numbers were 
 enhanced by their mode of warfare, this valley, with fields more 
 abundant than husbandmen, had small temptation to offshoot its 
 scanty population into a region whose frowning mountains even 
 now turn eastward their most rugged front, and which then lay 
 in most provoking contiguity to the war-path of the Canadian 
 foe. This, however, was by no means the sole or even the chief 
 cause which postponed the western settlements. It was little effect, 
 except when war actually existed, that such obstacles were wont 
 to have in staying the progress of Massachusetts population when 
 the interests of the Province demanded that it should advance. 
 
 65
 
 56 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 The impediment which proved effectual was the uncertainty of 
 the New-York boundary, which a series of conflicting royal grants 
 and charters had involved in a curious complication that was only 
 finally disentangled by what New York called " intrusion," but 
 Massachusetts a bold assumption of just territorial rights. 1 
 
 The antagonistic positions maintained by the two Provincial 
 Governments may, perhaps, be best exhibited in dialogue, thus : 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. Under royal charter granted A.D. 1691 by 
 King William and Queen Mary, of blessed memory, my territory 
 extends as far west as that of Connecticut, in virtue of the words 
 following ; to wit, " westward as far as our colonies of Rhode 
 Island, Connecticut, and the Narragansett countrie." 
 
 NEW YORK. Nay ; but these words refer to the eastern and not 
 to the western bounds of Connecticut : rightfully construed, they 
 do not bring you even to the Connecticut River. However, up to 
 that line, it is no concern of mine; but observe, in 1674, seven- 
 .teen years antecedent to your charter from William and Mary, 
 Charles the Second granted, among other territories, to his brother, 
 the Duke of York, " all the lands from the west side of the Con- 
 necticut to the east side of Delaware Bay." And to the Duke's 
 title my government succeeds. 2 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. True, as to Charles's grant; and that was 
 not the only portion of my proper territory the royal rascal tried to 
 steal for his brother, the sometime papist tyrant, before his corrupt 
 judges robbed me legally, or at least with some of the forms of 
 law, of the whole. 
 
 NEW YORK. But you will not deny, that, your charter having 
 been vacated in chancery, it was competent for the King to dispose 
 as he pleased of the lands reverting to him. 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. We need not discuss that. The decree in 
 chancery issued in 1684. It could have no effect upon transactions 
 in 1674, when, if at all, the Duke's rights must have accrued 'from 
 the last confirmation of his grant of which there is any pretence. 
 By the King's patent, only such title could have passed as was then 
 in him, not that which he may afterwards have acquired. Now, 
 
 1 Resulting, however, in an amicable adjustment of claims. 
 
 2 New York also contended that the boundary established between that Province 
 and Connecticut was not that contemplated by the original patents, but was con- 
 ceded by a special agreement between the parties, for reasons not applicable to the 
 case of Massachusetts ; among which, one was the actual occupation of the territory 
 by Connecticut colonists.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 57 
 
 in 1674, 1 was living under the grand old charter which made the 
 Atlantic and Pacific seas my eastern and western bounds. 
 
 NEW YOKE. Hold ! Not so fast ! Remember that your 
 ' grand old charter" that of the first Charles, in 1628, I suppose 
 you speak of limits itself by this restriction : "Provided also that 
 the said islands, or any the premises by the said letters-patent in- 
 tended or meant to be granted, were not then actually possessed or 
 inhabited by any other Christian prince or state." Now, about the 
 year 1608, "as appears from the book entituled 'The British Empire 
 in America,' " Henry Hudson discovered the lands of this prov- 
 ince ; and, by virtue of that discovery, the Dutch whose title is 
 merged in mine, and under whom, as well as the Duke, I claim 
 possessed and occupied the same as far north-easterly as the Con- 
 necticut River, near which, I doubt not, it may be made to appear 
 many Dutch people wei'e settled. 1 
 
 And thereupon Massachusetts made an issue of fact, denying 
 any such sufficient occupation by the Dutch as was alleged, except 
 as regarded a narrow strip of territory along the Hudson. 
 
 The controversy continued many years, and was finally ter- 
 minated, without an adjudication upon its original merits, 
 by an agreement entered into by the parties, after an amicable 
 conference by their representatives at Hartford, in 1773. The 
 boundary then consented to was substantially that claimed by 
 Massachusetts; but, instead of being a continuation due north 
 of the Connecticut line, it was made to deflect considerably 
 towards the east by a corresponding divergence in the course 
 of the Hudson River, between which and Massachusetts it 
 was provided that a space of twenty miles should at all points 
 intervene. 
 
 Until this arrangement was effected, the uncertain dividing-line 
 was a constant source of trouble, vexation, and anxiety ; some- 
 times resulting in violence, and once at least in bloodshed, 
 between parties who acted under conflicting patents from the 
 rival Governments. In general, however, the influence of the royal 
 governors prevented a resort to extreme measures. Massachusetts 
 maintained her jurisdiction up to the boundary which she claimed. 
 New York ruled beyond it. Conflicts arose only in the few cases 
 in which the two Governments had granted the same tracts to 
 
 1 Papers relating to the Livingston Manor and the New-Hampshire Grants, 
 N. Y., Doc. Hist., and Col. Docs.
 
 58 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 different parties, and principally as to those now mostly included 
 in the towns of Sheffield, Mount Washington, and Egremont, 
 but which were known to New-York colonial geography as 
 the tracts of Taghkanik and Westenhook in the manor of 
 Livingston. 
 
 Previous to the conference of 1773, New York, nevertheless, 
 did not in terms relinquish her pretensions to any of the territory 
 claimed by Massachusetts west of the Connecticut River. On 
 the contrary, she rather insisted upon their validity; and, while 
 hinting that equity might require the Crown to confirm to individ- 
 uals the lands actually possessed and improved by them, she 
 clogged this concession by insisting upon the quit-rents which 
 lands in her patents paid to the royal revenue. These rents had 
 sometimes furnished corrupt officials with a pretext for extortion, 
 and had always been fruitful of discontent, even among those 
 who had accepted grants specifically charged with them. 
 
 In Massachusetts, no such tribute was known. Her settlers 
 boasted themselves freeholders, a title which conferred not 
 only substantial rights, but much-prized burgher dignity. They 
 therefore especially dreaded transfer to a government whose lands 
 were universally held under what they deemed a feudal tenure. 
 The New-York officials, on the other hand, were contemplating 
 with impatient longing the sums which the quit-rents due upon 
 the lands unjustly withheld by Massachusetts ought to bring 
 into their treasury ; Gov. Hardy estimating them, in 1756, at 2,000 
 per annum, and Lieut.-Gov. Colden, in 1764, being content with 
 the more moderate demand of 1,200. We can thus well com- 
 prehend the relief which must have been afforded to the people 
 of Pitts'field, as well as of her sister towns, by the result of the 
 Hartford conference, which was doubtless one of the causes that, 
 in the ensuing ten years, vexed as they were with war and 
 financial disorder, nearly doubled her population. 
 
 The line agreed upon in 1773 was not, however, finally run until 
 1787, when Congress, at the request of the States interested, ap- 
 pointed a commission for the purpose, consisting of Rev. Dr. John 
 Ewing, a distinguished savan of Philadelphia; David Rittenhouse, 
 the celebrated astronomer; and Thomas Hutchins, the national 
 geographer-general. All the science of even this distinguished 
 triad was, however, insufficient to correct the variations of the 
 magnetic needle among the iron-laden hills of Taconicj and
 
 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 59 
 
 the line was not precisely that contemplated by the parties : but 
 the error was of trifling moment as compared with the amity 
 of contiguous States. The line, therefore, remains as it was then 
 fixed, with the slight exception caused by the cession of Boston 
 Corner to New- York in 1855, which, although made for the con- 
 venience of those living upon that little tract, incidentally rectified, 
 in part, the error of 1787. 1 
 
 We must now return to the period when the pioneer civilization 
 of Massachusetts, after its long pause upon the banks of the Con- 
 necticut, was about to advance at one bound to those of the 
 Housatonic. 
 
 Between the years 1717 and 1722, it became apparent, from the 
 course of New York, that the boundary between that Province 
 and Connecticut, agreed upon in 1683-4, must soon be run. 
 
 Roughly, that agreement was upon a line about twenty miles 
 east of the Hudson ; and it was manifest, as well from observation 
 as from the express declaration of the representatives of New 
 York, that Connecticut, in obtaining a boundary so far westward 
 of that originally conceded to her, had been mainly aided by 
 boldly pushing forward her population to the farthest limits which 
 she claimed. 
 
 E very consideration, then, urged Massachusetts to a similar 
 course ; while the precedent of Connecticut imparted confidence 
 to settlers in the titles founded upon a basis which had proved 
 sufficient in the southern Province. Nine years of peace since 
 Queen Anne's War had also reinvigorated the frontier, and filled 
 it with young men impatient for a new advance into the wilder- 
 ness. 
 
 In 1722, therefore, one hundred and seventy-seven citizens of 
 Hampshire County petitioned the General Court for a grant 
 of lands in the Valley of the "Housatunnuk or Westbrook." 
 Some of the best minds 2 in the councils of the Province then 
 represented the old county, and strongly favored, if they had not 
 indeed suggested, the petition : and accordingly the townships 
 
 1 The extension of Massachusetts a little farther westward than Connecticut, 
 notwithstanding her claim to only coequal bounds, is accounted for by the cession, 
 by the latter State, of a strip from her western border as an equivalent for a tract 
 added to Fairfield County from New York. 
 
 2 Among these, one of the most active and influential was Ebenezer Pomcroy, 
 an ancestor of the Pomeroy family of Pittsfield.
 
 60 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 afterwards designated as the "Upper and Lower Housatunnuk" 
 were granted; their ample limits embracing the present towns 
 of Sheffield, Great Barrington, Mount Washington, and Alford, 
 with a great portion of Stockbridge, West Stockbridge, and Lee. 
 The settlement of this tract commenced at what is now Sheffield, 
 in 1725, simultaneously with the survey of the New-York and 
 Connecticut boundary-line ; but the enterprise lagged until the 
 completion of that survey in 1731. About that time, an informal 
 understanding appears to have been at least tacitly established 
 between New York and Massachusetts ; for a New-York historian 
 of that period exultingly records that "it was left for the year 
 1731 to be distinguished for the complete settlement of the 
 boundary disputes, an event, considering the late colonizing 
 spirit and extensive claims of the New-England people, of no 
 small importance." 
 
 Something very like a Western fever, and speculation in " the un- 
 appropriated lands of the Province, in the county of Hampshire," 
 now sprang up. The General Court, eager to occupy the disputed 
 territory, made liberal grants to actual settlers upon payment of 
 sums barely sufficient to extinguish the Indian title, and defray 
 the expenses of formally establishing the plantations. To other 
 purchasers, lands were sold at a moderate price per acre. Public 
 men were rewarded for services to the State by gifts of forest 
 tracts; institutions of learning were endowed with townships; and 
 towns at the east, upon which an unfair proportion of the general 
 burdens fell, were relieved by drafts upon the same treasury of 
 public wealth. 1 
 
 But, whatever might otherwise be the nature of the grant, 
 provision generally in the form which we shall find in the case 
 of Pittsfield was almost invariably made for a speedy, thrifty, 
 and defensible settlement by Massachusetts subjects, and for the 
 support of schools and public worship. 
 
 1 There was no division of the territory into townships by general survey ; but 
 grants were made of a certain number of acres, sometimes of a prescribed com- 
 pactness, to be selected from the unappropriated lands of the Province in the 
 county of Hampshire, " to be surveyed, and a plat thereof returned to the General 
 Court" within a specified time, "for confirmation." Afterwards, the nooks 
 between these selections were granted. This practice, the variation of the western 
 boundary of the State from the line at first expected, and the mountainous ridges 
 which intersect the county, are the chief, although not the only causes of the very 
 irregular shapes and sizes of the Berkshire towns.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSF1ELD. 61 
 
 There was no lack of men ready to accept lands, even upon an 
 exposed frontier, and with Indian claims to be extinguished, 
 when the terms were otherwise so easy as those described above. 
 Nor were there wanting many, with strong muscles and intelligent 
 minds, although of feeble purse, who were willing to encounter 
 danger, exposure, and the most arduous labors, that they might 
 build up homes in the newly-opened country. 
 
 The system of large farms and scant culture natural to new 
 countries, and not without its benefits in diffusing population 
 left many young men, even in the fertile valley of the Connecticut, 
 with no alternative but to till an inferior soil, or bravely win a 
 richer from the forest. We know what class chose the latter : 
 the advancing wave of civilization bore the noblest spirits on its 
 crest. Persons of a riper age and more ample means, whose pro- 
 fessional or political success had not equalled their ambition, or 
 perhaps their conscious merit, were tempted, if of elastic tem- 
 perament and persistent resolution, to new fields of effort in the 
 rising plantations, where their experience, serviceable to the com- 
 munity, would be welcomed and rewarded. Men of public spirit 
 and unemployed capital at once gratified their tastes, and found 
 a profitable investment for their money, in furthering the settle- 
 ment of townships, whose acres were certain to increase many fold 
 in value by the labors and outlays of those who purchased a small 
 portion, often for almost as much as the first cost of the whole 
 tract. 
 
 The Provincial archives of the period are full of papers con- 
 cerning wild lands, new settlements, and dealings regarding them ; 
 and, among the names which most frequently recur in these 
 documents, are those most conspicuous also in the transactions 
 preliminary to the settlement of Pittsfield, Cols. Jacob Wendell 
 of Boston, and John Stoddard of Northampton. 
 
 These gentlemen were both men of property, members of the 
 Provincial Council, and colonels of the militia in their respective 
 counties. Col. Wendell, born at Albany in 1691, of Dutch lineage, 
 connected with some of the most prominent families in that ancient 
 burgh, early transferred his prosperous fortunes to Boston, where 
 he became one of the wealthiest merchants of the port, a director of 
 the first banking institution established in America, and a success- 
 ful politician. He married a daughter of Dr. James Oliver of 
 Cambridge, and by her became the father of a son more dis-
 
 62 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 tinguished than himself, Oliver Wendell, the bold and ardent 
 Revolutionary leader, and the ancestor of two men of brilliant 
 intellectual fame in our own day, "Wendell Phillips and Oliver 
 Wendell Holmes. 
 
 Col. Stoddard was one of the most remarkable men in the 
 Provincial history of New England, if we may credit so eminent a 
 eulogist as President Edwards, who ascribes to him " the highest 
 native gifts of mind, a peculiar genius for public affairs, a thorough 
 political knowlege, great purity of life, incorruptible principles, and 
 sincere piety." He adds, that, " upon the whole, there perhaps 
 never was a man in New England to whom the appellation of ' a 
 great man ' did more properly belong." This is, to be sure, the 
 language of eulogy, uttered by one mourning the newly dead, to 
 whom he had been bound by the ties of kindred, and the closest 
 sympathies of religious opinion ; but the assenting judgment of 
 unbiassed contemporaries of Col. Stoddard, and the record of his 
 public life, permit us to deduct little from President Edwards's 
 high estimate of his character. 
 
 There were but few public undertakings of much consequence, 
 in his time, in which he had not some part ; and, among other 
 commissions upon which he served, were those to open the settle- 
 ment at Sheffield, and to establish the celebrated Indian mission 
 at Stockbridge; in both of which lie was joined with Ebenezer 
 Pomeroy. During Queen Anne's War, his command of the 
 militia, in the most exposed portion of the Province, was credit- 
 able; and, at its close, he was sent to Canada to effect the restora- 
 tion of the New-England captives who were scattered among the 
 savages of that region. 
 
 In 1734, the General Court granted to this faithful servant of the 
 Province one thousand acres of its " unappropriated lands in the 
 county of Hampshire," to be by himself selected in some convenient 
 place. The grant was asked in consideration of Col. Stoddard's 
 "great services and sufferings for the public in divers journeys to 
 Canada, Albany, and the eastern parts, upon public affairs; his 
 serving in war with good success; his transactions with the 
 Canadian and other Avestern Indians; and his entertaining of 
 them at his o\vn house without any expense to the Province." 
 
 It was required that the thousand acres should be laid out by 
 surveyor and chain-men, under oath, and a plat returned to the 
 General Court for confirmation within twelve months of the passage
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 63 
 
 of the act which bore date Dec. 17, 1734. The Legislature were, 
 however, not rigid as to lapses of time when conflicting claims did 
 not accrue in the interval ; and the grant was duly confirmed, 
 although the survey was not submitted until June 22, 1736. The 
 bounds of the patent are thus defined : 
 
 " Lying on the main branch of the Housatonic River, about sixteen miles 
 north of Capt. Konkapot's house : beginning east ten degrees, south eighty 
 perch from two hemlock-trees, marked (which trees stand upon a ridge of 
 upland running northerly), and coming to a point a few rods from said trees, 
 which are about ten rods from a sand-bank on the east side of said Housa- 
 tonic River, just above Unkamet's or Antankamet's Road, where it crosseth 
 said branch : and, from the end of the aforesaid eighty perch from said trees, 
 it runneth north ten degrees, east two hundred and forty perch : thence 
 west ten degrees, north four hundred perch ; thence south ten degrees, west 
 four hundred perch ; thence east ten degrees, south four hundred perch ; 
 and thence north ten degrees, east one hundred and sixty perch, to the 
 eastern end of the first eighty perch." 
 
 Konkapot's house stood upon the north bank of Konkapot's 
 Brook, in Stockbridge. Unkamet's Road extended from North- 
 ampton to Albany. It was probably an ancient Indian trail, 
 improved by passing parties of soldiers and surveyors, so as to 
 admit the use of pack-horses, upon which supplies for the army 
 and the settlers were transported. It crossed the eastern branch 
 of the Plousatonic, near where the highway, Unkarnet Street, next 
 south of the Western Railroad, now bridges it. 1 As the meadows at 
 that point were called " Unkamet's," and a neighboring brook bore 
 the same name, 2 it is fair to surmise that some Mohegan guide, 
 whose wigwam stood in the vicinity, acquired among the trav- 
 ellers who passed that way, in Col. Stoddard's time or earlier, the 
 sobriquet of Unkamet, or Old-Path-Over-Yonder, from the phrase 
 which was perpetually recurring in their intercourse ; the transla- 
 tion of the word "Unkamet" being simply "the path over there." 
 
 Col. Stoddard, in his frequent visits to Albany, Sheffield, and 
 Stockbridge, as well as in his military oversight of the district, 
 must have become thoroughly acquainted with the region ; and he 
 manifested his knowledge of it shrewdly in selecting his thousand 
 acres, which hardly had their equal within the bounds of his choice. 
 Lying in the form of a square at the western terminus of the most 
 
 1 Plan of the town in 1752, and deed in Henry Colt's collection. 
 
 2 Vulgarly corrupted in later times to Huckamuck.
 
 64 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 convenient pass through the Hoosac Mountains, it included some 
 of the most luxuriant meadows and fertile uplands in the Province. 
 One of the best water-privileges on the Upper Housatonic added 
 to its wealth ; and its location rendered it likely to become the 
 intersecting point of the county roads. Stoddard's thousand 
 acres must be borne in mind : they will have their distinctive part 
 in our story. 
 
 But even this fine tract, encumbered as it was by Indian claims, 
 and with its value largely in anticipation, would, in modern judg- 
 ment, be considered an inadequate recompense for the array of 
 public services which we have quoted of Col. Stoddard. And 
 there are indications that, even with his more primitive notions, 
 he entertained a similar opinion of his reward. He certainly con- 
 templated an extension of his patent, either by grant or purchase, 
 to a full township ; and, with this view, obtained deeds and leases 
 from different Indian claimants, by which their title to a tract six 
 miles square, nearly identical with that now covered by Pittsfield, 
 was transferred to him. One of these leases is preserved in the 
 collection of Hon. Thos. Colt, and the material portions are given 
 below : 
 
 To all People to whom these shall come. GREETING : 
 
 KNOW YE, That we, Jacobus Coh-qua-he-ga-meek, Matakeamin, and 
 Wampenum, formerly of Menanoke, 1 or the island in the Hudson below 
 Albany, now planters in the Indian town on Housatonic River, have de- 
 mised, granted, and to farm-letten (sic), and by these presents do farm-let 
 unto John Stoddard of Northampton, in the county of Hampshire and 
 Province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England, Esq., all that tract and 
 parcel of land, of six miles square, lying and being in the county of Hamp- 
 shire and Province of Massachusetts Bay aforesaid, on the main or principal 
 branch of Houseatunnick River, so called, about sixteen miles northward of 
 the place where Cuncupot now dwells, and at the place where Unkamet's 
 Road, so called, that leads from Albany to Northampton, crosseth said branch, 
 beginning at said crossing, extending thence two miles eastward and four 
 miles westward, three miles northward and three miles southward, extending 
 every way from said point until it embraces six miles square of land, . . . 
 to have and to hold for the term of nine hundred and ninety-nine years. 
 [The yearly rent was fixed at six pounds, in public bills of the Province, 
 or its equivalent in silver, according to the present worth or estimation," 
 payment to be made upon the 20th of October annually ; and the lessors 
 to have the right to re-enter and take possession, if payment was delayed, 
 
 1 A Mohegan word, meaning " island place."
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 65 
 
 twenty-one days from that d^te. The lease was executed " in the elev- 
 enth year of our sovereign Lord, King George the II., and Anno Domini 
 1737.] 
 
 his 
 
 JACOBUS x COOCHEECOMEEK. 
 
 mark. 
 
 MAHTOOKAMIN. Q 
 
 mark. 
 Ma 
 
 WAMPENUM. Q 
 
 mark. 
 
 Signed, sealed, and delivered in presence of 
 TIMOTHY WOODBRIDGE. 
 JONATHAN WHITE. 
 ABIGAIL WOODBRIDGE. 
 
 In other parts of the instrument, the names of the lessors are 
 spelled Coquahegameek, Metakamin, and "Wampenon. The de- 
 scription given of the premises would carry their bounds one mile 
 east of the corresponding limits of Pittsfield ; taking in Cranesville 
 on the east from Dalton, and excluding Shaker Village on the 
 west. 
 
 But, before Col. Stoddard was able to procure a legislative 
 confirmation of his Indian purchase, a grant of the same tract to 
 other parties compelled him to change his plans. 
 
 In June, 1735, a memorial from the town of Boston to the 
 General Court representing the heavy expenditures of that 
 municipality in supporting its poor and maintaining its free schools, 
 and also that its citizens paid one fifth part of the entire annual 
 tax of the Province asked, in consideration of these burdens, for 
 " three or four townships " of Hampshire wild lands, " to be 
 brought forward and settled as the circumstances of the peti- 
 tioners might seem to require, or upon such conditions as the 
 Court might deem meet." 
 
 In response to this request, three townships, each six miles 
 square, 1 were bestowed, but not without the usual provisions for 
 a speedy and rightly-conducted settlement. These conditions, 
 which proved of unexpected moment to the settlers of Pittsfield, 
 were thus expressed in the grant, immediately after the clause 
 requiring a survey, and the return of the several plats within 
 twelve months for confirmation : 
 
 1 Afterwards Colerainc, Charlemont, and Pittsfield. 
 5
 
 6(5 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 " Provided the town of Boston do, within five years from the confirmation 
 of said plats, settle upon each of the said towns sixty families of His Ma- 
 jesty's good subjects, inhabitants of this Province, in as regular and defensible 
 manner as the lands will admit of, each of said families to build and finish 
 a dwelling-house upon his home-lot, of the following dimensions, viz., eigh- 
 teen feet square and seven feet stud at the least ; that each of the said set- 
 tlers, within the said term, bring to and fit for improvement five acres of said 
 home-lot, either for ploughing or for mowing, by stocking the same well with 
 English grass, and fence the same well in, and actually live upon the spot ; 
 and, also, that they build and finish a suitable and convenient house for the 
 public worship of God ; and settle a learned orthodox minister in each of the 
 said towns, and provide for their honorable and comfortable support ; and also 
 lay out three house-lots in each of the said towns, each of which to draw a 
 sixty-third part of said town in all future divisions, one to be for the first 
 settled minister, one for the ministry, and one for the schools." 
 
 In order that these provisions " might be more effectually com- 
 plied with," a committee was appointed (consisting of John Jeffries, 
 Jacob Wendell, and Samuel Welles, of the Council ; and Elisha 
 Cookc, Oxenbridge Thatcher, Thomas Gushing, jun., and Timothy 
 Prout, of the House), who were authorized to admit settlers, taking 
 from each a bond of 25 for the performance of his proportion of 
 the duties enjoined, the lot also to revert to the Province in 
 case of non-compliance with the prescribed conditions. 
 
 The requirement that the settlers should be inhabitants of 
 Massachusetts was intended to guard against the introduction of 
 Dutchmen from New York, against whom the boundary quarrels 
 had created a prejudice, and who might defeat one prominent 
 object of the General Court, to fill up the western territory with 
 a population willing to defend the Massachusetts claim. 
 
 The grant was made June 27, 1735 ; but, notwithstanding the 
 language of the act, the time allowed for survey and return of plat, 
 either by some construction or subsequent provision of law, did 
 not expire until Dec. 29, 1736. And, in June of that year, Col. 
 Jacob Wendell, one of the commission appointed to supervise 
 the settlements, purchased at public auction the inchoate rights of 
 Boston in one of the townships ; " relying upon the goodness of 
 the Great and General Court to give him further time to lay out 
 the same^and return a plat for confirmation." This reliance did 
 not fail him ; and he obtained an extension until the 6th of January, 
 1738. That he should obtain this favor was, perhaps, one of the 
 conditions of the bid at vendue; for it was not until the 13th of
 
 PLAT OF TOWNSHIP, 1738. 
 
 So. 2OfJ- Wt- 462 Chains and 31 links. 
 
 O- 
 
 A Platt of a Townfhip Granted by the General Court to the Town 
 of Boston, and by the Said Town of Boston Sold to the Honble. Jacob 
 Wendal, Esqi\ of the contents of Six Miles Square, Including in Said 
 Plat a Grant of 1000 acres made to the Hon^'e- John Stoddard, Esqr-, 
 which contains in the whole 24040 acres. The whole whereof is thus 
 bounded ; viz., Beginning at a Stake with Stones about it, the S- Et- 
 corner, nigh a Small Run of water, about a mile and Halfe Eaft of 
 Iloufea Tunnic River, from Sd- Stake the line Extends No. 2oi- Et. 
 462 Chain 31 Links to a Hemlock tree marked on a Hill the NO. Et. 
 Corner. From thence the line Runs Wt. 2od. NO. 520 Chain to a 
 Beach tree marked upon a steep Hill, with Ston's about it, the NO. 
 Wt. Corner. From thence S- 2c-d- Wt. 462 Chain 31 links to a 
 Hemlock Standing by a little brook, mark'd with Stones about it, 
 being the So. Wt. corner. From thence Et. 2od. So. 520 Chain, to 
 the Stake and Stones firft mention'd, which sd. Townfliip is Lying 
 About Five Miles NO. NO. Et. From the Indian Town on Houfatun- 
 nick River, in the County of Hampfhire. Platted by a Scale of 48 
 Chain in an Inch. Septemr. 27, 1738. 
 
 Per JOHN HUSTON, Surveyor. 
 
 
 J3 No. 2od. Et. 462 Chain 31 links. 
 
 Examd. Per Ebene. Burrill. 
 
 Hampfh., Ss. SPRINGFIELD, Octobr- 4111, 1738. 
 
 John Huston appearing, made oath that in Platt- 
 ing and Surveying the land Dcfcribed in the platt 
 aforesaid, he aftecl therein Indifferently and Impar- 
 tially, according to his best skill and Judgment. 
 Before me, 
 
 WM. PYNCHON, JUNR., Just. Pea. 
 Plat accepted and allowed, Deer. 8tl>, 1738.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 67 
 
 March, 1737, that the deed in which these facts are recited, 
 and which conveyed the township, still not laid out, to Col. 
 Wendell, was executed by John Jeffries, Jonathan Armitage, 
 David Colson, Alexander Forsythe, Caleb Lyman, Jonas Clark, and 
 Thomas Hutchinson, jun., selectmen of Boston." l 
 
 The survey was made in September, 1738, by John Huston, a 
 Northampton civil engineer of repute ; and the plat, here inserted, 
 was returned to and accepted by the General Court in the follow- 
 ing act : 
 
 " In the House of Representatives, Dec. 5, 1738, read and ordered, ' That 
 the plat be accepted and allowed, and the lands therein delineated and 
 described be and are hereby confirmed to the- town of Boston and their 
 assigns forever (exclusive of the one-thousand-acres grant made to the Hon. 
 John Stoddard, Esq., within mentioned), and is in full satisfaction of one of 
 the three townships granted by this Court to the said town of Boston at 
 their session begun and held at Boston, May 28, 1 735 ; provided the said 
 town of Boston, or their assigns, effectually comply with and fulfil the con- 
 ditions of the grant, and that the plat exceeds not the quantity of twenty- 
 four thousand and forty acres of land, and interferes not with any other or 
 former grant. ' " 
 
 The plat thus allowed and described as containing twenty-four 
 thousand and forty acres of land included the six miles square 
 granted to the town of Boston, the thousand acres given to Col. 
 Stoddard, and also a strip sixty-eight rods wide upon the west ; the 
 last item being added as compensation " for the waste ponds com- 
 prised in the township." The good people hardly foresaw, that, 
 within little more than a hundred years, these contemned waters 
 would be held of higher value than the same amount of surface 
 in what they classed as "first-rate arable land," and that rich 
 meadows would be submerged to increase their area. 
 
 The little oblong notch observable in the north-west corner of 
 
 O 
 
 the map of the town does not appear in the plat, but it is found 
 in the plan of 1752. Mount Honwee here juts into the angle of 
 the territory, as laid out by Huston ; and probably it was con- 
 sidered that its steep declivities would be an undesirable posses- 
 sion. 
 
 More than two years elapsed, after the confirmation of Col. 
 Wendell's title, before his claims and those of Col. Stoddard w,ere 
 
 1 Copy of the deed in possession of Mr. J. A. Foote, certified by " William 
 Cooper, Town Clerk," " as of record on the Boston Registry of Deeds."
 
 68 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 adjusted; and then, a third person appearing in interest, Philip 
 Livingston of Albany, 1 deeds were interchanged, by virtue of 
 which the three gentlemen became joint and equal proprietors of 
 the township. The deed from Wendell to Livingston, after quot- 
 ino 1 the grantor's patent from the Province, thus recites the mutual 
 agreement, in brief: 
 
 " Whereas the said John Stoddard hath not only a just and complete 
 title to the thousand acres aforesaid, but hath also, at great expense, pur- 
 chased several grants and leases from the natives, of the lands above 
 described; and afterwards, this very day (March 29, 1741), the said Jacob 
 Wendell and the said John Stoddard, for an amicable settlement of their 
 mutual claims and interests in the township aforesaid, agreed that the said 
 Jacob Wendell should have two thirds of the thousand acres aforesaid, and 
 the said John Stoddard should have one third of the rest of said township ; 
 . . . and whereas, also, the said Jacob Wendell, in all these transac- 
 tions, purchased as well for Philip Livingston of Albany, in the Province of 
 New York, Esq. (by agreement not mentioned therein), as for himself, in 
 equal halves, and, in his first purchase and after-gratuities to the natives for 
 their satisfaction and other charges upon the premises, disbursed the sum of 
 fourteen hundred and sixteen pounds three shillings and threepence, and for 
 that now hath two third-parts of that whole tract of land surveyed and platted 
 as aforesaid : now, therefore, know ye, that the said Jacob Wendell, in faithful- 
 ness to his trust aforesaid, and in consideration of the sum of seven hundred 
 and fifty-eight pounds one shilling and sevenpence half-penny in hand, 
 received of said Philip Livingston in full of his part of said purchase- 
 money and other disbursements aforesaid, doth hereby convey ... to the 
 said Philip Livingston one half of his above-mentioned interest." 2 
 
 Thus the cost of the township up to this time if we allow 
 Stoddard's public service to count in the ratio of Wendell's pur- 
 chase-money 3 was precisely two thousand one hundred and 
 seventy-four pounds four shillings tenpence and two farthings. 
 
 1 The lord of Livingston Manor, a kinsman of Col. Wendell, and father of him 
 who signed the same name to the Declaration of Independence. The elder Philip, 
 and after him his eldest son, Robert, claimed Westenhook and Taghkanik as 
 parts of their manor, and were prominent in the troubles which arose concerning 
 those tracts. 
 
 2 Copy of deed in possession of Mr. J. A. Foote, certified by " Ewd. Pynchon, 
 ' Regr.," from the Hampshire Registry of Deeds. 
 
 8 Col. Wendell paid to the town Boston 1,320 for its rights in the township.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FIRST ATTEMPT TO SETTLE THE TOWNSHIP. 
 [1741-1749.] 
 
 Settling-lots laid out. Description of Lots and Roads. Philip Livingston to 
 procure Settlers. Efforts to introduce Dutchmen fail. Huston induces a 
 Company from Westfield to purchase Forty Lots. Pioneers commence a Clear- 
 ing. Poontoosuck as it appeared in 1 743. Work suspended by News of War. 
 Col. William Williams. The War of 1 744-8. Building of Fort Massa- 
 chusetts. Hardships of Settlers in the War. 
 
 ~V~1TT~HEN the township was platted by Capt. Huston in 1738, 
 
 V V sixty-four home (or house) lots were laid out, each intended 
 to contain one hundred acres, and, except where irregularities 
 arose from the indentations of Onota and Silver Lakes, to be uni- 
 formly of eighty rods front and two hundred deep. Careless sur- 
 veying, however, caused some variations from this standard; the 
 lots in the middle tier, for instance, proving to be, in fact, two hun- 
 dred and two rods deep. 
 
 Two roads, each seven rods wide, intersected each other near 
 the centre of the township. One of these, now East and West 
 Streets, ran from boundary to boundary ; 1 the other, in that part 
 of its course which is now North Street, extended two hundred 
 rods above the Crossing, and, on the old direct line of South 
 Street, four hundred and six rods below it. 
 
 A third road, four rods in width, was laid out parallel to the 
 first, and two hundred and two rods south of it. East of its inter- 
 section with South, this is now Honasada Street. West of that 
 point, only portions of it have been opened. 
 
 Along the first and third of these thoroughfares, or what were 
 intended to be such, the home-lots designed for settlers and for 
 
 ' Owing to obstacles in the nature of the ground, East Street has been actually 
 opened only to the distance of half a mile from the Park.
 
 70 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 public purposes were ranged in three tiers, running east and west. 
 Of these the middle, containing twenty-seven lots, lay between East 
 and West Streets and Honasada Street, and extended completely 
 across the township. The northern fronted south upon East and 
 West Streets, contained nineteen lots, and, beginning at the Han- 
 cock line, reached to Goodrich Lake. The southern tier, facing 
 north upon Honasada Street, numbered seventeen lots, and extend- 
 ed from the Dalton line to where Oceola Village now stands. 
 
 The territory thus set apart for the proposed plantation formed 
 about one quarter of the whole township, and embraced its fair 
 proportion of good arable lands. It is now far more valuable than 
 all the rest of the township. The northern boundary of the Set- 
 tling-lots would be indicated by an extension of Burbank Street; 
 the southern, by a line drawn through South Mountain Street at 
 its intersection with South, passing a little north of Melville Lake. 
 
 The numbering of the lots, which was peculiarly arbitrary and 
 puzzling, recognized in them but two classes, Lots North and Lots 
 South. " No. 1, North," was the most westerly in the upper tier. 
 From this, the regular numerical order was followed up to 13, 
 which denoted the Ministry Lot, embracing nearly all the territory 
 which lies between the west branch of the Housatonic and North 
 Street. 
 
 No. 14 was found by a diagonal transit to the lot in the middle 
 range, south of what is now the Park, whence the numerical order 
 is preserved to 25 at the Dalton Border. No. 26 designated the 
 Minister's Lot, north of the Park, and the next in territorial prox- 
 imity to 13. Nos. 26 to 31, counting east, completed the survey- 
 or's tier of " Lots North." 
 
 Lot No. 1, of the technical southern tier, was the most westerly 
 in the middle range. Thence arithmetical regularity prevailed up to 
 No. 15, on the corner of West and South Streets. No. 16 dropped 
 diagonally again to the southern range, where it indicated the lot 
 on the south-eastern corner of South and Honasada Streets, which 
 extends across the Housatonic River. Thence the enumeration 
 again proceeded in due order to 27, on the eastern line of the town. 
 No. 28 was found next west of 16. Thence the figures increase west- 
 ward to Lot 33, the highest in the list, which was laid out in ad- 
 dition to the prescribed sixty-three. In conveyances, leases, and 
 similar instruments, the premises were generally designated as
 
 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 71 
 
 " Lots North, or South," as the case might be. Sometimes, how- 
 ever, the form, "Lot No. , North (South or Middle) tier," was 
 used : but here the number referred to the relation of the lot to its 
 class, north or south ; the mention of the tier in which it was 
 actually located was mere collateral description. 
 
 As soon as the terms of the joint proprietorship were fixed, in 
 1741, the whole matter of complying with the requisitions attached 
 to the grant was intrusted to Livingston ; and, either through 
 ignorance or wilfulness, setting at naught one of the provisions of 
 the act, he at once visited the township with seventy Dutchmen, 
 whom he hoped to induce to purchase sixty of the lots "at a 
 moderate lay " in money, with the further consideration that they 
 should perform all the duties imposed by the General Court upon 
 the entire tract of twenty-four thousand acres. 1 
 
 The requirement that each settler must take the good, bad, or in- 
 different lands which might fall to him by lot in the confined tiers 
 which had been set apart for that purpose, was unsatisfactory to 
 the Dutchmen ; and perhaps the soil of Poontoosuck did not com- 
 pare so favorably with the broad fertility of the Valley of the Hud- 
 son as it did with that of the regions from which the eastern emi- 
 grants came. Perhaps, also, the strangers at whom it was aimed^ 
 observing the clause in the Boston patent excluding them from its 
 benefits, may have conceived a doubt as to the validity of the title 
 which they were to receive. They certainly, upon hearing the 
 terms proposed, peremptorily refused "even so much as to ac- 
 cept the lands if they were offered as a gift, not to speak of the 
 conditions attached to them," unless they might select each his 
 hundred acres where it pleased him; which would have left but a 
 barren remainder to the original proprietors. 
 
 The Dutchmen wisely for themselves, as the event proved 
 returned as they came, leaving Mr. Livingston and his partners 
 sadly broken up in their plans, and, owing to previous delays, 
 sorely pressed for time. 
 
 Upon this Capt. Huston, who had surveyed the township and 
 was familiar with its good points, learning how affairs stood with 
 
 1 Petitions to the Provincial Government from the settlers, in 1762-6, alleged 
 that Wendell and Stoddard left it to Livingston to obtain settlers, with the express 
 expectation that he would procure them from the Dutch, as the place lay near their 
 country, whence they could bring provisions, etc., until they could raise it ; " and 
 thus they would have a Dutch town at once."
 
 T2 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 his old employers, induced a number of his acquaintances in West- 
 field and thereabout to visit the place. Their inspection proving 
 satisfactory, a company was formed, which sent Capt. Huston, 
 Joseph Root, and John Lee to Albany, " empowered to agree with 
 Mr. Livingston for forty of the aforesaid Dutch-despised lots." 
 Livingston was so well pleased with Huston's proceedings, that he 
 gave him three good lots as a gratuity ; and he so successfully 
 plied the committee, that, instead of merely making an agreement 
 for the forty lots, getting a bond for a deed, as was probably the 
 expectation of the company, they bought them outright, giving 
 their note for the purchase-money, which was fixed at 1200, cur- 
 rent money of the Province ; " as much, within 120," the settlers 
 were fond of boasting, as Col. Wendell paid to Boston for the whole 
 township. 1 These statements, although ex parte, are probably sub- 
 stantially correct, as the answers of the respondents to the memo- 
 rials do not attempt to controvert them. 
 
 The committee also bound themselves, or the settlers under them, 
 to perform two-thirds of all the duties enjoined by the conditions 
 of the grant upon the whole township. Certainly, taking into view 
 all the circumstances, these Connecticut-River Yankees did not 
 drive a shrewd bargain with the lord of the Livingston Manor. 
 The Dutchmen were the sharper of the two parties. 
 
 The lots obtained by this purchase were Nos. 1 to 8 inclusive, 
 in both classes; Nos. 9 to 32 south, inclusive, except 14, 16, 17, 
 and 27; and Nos. 16, 17, 18, and 19, north. 
 
 Most of these lands were deficient in pine timber, of which 
 there were rich forests in the " Commons," as the lands outsiue 
 the Settling-lots, held in common by the original proprietors, were 
 called. Marble and limestone, also abundant in many localities, 
 were not universally distributed. It was therefore provided in 
 the deed of the forty lots that the settlers "should have free right 
 to cut wood, dig stone, and carry away the same from any part 
 of the township, sufficient for building, fencing, and fuel." After- 
 wards, it was one of the grievances complained of by The Planta- 
 tion, that Wendell's and Stoddard's heirs repudiated this portion of 
 
 1 See Appendix A, regarding the values of Massachusetts bills of credit. The 
 facts concerning the dealings of Livingston are collected chiefly from two memo- 
 rials sent by the Pittsfield settlers to the Governor and General Court, one in 
 1762, now preserved in the Massachusetts archives ; the other in 1766, found among 
 the William Williams Papers.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 73 
 
 their solemn indenture, on the pretence that Livingston had not 
 been empowered to enter into any such agreement. The increas- 
 ing value of pine-lands perhaps helped them to the conclusion. 
 
 The indenture was made in November, 1742 : and it was agreed 
 that each of the grantees should begin a settlement upon his home- 
 lot during the next spring or summer, and continue it, unless in 
 the mean time war should ensue between France and England ; 
 in which case the settlement was to be commenced within one 
 year after the declaration of peace. Accordingly, in the spring 
 of 1743, their lands having been distributed to them by lot, the 
 pioneers of Pittsfield promptly took possession of the spot where 
 they hoped soon to welcome their young wives to homes, which, i 
 if not free from danger and discomfort, were such as those in 
 which their mothers, through much love and high resolve, had 
 braved the terrors of the old frontier. Most of the forty were 
 young men; and, with many, the marriage-day waited only the 
 promised home in the wilderness. We may imagine with what 
 forms the fancy of the stout-hearted pioneers peopled the changing 
 scene, as, with strong arm and ringing axe, they attacked the 
 fastnesses of the forest in that half-hopeful summer of 1743. 
 Half hopeful : for anxious forebodings must have continually op- 
 pressed the workers ; knowing, as they did, the disturbed state 
 of Europe, and that the intrigues of the Stuarts (name of ill 
 omen to Massachusetts, even though those who bore it no longer 
 ruled), favored by circumstances, were likely at any moment 
 to embroil France and England. In the fall, came closer fore- 
 shadowing of evil. Word was sent by Col. Stoddard that hos- 
 tilities were immediately imminent ; and, taught by the sad 
 experience of former wars that the first intimation of their actual 
 existence might come from the war-whoop of Canadian savages 
 surrounding their clearing at midnight, the pioneers abandoned 
 their labors, not to resume them for five tedious years. It was 
 the old story, the ambitions of corrupt courts and powerful capi- 
 tals working woe in the most insignificant and remote corners of 
 their vast empires. 
 
 There is no absolute certainty as to the names of those who 
 took part in this first attempt to plant a settlement at Poontoosuck ; 
 although it seems clear that a majority of those who engaged in 
 the second essay also took part in the first. But, between 1744 
 and 1748, many of the pioneers doubtless enlisted in the military
 
 74 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 expeditions to which Massachusetts contributed so liberally ; and, 
 in those peculiarly exhausting campaigns, some must have fallen 
 by disease or in battle. Others relinquished their purpose of 
 settling at Poontoosuck in the five years which elapsed before 
 another effort could be made to carry it out. 
 
 Only a few of the deeds from Huston, Lee, and Root can now 
 be found either in the original copies, or in the registry at Spring- 
 field. One of these conveys to Samuel Root, jun., of Westfield, Lot 
 No. 5, South, to which his son Oliver the major of Revolu- 
 tionary fame succeeded, Mr. Root dying before he could carry 
 out his intention of removing to Poontoosuck. David Mosely, 
 "gentleman," got Lot. No. 7; Aaron Dewey, 8 ; Hezekiah Jones, 
 19 ; John Tremain, 29, all in class South the consideration in 
 ~ each case being 30. The grantees also severally bound them- 
 selves each to perform his proportionate part of the obligations 
 which had been assumed by the grantors, and, specifically, to 
 begin settlements upon their respective lots in the spring or 
 summer of 1743, with the war proviso, as in the Livingston in- 
 denture; to continue the same in such manner, that, at the end 
 of two years, there should be a dwelling-house, and family living 
 in it, upon each lot, and to keep possession by similar occupancy 
 for at least the two years next succeeding. 
 
 The half-forgotten story of the first brief intrusion of civilized 
 life into the red man's Poontoosuck is peculiarly alluring to the 
 pen of the chronicler. Nor will it be uninstructive, if, in the best 
 light which we can get, we seek to portray the township as it 
 appeared to those who, before "the old French wars," were 
 striving with busy axe, and musket near at hand, to prepare in its 
 wilds a home for those scarcely less hardy certainly not less 
 brave than themselves. 
 
 If, from some neighboring mountain-top, the pioneer, as he 
 approached, gained a view of the amphitheatre which lay below, 
 the scene was one to enchant even the most prosaic heart. All 
 the minor irregularities, all the sharper angles, were softened and 
 rounded by an enamel of forest, in which were embossed the 
 rolling outlines of hill and valley. The landscape, stretching 
 through a range of fifty miles, presented, until all other hues were 
 lost in the blue of distance, the unbroken green of waving tree- 
 tops, save where, through a few chance openings, the Housatonic 
 flashed back the sunlight, or some shimmering glimpse of lakelet
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 75 
 
 revealed its lonely surface, upon Avhich, perhaps, still lingered the 
 graceful bark of a wandering Mohegan. At intervals, in the 
 sea of green, a spot of darker verdure, where the boughs stirred 
 more stiffly to the breeze, betrayed the lurking-places of the gloomy 
 and frequent hemlock-swamps. Around the southern borders of 
 Lake Shoonkeekmoonkeek, and on some of the Taconic hills, 
 glowed those noble groves of pine whose fame, attested by a few 
 not unworthy relics, remains to this day. Elsewhere the practised 
 eye of the woodsman recognized the maple, the elm', the beech, the 
 birch, the linden, the hickory, the chestnut, the red (and infre- 
 quently the white) oak, the cherry, the ash, the larch, the fir, the 
 spruce, and every tribe of New-England forestry except the cedar, 
 whose spicy aroma never mingles with the odors of our groves. 
 
 Thus the scene must have burst upon the pioneer, as, with 
 hope's elastic step, he approached it in leafy June. How much 
 more glowingly it lay outstretched, as, sick at heart with hope's 
 deferment, he turned away from it in many-colored October ! 
 
 As he descended the mountain-side by TJnkamet's Road, or such 
 other rude path as might offer, it would have been strange had his 
 ear not been greeted by the growl of the bear, the howl of the 
 wolf, or the cries of the lynx 1 and the loup-cervier ; 2 for all these 
 had their dens among the tumbled rocks of the neighboring 
 ravines. 
 
 As he proceeded, he might have caught a vanishing glimpse of a 
 fox's brush, or the bristling quills of a porcupine. He was pretty sure 
 to startle a brace of rabbits, and send a woodchuck burrowing to 
 his hole ; while squirrels red, black, gray, and striped gambolled 
 by scores up and down the shaggy sides of the great trees. The 
 skunk made his presence known ; and perhaps a raccoon, on some 
 fallen mossy trunk, challenged a shot from the ever-ready firelock. 
 But that, no doubt, the marksman would have reserved for the 
 moose which might presently peer at him from the recesses of the 
 forest, the deer that was almost sure to dash across his path, or 
 the wild turkey stalking among the ferns. Above him, the eagle 
 and the hawk swept in dizzy circles. From the dank borders of the 
 lake, the shrill scream of the loon and the harsh note of the heron 
 saluted him. The black duck swung upon the still waters ; and 
 possibly a sea-gull, which had wandered inland with the mist of the 
 
 1 The Bay-lynx, or American wildcat. 2 The Canadian lynx.
 
 76 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Sound, dipped its white wing along their surface. All the feathered 
 host which, with bright hues or melodious song, make glad New- 
 England woods, fluttered among the overhanging branches. 1 
 
 On every side resounded the drumming and the whirr of the 
 grouse, 2 to be succeeded at nightfall by the complainings of the 
 whip-poor-will, the solemn to-whoo of the great white owl, and the 
 dismal screech of his ill-omened cousin, prophetic of St. FranQois 
 war-whoops. 
 
 But while some harmless striped or green snake may have 
 glided across his path, or the black (now long since extermi- 
 nated) have lain coiled near by, or perhaps the milk-adder lurked 
 in the under-brush, the wayfarer listened in vain for the warning 
 rattle of the dread of New-England fields, against which the soil 
 of Northern Berkshire is charmed, by the prevailing virtues of the 
 ash-tree, as the popular faith avers. 
 
 All the denizens of the Green-Mountain forests, save the rattle- 
 snake, might thus have come to salute or dismay the stranger, 
 who, in a little while, was to usurp their ancient domain. His 
 reception, however, was likely to be less tumultuous. The more 
 conspicuous members of the forest-guild may, indeed, have absented 
 themselves entirely from the assemblage ; for" sometimes, although 
 the wood was populous with game, even the skilled Indian hunter, 
 familiar with all its haunts, sought it in vain, and went supperless 
 to his bed of turf, which perhaps might nevertheless, at the very 
 moment, be indented with the foot-prints of a hundred deer. The 
 scout found his only trusted commissariat in a bag of pounded 
 corn ; and the commanders of outposts in deer-forests, acknowl- 
 edging gratefully the receipt of a dried codfish, complained that 
 it was impossible to obtain meat in their vicinity. When one reads 
 of " a country swarming with game," it is necessary to remember 
 that nevertheless it may oftentimes be hard to corne at, and that 
 hunting is always a precarious mode of subsistence, even for a 
 savage. 
 
 Still, all that we have suggested might have occurred to the 
 pioneer, as, descending from the Iloosac Mountains, he trudged to 
 
 1 Mr. James H. Butler, in 1867, made a collection embracing more than one 
 hundred varieties of the smaller birds which inhabit the woods and fields of Pitts- 
 field, some of them of brilliant plumage, and others of exquisite grace of form. 
 2 The ruffed grouse, invariably but erroneously called by New-Englanders the 
 partridge, the name of a species of pheasant not native to this region.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 77 
 
 his claim, perhaps beyond Lake Onota; and doubtless, in his 
 camp of logs, he often welcomed to a savory meal of game the 
 Dutch fur-trader, the. Eastern surveyor, or the messenger who bore, 
 between Boston and Albany, intelligence of French and Spanish 
 movements, and propositions for mutual defence in the fore- 
 shadowed troubles. News of wars and rumors of wars were eagerly 
 discussed over plentiful viands supplied by the neighboring hunt- 
 ing-grounds. 
 
 If Unkamet's Road passed where the favorable nature of 
 the ground invited it along the northern verges of Goodrich, 
 Silver, and Onota Lakes, and directly from base to base of the 
 opposing mountains, it afforded a path, which, although narrow, was 
 free from any serious obstacles. But if the pioneer bent his course 
 south of the lakes, by the road now East and West Streets 
 laid out by the surveyor, traversing the whole range of the settling- 
 lots, he would have been obliged to struggle through no less than 
 five swamps, which, uninviting as they appeared from the mountain- 
 top, were still more repulsive upon nearer acquaintance. But, fre- 
 quent and inconveniently located as these sloughs were, they did 
 not cover a very large portion of the surface ; and some of them after- 
 wards became valuable meadow-land. The pioneer, if he were for- 
 tunate in his guidance, was able to avoid them by winding paths of 
 no very violent detour ; and, in doing so, he came upon rich, loamy 
 uplands inviting the plough; lawnlike openings, suggestive of cot- 
 tage homes ; and meadows weary of waiting for the English grass 
 prescribed by The Great and General Court. The richer soils were 
 found covered with massive maples, huge oaks, and spreading 
 beeches ; the thinner, with gigantic pines, enormous trunks, fit to 
 intimidate even the sturdiest logger. Except in the case of the pine, 
 or where individual trees of other species were specially adapted to, 
 or convenient for, the purposes of building or fencing, the settlers 
 were, indeed, not accustomed to attempt these monsters of the forest 
 by fellage with the axe, but by the slower process of girdling and 
 burning. x The pioneers at Poontoosuck in 1743 spent the summer 
 
 1 Removing a circlet of bark around the tree, so as to interrupt the ascent of the 
 sap. The tree thus became dry and ready for the fire, which was generally applied 
 to it at the end of twelve months. This process was only less laborious than 
 fellage with the axe ; it being necessary to collect the fragments of the fallen trunks 
 in piles, heap brushwood and other lighter fuel about them, and repeat the burning 
 until all was consumed, leaving, however, a ghastly array of stumps, to be dis- 
 posed of by time.
 
 78 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 in the preliminary labor of girdling ; but, for six dreary years fol- 
 lowing, the dead trees spread their leafless limbs above the young, 
 green boles, and no man came to apply the torch. 
 
 The interval was, however, not without events of interest to 
 the embryo plantation. In 1746, the enemy pressed, more cruelly 
 than in any other year of the war, upon the frontiers of the Province ; 
 but, in that year, Capt. Huston sold the three lots given him by 
 Livingston viz., No. 12, North, called the " mill-lot," between 
 what is now Onota Street and the river to Zebediah Stiles, for 
 40 ; No. 16, South, to Eldad Taylor, gentleman, for 57 ; No. 2, 
 South, to Thomas Noble, saddler, for 49, the purchasers all 
 being described as of Westfield, and the conveyancer in each case 
 contriving to spell the name of the plantation, Puntusick. The 
 apparent advance in prices must be attributed, not to an increase 
 in the market value of the lands, but to the depreciation of the 
 currency. 
 
 But the event, among these early movements towards a settle- 
 ment, of the most moment to the after-fortunes of the plantation, 
 was the connection with them of William Williams, who, from that 
 time until the Revolution, was the most prominent personage in 
 the place, holding the most important offices in town and county ; 
 sometimes being at once chief justice of the common pleas, judge 
 of probate, colonel of militia, representative, selectman, assessor, 
 moderator of town-meeting, clerk, and hog-reeve, besides serving 
 upon several committees. He was the son of William Williams, a 
 successful pastor at Weston, and grandson of the eminent divine of 
 the same name who was ordained at Hatfield in 1685. Robert 
 Williams, the founder of the family upon this continent, was 
 admitted a freeman at Roxbury in 1638, where he maintained 
 a respectable position, and became the ancestor of the long array of 
 politicians, soldiers, and divines bearing the name of Williams, 
 who flourished especially in the Colonial and Revolutionary 
 periods of our history. His son Isaac, the father of the Hatfield 
 minister, was of some local prominence, and represented Newton 
 in the General Court. William of Hatfield first married a daugh- 
 ter of the distinguished theologian, Dr. Cotton, from whom the 
 Pittsfield settler thus traced his descent. For his second spouse, 
 the gallant old divine succeeded in winning the younger sister of 
 his son's (the Weston minister) wife, who was the daughter of 
 another noted theological controversalist, Rev. Solomon Stoddard,
 
 HISTORY OP PITTSFIELD. 79 
 
 and sister of the colonel of multitudinous public service. Wil- 
 liam, of Pittsfield, who thus piqued himself upon a very reverend 
 and honorable ancestry, was born at Weston in 1711, and gradu- 
 ated at Harvard College in 1729, as his father before him had done 
 in 1705, and his grandfather in 1683. In college, from a liberal 
 spirit and a meagre allowance of means, he formed a habit of 
 anticipating his income, which clung to and cruelly embarrassed 
 him through life. After graduation, he applied himself to the study 
 of medicine ; but, having commenced practice, he abandoned it " as 
 by no means consonant with his genius." l 
 
 While in the practice of his profession, he married Miriam Tyler, 
 a daughter of an old Boston family, and a lady " of good sense, " 
 whose memory he appears never to have ceased to cherish. By 
 the aid of his wife's friends, he established himself in mercantile 
 business at Boston. This enterprise failing, Williams, in 1740, 
 obtained an ensign's commission under Gen. Oglethorpe, in the 
 unjust and unsuccessful expedition against St. Augustine. The 
 next year, he took part, with the same rank, in Admiral Vernon's 
 still more ill-fated armament against Carthagena. Like others, he 
 was led into this disastrous affair by the promised plunder of the 
 rich Spanish-American cities; but he was fortunate in escaping 
 with life from the yellow fever, which ravaged the fleet with fear- 
 ful malignancy : and he gained nothing from his southern adven- 
 tures, except an ensign's half-pay on the retired list of the British 
 army, and the military education acquired in two campaigns under 
 accomplished officers. 
 
 He now returned to Massachusetts, where his abilities commend- 
 ed him to his uncle, Col. Stoddard, and to Col. Wendell, who, in 
 consideration of the benefits which his connection with it would 
 confer upon the plantation at Poontoosuck, entered, m 1743, intoj 
 a written agreement to give him one of the settling-lots, not dis- 
 posed of previously by Mr. Livingston, and also one hundred acres 
 
 1 " While the doctor was in the practice of physic, a person who had been 
 blind from infancy applied to him for a cure. Dr. Williams, fertile in inventing, 
 pulverized a small quantity of a stone jar, and placed it on the eye of the patient, 
 which soon ate off the film, so that the blind man received his sight. This 
 anecdote we have mentioned to show that he was not deficient in his profession, 
 and that he did not despair of healing the wounds and infirmities of mankind, 
 which, to common minds, seem incurable." BERKSHIRE CHRONICLE, published at 
 Pittsfield in 1789.
 
 80 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 adjoining, provided that he would settle upon the lot and perform 
 the duties attached to it. l 
 
 Ensign Williams appears to have visited Poontoosuck in 1743 ; 
 but, upon the breaking-out of the war in the following spring, he 
 received a commission in Col. Stoddard's regiment of Hampshire 
 militia, and was detailed to construct "the line of forts 
 between the Connecticut and Hudson Rivers" determined upon by 
 the General Court, and located by their commissioners; viz., 
 Fort Shirley at Heath, Fort Pelham at Rowe, and Fort Massa- 
 chusetts at Hoosac, now Adams, near the present Williams- 
 town line. This service "he performed to the satisfaction of the 
 Government, being promoted major while the work was in 
 progress. 2 
 
 In the spring of 1745, he raised a company from among the men 
 of his command for the expedition against Louisburg ; but he was 
 not permitted to accompany it, as his services were considered 
 more valuable in the position he then occupied. In June, how- 
 ever, re-enforcements for the besieging array being urgently de- 
 manded, " an express was sent one hundred and fifty miles 
 through the wilderness to Major Williams, at Fort Massachusetts," 
 directing him to repair with the utmost despatch to Boston, 
 bringing with him as many men as he could induce to enlist. In 
 six days he reported to the Governor with seventy-four men, and 
 was immediately commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the Eighth 
 Massachusetts Regiment, Col. John Choate ; which sailed for Cape 
 Breton on the 23d of June. Louisburg capitulated before their 
 arrival ; but the regiment, under the command of its lieutenant- 
 colonel, Col. Choate having returned home, garrisoned the 
 place till the following spring. 
 
 The easy success of Louisburg revived in the Colonies the long- 
 deferred hope of relieving themselves, by the conquest of Canada, 
 
 1 Papers in the T. Colt and Lancton Collections. 
 
 2 This service has been ascribed to Col. Ephraim Williams, the founder of 
 Williams College; but I have before me, in the collection of Hon. Thomas Colt, 
 the memorials of Col. William Williams to the commander-in-chief and the General 
 Court, who must have known the facts, in which he reminded them that he built 
 the works in question. A letter to Mr. C. Kilby, a relative of his wife, and a well- 
 informed Boston merchant, makes the same statement, which is further cor- 
 roborated by other papers in the same collection. In his order for building Fort 
 Shirley, he was directed to call upon the company of Capt. Ephraim Williams for 
 aid.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 81 
 
 from a constant source of danger ; and a grand expedition with 
 that object was at once set on foot. But, instead of the promised 
 English naval contingent, the most powerful French fleet which 
 bad ever floated in American waters appeared off the coast of 
 Nova Scotia, under the command of the Duke D'Anville ; and the 
 Colonial plans for invasion were transformed with haste and 
 trepidation to measures of defence. It was apprehended that 
 Massachusetts would be assailed simultaneously on her coast and 
 her north-western frontier; and, while a large force was collected 
 for the protection of Boston and other seaports, smaller corps 
 watched, and attempted to guard, the other extremity of the 
 Province. 
 
 But, in this as in every hour of New England's peril, He who 
 rides upon the storm and guides the whirlwind proved her surest 
 helper. The September gales crippled the French fleet ; D'Anville 
 died ; his successor in command committed suicide ; and, of the 
 proud armament which, boastful of irresistible might, in May set 
 sail from Brest, only a shattered remnant crept back in November, 
 having succeeded only in postponing the fate of Canada. 
 
 In the mean time, however, continual incursions of French and 
 Indian marauders harassed the northern settlements. Fort Mas- 
 sachusetts was, in August, captured and destroyed ; Deerfield 
 again suffered massacre ; and prowling bands of St. Fran9ois 
 savages infested all Upper Hampshire. l 
 
 The officer highest in rank in Western Massachusetts was Brig.- 
 Gen. Joseph Dwight of Brookfield, 2 who had served with great 
 credit at Louisburg, and, returning home at the close of the siege, 
 had raised a regiment, principally from the Connecticut Valley, for 
 the expedition against Canada. To this corps of which Gen. 
 Dwight, in accordance with a custom of the army, was the titular, 
 and when not on actual brigade-duty the acting colonel Lieut.- 
 Col. Williams was assigned. It had been recruited for special 
 service in the proposed campaign ; but, much to the disgust of 
 both officers and men, it was ordered to other duties, not only in 
 the exigency of the D'Anville alarm, but subsequently. Early in 
 
 1 Until 1761, the present Hampshire, Berkshire, Hampden, and Franklin were 
 all included in the old county of Hampshire. 
 
 2 Gen. Dwight removed, about 1756, to Great Barrington ; but he had a tem- 
 porary residence at Stockbridge in 1752, where he was addressed in the petition 
 from Poomoosuck, requesting him to call the first meeting of the plantation.
 
 82 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 October, when the coming of the hostile fleet was announced, 
 " five companies were sent to Boston, and five to the most exposed 
 western frontier;" but, intelligence of the disasters to the enemy 
 arriving soon after, the regiment was re-united in Northwestern 
 Hampshire, where it was employed during the winter in detached 
 parties, scouting, garrisoning the block-houses, creating new 
 defences, watching the movements of the enemy, rallying to the 
 support of threatened outposts, and in every way guarding the 
 endangered section. 
 
 Late in the fall of 1746, Massachusetts and New York resumed 
 their preparations against Canada, and, undeterred by the near 
 approach of winter, began to concentrate men and munitions 
 of war at Albany ; but the more cautious counsels of Connecticut 
 prevailed, and the expedition was given over, as the event proved, 
 for that war. 
 
 The Massachusetts troops were, however, still kept under pay ; 
 and, on the 21st of April, Gen. Dwight assigned to Col. Williams 
 three companies and part of a third for the purpose of rebuilding 
 Fort Massachusetts, adding, " I suppose Capt. Ephraim Williams 
 will send all or part of his, if you desire it, who, I think, ought to 
 do their part of this duty." The rebuilding of the fort was by 
 order of the General Court, and under the direction of a commis- 
 sion appointed for that purpose, consisting of Cols. Stoddard and 
 Porter, and Oliver Partridge, Esq. The Indians made some at- 
 tempts to impede the work, amounting, in one instance, to a not 
 very spirited skirmish ; but, by the 2d of June, it Avas completed, 
 and the command transferred by the following order : l 
 
 FORT MASSACHUSETTS, June 2, 1747. 
 Major EPIIRAIM WILLIAMS. 
 
 Sir, Intending, by the leave of Providence, to depart this fort to-morrow, 
 which, through the goodness of God towards us is now finished, I must 
 desire you to take the charge of it ; and shall, for the present, leave with you 
 eighty men, which I would have you detain here till the barracks are erected, 
 which I would have you build in the following manner, viz., seventy feet in 
 length, thirty in breadth, seven-feet post, with a low roof. Let it be placed 
 within five feet of the north side of the fort, and at equal distances from the 
 east and west ends. 
 
 Let it be divided in the middle with a tier of timber ; place a chimney in 
 the centre of the east part, with two fire-places to accommodate those rooms. 
 In the west part, place the chimney so as to accommodate the two rooms on 
 
 1 Lancton Col.
 
 HISTORY OF PTTTSFIELD. 83 
 
 that part, as if the house was but twenty feet wide from the south ; making a 
 partition of plank, ten feet distance from the north side of the barrack, for 
 a storeroom for the provisions, &c. 
 
 The timber, stone, clay, lath, and all materials, being under the command 
 of your guns, I can't but look upon you safe in your business, and desire you 
 to see every thing finished workmanlike ; and, when you have so done, you'll 
 be pleased to dismiss Capt. Ephraim Williams, with his men, and what of my 
 company I leave. You'll not forget to keep a scout east and west, which the 
 men of your company are so well adapted for, and can be of very little 
 service to you in the works. 
 
 Sir, I shall not give you any particular directions about maintaining the 
 strong fortress or governing your men, but, in general, advise you always 
 to be on your guard, nor suffer any idle fellows to stroll about. Sir, I 
 heartily wish you health, the protection and smiles of Heaven on all accounts, 
 and am, with esteem and regard, sir, 
 
 Your most humble servant, 1 
 
 Gen. Dwight's regiment was broken up Oct. 31, 1747 ; and it 
 appears that Col. Williams had previously secured an appointment 
 as sub-commissary, 1 which, as more lucrative, he preferred to the 
 command of Fort Massachusetts, for which he was also named. 
 But his inveterate ill-fortune in pecuniary matters continued to 
 pursue him, and even as a quartermaster he failed to make money. 
 The military profession, indeed, proved to him as barren of sub- 
 stantial profit as the medical and the mercantile had been. He 
 complained, that, for his services " as commander and inspector in 
 building the line of forts from Northfield to Hoosac, he received 
 only eight pounds per month, Old Tenor;" that, as lieutenant- 
 colonel commanding a regiment in the Louisburg garrison, his pay 
 had been less than what a captain was afterwards allowed, " the 
 miserable Province pittance, not enough to buy a cabbage a day in 
 that dear place ; " and that his salary as commissary was so long 
 in arrears that he was obliged to borrow 1400, for twelve months, 
 of Col. Stoddard and Moses Graves. He did not, however, rest 
 quiet under this ill-requital of his public labors, but was often at 
 
 ! The major to whom the command was thus transferred was the founder of 
 Williams College. Capt. Ephraim Williams, to whom allusion is made by both 
 Gen. Dwight and Col. Williams, was probably a Connecticut officer in command 
 of one of the companies sent by his colony in aid of the common defence. 
 
 2 He seems to have received his appointment as early as February, 1747, but 
 not to have entered upon its duties until his regiment was disbanded.
 
 84 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Boston in the intervals afforded by his military duties, engaged, 
 with other officers of the Louisburg expedition, in pressing their 
 claims upon the consideration of the British Government through 
 correspondents and agents in London. The matter lingered long, 
 and was never determined to the satisfaction of the officers, who 
 finally, in individual instances at least, appealed with no better 
 success to the General Court. 
 
 Such was the story of that one of the early settlers of Pittsfield 
 who had the best opportunity to make a subsistence as a soldier 
 during the interruption of the plantation by the war which closed 
 with the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in the summer of 1748. How it 
 fared with those who enlisted in the ranks may be inferred from 
 the following extract from a representation made to Gen. Dwight 
 by the captains of his regiment in behalf of the private soldiers, at 
 the close of their term of service. After reciting other " particulars 
 in which they conceived themselves injured," the memorial pro- 
 ceeds : 
 
 " In regard to their pay : as these levies were raised for a particular 
 expedition, they expected, as according to proclamation, to receive the 
 King's pay; so, as they were marching forces, 6d. per day, clear of any 
 stoppages. But, by his Excellency's letter, they perceive they are to be paid 
 as garrison-soldiers at the very lowest establishment in the nation, which is 
 very distressing to them ; many, of them having been obliged to expend 
 much more for clothing since they have been enlisted in said service than 
 the amount of their pay, and must return to then- families without any thing 
 for their relief and support, and, indeed, without a penny in their pockets 
 to carry them home, after having marched hundreds of miles at their own or 
 their officers' expense, in obedience to your orders." l 
 
 1 The story narrated in the preceding pages, so far as it is of a local character, 
 is collected from original letters, orders, and memorials in the T. C. and L. Col- 
 lections.
 
 CHAPTER IY. 
 
 PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. 
 [1749-1754.] 
 
 Return of the Pioneers. The First White Woman in Poontoosuck, and her 
 Trials. David Bush. Nathaniel Fairfield. Alone in the Woods. A Bridal 
 Tour in 1752. Zebediah Stiles. Charles Goodrich. Partition of the Com- 
 mons made and annulled. Cgl. Williams settles on Unkamet Street. His 
 Property there. The Plantation organized. Powers of Plantations. Votes 
 with regard to Meeting-house, Preaching, Bridges, and Highways. The First 
 Bridge built. Propositions for a Saw and Grist Mill. 
 
 peace introduced by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, al- 
 _JL though brief and troubled, enabled the settlers of Poontoo- 
 suck to gain a foothold upon its soil, which was never afterwards 
 wholly relinquished. Only the purchasers of the forty lots sold by 
 Livingston participated in the abortive labors of 1745 ; l and 
 these, with such changes as time had wrought among them, and 
 joined by the three buyers of Huston's gift, returned in the sum- 
 mer of 1749, to "find that their clearing and girdling were of little 
 or no advantage to them, as the young growth had covered the 
 ground in a surprising manner." 2 
 
 In the same year, Col. Stoddard having died in 1748, his widow, 
 Madame Prudence, was, upon the petition of Col. Wendell, author- 
 ized by the General Court to act for her minor children in dispos- 
 ing of the seventeen " rights " which remained unsold, and in 
 all nlatters which pertained to " bringing forward the settlement." 
 In June, the joint proprietors of the township, who now by in- 
 heritance and purchase had increased to thirteen, appointed Col. 
 Oliver Partridge of Hatfi|Jd their agent, who sold several lots; 
 
 1 Mem. of Col. Wendell, Mass. Ar., V. cxv. p. 504. 
 
 2 Mem. of settlers in 1762, Mass. Ar.
 
 86 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 among which were two to David Bush, which extended from South 
 Street, along Honasada, one hundred and sixty rods. Jacob En- 
 sign, in 1752, purchased Lot 29, North, through which Beaver 
 Street now runs. Col. Williams received by gift No. 31, in the 
 same range. 
 
 Among those whom tradition points out as engaged in the set- 
 tlement of 1749, are David Bush, Solomon Deming, Nathaniel 
 Fairfield, Gideon Gunn, Timothy Cadwell, David Ashley, and 
 Samuel Taylor. So, also, there is reason to believe, were Daniel 
 Hubbard, Stephen Crofoot, Simeon Crofoot, Jesse Sackett, Josiah 
 Wright, Hezekiah Jones, Abner and Isaac Dewey, and Elias 
 Willard. 
 
 By these pioneers, and others whose names cannot now be 
 ascertained, the busy scenes of the previous occupation were 
 renewed, with chastened hopes, and forebodings yet more sombre 
 than had haunted them six years before : for all the tidings 
 which reached them betokened how hollow and treacherous was 
 the peace which had been patched up at Aix-la-Chapelle ; while 
 they well knew that the emissaries of France were tempting the 
 savages of their own neighborhood, who as yet gave no sufficient 
 assurance of resisting their wiles. Many indeed, even of the 
 Mohegans, found delight and profit in enhancing the value of 
 their alliance with the English by exaggerating their inclination 
 to transfer it to their enemies. 
 
 But by the summer of 1752, which is usually accounted the 
 birth-year of Pittsfield, some of the settlers had log-cabins ready 
 to receive their families. And first came Solomon Deming, from 
 Wethersfield, with his wife Sarah behind him on the pillion. She 
 was a maiden of seventeen when Solomon first essayed to provide 
 them a dwelling-place in the wilderness of the Green Mountains. 
 Now a brave young good-wife of twenty-six, she entered Poon- 
 toosuck, the first white woman who ever called it home. 1 
 
 1 The town of Pittsfield has erected a neat obelisk of marble to the memory of 
 Mrs. Deming, in the little burial-ground on Honasada Street, near the spot 
 where she fixed her home in 1752. The following inscriptions embody the tradi- 
 tions handed down regarding her : 
 
 SOUTH SIDE. This monument is erected by the town of Pittsfield to com- 
 memorate the heroism and virtues of its first feumle settler, and the mother of the 
 first white child born within its limits. 
 
 NORTH. Surrounded by tribes of hostile Indians, she defended, in more than
 
 HISTORY OF P1TTSFIELD. 87 
 
 Mr. Dealing's farm was on the north side of Honnsada Street, 
 in the eastern outskirts of the township, a region much frequented 
 by the Indians, who were accustomed to make themselves a terror 
 and an annoyance to the wives of the settlers, calling at their 
 cabins in the absence of the men, and, with insolent threats, 
 demanding food and drink. It was considered impolitic, in the 
 precarious state of public affairs, to offend the red nuisances by 
 well-deserved punishment ; and the only recourse one to which 
 only the bolder dames dared resort was to shut and bolt the door 
 in their impudent faces : and this was probably the extent of the 
 defence against the savages commemorated by Mrs. Deming's 
 monument ; for nothing more serious occurred between the natives 
 and the settlers, except in a single instance. 
 
 David Bush, a native of Westfield, where his ancestors had long 
 resided, purchased, as has been related, the two lots, 16 and 
 17 South. He was one of the more "well-to-do" settlers, and 
 was the first to commence a clearing in 1749, on which he " had 
 cut several tons of hay before the first white woman came to 
 town." The honor of first penetrating the soil of Pittsfield with 
 a plough is claimed both for Capt. Bush and Nathaniel Fairfield ; 
 but, as is the case with most claims of priority based upon tradi- 
 tion, there is nothing to determine which is rightly entitled to it, 
 if either be. Nathaniel Fail-field's early connection with the set- 
 tlement is, however, sufficiently noteworthy. He was born at 
 Boston in 1730 ; and his father, who had a large family, having 
 suffered severe pecuniary losses, he was adopted by a Mr. Dickin- 
 son of Westfield ; but in 1748, at the age of eighteen, becoming 
 impatient to seek his own fortune, although w\ir still lingered on 
 the border, he went with Dan Cadwell l to examine the settling- 
 lots at Poontoosuck, and probably other land in that vicinity. 
 
 one instance, unaided, the lives and property of her family, and was distinguished 
 for the courage and fortitude with which she bore the dangers and privations of a 
 pioneer life. 
 
 Sarah Deming, born at Wethersfield, Conn., February, 1726. Died in Pittsfield; 
 March, 1818, aged 92. 
 
 EAST. A mother of the Revolution and a mother in Israel. 
 
 WEST. Sarah Deming, born in Wethersfield, Conn., Feb., 1726. Died in 
 Pittsfidd, Mass., March, 1818, aged 92 years. 
 
 1 In 1745, Amos Root had sold one of the forty lots purchased of Livingston to 
 Dan Cadwell, whose descendants still reside upon it, and retain the original 
 deed conveying it to him.
 
 88 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Before they were satisfied with their exploration, their provisions 
 gave out, and Mr. Cad well returned to Westfield for a fresh supply; 
 leaving young Fairfield for three nights alone in the forest, as 
 regarded white companions, but with a disagreeable co-tenantry of 
 savages, whose unmusical voices he heard plainly on every side as 
 he lay in the hollow log which served him for nightly lodging, and 
 hiding-place by day. 1 
 
 As a result of this exploration, he purchased lot No. 18 south, 
 on the south-west corner of Wendell Square. 2 Having built here 
 his log-cabin and opened his clearing, Mr. Fairfield revisited West- 
 field, and, having married Miss Judith , returned in 1752, with 
 
 his bride, to their new home. On this bridal tour, the story of which 
 may serve for that of many that were made by the fathers and moth- 
 ers of Pittsfield, the young couple were accompanied by a yoke of 
 oxen, and a dray bearing their household goods ; and, pursuing their 
 way by the aid of marked trees, they reached the house of Solomon 
 Dealing on the third evening, and there passed the night. The 
 traveller by the Western Railroad now makes the same journey 
 in less than two hours ; but it is not necessary to suppose that 
 the trip of the Fairfields proved tedious. The region through 
 which they came was designated, even in the formal descriptions 
 of the conveyancer, by the pleasant name of " the green woods 
 between Westfield and Poontoosuck ; " and perhaps since sum- 
 mer days are very genial the bridal party dallied a little leisure- 
 ly in the fragrant shade. 
 
 In the same summer, Zebediah Stiles found companionship in a 
 like humble home, on the corner of West and Onota Streets. 
 
 Then, also, came Charles Goodrich, " driving the first cart and 
 team which ever entered the town, and cutting his way through 
 the woods for a number of miles." It is of tradition that he 
 reached the last of the Hoosac summits which he had to pass, just 
 at nightfall ; and, fearful of missing the path if he attempted to 
 proceed in the dusk, tied his horses to a tree, and kept guard 
 over them all night against the wild beasts, walking around to 
 prevent himself from falling asleep, and " munching " an apple, his 
 sole remaining ration, for supper. Goodrich, who became one of 
 
 1 Family tradition. 
 
 2 The two branches of the Housatonic River form their junction in this lot, 
 which lies on the south side of Honasada street, and just below the Pittsfield 
 Cotton Mills.
 
 PLAN OP 1752. 
 
 This is a Plan of the Township of Poontoosuck as it was taken by the Com- 
 mittee some time in December, 1752. 
 
 Test. BEN.JA. DAY, Surveyor. 
 
 A, A large Mountain the line ran upon, near 
 half way from the settling-lots to the 
 south-west corner. 
 
 /?, A large Brook. 
 
 C, Yc foot of the Mountain. 
 
 D, The top of the Mountain. 
 
 E, A small Brook. 
 
 F, Foot of a large Mountain. 
 
 G, Yc Road. 
 
 H, Stockbridge Road. 
 
 T, The River. 
 
 K, The foot of the Mountain. 
 
 L, The corner of the 9,000 acres. 
 
 M, A large Brook. 
 
 O, Northampton Road. 
 
 P, A small Brook. 
 
 S, The River. 
 
 X, Mountain Land from here to the river. 
 
 * A large Pond. 
 
 The original of this plan is in the archives of the State at Boston, and a copy 
 in the Town Clerk's office at Pittsficld. Some of the minutiae of the original have 
 been omitted by the engraver, chiefly relating to the area of the allotments to the 
 several proprietors. 
 
 Framingbam Pond is stated on the plan to contain 186 acres. Ashley's Pond, 
 now Lake Onota, is represented as containing 284 acres.
 
 H1STOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 89 
 
 the most conspicuous figures in the history of the town, was born 
 at Wethersfield in 1720, and " obtained a hope " says his epitaph, 
 "under Whitefield in 1741." He was the first man of considerable 
 property who joined the settlement, and long continued the 
 wealthiest citizen of the town, as well as one of those most 
 distinguished for enterprise and intellectual ability. Both before 
 and after his removal to Poontoosuck, he dabbled a good deal in 
 land speculations, and had large interests in what are now 
 Hancock and "Lanesborough. In June, 1752, he bought of Col. 
 Wendell " one third-of his one-third part " of the " Commons, or 
 undivided lands," of Poontoosuck, for 473 7s. 4d. And being, 
 unlike the other proprietors of those lands, desirous of immediately 
 enjoying his portion, he applied to the next September term of 
 the Superior Court, sitting at Springfield, for the appointment of 
 commissioners to make partition; and the following gentlemen were 
 accordingly named for that duty : Timothy Dwight, Eldad Taylor, 
 David Moseley, Benjamin Day, and Obadiah Dickinson. The 
 lands were alloted by them to the several proprietors in accord- 
 ance with the plan here given, which was accepted and confirmed 
 by the Court at its next session. It did not, however, prove 
 acceptable to Colonel Wendell, and he petitioned the General 
 Court that it might be annulled : alleging that no proper notice of 
 the proceedings in the Court at Springfield having been served 
 upon him, his only knowledge of them was transient and acci- 
 dental ; that only four out of the five gentlemen named by the 
 Court had acted on the commission ; that only the meadow-lands 
 had been surveyed by them, a general view merely being taken 
 of the uplands, and that, in part, when they were covered with 
 snow ; and that, returning home, the four commissioners, in their 
 winter leisure, set out the allotments to the several proprietors, 
 which in the spring were surveyed by only two of their number, as 
 the four had protracted them upon the plan. He considered, 
 that, if any justice had been done by such a process, it must have 
 been the effect, not of judgment or understanding, but of accident ; 
 which accident had not happened, as the division was very unjust 
 and unequal, and greatly injurious to himself, all which he con- 
 ceived would appear to the Court from an inspection of the plan. 
 
 Notice of Col. Wendell's memorial was ordered in " The Week- 
 ly Post-boy." The commissioners responded, that the law re- 
 quiring all the proprietors to be notified of the proceedings, that
 
 90 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 they might, if they wished, be present at the making of the division 
 they sent word to Col. Wendell and Elisha Jones, by Col. 
 Partridge, who was going to the General Court, in October ; that, 
 Mr. Dickinson being unable to join them, it was necessary to pro- 
 ceed without him ; that they " had obtained an exact accompt of 
 the upland, and the situation and laying of the meadow, as it is 
 interspersed and intermingled among the upland; and examined, 
 as far as they thought needful, the quality of the soil, the form of 
 the surface of the ground, and the timber growing upon it ; " that 
 the subsequent proceedings were properly had, and the commis- 
 sioners unanimous in all their acts. 
 
 The General Court sustained the objections of Wendell, and in 
 June, 1754, resolved that the partition was, " of course, null and 
 void." 1 
 
 But Goodrich had already as soon, at least, as the partition 
 was confirmed by the Superior Court built upon a portion of 
 the land set off to him, which now forms a part of Hon. Thomas 
 Allen's farm. 
 
 Col. Williams, at the close of the war, wavered in his intention 
 of settling at Poontoosuck ; and in October, 1749, obtained from 
 his friend, Gov. Benuing Weutworth of New Hampshire, an 
 authorization 2 which subsequently resulted in the grant to him 
 and sixty-three other persons of whom nine bore the name of 
 Williams of the township which afterwards became Benning- 
 ton in Vermont, with whose fame that of Pittsfield is so 
 gloriously associated in Revolutionary story. 
 
 But in November, 1752, "Col. Williams having already been 
 at Poontoosuck in order to bring forward a settlement, and intend- 
 ing to return early the next spring to reside permanently at the 
 place" Madame Stoddard addressed a note 8 to "The Hon. 
 Timothy Dwight and the other gentlemen commissioners," 
 desiring them, in apportioning her share of the township, to " have 
 respect to the design of her deceased husband ; that his kinsman, 
 William Williams, settling at Poontoosuck, should have one 
 hundred acres of his lands there." 
 
 Through the agreement thus acknowledged, Col. Wendell 
 afterwards joining in the gift, as he had joined in the original 
 
 1 Mass. Ar. v. 116, p. 491. T. C. C. p. 86. 
 
 3 Madame Stoddard's letter in Lancton Col.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 91 
 
 promise, Col. Williams finally obtained a rectangular tract, one 
 hundred and twenty by one hundred and thirty-four rods in area, 
 lying upon Unkamet Street, west of the meadow. 1 
 
 He also received in the same way the " original home-lot," No. 
 31 north, which lay about one hundred and twenty-fife rods 
 farther west, and contained some valuable meadow and upland. 
 But he built his log-cabin, and commenced his clearing, in 1753, on 
 the north side of Unkamet Street, and not far from the river. 
 
 On the 23d of June, 1753, a petition was presented in 
 the General Court "from the inhabitants of the township on the 
 Housatonick River, commonly called Poontoosuck," 2 setting forth 
 the difficulties they were under in bringing forward their settle- 
 ment, and praying for directions and assistance. In response, the 
 Court incorporated them as a plantation under the name of " The 
 Proprietors of the Settling-lots in the Township of Poontoosuck," 
 with the power to assess and collect taxes, but only upon the 
 
 1 Although it is clear that Col. "Williams finally obtained this Unkamet-street 
 property in virtue of the Wendell and Stoddard promise of 1743, yet some 
 obscurity rests upon the intermediate transactions. The tract was allotted by the 
 commissioners to Wendell and the heirs of Stoddard; but was understood "to be 
 and belong to William Williams, " who thus recited his title in a mortgage-deed 
 of 1754. This title, of course, failed when the partition upon which it was founded 
 was annulled. But conveyances are extant, in the H. C. C. and the Spring- 
 field Registry, which indicate that agreements regarding tracts in the vicinity 
 of Unkamet Street, made among the joint proprietors previously, were carried 
 into effect in the final partition of the Commons in 1759-60. Thus Wendell and 
 Mrs. Stoddard, although their exclusive title to the lands in question does not 
 appear by the record to have become perfect until 1760, gave a deed of them, 
 with warranty, to Col. Williams in 1758 ; and, in like manner, Charles Goodrich 
 sold him two contiguous acres in May, 1759. 
 
 In the final division of the township, as in the first, the hundred acres were 
 assigned to Wendell and the heirs of Stoddard, although they actually became the 
 property of Williams ; but the latter, in regard to some undivided right which he 
 had acquired in the Commons, obtained besides large tracts near Poontoosuck 
 Lake a narrow strip containing twenty-five acres, and lying in the form of the 
 letter L, on the nqrth and west sides of the Unkamet-street property, and also a 
 straight strip of sixteen acres on the south of it. 
 
 The apparently detached location and inconvenient shape of Col. Williams's 
 lands, as exhibited by the plan of 1759, are thus explained by the fact, that he 
 realty owned the intervening lands as well. The allotment of the one hundred 
 acres jointly to Wendell and Stoddard the only instance upon the plan in which 
 they are joined is also thus made clear. 
 
 2 It was also often styled Wendell, or Wendell's Town, and sometimes Wendell 
 and Stoddard's Town.
 
 92 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 sixty settling-lots; excluding the lands reserved for the first 
 minister, for the perpetual support of the ministry, and for schools, 
 as well as the " Commons." 
 
 Plantations, under the old statutes, although embryo towns, 
 yet, i their powers and duties, resembled private more nearly 
 than municipal corporations. 1 The officers which they chose 
 were only a moderator, a clerk, a treasurer, a collector, and asses- 
 sors. And they were simply empowered, through these agents, to 
 assess and collect province, county, and plantation taxes ; appro- 
 priating the last to fulfil the conditions upon which they held 
 their lands, and to make such improvements in building bridges, 
 making highways, and the like, as, by " bringing forward the settle- 
 ment," would enhance the common value of the home-lots. 
 
 Any community of Massachusetts men, associated as the people 
 of Poontoosuck were, would certainly have united, if it became 
 expedient, in measures for the protection of the public morals* 
 and the promotion of the general safety or comfort ; and they 
 would have been likely to resolve upon them in Proprietors' meet- 
 ing. But the statute gave such resolutions no legal effect ; and, in 
 fact, the only allusion in the Poontoosuck records to matters of 
 local police is a vote that " hogs shall not run at large." 
 
 Among graver matters, appropriations for the support of public 
 worship sincerely as the people individually prized " the minis- 
 trations of the Gospel " in Proprietors' meeting, were, of necessity, 
 purely business transactions, done in fulfilment of contracts ; and 
 even provision for the burial of the dead was to be considered as 
 adding to the value of the home-lots, whose occupants wei - e thus 
 assured of the chamber whose narrow bed all must one day need. 
 
 On the 30th of July, Simeon Crofoot, Charles Goodrich, Jacob 
 Ensign, Solomon Deming, Stephen Crofoot, Samuel Taylor, and 
 Elias Willard requested Joseph Dwight, Esq., to call the first 
 meeting of " the Proprietors of the Settling-lots in the Township 
 of Poontoosuck," to act upon certain articles specified in the 
 request. That magistrate accordingly issued IMS warrant to 
 Stephen Crofoot, " one of the principal proprietors, etc," directing 
 him to warn the meeting, to be held at the house of Elias Willard 
 at two o'clock in the afternoon of Sept. 12, by posting up the 
 
 1 Especially in cases like that of Poontoosuck, where their jurisdiction was con- 
 fined to a single section of the township.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 93 
 
 request and warrant, twenty days at least before the day of 
 the meeting, in some public place in the township. 
 
 The Proprietors met at the appointed time, and, Gen. Dwight 
 presiding, chose Hezekiah Jones as moderator; after which the 
 plantation was organized by the choice of the following officers : 
 Clerk, David Bush ; Assessors, Deacon (Stephen) Crofoot, Hezekiah 
 Jones, Jacob Ensign; Treasurer, Charles Goodrich; Collector, 
 Samuel Taylor, 2d. 
 
 It was voted to assess a tax of three shillings upon each lot " for 
 the support of preaching among us," and to raise, in lawful money, 
 40 for building a meeting-house, and 15 for making highways, 
 building bridges, and "for other necessary expenses that shall 
 come upon us." 
 
 Deacon Crofoot, Charles Goodrich, and Jacob Ensign were ap- 
 pointed " to agree with some suitable person or persons to preach 
 among us " ; Jacob Ensign, Josiah Wright, and Abner Dewey " to 
 dispose of" the appropriation for bridges and highways; Hezekiah 
 Jones, Israel Dewey, Elias Willard, Deacon Crofoot, and Charles 
 Goodrich, "to manage the whole affair of the meeting-house," 
 which last did not prove an affair to be easily " managed." 
 
 It was of much importance to the plantation, that saw and grist 
 mills should be erected, as the nearest point at which the farmers 
 could have their grain ground was Great Barrington, twenty-one 
 miles distant ; and it does not appear how sawed lumber could be 
 obtained at all within any practicable distance. Deacon Crofoot, 
 who seems to have been an active and enterprising man, wished 
 to supply the deficiency, and, for this purpose, asked the plantation 
 to exchange that portion of the school-lot which included the 
 water-privilege now occupied by the Pittsfield Cotton Mills, for a 
 section of his home-lot, which adjoined it upon the east. Articles 
 to consider this proposition, and also " to see what the Proprietors 
 will give Deacon Crofoot for setting up the mills," were inserted 
 in the warrant. But, the record curtly informs us, the meeting 
 refused either to make the proposed exchange, or to " give Deacon 
 Crofoot any thing for setting up his mills." It is nowhere ex- 
 plained why the plantation did not encourage an enterprise which 
 seems to have been so much for the common interest. But Deacon 
 Crofoot, although he afterwards built his mills, was never popular 
 as a miller. 
 
 Finally, it was ordered that succeeding meetings should be called
 
 94 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 " by posting up notifications at the house of David Bush, in the 
 township, at least fourteen days before they were to be held." Mr. 
 Bush's house stood on the south side of Honasada Street, about 
 one hundred rods west of Wendell Square ; and, as the Proprietors' 
 meetings were also held in it, its location must have been consid- 
 ered fairly central, although its selection for the purposes named 
 was in part due to its owner's office of Proprietors' clerk. 1 
 
 Proprietors' meetings were held in March, May, and August, 
 1754 ; and the records show progress in the plantation. It was 
 voted to double the tax upon each lot for the support of preaching. 
 The dimensions of the meeting-house were fixed "to be thirty feet 
 long and thirty-five wide," and it was determined to go on with the 
 work the next fall. The troubles concerning the erection of this 
 building, which afterwards became chronic, seem already to have 
 commenced ; for the May meeting resolved that Stephen Crofoot 
 and Hezekiah Jones, who had tendered their resignations, should 
 nevertheless continue to "stand committee about the meeting- 
 house." 
 
 ' The enterprising Deacon Crofoot had built a bridge, the first 
 public work ever completed in Pittsfield, across the river, in his lot, 
 a little east of the present Elm-street iron bridge ; and it was 
 agreed to give him 9. Is. 4.d. for it, including a road, which, care 
 was taken to provide, should extend as well from East Street to 
 the bridge as from the bridge to East Street. 
 
 The warrant calling upon the Proprietors to decide whether they 
 "would hire Mr. Smith to preach any certain time with them, or 
 call him as a probationer," the second alternative was adopted. 2 
 
 The "Mr. Smith" to whom this call was extended was Rev. 
 Cotton Mather Smith, father of Hon. John Cotton Smith, after- 
 wards Governor of Connecticut. He was a graduate of Yale, and 
 studied theology with Rev. William Williams of Hatfield. In 
 1752-3, he was an instructor in the Indian school at Stockbridge, 
 
 1 As the crossing of Wendell and Honasada Streets is a point of which frequent 
 mention occurs, we shall, for the sake of conciseness, speak of it as Wendell 
 Square. 
 
 2 It is a noticeable fact, although not peculiar to Poontoosuck, that, while the 
 records accord the title of Deacon, wherever it is due, with great precision, the pre- 
 fix Rev. is never connected with the names of any of the clergymen with whom 
 negotiations were had, not even in the case of Mr. Allen until after his ordina- 
 tion.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 95 
 
 and had probably, before this call, preached occasionally at Poon- 
 toosuck, and perhaps the first sermon ever delivered in the town- 
 ship. 
 
 Eight pounds were voted at one meeting, and twenty at another, 
 for highways and bridges; and Jacob Ensign, Josiah Wright, and 
 Abner Dewey were chosen to dispose of this money, and also em- 
 powered " to make exchanges of lands, so that the Proprietors may 
 be better suited, if occasion requires." But no record of their acts 
 remains. Unkamet's Road appears to have been overgrown ; for in 
 1753, according to the very reliable authority of Judd's " History of 
 Hadley," " a horse-road was marked out from fifteen miles east 
 of Albany," where the carriage-road probably commenced, 
 " through Poontoosuck, to Northampton ; but it was not much 
 used." " The way from Hampshire and Hartford to Albany," says 
 the same work, " was through the villages of Westfield and Kin- 
 derhook, and the territory now in Blandford, Sheffield, etc. A 
 later road crossed Great Barrington." But many of the settlers 
 of Poontoosuck appear to have come by the most direct route 
 practicable, through the woods, guided by marked trees. And this 
 was more easily done than we are apt to suppose, on account of a 
 practice which prevailed, both among the aborigines and the 
 pioneers, of burning the underbrush, in order to facilitate hunting, 
 as well as to destroy the lurking-places of prowling enemies, 
 and, by the natives, in order to prepare some portion of the 
 ground for their rude culture. 
 
 It is a mistake to picture the aboriginal forest of New England as 
 a scene altogether or chiefly of sombre shades and tangled thickets. 
 " The dark-haired maiden loved its grassy dells" where, when 
 the swift servant, Fire, had roughly done his work, kindly Nature 
 had followed, " touching in her picturesque graces." The hunters 
 of a labor-hating race, courting neither difficulty nor danger in the 
 chase, did not choose that their grounds should be cumbered with 
 thickets which at once impeded their pursuit of game, and afforded 
 concealment to hostile braves ; and so, since it cost but the kin- 
 dling of the spark, the annual fires swept them clear. Even the 
 patient squaws were not enamored of hard work, and the same 
 ready agent helped them to prepare the meadow for the hoe. 
 Thus immense tracts were swept of their undergrowth, while the 
 more massy trees were unharmed ; so that it is related that a deer 
 could often be seen, in a heavily-timbered country, at a distance
 
 96 HISTORY OP PITTSFIELD. 
 
 of forty rods. And many of the upland forests were passable 
 with a little occasional aid from the axe for carts and drays, like 
 those with which Goodrich and Fail-field entered Poontoosuck. l 
 These burnings were, perhaps, not so universal in the times of 
 the Indians, upon the western mountains, as in other parts of 
 Hampshire ; and these may have been, as the name Taghkanik 
 intimates, more deeply wooded. But the same reasons which had 
 originated the burnings by the natives operated still more power- 
 fully upon the settlers, and fire swept the way before advancing 
 civilization ; while, even in tracts where it did not reach, 
 
 Old winding roads were frequent in the woods, 
 
 By the surveyor opened long ago, 
 
 When through their depths he led his trampling band, 
 
 Startling the crouched deer from the underbrush. STREET. 
 
 And so it happened that the pioneers found less difficulty in 
 traversing the woods, and in many instances better preparation 
 for their clearings, than, without considering these facts, we should 
 suspect. 
 
 1 Hist. Hadley.
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 SECOND FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. 
 
 [I7S4-I7S9-] 
 
 State of the Plantation. Position of Housatonic Indians. Homicide of Waum- 
 paumcorse. Indian Massacre at Stockbridge and Hoosac. Flight from Poon- 
 toosuck. Poontoosuck Military Post. Building of Fort Anson. Garrison- 
 Life at the Fort. The Settlers during the War. Fort Goodrich. Fort Fair- 
 field. Fort at Onota. Oliver Eoot. William Williams. 
 
 r I ^HE Plantation of Poontoosuck had, in August, 1754, made re- 
 JL spectable progress ; and the proprietors were ready, as the 
 votes we have quoted show, to prosecute their corporate work 
 with increasing vigor. Most of the sixty home-lots had been taken 
 up ; and, although in some instances two or more were purchased 
 by a single settler, the population of the place must have been 
 nearly two hundred. The dwellings were as yet all of logs ; but ' 
 Charles Goodrich was preparing to build on Wendell Square, if he 
 had not already partially erected, the first frame-house in the town- 
 ship. The pioneers of 1743 still felt the depressing effects of the 
 failure of their enterprise, but were gradually overcoming the diffi- 
 culties which it placed in their way. The settlement was attract- 
 ing men of substance, and some of that class had already joined it. 
 Had no new misfortune intervened, it would have been close upon 
 that prosperity which it only actually attained after long struggles 
 with poverty and pecuniary embarrassments, struggles whose 
 marked influence upon the character of the people of Pittsfield 
 was especially manifest in the internal political troubles which ac- 
 companied the Revolutionary War. 
 
 Between the years 1725 and 1754, the territory now embraced 
 in Berkshire gained a population of perhaps something more than 
 7 97
 
 98 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 fifteen hundred, almost all of it south of Poontoosuck. Th.e towns 
 of Sheffield and Stockbridge were incorporated ; and settlements 
 were planted in New Marlborougb, Sandisfield, Tyringham, Alford, 
 Egremont, and Mount Washington. Northward, a few families 
 had made their homes in Williamstown and Lanesborough ; and a 
 little land was cultivated, at times, under the guns of Fort Massa- 
 chusetts. Here and there, among the green woods, solitary hunters 
 and trappers hardier even than the pioneer farmer planted 
 patches of vegetables in the scant clearings where they built their 
 lonely cabins, seminaries which produced the boldest and most 
 successful scouts in the coming war. 
 
 The Indians formed a more considerable element in the popula- 
 tion of the Valley than at any previous date since its settlement by 
 the English, showing a census of probably about three hundred. 
 
 The mission commenced in 1734, and established at Stockbridge 
 in 1735, had in twenty years produced an admirable change in the 
 condition of the Mohegans; but it had not wrought a miracle upon 
 them. Ever well disposed towards the white man, and, upon the 
 whole, well treated by him, they received at his hands the gifts of 
 education and religion with a readiness which was not to be ex- 
 pected in tribes whose experience had been of a different character ; 
 and they adopted the usages of civilized life with astonishing facil- 
 ity. They did not, however, leap at once from the depths of bar- 
 barism to the plane which the Saxon race had reached only after 
 ages and generations of painful climbing. Much less did they ele- 
 vate themselves above the human passions and frailties from which 
 their teachers were not themselves free. 
 
 There was, moreover, as in all such cases there inevitably must 
 be, a vagabond class, who had lost the virtues of savage life with- 
 out submitting to the restraints of civilized society, loose fellows, 
 who hung around the settlements, selling the fruits of their hunting 
 and trapping for rum, and then roaming from farm-house to farm- 
 house, committing the annoyances of which mention has been made. 
 They were frowned upon by the more respectable and numerous 
 class of the tribe; but they created a bitter prejudice in the minds 
 of the unthinking against all of their color. The inhabitants of 
 the Mission Village were collected from many sections of country, 
 some of them as distant as the banks of the Susquehannah ; a and, 
 
 1 Rec. Gen. Court, Jan. 27, 1752.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 99 
 
 although this long pilgrimage in search of Christian instruction 
 afforded a presumption in their favor, a few disappointed the hopes 
 formed of them, and all, in those days of suspicion, were objects of 
 jealousy as strangers. Nor were the annoyances to which the 
 settlers were subject wholly unprovoked on their part. The Pro- 
 vincial Government, its agents, and the better part of the people, 
 did, indeed, treat the Mohegans, not only with scrupulous justice, 
 but with tender and earnest regard for both their temporal and 
 spiritual welfare, and with generous forbearance towards the frail- 
 ties and perversities of their wild neophytes. But there were too 
 many exceptions to this rule, even among men in some small 
 authority, who had come from sections of the Province where the 
 Indian, without distinction of person or tribe, was known to the 
 masses only to be detested. And, if the Mohegan suffered injustice 
 from the hands of those who should have been in some decree 
 
 o 
 
 restrained by the well-known wishes of the government, the treat- 
 ment was simply intolerable which he received at the hands of a 
 rude soldiery, hereditary haters of every red-skin, and ignorant or 
 regardless of the long-tried fidelity of the tribe of tineas to the 
 English cause. 1 
 
 In addition to these just causes of complaint, the Mohegans had 
 become discontented with the disposition which they had made 
 of their lands, and alleged, although apparently without truth, that, 
 in bargaining them away, they had been misled by false representa- 
 tions, 2 and that, in some cases, they had been seized without pur- 
 chase. 
 
 1 " They say, and we are, and too often have been, witnesses of the many in- 
 sults and abuses which they (the Mohegans) have suffered from the English sol- 
 diery, their lives and scalps threatened to be taken, and they called every thing 
 but good, charged with the late murders, and actually put into such terror as to 
 not know which way to turn themselves." Col. Dwiyht to Col. Israel Williams, 
 October, 1754. 
 
 2 " We would say something respecting our lands. When the white people 
 purchased from time to time of us, they said they only wanted the low lands : they 
 told us the hilly land was good for nothing, and that it was full of wood* and 
 stones. But now we see people living all about the hills and woods, although they 
 have not purchased the lands. When we inquire of the people who live on these 
 lands what right they have to them, they reply to us, that we are not to be re- 
 garded, and that these lands belong to the King. But we were the first possessors 
 of them ; and, when the King has paid us for them, then they may say they are 
 his." Speech of the Stockbridge Chiefs to the Commissioners of the Six Provinces, at 
 Albany, July 8, 1754, N. Y. Doc. Hist., Vol. ii. p. 599.
 
 100 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 The means thus offered for fomenting distrust and ill-will in the 
 jealous minds of the savages were not neglected by the agents of 
 France, who contrived to inspire in many of them the belief "that 
 the English were on a design of exterminating the Indians within 
 their reach." l 
 
 In the spring of 1753, an unhappy event occurred, which was 
 used with surprising effect to increase the ferment, and strengthen 
 in the minds of the natives the belief that the English designed 
 their destruction. It appears that one Wampaumcorse, a Schnghti- 
 coke Indian, domiciled at Stockbridge, being in Sugar Camp at 
 . Hop Brook in Tyringham, saw two men, Cook by name, passing 
 by with horses which he suspected to be stolen. Pursuing them, 
 and an altercation arising, he was shot dead. The Cooks were 
 thereupon arrested, and tried at Springfield. One was convicted of 
 manslaughter, and the other acquitted ; which seems to have been 
 what the law and the evidence required. But in the minds of the 
 Schaghticokes, as in those of the exiled Pequots, murderous resent- 
 ment against the English was always ready to be aroused ; and this 
 affair was used with the utmost success to exasperate the Indians. 
 Its effect was soon apparent " in the surly behavior of several in 
 whom it had not before been observed ; " in the stealing of guns ; 
 in more frequent intercourse with distant tribes, and the consorting 
 together of the worst-tempered and worst-behaved fellows, who 
 had a drunken pow-wow, which was kept up, in the woods some 
 six miles west of Stockbridge, with fresh supplies of rum from 
 Kinderhook; and finally some negro slaves reported a plot, in 
 which they had been invited to join, for the massacre of as many 
 of the whites as possible, and flight to Canada. 
 
 Upon this, the wildest excitement prevailed at Stockbridge, and 
 not less, of course, in the more exposed outpost of Poontoosuck. 
 The people of the former place wisely determined to call the 
 Indians together, let them know their apprehensions, and endeavor 
 to ascertain what foundation there was for them. 
 
 It appeared, as had been anticipated, that " the great body of 
 the tribe were entirely unacquainted with the secret plot, but that 
 the thing was real with regard to so many that the authorities 
 looked upon themselves as in a worse state than in an open war. " a 
 
 1 Jona. Edwards to Prov. Sec. Willard, May, 1754, Mass. Ar., vol. xxxii. 
 
 2 Gen. D wight and Capt. Woodbridge to Gov. Shirley, March 26, 1754, Mass., 
 Ar., vol. xxxii, p. 483.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 101 
 
 Gen. Dwight and Timo. Woodbridge, Esq., therefore repre- 
 sented this condition of the frontier to Gov. Shirley, adding that 
 there seemed to be no pique against any person in particular, but 
 against the English in general for the killing of Wampaumcorse ; 
 and, in order that the people " might not be exposed to the mur- 
 derous strokes of savage resentment," they earnestly begged his 
 Excellency to recommend to the General Court an increase of the 
 sum of 6 which had been granted " to wipe away blood," 1 and 
 that it might be sent by a special embassy; which would add to its 
 efficiency as a peace-offering. 
 
 This request was so far granted, on the 22d of April, as to vote 
 20, to be placed in the hands of Gen. Dwight, to be distributed 
 among the relatives of Wampaumcorse. 
 
 But, on the 22d of May, Jonathan Edwards, apparently in the 
 greatest anxiety, found it necessary to write to Secretary Willard, 
 requesting his influence that " the money which had been granted 
 to Wanaubaugus, the uncle of the man that was killed, might be 
 speedily delivered." "It was manifest," he said, "that it was a 
 matter of the greatest importance, not only to the people in Stock- 
 bridge, but to all New England, that the Indians should be 
 speedily quieted in that matter. It was evident that the ill- 
 influence of that affair had a wide extent, reaching to tribes at a 
 great distance, that it would be a handle of which the French 
 at that juncture would make the utmost improvement." It 
 " seemed to affect the Mohawks, no less than the other In- 
 dians." 
 
 The money was accordingly paid, and the excitement among 
 the natives in some degree subsided. The delegates of the Stock- 
 bridge Mohegans, as vassals of the Iroquois, attended the confer- 
 ence of that confederacy with the commissioners of the Provinces 
 at Albany, in July, and joined in the league formed, very much 
 through the influence of Sir William Johnson. The Stockbridge 
 chiefs seized the opportunity to make the complaints given in the 
 note on page 99 ; but alliance with the English was traditional 
 with them, and doubtless their disposition was more favorable to 
 it since the intimate relations created by the mission settlement. 
 The influence of the French emissaries appears to have had effect 
 
 1 In accordance with the Indian custom of compounding for homicide by a 
 fine to the relatives of the slain.
 
 102 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 only upon the baser sort, and perhaps chiefly upon those (not of 
 Mohegan blood) who had been attracted to the mission. At this 
 time, the relation of the Mohegans to the Iroquois, although still 
 of a feudal character, approached nearer to equality than at 
 earlier periods, and, in token of its amicable nature, had assumed 
 the typical form of kinship. And the two nations, both of which, in 
 spite of exceptional cases, had experienced kindness and protection 
 from their respective Provinces, mutually influenced each other in 
 favor of English alliance. 
 
 Although the storm of war, which had been lowering all through 
 the clouded peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, seemed now about to burst 
 upon the Colonies, apprehensions of immediate danger to Western 
 Massachusetts, from the Indians of its own vicinity, were thus in 
 some measure allayed. 
 
 But on the evening of Thursday, the 29th of August, some 
 Stockbridge Indians, who had .been northward on a hunting- 
 excursion, returned in haste with the startling report, that, on the 
 previous day, they had, in concealment, witnessed the total 
 destruction of Dutch Hoosack by a band of six hundred strange 
 savages. 1 
 
 The excitement immediately became intense, and messengers 
 were sent to spread the alarm in every direction. On Saturday, 
 an express, bearing information of the troubles, reached Col. 
 Worthington at Springfield, where Gen. Dwight, with Capts. 
 Ashley and Ingersol, as well as other leading citizens of the 
 Housatonic Valley, were attending court. The latter gentlemen 
 at once hastened to take charge of the defence of their homes ; 
 and Col. Worthington only waited to raise a company of seventy 
 men, with whom he set out on Monday evening to the aid of the 
 threatened settlements. 
 
 In the mean time, by Saturday night, several hundred men were 
 under arms at Stockbridge, some of them from Connecticut. The 
 
 1 A settlement of Dutch farmers in the Province of New York, north-west of 
 the present site of Williamstown. Seven houses, fourteen barns, and a large 
 quantity of wheat, were burned ; many cattle and hogs slaughtered, and the latter 
 thrown into heaps to rot. The damage was estimated at "50,000, York cur- 
 rency." One man, Samuel Bowen, was killed, and another " captivated." The 
 number of the enemy was greatly exaggerated by the fears of the settlers, as well 
 as by the Stockbridge witnesses of the affair.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFUELD. 103 
 
 same neighborly colony also sent a large number of horses to 
 bring off the women and children from Poontoosuck. 1 
 
 Even yet, however, there appears to have been no apprehension, 
 at Stockbridge, of danger from any of the Indians then in the 
 town ; and timely notice was expected, from the scouts who were 
 scouring the woods, of the approach of any others. The people 
 attended church as usual ; and, in the absence of their neighbors 
 for that purpose, the family of one Chamberlain, who lived in the 
 retired locality of " The Hill," appear to have considered them- 
 selves in perfect safety, until they were suddenly attacked at about 
 three o'clock in the afternoon. Col. Worthington, on the au- 
 thority of a despatch from Capts. Ashley and Ingersol, describes 
 the murderous scenes which ensued, as follows : 2 
 
 " There was in the house Chamberlain, his wife, three children, 
 and another man, named Owen. Two Indians only attacked the 
 house, fired immediately upon entering, one at Chamberlain's 
 wife, and missed her ; the other at Owen, and shot him in the arm. 
 One immediately attacked Owen ; and the other, Chamberlain's 
 wife. As Owen was more than equal to the Indian who engaged 
 him, the Indian called his fellow to his help, and both beset Owen ; 
 so that Chamberlain's wife escaped, as did her husband coming 
 out of an inner room, and left the two Indians (as we have the 
 account) combating with Owen, who fought them like a man for 
 a considerable time, but was so cut and wounded by them that 
 he was obliged to yield, and he died soon after. He was scalped 
 
 1 The following bill was presented to the next General Court : 
 
 PKOV. OF MASS. BAY, 
 
 To ABXER DEWEY, of Poontoonsuek, Dr. 
 
 To keeping 130 horses in his field of corn and grass, one night, which came 
 from Connecticut to fetch off the women and children belonging to said 
 
 place, at in 26 00 
 
 To entertaining 15 men three days, each at 3s 6 15 
 
 Old tenor, 32 lo 
 Lawful money, 474 
 
 Charles Goodrich presented a similar bill for keeping sixty horses one night at 
 five shillings each ; for one hundred and fifty meals of victuals " to Connecticut 
 men when they came to our relief to carry us off; " together with " sundry of the 
 Province men at fourpence a meal, and for keeping ten men left by Capt. Ashley 
 for our protection, for four days, at five shillings fourpence per week." 
 
 The Court allowed Dewey2 10s. 6d. lawful money (silver); and Goodrich, 3 
 8s. 6d. (Mass. Ar., vol. Ixxiv. pp. 337-343.) 
 
 2 Report to Prov. Sec. Willard, dated Springfield, Sept. 8, 1754: Mass. Ar. 
 vol. liv. p. 323.
 
 104 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 by them, as was also one of the children whom they killed. A 
 second child they carried out a quarter of a mile ; and there, being 
 discovered by a party of English coming from Poontoosuck, they 
 knocked it on the head, and, mortally wounding it, left it in the 
 woods, where it was picked up by these people." 
 
 The party from Poontoosuck was a portion of the whole popu- 
 lation of that place, who, mounted on the Connecticut hoi 
 were flying to the stronger settlements of the south. On their 
 way, tradition says (and there is no reason to doubt) that they 
 were repeatedly fired upon from the woods : and some of the 
 fugitives, particularly the heroic first female settler, who had 
 perhaps specially provoked the vengeance of some of the rascals 
 whose attacks upon her larder she had repelled, narrowly escaped 
 the bullets of the hidden foe. But the only person who was 
 killed was one Stevens, or Stearns, the accounts give the 
 name in both forms, said to have been a laboring man from 
 Canaan, Conn., who had been at work in Poontoosuck during the 
 summer. On the pillion behind him was a daughter of Sylvanus 
 Piercey, whom he had perhaps married, as some of the reports 
 speak of her as his wife. Stevens was shot while passing through 
 Lenox ; but his companion was rescued by the first settler of that 
 town, Jonathan Hinsdale. The settlements above Stockbrulge 
 were completely abandoned. 
 
 It is a prevalent opinion that only the two Indians who made the 
 attack upon Chamberlain's house were engaged in firing upon the 
 fugitives from Poontoosuck; but the weight of evidence is opposed 
 to this theory. The woods were full of prowlers. A scout 
 sent out from Fort Massachusetts towards Albany ascertained, 
 that, " on the 25th or 26th of August, forty-two canoes of Indians, 
 of five, six, or seven in a canoe, crossed the lake " (either Lake 
 George or Lake Charaplain), w with a design to make a descent on 
 our frontier." On the 6th of September, a man who had ventured 
 to return to Poontoosuck was " shot at by three Indians, and the 
 bullets penetrated his clothes in several places." He returned the 
 fire and " shot one down, but did not get him." l 
 
 The reliable local tradition is, that the white combatant, having 
 procured a re-enforcement, traced his opponent by his blood to the 
 shore of Lake Onota, and found a pebble wrapped in cloth, which 
 had evidently been used to stanch the wound. But the injured 
 
 1 Col. Worthingtem to Willard.
 
 HISTORY OP PITTSFIELD. 105 
 
 man had disappeared ; whether carried off by his friends, or 
 plunged into the lake to save his scalp from his pursuers, is uncer- 
 tain. The latter was the belief of the time. 
 
 On, the same day, two men were fired upon, west of Sheffield, 
 and another north of that town. All these events, occurring in the 
 week ending on the 7th of September, were amply sufficient to 
 rouse suspicion of the complicity of the resident Indians, especially 
 in the minds of the soldiers who came from a distance to the 
 relief of the settlers ; although the latter were not entirely free 
 from the injustice. 1 
 
 Gen. Dwight, after careful investigation, warmly defended the 
 Mission Indians ; showed them to be innocent of all blame in the 
 matter, and, if properly treated, ready to join with their white 
 neighbors in the war. The guilty parties proved to be Schaghti- 
 cokes, of whom a few were domiciled at Stockbridge. And doubt- 
 less some of the rascal red population which hung round the 
 place also participated in the mischief done. 
 
 The Schaghticokes had, like the Mohegans, pledged themselves 
 to the league formed at Albany in July; but they had hardly 
 returned home before they proved faithless to their obligations. 
 In October, Col. Timothy Woodbridge held tt a talk n with the 
 Canadian sachems, whose bands had perpetrated the outrages at 
 Hoosac, Stockbridge, and Poontoosnck, and drew from them that 
 they had acted under the joint instigation of the French and the 
 Schaghticokes. He asked them, ** Why they had made war upon 
 the settlements, while the princes under which they respectively 
 lived were at peace ? " They replied, that a The Schaghticokes had 
 sent to the Orondocks and the Onuhgungoes, to come and revenge 
 themselves for the death of several of their men who had been 
 killed by the English, and to help them the Schaghticokes 
 to Canada." 
 
 Others reported that the Onuhgungoes waited upon the Gover- 
 nor of Canada, and said, u Father, the English have abused us in 
 driving us from our lands and taking them from us." * 
 
 1 The worst of the outrages mentioned by Gen. Dwight, in his letter of Oct. 4, 
 quoted in the note on page 99, were the results of this suspicion ; although 
 treatment of the natives of a similar character, however less gross in degree, had 
 prevailed, as stated in the text, long before the date in connection with which the 
 letter is first quoted. 
 
 2 Col. Woodbridge explains in parenthesis, that " the Onuhgungoes were in- 
 habitants of the Connecticut Valley driven away in former wars, the same as the
 
 106 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 The Governor replied, " Children, the land is not mine, but 
 yours : you must assert your right." 
 
 Upon this hint they acted, and sent out an expedition, which, as 
 they confessed, numbered one hundred and twenty men. 1 
 
 To the people who, driven out from the homes, which, after one 
 cruel interruption, they had just begun to build up, were collected, 
 in doubt and confusion in the lower towns, it was a momentous 
 question, whether the murderous outbreak which had visited them 
 was only a sudden freak of savage fury, which would soon pass 
 away, or one more of the accumulating proofs that France had 
 secured the alliance of the Indians in another bitter, and probably 
 prolonged contest, for the extension of her dominion in America. 
 The conference of the St. Fran9ois chiefs with Col. Woodbridge 
 was considered conclusive against the French, who were then still 
 keeping up treacherous professions of peaceful purposes. But the 
 Government could have previously had no doubt upon the subject: 
 the conference is only mentioned here, as showing the conjunction 
 of causes which produced so serious an interruption to the settle- 
 ment of Berkshire. 
 
 The alarm on the border was pitiable. Every hour brought 
 rumors of outrage, which, although oftenest false, servetl to keep 
 alive the public excitement. "I never knew," wrote Israel 
 Williams on the 6th of September, " in all ye last war, the people 
 under so great surprise and fear." But Col. William Williams, 
 probably after consultation with Gen. Dwight and Col. Worthing- 
 ton, returned with some of his neighbors and a detachment of 
 Connecticut troops to his house on Unkamet Street, which at once 
 was stockaded. On the 9th, Col. Israel Williams, who commanded 
 the Hampshire militia, wrote from Hatfield to the Provincial Secre- 
 tary, that he " hoped they would maintain their guard at Poontoo- 
 suck, and be some protection to the towns and places within." 
 
 As soon as communication could be had with head-quarters, 
 Col. William Williams received orders from Gov. Shirley of 
 Massachusetts, and a request from Gov. Fitch of Connecticut, to 
 make a stand at Poontoosuck : the former sending him a sergeant 
 and eight men ; the latter, twenty -eight men, under command of 
 Capt. Hinman. 2 
 
 Schaghticokes." The ghosts of murdered nations were rising it seems, to plague 
 their destroyers. 
 
 1 Lieut. -Col. Woodbridge, Oct. 9, 1754 
 
 2 T. C. C. p. 217.
 
 POKT ANSON. 
 
 GROUND PLAN. 
 
 la 
 
 SOUTH PROSPECT. 
 
 PROFILE FROM THE CENTRE.
 
 FORT AN SON, 
 BUILT BY WILLIAM WILLIAMS, AT POONTOOSCCK, SEPTEMBER, 1754. 
 
 EXPLANATION OF GROUND PLAN. 
 
 A, The House, 40 by 24 feet, nine-feet posts, with a gambrcl roof, the walls filled 
 
 with four-inch white-ash plank. 
 D, The Storehouse, 35 by 10 feet; the outside, M, M, 14 feet high ; the inside, 
 
 at N, 7 feet; double-covered with boards up and down, salt-lox fashion, 
 
 drooping inwards. 
 
 C, The Well. 
 
 D, A Flanker, to defend the dead-wall F. 
 
 E, G, Dead- Walls, scoured from the upper works. 
 
 //, II, Large Sills, let into the ground, to support the pillars I, K. 
 
 /, /, Large Pillars, let into the sills, just eight inches from the house, in every part, 
 that reach as high as the eaves, and support plates that go all around the 
 house, and are locked at the corners. 
 
 K, K, Large Pillars, 16 inches square, 7 feet higher than the top of the plate, sup- 
 ported by the pillars. Each girted to his fellow, and cross-girted to the plate. 
 
 L, L, The Yard, floored all over. 
 
 A SOUTH PROSPECT OF FORT AT POONTOOSUCK. 
 X, X, the ends of the House. 
 
 A PROFILE FROM THE CENTRE OF THE HOUSE, EAST AND WEST. 
 
 EXPLANATION. 
 
 A, A, Pillars filled with square timber, let in with a groove from the girt, I, to the 
 . top ; being 7 feet all round ye house. 
 
 B, B, A Platform, 8 feet wide, round the house. 
 
 C, C, Pillars that support the plates that support one side of the platform ; the 
 
 other side being supported by the girts that pass from ye pillars A, A, side- 
 ways. 
 
 D, The lower part of the house. 
 
 E, The Chamber, or soldiers' lodging-room. 
 
 F, The space of the Gambo. 
 
 G, The Yard. 
 
 //, The Storeroom. 
 
 K, K, Doors, out of which the soldiers may run and cover any or every part of the 
 house.
 
 HISTORY OP PITTSFIELD. 107 
 
 / 
 
 The home-lots being too widely scattered for defence, the settlers 
 who returned with Col. Williams repaired to his house, 1 and en- 
 tered into a compact to work together on the lands protected by its 
 defences, holding the produce in common, and "cheerfully agree- 
 ing, that, if any thing remained beyond what was necessary for their 
 own support, to give it for the soldiers which might be allowed 
 them." The petition to the General Court, in which they stated 
 this plan, asked only that the same protection might be granted 
 them which was accorded their brethren of the Province, " consid- 
 ering their situation," and that allowance might be made them for 
 the expense incurred in fortifying, in case their scheme should be 
 approved. 2 
 
 Correspondence ensued, of which the following letter formed a 
 part : 
 
 COL. ISRAEL WILLIAMS TO COL. WM. WILLIAMS. 
 
 HATFIELD, Sept. 28, 1764. 
 
 Sir, Major Williams is returned from Boston, by whom I have my 
 orders renewed for ye strengthening ye frontiers and raising a greater num- 
 ber of forces for that purpose and scouting, if I judge needful, but no orders 
 for building forts anywhere. The Governor will report that matter to ye 
 General Court : but yet he is desirous of having ye people maintain their 
 ground, and has given me sufficient orders to defend the garrisons they build ; 
 and, as I wrote to you heretofore, so I would again press your people to fortify 
 somewhere in ye westerly part of Poontoosuck. By what I have been in- 
 formed, Ashley's house is well situate : but, if they incline to fortify further 
 west, I like it well ; and, if they go cheerfully and do it, there is reason to 
 think they will meet with ye favor of the Government ; and, if they do, the 
 
 1 No man appearing to provide for the forces aforesaid but Col. Williams, we 
 repaired to his house, who, at his own expense, had fortified the same. Poontoo- 
 suck Petition, T. C. C. p. 98. 
 
 2 The following memoranda, made by Col. Williams two years afterwards, gave 
 these transactions more in detail, and with a little different coloring : 
 
 " MEMOKANDUM. That, upon the mischief, protection was sent us both from this Pro- 
 vince and Connecticut. Upon their arrival, 1 offered to join them with all my strength, 
 in fortifying wherever they should choose; but none of them would undertake, either to 
 billet or build. Upon which, rather than no stand should be made, I proposed, if they would 
 fortify with me, I would billet them, the inhabitants and soldiers, pay the broad-axe men three 
 shillings and narrow-axe two shillings per diem : which they accepted, and I performed, and 
 built a handsome, strong, and very tenable fort [Anson] : and, if I had not thus done, the 
 soldiers would have all returned, and no one soul would now be at P. And now, since they 
 find the war is like to last longer than they expected, and that the Bryars and Bushes will 
 get up too high, they want the Province to pay them and support them, while they cut them 
 down [alluding to the custom of alternate mustering in as soldiers]. It can be nothing else. 
 Behold their situation. The ingenuity, gratitude, and requital." Lancton Coll.
 
 108 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 men that are now there must, some of 'em, guard whilst they are about ye 
 work ; and, if the inhabitants can supply themselves with provisions, Col. 
 Partridge will supply ye soldiers with necessaries. 
 
 We have no news of ye enemy. 
 
 I suppose Col. Partridge will send to yu to come in, when I shall confer 
 with you about some other matters. The Governor has given ye command 
 of the men at Fort Massachusetts and Poontoosuck to Major Williams l for ye 
 
 present. 
 
 With proper salutations, 
 
 Your affectionate friend and servant, 
 
 ISRAEL WILLIAMS. 
 
 But Col. Williams, at Poontoosuck, had already begun to 
 strengthen the defences on his own Unkamet-street grounds, by 
 the erection of a formidable fort, in accordance with the plans 
 here reproduced from the original copies, which are still preserved 
 in the State archives. And instead of abandoning this site, which 
 had no natural advantages, for the fine and commanding eminence 
 on the south-west shore of Lake Onota, which was the location 
 of " Ashley's House," he persisted in his first intention, and built 
 the work which he christened Fort Anson, probably in honor of 
 the admiral with whom he sailed on his first military campaign 
 under Oglethorpe, but which is known in the Provincial records, 
 sometimes as the fort at Poontoosuck, and sometimes as Williams's 
 Garrison." 
 
 The refusal to adopt the district-commander's suggestion in re- 
 gard to the location of the fort did not prevent its acceptance by 
 the General Court as one of the Province garrisons ; but its 
 builder was allowed only 08 for it, although it cost him, as he 
 alleged, 91. During its erection, apprehensions of a lurking enemy 
 rendered it necessary to keep up a vigilant scout of the neighbor- 
 hood ; and there were other difficulties to encounter. The uncer- 
 tain state of affairs will appear by the following letter from Col. 
 Oliver Patridge to Col. "Williams, 1 which also is of interest as illus- 
 trating the scarcity of certain articles of merchandise, as well as 
 the writer's distrust of Col. Williams's business capacity : 
 
 HATFIELD, Sept. 21, 1754. 
 
 Dear Brother, I received yours by Chandler ; have procured you ten 
 pounds of ginger, a door-lock, and two padlocks, small, but the biggest in 
 
 1 Major Eph. Williams, the founder of Williams College. 
 
 2 Col. Partridge married Col. Williams's sister, and appears to have enter- 
 tained a warm friendship for his brother-in-law.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 109 
 
 town. Shall send ye hinges, staples, &c., you sent for; also, twenty-one 
 and half gallons of rum and six gallons of molasses. Upon advising with 
 Col. [Israel] Williams, he let me know that rum would not be allowed 
 soldiers, except those destined for scouting. I thought molasses would be 
 profitable in the article of Bar. One half-pound pepper and a quire 
 paper I also send. There is no Commissary appointed for your place, and 
 who it will be I know not ; but I will be so free with you (and I trust I may 
 so advise you), to be very wary and careful how you proceed in the article of 
 billeting : else difficulties may arise. Poontoosuck inhabitants, who, I under- 
 stand, are with you, will not be allowed billeting until they are mustered as 
 soldiers, which probably they will alternately. What store of pork you have 
 at Poontoosuck among your people, and at what rate it may be bought, I 
 don't know. I would advise you not to give any extravagant price : there is 
 enough to be had here reasonably. As to their wheat which is upon the 
 straw, you certainly (if you want) may get at a moderate price. We have 
 heard this morning (Sept. 22) a man was shot upon at Southampton, and 
 we have no news from any other quarter. I hope you will use prudence 
 as to yourself and men with you, for we know not where ye enemy lurks. 
 I am your brother and servant, 
 
 OL. PARTRIDGE. 
 
 N. B. I have sent eight and three-quarter pounds of sugar, though I 
 had none to part with. 
 
 Besides superintending, and providing the means for, the erec- 
 tion of Fort Anson, Col. Williams attended to the commissariat of 
 both the soldiers and the returned settlers, a department for which' 
 he seems to have had a predilection, if not an aptitude. We have 
 his " Gentlemen's, Soldiers', and Laborers' Account Book, 1754,. 
 whilst building Fort Anson at Poontoosuck," 1 and also his Sutler's 
 Book for the month of November. And they furnish some curi- 
 ous recollections of life at Unkamet's Crossing. The former 
 shows a deal of hard work, sustained by regular although not 
 excessively frequent potations ; 2 the latter, commencing after the : 
 families of some of the settlers had repaired to the fort, is of more, 
 curious interest. Nine-tenths of its charges are for spirituous, 
 liquors, in drams of rum, bowls or half bowls of punch, and mugs 
 of flip. But it must be considered that every potation was here 
 recorded, and that an allowance of two or three daily, and the 
 average did not reach the smaller number, although it was then 
 considered moderate drinking, made a formidable show if stretched 
 
 1 Lane. Coll. s T. C. C., p. 286.
 
 110 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 out through a month's accounts. Persons lower in rank took their 
 drams; their superiors revelled in punch; while the more staid, 
 and the gentler sex, for the ladies did not totally abstain, were 
 generally content with the mild beverage of flip : if " sower," then 
 the more luxurious. 
 
 Capt. Hinman appears to have been a jolly fellow, with a relish 
 for liquid delicacies, and in his element when Nathaniel Tyler got 
 credit for sixty shillings by one hundred limes delivered the com- 
 missariat. Sometimes, too, a pleasant party relieved the sombreness 
 of the times over the social glass. On the 20th of November, the 
 gallant Capt. Hinman is charged with a "mug of flip for Mrs. Pier- 
 cey." On the same day we have the following startling entry: 
 " The wife of Deacon Crofoot for a mug of flip, a kiss." There 
 must have been a merry party of fair women and brave men that 
 chill November evening in the old fort. But it may be as well to 
 mention that the good deacon's good wife was then sixty-six years 
 old. It is not recorded that the score so deliberately set down 
 against her was ever liquidated. The red men, too, came in for 
 their share of the fire-water. Wanonpe is made debtor to a gill of 
 rum. John Wawampequeenont to a mug, a gill, and a glass. John 
 got a pound of shot as well. 
 
 The soldiers in 1754 could not have been such multitudinous 
 letter- writers as those of 1861-6. The only charges for paper, on 
 Col. William's book, were one sheet to Stephen Parsons, and a half 
 sheet to Moses Alexander, the latter coupled with a dram. But 
 opportunities of communication with home were then rare. 
 
 The larder of the fort was occasionally replenished with venison 
 at five pence a pound, and wild turkey at a shilling. An ox 
 weighing six hundred and forty pounds was bought of Sylvan us 
 Piercey for twelve pence a pound, making 32 ; and a yoke was 
 sold for 60 by Hezekiah Jones. The rations of thirty men for a 
 month were estimated at twenty bushels of flour, four hundred 
 and twenty pounds of pork, five hundred and twenty-five pounds 
 of beef, four and a half bushels of pease, and twenty-four gallons 
 of rum. No mention is made in the book of tobacco in any form. 
 
 There seems to have been much flitting to and from the fort, 
 and the quartermaster entertained all comers. On the 14th Novem- 
 ber, "Capt. Hinman and Somers" came before dinner, and five 
 more before supper. Sarah Williams, " Sylvanus Piercey, his wife 
 and four children, and his three men," are registered on the same
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. Ill 
 
 day. Nov. 16, "an Indian scout and two of Capt. Hinman's 
 men before supper." " Clerk Stone and Tyler ante prandem " on 
 the 19th, &c. 
 
 We are grateful for the light thrown by these little book; 
 upon life in Poontoosuck while it was held as a military outposts 
 for documentary accounts become scant after January, 1755, when 
 Col. Williams, who had before been acting as a half-pay officer 
 under special orders, accepted a captaincy in the regiment which 
 his old commander, Sir William Pepperell, was raising for the 
 Canada expedition of Gen. Shirley. 
 
 From the archives of the Commonwealth, however, we gather, 
 that, between the opening of the war and the year 1759, the set- 
 tlers of Poontoosuck, were maintained by the Province in a sort of 
 semi-military capacity. The supposition of Col. Partridge, that 
 they would be " mustered in alternately," proved substantially 
 correct, and was doubtless in accordance with custom. In order 
 that they might live, and hold their post as " a protection to the 
 towns within ;" pay, for garrisons of a limited number of men, was 
 allowed to the forts which were built from time to time ; and this 
 was shared by as many of those who most needed it as could 
 agree upon a division of service and remuneration. Thus a fort 
 which was allowed a garrison of eight men, really had more than 
 twice that number, who eked out their subsistence by agricultural 
 and other work in common, or otherwise. 
 
 Nor were individual interests altogether forgotten. In 1756, 
 Charles Goodrich represented to the General Court that the Fort 
 [Anson] was located so far from his clearing as to afford no pro- 
 tection to it a fact which shows how close to its walls the enemy 
 were supposed to lurk, and how great was the terror which they 
 inspired. Goodrich received the promise of support for a garrison 
 of eight men, provided he would build " a fortified place at his 
 own expense." He accordingly erected on an eminence south- 
 east of Wendell Square, and about two miles south of Fort 
 Anson a stout block-house, which went by the name of Good- 
 rich Fort, of which he was appointed commander, with the rank 
 of sergeant. Goodrich, owning much land in the vicinity of his 
 fort, made it profitable to lease or sell small sections of it to less 
 favored settlers, who were glad to be " mustered in alternately " as 
 soldiers of the garrison, and to cultivate little patches of earth so 
 near the fort that they could take refuge in it in case of danger.
 
 112 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 In November, 1757, a petition similar to that of Goodrich was 
 sent to the General Court by Stephen Crofoot, Solomon Doming, 
 Ebenezer Holman, Nathaniel Fail-field, Jesse Sackett, AbnerDewey, 
 Ephraim Stiles, Simeon Crofoot, Hezekiah Jones, Eli Root, Israel 
 Dewey, Benedict Dewey, and David Bush. 
 
 The petitioners stated, that, before the war, they had made con- 
 siderable improvements on their lands ; but, having no place of 
 defence to secure their families, were obliged to remove them " on 
 the first mischief by the Indians;" that the men sent by the Con- 
 necticut Committee of War were employed by Col. Williams to gar- 
 rison his own house, which stood about two miles from their im- 
 provements ; x that some of the petitioners had been at said fort 
 [Anson] in the pay and subsistence of the Province, in the hope of 
 a re-settlement of the town : but, as it was situated, it was of no 
 advantage to the settlers ; and they could not improve their lands 
 unless they were protected by works properly located for that pur- 
 pose. These they stated their willingness to build, and only asked 
 that a suitable number of themselves and others, of which there 
 were about eighteen, who wished to re-settle the township, might 
 be put under the pay and subsistence of the Province, and some 
 disinterested person appointed to the command. 
 
 In January, the same parties, together with Moses Miller, 
 Ezekiel Phelps, Benjamin Goodrich, Abner and Israel Dewey, and 
 Jacob Ensign, informed the Court that they had built " a good 
 defensible garrison, eighty feet in length and sixty in breadth, with 
 mounts at the opposite corners, with comfortable and convenient 
 housing within, and suitably situated for the settlement." This 
 work stood between Honasada Street and the river, near the bridge, 
 and upon the land of Nathaniel Fairfield, whose name it took. 
 This was not far from the four corners, now Wendell Square; 
 and the expressions of the memorialists sustain the tradition that 
 that was then considered " The Centre." 
 
 The General Court granted the pay and subsistence of ten men 
 to the garrison of Fort Fairfield, from the 1st of March to the 1st 
 of November next ensuing ; and provision was afterwards made 
 for it, from time to time, in the establishment for the western 
 frontier. Hezekiah Jones was appointed commandant, with the 
 
 1 The centre of the lands owned by the petitioners was about where Honasada 
 Street crosses the Housatonic River.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 113 
 
 rank of sergeant. A fourth place of defence was afterwards built 
 upon the eminence on the south-west shore of Lake Onota, 1 which 
 had been recommended for that purpose by Col. Israel Williams in 
 1754. At what date it was actually occupied does not appear. 
 In 1755, Gen. Dwight reported to Gov. Shirley the arrival 
 of sixty-five Connecticut soldiers at Stockbridge, of whom twenty- 
 five were destined for Poontoosuck, to take the place of those who 
 had refused to work at fortifying. And he suggested that some 
 of the new comers were " specially enjoined " for work of that kind ; 
 and as Massachusetts contrary to the expectation both of him- 
 self and Gov. Shirley was required to furnish them subsist- 
 ence, he recommended that they should be employed in erecting a 
 good fortress in the western part of Poontoosuck. 2 
 
 Col. Israel "Williams had, in 1754, urgently pressed the building 
 of works on Ashley's Hill, which he pronounced " situated best 
 for a garrison for ye protection of Stockbridge and for scouting 
 from;" and Gen. Dwight giving his earnest opinion, in Feb- 
 ruary, 1756, that " a fort there, if kept well-manned, would be 
 of the greatest service" it was probably built in the following 
 summer. When finished, it was the especial Province fort of this 
 portion of the valley ; looking more to the general defence, while 
 the others, although affording great protection to the towns and 
 places within, were located, as we have seen, with primary reference 
 to the defence of the settlers in their agricultural labors. 
 
 All these forts were mere block-houses; and there is no intima- 
 tion that any of them mounted so much as a swivel in the way of 
 cannon : but they were of much more skilful and elaborate construc- 
 tion than is commonly supposed, as will appear from the minute de- 
 scription we are able to give of Fort Anson and the more scanty 
 outlines of Forts Fail-field and Massachusetts. 
 
 The " establishment on the western frontier, " as the garrisons 
 of the forts in that quarter were officially styled, fluctuated in 
 numbers, as fear and the spirit of economy alternately prevailed 
 among the legislators ; but often a new alarm reversed an order 
 to reduce the establishment before it could be carried into 
 
 1 Then called Ashley Pond, from the residence of one Ashley, afterwards a 
 noted Tory, upon the site of the fort. 
 
 2 Mass. Ar. v. 54, pp. 380-1. 
 
 8
 
 114 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 effect. The forces were divided between headquarters at Fort 
 Massachusetts, and some half-dozen smaller works. Probably five 
 hundred men could have been rallied to defend a given point; 
 and so perfect a scout was kept up through the woods, that it 
 was impossible for any considerable body of the enemy to approach 
 without timely discovery. In this service, the men found con- 
 stant and active employment when not otherwise engaged in 
 garrison duty or in erecting new fortifications. 
 
 The largest garrison was usually stationed at Fort Massachusetts ; 
 and another, of from thirty to fifty men, at West Hoosack, now 
 Williamstown. At Lanesborough, the inhabitants held their own, 
 by the erection of a fort, or block-house, in the southern part of the 
 township, in which their plantation was organized in 1759. Poon- 
 toosuck was usually allowed a garrison of about thirty men ; to 
 which Connecticut sometimes added a detachment of the troops 
 which she maintained in Massachusetts for the defence of her own 
 frontier. The settlers, mustered in alternately as soldiers, were 
 occasionally employed upon detached service at Fort Massachusetts, 
 Stockbridge, and probably at other points : once, at least, at Bland- 
 ford, for a few weeks in 1755. With the exceptions mentioned, the 
 country northward from Poontoosuck to Canada was an unbroken 
 wilderness; and although the few posts above diminished in some 
 degree the perils of those who guarded the lower passes, yet, in 
 scouting their own wild neighborhood, the soldiery at Poontoosuck 
 must have been subject to no small danger, as well as to privation 
 and fatigue. It was at the risk of his scalp that the hunter from 
 Fort Anson singly chased the deer to the foot of the Hoosacks ; and, 
 if he sought his venison along the bases of the Taconics, it became 
 an interesting question whether he might not himself furnish mate- 
 rial for the roast. Luckily, the trout leaped by thousands in the 
 rivers and lakes; for the mountain brooks dashed through tabooed 
 ground, and Lulu Cascade might have proved as fatal as a foun- 
 tain in the desert to the adventurous sportsman who was tempted 
 by its pool. 
 
 Tradition is garrulous of encounters in the township, both 
 before and after the breaking out of the war, between the white 
 man and the red, with fatal results to the latter ; but these stories 
 are happily discredited by the fact, that no mention of them is 
 made in contemporary reports, in which every indication of the 
 presence of the enemy on the border was scrupulously noted, and
 
 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 115 
 
 whose writers were well informed of every incident which happened 
 at Poontoosuck. Two Indians were, however, killed near the Fort 
 at Lanesborough ; 1 and the universal belief that the woods, up to 
 the very walls of the forts, were full of hostile savages, must have 
 had some foundation in fact. 
 
 During the war, several of the regiments destined for the various 
 expeditions against Crown Point, Ticonderoga, and Canada, passed 
 through Poontoosuck ; among them, in 1755, that of Sir William 
 Pepperell, in which William Williams served as captain, and, in 
 1758, that which the latter officer commanded as colonel. Most 
 of these bodies halted for rest at Poontoosuck; and Williams 
 showed his interest in the plantation by persuading Gen. Pepperell 
 to leave twenty-six men for its protection, a detail which was 
 disapproved by the General Court, who requested Gov. Shirley to 
 order its discontinuance. Relics of the presence of the troops of the 
 Province in Poontoosuck during this war are still occasionally 
 found. Very recently buttons bearing the inscription, " Massachu- 
 setts 8th Reg.," were dug up near Lake Onota. It is said, that, 
 some forty years ago, a veteran passing this way, declared that he 
 had belonged to one of the regiments which halted here in the 
 the second French and Indian war, and related that the colonel, 
 finding that his men suffered from the lack of exercise, marched 
 them to a spot where stood three gigantic white oak-trees, one of 
 which they cut down. On being put to the test, he pointed out 
 the spot ; and the stumps of the trees, which are of a kind rare in 
 this vicinity, were found as he had described them. 
 
 It was on these marches that some who were subsequently citi- 
 zens of Pittsfield first became acquainted, perhaps more inti- 
 mately than was agreeable, with its soil. Names afterwards familiar 
 to its history are found on the muster-rolls of the towns of West- 
 field, Springfield, and Northampton. Among those from West- 
 field were David Noble, who organized and led the company of 
 minute-men which marched from Pittsfied on the news of Lexinor- 
 
 O 
 
 ton fight; and Oliver Root, a noted officer of the Revolution. The 
 latter was the son of Samuel Root, one of the forty pioneers, who 
 had died before completing his plans of removal to Poontoosuck. 
 Oliver was born at Westfield, Nov. 24, 1741, and, when of a proper 
 age, was apprenticed to a worthy shoemaker of that town. When 
 the war of 1754 broke out, he was, of course, a mere child; but he 
 
 1 Holland's Hist. West. Mass.
 
 116 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 soon grew a stout youth, and, taking advantage of the law which 
 permitted apprentices to enlist, he joined a company raised in his 
 native place, and marched to Albany by the road cut in 1753, 
 along the Westfield River and through Poontoostick. 
 
 This road was but a narrow path for pack-horses ; and Col. Root 
 described that portion of it which lay in Poontoosuck as in horrible 
 condition. No less than five hemlock swamps, some of them most 
 formidable bogs, lay between the Hoosacs and the Taconics. In 
 these the horses were constantly mired ; and the men were com- 
 pelled to carry the poor beasts through, with their burthens upon 
 them, by main strength. This was effected by a file of soldiers on 
 each side, who passed the bands by which their muskets were 
 commonly slung, under the bellies of the animals, and so went 
 marching along. Perhaps it was in consequence of this same 
 shocking state of the road, that Capt. Edward Ward, in his account 
 with the Province, still preserved in the State archives, has an 
 extra charge of "1. 10s. to cash paid for transporting my baggage 
 through Poontoosuck." 
 
 Reaching the seat of war, Oliver Root had the good fortune, as 
 the brave and adventurous young soldier esteemed it, to be as- 
 signed to the famous Corps of Rangers organized by Major Robert 
 Rogers. Into this corps, the strictest care was taken to admit none 
 but men of the hardiest constitution, accustomed to hunt and travel 
 in the woods, and in whose courage and fidelity the utmost confi- 
 dence could be placed. Among its officers were John Stark and 
 Israel Putnam, with others of the same character, and a rank and 
 file of similar material; who, together, made up the most splendid 
 Corps of Rangers known in history. 
 
 Besides their arms, their only accoutrements were a tin cup and 
 a single blanket for each man ; their simple rations a little parched 
 corn pounded to a coarse meal. 
 
 Singly, or in parties, they lay down to rest wherever inclination 
 and opportunity found them, with no shelter but their blankets. 
 Their strength was sustained, and their unparnpered appetites satis- 
 fied, with a little corn stirred in their cups with water dipped from 
 the wayside brook or spring; although they did not forbear to 
 forage for choicer viands when circumstances favored, nor disdain 
 the game with which the forest abounded, when prudence did not 
 forbid the noise necessary for its capture, or the smoke which 
 would ai'ise in cooking it.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 117 
 
 Throughout the war, the Rangers performed the most perilous 
 services ; and their exploits were as important to the expeditionary 
 forces as they were dashing in their gallantry and thrilling in their 
 hairbreadth adventures. The fate of Braddock had taught the 
 British commanders a lesson not easily forgotten ; and the Rangers, 
 in every battle of the armies to which they were attached, were 
 placed in the van. In all marches, they piloted the way, and, 
 scouting along the edges of the columns, rendered surprise or am- 
 buscade impossible. Always on the alert, they patrolled the forests 
 in all directions ; making prisoners of unwary enemies, skirmishing 
 with exposed outposts, rescuing captured friends, and giving warn- 
 ing to those in danger, until they surpassed the red man in his own 
 craft, and became the terror of Frenchman and hostile Indian. 
 For the dangers and privations inseparable from such a life, the 
 Rangers found compensation, not in the slight superiority of their 
 pay to that of the soldiers of the line, but amply in the wild and 
 adventurous life which they led, and in the privileges and exemp- 
 tion from military routine which their corps enjoyed, although 
 held to the severest discipline in their own line of duty. 
 
 In such warfare as this, the future Col. Root, like many other 
 officers of the Revolution, found his military school, and became 
 familiar with hardship and danger, as well in the recesses of the 
 forest as on the ensanguined ground before Ticonderoga. 
 
 With the advent of peace in 1760, he returned to Westfield. 
 The law freed enlisted apprentices from all claim by their masters 
 upon their earnings : but our young Oliver did not find it consist- 
 ent with his notions of integrity to avail himself of its provisions ; 
 and, upon his return home, he brought his bounty-money, and as 
 much of his pay as by careful economy he had been able to save, 
 and delivered them to his master, saying, in substance, "This 
 money I might legally retain, but justly and rightfully it is yours : 
 take it." l 
 
 It is pleasant to know, that, when his apprenticeship was com- 
 pleted, Oliver was taken by his master to Pittsfield, and there 
 established by him upon the farm inherited from his father. 
 
 1 The same simple-minded integrity characterized Col. Root throughout life : 
 and, in his old age, he refused to apply for the pension to which he was en- 
 titled as an officer of the Continental army ; maintaining that the act of Congress 
 could only have been intended for the benefit of those veterans who had no other 
 means of support, while he, although not wealthy, was comfortably well off.
 
 118 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Aii inspection of the rolls, in connection with corroborating cir- 
 cumstances, leads to the belief that nearly all the settlers of Pitts- 
 field who were of a suitable age served in the last French and 
 Indian war, either in the marching regiments or in the resident 
 garrisons. 
 
 The services of Col. Williams were conspicuous. In January, 
 1755, he received a letter from his old friend and commander, Sir 
 William Pepperell (Lane. Col.), which, after some moderately- 
 bitter complaint of the ill requital of their services at Louisburg, 
 expressed his intention to overlook past ingratitude, and raise a regi- 
 ment for the first expedition against Canada in the new war, in 
 which he offered Lieut.-Col. Williams a captaincy, regretting that 
 he could at the time do no better by him, but promising him his 
 influence for future promotion. Col. Williams accepted the prop- 
 osition, and served for three campaigns without advance of rank. 
 This deferment of promotion arose from a difficulty into which 
 Capt. Williams fell with Sir William Johnson ; whose pets, the 
 Iroquois, he had grossly insulted and enraged, by charging them 
 with treachery to the English cause, disarming them, and threaten- 
 ing extreme measures if they were in his power. For this he 
 was imprisoned by Johnson at Albany, but seems to have de- 
 fended or excused himself to the satisfaction of the Massachusetts 
 authorities ; for, in the spring of 1758, he received a colonel's com- 
 mission from Gov. Pownal, and raised a regiment which, in camp 
 at Poontoosuck, June 5, 1758, numbered 906 men. 1 With this 
 corps he took part in Abercrombie's unsuccessful expedition against 
 Ticonderoga, and was in the memorable and sanguinary attack 
 upon that post, July 5, 1758 ; of which he wrote a most thrilling 
 and interesting account. With this campaign ended his active 
 career as a military man. 
 
 1 In August, William Williams, son of the colonel, who had been surgeon's 
 mate in Col. Ephraim Williams's regiment at the time that gallant officer was 
 slain, and had behaved very creditably in that affair, was appointed surgeon in his 
 father's regiment. He died a few years later of small-pox.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE PLANTATION ORGANIZATION RESUMED. 
 [1759-1761.] 
 
 Proprietors'-Meetings, 1759-60. Vote to sell the Lands of Delinquent Tax-payers. 
 Committees to hire a Minister. Col. VV illiams's First Election as Clerk. 
 Highways and Bridges. Highway-Surveyors' Districts formed. Condition 
 of the Settlers at the Close of the War. Partition of the Commons. 
 
 rTIHE last item of the plantation records prior to their sus- 
 _1_ pension on account of the Indian troubles was the oath 
 subscribed, Aug. 12, 1754, by Hezekiah Jones and David Bush, 
 faithfully to perform their duties as assessors ; to which office they, 
 with William Wright, had been elected. The next entry was the 
 warrant of those gentlemen, issued Sept. 16, 1758, for a meeting 
 of the Proprietors, to be held on the 2d of October, at the house 
 of Nathaniel Fail-field, the same which the General Court 
 accepted the next winter, as " one of its garrisons." 
 
 The meeting chose Stephen Crofoot moderator, and Eli Root 
 collector of taxes ; continued the old assessors in office ; appointed 
 Deacon Crofoot, Sergeant Jones, and Ephraim Stiles a committee 
 to hire a minister; laid a tax of six shillings upon each lot to pay 
 him ; and instructed the assessors to sell the lands of such as 
 refused to discharge their rates. The apparent object of the 
 meeting was to procure a chaplain for the fort, as no inhabitants 
 of other parts of the plantation seem to have taken part in it ; 
 but a suspicion of sharp practice attaches to the vote to sell the' 
 lands of those who refused to pay their rates, at a time when 
 many of the proprietors were dispersed at a distance, some of 
 them with the army at the front, and others were straitened in 
 their resources by the unsettled state of the country. 
 
 In the fall of 1758, the colonists had cause to be inspirited ; but 
 
 119
 
 120 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 the more thoughtful rejoiced with trembling. The advantages 
 gained by the English arms in the campaign just closed inspired 
 confidence in their ultimate success, which the event justified; 
 but, as late as the spring of that year, murders had been committed 
 by the Indians at Coleraine, and many months passed before the 
 inhabitants of towns much farther within the border experienced 
 a sense of safety. It is not merely in the gloom of the sufferings 
 which they actually underwent, that we are to consider the plan- 
 tations ; but in the shadow of those which they had abundant 
 reason to dread as well. And not until the fall of Quebec, 
 not, indeed, fully until the cession of 1763, could their fears be 
 entirely dispelled. Stockbridge, in 1759, applied with earnestness 
 to the General Court for aid; stating that it "had fifty men in the 
 service, which weakened its garrison for home defence, and left it 
 almost as much exposed as Poontoosuck? 
 
 Plainly the time had not come for any proceedings, in plan- 
 tation-meeting, which would seriously affect the owners of lands 
 not immediately under the protection of the forts ; and the voters 
 at the meeting in question confessed as much, by refusing to make 
 appropriations for highways and bridges. 
 
 Affairs, however, began gradually to resume the aspect which 
 they had worn before the war. A second meeting of the Pro- 
 prietors, held Jan. 29, although it did little more than repeat the 
 action of that in October, was less limited in its attendance. It 
 was resolved that the old assessors, clerk, and collector should 
 continue to " stand " in their several offices ; but Jesse Sackett was 
 made treasurer, in place of Charles Goodrich. David Bush, Jacob 
 Ensign, and Josiah Wright were substituted for the former " com- 
 mittee to hire a minister." An increasing sense of security from 
 savage provvlings was manifested by holding the meeting at the 
 house of the clerk, David Bush, some rods west of the fort, and by 
 restoring that as the place designated for posting up legal notices. 
 
 At the next meeting, May 21, adjourned to May 30, 1759, 
 matters began to take more definite form. Col. Williams, 
 having returned from the wars, began his long course of civil ser- 
 vice in the office of Proprietors' clerk, taking the qualifying oath, 
 " Coram John Ashley, Jus. Peace." The preaching of the gospel 
 was put upon a little more permanent footing by the appointment 
 of Charles Goodrich, Stephen Crofoot, and William Williams 
 " to hire some man, from time to time, to preach among us." The
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 121 
 
 committee was to have some fixedness, however it might prove 
 with the minister. The attention of the meeting was specially 
 given to highways and bridges. Some good beginning had been 
 made in this direction before the war; and during its continuance, 
 although the more remote roads must have retrograded in condi- 
 tion, those favorably situated for protection, and those required for 
 military purposes, were improved. Prior to 1753, some county 
 roads had been laid out and worked ; including that now Wendell 
 Street; and that which, commencing near the present junction of 
 Wendell and Elm Streets, formed the east road to Lanesborough. 
 Changes had also begun to be made in the rectangular town-roads, 
 which it would be a laborious task now to trace. Doubts already 
 existed as to the true line of West Street, and encroachments 
 upon all the highways were complained of. Three bridges were 
 standing, that described in the previous chapter as built by Dea- 
 con Crofoot, and those respectively near the present crossings of the 
 Housatoriic by West and South Streets. The record of the action 
 of this meeting concerning highways and bridges exhibits clearly 
 the manner of doing that kind of town business ; and, as it is in 
 other respects characteristic, we quote in full : 
 
 " Voted : That eighteen pounds be raised for repairing the public and 
 private ways within this township this year; and that twelve pounds be 
 raised to build a bridge over the river in the country road, where it runs 
 through Nathaniel Fairfield's lot ; and that Jacob Ensign, Eli Boot, and 
 Abner Dewey be a committee to procure the materials, inspect the work, 
 and see it forthwith accomplished, and empowered to let said work out by 
 the great, or employ the proprietors at day-labor ; that nine pounds fifteen 
 shillings be raised and allowed to Charles Goodrich, as it shall become due 
 from him for his rates upon his settling lots, he building a good and sufficient 
 bridge over the river, in the country road, near his house. He giving bond 
 (according to his own proposal) to the Proprietors' clerk to finish it in two 
 months from this day, and keep it in repair twenty years next ensuing ; and 
 that the builders of the South Bridge should be paid for it, at the rate of 
 highway work, on condition that David Bush, to the Proprietors' clerk, gives 
 bond to keep an open road, during their pleasure, two rods wide, from the 
 highway or town-road down the river, where the path is now trod, two rods 
 wide, to said bridge ; and from the said bridge southerly, two rods wide, to 
 the aforesd. road ; and that the builders of the west bridge be paid at the 
 same rate, upon condition Josiah Wright gives bond as aforesd. for free 
 passage to and from it with horses, carriages, &c., during pleasure, in case it 
 proves to stand on his lot.
 
 122 HISTORY OP PITTSFIELD. 
 
 "Voted: That 9. 1. 4. be now raised to pay Deacon Crowfoot for 
 building the bridge over the river in his lot ; and that the assessors forthwith 
 make a rate, including all the aforesd. grants of money ; and that the builders 
 of the south and west bridges, as soon as may be, bring in their accounts to 
 the assessors, or be excluded in this present assessment." 
 
 At this meeting, the first division of " all the public and private 
 roads" into Highway-surveyors' districts was made, with the 
 following bounds; and the surveyors, whose names are given, 
 were assigned to them for the following year : 
 
 No. 1. From the west line of the township to the West River. 
 Daniel Hubbard, surveyor. 
 
 No. 2. Between the East and West Rivers, including the two 
 bridges, east and west. Sylvanus Piercey, surveyor. 
 
 No. 3. All the roads east of the East River, and the county 
 road. William Williams, surveyor. 
 
 The building of bridges, the re-arrangement of the roads, and 
 the adjustment of taxes so that they might be conveniently paid 
 in labor or material, occupied a very prominent place in the early 
 plantation-meetings, even when compared with the large space 
 which kindred subjects claim in the town-business of the present 
 day. 
 
 While affairs at Poontoosuck were resuming the routine which 
 the Indian mischief had so rudely interrupted, the conquest of 
 Canada was finally accomplished ; and when, soon afterwards, the 
 storm of war ceased, the threatening cloud, which, through every 
 former peace, had lowered along the northern horizon, was dissi- 
 pated forever.- In 1759-60, the omens were so auspicious that the 
 most timorous and exposed settlers began to take heart for the 
 future, and enter upon measures to repair their losses. 
 
 A very large proportion of the proprietors had kept their resi- 
 dence more or less closely with the plantation through all its 
 dangers; and some, if not the majority, had, in this perilous 
 sojourning, the companionship of their wives. Others removed 
 their families to the old Connecticut- Valley homes, and held 
 themselves in readiness, either to serve in garrison at Poontoosuck, 
 scout the neighboring forests, or join in the more distant and 
 formal expeditions. Thus, it is narrated of Nathaniel Fairfield, 
 that, on the first mischief by the Indians, be escorted his wife to 
 Westfield, somewhat less leisurely than on their bridal tour they 
 had come through the Green Woods, and, leaving her there,
 
 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 123 
 
 served for six months in the army. At the expiration of that 
 term he re-visited his clearing, and "found his cow and oxen safe, 
 but grown so fat as to be unfit for use : " but let us hope par- 
 ticularly nice eating for the gallant garrison. 
 
 The planters found the advantage of their persistent clinging to 
 the place, in the comparatively slight deterioration of their farms ; 
 although some, and especially those in the western part of the 
 plantation, suffered from the neglect compelled by their exposed 
 location. 
 
 Those settlers who could cultivate their lands at all during the 
 war may have found some compensation for the difficulties under 
 which they labored, in the near and profitable market afforded by 
 the ai'my commissariat ; but whether this relief was experienced to 
 any appreciable extent, we are unable to say. It is certain, that, if 
 any losses were thus lightened, they were those which without this 
 mitigation would have been least ruinous to the sufferers. The 
 lands under the protection of the forts belonged to the wealthier 
 planters. The diversion of their industry from the purposes upon 
 which they intended to bestow it, and the idleness in which they 
 were compelled to leave their capital, impoverished the settlers 
 generally in proportion as their interests were confined to, and their 
 capital invested in, Poontoosuck. But, upon the whole, the planta- 
 tion was in a better condition than was to have been anticipated to 
 resume its progress, and rapidly increase to proportions which 
 would justify its incorporation as a town. Preliminary to that 
 measure, however, and as a means of still further adding to the 
 population, a new partition of the Commons, in place of that 
 which had been annulled, became necessary, a proceeding which 
 was also demanded by the greatly increased number of the joint 
 proprietors, several of whom were desirous of immediately en- 
 joying their rights in severalty. 
 
 As early as June, 1743, Philip Livingston, in consideration of 
 3000, current money, sold his third of the Commons lands to 
 Ephraim Williams, Esq., of Stockbridge, John Brewer of Town- 
 ship No. 1 (Tyringham), near Stockbridge, Elisha Jones of Wes- 
 ton, Israel Williams and Moses Graves of Hatfield. Jones im- 
 mediately sold a quarter part of his purchase to Col. Oliver Part- ' 
 ridge of Hatfield, and Rev. William Williams of Weston ; and the 
 latter, in 1756, "in consideration of love and affection," transferred 
 his rights to his son Solomon, who, dying soon after, left them to
 
 124 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 his brother, Col. William. Ephraim Williams, one of the founders 
 of Stockbridge, died in 1754, leaving his Poontoosuck lands to his 
 more distinguished son, the colonel of the same name, who was 
 killed the next year in battle. The lands in 1759 were in the hands 
 of Cols. John Worthington and Israel Williams, as trustees for the 
 legatees of Col. Williams ; of which the chief was the free school, 
 that, afterwards established at Williamstown, became Williams 
 College, 1 
 
 Col. Wendell had, as has been related, sold one-third of his in- 
 terest that is, one-ninth of the Commons to Charles Goodrich. 
 
 Col. Stoddard dying in 1748, left issue, Mary, Prudence, Solo- 
 mon, Esther, and Israel, who, with their mother and guardian, 
 Madame Prudence, inherited his property. The daughters had 
 their portion of the estate assigned elsewhere: all the children, 
 except Israel, had become of age in 1759. Only the widow and 
 her sons received lands in the partition of the Poontoosuck 
 Commons. 
 
 Capt. Brewer's right had been transferred to some of the other 
 proprietors. 2 
 
 Wendell, Jones, William Williams for his brother's heirs, and 
 Graves, probably with the consent of their co-tenants, applied to 
 the Superior Court, Hampshire September Term, 1759, for a com- 
 mission of freeholders to make partition of the lands held in 
 common at Poontoosuck; and the following gentlemen, having 
 been accordingly appointed, took the qualifying oath previous to the 
 1st of January : Major John Ashley, Capt. Ebenezer Hitchcock, 
 Capt. Nathaniel Dwight, John Chadbourne, and Daniel Brown. 
 The warrant for division was dated pro forma at Boston Oct. 
 20, 1759. The Commissioners' Report, according to the plan 
 
 1 The Promised Land, described among the hills of Pittsfield, formed part 
 of the allotment to the heirs of Col. Ephraim Williams in the partition of the 
 Commons, as did also the beautiful place now known as " Onota," the noble 
 grounds attached to the residence of Wm. C.Allen, Esq., on the south-eastern shore 
 of the lake of that name. 
 
 2 The costs of partition, 70, were assessed one-third each to Wendell and the 
 heirs of Stoddard ; one-ninth to Moses Graves ; one-twelfth to Charles Goodrich j 
 
 .one-eighteenth to Elisha Jones ; one-thirty-sixth to Col. Partridge ; and the same 
 proportion to the heirs of Col. Ephraim and Dr. Solomon Williams, respectively. 
 Probably Col. Wendell, in his sale to Goodrich, had agreed to pay the cost of 
 partition ; and the amount assessed to the latter may have been upon an interest 
 purchased by him of Brewer.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 125 
 
 here given, was received at the Registry of Deeds in Springfield, 
 Feb. 6, 1761 ; and recorded by Edward Pynehon, in Book 2, 
 p. 510. 
 
 V 
 
 i 
 
 1=" 
 
 35 
 
 36 
 
 37 
 
 38 
 
 t 
 
 VFHAMI 
 ^40 
 
 NGHAM 
 41 
 
 1 
 
 42 ! 
 
 43 
 
 i 
 :44 
 
 8 
 
 ^* 
 
 \ 
 
 32 
 
 31 
 
 30 
 
 29 
 
 
 J7 
 
 26 
 
 25 
 
 24 
 
 23 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 
 'r: !3 
 
 41 
 
 f\ 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 18 
 
 19 
 
 20 
 
 A 
 
 22 
 
 B 
 
 21 
 
 c 
 
 ! 
 
 B| A 
 10 
 
 P> y 
 
 VwEST; 
 J POND/ 
 
 8 
 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 ^5 
 
 J . __ 
 
 3-r 
 
 G 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 d 
 
 AJM 
 
 'HEY 
 
 /fff 
 
 \en 
 
 ESE 
 
 irja\\ LI 
 
 r OUTBY 
 
 I 
 
 >rs 
 
 C/)P) 
 
 tus 
 
 r OA 
 
 
 A 
 
 ^ 
 
 1 
 
 71 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 48 
 
 47 
 
 46 
 
 45 
 
 33 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 > 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 50 
 
 51 
 
 52 
 
 33 
 
 54 
 
 
 
 56 
 
 57 
 
 53 
 
 59 
 
 70 
 J- 
 
 69 
 
 N 
 
 68 
 
 67 
 
 66 
 
 65 
 
 64 
 
 / 
 
 / 63 
 
 62 
 
 61 
 
 60 
 
 \SOUTH POND/ 
 
 PLAN OF 1759. 
 
 A Plan of the Township called Poontoosuck, in the County of Hampshire and 
 Province of Massachusetts Bay ; viz., of all the settling-lots, as they were sur- 
 veyed by Capt. John Huston : and also a lands in said township 
 
 were surveyed and hounded out hy Nathaniel Dwight, in 
 
 of the year 1759, and as it was set out to each proprietor in January, in the year 
 1760, with each proprietor's name set on his lot, with the nnmher of the lot, and 
 the number of acres therein contained, by John Ashley, Esq. ; Capt. Eben Hitch- 
 cock ; Nathaniel Dwight, Esq. ; John Chadwick ; and Daniel Brown, a Committee 
 appointed for that purpose by the Court of Assize, held at Springfield in Septem- 
 ber last. Planned on a scale of one hundred and twenty perch in an inch. 
 
 Per Nathaniel Dwight, Surveyor. 
 
 Signed, NATHANIEL DWIGHT, by order of the Committee. 
 
 Jan. 4, 1760. 
 
 [On the original plan, each square is marked with the name of the proprietor to 
 whom it was assigned, the number of acres it contained, and the quality of the 
 land. These particulars are transferred to the table below. Some other inscrip- 
 tions, added by a later hand, are included in parentheses.]
 
 126 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Square No. 1. Mr. Charles Goodrich, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 2d rate. 
 " No. 2. Col. Elisha Jones, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 2d rate. 
 " No. 3. [This square, and part of adjoining land, were subdivided, for 
 
 reasons which are explained in the text. The subdivisions 
 
 are indicated by letters.] 
 
 A. Col. Jones, 35 acres. 
 
 B. Col. Partridge, 19 acres. 
 
 C. Col. Eph. Williams's heirs, 21 acres. 
 
 D. Goodrich, 31 acres. 
 
 E. Col. Wm. Williams, 25 acres, 2 rods. 
 
 F. Goodrich, 1 7 acres. 
 
 G. Wendell and Sol. Stoddard, 100 acres. 
 
 " No. 4. Charles Goodrich, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 1st rate. 
 " No. 5. Col. Jacob Wendell, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 1st rate. 
 
 (Fold Dickinson.) 
 
 " No. 6. Sol. Stoddard, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 
 " No. 7. Ministry, 1 1 5 acres, no rods, 32 perch. 
 
 Minister, 115 acres, no rods, 32 perch. 1st rate. 
 " No. 8. Col. Partridge, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 1st rate. 
 " No. 9. Col. Jacob Wendell, 222 acres, 1 rod, 20 perch. 1st rate 
 
 (I. W., E. R.) 
 
 Col. Eph. Williams's heirs, 86 acres. 1 st rate. 
 " No. 10. A. Mr. Israel Stoddard, 170 acres. 1st rate. 
 
 B. Mr. Sol. Stoddard, 60 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 1st rate. 
 " No. 11. Mr. Sol. Stoddard, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 2d rate. 
 " No. 12. Col. Jacob Wendell, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 2d rate. 
 
 (I. M. W. O. W. x.) 
 
 " No. 13. Mrs. Prudence Stoddard, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 1st rate. 
 " No. 14. Sol. Stoddard, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 1st rate. 
 " No. 15. Col. Jacob Wendell, 1 99 acres, excluding pond. 3d rate. 
 
 (J. W.) 
 
 " No. 16. Col. Jacob Wendell, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 1st rate. 
 
 (Hn. W. O. W. x .) 
 
 " No. 17. Col. Elisha Jones, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 1st rate. 
 " No. 18. Col. Jacob Wendell, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 1st rate. 
 
 (Sold Easton x.) 
 
 " No. 19. Israel Stoddard, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 1st rate. 
 " No. 20. Lieut. Moses Graves, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 1st rate. 
 " No. 21. A. Mrs. Prudence Stoddard, 85 acres, no rods, 35 perch. 
 
 B. Sol. Stoddard, 85 acres, no rods, 35 perch. 
 
 C. Lieut. Moses Graves, 66 acres. 
 
 " No. 22. Sol. Stoddard, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 2d rate. 
 
 " No. 23. Col. Stoddard, 242 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 1st rate. 
 
 " No. 24. Mrs. Prudence Stoddard, 242 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 3d rate. 
 
 " No. 25. Prudence Stoddard, 242 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 
 
 " No. 26. Col. Jacob Wendell, 242 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 1st rate. 
 
 (O. W. cleared 60 acres.) 
 
 " No. 27. Prudence Stoddard, 242 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 127 
 
 Square No. 28. 1st rate. A. Lieut. Moses Graves, 310 acres, 2 rods, 21 perch. 
 
 B. Col. Elisha Jones, 103 acres, 2 rods, 21 perch. 
 " No. 29. Col. Jacob Wendell, 242 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 2d rate. 
 
 (H. N. W. O. W. x.) 
 
 " No. 30. Lieut. Moses Graves, 282 acres, 3 rods, no perch. 2d rate. 
 " No. 31. Col. Jacob Wendell, 242 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 1st rate. 
 
 (J. W. M. P.) 
 
 " No. 32. Col. Jacob Wendell, 242 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 2d rate. 
 
 (J. W. J. W., Jr's, heirs.) 
 " No. 33 Col. Wendell, 223 acres, 2 rods 25 perch. 3d rate. 
 
 ( J. W. A. & S. W. m 6 100.) 
 " No. 34. 3d rate. A. Col. Partridge, 23 acres. 
 
 B. Lieut. Graves, 6| acres. 
 
 C. Col. Eph. Williams's heirs, 119 acres, 2 rods, no 
 
 perch. 
 
 " No. 35. Lieut. Moses Graves, 254 acres. 3d rate. 
 " No. 36. Mrs. Prudence Stoddard, 254 acres. 2d rate. 
 
 (Janes & Brown.) 
 
 " No. 37. Col. Jacob Wendell, 296 acres, 3 rods, no perch. 2d rate. 
 
 (J.W. A. & S. W.) 
 
 " No. 38. Mrs. P. Stoddard, 251 acres. 2d rate. 
 " No. 39. Col. Wm. JVilliams, 103 acres, 2 rods, 21 perch. 1st rate. 
 " No. 40. Wm. Williams, 248 acres. 1st rate. 
 " No. 41. 2d rate. A. Sol. Stoddard, 90 acres. 
 B. Col. Wendell, 163 acres. 
 
 (E. M.W. 0. W. x.) 
 
 " No. 42. 2d rate. A. Partridge, 207 acres. 
 B. Col. Jones, 26 acres. 
 
 " No. 43. School-land, 262 acres, 3 rods, no perch. 3d rate. 
 " No. 44. 3d rate. A. Ministry, 112 acres, no rods, 8 perch. 
 
 B. Minister's Lot, 151 acres, 2 rods, 8 perch. 
 " No. 45. Mr. Charles Goodrich, 150 acres. 1st rate. 
 " No. 46. Mr. Israel Stoddard, 240 acres. 1st rate. 
 " No. 47. Mr. Sol. Stoddard, 240 acres. 1st rate. 
 " No. 48. Lieut. Moses Graves, 240 acres. 1st rate. 
 " No. 49. Mr. Charles Goodrich, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 2d rate. 
 " No. 50. Col. Jacob Wendell, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 1st rate. 
 
 (Sold X .) 
 
 " No. 51. Lieut. Moses Graves, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 1st rate. 
 " No. 52. The heirs of Col. Eph. Williams, 239 acres, 2 rods, no perch. 
 
 1st rate. 
 
 " No. 53. Col. Jacob Wendell, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 2d rate. 
 
 (Sold.) 
 " No. 54. Col. Jacob Wendell, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 3d rate. 
 
 (I. M. W. O. W. X .) 
 
 " No. 55. Col. Elisha Jones, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 2d rate. 
 " No. 56. Col. Jacob Wendell, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 1st rate. 
 
 (I. M. W. O. W. x.)
 
 128 HISTORY OP TITTSFIELD. 
 
 Square No. 57. Col. Jacob Wendell, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 1st rate. 
 
 [N. B. Across lots 56 and 57 is the following : " Col. Wen- 
 dell's meadow included in these two lots, chiefly valuable."] 
 " No. 58. Mr. Sol. Stoddard, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 2d rate. 
 " No. 59. Gol. Jacob Wendell, 230 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 2d rate. 
 
 (I. M. W. O. W. x.) 
 
 " No. 60. Col. Jacob Wendell, 298 acres, 3 rods, 8 perch. 2d rate. 
 
 ( J. w. S. H.) 
 
 " No. 61. Mr. Sol. Stoddard, 298 acres, 3 rods, 8 perch. 3d rate. 
 " No. 62. Col. Jacob Wendell, 298 acres, 3 rods, 8 perch Some meadow 
 
 in this lot. 1st rate. (J. W.) 
 
 " No. 63. Mr. Israel Stoddard, 298 acres, 3 rods, 8 perch. It is meadow 
 
 included. 1st rate. 
 " No. 64. 1 st rate. A. Mr. Charles Goodrich, 248 acres, 2 rods, 32 perch. 
 
 B. Lieut. Graves, 49 acres, 1 rod, 1 1 perch. 
 
 " No. 65. Mr. Israel Stoddard, 298 acres, 3 rods, 8 perch. 2d rate. 
 " No. 66. Mrs. Prudence Stoddard, 298 acres, 3 rods, 8 perch. 3d rate. 
 " No. 67. Lieut. Moses Graves, 311 acres, 2 rods, no perch. 2d rate. 
 " No. 68. Col. Jacob Wendell, 298 acres, 3 rods, 8 perch. 1st rate. 
 " No. 69. Col. Jacob Wendell, 272 acres, 1 rod, 24 perch. 2d rate. 
 
 (I. M. W. O. x. Sold part.) 
 " No. 70. Mr. Sol. Stoddard, 287 acres, 3 tods, 24 perch. 1st rate. 
 
 The mode of division adopted, which was much more likely to 
 secure an equitable result than that followed in 1752, was this : 
 Nathaniel Dwight, the professional surveyor to the commission, 
 first divided the land into " squares," generally of from two hun- 
 dred and thirty to three hundred and twenty-six acres in extent, 
 although some, either from the encroachments of the lakes, or as 
 make-weights, were much smaller. The squares were then classi- 
 fied in regard to their arable qualities, as first, second, and third 
 rate. The three sixty-third parts reserved in the patent of the 
 township for the first settled minister, and for the perpetual support 
 of the schools and of the ministry, were then set off"; and the com- 
 missioners proceeded to apportion the remaining lands to the 
 several proprietors, square by square, in proportion to their in- 
 terests. Either by previous agreement, or by courtesy, the spots 
 upon which some of the proprietors had made improvements were 
 included in their allotments ; and no dissatisfaction appears to have 
 arisen with the report of the commissioners. 
 
 Among the more noticeable allotments, Col. Wendell received 
 the squares which contained the valuable Canoe Meadows, and the 
 fine knoll upon which his grandson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, built 
 his villa. Col. Williams got one hundred thirty-two acres on the
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 129 
 
 south, and two hundred and forty-eight upon the west shores of 
 Poontoosuck Lake ; of which he boasted a few years later, as the 
 finest pieces of pine-land in all this region, and " certain always 
 to supply New Framinghara (Lanesborough), as that place was 
 entirely destitute of this tree." The beautiful rural cemetery of 
 Pittsfield occupies the larger portion of two semi-squares, of about 
 one hundred and fifteen acres each, which fell to the minister and 
 the " ministry ; " the former getting the oblong upon Wahconah 
 Street, the latter that upon Onota. 
 
 The Commons lands, now no longer Commons, were thus 
 opened for settlement; and population soon began to extend to 
 them. 
 
 9
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PITTSFIELD INCORPORATED. 
 [1761-1774.] 
 
 Towns receive Names from the Governor. Berkshire County erected. First 
 Pittsfield Town-Meeting. Town-Officers. Highways and Schools. Pau- 
 perism. Slavery. Crimes and Misdemeanors. Cattle restrained. Wolves. 
 Anecdote of Mrs. Janes. Grist-Mills, Saw-Mills, Fulling-Mills, and 
 Malt-House. Growth of the Settlement. Col. Williams's House and Gar- 
 den. Other Dwellings. Early Settlers' Names. Condition and Prospects 
 of the Town. Taxation of Non-resident Proprietors. 
 
 MANY evils arose from the peculiar system adopted in the 
 settlement of Poontoosuck ; and among others, less easy 
 of remedy, was the limitation of corporate powers and duties, under 
 the plantation, to the proprietors of the sixty settling-lots. In 
 reference to the difficulties springing from this cause, it was repre- 
 sented to the General Court, in 1761, that incorporation as a town 
 would greatly contribute to the growth of the place, and remedy 
 many inconveniences to which the inhabitants and proprietors 
 might otherwise be subjected. 
 
 The movement was made by Col. "Williams, who was then at 
 Boston urging the erection of the county of Berkshire ; and an 
 act of incorporation was introduced in the Council, read three 
 times, passed to be engrossed, sent to the House and there read 
 once, all upon the 10th of April. It passed the House on the 13th, 
 was enacted on the 16th, and approved by the governor (Sir 
 Francis Bernard) on the 26th. James Otis, as speaker, attested 
 the passage of the bill by the House. 
 
 The act of incorporation conferred the usual powers, but with 
 the provision, that "no inhabitant or proprietor, excepting the 
 
 130
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 131 
 
 original sixty settling-proprietors, or those holding under them, 
 should be obliged to pay any part of the charges towards building 
 a meeting-house, settling the first minister, or the other charges 
 which the said original settling-proprietors were obliged to per- 
 form, either according to the tenor of their grant, or by any agree- 
 ment made by or among themselves." 
 
 A further provision was made by amendment, adopted after the 
 passage of the bill by the Council, excluding the new town from 
 representation until the year 1763. 
 
 The privilege of conferring names upon towns at their incorpo- 
 ration belonged, under the Provincial regime, to the royal gover- 
 nor, who generally, in selecting them, consulted the wishes of the 
 parties interested. In cases, however, where these differed among 
 themselves, the contestants most in favor at Province House pre- 
 vailed ; and, where no satisfactory name was proposed by any 
 party, his Excellency availed himself of the opportunity to indulge 
 his own taste, and that of Sir Francis Bernard was not to be 
 questioned, or to compliment some personal friend or patron: a 
 fact which may aid some towns in finding a godfather responsible 
 for their unaccountable names. 1 
 
 Three plantations were made towns on the same day with 
 Poontoosuck ; and in each instance a space, which has never been 
 filled, was left blank in the records of the Court, for the name of 
 the place. In the copy, among the rolls of the commonwealth, of 
 the act regarding Poontoosuck, the word " Pittsfield " is inserted 
 in a different handwriting, and with different ink, from those 
 
 1 The following letter Hon. Thomas Colt's Collection, pp. 335 affords a 
 curious illustration of this statement, in connection with the incorporation of the 
 Plantation of Queensborough, in 1771. Queensborough was made the town of 
 West Stockbridge in 1774. 
 
 SIR, We have now a petition in the General Court to have the west part of Stockbridge 
 set off, and made into a district ; which I suppose will meet with no opposition. We now 
 call the place Queensborough : should be glad to have it retain that name if it is agreeable 
 to his Excellency. I forgot to desire 'Squire Woodbridge to mention it to the governor; 
 and, had I have thought of it, I suppose he would have been too negligent to have done 
 any thing about it. I would therefore now beg the favor of you, sir, to request of his 
 Excellency to call the place Queensborough if it is agreeable to him. 
 I am, with respect, sir, your very humble servant, 
 
 ELIJAH WILLIAMS. 
 
 QUEENSBOROUGH, June 4, 1771. 
 
 The letter was addressed to Col. William Williams, then Representative from 
 Pittsfield, and high in Gov. Hutchinson's favor.
 
 132 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 used in the body of the document. By whom, or upon whose 
 suggestion, the name was selected does not appear. In the act> 
 another blank left for the name of the magistrate authorized to call 
 the first town-meeting was filled by that of Col. Williams ; and in 
 June, writing to a friend in London, that gentleman remarked, 
 " The name of Pitt is most agreeable to me ; and, as the plantation 
 in which I dwell grew numerous, the government, last spring, saw 
 cause to incorporate it into a town, which Gov. Bernard was 
 pleased to call Pittsfield." Doubtless the writer had some voice 
 in securing for his home the name which was so agreeable to him. 
 
 But William Pitt, by his vigorous conduct of the war against 
 France, had made himself the idol of all parties in New England; 
 and, however modern sentiment may regret aboriginal " Poontoo- 
 suck," it was not without reason that the men of 1761 thought it 
 seemly to commemorate the British minister who had in troublous 
 time manifested the most earnest solicitude for the defence of the 
 western frontier of Massachusetts, in the name of the first town 
 incorporated in that section after the triumphant close of the war: 
 and it was incidentally fortunate that this town also occupied the 
 site of one of the most exposed military outposts, and was one of 
 those whose safety most closely depended upon the conquest of 
 Canada. And thus, while happily the name of Pitt grew more and 
 more endeared to the whole American people, until the last great 
 statesman who bore it ceased to live, it had, when applied to 
 Pittsfield, an earlier and a local fitness which should not be for- 
 gotten. 
 
 On the 1st of October, 1760, the proprietors of New Framing- 
 ham (Lanesborough), fifty-one being present, voted, " That, as the 
 westerly towns of the county of Hampshire are about petitioning 
 the Great and General Court that said county may be divided . . . 
 by the west line of the town of Blandford, . . . we do heartily join 
 with them in their request, and now appoint Wm. Williams, Esq., 
 our agent to solicit the same ... at their next session, or at any 
 time hereafter, when the other towns, by their agents, shall move 
 in the matter." l 
 
 There is no record of the action which Poontoosuck undoubtedly 
 took, similar to that of her sister plantations ; but, on the same 13th 
 of April on which the act to incorporate the town of Pittsfield 
 
 1 T. C. C., p. 196.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 133 
 
 passed in concurrence to be engrossed, Col. Williams having, as 
 the agent of several towns, petitioned for the division of Hampshire 
 county had leave to bring in a bill for that purpose; and, on the 
 same day that the act to incorporate the town passed to enact- 
 ment, that to erect the county of Berkshire passed to be engrossed. 1 
 
 The name " Berkshire " was given to the new county by Gov. 
 Bernai-d, and was probably suggested by his personal connections 
 with the shire of that name in England. 
 
 The towns of Sheffield, Stockbridge, Egremont, and New 
 Mavlborough, the plantations of Poontoosuck, New Fraruingham, 
 and West Hoosuck, and the Districts Nos. 1, 3, and 4, were 
 enumerated in the act ; while the rest of the territory of the county 
 was lumped as " all lands within " certain described limits. There 
 were, however, settlements, and some of them considerably 
 advanced, in all the present towns of Southern Berkshire, except 
 West Stockbridge. 
 
 Sheffield was declared to be, " for the present, the shire or county 
 town ; " and it was enacted that courts of the General Sessions of 
 the Peace and inferior courts of Common Pleas, should be held in 
 the North Parish of that town, on the last Tuesday of April and 
 the first Tuesday of September ; and at Poontoosuck on the first 
 Tuesday of December and the first Tuesday of March. 
 
 A court-house and jail were built at Sheffield, North Parish, 
 which was, in June, 1761, incorporated as the town of Great 
 Barrington. The courts at Pittsfield were held in a large room 
 set apart for that purpose in Fort Anson, which was dismantled, 
 and, a little after that time, became the property and residence of 
 Lieut. Moses Graves, one of the more wealthy settlers. The terms 
 of the Superior Court of Judicature (corresponding to the. present 
 Supreme Judicial Court) were directed to be held at Northampton, 
 in connection with those for Hampshire ; and they were so held 
 until 1783. 
 
 In 1770, the General Court having submitted certain proposed 
 changes in the times of holding the Berkshire courts to the con- 
 sideration of the towns of the county, Pittsfield voted that the ' 
 term held at Great Barrington on the first Tuesday in September had 
 been found inconvenient, as that was the season of the year when 
 every experienced farmer chose to sow his wheat, and because it 
 
 1 Kec. Gen. Court, Lib. copy, vol. xxiii.
 
 134 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 gave the clerk so little time that he was perplexed to make out his 
 copies for the Superior Court ; and recommended a change to the 
 third Tuesday in August, " as that was a time when all had done 
 reaping, and none began to sow." It was further recommended 
 that the courts held at Pittsfield should, on account of the travel- 
 ling, sit on the third instead of the last Tuesday of February. 
 And, generally, the town advised that courts should be held at 
 Great Barrington on the last Tuesdays of May and August, and at 
 Pittsfield on the third Tuesdays of November and February. The 
 proposition as to the Great-Barrington September term was adopted 
 by the Legislature ; the others rejected. But it will be observed, 
 by the wording of the Pittsfield vote, that changes had already 
 taken place between the erection of the county in 1761 and the 
 meeting of 1770. The agricultural reader will note the promi- 
 nence given to the farming-interest ; and particularly to the culture 
 of wheat, which has since become an insignificant item in the prod- 
 uce of town and county. 
 
 Pittsfield having been made a town, and established as one of the 
 two seats of the county courts, entered upon a new era of her 
 history ; of which the first few years were marked by organization 
 and formation, when the affairs of the place social, personal, 
 municipal, and religious assumed the characteristics which they 
 bore at the opening of the Revolution, and some of which out- 
 lasted that convulsion. 
 
 The first town-meeting was held in the forenoon of the llth of 
 May, 1761, at the house of Deacon Stephen Crofoot, which stood 
 near the western end of Elm Street. The business centre was 
 already, it seems, creeping westward. The only business transacted 
 was the election of the following officers : Moderator, David 
 Bush ; Clerk, Wm. Williams ; Treasurer, David Bush ; Selectmen 
 and Assessors, David Bush, William Williams, and Josiah Wright ; 
 Constable, Jacob Ensign; Highway-Surveyors, Gideon Goodrich, 
 David Bush, and Eli Root ; Fence-viewers, Nath'l Fail-field, Wm. 
 Francis ; Sealer of Leather and of Weights and Measures, Simeon 
 Crofoot; Wardens, Solomon Deming and David Noble; Deer- 
 reeves, John Remington and Reuben Gunn. 
 
 The Deer-reeves were elected annually to enforce the law which 
 forbade the killing of deer in certain seasons. 1 
 
 1 By the law of 1698, between Jan. 1 and Aug. 1. Afterwards the dates were 
 slightly changed. In 1763, prohibition began on the 21st December. Hist. 
 Hadley, p. 356.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 135 
 
 The meeting was held under a precept from the magistrate 
 named in the act, directed to " Charles'Goodrich, one of the prin- 
 cipal inhabitants, &c," requiring him to "notify and warn the free- 
 holders and other inhabitants qualified to vote in town-meeting." 
 Various modes were adopted in warning subsequent meetings, as 
 the town, from time to time, gave directions. The custom of the 
 Province by posting up copies of the warrant at certain pre- 
 scribed places was generally followed ; but sometimes, w r hen the 
 necessity of calling meetings in sudden and important emergencies 
 was anticipated, the constables were required to serve personal 
 notice upon every voter. To facilitate the performance of this 
 duty, and also the collection of taxes, the inhabitants were classed 
 as belonging to either the East or West Part; and separate consta- 
 bles and collectors were assigned to the two sections. 
 
 The right of voting in town-meeting belonged only to such as 
 " had a ratable estate in the town, besides the poll, amounting to 
 the value of twenty pounds, by the following method of estima- 
 tion, viz. : real estate to be set at so much only as the rents or 
 income thereof for the space of six years would amount to, were 
 it let at a reasonable rate ; and personal estate and faculty to be 
 estimated according to the rule of valuation prescribed in the acts 
 from time to time made for assessing and apportioning public 
 taxes."' 
 
 A practice prevailed, for which no good reason appears, of 
 bestowing a plurality of offices upon a single individual when there 
 was no lack of others, equally qualified, from whom to choose. 
 
 As in plantation, so in town meetings, highways and bridges 
 occupied a large share of attention : but it would be impossible, 
 without the aid of a practical engineer, to follow in detail the 
 changes which were made ; and, even with such aid, the labor would 
 be difficult and the result voluminous. The roads reserved in the 
 division of the township were laid out at uniform distances and at 
 right angles; so that the changes which were required by the fre- 
 quent streams, lakes, swamps, and hills, which the right lines 
 encountered, were innumerable, the discussion of them intermin- 
 able. 
 
 The first appropriation for schools was of 22. 8s., in March, 1762, 
 to be equally divided between the East and West Parts. Sixteen 
 
 1 Act of 1743.
 
 136 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 pounds only were voted in 1764 ; and a proposition to build two 
 school-houses, once passed,*was reconsidered and defeated. But, 
 the next year, the town was divided into the east, west, and centre 
 districts, and a school-house voted for each. William Brattle 
 engaged to build the eastern; James Easton, the middle; Caleb 
 Wadhams and David Noble, the western. 
 
 These engagements were not kept ; and, in 1766, a committee 
 was appointed to select sites for three school-houses, to be built by 
 James Easton for 36 ; one to be twenty-two feet square, the others 
 seventeen, and all "to be well shingled, doors made and hung, 
 with floors and good chimneys, and glazed with four windows, and 
 twelve squares in each window." The largest stood north of the 
 eastern end of the park, in what is now the travelled street of 
 Park Place. Deacon Easton was finally allowed 25. 8s. 7d. for 
 building it. 
 
 In 1764, the appropriation for schooling rose to 30, to be 
 divided among the districts, as nearly as might be, in proportion to 
 population. In 1771, two new districts having been created, 60 
 were divided, 15 each to the east, centre, and middle districts ; 
 7. 10s. apiece to the others. In 1773, a new interest in schools 
 was inspired by the exertions of Rev. Mr. Allen, who offered to 
 give six pounds yearly, for five years, towards their support. The 
 town accepted the offer with thanks, increased its appropriation 
 for schooling to 100, and ordered new houses to be built in the 
 north-east and south-west districts; so that, before the Revolution, 
 Pittsfield had five school-houses. 
 
 The selectmen acting as the superintending school-committee 
 had in hand 100 from the appropriation, 6 from Mr. Allen, 
 and 6 from the rent of the school-lot, 112 : of which each of 
 the larger schools received 28 ; each of the smaller, 14. 
 
 The districts managed their affairs independently : and, on the 
 settlement of their annual accounts, some were usually found to 
 have overdrawn their allowance, while some left a " balance " in 
 the town treasury; both, of course, to be adjusted in the coming 
 year. 
 
 As to the character of the instruction afforded, we have no 
 means of judging, except from the facts here stated. There was, 
 however, a good omen in the liberal interest taken in the schools 
 by the clergyman of the place, engrossed as he was in the troubled 
 politics of the times.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 137 
 
 We have the names of only three of the teachers, Mr. John 
 Strong ; Mrs. Phineas Parker, who taught in the west district ; and 
 a son of Col. Partridge, probably the same who afterwards set- 
 tled on the lands, in the north-eastern part of the town, which his 
 descendants still cultivate. 1 
 
 Young as the town was, helpless poverty and vagabond pauper- 
 ism soon made their way to it. There were frequent votes of 
 money for the relief of the former class ; and aid was also other- 
 wise extended to needy persons, as for instance, by permission 
 granted to a widow for building a house in the highway. Ten 
 pounds were appropriated, in 1764, for a workhouse. Itinerant 
 pauperism was prevalent to a degree which betrayed the imperfec- 
 tion of the laws designed for its prevention. But the town 
 instructed its selectmen to enforce them by " warning out in 
 general all persons who shall hereafter come into town ;" or, as the 
 warrant expressed it, " all, without discrimination, not possessed of 
 a freehold." Of course this instruction is to be understood with 
 more limitation than can be found in the language, literally inter- 
 preted ; but, at the best, it had a severity of meaning, upon which 
 we shall have occasion to remark hereafter. 
 
 Chattel slavery existed under the Province laws ; and not only 
 was property in human beings recognized by that code, but manu- 
 mission was trammelled by the requirement of a bond from the 
 master that the freedman should never become a public charge 
 "by reason of sickness, lameness, or any other incapacity." 2 
 
 Many of the early citizens of Pittsfield held slaves. Col. 
 Williams owned several. It appears from bills of sale still extant, 8 
 that, in 1761, he purchased, for fifty pounds, " a negro girl named 
 Pendar," whom he sold a few years later for seventy-five, a very 
 pretty speculation in human muscles. Pendar afterwards married 
 Simon Bow, and joined the First Congregational Church in 1795, 
 under the " half-way covenant." As late as the Revolution, adver- 
 
 1 HATFIELD, March 21, 1768. 
 
 Dear Brother, I hear my son lives with you, taking care of a little school. 
 I desire your fatherly care of him, and advice to him. He is now in the forming 
 age for future usefulness. I know not that he is addicted to any vice ; but you are 
 sensible how our hearts are concerned for the good of our offspring. Col. Par- 
 tridge to Col. Williams, March, 1768, T. C. C., p. 226. 
 
 2 Province Laws, ed. 1815, p. 745. 
 
 3 T. C. C. Lane, col., and one in possession of Hon. H. Chickering.
 
 138 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 tisements of runaway slaves were inserted in "The Hartford 
 Courant," by Pittsfield masters. Slavery in Berkshire differed in 
 no essential particular from the same institution, when of a house- 
 hold character, in other sections. The incident which led to the 
 judicial recognition of its abolition by the Bill of Rights was an 
 act of gross although, perhaps, suddenly-provoked cruelty, 
 perpetrated in the kitchen of a prominent citizen of Berkshire 
 upon the slave-widow of a Revolutionary soldier killed in the 
 service. 
 
 Rev. Thomas Allen wrote in 1810, " Perhaps the whole of sixty 
 roll, original settlers, did not contain a single vicious' person." 1 
 These, however, did not comprise the whole of even the permanent 
 population of the place : while from thirty to forty transient agricul- 
 tural laborers were annually hired ; 2 and among this class, and the 
 tramps who were largely recruited from it, an amount of vice 
 existed, which, at the present day, would seem alarming in a 
 country town of no greater population than Pittsfield then had. 8 
 Crimes of incontinence crowded the records of the Quarter Ses- 
 sions of the Peace ; and, when committed by those of the lower 
 class, were treated as venial offences, incident, perhaps, to their 
 condition in life. The first indictment tried in the county was for 
 fornication, which the offender confessed, and expiated by a fine of 
 thirteen shillings. In 1762, Sarah Pratt, a married woman, con- 
 victed of adultery, was fined fifteen shillings and costs of court. 
 A hundred years before, the penalty was death. Misdemeanors, 
 with which the magistrate now rarely meddles, then often occu- 
 pied the attention of the criminal courts. John Williams, charged 
 in 1764 with " prophaning the name of God," was returned non 
 est inventus. The probable penalty of his blasphemy was severe 
 enough to scare John into ignominious flight. Another John 
 by surname Pell travelled upon the Lord's day, and was mulcted 
 
 1 Hist. Sketch, p. 12. 
 
 2 " Every spring we hire in this town between thirty and forty laborers, gener- 
 ally for the term of six months ; and, as the late law obliges us to take our lists on 
 the 1st of September, it enables us to recover the small pittance their polls are set 
 at, when, in a month or two later, they carry away from us between 300 and 400. 
 . Town- Committee's letter, May, 1767, Lane. Coll. 
 
 8 What is said of the state of morals must not be understood as peculiar to Pitts- 
 field, whose record in the Quarter Sessions was no worse, at least, than that of 
 other towns.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 139 
 
 therefor in the sum of ten shillings. A party of young men, 
 belonging to respectable families, engaged one night at a tavern in 
 " the unlawful game of cards," escaped out of the window on the 
 approach of the officers, but were indicted and fined for their 
 offence " and evil example." And so in numerous instances of a 
 similar character. 
 
 As a matter of economy to the county and of convenience to all 
 parties, including the offender, a large proportion of the com- 
 plaints for misdemeanor were summarily disposed of by a single 
 magistrate, 1 who either imposed a fine, or sentenced the prisoner to 
 the stocks or the whipping-post. The punishment of minor of- 
 fences by stripes or exposure in the stocks, which universally pre- 
 vailed, was attended by many evils ; but, under the circumstances 
 which then existed, and especially the brutalizing system of 
 prison discipline, it was not without some plausibility of reason 
 that magistrates inflicted it in preference to incarceration in the 
 miserable jails. It is questionable, however, whether many of 
 those worthies thought further in the matter than to follow the 
 precedents which similar tribunals had kept unbroken from the 
 time when the memory of man runneth not to the contrary. 
 
 In 1764, James Easton and Josiah Wright were allowed by the 
 town nine shillings and sixpence for building the stocks and 
 whipping-post in Pittsfield ; but whether these indispensable aux- 
 iliaries in the teaching of morals and the administration of justice 
 were set up on the meeting-house common, as was the prevailing 
 custom or near some of the places where the courts were com- 
 monly held, is not of record or tradition. Rev. Mr. Allen was no 
 great friend to the penal system then in vogue for the repression of 
 vicious naughtiness ; and perhaps its ugly servants found a more 
 congenial location out of sight of his windows. 
 
 Owing, probably, to the imperfection of enclosures, the least 
 
 1 The justices of the peace in the county, who together constituted the Court 
 of General Sessions, had jurisdiction singly in complaints for misdemeanor, and in 
 civil cases where the value in dispute did not exceed forty shillings. Four justices 
 were commissioned for Berkshire in 1 761, Joseph Dwight of Stockbrulge, William 
 Williams of Pittsfield, John Ashley of Sheffield, and Timo. Woodbridge of Stock- 
 bridge. Perez Marsh of Dalton was added in 176-; John Chad wick of Tyring- 
 ham, and Daniel Brown of Sandisfield, in 1764; Elijah Dwight of Great Barring- 
 ton, and Israel Stoddard of Pittsfield, in 1765 ; Mark Hopkins of Great Barrington, 
 in 1766 ; and David Ingersol of Great Barrington, in 1767.
 
 140 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 i 
 
 possible liberty was allowed to wandering cattle and hogs. That 
 the latter "should not run at large," was one of the town regula- 
 tions most frequently and earnestly re-enacted. To restrain the 
 former, forty shillings were voted in 1761 for a pound forty feet 
 square, " to be built and kept by Zebediah Stiles, near his house," on 
 "West Street. Other votes, from time to time, directed the build- 
 ing of pounds in other places. But the cattle and sheep of differ- 
 ent owners were so herded together, or so liable to become inter- 
 mixed, that special means for their identification were provided; 
 the inhabitants being required annually "to bring into the clerk's 
 office the artificial marks which they put upon their creatures, that 
 they may be recorded." A volume of these curious " earmarks " 
 remains in the clerk's office, of which representations are given. 
 
 Wolves abounded to such a degree that unprotected pasturage 
 was resorted to at great risk ; and, indeed, few folds were safe from 
 their ravages. 1 The town offered bounties in some years for wolf- 
 scalps. 
 
 It was the custom among newly-settled places to encourage the 
 introduction of mechanical arts by the grant of special privileges ; 
 and three instances of the kind are recorded of Pittsfield. In 
 1763, William Brattle was privileged to "set up lengthwise in the 
 road against his house, a malt-house eighteen feet wide, and keep 
 it there as long as he made good malt." The inhabitants were 
 accustomed to brew a mild ale, of sufficient strength to preserve 
 the brewage healthful and palatable for the week's time which it 
 was intended to last ; and Willam Brattle was expected to furnish 
 good malt for it. 
 
 Notwithstanding Deacon Crofoot's ill success in obtaining 
 encouragement from the Proprietors, we infer from a letter of Col. 
 Partridge that, before the Indian disturbances, he built some sort 
 
 1 It is related of Mrs. Seth Janes, whom some of the oldest citizens of Pitts- 
 field remember as a kind-hearted and genial old lady, whose fine, erect form, clad 
 in a satin pelisse, made an impression upon their youthful imaginations, as her 
 amiable and gentle manners did upon their hearts, it is related of this ladylike 
 old person that once, when a young wife, alone in her hone at the West Part, she 
 heard the sheep rushing wildly against her cabin-door, and, looking out in alarm, 
 saw a huge, gaunt, and hungry wolf in eager pursuit ; whereupon she quietly 
 took down her husband's loaded gun, and shot the intruder dead. Hist. Janes 
 Family. 
 
 The Pittsfield ladies at that time were, many of them, familiar with the use of 
 firearms. Mrs. Judith Fairfield was reputed an excellent shot.
 
 SHEEP MARKS. 
 
 Eli Root. 
 
 Benj. Kcilar. 
 
 J. Keilar. 
 
 J. Goodrich. 
 
 James Easton. 
 
 John Dickinson. 
 
 Sol. Allen. 
 
 N. Robbing. 
 
 Ezok. Root. 
 
 Wm. Francis. 
 ^ -N 
 
 Charles Goodrich. 
 
 Jno. Kingsley. 
 
 J. Ensign. 
 
 Oliver Root. 
 
 Daniel Hubbard. 
 
 V 
 
 Josiah Wright. 
 
 Eph. Little. 
 
 E. Tracy. 
 
 D. Ashley. 
 
 Aaron Blinn. 
 
 Joshua Robbins. 
 
 James Hubbnrd. 
 
 James Noble. 
 Oswald Williams
 
 HISTORY OF TITTSFIELD. 141 
 
 of a grist-mill, upon a dam which "he erected near the site of the 
 present Elm-street bridge. But it was of insufficient capacity; 
 and the first plantation and town meetings after the war were 
 agitated with propositions " to see whether Deacon Crofoot will 
 come into such measures that the Proprietors may be well accomo- 
 dated with good grinding and bolting; and if not, then to let the 
 dam to those that will." Finally, after a world of tribulation, the 
 Deacon, under the award of arbitrators, obtained a lease of the 
 dam for fifteen years. But his mills were never popular ; and after 
 his death, which occurred before the expiration of his lease, his 
 heirs were relieved from their obligation to keep the mills in repair. 
 In 1778, the mill-privilege and neighboring land passed into the 
 hands of Ebenezer White, under a lease for 999 years. In 17G7, 
 Jacob Ensign, having previously agreed with Deacon Crofoot, 
 obtained from the town a grant of the west end of the mill-dam 
 for fifteen years ; conditioned that " he should, within one year, 
 begin and exercise the feat of a clothier, and attend to said service, 
 and do the business of a clothier at such place, during said term ;" 
 the town reserving the right to remove the dam farther down 
 the stream, if it saw fit, at the expiration of Crofoot's lease : in 
 which case Ensign's rights to be transferred to the new location. 
 In 1768, Valentine Rathbun, from Stonington, Conn., built simi- 
 lar works on the outlet of the pond which then lay between Rich- 
 mond Lake and Barkersville. Fulling-mills had for many years a 
 place in the business of Pittsfield not unlike that which the woollen 
 manufactures, of which they were the germ, now occupy ; although 
 in the last quarter of the eighteenth century they were over-shad- 
 owed by the production of iron, and still earlier by the manufacture 
 of lumber. In answer to the pressing demands of the settlement, 
 saw-mills often associated with grist-mills began, soon after the 
 peace, to spring up in all quarters. In 1762, Joseph Keeler pur- 
 chased two hundred and forty acres of Col. Williams's great pine 
 tract, on the south shore of Poontoosuck Lake, and extending forty 
 rods down the outlet, upon which he built a saw and grist mill. 
 About the same time a saw-mill was built at Coltsville. About 
 1767, saw and grist mills were erected near the present site of 
 the Pomeroy Lower Factories, by Ezra Strong and others. A saw- 
 mill was early built where the Pontoosuc Factory stands ; and, pre- 
 vious to 1776, another at Wahconah, in connection with a fulling- 
 mill owned by Deacon Matthew Barber.
 
 142 E3STOBY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 While the new town was taking form, as we have seen it, under 
 its municipal organization, and introducing the necessities and con- 
 veniences of village-life, its inhabitants were exchanging the log- 
 huts of former days for comfortable and comely dwellings. 
 
 When the first partition of the township was annulled, Charles 
 Goodrich and Col. Williams abandoned their intention of creating a 
 business-centre near Unkamet Street, and transferred their interests 
 to Wendell Square, with regard to which they entered upon a 
 similar design in connection with Elisha Jones, Nathaniel Fairfield, 
 and Eli Root. It was arranged that Fairfield, Root, Goodrich, and 
 Jones should erect handsome frame-houses on the four corners of 
 their respective settling-lots, which met at the Square ; while 
 Williams was to build a little farther to the "east, on Honasada 
 Street. 
 
 But an unlooked-for obstacle presented itself in the nature of 
 the land, whose soil was so completely underlaid with ledges 
 of solid rock, that no wells could be sunk which would afford any 
 but surface-water. In this dilemma, Charles Goodrich displayed 
 his wonted energy and determination by building the first water- 
 works of Pittsfield, an aqueduct some two miles long, extending 
 from his farm to the hills at the east. It was constructed of huge 
 
 O 
 
 logs divided into quarters, bored, bevelled at the ends, and bound 
 together at the connecting joints with heavy iron bands. The 
 enterprise failed, according to one account, in consequence of a 
 fault in construction, which caused the logs to crack. Another 
 tradition has it that an unpleasant person, through whose lands 
 the pipes passed, soothed his temper and proclaimed his territorial 
 lordship by tearing them up. 
 
 The lack of water thus proving irremediable, the owners of the 
 Four Corners were .compelled, in building their new houses, to 
 withdraw from the companionable neighborhood for which they 
 had anticipated so much distinction ; but it was long before the 
 ambitious project was altogether abandoned, although the build- 
 ing of the meeting-house, the parsonage, and mills soon began to 
 attract the business centre, so far as the business of the town was 
 then capable of centralization, towards its present position. 
 
 Col. Williams built on Honasada Street, -about a mile east of 
 Wendell, the curious mansion known for many years throughout, 
 Western Massachusetts as " The Long House," a rather showy 
 structure for those days, being eighty feet in length, and two
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 143 
 
 stories high, with a gambrel roof. A broad hall ran through the 
 centre from front to rear ; on one side of which was " The Long 
 Room," in which the owner held his Justice's, and sometimes his 
 Probate Courts, and where, if tradition is correct, the county 
 courts also, at one time, sat. On the other side of the hall, were 
 " two smaller rooms, besides a buttery and bedroom." 
 
 The whole house was adorned with a profusion of carving, 
 panelling, and other ornamental work ; and the grounds were not 
 neglected. The decorations were especially elaborate in the hall 
 and The Long Room, which were entered from without by twin 
 doors of twenty-six panels each, through which a negro slave 
 ushered the visitor into one apartment or the other, as his visit was 
 one of courtesy or business. The whole establishment betokened 
 the owner's proverbial magnificence of spirit, and accorded with 
 his portly person, and that dignity of demeanor which distinguished 
 him at home ; however certain peculiarities may have tempted his 
 friends on the Connecticut to style him irreverently, in familiar 
 letters, " Colonel Billy." 
 
 Col. Williams's schedule of the cost of his house is preserved in 
 the Collection of Hon. Thomas Colt, p. 271, and is here given : 
 
 COST OF MY HOUSE. 
 
 Glass, 15; Nails, 19; Brads, 2 ; Paint, 9,12; Oyl, 6; Locks, Hinges, 
 etc., 11. 62,12. 
 
 Boards, 40,10 ; Clapboards, 10J 6; Shingles, 10,4 ; Laths, 3 ; Slitwork, 
 18; Carpenters' bill, 26,16,6; Carpenters' board, 9; Joyners' bill, 64,4; 
 Joyners' board, 21,12. 204,2,6. 
 
 Cellar digging, 6,6; Masons' bill, 23; Masons' board, 4,10 ; Masons' 
 attendance, 31,16; Masons' attendants' board, 9 ; Stone carriers' bill, 34 ; 
 Stone carryers' board, 2,2. 110,14. 
 
 Paper, 6; Lime, 18,15 ; Clay, 1,4; Loom, 1,10; Sand, 0,10 ; Lead, 
 2,10; Hair, 1,2. 31,9. 
 
 House, 408,17,6 ; West lot, 430; East lot, 305; Laid out in labor, 140. 
 Total, 1373,17,6. 
 
 / 
 
 The reader may form some idea of the vegetables to be found 
 in a Pittsfield gentleman's garden of that period, by the following 
 list of seeds minuted by Col. Williams for purchase in Boston : 
 
 * " Cabbages and Cauliflowers, Yorkshire, Early Dutch, Savoy, and Com- 
 mon ; Lettuce, Goss and Cabbage ; Carrots, Orange, Yellow and Purple ; 
 Turnips, English and French; Onions; Dedham Squash; Cucumber;
 
 144 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Squashpepper ; Peas, Dwarf, Hotspur, Marrowfat, and round gopher ; 
 Radish; Double parsley; Stow and pole beans; Sage; Balm; Fennil; 
 Dill ; July flower (Gilliflower) ; Pink ; Stertion (Nasturtium) ; Crounations 
 (Carnations) ; Hyssop ; Thyme ; Sweet Marjoram ; Summer - Savory ; 
 Parsnip and Asparagus." 
 
 A goodly catalogue. 
 
 We are not so precisely informed as to the building-up of other 
 parts of the town; but houses of some pretension were soon 
 scattered over the various sections. Israel Dickinson built upon 
 the grounds now attached to the summer residence of Hon. B. R. 
 Curtis; Israel Stoddard, the youngest son of Col. John, selected 
 the eminence about a mile north of that estate. James D. Colt 
 bought a thousand acres in the south-west corner of the township, 
 and made his residence there. Rev. Mr. Allen's house was built 
 in 1764, on the site on East Street now occupied by the residence 
 of his grandson and namesake. Woodbridge Little, the first lawyer 
 to settle in the town, built the cottage, which still stands, north of 
 the crossing of the Western Railroad by Beaver Street. 
 
 It is impossible to give with accuracy the years in which, 
 individuals became residents of the town, except in a few instan- 
 ces ; but the appearance of names upon the record makes us sure 
 of dates previous to which those who bore them became citizens, 
 and, to some extent, indicates their prominence in town afl^irs. 
 Most of the leading settlers have already been mentioned in con- 
 nection with events in which they took part ; but we cite a few 
 other entries from the town and provincial archives. 
 
 The persons who affixed the following signatures to a petition to 
 the General Court, in 1766, assumed to represent the forty pur- 
 chasers from Livingston ; but the interest of some of them had 
 been acquired by transfers of various kinds : William Wright, 
 John Remington, Charles Goodrich, Josiah Wright, Charles 
 Miller, John Waddams, Elizur Deming, David Ashley, William 
 Francis, Oliver Ashley, Joshua Robbins, James Lord, Erastus 
 Sackett, David Bush, Daniel Hubbard, Amos Root, Eli Root, Dan 
 Cadwell, Hezekiah Jones, Gideon Gunn, William Brattle, Abner 
 Dewey, Nathaniel Fairfield, Zebediah Stiles. 
 
 The following names, not previously mentioned in any other 
 connection, appear on the first list of jurymen, reported Aug.* 
 18, 1761 : Lemuel Phelps, Wm. Phelps, David Noble, Jesse 
 Sackett, Thomas Morgan. John Morse was a fence-viewer in 1762.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 145 
 
 Israel Stoddard, Israel Dickinson, Phinehas Belding, Joseph 
 Wright, and Joseph Wright, jun., signed a petition in 1762. Caleb 
 Wadhams was deer-reeve in 1763 ; James Easton, school-com- 
 mitteeman in 1764. 1 
 
 The influx of new citizens brought with it a good deal of wealth, 
 as well as of business capacity and enterprise, which soon, in a 
 measure, relieved the depression bequeathed from less happy days. 
 A growing sense of the natural advantages of the place contributed, 
 also, not a little to that local pride, and confidence in the future of 
 their home, which has always characterized the most thoughtful 
 and intelligent people of Pittsfield. A notable and amusingly 
 exaggerated expression of this sentiment and faith appears in a 
 letter from Col. Williams to his brothers-in-law, 2 in which he 
 endeavors to persuade them to remove from Deerfield to Pitts- 
 field. We quote a portion : 
 
 PITTSFIELD, March 28, 1767. 
 DEAR BRETHREN, 
 
 These wait on you by Mrs. Williams, with my hearty sympathy on the 
 poor state of health I understand you at present enjoy. Languor, sickness, 
 and excruciating pain were my portion, while I chose, or rather was obliged, 
 to tabernacle in the narrows between the west and east mountains of 
 Deerfield. 
 
 Since my removal to this place, I challenge any man in the govern- 
 ment, that has not had half the fatigue, to compare with me for health, or 
 freedom from pain. All my doctor's bill has been a gallipot or two of 
 unguent for the itch. And never have I but two half-days been absent from 
 public worship for fourteen years ; and then 'twas not because I wasn't well. 
 But what may in a more general way convince you of the temperature and 
 goodness of our air may be demonstrated by the records of the probate- 
 office, the avails of which, in near about six years, has not amounted to ten 
 pounds to the judge. And another indisputable proof of the goodness of the 
 country is the prolific behavior of the female sex among us. Barren women 
 beget (if not bring forth) sons. Women that have left off for 5, 6, 7, and 9 
 years, begin anew, and now and then bring one, but as many two, at a birth, 
 after residing a suitable time among us. And, to mention but one thing 
 (though I might many more), no man or woman of but common understand- 
 ing, that ever came and got settled among us, wished themselves back. 
 
 1 Rev. Dr. Field made inquiry into the dates of the settlements of the early 
 families at a time when the means of information were more abundant than they 
 now are. See Appendix. 
 
 2 H. C. C. 
 
 10
 
 146 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 The air suited them, they felt frisk and alert, or a something endeared their 
 situation to them : this with regard to the women. The men perceived soon 
 the difference of the soil ; and, put what you would upon it, it would yield be- 
 yond what they were acquainted with. This prompted them to labor ; and 
 when they came in, either by day or night, their wives would give them a 
 kind, hearty welcome, so that they chose to stay where they were, and 
 they chose well. If your patience would suffer me, I would fill this paper 
 with instances of growth in estates in a few years. And, as you go along, 
 take this with you ; viz., that the oldest town in the county is but a few 
 years above thirty. 
 
 And now to come to instances, and only of such persons as you have 
 known: Capt. Brewer came to Tyrringham with 2,200 Old Ten. He 
 lived but seventeen years there, and had, when he died, upwards of 19,000 
 upon interest; and his lands, appraised at little more than one-half their 
 value, swelled his estate to 50,000. His son-in-law came into the same 
 town years after, and was not worth 5 ; is now judged to be worth as 
 much as his father was: I mean Capt. Chadwick. Col. Ashley came to 
 Sheffield with less money than your minister carried to Deerfield : he is now 
 worth more than any man in your county. And, since I have mentioned a 
 minister, I will mention another ; viz., Mr. Hubbard of Sheffield. 1 He came 
 as poor as church mouse, to a people poorer than himself: lie died the other 
 day ; has left sufficient to support his widow, and settle his five sons well. 
 Come to Stockbridge, and see the advance that Col. Williams, Mr. Jo 
 Woodbridge, and Deacon Brown have made in their estates. Come to this 
 town and see Goodrich, Brattle, Bush, Hubbard, Wright, Crowfoot, and 
 Ensign, who, strictly speaking, were in debt when they came. . . . But 
 I suppose I have tired you. I have confined myself to such as I supposed 
 you knew. Come and see, and then I will say and convince into the bargain. 
 
 But delays are dangerous : we have had five wholesome families come in 
 this winter ; and last week Coult of Hadley bought, and is coming directly. 
 Uncle Benjamin Dickinson told me, not a month ago, that it was his 
 fixed determination to be here with his brood before the year was out if he 
 liked the land. And I can assure you our land grows in repute faster than 
 any around us. 
 
 Col. Williams, in committee with James Easton and "Wood- 
 bridge Little, pleading for a remission of the Province tax, 
 managed to tone down a good deal the prosperity so glowingly 
 depicted. The inhabitants of Pittsfield were compelled, owing to 
 their great distance from Massachusetts markets, to carry to 
 
 i 
 
 Eev. Jonathan Hubbard of Sheffield, the first minister of Berkshire County, 
 and grandfather of Hon. Henry Hubbard, for many years a prominent citizen of 
 Pittsfield.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 147 
 
 smaller, 1 which were already glutted, what little surplus produce 
 they raised : " and moreover, " say the committee, " although our 
 lands in the valuation are esteemed to be of considerable value, yet 
 the labor we are compelled to bestow upon them in cutting off the 
 old [girdled] trees blown down, picking up the fallen 
 limbs, burning, etc., amounts to a large tax on our best farms;" 
 and as to uncleared lands, " the expense is prodigious which we 
 must be at before they can be rendered in any degree profitable, 
 by reason that there is such a growth of such sort of timber upon 
 them, that, unless we cut it all off, which costs 4 per acre, 
 we can't improve them, at the shortest, under three years." 2 
 Rather a graphic delineation this of the difficulties in early Pitts- 
 field farming. 
 
 In the lights and shades of these two representations, colored to 
 suit opposite purposes, the reader will form for himself a concep- 
 tion of the town in the first decade after its incorporation, as a 
 community struggling under many embarrassments and against 
 many impediments, but with a large preponderance of favoring 
 circumstances, and towards an assured prosperity. 
 
 A more intimate acquaintance with its people and their affairs 
 would reveal to him a greater inequality of pecuniary condition 
 than was usual in newly-settled places, and that the wealthiest 
 men were exempt from the heaviest burdens of taxation. 
 
 The duties assumed by the proprietors of the sixty settling- 
 lots, as part of the consideration in their purchase, would have 
 been cheerfully performed, had the state of the country immediately 
 permitted it. But as year after year rolled on, and the proprietors 
 were compelled to hold their lands, so far as they could hold them 
 at all, by military occupation, foregoing any profitable enjoyment 
 of them, and as the expenditure of 170 which they had made 
 previous to 1762 upon the highways had much increased the value 
 of the commons, they conceived that " the great service they had 
 been to the gentlemen proprietors not to mention any benefit 
 they may have been to the Province" entitled them, in equity, 
 to some mitigation in the severity of their contract ; although its 
 rigid enforcement had been carefully provided for in the act incor- 
 porating the town. And this the more, since Livingston's grant, 
 
 1 Hartford, Kinderhook, and Albany. 
 * Committee's Letter, May, 1767.
 
 148 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 in his deed to the agents of The Forty Pioneers, of " the right to 
 dig stone and cut timber on any land in the township not within 
 fence," had been repudiated. 
 
 For these reasons, the sixty settling-proprietors, through a 
 committee, 1 sought relief from some of the consequences of their 
 ill-considered bargain, at the hands of the General Court ; applying 
 for an act to subject the lands not alienated by Cols. Wendell 
 and Stoddard, and not included in the hundred-acre lots, to a tax 
 to be limited in duration and amount by the Court for the 
 support of preaching, and making highways. 
 
 To this application, Oliver Partridge and Moses Graves objected 
 that it was an attempt to re-impose upon the original proprietors 
 duties which the petitioners had, for a valuable consideration, 
 covenanted to perform ; and, moreover, that the tax asked for was 
 " surprisingly partial, " as the lands upon which it was proposed to 
 assess it did not include several thousand acres, some of them 
 cultivated, which had been " alienated " by the original propi-ietors 
 to Charles Goodrich and others, the petition being so framed as 
 not to cover the commons lands of those who were also proprietors 
 of settling-lots. 
 
 These objections proved fatal to the petition ; but the contro- 
 versy between the tax-paying and the exempt proprietors long 
 continued, and was imbittered in 1765 by the heirs of Col. Stod- 
 dard, who brought an action of ejectment against one of the 
 settlers, on the ground of non-compliance with the tenure by 
 which he held his home-lot. This was intended as a test-case by 
 which to try the titles of the whole sixty : and they again appealed 
 to the General Court, and again recited their story and its hard- 
 ships; declaring, in conclusion, that the man against whom the 
 action was brought had "done more than ten times the duty 
 which was required by the General Court of any one lot ; " and 
 begging that the petitioners, at their own expense, might have a 
 committee of the Court " to view their settlements and improve- 
 ments," and, " if these were found not to answer the expectations 
 of the Honorable Court, then that they would be good enough to 
 let them know it, otherwise, to confirm them in the quiet and 
 peaceable enjoyment of their possessions." 
 
 1 Consisting of Stephen Crofoot, David Hubbard, Jesse Sackett, David Bush, 
 and Josiah Wright.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 149 
 
 The title which the settlers had so dearly earned was finally 
 confirmed in them ; whether by the General Court in compliance 
 with their reasonable request, by a judicial decision, or by agree- 
 ment of the parties, it is impossible to say. By whatever methods 
 this and other specific controversies between the settling-proprie- 
 tors and the representatives of Stoddard and Livingston were 
 terminated, the feuds which they engendered did not end with 
 them, but had their influence afterwards in the division of parties 
 at the Revolution, when the great majority of the settlers proved 
 ardent Whigs, their adversaries still more unanimously arraying 
 themselves with. the Tories. And it is to be noted that the heirs 
 of Col. Wendell, who are not recorded ever to have pressed their 
 legal and perhaps just rights against the settlers, afterwards sym- 
 pathized with them in the ardor of their patriotism, and maintained 
 a place in the good-will of the town, which is retained by their 
 descendants.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 FIRST MEETING-HOUSE AND MINISTER. 
 [1760-1768.] 
 
 Massachusetts Laws for the Support of Public Worship. Their inharmonious 
 Operation in Pittsfield. Differences between Resident and Non-resident Pro- 
 prietors. The Meeting-house raised. Difficulties in finishing it. First 
 Sale of Pews. Dignifying the Seats. Description of the Meeting-house. 
 Burial-Ground. First Attempts to settle a Minister. Ebenezer Garnsey. 
 Enoch Huntington. Amos Tomson, Daniel Collins, Thomas Allen, called 
 and settled. Church formed. Sketch of Rev. Mr. Allen. 
 
 obligations imposed by Massachusetts upon those who 
 -L settled her townships, to provide out of the lands which they 
 received a decent and honorable establishment of public worship, 
 were prompted, not so much by a desire to compel the reluctant 
 and therefore perfunctory performance of sacred duties, as to repel 
 from her Israel those to whom such duties were unwelcome. It 
 was a policy which, well-suited to the times of its founders, has 
 left a rich legacy of happy results to our own. The political prin- 
 ciples and religious dogmas transplanted from the church, which 
 was the nursery of two commonwealths, grew together, insepar- 
 able until after the red harvest of the Revolution ; and, till then 
 at least, whatever harmed the one was hurtful to the other. 
 
 Whatever evils attended the compulsory support of religious 
 worship, perpetuated under circumstances to which it was not 
 applicable, it worked little but good to those upon whom its 
 requirements rested while it was essential to the future of Massa- 
 chusetts, that her Puritanism should be preserved incontaminate. 
 Not to dwell upon its direct and palpable influence in preventing 
 that deterioration of morals and manners incident to all frontier 
 life, the attention to religious institutions, which Massachusetts 
 
 150
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 151 
 
 plantations were forbidden to postpone," was of unbounded benefit 
 in securing rapidity and unity of municipal organization, in elevat- 
 ing the tone of local sentiment, and by investing the new abode, 
 however rude its cabins, with the sanctity of home. 
 
 Nor was the inharmonious action iir building the Pittsfield 
 meeting-house the fruit of these laws. The mischief there arose, 
 not from the obligations imposed upon the township by the General 
 Court, but because, after the assumption of those obligations by 
 the settling-proprietors solely, so long an interval elapsed before 
 they could be fulfilled, that events transpired, which, in the opinion 
 of the covenanting party, destroyed the equity of the contract. 
 And to this view the non-resident proprietors, at least partially, 
 assented, as will appear by the following paper : * 
 
 Whereas the proprietors of the sixty settling-lots in the township of 
 Poontoosook propose speedily to build a meeting-house and settle a minister ; 
 and whereas their present circumstances will not enable them to build a large 
 meeting-house, neither will they have occasion for such an one : but, inas- 
 much as there is a prospect of a considerable number of others that will 
 soon settle in said township, they have been advised to think of building a 
 house of fifty-five feet one way, and forty-five feet the other, and at present 
 only to cover the same, and to finish the same hereafter, which may probably 
 accommodate all that may hereafter settle in said township ; which they are 
 ready to comply with, and pay their full proportion of, so far as may be 
 judged reasonable, provided the non-resident proprietors will be so good on 
 their parts as to encourage the same upon this proposal. We, who are ye 
 non-resident proprietors, upon condition a house of ye aforesaid dimensions 
 be built, will give towards the same, provided the proprietors will give to 
 each of us a pew in said house, what we have respectively affixed to our 
 names, as witness our hands, this 3d of January, 1760. 
 
 MOSES GRAVES, 
 
 Half ye glass. 
 
 SOLOMON STODDARD, 
 
 Half ye glass. 
 
 These offers did not satisfy the settlers, who voted, Jan. 17, to 
 build the house forty-five feet long, thirty-five wide, twenty post ; 
 and "to raise forty-five shillings on each lot to accomplish the 
 work, half to be paid this year, half next." 
 
 1 This agreement, which was found among the Col. Williams Papers, is in the 
 possession of Mr. J. A. Foote. A similar instrument, signed by Oliver Partridge 
 and other non-resident proprietors, agreeing to furnish other material, was in ex- 
 istence a few years since, but is unhappily lost.
 
 152 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Partridge and Graves, in their petition of 1762, considered that 
 a house of the dimensions given would " scarcely hold the people 
 when sixty families should be in town ; " and alleged that " one of 
 the inhabitants, not a proprietor of the settling-lots, begged of the 
 settlers to allow him to add twenty feet to the length, at his own 
 charge, which they utterly refused, greatly to the damage of the 
 original proprietors and their assigns, upon whose lands, in various 
 parts of the town, many were [1762] settling; so that it was prob- 
 able that the meeting-house would soon be useless." 
 
 The settlers, however, voted, Dec. 8, " That the committee be 
 allowed to build the meeting-house fifty-five feet long, and forty- 
 five broad, with proportionate post, provided the non-resident pro- 
 prietors will give 80, lawful money, towards enabling them to 
 build, cover, and close the same ; they, in consideration, to have 
 four pews." 
 
 This arrangement being declined, a proposition was introduced, 
 May 29, 1761, for a house probably intended to serve a tempo- 
 rary purpose, to be forty feet long, thirty broad, and fifteen-feet 
 post, and to be covered with feather-edged boards only. This 
 plan, also, was voted down; and, June 15, it was resolved, 
 " That four shillings be raised on each lot, to pay for raising the 
 meeting-house ; and every man who comes early to have three 
 shillings credit, per diem, till the house be raised, and the com- 
 mittee to take account of each man's labor, the other shilling to 
 be paid for rum and sugar." 
 
 And so, with labor duly cheered according to the custom of the 
 day, the first Pittsfield meeting-house was raised in the summer 
 of 1761 ; and covered and floored before the first of the next 
 March, when a town-meeting was held in it. At a meeting of the 
 proprietors, May 3, Mr. Jesse Sackett having greatly neglected 
 to comply with his agreement to " clear, close, and clean an acre 
 and a half for a meeting-house spot," the building was stated to be 
 in great peril from wind and fire ; but Mr. Sackett, promising to 
 fulfil his engagement as soon as possible, was allowed until the 1st 
 of November to do sp. 1 
 
 1 A reason appears in this statement for the completeness with which the 
 pioneers were wont to denude their farms, which- does not imply that lack of taste 
 of which they are often impeached. Even in burnings of less extent than those 
 fearful conflagrations which sometimes swept over the new country, the flames 
 might Readily be communicated, by means of a few trees, to the buildings of the
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 153 
 
 And probably, by the time specified, the meeting-house lot was 
 denuded of all its trees; and the building was only shaded by the 
 grand old elm, which, standing in the street before it, had, with a 
 single smaller companion, been spared for its majestic beauty. 
 
 Nothing further appears to have been done towards finishing the 
 meeting-house until May, 1764, when Col. Williams obtained the 
 privilege of building a pew upon lot No. 16 in the ground-plan, 
 for the use of himself and family, but to be relinquished to the 
 town, if, upon the completion of the house, it did not fall to him of 
 right. Capt. Charles Goodrich had lot No. 1 upon the same terms. 
 
 Other gentlemen craved similar privileges ; and, in December, it 
 was determined to finish the house below and the front seats of 
 the gallery, defraying the expense by the sale of pews. The first 
 
 I 
 
 6'/ e X6 
 
 16 
 
 6/zXB I 
 
 WEST 
 DOOR 
 
 4 
 
 B&XS& 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 8XI5/ 2 
 
 6 
 
 8X5'/ 2 
 
 15 
 
 6'/ 2 X5'/ 3 
 
 14 
 
 EAST 
 DOOR 
 
 13 
 
 GALLERY STAIRS 
 
 9 
 
 6&/B 
 
 10 
 6&X8 
 
 FRONT 
 DOOR 
 
 II 
 
 6'I?X8 
 
 12 
 
 6'JzX a 
 
 PLAN OF THE FIRST riTTSFIELD MEETING-HOUSE. 
 
 farmer who permitted himself to be seduced by their beauty to spare them. And 
 a still further wisdom in thorough clearing appears from the necessity of laying 
 bare to the cleansing sunlight as much as possible of a soil matted with a sponge- 
 like covering of decaying leaves, dank with putrid moisture, and charged with 
 noxious vapors, which even the pure sunlight could not cast out, without first, for 
 a time, redoubling their malignancy.
 
 154 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 sale of pews in a Pittsfield meeting-house accordingly took place 
 on Monday, Feb. 4, 1765, by auction, to the highest bidder. 1 
 The result was as follows : 
 
 No. 1. Sold to David Bush & Co. ...'.. 10 5 
 
 " 2. Caleb Waddams & Co 4150 
 
 " 3. Joseph Keelar & Co 4100 
 
 " 4. Zebediah and Ephraim Stiles 2 10 
 
 " 5. Amos Root & Co. 400 
 
 " 6. James Easton & Co 400 
 
 " 7. Daniel Hubbard & Co 850 
 
 8. Gideon Goodrich & Co 400 
 
 10. Wm. Williams & Co 6100 
 
 "11. Capt. Charles Goodrich & Co. . . . . 6 15 
 
 " 13. Wm. Williams 2 10 
 
 " 14. Eli Root & "Co. ' - . ' . 500 
 
 " 15. Daniel Hubbard, jun., & Co 4100 
 
 " 16. David Noble & Co. ' ;'<'. . . . . 9 00 
 
 Nos. 9 and 12 were .not sold ; and an unnumbered square 
 next to the pulpit was reserved for the minister's family. It 
 was voted that William Williams should have the proceeds of 
 the sale (83 15), and the two spaces for pews left unsold ; he 
 finishing the house in the usual manner within twelve months, and 
 allowing the market-price for lime and boards to those who had 
 bought pews, should they incline to furnish the same. 
 
 One would think that the long-desired end might now have been 
 anticipated with tolerable certainty; but one of those lapses which 
 seem to have been inevitable in the history of the early public works 
 of Pittsfield intervened, and it was many twelvemonths before the 
 house was completed in even an imperfect manner. In 1768, 
 Col. Williams was called upon by the town to "finish the meet- 
 ing-house according to contract," Deacon Easton, as sub-contract- 
 or, having failed to do so. Bat, Nov. 16, 1770, as if in despair 
 of ever seeing any other end of the matter, it agreed to " accept the 
 house as it stood, although not completed according to contract." 
 Besides the work performed in accordance with Col. Williams's 
 contract, Caleb Stanley and other young men had leave, in 1765, 
 on paying thirty shillings into the treasury, to build a pew over the 
 
 1 A plan of the pews and seats, as they were to be made, was presented to the town, 
 and transcribed on the record-book, from which the representation here given is 
 copied.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 155 
 
 gallery stairs ; and, in 1770, the young men generally, after several 
 refusals, obtained a vote permitting them to build four pews in the 
 front gallery, with the proviso "that they should be under the 
 direction of the selectmen." 
 
 The practice of seating the young men in one of the galleries, 
 prevailed for many years ; and it is related of Rev. Mr. Allen, that 
 on one New-Year's Sunday, after reading the usual parochial 
 statistics of the preceding twelve months, and remarking upon the 
 meagre record of marriages, he glanced his eye along the delin- 
 quent ranks, and shaking his head, as much as to say, " This will 
 never do," he remarked quietly, " Young men, young men, you 
 are expected to do your duty." 
 
 A custom known as "dignifying" or "seating" the meeting- 
 house existed at this time, and long after, in almost every New- 
 England town; which is thus described in Caulkins's excellent 
 history of Norwich, Conn. : " When the meeting-house was 
 finished, a committee was appointed to dignify the seats, and 
 establish the rules for seating the people. Usually the square pew 
 nearest the pulpit was the first in dignity ; and next to this came 
 the second pew, and the first long seat in front of the pulpit. 
 After this, the dignity gradually diminished as the pews receded 
 from the pulpit. If the house was furnished, as in some instances, 
 with square pews on each side of the outer door, fronting the pul- 
 pit, these were equal to the second or third rank in dignity. The 
 front seat in the gallery, and the two highest pews in the side-gal- 
 leries, were also seats of considerable dignity. 
 
 " The rules for seating were formed on an estimate of age, rank, 
 office, estate-list, and aid furnished in building the house. These 
 lists were occasionally revised, and the people reseated at intervals 
 of three or four years. Frequent disputes, and even long-continued 
 feuds, were caused by this perplexing business of seating a con- 
 gregation according to rank and dignity." 
 
 One can well conceive that such a result would follow. Indeed, 
 the church-going customs and laws of early times would intolera- 
 bly gall the spirit of a man of our day, especially if his religious 
 -faith did not accord with that of the majority. To be taxed for 
 the building of a temple not of his own mode of worship, and the 
 support of a minister whom he believed the preacher of heresies ; 
 to be compelled, on penalty of the stocks, to " go to meeting " 
 " attend on the stated ordinances of the gospel," the law phrased
 
 156 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 it within certain intervals, and when there to take the seat assigned 
 him, as an indication of his social status, by a committee for whom 
 his respect may have been of the slightest, such, in Provincial 
 times, was the fate of the dissenter, and, in some of its particu- 
 lars, of the Orthodox Congregation alist as well. 
 
 In Pittsfield, the " system of dignifying the house " was disturbed 
 without being ameliorated by the sale of the pews, which left only 
 the long seats to be periodically classified. The honors of the 
 pew-holders bloomed perennially. This distinction was only an 
 additional source of discontent and irritation ; but, notwithstanding 
 many attempts to do away with their invidious privileges, the 
 proprietors held on to their pews until within a few years of the 
 demolition of the meeting-house in 1792. 
 
 Seventeen years having passed away since the first vote of " The 
 Proprietors of settling-lots in Poontoosuck" regarding it, the 
 meeting-house was at last, in 1770, after some rough fashion, fin- 
 ished ; and we have the data from which to reconstruct it, with 
 little aid of the imagination. 
 
 FIRST MEETING-HOCSE, SCHOOL-HOUSE, AND PARSONAGE. 
 
 East street then ran straight through to West ; and close upon its 
 north side, immediately in front of the present location of the First 
 Congregational . Church, stood, broadside to the street, the little 
 meeting-house, which had come of the great travail of so many 
 years, a plain, angular building, " forty-five feet long, thirty-five 
 wide, and twenty feet post;" two stories high, with roof peaked
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 157 
 
 after the ordinary modern style; covered with rough, unpainted 
 clapboards, with square windows, and, in the middle of the south, 
 east, and west sides, doors of the same Quakerish pattern ; without 
 belfry, portico, pilaster, or bracket ; with no ornamentation what- 
 ever, but soon with a plentiful display of broken window-panes, 
 the ugly little barn-like structure, about to be consecrated by 
 words and acts for freedom as bold, as pure, and as ardent as any 
 that were ever spoken or done in American history. 
 
 The visitor entering on the Sabbath, by the south door, con- 
 fronted, at the north end of the broad aisle, the plain but elevated 
 pulpit, with its earnest preacher. Below, upon a slightly-raised 
 platform, stood a deal-table, used alike for the communion service 
 and as the clerk's desk at town-meetings. Behind it, two chairs, 
 high backed, and, as related to the present era, antique, but mod- 
 ern enough then, and by no means Gothic or massive. The pews, 
 arranged as in the plan, and the six " long seats" before the pulpit, 
 occupied the floor of the house. Galleries extended on the east 
 and west ends, and along the front. The pew-holders and their 
 families sat together as now ; but, in the galleries and long seats, 
 the men and women were separated, Shaker fashion. 1 
 
 The majority of the congregation were hardy, well-to-do farmers 
 of respectable carriage, betokening good New-England sense and 
 education, and weather-beaten in other fields as well as those of 
 peaceful labor. There were some of greater wealth and refine- 
 ment; and a few of aristocratic pretension (for aristocratic 
 pretension budded bravely under Provincial rule) ; a few, also, 
 whose intellectual culture and ability are still held in remembrance. 
 Nor did the lower seats lack for those less favored by fortune in 
 respect to social position and the possession of this world's gear : 
 while behind the singers, who occupied the front seats in the front 
 gallery, were bestowed the Philises, the Dinahs, the Pendars, the 
 Blossoms, the Hartfords, the Simons, and the Hazels; for, where 
 equality was denied to the white race among themselves, no civil 
 rights bill could be expected to accord it to the blacks. 
 
 Retiring with the congregation, at the close of a service some- 
 
 1 In 1773, John Strong was, by vote of the town, allowed to purchase for ci"ht 
 pounds " the hind seat on the woman's side," in order to build a pew where it 
 stood; and, three years afterwards, he received permission to exchange this for 
 " half the two hind seats," on the same side, he preferring the dignity of a square 
 pew.
 
 158 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 what less protracted than was customary in other pulpits of that 
 day, the visitor found himself under the shadow of the elm which 
 reared its grandly graceful form in the street, directly before the 
 southern door. On the other three sides of the house, spread a 
 widely-cleared space, still cumbered with stones and stumps, and 
 extending to the woods upon the north, all distinction having 
 been lost between the " meeting-house common " and the burial- 
 ground. Here, if it were summer, at the tables offered by the 
 broad stumps, or in the shadow of the near woods, the people, in 
 the brief nooning between the two services, discussed their lunch- 
 eons and the gossip of the week ; the men, however, not failing to 
 step across the way to sip their Sunday flip at the Deacon's tavern, 
 a custom always held in honor until the iconoclastic days of the 
 Temperance Reformation. 
 
 The people had come together in the morning, some on foot, 
 many on horseback with women on their pillions, a few in wagons, 
 and possibly one or two with more stately equipage ; and all dis- 
 persed promptly upon the afternoon benediction : for the late 
 Sunday-dinners were waiting sharpened appetites; and, after that, 
 the farmer's chores must be finished by sunset. The young men 
 and maidens had other engagements for the evening. 
 
 In such a temple as we have described, and to a congregation 
 like this, Thomas Allen preached those sermons, and taught those 
 lessons, which, to this day, powerfully influence the character of 
 Pittsfield; and the earlier of which were among the chief instru- 
 mentalities in giving the town that proud position which it holds 
 in Revolutionary story. Here, too, was the theatre of that bold 
 and spirited action by which Pittsfield, under the inspiring 
 eloquence of its pastor, and the leadership of such men as Brown, 
 Easton, Childs, Noble, Root, Goodrich, Strong, and Rathbun, 
 responded to Faneuil Hall. As we shall recount the story, let it 
 be remembered that its scene was in the little, plain, brown, Qua- 
 kerish-looking meeting-house under The Elm. Nor let it be forgot- 
 ten that near or in it rallied the minute-men on Lexington alarm; 
 the soldiers who followed David Noble to the armies of Washing- 
 ton, and died in the pestilence at Lake Champlain ; those who 
 followed James Easton to Canada, and those who in Patterson's 
 regiment fought in the battles of the Delaware; the volunteers who 
 conquered at Bennington, and the militia who were decimated 
 when John Brown fell at Stone Arabia. The soldiers of Pittsfield
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 159 
 
 in the Revolution made their rendezvous on the same spot now 
 her beautiful, elm-shaded Park whence, in later times, those whom 
 she sent to a mightier but not more glorious conflict took their 
 departure. 
 
 The dead, in the early years of the settlement, were buried in 
 some convenient spot near their residences when living ; and some 
 of these primitive cemeteries still remain. At the first meeting 
 of the Plantation in 1753, the committee intrusted with " the 
 affair of the meeting-house was also instructed to report, for the 
 consideration of the Proprietors, ' a place or places to bury the 
 dead;'" and the fact that no record of it appears affords no 
 evidence that their report was not actually made and adopted. 
 There is no means of determining when, how, or by whom, the 
 site of either the meeting-house or the burial-ground was finally 
 fixed. In 1767, a proposition either to change the location of the 
 latter, or to fence and clear it, was referred to Deacon Josiah 
 Wright, Capt. Israel Stoddard, and David Bush ; with whom it 
 lingered in Committee until November, 1769, Avhen it was voted, 
 *' forthwith to clear the ground for a burial-place, and that David 
 Bush be a committee to see it perfect, and also fenced, and the 
 timber thereon to be employed therefor; and that he give every 
 man a chance to work out their proportion if they attend accord- 
 ing to his warning." In the previous year, Eli Root was directed 
 to provide "a spade, a howe (hoe), and a peck for digging graves, 
 and to take charge of the same." Aaron Stiles, a person depend- 
 ent, on account of some infirmity, upon public support, was em- 
 ployed for many years as " saxton," both as grave-digger and in the 
 charge of the meeting-house ; and, in the latter work, seems to 
 have had a world of trouble in keeping things in decent order. 
 
 The meeting-house commons and the graveyard, which were 
 soon merged in each other, covered all the space embraced within 
 North street, the old line of East Street (including the present Park 
 Place), a line drawn past the north side of the Baptist church, and 
 another drawn near the west side of St. Stephen's to meet it at 
 right angles. 1 The land thus described was the south-west cor- 
 ner of the home-lot held in trust by the town for the minister who 
 
 1 The eastern part of the "Old Burial-ground" was not added until about 1812, 
 when ij was obtained from the heirs of Mr. Allen to offset the encroachment of 
 stores upon the west.
 
 160 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 should first be settled in it. It was probably taken for the pur- 
 poses named, under the authority granted to towns of appropriat- 
 ing private property to certain public uses; paying therefor a 
 reasonable compensation. There may have been some doubt as to 
 the legality of the proceeding under the circumstances ; but when 
 the title vested in Mr. Allen, upon his ordination in 1764, he made 
 a deed of gift, conveying it to the town. 1 
 
 Pittsfield found hardly less difficulty in settling its first minister 
 than in building its first meeting-house ; but it arose from theologi- 
 cal instead of pecuniary obstacles. What the differences of opinion 
 which agitated the town were, or precisely how parties were 
 arrayed in respect to them, we are not informed ; but doctrinal 
 controversies of much bitterness had long disturbed the congrega- 
 tional fold in New England ; and among those who entered most 
 vehemently into the strife were distinguished laymen, no less than 
 eminent divines, of the Stoddard and Williams names. And it is 
 hardly to be questioned that the representatives in Pittsfield, of 
 those intimately-allied families, partook of their theological acerbi- 
 ties, and that out of this grew the opposition to several of the 
 unsuccessful candidates for the first pastorate of the town. 
 
 The roll grew tedious before the right man presented himself. 
 The committee of 1759 employed a Mr. Clark, who preached some 
 time as a candidate, or, as the phrase of the day was, " a proba- 
 tioner," but was not honored with a call. In 1760, Rev. Ebenezer 
 Garnsey preached four months, " to almost universal acceptance," 
 said the proprietors; "but, that they might not be taxed with rash- 
 ness in attempting to settle him, they desired that he would offer 
 himself to the examination of the Upper Association of Ministers in 
 Hampshire County," and " upon their recommendation,' 1 ' the Pro- 
 prietors promised " to give him 90, in three annual instalments, to 
 enable him to settle himself, and 60 salary annually, to be 
 
 1 The statement that the land was thus given was made by Rev. William 
 Allen, D.D., in a pamphlet published during the lifetime of his father and of 
 many others who were conversant with the facts, some of whom were in a temper 
 promptly to deny the assertion if any doubt of its correctness could have been 
 conjured up. But we are not aware that either Dr. Allen's account, or the tra- 
 dition which accords with it, was ever questioned. The deed, however, has dis 
 appeared ; and, by an omission not singular in the old time, no record of any trans- 
 actions concerning the lands in question was ever made in the registry of deeds ; 
 so that the precise terms of the gift are unknown, or whether any limitations were 
 attached to it.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 161 
 
 increased forty shillings yearly until it should reach 80." Mr. 
 Garnsey left for the purpose of obtaining the required sanction ; 
 but, learning on his way that " Col. Williams was mistaken in sup- 
 posing such a proceeding necessary," he wrote that he " had almost 
 no objection to the settlement and salary, but that no offers must 
 tempt him to do what appears better omitted ; that they must be 
 aware that the steps taken are quite out of the common method ; 
 and that he is unwilling to take too much pains, or to appear too 
 forward, to settle among them." He had " several other objections, 
 among which ill health was not the least ; " but, as he positively 
 declined to comply with the condition of examination which the 
 Proprietors had proposed, he did not think it necessary to specify 
 them. ' 
 
 Upon this the Proprietors acknowledged their mistake, de- 
 clared that " their affections were still toward him," and requested 
 him " to preach some time longer with them, in order that they 
 might obtain a further acquaintance with him, and knowledge of 
 his principles." Mr. Garnsey complied, and "a more personal 
 acquaintance " with the man and knowledge of his principles having 
 only " still further endeared him to the people," they uncondition- 
 ally renewed their call in December. A month later, he replied 
 that " the turn of thinking he had discovered among some particu- 
 lar persons, he considered in such a light as rendered a happy 
 union very difficult, and almost utterly impossible." He thought 
 himself "happy that the discovery was made so timely that he was 
 able to extricate himself from the difficulty in which he was like to 
 have been involved." 
 
 Mr. Gamsey returned to his native town, Durham, Conn., and 
 ultimately retired from the ministry. What the objectionable turn 
 of mind he had discovered in some at Pittsfield was does not 
 appear : but the machinations of a small though powerful minority, 
 operating shrewdly upon a sensitive mind, are apparent in the 
 affair and the effect must have been unhappy upon the little com- 
 munity which had so earnestly, and with such seeming unanimity, 
 declared its respect and affection for the preacher of their choice. 
 
 In August, 1761, the town, having been incorporated, invited 
 Rev. Enoch Huntington of Middletown, Conn., to become its 
 pastor. In December, Mr. Huntington replied, that " although the 
 temporal encouragements held out at Pittsfield" the same 
 which had been tendered Mr. Garnsey " were larger and better 
 11
 
 162 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 than could be offered or exp.ected at Middletown, yet Providence 
 seemed to point at his tarrying there." The circumstances which 
 were urged by "the judicious," and which weighed upon his own 
 mind, in favor of this determination, were " the great numbers and 
 unity of the people of his charge, and the danger, that, if he left 
 them, they might become divided ; and the more so, as there was 
 a separate church and meeting which might draw away numbers 
 from that to which he ministered if it were left for a time desti- 
 tute. "God, in his providence, had called him to Middletown 
 when there seemed to be no manner of reason for refusing to go ; 
 and the longer he stayed, the more difficult it proved for him to 
 leave, although he confessed a great liking and affection for the 
 people of Pittsfield." Evidently a noble-hearted and conscientious 
 Christian minister, this Mr. Huntington ; true to his calling, and a 
 man whom any people might have been glad to receive or to 
 retain. 
 
 The next effort to supply the place with a settled minister, of which 
 we have knowledge, was in May, 1762, when Rev. Amos Tompson 
 was called as a probationer. We know nothing of this gentleman, 
 except that he met a more decided opposition, as a candidate, than 
 any of his predecessors had encountered. In September, twelve 
 legal voters represented to the selectmen that " uneasiness subsist- 
 ing between Mr. Amos Tompson and some of the town, who 
 liked neither his principles nor his performance," they had mutually 
 agreed to submit their differences to the determination of Rev. 
 Messrs. Raynolds, Bellamy, Brinsraade, Woodbridge, and Ashley; 
 "the dissatisfied promising, on their part, if the council advised the 
 settlement of the candidate, to make no further stir in the mat- 
 ter;" Mr. Tompson, on the other hand, consenting " to quit the 
 town" in the event of a decision adverse to him. No proper case, 
 however, could be made up for the council without the action of 
 the town, to obtain which a town-meeting was demanded. 
 
 The meeting was held ; but it promptly refused to accede to the 
 proposed arrangement, and proceeded unconditionally to invite Mr. 
 Tompson "to settle in the work of the gospel-ministry among 
 them." But, either that he considered himself bound by his agree- 
 ment with the dissatisfied, or that he thought the place undesira- 
 ble with so powerful a minority arrayed against him, we hear 
 no more of him. 1 
 
 1 The signers of the petition for a town-meeting, who may be presumed among 
 the leaders of the dissatisfied, were Joseph Wright, Joseph Wright, jun., Thos.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 163 
 
 Mr. Daniel Hopkins was then invited to preach on probation ; 
 and, nothing coming of this, Mr. Daniel Collins preached in like 
 manner until the first of September, 1763, when the town voted, 
 thirty-two to three, to invite him to settle ; but an adjourned meeting, 
 four days afterwards, was so thinly attended, and eight appear- 
 ing against Mr. Collins, that it was considered useless to make 
 him any offers ; and so the minority again triumphed. 1 
 
 On the 9th of December, 1763, the town decided to invite Mr. 
 Thomas Allen of Northampton to preach as a probationer; and 
 his ministry in that capacity was signalized by the formation of 
 the church, a duty which it seems had, up to this time, been sin- 
 gularly neglected. On the 7th of February, 1764, " a number of 
 members belonging to different churches" met at the house of 
 Deacon Crofoot; Rev. Samuel Hopkins of Great Barrington, 
 Rev. Stephen West of Stockbridge, and Rev. Ebenezer Martin of 
 Becket (then No. 4), being also present. A Confession of Faith 
 and a Covenant were drawn up, and signed by eight male members, 
 " who then and there united so as to form a church of Christ in 
 this place. 2 
 
 The eight names signed to the covenant and articles of faith 
 are, Stephen Crofoot, Ephraim Stiles, Daniel Hubbard, Aaron 
 Baker, Jacob Ensign, William Phelps, Lemuel Phelps, Elnathan 
 Phelps. Col. "Williams, Capt. Goodrich, and other prominent inhab- 
 itants, were connected with churches in other places, but did not 
 transfer their membership until some months later. 
 
 After the proceedings at Deacon Crofoot's house, those who had 
 
 Morgan, John Waddams, Phinehas Belding, Lemuel, William, and Elnathan Phelps, 
 Israel Dickinson, Israel Stoddard, Israel and Elisha Jones, of whom the last four, 
 at least, were of the Williams-Stoddard connection, while William Williams was 
 one of the Selectmen to whom the petition was addressed. 
 
 1 Mr. Collins was afterwards, for many years, the minister of Lanesborough, 
 dying in office, at the age of eighty-four, in 1822. He was a worthy man, but was 
 suspected of Toryism in Revolutionary times. His election as minister of Pitts- 
 field might have somewhat changed the complexion of the town's story. 
 
 2 The designation, " The Church of Christ in Pittsfield," was assumed in accor- 
 dance with the custom of similar bodies where but one existed in a town. It was 
 the only form used until 1817, when after the re-union of the parish, which had 
 been divided in 1809, the present name of "The First Congregational Church" 
 was adopted, partly because the old style, other churches having been formed in 
 town, savored too much of asserting an exclusive claim to the Christian name, and 
 partly because circumstances rendered it expedient for the organization to re-assert 
 its adherence to the Congregational form of church-government.
 
 164 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 taken part in them repaired to the meeting-house, where Rev. Mr. 
 Hopkins "preached a lecture," from 2 Cor. viii. 5: "And this 
 they did, not as we hoped ; but first gave themselves to the Lord, 
 and now to us by the will of f God." The new organization was 
 then formerly " declared to be a church of Christ." 
 
 By the incorporation of the town, the concurrence of two dis- 
 tinct bodies became requisite in settling a minister ; and now, by 
 the organization of the church, a third was added. 
 
 It was the province of the church to select the minister ; of the 
 town, if it approved, to ratify the choice, and fix the salary ; and 
 of the Proprietors of the sixty lots, to provide the " settlement," 
 or outfit, of the pastor elect. 
 
 The church not disappointing the hope hinted in Mr. Hopkins's 
 text, and doubtless more fully expressed in his lecture, proved a 
 harmonizing and not a disturbing element in the electoral triad. 
 Meeting at the house of Deacon Crofoot, on the 5th of March, 
 1764, it unanimously elected Mr. Thomas Allen to the pastorate, 
 and immediately announced its choice to the town ; which on the 
 same day, as promptly and unanimously concurring, resolved to 
 tender Mr. Allen a salary of 60 per annum, to be increased 5 
 yearly, until it should reach 80, which was then to become his 
 stated stipend. 
 
 The Proprietors also, upon the same day, voted him 90, in three 
 annual instalments, " to enable him to settle himself among them ; 
 and appointed Col. Williams, Capt. Goodrich, James Easton, and 
 Josiah Wright, a committee to wait upon him with the several 
 votes ; and, if he accepted the pastorate on the proffered terms, to 
 agree with him upon a time and council for the ordination, and 
 make the necessary preparations. 
 
 The committee having executed their trust, Mr. Allen responded 
 in the following letter : 
 
 To THE PEOPLE OP PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Dear Brethren, Your invitation of me to settle among you in the gospel 
 ministry, I have received by your committee chosen for that purpose ; and I 
 apprehend I have duly considered the same. In answer to this, your invita- 
 tion, I would say, that having sought divine direction, taken the advice of 
 the judicious, and duly consulted my own judgment, I cannot but think it 
 my duty to accept ; and, accordingly, do now declare my cordial acceptance 
 of the same. 
 
 I take this opportunity to testify my grateful sense of your respect, shown
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 165 
 
 in that unexpected good agreement and harmony that subsisted among you 
 in the choice of one less than the least of all saints to preach among you the 
 unsearchable riches of Christ. 
 
 Nothing doubting but that, at your next meeting, you will freely grant 
 forty or fifty cords of wood annually, or as much as you shall think sufficient, 
 and some small addition to my settlement, either by grant in work, or what- 
 ever, out of generosity, by subscription or whatever way you please, I now 
 stand ready to be introduced to the work whereunto I am called, as soon as 
 a convenient opportunity shall present itself. 
 
 These from your affectionate friend, 
 
 PITTSFIELD, March 20, 1764. 
 
 The addition of forty cords of wood to the proposed salary was 
 granted ; and the mode in which it should be procured was long 
 one of the annual items of town-business, the duty being some- 
 times assigned to a committee, and sometimes alternating, year by 
 year, between the East and West Parts. Finally it was commuted 
 with Mr. Allen for an allowance of money. The Proprietors had in 
 previous years bestowed some labor upon girdling the trees on 
 " the minister's home-lot ; " and the requested addition to the set- 
 tlement was made by further aid in continuing the clearing. 
 
 The ordination of Mr. Allen took place on the 18th of April, 
 the following naihed clergymen being present, "besides several 
 neighboring ministers : " Jonathan Ashley of Deerfield, Timothy 
 Woodbridge of Hatfield, John Hooker of Northampton, Samuel 
 Hopkins of Great Barrington, Thomas Strong of New Marlborough, 
 and Adonijah Bidwell of No. 1 (now Tyringham). The first 
 prayer was made by Mr. Hopkins, the second by Mr. Woodbridge ; 
 Mr. Ashley gave the charge, and Mr. Bidwell the right hand of fel- 
 fowship. Mr. Strong offered the concluding prayer. The sermon 
 was preached by Mr. Hooker, who had been Mr. Allen's preceptor 
 in his divinity studies ; and it was one of the only two productions 
 of that clergyman which were ever printed. " The whole," says 
 Mr. Allen's record, " was carried on with decency and order." 
 " Thirty-one members were added to the church in the first year 
 of Mr. Allen's ministry," says Dr. Field.
 
 166 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 The young clergyman who was so auspiciously introduced to 
 the stage upon which he was to be conspicuous for nearly half a 
 century was descended from an honorable ancestry of industrious, 
 virtuous, pious men. His earliest ancestor in this country was 
 Samuel Allen, a native of England, probably of Essex, who died at 
 Windsor, Conn., in 1648 ; whose son, Samuel, was one of the first 
 settlers of Northampton in 1657. The third of the name was a 
 deacon in the Northampton church when Jonathan Edwards was 
 its pastor, and died in 1739. Next came Joseph Allen, the father 
 of the Pittsfield minister, a neighbor of Mr. Edwards, and his 
 steadfast friend in the difficulties which drove that great man from 
 Northampton. The wife of Joseph, and the mother of Thomas 
 Allen, was Elizabeth Parsons, a descendant of Joseph Parsons, an 
 eminently pious early settler. She died in 1800, more than eighty 
 years old. 
 
 Thomas Allen was born at Northampton, Jan. 17, 1743, the 
 same year in which the abortive attempt to settle Poontoosuck was 
 made. Through the bequest of a grand-uncle, whose name he 
 bore, ample provision was made for his education at Harvard 
 University, where he was graduated in 1762, with a very high 
 reputation for scholarship, especially in the classics. He studied 
 theology under the dii-ection of his pastor, Rev. Mr. Hooker. 
 
 His son, Rev. William Allen, D.D., in a sketch of his life 
 printed in Sprague's American Annals, portrays the character of 
 the first minister of Pittsfield so vividly, and so entirely in accord 
 with all the evidence within our reach, as well as with the report 
 of those who knew Mr. Allen in his last years, that we transcribe 
 it with the full conviction that it owes little to the partiality of a 
 filial pen. 1 
 
 " My father was of middle height, and slender, vigorous, and active ; of 
 venerable gray hairs in his age ; of a mild, pleasant, affectionate counte- 
 nance ; hospitable to all visitors, and always the glad welcomer of his friends. 
 As he was very honest and frank, and had a keen sense of right and wrong, 
 and as he lived when high questions were debated, it is not strange that 
 those whom he felt called upon to oppose should have sometimes charged 
 him with indiscreet zeal ; but he cherished no malice, and his heart was 
 always kind and tender. Simple and courteous hi his manners, sincere in 
 his communications, and just in his dealings, he set his parishioners an 
 
 1 We are also indebted to the same source for the ancestral record of Mr. 
 Allen.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 167 
 
 example of Christian morals. The atonement of the Divine Redeemer, the 
 evangelical doctrines of grace, and their application to the practical duties 
 of life in the various relations of society, were the favorite subjects of his 
 public sermons and private conversations. He explained them without the 
 formality of logic, but with a happy perspicuity of style, and recommended 
 and enforced them with apostolic zeal. As he wrote out most of his sermons 
 in AVeston's shorthand, he usually, in his preaching, read them from his 
 notes ; but he threw into them, with but little action, great fervor of spirit. 
 Sometimes, in his extemporary addresses at the Communion-table, his trem- 
 bling voice and kindling eye and animated countenance were quite irresist- 
 ible. 
 
 Nothing need be added to this as a portrait. But popular tra- 
 dition which always preserves that in a man's character which in 
 the popular comprehension seems odd, to the neglect of what is 
 intrinsic and sterling gives prominence in its memories of Mr. 
 Allen, not to his deep religious sentiment, nor even to the purity 
 of his patriotism and his advanced ideas of political rights, but to 
 the mode in which his earnest and sti'aightforward nature led him 
 to manifest those great qualities. It remembers him as a politician 
 devoted to his party, as a Whig of the Revolution, whose zeal 
 led him to take up arms in an emergency ; but it forgets the rea- 
 soning, which, in Mr. Allen's conscience, justified a departure from 
 ordinary clerical etiquette at the crisis in which he was placed. 
 
 History is not likely to fall into this error, as regards the secular 
 principles upon which he acted ; but as he did not obtrude the 
 inner springs by which he was governed when occasion did not 
 require their display, and as that which it falls within our province 
 to record of him is chiefly of a secular character, justice to his 
 reputation as a minister of religion demands that we should bear 
 testimony in advance to what cannot well be connected with the 
 thread of the story, that his political was an outgrowth of his 
 religious life. The memoranda mostly intended only for his 
 own eye show, that in the commonest, as well as in the most con- 
 spicuous of his secular acts, he was moved by a religious spirit. 
 
 In the private exercises of devotion he was constant; and, how- 
 ever he may have at times thrown off the etiquette of his sacred 
 profession, there is abundant evidence that its essential spirit was 
 preserved and its essential duties were performed in the most 
 trying moments of military and political excitement, as the reader 
 will have opportunity to note in one or two remarkable instances.
 
 168 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Nor does even tradition hint a single word or deed of Mr. Allen 
 inconsistent with the purest Christian morals. His peculiarity 
 which was the joint result of his temperament and of the epoch 
 in which he lived was, that he held in small respect any religious 
 faith which did not manifest itself in outward acts, and especially 
 in those done for the common good, and that he esteemed resist- 
 ance to every form of oppression, and devotion to the political 
 principles best adapted to the preservation of equal rights, to be 
 among the most sacred duties. In the Revolution, moreover, 
 while his ardent temperament, without any other inspiration, 
 would have made him as fervid a patriot as his kinsmen of Ticon- 
 deroga fame, he had the additional incitement, that, with the major- 
 ity of New-England clergymen, he believed that the cause of 
 pure and unfettered religious worship was bound up, as it really 
 was, in that of the colonies, and that that cause was therefore holy. 
 This view of Mr. Allen's character, which accords strictly with 
 the evidence, is also necessary in order to its consistency, and to 
 explain facts which could not be made clear by any theory of 
 eccentricity, a solution of biographical problems which is oftener 
 due to the laziness of the investigator than to any idiosyncrasy of 
 his subject. 
 
 VIEW OF THE PARSONAGE. 
 
 In 1768, the three annual instalments of Mr. Allen's outfit 
 having come due, and been paid, and his house having probably 
 been built, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Jonathan Lee 
 of Salisbury, Conn., a descendant of William Bradford, the 
 Pilgrim Governor of Plymouth Colony, and one of the most illus- 
 trious of the leaders who came over in the May Flower. Mr. 
 Allen brought his bride home to Pittsfield, through the narrow 
 wood-roads, mounted on a pillion behind him.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY POLITICS. 
 [I76I-JUNE, 1774.] 
 
 Public Sentiment. Its Leaders in Pittsfield. Israel Stoddard. Woodbridge 
 Little. William Williams. Rev. Thomas Allen. Elder Valentine Rathbun. 
 James Easton. William Francis. Josiah Wright. Oliver Root. Da- 
 vid Noble. John Strong. Charles Goodrich. Israel Dickinson. Dr. 
 Timothy Childs. John Brown. Eli Root. Daniel Hubbard. Census of 
 1772. Censorship of the Town Records. Revolutionary Measures. In- 
 structions to Representatives. Action regarding the Boston Tea-party. 
 
 ~T"T"7"HILE home-affairs were taking shape under the town- 
 VV organization of Pittsfield, the storm of revolution was 
 gathering over the Province. "Writs of Assistance, the Stamp 
 Act, the Townsend Revenue Acts, the British garrison in Boston 
 with its consequences, followed each other in evil procession, and 
 were met by resistance in the courts of law, by legislative protest 
 in the General Court, by the spirited action of Boston and other 
 towns, and by the more or less tumultuous outbreaks of the 
 metropolis. In the contests and divisions which arose among the 
 people concerning the wisdom and the rightfulness of these several 
 modes of resistance to the royal and parliamentary will, Berkshire, 
 although isolated upon the extreme verge of the Province, intense- 
 ly sympathized. Few, perhaps none, of her citizens wished the 
 parliamentary schemes to be persisted in ; but many hoped for 
 redress from a returning sense of justice in Great Britian, and 
 believed that a portion, at least, of the measures adopted at Bos- 
 ton hindered that result. It was hardly to be expected that they 
 could comprehend how deeply considered was the ministerial 
 policy, and how perfectly it coincided with the popular feeling of 
 the kingdom. Even the most advanced Whigs owed their posi- 
 tion to long contemplation of the radical evils which the substitu- 
 
 189
 
 . 
 
 170 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 tion of the Provincial for the Colonial charter had introduced 
 into the Constitution of Massachusetts ; from which they regarded 
 the new encroachments of the home-government to be a natural 
 and inevitable outgrowth. While they found it expedient to 
 direct popular opposition, for the time, exclusively against im- 
 mediate and palpable wrongs, they if they did not from the 
 first look forward to absolute independence anticipated no per- 
 manent security for their political rights from any measure short of 
 a substantial restoration of the charter of 1628. And the tenacity 
 with which the Revolutionary leaders in Berkshire more firmly 
 than those in other sections of" the Province clung to this idea 
 afterwards led to consequences of great importance to the county. 
 
 On the other hand, the opinions of many were warped by the 
 possession or the hope of the offices which the Provincial charter 
 placed mostly at the disposal of the royal governor. The sympa- 
 thy of others was conciliated to the party of the Government by 
 sentiments a little more generous : by the ties of long and friendly 
 association, gratitude for past favors, family tradition, lessons of 
 loyalty and reverence for the king's representative learned in 
 childhood. The sweet influences which Province House so well 
 knew how to throw out had a peculiar charm for the secluded 
 magnates of Western Massachusetts, upon whom they had long 
 been sedulously brought to bear, and not unfrequently with success. 
 
 But here, as elsewhere, while principle, temperament, or interest 
 arrayed some classes at once and decidedly upon one side or the 
 other of the rising strife, the great body of the people were slow 
 in uniting upon the measures rightful and proper to be adopted, in 
 regard to parliamentary acts, by which, as few ventured to deny, 
 their liberties were invaded. In the minds of individuals, the 
 issues of the day hung balanced ; and the inclination of the scale 
 was often determined by a very slight preponderance. Every fact, 
 every principle, all precedents of history at all pertinent to the dis- 
 cussion, were brought into it by the pamphleteers, the newspaper 
 writers, the orators, and the preachers, upon one side or the other, 
 and gravely and anxiously scanned, as well by those who finally 
 adhered to the king, as by those who decided for the colonies. 
 And, after all, the sentiments of men ranged through all shades of 
 feeling, from the loyalty of the most obstinate Tory, to the fervor 
 of the Revolutionist, who, from the beginning, foresaw and rejoiced 
 in the end.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 171 
 
 The letters which passed between confidential friends showed 
 how undetermined some of the most upright men long remained, 
 how well they discerned the difficulties of the situation, and how 
 thoroughly they appreciated the responsibilities which pressed upon 
 themselves. This responsibility lay heavily upon the leaders of 
 public sentiment in towns, a class of men even more power- 
 ful then than now : and few took {heir stand without long and 
 severe thought, a profound consideration of consequences, and pro- 
 tracted consultation with those, in the phrase of that day, so signif- 
 icantly styled "the judicious;" not many without trustful and 
 earnest prayer. 
 
 In reading their letters, we, of course, discover the writers to 
 have been influenced by their several natural temperaments, habits 
 of thought, associations in life, and, whether consciously or not, 
 biassed by private interests; but, in a vast majority of instances, 
 nobler considerations dominated. 
 
 These municipal magnates were, almost without exception, men 
 of some property, which must needs be endangered in such a 
 conflict as resistance to the king's authority was sure to provoke. 
 Many were rising and ambitious men, and well aware, that, as they 
 chose their sides now, their aspirations would be brought to bloom 
 or blight. Some, as officers under the royal commission in the 
 old wars, had been trained to habits of military subordination and 
 submission to royal authority which it was hard to throw off, and 
 none the less so when it happened that there was half-pay 
 on the British peace-establishment to be forfeited in so doing. 
 Some, in subscribing the oaths prescribed to be taken by those 
 appointed to civil and military office, had assumed obligations 
 whose repudiation they found it difficult to reconcile with their 
 consciences. 1 
 
 1 The oath included the following clause : " And I do swear that I will bear 
 faith and true allegiance to his Majesty King George, and him will defend to the 
 utmost of my power against all traitorous conspiracies and attempts whatsoever 
 which shall be made against his Person, Crown, or Dignity. And I will do my ut- 
 most endeavor to disclose and make known to his Majesty and his successors all 
 treasons and traitorous conspiracies which I shall know to be against him or any 
 of them. . . . And all these things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledge and 
 swear according to the express words by me spoken, and according to the plain 
 common sense and understanding of the same words, without any equivocation, 
 mental evasion, or secret reservation whatever." The latter clause was framed 
 with special reference to the Jesuitical interpretation of the oath by the Jacobites ; 
 but it bore hard upon the position of the Massachusetts office-holders, as many 
 of them thought.
 
 172 HISTOBY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 There is matter for wonder in the bold, far-seeing wisdom and 
 unselfish patriotism which finally prevailed with so large a 
 majority of those who were required to stake large personal in- 
 terests upon the doubtful issue : there is none that many, even 
 of those afterwards among the truest and most uncompromising, 
 were not at once ready to unite with, their more ardent and im- 
 pulsive compatriots, or with those whom close observation had 
 enabled early to detect the fatal canker in the Provincial Con- 
 stitution. 
 
 The event proved that wisdom accorded with the impetuosity 
 of youth and the ardor of radicalism ; but even then Massachusetts 
 councils needed a retarding power, lest, by too rapid strides, 
 she might dangerously disconnect herself from colonies whose 
 patriotism, although not less sincere, had not been spurred by 
 the same sharp contact with tyranny, and whose loyal traditions 
 were not so obliterated from the popular heart. 
 
 But, besides the conservative men who were at heart and 
 essentially Whigs, who soon ripened into brave and decided 
 Whigs, there was a considerable party whom no provocation 
 on the part of the British government could repel from their 
 allegiance ; and nowhere did the patriotic spirit encounter, in this 
 class, a more bitter, powerful, and subtle enemy than in Pittsfield. 
 The influence of age, wealth, and official position was nearly 
 united here against all the measures, except perhaps very humble 
 remonstrance, with which the usurpations of the mother country 
 were met. 
 
 The Williams and Stoddard families, with their numerous con- 
 nections by blood and marriage, were, with few exceptions, at- 
 tached to the Tory interest. Israel Stoddard, who had inherited 
 from his father, the early proprietor, a large property in the town, 
 was a young man, having been born in 1741 ; but he was major in 
 the Berkshire regiment of militia, was appointed in 1765 one 
 of the justices of the Quarter Sessions, and was 'prominent in 
 town-affairs. He was a graduate of Yale in the class of 1758, and 
 appears to have possessed a cultivated mind. 1 
 
 1 The consideration in which Major Stoddard was held is curiously illustrated 
 by the following article in the warrant for a town-meeting in December, 1768: 
 " To choose a committee to wait upon Israel Stoddard, Esq., to know of him the 
 foundation of his resentment, and by what means he can be accommodated to his 
 satisfaction." The town, however, resolved that it had no right to act upon the
 
 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 173 
 
 Moses Graves and Elisha Jones were both large landholders in 
 the township, and both allied to the Williams and Stoddard blood 
 But the ablest and shrewdest of the Tories was Woodbridge 
 Little, the first lawyer who settled in the town. This gentleman 
 was a native of Colchester, Conn., where he was born in 1741. 
 He was graduated at Yale in 1760 ; studied theology with Rev. 
 Dr. Bellamy ; was licensed to preach, and officiated for two years as 
 " a probationer " at Lanesborough. 1 He then abandoned divinity 
 for the study of the law ; and, having been admitted to the bar, 
 established himself, in 1770, in practice at Pittsfield, where he had 
 become a resident at least as early as 1766, in which year he was 
 elected hog-reeve, in accordance with the waggish welcome which 
 towns used to give young gentlemen of dignified pursuits as well 
 as young bridegrooms. Many a worse prank was played upon 
 the worthy lawyer in the license of war-times. 
 
 Mr. Little was a man of varied learning, and profoundly versed 
 " in the art of putting things." Most of the political papers of his 
 party were drawn by him ; and nothing could have been fairer 
 than their case as he stated it. His character also was such as to 
 give weight to his argument. Indeed, although he was far from 
 ingenuous and although his position, until 1777, was reprehensible, 
 there is no reason to doubt that his opinions were honestly held, 
 and that what he did was justified by his own conscience. His 
 associations gave rise to grave suspicions, which received con- 
 firmation in the public mind, from acts which may have been 
 prompted merely by natural timidity, instead of a consciousness 
 of guilt ; and it is not probable that he ever gave direct aid and 
 comfort to the enemy after the actual breaking out of hostilities. 
 He was regarded by the patriots of Pittsfield as their most dan- 
 gerous opponent, not because he was the most malignant, but as 
 the ablest and most subtle of the Tory leaders. 
 
 article. Among the customs copied from the English aristocracy, by their callow 
 Provincial imitators, was the practice of arranging names in college catalogues, 
 not, as now, alphabetically, but according to the social rank of the students. 
 Thus John Adams, upon entering Harvard, found himself the twelfth man of his 
 class in degree ; which his son thought due to the standing of his mother's family, 
 the dignity of the house on the paternal side not entitling him to that position. 
 In Yale, this practice continued until 1768; and, by its scale, Israel Stoddard 
 ranked first, Israel Dickinson twenty-fifth, in a class of forty-three. Woodbridge 
 Little stood tenth in a class of thirty-three. 
 1 Dr. Durfee's Hist. Will. Coll.
 
 174 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 The position of Col. Williams was peculiar. He was elected rep- 
 resentative to the General Court in the years 1762, '64, '69, and '70, 1 
 and preserved the friendly relations with the royal governors which 
 he had enjoyed previous to the incorporation of the town. In 
 1771, Gov. Hutchinson counted him with Israel Williams, John 
 Worthington, and Timothy Woodbridge among the eight gen- 
 tlemen whom the recent elections had left in the House, who, in 
 common times, would have had great weight on the side of the 
 Government, but who were paralyzed by the hopelessness of the 
 minority in which they found themselves. Williams also held, 
 by appointment of the governor, the offices of chief-justice of the 
 Common Pleas and judge of probate for Berkshire, places 
 which, given to the father of James Otis for the poorer county of 
 Barnstable, Hutchinson thought ought to have secured both father 
 and son for the Government party. Williams, like the elder Otis, 
 had, moreover, been permitted " to name many of his friends for 
 other offices ; " and enjoyed, in addition, what to him was a great 
 enjoyment, the dignity of colonel in the Berkshire regiment of 
 militia; and, still to accumulate the ties which bound him to the 
 royalist party, he was a half-pay officer on the retired list of the 
 British army. 
 
 By the charter of William as it was then in force all civil 
 and military officers of the province were appointed by the gov- 
 ernor, and confirmed by the council : but the former had no power 
 of removal in civil cases ; and opportunities to make new appoint- 
 ments could only occur by the death or resignation of incumbents, 
 or upon the demise of the king, which vacated all commissions. 
 Col. Williams, therefore, if he had wished to support the popular 
 cause, had little to fear from the resentment of the appointing 
 power, or from any other quarter, so long as he refrained from 
 treasons which would have forfeited his half-pay. The obligations 
 of gratitude and old association were, however, strong, and the 
 family influences which surrounded him were mostly Tory : al- 
 though his cousin, Major Hawley of Northampton, was one of 
 the ablest of the Whig leaders ; and his favorite brother-in-law, 
 Col. Partridge, finally arrayed himself upon the same side. But 
 Hawley was always a timid councillor, and Partridge was alarmed 
 
 1 By some means, the exclusion of Pittsfield from representation until 1763 
 appears to have been done away.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFI'ELD. 175 
 
 and disgusted by what he deemed the unjustifiable excesses at 
 Boston. 
 
 All through the ante-Revolutionary troubles we are called upon 
 to remark the extreme sensitiveness of " the River-Gods of the 
 Connecticut," and their no less magnificent kindred among the 
 
 ' O O 
 
 Berkshire Hills, to the slightest infractions of law, order, and public 
 decorum, on the part of the Sons of Liberty, a fastidiousness 
 whigh, creditable enough within certain limits, when carried to 
 extremes made some very worthy men Tories, and rendered others 
 very lukewarm "Whigs. They seem to have belonged to the class 
 of moralists who consider political rascality the exclusive privilege 
 of eminent respectability. Col. Partridge gave expression to this 
 feeling with no exceptional force in the following extract from a 
 letter, dated " Hatfield, March 21, 1768," referring to the refusal 
 of the House of Representatives to notice a severe attack by Dr. 
 Joseph Warren upon Gov. Bernard, which was published in " The 
 Boston Gazette " on the 29th of the preceding month. 
 
 " The Green-villain spirit against America rather increases ; l and the late 
 wretched doings atJBoston, about the beginning of this month, will increase 
 that spirit in England. I mean the scurrilous libel against ye Governor, not 
 much, if any, short of a blasphemy, and the disregard with which the 
 House treated it. I am settled in my opinion, that the late conduct of ye 
 House will bring on a demolition of our charter, unless we are treated by 
 King and Parliament as a people insane, and so not to be punished until we 
 come to our wits." a 
 
 Few men in the Province had stronger or more numerous bonds 
 of attachment to the Government party than Col. Williams ; and 
 surely such inspiration from his Whig friends as that to be 
 derived from the above quotation was not likely to weaken them. 
 
 But, however pleasant his relations had been with the royal 
 authorities of Massachusetts, his experience of the English com- 
 manders in the army had been galling in the extreme ; and the 
 remembrance must have been bitter. His desire, also, to stand 
 well with the people was strong ; and it is evident that he had a 
 secret understanding with the local Whig leaders. The tradition 
 is, that when partisan jealousy ran high, as the outbreak of hostil- 
 
 Col. Partridge had just received some " prints " from Boston, with news from Eng- 
 land of the change in the ministry and the state of public feeling there. 
 * T. C. C., p. 220.
 
 176 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 ities approached, or perhaps immediately after they had actually 
 occurred, he was summoned before the Committee of Inspection, in 
 order to explain his position, and that he succeeded in convincing 
 that rather exacting conclave of his loyalty to the popular cause ; 
 and moreover, that, being too old for military service, it was for the 
 public interest that he should avoid any overt act that would for- 
 feit the half-pay which he received in gold, and spent among his 
 neighbors. It soon, however, became impossible to serve J;wo 
 masters, and we find him filling positions inconsistent with alle- 
 giance to the King. 
 
 That he was early reluctant to come in conflict with the popular 
 feeling was shown in the convenient illness which prevented him 
 from holding a Probate Court while the Stamp Act was in force. 1 
 
 Still, in that momentous period, when the patriots who early 
 comprehended the conspiracy of the royal closet against the liber- 
 ties of the colonies were painfully moulding a public sentiment 
 which should have boldness, determination, strength, and unity 
 sufficient to meet and thwart that conspiracy, in the doubtful 
 years of that great moral struggle which preceded the appeal to 
 arms, William Williams, holding the chief offices of the county, 
 and possessed of far more personal consideration than any other 
 man, in Pittsfield at least, gave the weight of his influence to the 
 party of submission. While the patriot leaders were establishing 
 the people in the principles of constitutional liberty, animating 
 them with the warmth of a righteous indignation, and instilling 
 into them its confidence in their military strength, calling, in fine, 
 from chaotic elements that mighty power which we name 
 " The Spirit of '76," Williams was uniting his voice with those 
 who palliated, if they did not justify, the encroachments of Great 
 Britain ; who forbade every hope of redress except from the grace 
 of king and parliament ; whose perpetual theme was the inability 
 
 1 In a letter to the Registrar, Hon. Elijah Dwight, of Great Barrington, now in 
 the possession of Henry W. Taft, Esq., Col. Williams says, " My state of ill- 
 health has prevented my attention to almost any sort of business ; but, the Stamp 
 Act being repealed, and being some better, desire you, as soon as may be, to disperse 
 the following advertisement among the several towns." The advertisement 
 announced Probate Courts in Stockbridge, at the house of Mr. Benjamin Willard, 
 Innholder, on the last Tuesdays of April, June, August and October ; in Pitts- 
 field at the house of Deacon James Easton, Innholder, on the last Tuesdays of 
 December and February. The letter is dated Pittsfield, June 14, 1766.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 177 
 
 of the colonies to cope in arms with the mother country ; and who 
 carped at every display of spirit by the people, the towns, or the 
 Provincial legislature. 
 
 Thus on the side of the submissionists in Pittsfield were the 
 strong conservative sentiment of the Williams-Stoddard connec- 
 
 O 
 
 tion, the wealth of Israel Stoddard, Moses Graves, the Jones 
 brothers, the Ashley's, and others, the subtlety and legal learning 
 of Woodbridge Little, and the personal and official inflaaase of 
 Col. Williams. In meeting this array, the "Whig cause had gained, 
 previous to 1774, several able champions, who gave in their adher- 
 ence to it, from time to time, as party-lines were more and more 
 sharply drawn by the progress of events. 
 
 With the first to declare themselves was Rev. Mr. Allen, who, 
 from zealous non-conformist ancestors, had inherited the purest 
 principles of the English commonwealth, and believed in a church 
 without a bishop hardly more implicitly than he did in a state 
 without a king : so that, while he meditated no treasons for the 
 sake of abstract theories of government, the princely name had 
 for him no sanctity to deter from resistance to royal iniquity. An 
 innate hatred of oppression and injustice, a zealous devotion to 
 any cause to which his sense of right attached him, a personal 
 character which carried weight with the people, and a happy facul- 
 ty for enforcing his opinions both with the tongue and the pen, com- 
 pleted the qualities which eminently fitted him to be a leader in 
 times of revolution. Placable towards his own enemies, he was 
 an excellent hater of the foes of his country, chief among which 
 he classed the Tories and George the Third. He charged and 
 modern investigation proves him to have been correct in so doing 
 upon the monarch, personally and primarily, rather than upon his 
 ministry, the wrongs which his government inflicted upon America. 
 An entry in his diary, so long after the conclusion of the war as 
 1799, shows how lasting and intense was his resentment for these 
 wrongs. Being in that year at London, and having seen King 
 George pass in state from the palace to Parliament House, he re- 
 corded the incident with the following comment : 
 
 " This is he who desolated my country ; -who ravaged the American 
 
 coasts ; annihilated our trade ; burned our towns ; plundered our cities ; sent 
 
 forth his Indian allies to scalp our wives and children ; starved our youth in 
 
 his prison-ships ; and caused the expenditure of millions of money, and a 
 
 12
 
 178 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 hundred thousand precious lives. Instead of being the father of his people, 
 he has been their destroyer. May God forgive him so great guilt 1 " 
 
 The evil deeds thus denounced, of course occurred after the era 
 which we are now considering ; but their place as an incitement to 
 feeling was then supplied by political wrongs and the immediate 
 presence of the conflict: and we have introduced the incident, out 
 of the order of time, as showing something of the manner and 
 spirit of the minister who made the Pittsfield pulpit one of the 
 foremost of those which, throughout New England, rang with de- 
 nunciations of the oppressor and the invader, and preached the 
 gospel of liberty to apt listeners. 
 
 Elder Valentine Rathbun, the pastor of the Baptist church, 
 organized in 1772, was no less ardent in his patriotism than his 
 Congregational brother. A clothier by trade, he had without 
 abandoning that pursuit, and without the advantages of a classical 
 or theological education formed the church to which he ministered 
 from proselytes made by his own preaching in his own house. 
 The results of his public speaking indicate that its style was ef- 
 fective : the temperament of the man suggests that it was fiery, 
 vehement, and nervous. His fellow-citizens manifested their esteem 
 for his character and his talents by electing him to important county 
 " Congresses," over which he often presided, and, at interesting 
 crises, to the General Court : although his extremely radical prin- 
 ciples, and passion for ultra, not to say violent, measures, may 
 have had something to do with his popularity when the blood of 
 the people was heated even beyond Revolutionary fervor, as it 
 often was when Valentine Rathbun was a successful candidate. 
 
 James Easton was a builder, and also kept a store and a tavern, 
 a little south of the present corner of Bank Row and South 
 Street, the latter of which became historical in connection with 
 the. Ethan Allen capture of Ticonderoga. He was a native of 
 Hartford, but removed from Litchfield, Conn., to Pittsfield, in the 
 year 1763. He joined the church by letter in May, 17G4, and was 
 chosen deacon the next September. He was, from the first, a 
 prominent citizen ; and his letters show sound sense well expressed, 
 great promptness and energy of character, and a remarkable com- 
 bination of zeal and judgment. We know him best as an officer 
 in the early years of the war ; but he was among the first to range 
 himself with Mr. Allen upon the Whig side.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 179 
 
 Among the other prominent men who early committed them- 
 selves to the party of liberty were Oliver Root, William Francis, 
 Deacon Josiah "Wright, David Noble, and John Strong. Our infor- 
 mation concerning these patriots except Col. Root, whose early 
 life has already been sketched is slight. William Francis was a 
 native of Wethersfield, and was among the first settlers of Poon- 
 toosuck. Not only before the Revolution, but for many years 
 afterwards, he was held by his townsmen in extraordinary esteem 
 for his discretion and integrity. " Governor Francis," the soubri- 
 quet by which he was known in his later years, is still remembered 
 with reverential respect by persons now living. Of somewhat 
 similar character was Deacon Wright, afterwards one of the 
 earliest Methodists in Pittsfield. He had served as a sergeant in 
 the French and Indian Wars. 
 
 David Noble than whom no Pittsfield patriot has left a bright- 
 er record was a native of Westfield, from which town he was a 
 volunteer in 1755. He was a farmer, trader, and tavern-keeper, 
 living in the eastern part of the town, and had accumulated con- 
 siderable property, most of which he sacrificed for his country. 
 John Strong was also a tavern-keeper, living where the Pomeroy 
 Homestead now stands. He is remembered as a genial and popu- 
 lar landlord, but, at the time of which we write, was often chosen 
 to places of civil, as well as military trust, which required more 
 than a common share of intellectual ability ; and he seems to have 
 been quite competent to fill them. 
 
 Charles Goodrich, who continued a prosperous citizen, and had 
 attained the rank of captain in the militia, although he owned 
 large tracts of what had been the commons lands, had allied himself 
 closely in town-affairs with the party of the settling proprietors, 
 and was, in 1764, 1769, and 1770, chosen to represent the town at 
 Boston. Naturally averse, as a man of large property, to danger- 
 ous agitation, his sympathies were, nevertheless, sincerely with the 
 people, and not altogether, or chiefly, because his political hopes, 
 which were active, rested upon them. Prompt, even to a prone- 
 ness to litigation, in maintaining his personal rights, the same 
 quality roused him equally when the chartered privileges and 
 immunities which he shared with his countrymen were attacked. 
 A man of independent thought, and of discriminating as well as 
 decided opinions, while adhering firmly to the principles which 
 commended themselves to his judgment, he was disposed occasion-
 
 180 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 ally to differ in detail from those with whom he agreed in essen- 
 tials ; and he may have maintained a peculiar position, as regarded 
 the Pittsfield patriots in the formative period of Revolutionary 
 sentiment, as he did afterwards upon the question of civil govern- 
 ment in the new commonwealth. But we find him in full favor 
 with the Whigs as soon as they came into power ; and it is to be 
 presumed that his influence had previously been exercised in 
 harmony with them. Such men as he are more apt to break with 
 their party in the hour of victory than while the struggle is 
 on. 
 
 The only person in Pittsfield, at all connected with the Williams 
 and Stoddard families, who is known to have sided with the 
 patriots before hostilities actually commenced, was Israel Dickin- 
 son. This gentleman was born at Hatfield in 1735, and gradu- 
 ated at Yale College in 1758; afterwards receiving his master's 
 degree as well from the College of New Jersey, of which his 
 kinsman, Dr. Jonathan Dickinson, had been the first president, 
 as from his own Alma Mater. In college, he was the class-mate 
 and chum of Israel Stoddard ; and both were the friends of Wood- 
 bridge Little, who was two classes below them. This early college 
 intimacy led to the settlement of the chums, and, soon after, of 
 Little, upon three adjoining estates in a pleasant section of Pitts- 
 field. And there the ante-revolutionary troubles found them, in 
 the enjoyment of cultivated and harmonious intercourse, inter- 
 changing reminiscences of college-life, and, as the books preserved 
 by their descendants prove, indulging and cherishing their taste for 
 intellectual pleasures. Nothing remains to show when this delight- 
 ful union was interrupted by the political differences which 
 estranged the friends, if they were estranged ; but immediately 
 after the Lexington fight, when Stoddard and Little were taking 
 refuge in New York from the rage of the people, we find Israel 
 Dickinson prominent in the military operations of the pa- 
 triots. 
 
 In 1771, the Whigs received a valuable accession in the person 
 of Dr. Timothy Childs. This noted patriot was born at Deerfield 
 in 1748; entered Harvard College in 1764, but did not graduate; 
 studied medicine in his native town with Dr. Thomas Williams, 
 and established himself in practice at Pittsfield in 1771. The 
 young physician soon won popularity and influence ; proved him-
 
 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 181 
 
 self an effective speaker, 1 and by these qualities, as well as by the 
 contagion of his youthful zeal, gave a new impulse to the cause 
 which he espoused. 
 
 About three years after Dr. Childs had planted himself at 
 Pittsfield, a similar acquisition was made by the removal to the 
 place of John Brown, a young lawyer of commanding talents, of 
 noble personal appearance, well connected, and, withal, a true man, 
 one destined to win fame, but not such as equalled the promise 
 of his youth, or was commensurate with the deserts which ap- 
 peared even in his brief career. His father, Daniel Brown, a native 
 of Haverhill, settled at Sandisfield in 1752 ; and his prosperity 
 there was remarked by Col. Williams in a letter already quoted. 
 His respectable position among the gentlemen of the county was 
 attested by the commission of the peace which he received in 
 1765. His son, in 1777, spoke of himself as having " had" a birth 
 and education of some consequence." John, the youngest of five 
 brothers, was born at Haverhill, Oct. 19, 1744; was graduated at 
 Yale in 1771 ; studied law at Providence with his sister's husband, 
 Hon. Oliver Arnold, and commenced practice at Caghnawaga, now 
 Johnstown, N.Y., where he held the place of king's attorney. 
 After a brief stay there, e,arly in 1773 he transferred his residence 
 to Pittsfield, where Woodbridge Little had previously been the 
 only man of law. His radicalism at this time does not appear to 
 have been quite up to the Boston standard ; but his principles 
 were fixed, and, proving bold as well as prudent, he soon received 
 from the people the most distinguished marks of their confidence, 
 and never gave them reason for one moment to repent their trust. 
 
 Among those, who, from the positions in which we soon find 
 them, are presumed to have been early adherents to the Whig 
 cause, are Deacon Daniel Hubbard, a wealthy citizen of The West 
 Part, and Eli Root, one of the richer residents near Wendell 
 Square, and after the Revolution a worthy magistrate : both men 
 
 1 It is related that Dr. Childs's manner, on town-meeting days, was to halt on 
 his professional rounds, enter the meeting-house, stand patiently waiting until the 
 subject which specially interested him came up for action, when he presented his 
 views quietly but with precision and force, after which, without waiting for reply 
 or result, he left the house, and resumed his calls. But, doubtless, when subjects 
 momentous as those which in Revolutionary times claimed the attention of towns 
 were under discussion, this nonchalant manner was greatly modified, if it did not 
 entirely disappear.
 
 182 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 of sterling character, whose determination, energy, and place in 
 the community, made them of eminent service to their party. 
 
 By the nearly perfect census of the population, which is pre- 
 served, 1 the number of families living in Pittsfield in 1772 was 
 138 ; of inhabitants, about 828. The leadership which swayed 
 the two parties in this little" community, shut up, with a few others 
 of like composition, among the hills, shows a remarkable pro- 
 portion of liberally-educated men as well as others of decided 
 intellectual character and ability. That they should, in some 
 greater measure than towns at the east, work out their own 
 political problems by their own processes was natural. That 
 while reaching the same result with their compatriots at Boston, 
 while sympathizing with their struggles in defence of invaded 
 rights, and according to them the respect and influence which was 
 due their vanship in the conflict, they should hot always adopt 
 the prevailing color of metropolitan sentiment, nor always applaud 
 the measures which that sentiment dictated, was inevitable. 
 Aside from the diverse habits of thought which ordinarily pre- 
 vailed in the tw*o sections, and setting aside for the moment 
 the absence in Berkshire of immediate incitements to feeling, 
 the lack of those means of intimate, and in some degree secret, 
 communication with the masses, which the Boston leaders possessed 
 at home, would alone have secured this result. Thus the reason- 
 ing which made clear to the Boston clubs the essential difference 
 between the sacking of Hutchinson's house and the swamping of 
 the Honorable East India Company's tea was not so apparent 
 to the comprehension of secluded farm-houses in Pittsfield. It 
 was otherwise with fundamental maxims of government, concern- 
 ing which public discussion, in the press and upon the rostrum, 
 was able to effect unity both of assent and application. And it 
 was otherwise, also, with regard to parliamentary and executive 
 acts, obnoxious functionaries, and Tory statesmen, objects against 
 which it was quite possible for the central revolutionists to con- 
 centrate the unbroken opposition of their party, and finally 
 to bring that party to comprise so large a majority, that it, not 
 without good right, assumed to be The People. 
 
 While the revolutionists in Pittsfield, as elsewhere, were grow- 
 ing up to this estate, an unfortunate custom existed of keeping 
 
 1 See Appendix D.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 183 
 
 the minutes of town-meetings upon sheets of paper loosely stitched 
 together, which, with other town-archives, were, at intervals of 
 a few years, inspected by committees appointed for that purpose, 
 who directed what should be permanently recorded, what kept on 
 file, and what destroyed. It will readily be comprehended how 
 fatal such a process would be to all evidence of tergiversation on 
 the part of the inspectors. 
 
 In the record of town-meetings there are, in fact, previous to 
 June, 1774, but two entities bearing upon the unsatisfactory state of 
 affairs with the mother country. One of these was in March, 1768, 
 when William Williams, Josiah Wright, Stephen Crofoot, James 
 Easton, and Rev. Mr. Allen were appointed " to examine the 
 Boston letter to the selectmen." This was the circular sent out in 
 accordance with the vote of a large meeting held at Farieuil Hall, 
 on the 28th of the previous October, to consider the recently- 
 passed Townsend Revenue Acts. It proposed an agreement to 
 discontinue the importation, and, except in cases of absolute neces- 
 sity, the consumption, of British goods, and to encourage American 
 industry, economy, and manufactures. The Pittsfield committee 
 was politically divided, and there was an excellent prospect for two 
 reports and excited action ; but it is simply recorded, that the 
 article in the warrant, " to receive the report of the committee," 
 was dismissed. 
 
 The other vote was in the following December; and merely, in 
 obedience to an act of the General Court, appropriated 12 for a 
 town-stock of ammunition, to be placed in charge of Deacon 
 Crofoot. 
 
 A few significant papers of 1774 "kept on file, but not re- 
 corded" remain in the town-archives, and indicate, that, until the 
 summer of that year, the Tories, by professing to "be as averse as 
 any of the patriots in America to taxation without their own 
 voluntary consent," maintained their ascendency. The balance of 
 power was held by those who, afterwards driven by the continued 
 encroachment of Great Britain into the Whig ranks, where they 
 belonged, as yet shrank from co-operation with their radical ' 
 brethren, and, in preference to so dangerous alliance, acted with 
 the party of professions. Timid, but dreading political rather than 
 personal danger, hoping against hope, reasoning against reason, 
 they clung to their trust in the old English love of justice and 
 liberty; and, patiently waiting until that mythical existence
 
 184 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 should manifest itself, shuddered more convulsively over the 
 slightest exhibition of manly spirit in Massachusetts than at the 
 most atrocious usurpations of king and parliament. And yet they 
 were patriots at heart, and, when driven to the wall, often brave 
 and good ones. It was in assuming their position,.not in defending 
 it, that they lacked courage. 
 
 The nature of the association of the conservative Whigs with 
 the Tories is shown in the instructions which the town gave its 
 representative in the matter of the Boston Tea-Party ; * although 
 the illustration is not altogether perfect, as many firm Whigs in 
 the interior towns and, outside the clubs, in Boston as well 
 did not fully comprehend the necessity for a measure which it was 
 so easy for the ill-disposed to stigmatize as a riot. 
 
 The paper is, however, interesting, and notwithstanding its 
 legal phraseology, which is due to the authorship of Woodbridge 
 Little, is readable. 
 
 The town, having adopted the report, seems to have conceived 
 a suspicion that it might at some time, if spread upon the records, 
 become the subject of unfriendly criticism ; and so resolved that 
 it should "be placed on file and not recorded," a proceeding 
 which marks the sensitiveness of the public mind at this juncture, 
 as, without any vote to that end, it had never been the practice to 
 record similar documents. It is singular that no sharp-eyed in- 
 spector of the archives ever marked it " to be burned," a mode 
 in which many a less obnoxious witness of changed opinions was, 
 doubtless, put out of the way. 
 
 INSTRUCTIONS OP THE TOWN OF PITTSFIELD TO ITS REPRESENTATIVE 
 REGARDING THE DESTRUCTION OF TEA IN BOSTON HARBOR, Dec. 
 16, 1773. 
 
 The inhabitants of the town of Pittsfield being alarmed at the extraordi- 
 nary conduct of a number of disguised persons, who, on the evening follow- 
 
 1 It was an old custom of towns, upon the choice of a representative, or 
 whenever new and important legislative questions arose, to give him instruc- 
 tions, drafted by a committee (to whose selection much care was given), and 
 adopted by the voters. These instructions had no binding effect, but, of course, 
 carried great weight with the representative, who was generally, but far from in- 
 variably, governed by them. The practice was a relic of times when the legislative 
 function was exercised by the whole body of the freemen, and suggests the reluc- 
 tance of the people wholly to delegate it.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 185 
 
 ing the sixteenth day of December last, entered on board the ships 
 commanded by Captains Hall, Bruce, and Coffin, lying in the harbor of 
 Boston, then and there breaking up and destroying three hundred and forty- 
 two chests of tea belonging to the Honorable East India Company, a 
 number of the said inhabitants petitioned the selectmen of said town that 
 a meeting of the freeholders and other inhabitants of said town might be 
 called, which was accordingly done ; and, at a meeting holden on the tenth 
 day of January last, the said town appointed a committee of five persons to 
 prepare instructions for their representative relative to said conduct, and 
 adjourned said meeting to the twentieth day of said month ; at which tune 
 the said committee reported as follows, viz. : 
 
 That the said conduct was unnecessary and highly unwarrantable, 
 every way tending to the subversion of all good order and of the Con- 
 stitution, as we determine that the king himself hath two superiors ; 
 to wit, his heavenly King, and his own laws : nor was there ever a 
 more flagrant instance that even the perpetrators of the fact viewed them- 
 selves as enterprising an act in itself unlawful and unjustifiable ; other- 
 wise they would not have disguised themselves, or have attempted it in 
 the night. 
 
 At the same time, we are as averse as any of the patriots in America to 
 being subjected to a tax without our own free and voluntary consent, and 
 shall, we trust, always abide by that principle. And, was there not an 
 alternative between the destruction of said tea and the people's being 
 saddled with the payment of the duty thereon, we should not have the 
 like reason to complain ; but, as far as we live in the country, judge other- 
 wise. 
 
 And as great damage hath been sustained by the owners of said tea 
 in the destruction thereof, and as they will doubtless seek some com- 
 pensation therefor, and as the inhabitants of this Province have here- 
 tofore been obliged to pay large sums of money by reason of the like 
 unjustifiable conduct and proceedings of individuals not duly authorized 
 thereto, 
 
 We do therefore enjoin it upon you, that, by all prudent ways and means, 
 you manifest the abhorrence and detestation which your constituents have 
 of the said extraordinary and illegal transaction, as also of all the other 
 public transactions which have been leading to, or in any degree countenan- 
 cing, the same ; and especially that you do not directly or indirectly consent 
 to any proposals which may be made, or any measures which may be taken, 
 to render your constituents chargeable to any payment or satisfaction which 
 may be required to be made to the owners of said tea, as we have deter- 
 mined, at all events, never to pay or advance one farthing thereto ; and, if 
 your assistance is called for, that you exert yourself to the utmost of your 
 power to bring the persons connected in the destruction of said tea, and 
 other such-like offenders, to condign punishment; 'and it is the expectation
 
 186 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 of this town, that you strictly adhere to these, their instructions, as you 
 value their regard or resentment. 
 
 WILLIAM WILLIAMS. 
 
 WOODBRIDGE LlTTLE. 
 
 DAVID BUSH. 
 En ROOT. 
 JNO. BROWN. 
 
 Committee. 
 To Capt. CHARLES GOODBICH. 
 
 Jan. 19, 1774.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 RESISTANCE TO PARLIAMENTARY AGGRESSION. 
 [MARCH - OCTOBER, 1774.] 
 
 Boston Port-Bill and Regulating Acts. First Revolutionary Town Action of 
 Pittsfield. Committee of Correspondence appointed. The League and 
 Covenant adopted. Pittsfield contributes in Aid of the Sufferers by the Port- 
 Bill. Obstruction of the King's Court. Seth Pomeroy. Oliver Weridell. 
 
 THE spring of 1774 brought events which everywhere consol- 
 idated the Whigs, and made broad the dividing lines between 
 those who would defend, and those ready to surrender, the liberties 
 of the Province. 
 
 The act of Parliament which soon became infamous as " The 
 Boston Port-bill" excluding commerce from the harbor of that 
 town, and removing the seat of government to Salem received 
 the royal assent on the 31st of March, and was printed in the 
 Boston newspapers of May 10. 
 
 The acts " for the better regulating the government of the 
 Province of Massachusetts Bay," and " for the impartial adminis- 
 tration of justice" in the same, followed closely, and wrought an 
 entire abrogation of the charter in all those particulars by which 
 it afforded protection to civil or personal liberty. 
 
 Under the new laws, councillors created by royal mandamus, 
 and the superior judges appointed by his Majesty's governor, 
 held office during the king's pleasure. All other officers, judicial, 
 executive, and military, were appointed by the governor, indepen- 
 dently of the Council, and except the sheriffs, who could only 
 be displaced with consent of the Council were removable by 
 the same sole authority. The governor's appointing power, a 
 grievous fountain of corruption, even with the checks provided by 
 William's charter, now concentrated with the new right of 
 
 187
 
 188 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 removal in the unchecked control of the king and his automatic 
 representative, was fearfully augmented. 
 
 Town-meetings, permitted to be held for the election of muni- 
 cipal officers and representatives, were strictly confined in their 
 functions to the bare casting of the necessary ballots ; and special 
 meetings were allowed only with license first had of the governor, 
 designating what matters alone they might consider. The selection 
 of jurors previously made, as now, by the selectmen, with the 
 ratification of the towns was given to the king's sheriffs. Acts, 
 passed almost simultaneously with the others, provided for quar- 
 tering troops in America, and for the transportation to England 
 For trial of persons charged, like the soldiers implicated in the 
 Boston massacre, with murders committed in the support of the 
 royal authority. The enactment of despotism was complete. In 
 the new system of government, hardly a vestige remained of those 
 safeguards, which, in the Colonies even more absolutely than in 
 Great Britain, were essential to the preservation of liberty. Prac- 
 tically, nothing whatever in the perverted Constitution interposed 
 between the people and the sovereign's will : for the House of Re- 
 presentatives, mighty as it proved by its advice, was, in its legis- 
 lative capacity, reduced to utter impotence by the governor's 
 inexhaustible prerogative of prorogation and dissolution ; by the 
 unqualified veto which he, as well as the puppet Council, might 
 exercise upon all its acts; and by the independence of its appro- 
 priations, enjoyed by the governor and judges, who, by another 
 still recent innovation, received their salaries directly from the 
 Crown. 
 
 Thus two departments of the Provincial Government the 
 judicial and the executive, including the council and the military 
 were the mere registrars and instruments of the kind's will; 
 
 o o * 
 
 while the third, if it consented to assume the role to which it had 
 been assigned, was more insignificant for good than either. 
 
 Heretofore the people of the Colonies had been alarmed by 
 measures of Parliament, which, not otherwise oppressive, were taken 
 in violation of their privileges, either under the charter or as 
 English subjects. They had detected, in the occasional exercise 
 of powers which infringed upon colonial rights, the insidious 
 design of overthrowing them altogether. Now the very citadel of 
 all right was attacked, not by veiled advances, nor by sapping hid- 
 den foundations, but by bold and crushing assaults upon its most 
 jealously-guarded defences.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 189 
 
 Thanks to the prescient leadership which had kept Massachu- 
 setts alive to the impending danger, she was ready to meet it when 
 it came. The excitement, with the news of the obnoxious acts of 
 Parliament, spread inward from the capital, and everywhere roused 
 the same spirit of indignation and determined resistance. In every 
 direction, nothing was heard of but meetings and patriotic resolu- 
 tions. May 12, two days after the publication of the Port-bill, 
 the delegates of eight neighboring towns, summoned by the Bos- 
 ton committee, met at the selectmen's room in Faneuil Hall, and 
 adopted spirited measures to unite the colonies in defence of the 
 common liberties ; l and it was, perhaps, to a missive sent out by 
 this little assemblage, that the petition for the first Pittsfield town- 
 meeting held in this emergency alludes. The petition, however, 
 was dated on the 24th of June ; and, early in that mouth, rough 
 drafts of the regulating acts, and news of their probable passage, 
 were received by the Boston committee, and dispersed over the 
 country with so good effect, that, on the 20th, " The Boston Ga- 
 zette " was able to pronounce " the aspect of affairs highly favor- 
 able to American liberties" . . . "the whole continent seeming 
 inspired by one soul, and that a rigorous and determined one." 2 
 It was due partly to its I'emoteness from the capital, and partly, 
 doubtless, to the still potent Tory influence, that Pittsfield manifest- 
 ed a dilatory spirit that never again appeared in her patriotic coun- 
 cils. But, on the 24th, a petition was presented to the selectmen, 
 requesting them to convene a town-meeting, " to act and do what 
 the town think proper respecting the circular letter sent out by the 
 town of Boston and other towns in this Province; and such other 
 matters as the town shall think proper in regard to the invaded 
 liberties and privileges of this country." 
 
 This petition was signed by James Easton, John Strong, Ezekiel 
 Root, Oliver Root, Timothy Childs, John Brown, Matthew Wright, 
 David Noble, Daniel Weller, and James Noble ; and the select- 
 men to whom it was addressed were David Bush, William Francis, 
 Dan Cadwell, Eli Root, and Israel Dickinson. The warrant for 
 a town-meeting on Thursday, the 30th of June, was signed by all 
 the selectmen except Cadwell; 8 and it was accordingly held, 
 Josiah Wright presiding as moderator. 
 
 1 Frothingham's Life of Warren, p. 301. 
 
 2 Frothingham's Warren, p. 333. 
 
 8 David Bush had scruples as to taking up arms against the king, to whom he 
 had, as a militia captain, sworn allegiance ; hot he acted, generally, with the
 
 190 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 The first action taken was to appoint " a standing committee to 
 correspond with the correspondent committees of this and other 
 Provinces;" and it was thus constituted: Rev. Thomas Allen, 
 Deacon James Easton, Mr. John Brown, Deacon Josiah Wright, 
 Mr. John Strong, Capt. David Bush, Lieut. David Noble. 
 
 The meeting then adopted the "Worcester Covenant," the 
 most stringent form of the solemn league and covenant, by 
 which individuals bound themselves, and towns their citizens, not 
 to purchase or use any goods, the production of Great Britain or 
 her West-Indian Colonies, or which had been imported through 
 her companies trading to the East ; and, generally, agreed to act 
 together in resisting the aggressions of the mother country. Dea. 
 James Easton, John Brown, and John Strong were chosen dele- 
 gates to a county congress, 1 to be held at Stockbridge, on the 
 sixth of July ; and the meeting adjourned to the llth, to await their 
 action, but hot without first resolving to keep the 14th as a day of 
 solemn fasting and prayer. 
 
 Col. John Ashley of Sheffield presided in the congress at Stock- 
 bridge ; and Theodore Sedgwick, then a young lawyer of the same 
 town, was clerk. 
 
 Thomas Williams of Stockbridge, Peter Curtis of Lanesborough, 
 John Brown of Pittsfield, Mark Hopkins of Great Barrington, and 
 Theodore Sedgwick, were appointed to consider the obnoxious 
 acts of Parliament, and " report their sense of them." Whatever 
 their report was, and it was certainly patriotic, it was unani- 
 mously adopted. 
 
 Whigs, and once or twice took the field, in cases of alarm. Dan Cadwell was 
 a loyalist of the better sort, and seems not to have lost the esteem of the people, 
 who elected him to town-offices, and once to the Committee of Safety, during the 
 war. The case of Ezekiel Root is a singular one. He was a very pronounced 
 Tory in his conversation, and even went so far as to name his children for the 
 British commanders ; but all his recorded acts are on the Whig side, as in signing 
 the above petition, in serving on the Committee of Safety, and in volunteering for 
 Bennington and other fields. He was often elected to important town-offices, and 
 once at least by the extreme radicals to represent them in county congress. In- 
 deed, although both Mr. Cadwell and Capt. Root were sometimes disciplined for a 
 too loud expression of their Toryism, to the offence of sensitively patriotic ears, 
 it seems to have been regarded by the community as the eccentricity of worthy 
 men, which would never stand seriously in the way of their duty. They certainly 
 never lost the good will of a people who were not famed for charity towards 
 political opponents. 
 
 1 Assemblies of town delegates were then styled indifferently congresses, con- 
 ventions, or committee^
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 191 
 
 The following delegates were appointed to draft " an agreement 
 to be recommended to the towns of the county for the non-con- 
 sumption of British manufactures : " Timothy Edwards, Esq., of 
 Stockbridge, Dr. William Whiting of Great Barrington, Dr. 
 Lemuel Barnard of Sheffield, Dr. Erastus Sergeant of Stockbridge, 
 and Deacon James Easton. And they reported the subjoined 
 league and covenant, which was unanimously adopted, " paragraph 
 by paragraph." 
 
 LEAGUE AND COVENANT. 
 
 WHEREAS the Parliament of Great Britain have, of late, undertaken to 
 give and grant away our money without our knowledge or consent ; and, in 
 order to compel us to a servile submission to the above measures, have 
 proceeded to block up the harbor of Boston ; also have, or are about to 
 vacate the charter, and repeal certain laws of this Province heretofore 
 enacted by the General Court and confirmed to us by the King and his 
 predecessors : therefore, as a means to obtain a speedy redress of the above 
 grievances, we do solemnly and in good faith covenant and -engage with each 
 other : 
 
 1st, That we will not import, purchase, or consume, or suffer any person 
 for, by, or under us, to import, purchase, or consume, in any manner what- 
 ever, any goods, wares, or manufactures which shall arrive in America from 
 Great Britain from and after the first day of October next, or such other 
 time as shall be agreed upon by the American Congress ; nor any goods 
 which shall be ordered from thence from and after this day until our charter 
 and constitutional rights shall be restored, or until it shall be determined 
 by the major part of our brethren in this and the neighboring Colonies, that 
 a non-importation or non-consumption agreement will not have, a tendency 
 to effect the desired end, and until it shall be apparent that a non-importation 
 or non-consumption agreement will not be entered into by the majority of 
 this and the neighboring Colonies except such articles as the said General 
 Congress of North America shall advise to import and consume. 
 
 2d, We do further covenant and agree, that we will observe the most 
 strict obedience to all constitutional laws and authority, and will at all times 
 exert ourselves to the utmost for the discouragement of all licentiousness, 
 and suppressing all disorderly mobs and riots. 
 
 3d, We will exert ourselves, as far as in us lies, in promoting peace, love, 
 and unanimity among each other ; and, for that end, we engage to avoid all 
 unnecessary lawsuits whatever. 
 
 4th, As a strict and proper adherence to the non-importation and non- 
 consumption agreement will, if not seasonably provided against, involve us 
 in many difficulties and inconveniences, we do promise and agree, that we will 
 take the most prudent care for the raising of sheep, and for the manufactur-
 
 192 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 ing all such cloths as shall be most useful and necessary ; and also for the 
 raising of flax, and the manufacturing of linen ; further, that we will by 
 every prudent method endeavor to guard against all those inconveniences 
 which might otherwise arise from the foregoing agreement. 
 
 5th, That if any person shall refuse to sign this, or a similar covenant, or, 
 after having signed it, shall not adhere to the real intent and meaning thereof, 
 he or they shall be treated by us with all the neglect they shall justly 
 deserve, particularly by omitting all commercial dealings with them. 
 
 6th, That if this, or a similar covenant, shall, after the first day of August 
 next, be offered to any trader or shop-keeper in this county, and he or they 
 shall refuse to sign the same for the space of forty-eight hours, that we will 
 from thenceforth purchase no article of British manufacture or East-India 
 goods from him or them until such time as he or they shall sign this or a 
 similar covenant. 
 
 It was further resolved that the delegates should severally rec- 
 ommend the distressed circumstances of the poor of Cbarlestown 
 and Boston to the charity of their constituents, and that their 
 contributions should be " remitted in the fall in fat cattle." 
 
 Pittsfield, at its adjourned meeting, voted that "the county 
 covenant should be esteemed similar to the Worcester." 
 
 The record of its donations "in fat cattle" is not preserved; but 
 in the town-archives is the following receipt : 
 
 BOSTON, Nov. 30, 1774. 
 
 Received from the town of Pittsfield, by the hand of James Easton (in 
 cash) a donation of six pounds, twelve shillings, lawful money, for the relief 
 and support of the poor sufferers in the town of Boston, by means of the 
 Boston Port-bill. 
 
 By order and in behalf of the Committee of Donations. 
 6, 12, 0. ALEX. HOGSDEN, Clerk. 1 
 
 The meeting of the llth had a peculiar termination ; being 
 " dissolved, except in reference to the general Congress," but, as 
 to that, adjourned to the third Monday in October. The first 
 Continental Congress was to meet on the first of September; and 
 the people, looking eagerly to its wisdom for -guidance, feared that 
 in the interval the new laws would take effect to prevent the call- 
 ing of a new meeting to consider its advice. The omnipotence of 
 
 1 This donation was also acknowledged in " The Boston Gazette," Dec. 5, and 
 with it a private contribution of twelve shillings from Deacon Easton.
 
 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 193 
 
 Parliament was fairly matched by the vitality of an adjourned 
 town-meeting. That any thing, calling itself law, could intervene 
 to prevent their re-assembling with unimpaired powers under a fair 
 and regular adjournment, was beyond the comprehension of New- 
 England townsmen. 
 
 But events crowded responsibilities upon Massachusetts patriots 
 that would not wait the advice of Continental wisdom. The 
 Regulating Act, and that " for the more impartial administration 
 of justice," bitterly nick-named " The Murder Act," were, 
 early in August, known to have received the royal signature, and 
 their promulgation was daily expected. 1 
 
 Popular resistance to the organization of the courts under the 
 new acts was threatened in many counties. Worcester was 
 ablaze ; and " a flame sprang up at the extremity of the Province" 
 which Gov. Gage attributed to the machinations of the Bos- 
 ton committee, and especially to a letter, a copy of which fell 
 into his hands. "The popular rage," wrote his Excellency 
 immediately after the events we are about to relate, "is very 
 high in Berkshire, and makes its way rapidly to the rest." 2 
 
 " And all," thought the bewildered governor, " from that pesti- 
 lent Boston clique"! As though the spark were more essential to the 
 flame than the fuel, or kindled that which was not prepared f(fr it. 
 
 It was true, however, that the patriotic rage of Berkshire was 
 fed by the advice and appeals sent abroad by the same men who, 
 at Boston, were troublesome to Gage and his master. It is true, 
 too, that the people " at the extremity of the Province," intending 
 to act in co-operation with their brethren at the east, placed them- 
 selves, as far as it was necessary for that purpose, under the same 
 great and wise leadership. At this particular juncture, we have 
 their own authority for saying that they " acted in conformity with 
 the advice of the wisest men in the Colony." 8 And it adds to, 
 rather than diminishes, the glory of the Berkshire fathers, that, 
 w'hen unity was essential to success, the step taken by them, in 
 advance of the other counties, was part of the great plan by which 
 zeal tempered with discretion made up the issues of the Revolution. 
 
 The first County Court to be held in the Province, after the 
 
 1 They were officially received by Gov. Gage on the 6th, but, for prudential 
 reasons, not immediately proclaimed. 
 
 2 Letter to the Earl of Dartmouth, Am. Ar., Ser. 4, vol. i. p. 742. 
 8 County memorial drafted by Rev. Mr. Allen. 
 
 13
 
 194 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 reception of the acts of Parliament for perverting the charter, was 
 that appointed for the third Tuesday in August, at Great Barring- 
 ton ; and a county convention, held at Pittsfield on the fourth 
 of that month, probably took measures for its obstruction. 
 
 Whatever the recommendations of the convention were, the 
 town of Pittsfield, being called together for that purpose on the 
 15th, promptly accepted them ; and then proceeded to choose Capt. 
 Charles Goodrich, William Francis, and the moderator, Deacon 
 Josiah Wright, three of the most stout-hearted, as well as the 
 most substantial citizens, " to prefer a petition to the Honorable 
 Court not to transact any business the present term." 
 
 Dr. Tim. Childs and Mr. John Strong were appointed to 
 draw up the petition ; and soon reported the following, which was 
 adopted. 
 
 To the Honorable His Majesty's Justices of the Inferior Court of Common 
 Pleas for the County of Berkshire : The Petition of the Inhabitants of 
 the Town of Pittsfield, assembled in Town-meeting on Monday the fif- 
 teenth day of August, 1774 : 
 
 HUMBLY SHEWETH, 
 
 That whereas two late acts of the British Parliament for superseding the 
 charter* of this Province, and vacating some of the principles and invalu- 
 able privileges and franchises therein contained, have passed the- royal 
 assent, and have been published in the Boston paper, that our obedience be 
 yielded to them. 
 
 We view it of the greatest importance to the well-being of this Province, 
 that the people of it utterly refuse the least submission to the s'aid acts, and 
 on no consideration to yield obedience to them ; or directly or indirectly 
 to countenance the taking place of those acts amongst us, but resist them to 
 the last extremity. 
 
 In order in the safest manner to avoid this threatening calamity, it is, in 
 our opinion, highly necessary that no business be transacted in tbe law, but 
 that the courts of justice immediately cease, and the people of this Province 
 fall into a state of nature until our grievances are fully redressed by a final 
 repeal of these injurious, oppressive, and unconstitutional acts. We have 
 the pleasure to find that this is the sentiment of the greater part of the peo- 
 ple of this Province ; and we are persuaded that no man that only under- 
 stands the state of our public affairs, who lias business at the approaching 
 term, but will advise and consent to the same, and willingly undergo personal 
 inconvenience for the public good. We do therefore remonstrate against 
 the holding any courts in this county until those acts shall be repealed ; and 
 we hope that your honors will not be of a different opinion from the good
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSF1ELD. 195 
 
 people in this county. Our reasons for holding no courts in the present 
 situation of affairs, are as follows : 
 
 Some reasons why our Inferior Court cannot be held in its ancient form, 
 and agreeable to charter, now the new acts are published : 
 
 1st. If they are now held in the ancient form, this will be in direct violation 
 of those laws, and in defiance of them. 
 
 2d. Whatever business shall be transacted in the ancient form, now those 
 laws are in force, will be illegal, and liable afterwards to be wholly set 
 aside. 
 
 3d. The honorable judges will expose themselves, by not submitting to 
 the new acts, by transacting business in the old form, or agreeable to our 
 charter, to an immediate loss of their commissions. 
 
 4th. It will be much greater contempt of those laws to transact business in 
 the ancient form, or agreeable to our charter, than to do none at all. 
 
 5th. This course of procedure will tend to bring matters to a more un- 
 happy crisis, which we would choose by all means to avoid, than to neglect 
 to do any business. 
 
 6th. The new acts will insensibly steal in upon us under pretence of doing 
 business after the ancient Constitution : therefore, as soon as the new acts are 
 in whole or in part in force, as they now are, no court ought to be held in the 
 ancient form. 
 
 Our reasons why our Inferior Courts ought not to be held at the approach- 
 ing term are as follows : 
 
 1st. We have undoubted intelligence from York and Boston that the said 
 acts have passed the royal assent. 
 
 2d. We also are informed of their arrival in Boston. 
 
 3d. It is highly probable they are published in form by the governor by 
 this present time in order that our obedience be rendered to them. 
 
 4th. We ought to bear the most early testimony against those acts, and set 
 a good example for the other part of the Province to copy after. 
 
 5th. Some parts of those acts have taken place already, that part of 
 which dissolves the council by whose advice the former commissions were 
 granted out; and that part of which empowers the governor to grant new 
 commissions without advice of the council ; and also that which respects 
 town-meetings. For these and other reasons, it plainly appears to be of 
 dangerous consequences to do any business in the law till the repeal of 
 those acts, as would most certainly imply some degree of submission to 
 them, the least appearance of which ought not to be admitted. 
 
 The honor of the Court has good grounds to neglect to do business in the 
 law, and the people just occasion to petition for it, and insist upon it without 
 admitting a refusal." 
 
 A somewhat larger deputation than the action of the town con- 
 templated waited upon the Court. At the time appointed for it
 
 196 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 to sit, about fifteen hundred men assembled, unarmed, at Great 
 Barrington, and " filled the Court House, and the avenues to the 
 seats of justice, so full that no passage could be found for the 
 judges." " The sheriff commanded the people to make way for 
 the Court ; but they gave him to understand, that they knew no 
 Court, or any other establishment than the ancient laws and cus- 
 toms of the country ; and to none other would they give way on 
 any terms." 1 
 
 They were assured that the new acts had not arrived, and that* 
 consequently, business would proceed in the usual manner : but 
 everybody knew that the judges' commissions were already revo- 
 cable at the governor's pleasure; and that the aggressive laws 
 likely to reach Great Barrington at any moment might be pro- 
 claimed as soon as the Court was well benched. The assemblage 
 therefore insisting that the judges should forthwith quit the town, 
 they complied, lest worse might befall them ; 2 and no Court ever 
 again attempted to sit, under royal commission, in Berkshire. 
 The last which actually transacted business in the king's name 
 was the May term at Great Barrington in 1774. 
 
 About three hundred of the assembled people were from Litch- 
 field County, Conn. ; and these, upon their return, took with them 
 David Ingersol, Esq., a particularly obnoxious Great-Barrington 
 Tory, and a magistrate of the General Sessions. For this they 
 were arraigned by a Connecticut sheriff before "the Honorable 
 Eliphalet Dyer, Esq., who, with great solemnity and severity, rep- 
 rimanded the delinquents," and bound them over to the court 
 above ; by which their case was continued until the offenders and 
 their prosecutors changed places. David Ingersol, Esq., went, the 
 next fall, to England as a refugee. Col. Williams of Pittsfield 
 was the chief-justice of the obstructed Court of Common Pleas; 
 and, although he was fond enough of his place, was not likely to 
 very strenuously resist the will of the people, energetically ex- 
 pressed. Major Stoddard, a man of a different stamp, was a 
 magistrate of the General Sessions: but any opposition to so 
 determined a multitude as surrounded the Court House, further 
 than a manly remonstrance, would have been folly ; and even 
 that involved greater risk than it was worth, unless the whole 
 
 1 Massachusetts Gazette and Newsletter, Sept. 1, 1774. 
 
 2 Great-Barrington Letter, Sept. 18, 1774.
 
 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 197 
 
 magistracy had joined it, as there was no likelihood of their 
 doing. 
 
 The proceedings against the perverted courts worked grandly 
 for the patriotic cause. Everywhere throughout Berkshire the 
 Revolutionary feeling was roused and united in action as it could 
 have been in no other way so effectually. The great object of 
 committing the western frontier of the Province, devotedly and 
 enthusiastically, to the cause of liberty was at once and perfectly 
 accomplished, in spite of obstacles which would have interposed 
 a dangerous delay to any less vehement advance. The beneficial 
 effects of the achievement were manifest from the very opening of 
 the war to its close. 
 
 Elsewhere the patriotic spirit was braced with new vigor, as the 
 news spread that the usurpations of Parliament had, on the first 
 suspicion of an attempt to enforce them, met a bold, and, for the 
 time at least, successful resistance. The example proved conta- 
 gious, and was held up for imitation even in Boston. 1 At Spring- 
 field, at the assembling of the courts on the 30th of August, the 
 Justices, with Israel Williams, the chief of the Tories, at their 
 head, in the presence of three thousand persons, "very willingly" 
 signed a solemn agreement not to accept or exercise any office or 
 commission " under or by virtue of, or in any degree derived from, 
 any authority pretended or attempted to be given by the late acts 
 of Parliament." Everywhere, where the courts were not sur- 
 rounded by British troops, the story was the same. The counties 
 which had stood ready to set the example, if the privilege had 
 fallen to them, were no less prompt to follow it when set by the 
 youngest of their sisterhood. In Suffolk, where the courts sat 
 under the protection of the soldiery, the jurors found means hardly 
 less effectual, and even more annoying, to thwart the "taking 
 place " of the dangerous innovations. The movement initiated in 
 Berkshire spread, in some form, throughout the Province; and 
 although it can by no means be claimed that this initiation and 
 that adoption of the movement were strictly cause and effect, the 
 relation of the one to the other was sufficiently close to justify 
 the traditional county pride in "the first obstruction of King 
 George's Courts." 
 
 The Pittsfield records of town-meetings, as transcribed after 
 
 1 Frothingham's Siege of Boston, p. 10.
 
 198 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 the erasures of the inspecting committees, afford no intimation 
 of any opposition to the Revolutionary measures which prevailed ; 
 but a few minutes, chance-preserved in the archives, show that 
 the struggle was, nevertheless, violent, and the debates which 
 arose personal and acrimonious. The most suggestive of these 
 papers is one containing the following resolutions, which were 
 " passed in full," probably at the meeting of the 15th of August : 
 
 " Whereas [the name of Col. Wm. Williams was here inserted but 
 erased] Major Israel Stoddard, and Woodbridge Little, Esq., have exhibited 
 several charges against the Rev. Thomas Allen, thereby endeavoring to 
 injure his reputation, in respect to what he said and did in a late town- 
 meeting, in defence of the rights and liberties of the people ; wherein they 
 charge the said Thomas with rebellion, treason, and sedition, and cast many 
 other infamous aspersions, tending to endanger not only the reputation, but 
 the life of the said Thomas, 
 
 Voted, That all the foregoing charges are groundless, false, and scandalous ; 
 and that the said Thomas is justifiable in all things wherein he hath been 
 charged with the crimes aforesaid ; and that he hath merited the thanks of 
 this town in every thing wherein he hath undertaken to defend the rights 
 and privileges of the people in this Province, and particularly in his obser- 
 vations and animadversions on the Worcester Covenant." 
 
 This paper is indorsed " To Col. Williams and others, to lie 
 on file : " from which it may be inferred that the erasure of Col. 
 Williams's name from the resolutions was made subsequently to 
 their passage. 
 
 Some months later, in November, the town, through its 
 clerk, Israel Dickinson, addressed a letter to Rev. Mr. Collins, the 
 loyalist minister of Lanesborough, stating that, it having been 
 suggested in public town-meeting that he had at divers times, 
 when in Pittsfield, " censured and disapproved their reverend 
 pastor, Mr. Allen, in regard to his conduct in some public matters 
 of late," which, whatever Mr. Collins's intention may have been, 
 seemed to them to have a tendency to promote, rather than settle, 
 the differences arising therefrom, they requested him to desist from 
 that sort of comment in the future. 
 
 Mr. Collins replied with spirit, denying that he had done more 
 than give it as his opinion, and his reasons for it, " that it would be 
 well for gospel ministers, in their public discourses, to avoid enter- 
 ing very far into a consideration of state policy ; " and he hoped the 
 tow,n of Pittsfield would not be offended if he held himself at
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 199 
 
 liberty to defend that proposition whenever occasion arose. The 
 belief in the intimate relations between civil and religious liberty, 
 which, in Mr. Allen's opinion, identified the safety of the one with 
 the jealous defence of the other, has already been stated ; and the 
 papers above quoted are introduced merely to show the influence 
 attributed to the first pastor of the town in moulding its patriotic 
 sentiment and action, as well as the esteem in which he was held 
 by his associates of the popular party. 
 
 What was the exact nature and amount of the counsel and in- 
 spiration which the Pittsfield Whigs received from the East is un- 
 certain ; but, after the occurrences of August, influences from 
 abroad were more needed to restrain than to incite. 
 
 In addition to Mr. Allen's large official correspondence with the 
 committees of other towns in Massachusetts as well as the neigh- 
 boring colonies, his interchange of letters was frequent with his 
 personal friends, and particularly with Major Hawley and Col. 
 Seth Pomeroy of Northampton. 1 John Brown also, after the meet- 
 ing of the Provincial Congress, was in confidential communication 
 with Warren, Sara. Adams, and others of like position. 
 
 Oliver Wendell, son of Col. Jacob, the early proprietor of 
 Poontoosuck, although a very young man, attaining his majority 
 about this time, was one of the most glowing and impetuous of 
 the Sons of Liberty, and a prominent member of the Committee 
 of Safety in Boston. His family, who still retained considerable 
 estate in Pittsfield, were liked by the people for their genial, free- 
 hearted, ungrasping disposition ; and it would have been singular 
 if the young and active cornmitteeman had not turned his popu- 
 larity to account in winning support to the cause which he had at 
 heart. The evidence that he did so, although strong, is, however, 
 only traditional.' 2 
 
 1 Col. Seth Pomeroy, grandfather of the late Lemuel Pomeroy of Pittsfield, was 
 a gallant officer in the last French and Indian War, and, early in the troubles with 
 Great Britain, took rank with the foremost of the patriots. He was one of the 
 four brigadiers appointed by the first Provincial Congress, of which he was an 
 influential member; but declined that rank, and fought at Bunker Hill like 
 Warren, who had been voted a similar commission as a volunteer. He after- 
 wards served as colonel until 1777, when he died in command of the post at Peeks- 
 ki'l. " A good friend of his country," is the epitaph that Mr. Allen inscribed in 
 his pocket diary upon receiving the news of his friend's death. 
 
 * Among the traditions in this connection is one, that Oliver Wendell, then 
 owning the farm on Wendell Street where his grandson, Oliver Wendell Holmes,
 
 200 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 afterwards built his villa, leased it to a tenant for a moderate rent, on condition 
 that if Gen. Gage should, as he threatened, make Boston too hot for men of the 
 Wendell stamp, the premises should at once be surrendered, with the furniture, 
 standing crops, etc. The tradition is probably not accurate in all its particulars ; 
 and a more consistent version of it would be, that Mr. Wendell placed a tenant in 
 his farmhouse, who would receive him in the anticipated emergency : for it is 
 averred with great positiveness, that, from the arrangement then made, arose the 
 custom in the Wendell family of an annual summer pilgrimage to Pittsfield. 
 
 Some of the older inhabitants of the place still remember the visits of Judge 
 Wendell, who, whatever he may have done before, for many years after the Kevo- 
 lution exercised a potent social and political influence in Berkshire, as will appear 
 in the consideration of that era. His epicurean tastes excited the admiration of 
 his rural neighbors ; but his keen relish for the country luxuries, and the simple 
 although skilful cuisine of good Mrs. Backus, who marshalled the affairs of the 
 Judge's farmhouse, showed an unperverted palate. His nice sense, however, re- 
 volted at the barbarism of country taverns, where fowls were served up before the 
 life had been an hour out of their bodies. And so, when he set out upon his 
 leisurely journeys of four or five days between Boston and Pittsfield, a freshly- 
 killed chicken was placed under the seat of his carriage ; which, at the end of 
 twenty-four hours, was delivered to the cook of the wayside inn, and another 
 substituted to undergo a like seasoning. A wholesome good liver was Judge 
 Oliver Wendell.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 A SEASON OF PREPARATION. 
 [SEPTEMBER, I774-MAY, 1775.] 
 
 John Brown elected to the Provincial Congress. Pittsfield adopts Congressional 
 Advice. Adopts the Articles of Association. Revolutionary Committees. 
 Pittsfield Militia. Generous Patriotism of Capt. Noble. The Minute-Men. 
 Spinning-Matches and Clothing-Bees. News of Lexington Fight. March 
 of the Minute-Men. Changes in Capt. Noble's Company. Proceedings 
 against the Tories. Patriotic Labors of Kev. Mr. Allen. 
 
 IV /TASSACHUSETTS, in the fall and winter of 1774-5, was 
 -L-VJL busy with preparation for the impending conflict. Gov. 
 Gage issued his precept for a General Court, to be held at 
 Salem on the 5th of October. The committee of Worcester sug- 
 gested an assembly of the towns, by their delegates, in Provincial 
 Congress ; and the Suffolk Convention fixed upon Concord as the 
 place, and the llth of October as the time, for the meeting. 
 
 Pittsfield, like many other places, refused to send a representative 
 to Salem ; but chose John Brown delegate to the congress, and 
 appointed, as committee of instruction, Capt. Charles Goodrich, 
 Deacon Josiah Wright, Dr. Timothy Childs, Deacon James Easton, 
 and Lieut. Eli Root. 
 
 Gage, angered and alarmed at the spirited attitude of the towns, 
 revoked his precept of assembly, and announced that he would 
 not meet the representatives. Ninety of them were, however, 
 present in Salem at the appointed time; and having, with 
 studious regard to etiquette, waited all that day for his Excellency 
 to appear, resolved themselves into a Provincial Congress, " to be 
 joined by such other persons as had been, or should be, appointed 
 for that purpose, to take into consideration the dangerous and 
 
 201
 
 202 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 alarming situation of public affairs in the Province, and to con- 
 sult upon measures to promote the true interest of his Majesty, and 
 the peace, welfare, and prosperity of the Province." 
 
 After a consultation of two days, the congress issued an address, 
 advising its constituents of the " unconstitutional, unjust, disrespect- 
 ful, and hostile conduct," by which the governor had deprived the 
 Province of its accustomed legislature ; and adjourned to merge 
 itself in the assembly, which was, by the will of the people, con- 
 vened at Concord on the following Tuesday. 
 
 In the latter body, John Brown took his seat as representative 
 from Pittsfield. It did not assume to enact laws : but its advice, 
 given to towns, committees, and the people at large, was respected 
 as statutes rarely are ; and no town responded to these counsels 
 with more zeal and promptitude than Pittsfield. 
 
 Thus the congress having advised that the Province tax should 
 be paid over, not to Harrison Gray, the governor's treasurer, but to 
 Henry Gardener, whom it elected receiver-general, Pittsfield, at its 
 next meeting, so instructed its collectors ; and in the spring, some of 
 the loyalists disputing Mr. Gardener's warrant, the town directed 
 its officers, if any man refused to pay his rates, to apply for aid to 
 the Committee of Inspection, who had a happy knack of enforcing 
 congressional advice. 
 
 The Continental Congress was treated with no less deference 
 than the Provincial; and, Dec. 5, the town voted "to adopt the 
 Continental resolutions in full, and particularly the llth article." 
 These were the famous Resolutions of Association, signed by the 
 delegates in Congress, Oct. 20, 1774: by which, in a series of four- 
 teen articles, they bound themselves and their constituents not to 
 import any of the productions of Great Britain or her dependencies 
 after the 1st of the following December, not to export to those 
 quarters after the 10th of September; to entirely discontinue and 
 discountenance the slave-trade ; " to encourage frugality, economy, 
 and industry, and promote American agriculture, arts, and manu- 
 factures, especially that of wool ; " to discourage every species of 
 extravagance and dissipation, especially horse-racing, gaming, 
 cock-fighting, and play-going ; to wear no mourning on the death 
 of a friend, " more than a black ribbon on the arm or hat for a 
 gentleman, and a black ribbon and necklace for a lady," and to give 
 no more gloves and scarfs at funerals. Finally the " Associators " 
 bound themselves not to take advantage of the scarcity produced
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 203 
 
 by non-importation to raise prices. Some of the articles of agree- 
 ment were devoted to the means of enforcing the others ; and the 
 llth, which Pittsfield specially adopted, provided that a committee 
 should be appointed in every town, county, and colony, whose 
 duty it should be " to observe the conduct of all persons within its 
 precinct concerning the Association ; " and if any delinquency was 
 proved to the satisfaction of a majority of its members, " to publish 
 the name of the offender in 'The Gazette,' to the end that all 
 such foes to the rights of British America might be publicly 
 known, and universally contemned as the enemies of American 
 liberty, and that all patriots might thenceforth break off all inter- 
 course with him or her." 
 
 The persons chosen to compose this formidable committee in 
 Pittsfield were, Eli Root, Timothy Childs, Charles Goodrich, Dan 
 Cad well, Josiah Wright, James D. Colt, and Stephen Crofoot. 
 This was the Committee of Inspection, and as yet distinct from 
 that of Correspondence; to which latter Messrs. Goodrich, Childs, 
 Root, and William Francis were added at the next meeting. In 
 addition to these two bodies, there was a committee appointed 
 upon the suppression of the courts, " to sit as arbitrators, to regulate 
 disturbances and quarrels, and to take the Province law for their 
 guide." This consisted of Deacon Wright, William Francis, 
 Lieut. Root. Capt. Bush, Capt. Israel Dickinson, Ensign John 
 Brown, and Capt. Goodrich. 
 
 The Pittsfield militia probably under the advice of the Central 
 Committee of Safety had early exchanged its organization under 
 commanders appointed by the governor, for one under officers of 
 its own choice. How this was effected, or at what time, does not 
 appear. But on the 1st of September, Gov. Gage having sent 
 out a detachment to remove to Boston the Provincial military 
 stores deposited at Charlestown, a report arose during the excite- 
 ment which ensued, that the British were firing upon the former 
 town. The alarm which is supposed to have been a feint of the 
 patriot leaders to try the spirit of the people spread with mar- 
 vellous rapidity ; and it was estimated that forty thousand armed 
 men were the next morning on their march to defend or avenge 
 their brethren. The alarm, having served its purpose, was checked, 
 and the militia returned to their homes. 
 
 In this affair a company of minute-men, commanded by Capt. 
 David Noble and Lieut. James Easton, went from Pittsfield to
 
 204 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Westfield ; and the town voted to each private and non-commis- 
 sioned officer two pounds " for himself and horse." The captain 
 and lieutenant received six pounds apiece for their services, but 
 were refused extra compensation for continuing their trip to 
 Boston. , 
 
 What the organization of the militia was at this time is not 
 known ; but the town-records are significant of the readiness \yhich 
 the leaders of Whig sentiment manifested to defend with the 
 sword the principles which they had advocated on the old meeting- 
 house rostrum. Thus, in addition to the two gallant officers named, 
 we find, before the close of September, Deacon Wright, Israel 
 Dickinson, and James D. Colt, captains ; Eli Root, a lieutenant ; 
 and John Brown, commencing at the lower round of the ladder 
 of promotion, with Dr. Timothy Childs, an ensign. 
 
 In the latter part of October, the Provincial Congress took 
 measures to impart vigor to the militia ; and, among other recom- 
 mendations, advised companies which had not completed their 
 organization to do so at once, and that the captains and subal- 
 terns then forthwith choose field-officers. 
 
 Under this advice, James Easton the deacon of our previous 
 story became colonel of the Berkshire militia ; Col. Williams's 
 royal commission being set aside for one with a seal much less 
 exquisitely cut. At the same time, two regiments of minute-men 
 were put in effective readiness to take the field on the most sudden 
 alarm, one in the northern and middle section of the county, 
 under Col. John Patterson of Lenox ; the other in the south, 
 under Col. John Fellows of Sheffield : both "the commanders 
 being members of the Provincial Congress, and afterwards reputa- 
 ble brigadiers. 
 
 Capt. Noble's company of Pittsfield and Richmond men, in Col. 
 Patterson's regiment, continued to increase in numbers and disci- 
 pline ; and, before it was called into service, numbered fifty-one men 
 from the former town, twenty -one from the latter, all well drilled, 
 armed, and equipped. Pittsfield voted in January to pay each 
 man from that town who enlisted in this "Piquet" company one 
 shilling and sixpence a day ; " he equipping and furnishing himself 
 with proper and sufficient arms and accoutrements fit for war, and 
 standing ready at a minute's warning to march and oppose the 
 enemies of the country if called thereto." Every minute-man 
 was required to appear and exercise for three hours, four times a
 
 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 205 
 
 month, on penalty of a fine of three shillings for every neglect 
 to do so, for which an excuse " satisfactory to the officers 
 of said Piquet" was not furnished. The annual meeting in 
 March continued this establishment of the company " till further 
 orders." 
 
 The company was, however, indebted for its arms and equip- 
 ments to the generous enthusiasm of its commander, one of the 
 most splendid displays of patriotism in the Revolutionary story 
 of Pittsfield. Capt. Noble, in the alarm of September, went to 
 Boston, and there became more thoroughly impressed with the 
 imminence of the conflict, and the necessity of the earliest prep- 
 aration for it. Upon his return, he sold two farms in Stephentown, 
 N.Y., and one or two in Pittsfield, receiving pay, for the former 
 at least, in gold, a circumstance which his son was enabled to 
 recollect in his old age, from the fact that the purchaser brought 
 the coin to Pittsfield quilted into every part of his under-garments, 
 from which the narrator's aunt had a serious task in ripping the 
 glittering pieces. 
 
 With the money obtained by this sacrifice of his property, Capt. 
 Noble supplied his company with one hundred and thirty stand of 
 arms, and uniformed them in neat and substantial " regimentals ; " 
 their breeches being of buckskin, and their coats "of blue, turned 
 up with white." To obtain the material for these, he went to 
 Philadelphia, where he also hired a breeches-maker, who returned 
 with him to Pittsfield ; and the uniforms were made up during 
 the winter at his own house. 1 
 
 The company, thus generously equipped, drilled with corre- 
 sponding zeal, and acquired an efficiency which was soon called into 
 exercise. 
 
 Nor was the patriotic activity of the town confined to Capt. 
 Noble and his minute-men. In almost every family, excepting 
 the fifteen or twenty Tory households, all were busy in fitting out 
 
 1 No repayment was ever made of the sums expended by Capt. Noble for the 
 support of his company at this or other times; but, in 1841, his heirs presented to 
 Congress a claim for the seven-years' half-pay granted to the widows and children 
 of officers who died in the service. This claim, although favorably reported upon, 
 was postponed by technical impediments until 1858, when it was allowed upon a 
 report, full of patriotic sympathies, made by Hon. H. L. Dawes of Pittsfield, from 
 the Committee upon Revolutionary Claims ; to which we are indebted for many 
 of the facts given in this volume concerning Capt. Noble.
 
 206 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 the young soldiery for the field ; so that, for one campaign at least, 
 something of the comfort of home might be communicated to the 
 camp. That winter saw busier scenes than were ever before wit- 
 nessed even in New-England kitchens; while the click of the loom 
 and the hum of the spinning-wheel made music harmonious with 
 that of the drum and fife. Then (for in 1774 no thousand-spin- 
 dled factories clothed armies by contract) there were "spinning- 
 matches " and " clothing-bees ; " parties of " the fair daughters of 
 Pittsfield" the married against the single, the West against the 
 East Part, dames, or however the match might be made up con- 
 tending for the palm in those now lost domestic arts; the product 
 going to clothe the army. And the laughter, although louder and 
 more frequent than when such gatherings had been held in token 
 of good will to the minister, had an undertone which showed that 
 none were cheated of their forebodings. Then the village pastor 
 the very embodiment of patriotic ardor, but full of the tenderest 
 sympathies for the suffering which must needs be that the right 
 might prevail went from gathering to gathering, and from house 
 to house, and everywhere left a new sense of the holiness which 
 invested the impending strife for liberty. 
 
 In measures of preparation like these, the Pittsfield patriots 
 passed that anxious winter ; and, when the call to arms came, it 
 found them ready. The news of the battle of Lexington or, 
 more probably, the alarm set on foot by Paul Revere on the night 
 preceding the "excursion of the king's troops" reached Pitts- 
 field on the 21st of April, at noon; 1 and at sunrise the next morn- 
 ing, Capt. Noble's minute-men, the flower of the youth of Pitts- 
 field and Richmond, were, with the regiment to which they were 
 attached, on their march to Cambridge. Dr. Timothy Childs was 
 one of its lieutenants, 2 but was soon detailed as surgeon ; and the 
 commissioned officers became, Capt. David Noble, First Lieut. Jo- 
 seph Welch of Richmond, Second Lieut. Josiah Wright of Pittsfield. 
 In this form the company served for twenty-six weeks. Col. Pat- 
 
 1 Tradition, with its usual inaccuracy, makes this date the 20th, which is physi- 
 cally impossible. Revere's alarm, starting from Boston in the evening preceding 
 " the excursion of the king's troops," as the Provincials called the affair in quaint 
 derision, could have barely reached Pittsfield on the noon of the 21st; and the 
 rolls of the minute-men date their service from the 22d. 
 
 2 His father, of the same name, commanded the minute-men who at the same 
 time set out from Deerfield. *
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 207 
 
 terson's regiment was then re-organized, a majority of the men 
 enlisting for a term of eight months ; Capt. Noble's company re- 
 taining its officers. Dr. Childs was made regimental surgeon ; and 
 Dr. Jonathan Lee, also of Pittsfield, and a brother-in-law of Rev. 
 Mr. Allen, was associated with him as assistant, and afterwards 
 succeeded him as full surgeon. 
 
 The Pittsfield Tories, although, after the passage of the regu- 
 lating acts had unmasked the designs of the British Government, 
 ceasing to be a power in town-meetings, continued to be a 
 source of annoyance and alarm. Rev. Mr. Allen, in a letter of 
 May 4, 1775, to Col. Seth Porneroy, characterized them as among 
 "the worst in the Province:" an opinion which was, however, 
 probably colored by the excitement of the hour. Other towns 
 would, doubtless, in the vexation of their troubles, have put in a 
 similar claim for their black sheep. Still, the position of the town 
 upon the doubtful frontier of Columbia County (then King's Dis- 
 trict), which was supposed to harbor several " nests of Tories," 
 rendered it unsafe to tolerate any of their complexion in politics, 
 and compelled the utmost rigor against them on the part of the 
 committees. 
 
 As early as December, 1774, Woodbridge Little and Israel Stod- 
 dard were charged with disaffection " to all the measures into 
 which the people in general were coming." It was proved that 
 they had opposed, and refused to sign, " The League and Covenant," 
 which alone was sufficient, under the resolutions of the Continental 
 Congress, to stamp them "the enemies of American liberty ;" and 
 they, further, confessed that they had advised a meeting of loyalists, 
 who applied to them for counsel, to send their names to Gen. Gage, 
 to become " addressers," in order to secure their property from 
 confiscation in the anticipated hour of British and Tory vengeance. 
 " As for themselves, " they had declared, when giving this counsel, 
 " no such precaution was necessary, as they were already well 
 known to Gage as sufferers for Toryism." The not unnatural in- 
 ference was, that they were in secret communication with the 
 governor, and constantly conveying information to him of the revo- 
 lutionary movements in which their neighbors were engaged. The 
 town, therefore, on the second of January, "passed in full the 
 writing of complaint against "Woodbridge Little, Esq., and Major 
 Stoddard." The latter thereupon took refuge in the city of New 
 York ; and " on the same night the news came of the Lexington
 
 208 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 battle, the said Little took his flight to Kinderhook, the place of 
 Tories, and thence to New York," where he joined his friend. The 
 "hue and cry" was raised upon them; and Little,- venturing to 
 Albany, was recognized through the advertisement, and, after being 
 imprisoned a while in the City Hall, was sent home. Here he was 
 put under keepers until Stoddard returned, preferring to trust 
 himself to the mercy of his townsmen, rather than endure further 
 exile, and risk the confiscation of his estate. Having then been 
 again brought before the committee, and convicted of being un- 
 friendly to the common cause, "they humbly confessed their faults, 
 asked forgiveness, and promised reformation." After this ex- 
 perience, " they seemed awed from open acts of inimical conduct, 
 but did not at all times satisfy the people that they were the true 
 friends of the American cause; but associated among themselves, 
 and others of the town and elsewhere of the same kidney, and 
 not with people in general." l 
 
 Moses Graves and Elisha Jones, whose sympathies with the ene- 
 mies of their country were more pronounced and practical than 
 
 1 Report of the committees to the General Court in 1776 (Mass. Ar. vol. Ivi. 
 p. 193). Some of the evidence adduced against Major Stoddard in this report, we 
 have not alluded to in the text, as it does not clearly appear to have been a part of 
 the same upon which the verdict of 1775 was framed, or to have been necessary to 
 its conclusions. Indeed, if the expressions reported by the witnesses to have been 
 used by him had been believed by his townsmen to represent his genuine senti- 
 ments, they would have found no room for forgiveness. They probably regarded 
 the language which he was proved to have used as what it doubtless was 
 the ebullition of a bitter partisan in a towering passion ; and, although it proved 
 him a virulent Tory, by no means convicted him of cool approval of the atrocities 
 threatened. The evidence is, however, a part of the picture of the times, and is 
 essential to its truthfulness. As such we quote it : 
 
 " The evidence of William Cady, of lawful age, and sober life and conversation : testi- 
 fyeth, that, just before the Lexington battle, he saw Israel Stoddard Esq. ; heard him say 
 that those minute-men would not fight; if they were called, they would not go, for they 
 would not engage in so bad a cause; if they did go, that they would all be killed; that 
 they had no courage ; that there was a plan laid to have them all cut off; said that the 
 enemy could cut off our people by spreading the small-pox ; said there was nothing too 
 bad for the Whigs ; said Stoddard held up his hands, and thanked God he was not a 
 Whig. Joseph Chamberlain testified that sometime since these troubles came upon us, 
 he heard Israel Stoddard say, he knew where the regulars would strike upon ye countrie, 
 for he heard from them every day. . . . Capt. Zebulon Norton had heard Stod- 
 dard say, that the people would all be sorry they signed the covenant ; that they would all 
 lose their estates ; that the regulars would come on our front, and the Indians in our rear, 
 and it would be easy to subdue us."
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 209 
 
 were those of Little and Stoddard, were, in the latter part of April, 
 committed to Northampton jail, where they remained until July, 
 when Graves was released upon hollow professions of repentance, 
 only to get himself into trouble again in December; being 
 drummed out of the town of Westfield for loud-mouthed Toryism, 
 and sent home to be disciplined in his own precinct. Jones was 
 also released, joined the King's army, and suffered confiscation 
 of his estate. 
 
 The annual town-meeting in March manifested the peculiarities 
 of the times. It was voted, first, to take the Province law as 
 the guide of the meeting, ignoring the regulating act. No 
 money was appropriated for schools.^ The votes before noted, 
 regarding taxes and the continued pay of the minute-men, were 
 passed. Col. Williams, Deacon Wright, Matthew Barber, Aaron 
 Baker, Jacob Ensign, and James D. Colt were chosen War- 
 dens, and appointed " a committee to take care of disorderly 
 persons." 
 
 Israel Dickinson, Josiah Wright, Wm. Francis, Col. Easton, 
 and Capt. Goodrich were elected selectmen ; and Capt. Dickinson 
 was also made town-clerk and treasurer. 
 
 John Brown being employed on other service, Capt. Charles 
 Goodrich was chosen delegate to the Provincial Congress to be 
 held at Concord, March 22. 
 
 In the mean time, Rev. Mr. Allen was active in advocating Whig 
 doctrines in King's District; speaking at Canaan, Kinderhook, 
 Claverack, and elsewhere, to the delight of the radical patriots 
 and the vehement displeasure of their opponents, against whom 
 he advised the strongest measures, including a confiscation of debts 
 due them to the Continental treasury. 
 
 With regard to his own movements, and the general state of 
 affairs in his vicinity, he wrote to Gen. Pomeroy on the 9th as 
 follows : 
 
 " Our militia this way, sir, are vigorously preparing for actual readiness. 
 Adjacent towns and this town are buying arms and ammunition. As yet, 
 there are plenty of arms to be sold at Albany ; but we hear, that, by order 
 of the Major, etc., no powder is to be sold there for the present. The spirit 
 of liberty runs high at Albany, as you have doubtless heard by their own post 
 to our headquarters. I have exerted myself to spread the same spirit in 
 King's District ; which has, of late, taken a surprising effect. The poor
 
 210 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Tories at Kinderhook are mortified and grieved, are wheeling about, and 
 begin to take the quick-step. New- York Government begins to be alive in 
 the glorious cause, and to act with great vigor." 
 
 Thus determined, self-sacrificing, and indefatigable, were the 
 patriots of Pittsfield in that era of preparation for the Revolu- 
 tionary struggle.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 PITTSFIELD IN ETHAN ALLEN'S TICONDEROGA CAPTURE, 
 [DECEMBER JUNE, 1775.] 
 
 John Brown in the Provincial Congress. On the Canada Committee. Selected 
 to go to Canada. Perilous Journey. Report of his Mission. Recommends 
 the early Capture of Ticonderoga. Arranges it with Ethan Allen. Connec- 
 ticut plans the Capture. Connection of the two Schemes. The Commis- 
 sioners visit Pittsfield. John Brown and Col. Easton join the Party. Its 
 Plans modified on their Suggestion. Col. Easton raises Men for the Expedi- 
 tion. Councils of War in Vermont. Rank of the Officers fixed. Ethan 
 Allen. Benedict Arnold claims the Command, and is resisted. Important 
 Letter from Arnold. Allen captures the Fort. Easton and Brown announce 
 the Victory to the Continental and Provincial Congresses. Reports of Col. 
 Allen and Capt. Mott. The great Services of the Pittsfield Officers officially 
 acknowledged. Malignant Course of Arnold. He receives Troops, captures a 
 King's Sloop, and sets up a rival Command. Is placed under Col. Hinman 
 of Connecticut by the Provincial Congress, and resigns. Col. Easton ap- 
 pointed to fill the Vacancy. John Brown commissioned Major. Arnold 
 embezzles the Pay of Capt. James Noble's Pittsfield Company. 
 
 ON the 6th of December, 1774, the Provincial Congress 
 appointed, as a committee to open a correspondence with 
 Canada, and obtain frequent intelligence of movements there, 
 Major Hawley, Col. Seth Pomeroy, John Brown, Sam. Adams, Dr. 
 Warren, and Dr. Church. 1 The selection of so many eminent 
 men showed the magnitude which Congress attributed to the 
 business assigned them ; and the committee also recognized it by 
 intrusting to one of its own members the difficult and dangerous 
 task of personally sounding the disposition of the Canadians, 
 instituting a revolutionary party among them, and organizing a 
 
 1 Jour. Prov. Cong., p. 59. 
 
 211
 
 212 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 system of secret communication with its leaders. John Brown's 
 selection for this mission was due not less to his admirable 
 diplomatic qualities, and the cool daring which in no emergency 
 left them at fault, than to that adventurous ardor which continually 
 led him to seek the most dashing and dangerous not necessarily 
 the most conspicuous fields of patriotic service. 
 
 Immediately upon receiving his appointment, he returned to 
 Pittsfield, resigned his seat in the Provincial Congress, ' made 
 preparation for his journey, and, as soon as the pamphlets and 
 papers intended for use in Canada reached him, set out for 
 Albany. There he learned that Lakes George and Champlain 
 were impassable ; but after waiting a fortnight, although their 
 condition was not improved, he set out, accompanied by two 
 experienced guides, and, after fourteen days of " inconceivable 
 hardships," reached St. John's-on-the-Sorel. 
 
 The perils as well as the hardships of this journey were extreme. 
 Lake Champlain, swollen by an extraordinary freshet, flooded a 
 great portion of the country for a space of twenty miles on each 
 side, and especially towards Canada. The rivers and streams 
 were lost in the overflow, and the guides missed their accustomed 
 landmarks; and, still worse, the broadened surface, partly open, 
 was in part covered with dangerous ice, a field of which, miles 
 in extent, breaking loose, caught the frail craft of our daring 
 voyagers, and drove them against an island, where they remained, 
 frozen in, two days, and " were then glad to foot it on shore." 1 
 
 At Montreal, Mr. Brown was cordially welcomed by the Com- 
 mittee of Correspondence, already organized, and obtained from 
 them and from other sources a thorough comprehension of Cana- 
 dian character and politics, and also of the movements of the 
 military ; all which he communicated to the Committee at Boston, 
 together with an outline of Gov. Carleton and his policy, drawn 
 with striking truthfulness in a few rapid sentences. 
 
 At Montreal, he met a delegation of the Quebec Committee, 
 and consequently did not visit that city ; but he travelled through 
 a considerable portion of the interior, in order to disseminate 
 patriotic sentiments, and personally observe the disposition of the 
 people. 
 
 The guides who had crossed the lakes with Mr. Brown were 
 
 1 Letter to Adams and Warren, Mass. Ar., vol. cxciii. p. 40.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 213 
 
 from " the New-Hampshire Grants," l one of them an old hunter 
 familiar with the St. Francois Indians and their language ; the 
 other had once been a captive among the Caughnawagas. These 
 men he sent to those tribes respectively, and obtained positive 
 evidence (hostilities having then not commenced) that the 
 royal commanders were intriguing to bring the savages upon the 
 colonists. They also obtained from the chiefs assurances of neu- 
 trality, which, although they were afterwards violated, were 
 probably as sincere as an Indian's pledges ever are. 
 
 Mr. Brown reported that there was no prospect that Canada 
 would send a delegate to the Continental Congress, and gave no 
 hope of any uprising there, independent of the presence of a 
 colonial army. The rivalry of races, and the character of the 
 Canadian French, whom the British Government were assiduously 
 courting, forbade both. 
 
 But he closed his letter of March 29 2 with these words : 
 
 " One thing I must mention as a profound secret. The Fort at Ticonderoga 
 must be seized as soon as possible, should hostilities be committed by the king's 
 troops. The people on New-Hampshire Grants have engaged to do this 
 business, and, in my opinion, are the most proper persons for the job. This 
 will effectually curb this Province, and all the troops which may be sent here." 
 
 This was the whole gist of the plans which resulted in the 
 capture of Ticonderoga ; and it was undoubtedly written after 
 consultation Avith Ethan Allen, who had lands on Grand Isle, 
 and upon Shelburne Point, now Colchester and Burlington, which 
 juts into Lake Champlain directly across the route pursued by 
 the Canadian envoy. Allen, a cousin of the Pittsfield minister, 
 was probably known to Brown, and, as the commander of the 
 Green-Mountain Boys, was clearly the only person competent, in 
 their behalf, to undertake the very serious "job " of surprising 
 the great fortress of the lakes. 
 
 As Mr. Brown was writing the postscript to this letter, 8 the 
 messenger was impatiently waiting to be gone with it ; and it 
 reached Boston, at the latest, by the middle of April. 
 
 1 Vermont. 
 
 2 This letter, of which I have made free use in the foregoing pages, was ad- 
 dressed to " Samuel Adams and Dr. Joseph Warren, of the Committee of Corre- 
 spondence, Boston." It is preserved in the Mass. Ar., vol. cxciii. pp. 40-44. 
 
 3 This postscript announced Gov. Carleton's prohibition of the export of wheat 
 from the St. Lawrence.
 
 214 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Plans for the capture of Ticonderoga were at once rife in the 
 secret councils, not only of Massachusetts, but of Connecticut. 
 And to the latter belongs the honor of initiating and organizing 
 the expedition which successfully executed the plans concocted by 
 Brown and Allen, of furnishing for it the requisite funds, and of 
 entrusting it to a commission which wisely represented its sover- 
 eignty, sagaciously avoiding the perils which beset an undertaking 
 authorized by one colony, to be carried out in another, by troops 
 collected from a third and fourth. 1 
 
 The Connecticut expedition was " projected and undertaken " 
 by Col. Samuel H. Parsons and five other gentlemen, who, on the 
 27th, sent forward Messrs. Phelps and Romans, procuring for them 
 300 from the colonial treasury, upon their personal responsibility 
 for its judicious use. Capt. Mott arrived the next day' at Hartford, 
 and, having recently been at Cambridge, was questioned as to the 
 best method of obtaining a supply of artillery for the siege of the 
 British army in Boston. He at once proposed the surprise of 
 Ticonderoga, which he pronounced perfectly feasible : upon which 
 he was informed of what was on foot, and consented to assume the 
 lead of the party which had gone on, adding to it five or six 
 trusty volunteers. 
 
 The project had been suggested to Col. Parsons by a conversation 
 with Benedict Arnold, who had, or pretended to have, an exact ac- 
 count of the cannon at Ticonderoga, and the condition of defences 
 there. It is possible that both his proposition and that of Mott 
 might have been traced to rumors of recommendations contained 
 in Mr. Brown's letter to Adams and Warren. Capt. Mott's recent 
 return from the camp where those leaders were the moving spirits 
 favors the supposition, but I am aware of no evidence which 
 proves it correct. The immediate object of the Connecticut 
 expedition to supply the pressing demand for siege-artillery 
 
 1 This commission consisted of Edward Mott, Noah Phelps, and Bernard 
 Romans, the latter of whom appears not to have contributed his full share to the 
 good sense of the management. Capt. Mott, although not appointed until the 
 others had set off, acted as the head of the commission, and has left two accounts of 
 the expedition, one in his diary recently published in the Transactions of the 
 Connecticut Hist. Soc. ; the other in a letter to the Provincial Congress of 
 Massachusetts, in whose journals it is printed with other papers relating to the 
 surprise of Ticonderoga. Upon these two collections, two letters from Rev. Mr. 
 Allen to Gen. Pomeroy, and a few isolated papers, named when referred to, we have 
 founded our account of the capture of Ticonderoga and events connected with it.
 
 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 215 
 
 was certainly original with its projectors ; and the entire indepen- 
 dence of their scheme, in its inception, of that proposed by Mr. 
 Brown, may be conceded without at all diminishing the honor due 
 to his connection with the exploit. That his was the first proposi- 
 tion for the seizure of the post is unquestioned ; and it is proof of 
 his political and military sagacity, that he so early perceived that 
 for one campaign, if no more, Great Britain would operate against 
 her ancient colonies from the new possessions which they had 
 helped her to win from France ; that the old antagonistic military 
 bases of North America were to be restored ; that the old war-path 
 must be trod anew ; and that the utmost advantage would accrue 
 to the party which should first secure the great fortress, that, for 
 half a century, had been familiar to New England as the key of 
 Canada. It was by recommending action founded upon tlfese 
 observations ; by discerning at a glance the method in which, and 
 the soldiery by whom, that action could be successfully taken ; by 
 enlisting the fittest commander for the enterprise ; and by the aid 
 which he rendered personally in executing the scheme which he 
 had planned, that he connected his fame with the patriotic 
 measures of Connecticut and the memorable exploit of Ethan 
 Allen. 
 
 It is by no means necessary to impeach the claim of Messrs. 
 Parsons and Mott to originality, in suggesting the Ticonderoga 
 expedition, in order to trace its triumphant success, link by link, 
 directly back to the chance-meeting of John Brown and Ethan 
 Allen on the flooded shores of Champlain. 
 
 Capt. Mott set out on the afternoon of Saturday, April 29, to 
 overtake his associates ; x and on the morning of that day, or the 
 evening previous, John Hancock and Samuel Adams, members of 
 the Massachusetts committee to correspond with neighboring 
 colonies, reached Hartford on their way to attend the Continental 
 Congress. 2 The great undertaking on foot was naturally commu- 
 nicated to them, and received their approval, as well as that of the 
 Goveraor and Council of Connecticut, who were, perhaps now for 
 the first time, officially apprised of it. 8 
 
 1 Con. Hist. Col., vol. i. p. 167. 
 
 2 Am. Ar., ser. 4th, vol. ii. p. 401. 
 
 8 Rev. Mr. Allen, Chairman of the Pittsfield Committee of Correspondence and 
 Inspection, in a letter of May 4, speaks of the " plan " of the expedition as having 
 been ' concerted " at this interview. He obtained his information from the verbal,
 
 21G HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 It may be th.it Capt. Mott now first learned the recommendations 
 of John Brown ; for, even if loose talk of the capture of Ticon- 
 deroga as desirable had arisen in the Cambridge camp from the 
 Montreal letter, its details were, as the writer requested, kept a 
 profound secret. But it would have been strange indeed, and most 
 unlike the man, had Mr. Adams allowed the Connecticut leader to 
 depart on such a mission as he was sent upon, without the aid of 
 all the information pertinent to it which his position upon the 
 Canadian committee enabled him to impart. It is incredible that 
 he left him in ignorance of facts so essential to the business which 
 he had in hand, as the measures already taken and proposed by 
 John Brown in the same direction. It is clear, from Capt. Mott's 
 subsequent proceedings, that Mr. Adams was guilty of no such 
 culpable and thoughtless oversight. 
 
 Having been joined by their leader, who left Hartford on the 
 29th, the Connecticut party, increased in number to sixteen, 
 reached Daniel Dewey's tavern in Sheffield, and thence sent a 
 delegation of two to Albany to "discover the temper of the people 
 at that place," so uncertain, at that time, were the people of 
 different colonies of each other's patriotism. The same night they 
 reached Pittsfield, and took quarters at the tavern then kept by 
 Col. Easton, about eighty feet south of the present corner of Park 
 Square and South Street. 
 
 "They had intended to keep their business secret, and ride 
 through the countiy unarmed, until they came to the new settle- 
 ments on The Grants;" but at Col. Easton's they found John 
 Brown, 1 and determined to take him into their councils, as well as 
 their landlord, the colonel of the Berkshire militia. 
 
 Mr. Brown's opinion that the Green-Mountain Boys were the 
 proper persons to undertake the "job" at Ticonderoga, will be 
 
 and not very precise or minutely detailed statements of the Connecticut commis- 
 sioners during their brief stay in Pittsfield. Plans for the expedition were, as the 
 reader knows, concerted previously; but they were, without doubt, in some degree 
 modified by the advice and information received from Hancock and Adams, and 
 especially the latter. Mr. Allen's letters to Gen. Pomeroy, referred 'to in this 
 chapter, are printed in the Am. Ar., ser. 4th, vol. ii. pp. 507, 546. 
 
 1 Mr. Brown, after establishing "a channel of communication, which could be 
 depended upon," from Canada, " through the New-Hampshire Grants " had just 
 returned home ; and his presence in Pittsfield was probably neither known to Mr. 
 Adams, nor expected by Capt. Mott, a supposition which explains passages in 
 the latter's diary, otherwise obscure.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 217 
 
 remembered. It bad probably been communicated by Mr. Adams 
 to the Hartford Committee. Capt. Mott certainly left Hartford 
 with instructions not to increase his party of sixteen until he 
 reached The Grants. 
 
 Circumstances, aided no doubt by sympathy with Col. Easton's 
 desire that his Berkshire regiment should have a part in the 
 achievement, had modified Mr. Brown's views; and he now con- 
 curred with the colonel in representing, that "as there was great 
 scarcity of provisions in The Grants, and the people were generally 
 very poor, it would be difficult to raise a sufficient body of men 
 there." 
 
 The commissioners yielding to this advice, Mr. Brown, Capt. 
 Dickinson, and four or five others from Pittsfield, were admitted 
 to the party ; and Col. Easton's offer to assist with some men from 
 his regiment was accepted. To preserve secrecy, however, it was 
 thought advisable to raise no more men in Pittsfield ; but, while 
 their associates proceeded to Bennington, Col. Easton and Capt. 
 Mott crossed the mountain into Jericho, now Hancock. There 
 they, with the aid of Capt. Asa Douglas, an active and noted 
 patriot of that place, enlisted twenty-four men, to whom fifteen 
 were added in Williamstown. Col. Easton's regiment contributed 
 in all forty-seven men to the expedition. 
 
 Leaving Capt. Douglas to follow with his company, Messrs. 
 Easton and Mott hastened forward to Bennington, where they 
 found that a part of their advanced delegation Avere staggered by 
 the report of some nameless fellow, who pretended that he had 
 just come from Ticonderoga, and that the garrison, re-enforced and 
 alert, were diligently repairing their works. A messenger had 
 even been sent to advise Capt. Mott to dismiss his recruits, 
 and abandon his project ; but, by his eloquence and personal influ- 
 ence, he soon revived the drooping spirits of his comrades; tell- 
 ing them that it would never do to go back to Hartford with a 
 story like that ; and that, as for himself, he would not fear, with 
 the two hundred men which they proposed to raise, to go round 
 the fort in broad daylight. Even were its garrison five hundred,' 
 they would not dare follow them to the woods. Others of his 
 companions responding in the same tone, the disheartened few 
 were reassured ; and all determined to go forward except Bernard 
 Romans. Of him they were well rid : he " had been but a trouble." 
 
 At Bennington, Ethan Allen came to them, evidently to meet
 
 218 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 his old engagement with John Brown. There is no hint of any 
 new negotiation ; and it seems to have been expected, as a matter 
 fully provided for, that, when the great partisan received the signal 
 that the hour for action had come, he would be found prompt at 
 the rendezvous, and ready to assume the chief burden of the 
 undertaking. 
 
 A council of war, Col. Easton presiding, directed Col. Allen, 
 who was rapidly calling his Green-Mountain Boys around him, to 
 send forward patrols on the northern road, and prevent news of 
 their approach preceding them. 
 
 They then advanced to Castleton, twenty-five miles, by the 
 route pursued, from Ticonderoga, and there, on the 8th of 
 May, held a general council, at which they considered their 
 methods of further procedure, and of retreat in case of repulse. 
 It was agreed that Capt. Herrick should proceed to Skenesborough, 
 and capture Major Skene and his party; take what boats they 
 found there, and, the next night, drop down to Shoreham, 1 there 
 to ferry the attacking party across the lake. This party 
 consisted of about one hundred and forty men : and in fulfilment 
 of a promise made to them when enlisting, that they should be 
 commanded by their own officers, Ethan Allen was placed first, 
 James Easton second, and Seth Warner third in command ; the 
 rank of these officers being fixed in proportion to the number of 
 men they respectively procured. In addition to these arrange- 
 ments, Capt. Douglas was sent to Crown Point to hire the king's 
 boats at that post, if he could do so by some stratagem, aided by 
 his brother-in-law, who lived there. 
 
 The whole plan having been harmoniously " settled by a vote of 
 the committee," and the time fixed when " he must be ready, and 
 must take possession of the garrison at Ticonderoga," Col. Allen 
 left to make some arrangements at Shoreham. 2 
 
 That evening, mischief appeared at Castleton, in the ill-omened 
 shape of Benedict Arnold. This man was already odious in Con- 
 neticut ; but he had led a volunteer company from New Haven to 
 Cambridge, and had there obtained from the Committee of Safety 
 
 1 Major Skene, a half-pay British officer, of the French and Indian wars, and 
 supposed to be the confidential agent of the government, had built up the flourish- 
 ing village of Skenesborough now Whitehall at the head of Lake Champlain. 
 Shoreham is twenty-five miles below Whitehall, and nearly opposite Ticonderoga. 
 
 2 Mott's Diary.
 
 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 219 
 
 a commission as " colonel and commander of a body of forces, not 
 to exceed four hundred, to be raised for the reduction of 
 Ticonderoga." 
 
 He proposed to obtain his forces in Berkshire, and is said to 
 have authorized enlistments in Stockbridge. But, on reaching 
 Pittsfield, he learned of the expedition which was anticipating 
 him, and hastened to overtake it, determined, with his accus- 
 tomed effrontry, to assume command ; although the troops en- 
 listed by Connecticut, receiving her pay, and operating beyond the 
 bounds of Massachusetts owed no more allegiance to the com- 
 mittee at Cambridge, than Capt. De la Place's garrison in Ticon- 
 deroga did. 
 
 He needed to move quickly who would overtake Ethan Allen 
 in the execution of his plans ; but Arnold, when spurred by the 
 promptings of selfish ambition, was equal to any achievement. In 
 his haste, he, however, found time to send back the following letter 1 
 to the committees of the Berkshire towns : 
 
 REUPORT, 8th May, 1775. 
 
 GENTLEMEN, By the best information I can get, there is one hundred 
 men, or more, at Ticonderoga, who are alarmed, and keep a good lookout. I 
 am also informed, the sloop is gone to St. John's for provisions ; that she had 
 six guns mounted, and twenty men. We have only one hundred -and fifty 
 men gone on, whick are not sufficient to secure the vessels, and keep the 
 lakes ; this ought by all means to be done, that we may cut off their commu- 
 nication, and stop all supplies going to the fort, until we can have a sufficient 
 number of men from the lower towns. 
 
 I beg the favor of you, gentlemen, as far down as this reaches, to exert your- 
 selves, and send forward as many men to join the army here as you can pos- 
 sibly spare. There is plenty of provisions engaged, and on the road, for five 
 hundred men six or eight weeks. Let every man bring as much powder and 
 ball as he can, also a blanket. Their wages are 40s. per month. I 
 humbly engaged to see paid ; also the blankets. 
 I am, gentlemen, 
 
 Your humble servant, 
 
 BENEDICT ARNOLD, 
 Commander of the force*. 
 To THE GENTLEMEN IN THE SOUTHERN TOWNS. 
 
 1 This letter, whose authenticity is beyond dispute, was found in 1844 by the 
 late Hon. E. E. Colt of Pittsfield, among the papers of David Dunnels, a Revolu- 
 tionary pensioner of Cheshire. It is now in the Hon. Thomas Colt's collection of 
 historical documents.
 
 220 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Nothing surely could be more unlike to Arnold's plan of opera- 
 tions than that which had been agreed upon at Castleton, in 
 which he expressed his utter want of confidence. Capt. Mott and 
 his friends were " shockingly surprised " as they well might have 
 teen "when Col. Arnold presumed to contend for the command 
 of the forces they had raised," in the manner, and upon the con- 
 ditions which have been stated : but that master of impudent 
 assumption, having been generously told all their plans, continued 
 strenuously to insist upon his right to command ; which was as 
 strenuously resisted. Defeated here, Arnold, the next morning, 
 proceeded to overtake Allen, with the rather desperate hope of 
 inducing that hero to surrender his rights. It seems that even 
 the members of the expedition did not yet quite understand the 
 nature of the man who led them ; for the moment Arnold started, 
 the whole party, leaving Capts. Mott and Phelps, with a single 
 companion, to care for the baggage as they best could, followed, 
 pell-mell, " for fear he should prevail with Col. Allen." l 
 
 If Arnold's conduct shocked the leaders, it bred a mutiny 
 amongst the soldiers, and almost " frustrated the design they were 
 upon." 2 " Our men," wrote Capt. Mott to the Massachusetts 
 Council of War, "were for clubbing their firelocks and marching 
 home: but were prevented by Col. Allen and Col. Easton, who 
 told them that Arnold should not have the command of them ; or, 
 if he had, that their pay should be the same as if 'they were under 
 their own command. But they would damn the pay, and say they 
 would be commanded by no other than those they had engaged 
 with." And so Arnold at last, perceiving the folly of issuing com- 
 mands which none would obey, consented, although still meditating 
 mischief, to join the party as a volunteer. An honorable posi- 
 tion was assigned him by the magnanimity of those towards 
 whom he had shown none ; and the little army moved on to the 
 execution of its appointed task. 
 
 They reached Shoreham on the evening of the 8th of Mny, but 
 found none of the boats which they had hoped to receive either 
 from Skenesborough or Crown Point. Capt. Phelps also, who had 
 visited the fort in disguise, was detained with the baggage, and 
 had not yet come up. It was determined, however, to lose no time. 
 Nathan Beman, a boy of the neighborhood, who was familiar 
 with every nook and crany of the fort, was engaged as guide; 
 
 ' Mott's Diary. 2 Joun Prov Cong., p. 697.
 
 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 221 
 
 and, availing themselves of such scant ferriage as was at hand, the 
 party began to cross the lake. Barely eighty-three men had 
 reached the Ticonderoga shore when day began to dawn, and there 
 remained no safety but in an immediate advance. The boats were 
 hastily despatched for the rear division. Allen, drawing his corps 
 up in three columns, made them a brief, earnest harangue, such 
 as he well knew how to address to his followers, and then, with 
 Nathan Beman by his side, led them, rapidly and in silence, up 
 the steep ascent. Before sunrise, he entered the gate ; the sentinel 
 snapping his fusee, which missed fire, in his face as he passed. 
 The surprise was complete. The flying guard guided the Ameri- 
 cans directly to the parade-ground within the barracks, where a 
 second sentinel made a bayonet thrust at Col. Easton, inflicting a 
 slight wound ; for which attention to his friend, Allen repaid the 
 unlucky soldier with a sword-cut on the head, which induced him 
 to beg quarter. 
 
 The victors were then drawn up on the parade, and gave three 
 rousing cheers ; which not sufficing to bring out Capt. de la Place, 
 the post-commander, Col. Allen mounted to the door of his apart- 
 ment, which was reached by a flight of stairs on the outside of the 
 barracks, and there, in full view of the party below, ensued the 
 famous scene which resulted in the surrender of Ticonderoga to 
 the demand made in the name of Almighty God and the Conti- 
 nental Congress. 
 
 The Connecticut Committee, through their chairman, Capt. 
 Mott, thus recognized the services of Col. Easton and John Brown, 
 in their report to the Massachusetts Congress : 
 
 " Col. James Easton was of great service, both in council and action ; 
 raising men for the expedition, and appearing to be well qualified, not only 
 for colonel of militia at home, but for service in the field. 
 
 " John Brown, Esq., of Pittsfield, we recommend as an able counsellor, 
 and full of spirit and resolution. We wish they may be both employed 
 in the service of their country in a situation equal to their merits." 1 
 
 Col. Allen, in his report to the Congress, wrote, 
 
 " The soldiery were composed of about one hundred Green-Mountain 
 Boys, and near fifty veteran soldiers of the Massachusetts Bay. The latter 
 were commanded by Col. James Easton, who behaved with great zeal and 
 fortitude, not only in council, but in the assault. The soldiery behaved 
 
 1 Jour. Prov. Con., p. 697.
 
 222 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 with such resistless fury, that they so terrified the king's troops that they 
 durst not fire on their assailants; and our soldiery were agreeably disap- 
 pointed. The soldiery behaved with uncommon rancor when they leaped 
 into the fort ; and it must be confessed that the colonel has greatly con- 
 tributed to the taking of that fortress, as well as John Brown, Esq., who 
 was personally in the attack." 1 
 
 Col. Easton, in his report, wrote, 
 
 " As to other regimental officers, Capt. Israel Dickinson and John Brown, 
 Esq., distinguished themselves very highly, both in council and in action, and, 
 in my humble opinion, are well qualified to command in the field." 2 
 
 The news of so brilliant and unexpected an exploit as the capture 
 (without the loss of life, and at so trifling a cost of treasure) 
 of the famous fortress of Lake Champlain, with its vast military 
 stores, sent a thrill of joy and courage through the land. And, as 
 the imminence of a grand campaign on the northern frontier loomed 
 on the popular apprehension, a cooler estimate of the gains which 
 had accrued to the Colonies enhanced their value. 
 
 In reference to the primary object of Connecticut, to secure 
 heavy artillery for the siege of Boston, Rev. Mr. Allen, on the 
 9th of May, wrote to Gen. Pomeroy at Cambridge, 
 
 " Should the expedition succeed, and should the Council of War send up 
 their orders for the people this way to transport by land twenty or thirty of 
 the best cannon to head-quarters, I doubt not but the people in this county 
 would do it with expedition. We could easily raise a thousand yoke of oxen 
 for the business." 
 
 In view, however, of the hostilities from the north which John 
 Brown had predicted, and which were now seen to be almost 
 inevitable, it was considered unadvisable to weaken the defences 
 of that frontier ; and although some of the cannon were removed 
 to Fort George, at the upper end of the lake of that name, Ticon- 
 deroga was not dismantled, but greatly strengthened in its works. 
 
 John Brown was sent to announce the capture to the Conti- 
 nental, and Col. Easton to the Provincial Congress. Both were 
 cordially received, and introduced to the floors of the bodies to 
 which they were respectively accredited, that they might give the 
 details of the glorious enterprise in which they had taken promi- 
 nent parts. After listening to Col. Easton, the Congress at 
 
 1 Am. Ar., 4th ser., vol. ii. p. 556. 2 Jour. Prov. Con., p. 713.
 
 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 223 
 
 Cambridge passed suitable resolutions, with which he was de- 
 spatched to Hartford, where he was again received with enthusi- 
 asm, and handsomely entertained by the Connecticut authorities. 
 
 His mission to the two governments was managed with discre- 
 tion and ability ; and the favorable impression which he made at 
 Cambridge was soon manifested by substantial tokens. All parties 
 acted towards each other with consideration and magnanimity, 
 except Arnold. It was the complaints which he was pouring into 
 headquarters that gave Col. Easton's visit there the character of 
 something more than mere congratulation. 
 
 The surrender of Ticonderoga had no sooner taken place than 
 Arnold renewed his pretensions to command, and insisted that 
 Allen was acting under no proper authority; upon which Capt. 
 Mott, in the name of Connecticut, drew up and signed a commis- 
 sion, placing Allen in command of the party, and directing him to 
 keep the possession of Ticonderoga and its dependencies until 
 further orders from the Colony or from the Continental Congress. 
 
 In the mean time, under the requisition sent from Rupert, a con- 
 siderable body of levies from the Berkshire militia had reached 
 Arnold ; among them a detachment, composed of fifteen men from 
 each company in Pittsfield and vicinity, led by Capt. James Noble 
 of that town, a brother of him who marched the minute-men to 
 Cambridge. With a portion of the troops which he had thus 
 received, Arnold made the capture of the king's sloop, upon 
 which he had laid so much stress in his Rupert Circular, 1 and thus 
 was enabled to establish a rival command upon the lake. 
 
 While engaged in these legitimate, although not always mag- 
 nanimous operations, the embryo traitor was flooding the Massa- 
 chusetts Congress, the public press, and influential individuals, 
 with letters vilifying, in the most malignant terms, the heroes who 
 had just met the approval of so glorious success ; and it was in 
 counteracting the effect of these vile missives, that Col. Easton's 
 mission at Cambridge and Hartford required all his tact, temper, 
 and ability ; and it was by successfully exercising these qualities, 
 that the colonel laid the foundation of that enmity with which 
 Arnold followed him until he drove him from the army. 
 
 The Provincial Congress, greatly perplexed by the conflicting 
 
 1 Capt. Noble did not personally take part in this exploit, haying been sent to 
 Albany by Arnold for supplies for his army.
 
 224 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 reports from Ticonderoga, could, with certainty, infer from them 
 one truth ; and that was, that the state of affairs upon the lakes was 
 such as could not safely continue. It therefore, on the 13th of 
 June, sent a joint committee to the post, charged, among other 
 duties, to inform themselves of the manner in which Arnold had 
 executed his commission. They found him, at St. John's, with the* 
 sloop which he had taken, and claiming, also, " the command of all 
 the posts and fortresses at the south end of Lakes Champlain and 
 George; although Col. Hinman of Connecticut was at Ticonder- 
 og;i, with near a thousand men under his command at the several 
 posts." 
 
 The committee informed Arnold of the commission intrusted 
 to them, and handed him their instructions ; which authorized them 
 to continue him in the service of Massachusetts, with such orders 
 as they saw fit, " provided ... he and his men were willing to 
 remain at one, or both, of the lake-posts, under such chief officer 
 as Connecticut might appoint." 
 
 Then the spirit of Arnold broke forth. " He seemed greatly 
 disconcerted, declared that he would not be second in command 
 to any person whomsoever ; " and, after considering the matter 
 a while, disbanded the men he had raised, and handed the com- 
 mittee his resignation. They immediately appointed Col. Easton 
 to fill the vacancy, and soon after gave him John Brown for his 
 major. The unwarrantable and petty conduct of Arnold, in spite- 
 fully disbanding the men which he had raised at the expense of 
 the colony, caused some little annoyance for a time. But Capt. 
 Noble, who was at Crown Point with some of the disbanded sol- 
 diers, expressed in their behalf a willingness to return to the 
 service; and, being intrusted with one hundred pounds to be 
 used as advance pay, he succeeded in re-enlisting a company 
 of fifty-one. Col. Easton's command soon assumed respectable 
 proportions. 
 
 With one more incident, we close this first chapter of Benedict 
 Arnold's dealings with the Pittsfield soldiery. His "humble 
 engagement to see paid the wages" of the recruits who responded 
 to his call from Rupert will be remembered. How that promise 
 was kept will be best told by an extract from the records of the 
 General Court, dated four months after he had disbanded at "* 
 abandoned, at Ticonderoga, the men who had trusted him. 1 , 
 
 1 Mass. Ar., vol. ccvii. p. 200.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 225 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 Nov. 9, 1775. 
 
 The Committee on Col. Arnold's account have examined Capt. Noble's 
 pay-roll, and find that the said Arnold has charged this colony with said 
 Noble's pay-roll, and has received the whole amount thereof. It further ap- 
 pears that the balance due the said Noble, which the said Arnold has re- 
 ceived, amounts to 36. 5s. 5d. ; and as it appears that the said Noble and his 
 men are in great want of their money, and the said Arnold is now in the 
 Continental service, and cannot at present be come at, to pay the sum he re- 
 ceived for the use of the said Noble and his company therefore resolved, 
 that there be allowed and paid by the Treasurer of this colony to the said 
 Capt. James Noble the sum of 36 5s. 5d., being the full balance of his 
 muster-roll ; he giving security to pay the men made up in said roll the 
 sums severally due to them. 
 
 And it is further resolved that this court prefer to Gen. Washington a 
 charge of the sum aforesaid against the said Arnold ; that a stoppage of 
 so much as is before ordered to be paid to said Noble may be made for the 
 benefit of the Continent. 
 
 15 
 
 i i 
 Alban
 
 CHAPTER XIH. 
 
 PITTSFIELD IN THE FIRST NORTHERN CAMPAIGN, AND AT THE SIEGE 
 
 AT BOSTON. 
 
 [MAY NOVEMBER, 1775.] 
 
 Rivalries at Ticonderoga. Col. Easton proposes an Invasion of Canada. He 
 raises a Regiment. Pittsfield Companies in it. Gen. Schuyler appointed De- 
 partment Commander. First Visit to Ticonderoga. Opinion of the Troops 
 there. Major John Brown's Second Scout in Canada. Returning, he urges an 
 immediate Advance. Appointed to command the Lake Fleet. Hastens the 
 March of the Army. Siege of St. John's commences. Major Brown again 
 sent to Canada. Reports to Schuyler. Major Brown the first to lead a 
 Detachment into Canada. Captures Stores near Chamblee. Unsuccessful 
 Plan to capture Montreal. Takes Fort Chamblee. St. John's surrenders. 
 Col. Easton's Regiment advances to the St. Lawrence. Entrenches at Sorel. 
 Its Sufferings. Blockades the British Fleet. Brilliant Services of the Pitts- 
 field Officers acknowledged. Close of the Campaign. Col. Patterson's 
 Regiment at Cambridge. Extraordinary Transmission of Sounds. 
 
 r 1 1HE rivalry which attended the capture of Ticonderoga and its 
 -L dependencies was not merely for the command of a few hun- 
 dred men in retired posts upon the lakes. The American army had 
 no more restless spirits than those who met in that old historic for- 
 tress ; and, to the imagination of each, it was the gateway to a 
 grand campaign, soon to open, in which they foresaw unwonted 
 opportunities of distinguishing themselves. 
 
 John Brown had observed, on his first visit to Canada, that the 
 countenance of a continental army was essential to the party there 
 in league with the patriots ; and he considered the earliest possible 
 moment the best for a march to Montreal. Allen and Easton par- 
 took of the same ideas ; and no less so did Arnold, to whose 
 quick perception they would have been suggested by the possession 
 of Lake Champlain, if they had not been before conceived. 
 
 226
 
 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 227 
 
 It was plain that Gen. Carleton could not permit the Americans 
 quietly to retain possession of the advantages they had gained ; and 
 the first plan to anticipate his movements was a removal of the 
 armament from the newly-acquired works to safer places of deposit. 
 But this weak policy was quickly abandoned ; and, from the deter- 
 mination to hold and strengthen the forts, the advance was rapid to 
 the purpose of operating from them against Canada. This was, in- 
 deed, the dream of Allen and Arnold, Brown and Easton, from the 
 beginning. 
 
 The first distinct recommendation of the invasion of Canada, of 
 which we have record, was that of Ethan Allen to the New-York 
 Congress on the 2d of June. But Col. Easton was at least as 
 early in advising the measure ; for, in a letter of June 6 to the 
 Massachusetts Congress, referring to a previous communication, 
 made probably during his visit to Watertown in the middle of 
 May, he wrote, " I still retain my sentiments, that policy de- 
 mands that the Colonies should advance an army of two or three 
 thousand men into Canada, and environ Montreal." 1 
 
 In June, Philip Schuyler, a distinguished New-York officer of 
 former wars, was, upon the recommendation of his colony, appoint- 
 ed a major-general of the Continental Army, and assigned to the 
 command of the Northern Department. After some delay at New 
 York and Albany in making arrangements for supplies, he reached 
 Ticonderoga on the night of the 18th of July, and found the 
 garrison to consist of a thousand Connecticut men under Col. 
 Hinman, and Col. Easton's small Berkshire corps. Of the six in- 
 complete companies which composed the latter, one contained 
 twenty-seven Pittsfield men, including its officers, Capt. James 
 Noble and Lieuts. Joel Dickinson and John Hitchcock. The 
 quartermaster, William C. Stanley, was also from Pittsfield. Col. 
 
 1 In a letter of May 30, Col. Easton had " hinted to their honors " his willing- 
 ness " to serve his country in the capacity he stood in at home ; i. e., with the rank 
 of colonel. " Should you," he added, " gratify me with the command of a regi- 
 ment for the fortifying and garrisoning said fortress," [Ticonderoga], "you 
 may depend upon my most faithful exertions to defend it against the whole weight 
 of Canada, and on the most punctual observance of your orders. And I shall be 
 ready to make such further acquisitions as shall be in my power, consistent with 
 wisdom and prudence, for the safety of what are already made, that you, in your 
 wisdom, shall direct." 2 
 
 a Jour. Prov. Con., p. 713.
 
 228 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Easton and Major Brown were absent, probably attempting to in- 
 crease their force. 
 
 To Gen. Schuyler, the garrison appeared " good-looking people, 
 and decent in their deportment; not lacking in courage," but 
 with a shocking laxity of discipline. The sentinel on duty when 
 he arrived at the landing, on being informed that the general was 
 in the boat, did not hesitate to leave his post, to make a vain at- 
 tempt to rouse his companions sleeping soundly by the watch-fire. 
 The new commander met a similar experience at other posts of the 
 guard ; but he, nevertheless, thought he could make excellent 
 soldiers out of the Connecticut and Berkshire levies " as soon as 
 he could get the better of that nonchalance of theirs." * 
 
 But Schuyler had small opportunity to make good soldiers 
 of raw militia-men. It was well understood that Gen. Carleton 
 was meditating an attempt to regain the command of the lakes, 
 with a view to the invasion of the countiy below; and it was 
 feared that the incursion was only delayed in order to obtain the 
 alliance of the savages. As well, therefore, to anticipate this 
 movement, as to take advantage of the favorable disposition 
 reported to exist among certain classes in Canada, the immediate 
 advance into that Province of such a corps as had been suggested 
 by Cols. Allen and Easton was urged on every hand. 
 
 Men and material for such an enterprise were, however, tardily 
 supplied ; and the department commander was, moreover, greatly 
 perplexed by the difficulty of obtaining reliable information from 
 the proposed field of operations, in which all reasonable hope of 
 success depended upon conditions of which he was profoundly 
 ignorant. On the 21st of July, he wrote to the Continental 
 Congress, that the only man upon whom he could rely to proceed 
 to Canada had suddenly fallen ill; 2 but, about that time, Major 
 Brown returned to head-quarters, and, on the 24th, set out 
 on his second visit to Canada, commissioned to obtain the 
 fullest intelligence of the military preparations making by the 
 king's troops, the Canadians, and the Indians ; to learn the situa- 
 tion of St. John's, Chamblee, Montreal, and Quebec ; and the number 
 of troops with which each was garrisoned, whether any re-enforce- 
 ments had come to the Province; whether the Canadians designed 
 
 1 Schuyler to Washington, Am. Ar., 4th ser. vol. ii. p. 1085. 
 
 2 Am. Ar., 4th ser. vol. ii. p. 1302.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 229 
 
 dng up arras against the Colonies ; and whatever else it was of 
 >nsequence that an invading general should know." 1 
 Major Brown took with him four men, one of them a French 
 Canadian, and reached the border in six days, after a tedious march, 
 on the west of Lake Champlain, through a vast swamp, in whose 
 dank recesses the party were compelled to camp three nights. Issu- 
 suing from this comfortless tract, and assuming the guise of a horse- 
 dealer, he penetrated the country, remained four days, and obtained 
 a great amount of information, which proved correct, and of untold 
 value to the army. The kindness of the French Canadians, while 
 he was thus engaged, Major Brown spoke of as " indescribable ;" 
 and he confessed, that, but for their protection, he must have fallen 
 into the hands of the enemy. The shrewd country-people did not, 
 nevertheless, fail to observe that "he was an odd sort of jockey, 
 who never got a nag to his liking;" and some fellow, not so dis- 
 creet as his neighbors, or less well disposed, communicated his 
 suspicions to the military police. The result was, a large squad 
 of red-coats surrounded the house where the major lodged. He, 
 however, contrived to escape through a back window, and make 
 good his flight, although hotly pursued for two days. Two scouts, 
 of fifty men each, were sent after him ; but, being kept accurately 
 informed of their movements by the friendly Canadians, he evaded 
 both, and got out of the country on the 3d of August. A further 
 flight of three days brought him to the Bay of Missisquoi, where 
 he found a small canoe, with which he proceeded up the lake, and 
 arrived at Crown Point on the 10th, just one day later than he 
 had fixed with Gen. Schuyler for his return. 
 
 What Major Brown had learned in Canada rendered him still 
 more impatient of delay. Writing, four days after his arrival at 
 Crown Point, to Gov. Trumbull, of the Canadians and their affairs, 
 he said, 
 
 " They wish and long for nothing more than to see us penetrate their 
 country with an army. They engage to supply us with every thing in their 
 power. . . . Now is the tune to carry Canada. It may be done with 
 great ease and little cost ; and I have no doubt the Canadians would join us. 
 Should a large [British] re-enforcement arrive in Canada, it would turn 
 the scale immediately. The inhabitants must then take up arms, or be 
 ruined. It seems that some evil planet has reigned in this quarter this year ; 
 
 1 Maj. Brown to Gov. Trumbull, Am. Ar., 4th ser. vol. iv. p. 135.
 
 230 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 for notwithstanding the season is far advanced, and a fine opportunity presents 
 for making ourselves masters of a country with the greatest ease, which I fear 
 may cost us much blood and treasure if delayed, in New York [they] 
 have played a queer part, and are determined to defeat us if in their power. 
 They have failed us both in men and supplies." 
 
 The evil planet continued to reign. New York delayed, and 
 finally in great part withheld, her promised contingent, in order to 
 hold her own Tories in check. Massachusetts, absorbed in the 
 siege of Boston, furnished to the all-important northern expedition 
 only the small corps which Col. Easton could raise in Berkshire, 
 after the county had already sent two regiments to Cambridge. It 
 numbered barely two hundred men, of whom fifty-three were from 
 Pittsfield, which early in August had sent a second company of 
 twenty-four men, including its officers, Capt. Eli Root, Lieuts. 
 Stephen Crofoot and James Easton, jun. 
 
 Connecticut, threatened with an invasion of her coast, furnished 
 over a thousand men, less than she wished, but all that she 
 could safely spare. The troops from all the colonies were imper- 
 fectly armed, and miserably provided wjth the most necessary 
 equipments and stores. Illness prevailed, both from this cause and 
 from lack of the restraints of discipline. The regiments of Cols. 
 Hinman and Easton returned a startling proportion of sick, the 
 latter more than one third of its entire number. 
 
 Nevertheless, the last of August found Schuyler, weak and ill 
 appointed as his army was, eager for advance and hopeful of success. 
 There might, however, have been still further delay, had it not 
 been for information received from Major Brown, who, after his 
 return from his Canadian mission, had immediately been placed in 
 command of the flotilla upon the lake, against which a formidable 
 antagonist was known to be preparing on the Sorel, at St. Johns. 1 
 
 Among the things which he had accomplished in Canada, one 
 of the most valuable was to open correspondence with James 
 Livingston, an intelligent, active, and patriotic gentleman, then 
 resident at Chamblee, who thenceforward furnished the most 
 correct, timely, and important information to the American com- 
 manders. 
 
 Major Brown now ventured personally on a scout, as far as the 
 
 1 The Sorel is often laid down, especially in modern maps, as the River Riche- 
 lieu, and sometimes as the St. Johns.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 231 
 
 Isle Aux-Noix, 1 whence he sent messengers to his friend Livingston, 
 who returned with intelligence upon the strength of which he 
 addressed a letter to Gen. Montgomery, who had arrived at Crown 
 Point, and was acting as Schuyler's lieutenant, for the " dictatorial 
 style of which " 2 he made the extreme exigency of the occasion 
 his apology. It represented that the vessels building on the Sorel 
 were in such a state of forwardness, and were so formidable in their 
 armament, that unless the army moved within ten days, at the 
 latest, it would be necessary to fortify either at Isle Aux-Noix, or, 
 better in his opinion, at Windmill Point, 8 otherwise there would 
 be the most imminent danger that the British fleet would sweep 
 the lake, and compel the abandonment of the expedition against 
 Canada for that year at least. 
 
 This letter hastened affairs at Crown Point; and on the 31st of 
 August, seven days from its date, Gen. Montgomery embarked 
 with twelve hundred men ; and, Schuyler having overtaken him, 
 the army appeared before St. Johns on the 6th of September, 
 nearly two thousand strong. 
 
 The siege proved long and tedious. We shall, of course, only 
 be expected to recite the services of the Pittsfield soldiery in con- 
 nection with it, and that portion of the general story which is 
 necessary to their comprehension. 
 
 Arrived before St. Johns, Gen. Schuyler began to manifest that 
 irresolution and timidity in meeting difficulties of the military sit- 
 uation, which, in spite of his undoubted personal bravery, so often 
 fatally marred his northern campaigns, and led the people of Berk- 
 shire to distrust, not only his capacity, but his fidelity. The 
 Americans landed on the 6th of September, were fired upon 
 without effect by the garrison, and had a slight skirmish with a 
 small party of Indians. In the evening, " a man who appeared to 
 be friendly and intelligent," visited the general : stating that the 
 whole British force in Canada, except fifty, were in garrison at 
 
 1 The Isle Aux-Noix is a small, low island in the Sorel, a few miles below St. 
 Johns. It is an important locality in our story. It is now strongly fortified by 
 the British Government. 
 
 2 Am. ^j-., 4th ser. vol. iii. p. 468. There is nothing disrespectful or assuming 
 in the letter. 
 
 8 The Windmill Point here alluded to is at the entrance of Lake Champlain 
 into the Sorel, and must not be confounded with the point of the same name on 
 the west side of the lake.
 
 232 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 St. Johns, which, as well as Chamblee, he represented to be 
 strongly fortified, and well prepared for a siege ; that a hundred 
 Indians were in the fort, and a large body under Sir John Johnson 
 hovering near ; that a sixteen-gun vessel was at St. John's, ready 
 to weigh anchor ; and that not a single Canadian would join the 
 "insurgent standard."- 1 The greater part of this stuff was after- 
 wards proved to be pure invention : but Schuyler gave it full 
 credence ; and a Council of War, to whom it was submitted, deter- 
 mined to fall back to Isle Aux-Noix. to await re-enforcements, and 
 prevent the passage into the lake of the sixteen-gun ship, which 
 would have effectually cut them off. 
 
 While these events were transpiring, Major Brown was absent ; 
 having been sent by Schuyler, with Ethan Allen and some inter- 
 preters, to go through the woods into Canada, and there disseminate 
 among the people his address assuring them that the designs of 
 the Americans in entering their country were solely against the 
 English garrisons, and not at all against the property, religion, or 
 liberties of the inhabitants. 
 
 This arduous and dangerous service having been faithfully and 
 successfully performed, Col. Allen and Major Brown found Living- 
 ston, who collected a small body of Canadian recruits, with which 
 they attempted, on the 8th, to return to the army, but were 
 deterred by learning that a body of Indians lay in wait for them. 
 Major Brown, however, made his way through, with a communica- 
 tion from Livingston, demanding a party of men from Schuyler's 
 army to cut off communication between St. Johns and the coun- 
 try ; explaining his position at St. Terese, and expressing his belief, 
 that, on the arrival of the men he asked for, they would be joined 
 by a considei-able number of Canadians. 2 
 
 In compliance with this request, Col. Ritzema was ordered to 
 proceed, on the 10th, to a point on the road from La Prairie to 
 St. Johns, as near to the latte.r place as he deemed prudent ; but 
 a succession of disgraceful panics thwarted the execution of the 
 plan. 
 
 On the 16th, Gen. Schuyler, compelled by prolonged ill health, 
 returned to Ticonderoga. But it had previously been arranged, 
 that, on the 15th, a second advance upon St. Johns shoul^be com- 
 
 1 Lossing's Field-book of the Revolution, vol. i. p. 169. 
 
 2 Am. Ar., 4th ser. vol. Hi. p. 740.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 233 
 
 menced by the army led by Montgomery. In anticipation of this 
 movement, that general, on the day before that assigned for its 
 execution, despatched Major Brown, with one hundred Americans 
 and thirty-four Canadians, towards Chamblee, in order to keep up 
 the spirits of their friends in that quarter. 
 
 This little detachment was the first of the American army 
 which could be said to have entered Canada; and, with it, Major 
 Brown penetrated to the gates of Chamblee. There he left one- 
 half his force ; while, with the remainder, he cut off communication 
 between St. Johns and the interior, took several prisoners, and 
 intercepted eight carts, going to the fort, laden with rum and 
 gun-carriages for the armed vessels which threatened the lake. 
 Gen. Montgomery's departure from Isle Aux-Noix was delayed 
 by a storm until the 17th, on the evening of which day he 
 encamped before St. Johns. The next morning, he crossed 
 with five hundred men to the north side of the Sorel, where he 
 had instructed Major Brown to rejoin him. But Brown, trusting 
 to his earlier arrival, had imprudently thrown his little company 
 before a superior force of king's troops, and been repulsed. Mont- 
 gomery's corps, which had been retarded by the inexperience of 
 its raw recruits in marching, came up in a few hours : the king's 
 troops were, in their turn, defeated ; and the captures, which Major 
 Brown had bethought himself to hide in the woods before ensra- 
 
 O O 
 
 ging in his unsuccessful conflict, were secured. 1 
 
 The siege of St. Johns having been formally established, Ethan 
 Allen and Major Brown were ordered to La Prairie and Longueil 
 to recruit corps of Canadians for the American army, a service in 
 which James Livingston had already been so successful as to be 
 commended by Montgomery to Congress. 
 
 Allen and Brown also had the most gratifying and encouraging 
 success in this service; and Major Brown was, moreover, lucky 
 enough to take a quantity of stores designed for the Indians, who 
 had been induced by Gov. Carleton to go to La Prairie to operate 
 against the Americans. 2 On the 20th of September, Allen had 
 two hundred and fifty Canadians under arms, and boasted to 
 Montgomery, that, in a week or two, he could obtain one or two 
 thousand. Major Brown had also enlisted between two and three 
 hundred. Every thing was going prosperously, and with the most 
 
 1 Montgomery to Schuyler, Am. Ar., 4th ser. vol. iii. p. 797. 
 
 2 Am. Ar., 4th ser. vol. iii. p. 840.
 
 234 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 encouraging promise, when the all-important work was interrupted 
 by the unhappy issue f one of those audacious but tempting 
 enterprises, opportunities for which Allen and Brown seem to 
 have been incapable of resisting. 
 
 Allen wrote to Montgomery, on the 20th of September, that he 
 would join him in three days with five hundred men, after which, 
 if it were necessary, he would return and recruit. " By the 
 Lord ! " said he, " I can raise three times the number of our army 
 in Canada, provided you continue the siege : it all depends upon 
 that." He was, in fact, crazed with the desire to take part per- 
 sonally in the operations against St. John's ; 1 and, on the 24th, he 
 set out for that place with a guard of eighty men. He had gone, 
 however, but about two miles from Longueil, when he was met on 
 the banks of the St. Lawrence, nearly opposite to Montreal, by 
 Major Brown, who proposed a plan for the surprise of that city, 
 which he thought could be easily effected by the combined action 
 of their forces. No project could have been more fascinating 
 to the captor of Ticonderoga; and although, upon its failure, 
 it was denounced as rash and impracticable, it would probably 
 have succeeded, had neither of the parties failed to meet his 
 engagement. 2 
 
 The proposition was readily assented to, and a plan of operations 
 agreed upon. Allen, returning to Longueil, was to procure canoes, 
 and cross the river at night, a little below the city. At a point a 
 little above it, Brown was to cross, with his corps of two hundred 
 men ; and, upon the signal of three huzzas from the latter party, 
 a simultaneous attack was to be made. The night was so rough, 
 and the canoes to be obtained were so small and frail, that Brown 
 supposed Allen would defer the attempt. At the appointed time, 
 however, the latter having, by the addition of thirty Anglo-Amer- 
 icans, increased his force to one hundred and ten men, was over 
 the river, and impatiently waiting the signal for action. He con- 
 tinued to expect the arrival of the promised co-operating corps 
 until the sun was two hours high, when he " began to suspect that 
 
 1 Am. Ar., 4th ser. vol. iii. p. 754. 
 
 2 Montgomery, to whom the design was communicated too late for his inter- 
 ference in it, although distrusting its success, did not absolutely condemn it. In 
 a letter to Schuyler, he wrote, " Allen, Warner, and Brown . . . have a project 
 for making an attempt upon Montreal. I fear the troops are not fit for it. Mr. 
 Carleton has certainly left that town, and it is in a very defenceless condition."
 
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 235 
 
 he was in a premunire" * It was then too late to retreat. A pris- 
 oner had escaped from his guards, and given the alarm in the city ; 
 the boats which had brought them over were insufficient to carrv 
 one-third of Allen's men back ; and, although all but thirty-eight 
 finally deserted him, he could not reconcile it with his sense of 
 honor to abandon any. He therefore sent off messengers to Major 
 Brown and a Mr. Walker, asking aid ; and stood his ground man- 
 fully, for an hour and three-quarters, when attacked by about forty 
 regulars, and a rabble hundred or two of armed citizens. A smart 
 skirmish occurred, with some loss of life on each side ; but, no 
 re-enforcements appearing, the hero of Ticonderoga was obliged to 
 capitulate, and, in violation of the terms of his surrender, to enter 
 upon that long and cruel imprisonment which has awakened the 
 sympathy of every reader of Revolutionary story. 
 
 Allen attributed his disaster to Major Brown's failure to keep 
 his engagement ; but the commander-in-chief, and all the officers 
 who mentioned the subject in their correspondence, fixed the 
 blame upon his own rashness and obstinacy. This, to be sure, 
 was not an absolutely fair test, as Allen's associates did not mani- 
 fest the same indulgence towards his infirmities of temper, 
 which posterity, with a grateful memory of his heroic virtues, 
 has accorded. But, with whatever undue harshness of judg- 
 ment Allen's contemporaries may have visited his leadership in 
 this affair, the uniform conduct of John Brown compels us to 
 believe, that, if all the circumstances of the case were known, they 
 would fully justify his course. If he had failings as a commander, 
 they certainly did not lie in the direction of excessive prudence, 
 sluggishness in action, or remissness in duty. Of treachery, he 
 was incapable. 
 
 September passed, and the siege of St. Johns advanced but 
 slowly. Discontent began to show itself in the army, which con- 
 stantly embarrassed Montgomery by its disposition to interfere 
 with his proper functions. About the 12th of October, he was 
 informed by Major Brown that the general dissatisfaction was so 
 great, that, unless something was soon done to allay it, there was 
 danger that it would break out in open mutiny. 
 
 He therefore called a council of war, in which he found his own 
 opinion opposed to that of every field-officer present. His views 
 
 1 Allen's narrative.
 
 236 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 were unchanged by this result ; but, while deeply regretting the 
 decision of the council, he declared that he would not oppose the 
 general sense of the array, but enforce it by every effort in his 
 power. 1 And Montgomery was always as good as his word. 
 
 But the siege continued to be retarded, as it had all along been, 
 by the want of ammunition, and particularly of powder. It 
 was even feared that this cause would compel the abandonment 
 of the expedition altogether. In this dilemma, Schuyler, on the 29th 
 of September, made an earnest application to the New-York Con- 
 gress for at least five tons, to be sent forthwith to St. Johns. The 
 Congress exerted itself zealously; but all that it could procure 
 from its own resources was fourteen hundred pounds, and this 
 only by resorting to the dangerous expedient of exhausting the 
 county arsenals of the reserve stores, which they were, by law, 
 required to keep. Gov. Trumbull, who was asked for a loan, had 
 none to spare. The Continental Congress, "learning that Gen. 
 Schuyler was in great distress for powder, ordered a single ton to 
 be sent him from New-York City." But all which he received 
 from any source furnished Montgomery but a temporary supply; 
 and a few days from the 18th of October would have entirely 
 exhausted it. 2 
 
 Happily, a mode of relieving the army from this serious strait 
 was suggested to Major Brown ; affording him an opportunity for 
 another of those daring and dashing exploits in which he delighted, 
 and which so often proved of signal service to the country. At 
 Chamblee, on the Sorel, stood a strongly-constructed fort, contain- 
 ing a considerable amount of stores, and a large quantity of pow- 
 der, but feebly armed and garrisoned. Carleton believed that the 
 Americans could not approach its walls with artillery, unless they 
 first captured St. Johns, which commanded the river twelve miles 
 above. 8 But some of Livingston's Canadian recruits experi- 
 enced oarsmen volunteered to place cannon upon bateaux, 
 and take them at night past the fortifications of the latter place. 
 Their offer was accepted ; and, on a dark night, the plan was suc- 
 cessfully put in execution. Major Brown had been intrusted by 
 Montgomery with the charge of the undertaking, and personally 
 
 1 Am. Ar., 41h ser. vol. iii. pp. 1097-8. 
 
 2 Schuyler to Washington, Am. Ar., 4th ser. vol. iii. p. 1095. 
 
 8 The River Sorel descends from Lake Champlain to the St. Lawrence.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 237 
 
 directed and took part in the perilous feat of the boatmen. At 
 the head of the Chamblee Rapids, the guns were mounted upon 
 carriages, and soon placed in position for attack. Major Living- 
 ston re-enforced the besiegers with three hundred Canadians, 
 there were but fifty Americans engaged in the affair; and Major 
 Stopford, the commander of the fort, was surprised to find it closely 
 invested. He had no reason to expect relief but among the 
 articles of capitulation which he proposed to Major Brown was 
 one containing the extraordinary condition that the garrison should 
 not be made prisoners, but be permitted to march out unmolested, 
 drums beating, colors flying, with their arms, accoutrements, and 
 twenty-four rounds of ammunition each, and carts and provisions 
 sufficient to pass by the shortest route to Montreal, or any other 
 place in that Province at the option of Major Stopford. 
 
 VIEW OF FORT CHAMBLEE. 
 
 This proposition was of course entirely inadmissible ; and Major 
 Brown, at once declining it, demanded a surrender of the place 
 upon the usual terms granted in honorable warfare. There was 
 no alternative but to accede to this, or sustain an assault without 
 hope of making a successful defence ; and the fort was given up, 
 with its garrison, on the morning after the demand, Oct. 19. 
 
 One major, three captains, three lieutenants, a commissary, and a 
 surgeon, with eighty-three non-commissioned officers and privates 
 of the Royal Fusileers, were made prisoners. The stores found in 
 the fort were eighty barrels of flour, eleven barrels of rice, seven 
 barrels of peas, six firkins of butter, one hundred and thirty-four 
 barrels of pork, one hundred and twenty-four barrels of gunpow- 
 der, three hundred swivel-shot, one box of musket-shot, six thou- 
 sand five hundred and sixty-four musket cartridges, one hundred
 
 238 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 and fifty-four stand of French arms, three royal mortars, sixty-one 
 shells, five hundred hand-grenades, rigging for at least three ves- 
 sels, and the arms and accoutrements of the eighty-three Fusileers. 
 Gen. Montgomery was overjoyed at this glorious acquisition, which 
 he foresaw would give an early and successful termination to the 
 lingering siege of St. Johns. He announced it to Gen. Schuyler 
 in the following terms : 
 
 " DEAR GENERAL, I have the pleasure to acquaint you with the sur- 
 render of Chamblee to Majors Brown and Livingston. ... I send you 
 the colors of the Seventh Regiment and a list of stores taken. Major Brown 
 assures me we have gotten six tons of powder, which, with the blessing of 
 God, will do our business here. Major Brown offered bis service on this 
 occasion. Upon this and all occasions, I have found him active and intelli- 
 gent." 
 
 A report of the achievement was transmitted to the Continental 
 Congress, which instructed a delegation it was about sending to 
 the Northern army, to assure Majors Brown and Livingston " that 
 the Congress had a just sense of their important services, and would 
 take the first proper opportunity to reward them." * Livingston 
 was made colonel of a regiment of Canadians. Brown waited 
 for his reward. 
 
 St. Johns surrendered on the 2d. Both during the siege, and 
 previously while in camp at Ticonderoga, Col. Easton's regiment 
 suffered severely from sickness, induced by insufficient shelter, 
 improper food, and lack of medical stores. One hundred and 
 sixteen of its men were sent home,, invalided, between the 20th of 
 July and the 25th of September; and the returns of the 12th of 
 October carried up the number to one hundred and forty-three. 
 This loss had been in some measure repaired by new recruits, 
 of whom one hundred and forty were sent forward at one time ; 
 and, at the close of the siege of St. Johns, the regiment numbered 
 about three hundred men. We have no certain knowledge of 
 what its services were up to that time; but Major Brown had been 
 , almost constantly employed on detached and adventurous duty, to 
 aid in which, he would naturally have selected tried men from his 
 own neighborhood, except when Canadians were better adapted to 
 the work in hand. 
 
 The moment, however, that the surrender of St. Johns was sure, 
 
 1 Jour. Cont. Cong., Nov. 7, 1775.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 239 
 
 Col. Easton Major Brown having rejoined him pushed his 
 small corps, augmented by Livingston's larger regiment of Cana- 
 dians, down the Sorel, driving before him Allen McLean, who, 
 without a commission, commanded an irregular body of king's 
 men. McLean attempted to intrench at the point in the St. Law- 
 rence formed by the debouching of the Sorel ; but was driven from 
 his works by Easton, who proceeded at once to complete and 
 strengthen them. In a few days they were mounted with three 
 twelve-pounders, one nine, and two sixes, and effectually com- 
 manded the passage of the St. Lawrence. 
 
 All the night of the 6th, Major Brown patrolled the north side 
 of the river near Montreal, and captured several prisoners, from 
 one of whom he learned that Gen. Carleton had announced to the 
 citizens his determination to quit the place within a couple of 
 days ; and that they had thereupon resolved to apply to the Amer- 
 ican commander for protection. This intelligence changed the 
 major's intention of remaining on the north side, to raise a party 
 and cover Montgomery's landing ; and, returning to Sorel, he wrote 
 to the general, informing him what he had learned, and begging 
 to be permitted, if his regiment was to remain at Sorel, " to have 
 the honor of entering the city of Montreal with the army." 
 
 Montgomery marched into the city on the 13th. Carleton 
 had, the night before, embarked with his garrison, certain promi- 
 nent loyalists, and such stores as he could take, on board a fleet of 
 eleven small vessels, with the expectation of dropping down the 
 river to Quebec, but was unable to pass the batteries at Sorel. 
 On the 17th, he was still engaged in vainly attempting to ef- 
 fect a passage ; and Montgomery wrote that Col. Easton not only 
 " prevented it, bait had twice compelled him to weigh anchor, and 
 move up the river." 1 He added that he was making all despatch 
 to attack the fleet from his own side. It capitulated on the 19th ; 
 and, with it, there fell into the hands of the Americans 
 Gen. Prescott, infamous for his ill-treatment of Ethan Allen, 
 thirteen other officers, one hundred and twenty privates, and 
 several prominent loyalist gentlemen. Gen. Carleton, in a boat 
 with muffled oars, succeeded in passing the batteries under cover 
 of an unusually dark night. Of ordnance, the vessels were found 
 to contain two nine and two six-pounders, and two or three 
 
 1 Am. AT., 4th ser. vol. iii. p. 1633.
 
 240 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 smaller guns ; of ammunition, three barrels of gunpowder, a large 
 quantity of artillery cartridges and ball ; twenty-three hundred 
 musket cartridges ; of small arms, eight chests, besides those borne 
 by the prisoners; of other stores, seven hundred and sixty barrels 
 of flour, six hundred and seventy-five barrels of beef, three hun- 
 dred and seventy-six firkins of butter, two hundred pairs of shoes, 
 a quantity of entrenching tools, &c. 
 
 "Col. Easton's detachment," wrote Montgomery to Schuyler, 
 " while employed in this important service of stopping the fleet, 
 were half naked, and the weather was very severe. I was afraid, 
 not only that they might grow impatient, and relinquish the 
 business in hand, but I saw the reluctance the troops in Montreal 
 showed to quit it. ... By way of stimulant, I offered, as a re- 
 ward, all public stores taken in the vessels, to the troops who went 
 forward, except ammunitions and provisions." But this stimulant 
 induced only Bedel's New-Hampshire regiment to forsake their 
 comfortable quarters in the city, to share the labors and the honors 
 of the half-naked and almost shelterless Berkshire men at Sorel. 
 
 With the surrender of the fleet on the upper St. Lawrence, the 
 first northern campaign ended ; for, although the war in Canada 
 was prosecuted with little interruption, Arnold's arrival gave to 
 the succeeding operations a character distinct from that of the 
 advance to Montreal. 
 
 The brilliant services rendered to the expedition by the chief 
 Pittsfield officers were handsomely acknowledged. Montgomery 
 wrote to Schuyler, Nov. 22, " Col. Easton has shown so much zeal 
 and activity in the important service he has been employed upon, 
 that I think myself obliged to speak of him in the warmest terms 
 of acknowledgment ; and, as his character suffered in the public 
 opinion by some unfortunate transaction last summer, 1 I hope 
 you, will be kind enough to do him the justice which his conduct 
 with me merits." 
 
 Other letters in which Col. Easton was eulogized by his com- 
 mander will be referred to in another connection. For Major 
 Brown, Montgomery formed the warmest friendship and esteem ; 
 and even Schuyler wrote to Congress that he " had certainly, in 
 in the course of the last year, done extraordinary services." 2 
 
 1 Probably this refers to a dispute regarding the accounts of the Ticonderoga 
 expedition. 
 
 2 Jour. Cont. Cong., Aug. 26, 1776.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 241 
 
 In October, 1776, Cols. James Livingston and Timothy Bedel, 
 Major Robert Cochran, and Capts. Gersham Mott and William 
 Satterlee of the Northern Army, certified, that, during the campaign 
 of the previous year in Canada, Major John Brown "was the 
 most active man in the army ; being employed in the beginning 
 of the campaign in long tedious scouts, and, in the latter part, 
 before the army with a detachment. Major Brown was scarcely 
 off duty day or night during the campaign." 
 
 Of the services and sufferings of the other officers and men in 
 Easton's regiment, Montgomery's praises were earnest. 
 
 While their brethren were thus winning honor in Canada, Col. 
 Patterson's regiment remained with the army employed in the 
 siege of Boston, and built Fort No. 3 on Prospect Hill in Charles- 
 town, 1 which it also garrisoned. On the day of the Battle of 
 Bunker Hill, Patterson's regiment, with three others, was held in 
 reserve for the protection of Cambridge; and late in the after- 
 noon, being ordered to re-enforce the exhausted defenders of the 
 Hill, failed to reach the lines before they were carried by the 
 enemy. 
 
 Some time in November, four hundred British troops landed at 
 Lechmere Point, now East Cambridge, for marauding purposes, 
 and were bravely repulsed, although under cover of a frigate, by 
 an American force to which Washington paid the following com- 
 pliment: " The alacrity of the riflemen and others did them honor, 
 to which Col. Patterson's regiment and some others are equally 
 entitled." He praised them again in the general orders of the 
 next day. 2 
 
 A tradition has been handed down in Berkshire, regarding the 
 Battle of Bunker Hill, which, strange as it seems at first thought, 
 is supported by such abundant and indisputable evidence, that we 
 cannot refuse it credence. It is to the effect that the cannonading 
 from the British fleet was distinctly heard by many persons in 
 Pittsfield, and elsewhere among the hills. At Lee, persons digging 
 a well heard the reports with peculiar clearness. In Pittsfield, 
 among many others who distinctly heard the booming of the 
 cannon, were Capts. Israel Dickinson, Jared Ingersol, and Hosea 
 Merrill, men of unquestioned veracity. By placing the ear near 
 
 1 Now Somerville. 
 
 2 Frothingham's Siege of Boston, p. 268. 
 18
 
 242 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 the earth, the loudness of the sounds was much increased. In 
 considering the probable truth of this tradition, it must not be 
 forgotten that the intervening space between Charlestown and 
 Pittsfield was, in 1775, free from the disturbing noises of railroads, 
 manufactories, and cities, which now abound. 1 
 
 1 Another remarkable instance of the transmission of sounds among the hills oc- 
 curred on the 26th of November, 1822. On that day, Samuel Charles, an Oneida 
 Indian, was hung at Lenox for the murder of a negro in Richmond ; and the 
 Berkshire Greys, a Pittsfield military company, attended as sheriff's guard. At 
 the hour fixed for the execution, Dr. Oliver S. Root was in a field, near where the 
 Medical College in Pittsfield now stands, when he heard the sound of a drum and 
 fife apparently close at hand. Surprised at the early return of the Greys, he went 
 to the brow of the declivity made by the road at that point, expecting to see them 
 on its southern slope, but was still more surprised when he found no signs of the 
 company there. It afterwards appeared, that it was at that moment just leaving 
 Gallows Hill, seven miles distant. On the same occasion, fishing-parties at the 
 north end of Pontoosuc Lake, ten miles from the place of execution, heard, as dis- 
 tinctly as though in the next street, the mournful strains as the procession wended 
 its melancholy way to the gallows, and the lively notes struck up on the return. 
 
 Since the above was written, I have seen an account in " The Springfield Repub- 
 lican," that persons in that city heard distinctly the sound of three explosions, 
 which, following each other in rapid succession, recently destroyed a powder-mill 
 at Poughkeepsie, N.Y. These instances go far to remove any improbability 
 which might otherwise attach to the old tradition.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. THE TORIES. BATTLES OF 
 WHITE PLAINS AND THE DELAWARE. 
 
 [1776-1777.] 
 
 King George's Name expunged from Military Commissions. The Town instructs 
 its Representative in Favor of Independence and a Free Republic. Committees 
 of Correspondence, etc. Their Rules of Practice. The Tories. The Hue 
 and Cry. Hiding-place of the Tories. The Ban of Community. Its 
 Euect illustrated by an Incident. John Graves aids the Escape of a Royal 
 Officer, and is punished therefor. An ex-post facto Fright. Infliction of 
 Confiscation and Banishment. Case of Elisha Jones and Others. Enlist- 
 ment of a Slave. Woodbridge Little and Israel Stoddard. Six Tories 
 induced by Energetic Measures to take the Oath of Allegiance. Anecdote of a 
 Soldier returned from a British Prison. Mr. Allen's Diary at White Plains. 
 Patterson's Regiment rejoins Washington. Its reduced Condition. 
 
 YOTED, That the field-officers proceed to regulate the North 
 District or Regiment with the erasement of George's 
 name." Such was the quiet resolution by which, on the 25th 
 of March, 1776, more than three months previous to the Dec- 
 laration of Independence, and two months before the famous 
 resolution of the Continental Congress, "that the exercise of 
 every kind of authority under the king ought to be suppressed," 
 the people of Pittsfield signified that they were done with his 
 Majesty King George the Third, and regarded him much as their 
 Puritan ancestors did " the man Charles." Independence was, with 
 them, a foregone conclusion ; and, for their part, they were sick of 
 the sham of fighting the king under his own commission. For the 
 person of the man George, it was absurd any longer to profess affec- 
 tion ; and they had early learned a theory of government which paid 
 hardly more regard to the royal office. They had also acquired 
 among the hills a habit of carrying political principles to their full 
 legitimate conclusions, with a hopeful belief that a higher Power 
 
 243
 
 244 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 would take care of the consequences, a habit and a pious faith 
 which we shall find them exercising in other relations of state, as 
 well as in this. 
 
 Having passed the vote which practically renounced all alle- 
 giance to the king, but which is recorded with no more note or 
 comment than that by which the same meeting enacted that 
 " hogs should not run at large," the town went on with its ordi- 
 nary business. Two months later, in May, it gave to Valentine 
 Rathbun, its representative in the General Court, the following 
 emphatic instruction : 
 
 " You shall, on no pretence whatever, favor a union with Great Britain, 
 as to becoming, in any sense, dependent upon her hereafter ; and we instruct 
 you to use your influence with the Honorable House, to notif lie Honorable 
 the Continental Congress that this whole Province is v , f,, r the im- 
 portant moment which they, in their great wisdom, s] al] .ippoint for the 
 Declaration of Independence and a free Republic" 
 
 A town thus impatient for the birth of thf Cation must have 
 hailed its actual occurrence with enthusiastic ' y. But no account 
 has been handed down, even by tradition, of the mode in which it 
 was celebrated. Even the great Declaration, which the O-jneral 
 Court ordered to be " spread upon the records of the sevr u towns 
 for a memorial forever," does not appear on tho 3 of i j ittsfield; 
 probably on account of the practice, to which ' a has been 
 made, of keeping the minutes of town-meetings xor a long while 
 upon loose sheets of paper. The permanent records at that time 
 appear to have been written up at long intervals. 
 
 The General Court having recently sanctioned the committees of 
 correspondence, inspection, and safety, consolidated them in one, 
 and ordered the towns to choose them annually, the Pittsfield 
 March meeting elected to tho office, Dea. Josiah Wright, Valen- 
 tine Rathbun, William Francis, Stephen Crofoot, Joseph Keilar, 
 William Barber,' and Aaron Baker : Capts. Eli Root, James Noble, 
 and John Strong were added at the May meeting. 1 
 
 1 The committees of subsequent years were as follows : 
 
 1777. Lieut. William Barber, Valentine Rathbnn, Col. John Brown, Capt. 
 Eli Root, Joshua Robbins, Dea. Josiah Wright, Capt. William Francis, Lebbeus 
 Backus, Lieut. Stephen Crofoot. 
 
 1778. Valentine Rathbun, Caleb Stanley, Lieut. Stephen Crofoot, Dea. Josiah 
 Wright, Capt. William Francis, Lieut. Rufus Allen, Lebbeus Backus. Re-elected 
 in 1779.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSF1ELD. 245 
 
 The unhappy Tories who were " handled," as it was quaintly 
 phrased, by the Revolutionary comrnittees, were never satisfied, 
 whoever might compose them; but they took advantage of the 
 change of persons to demur to the jurisdiction of the new body in 
 cases commenced before the old ; whereupon the committee made 
 application to the town, at its March meeting, for " directions how 
 to recover pay for handling persons that appeared inimical to their 
 country." The subject was referred to Valentine Rathbun, David 
 Bush, William Francis, William Williams, Charles Goodrich, James 
 Noble, and John Strong, on whose report the town determined, 
 
 " First, That said committees, consisting, or having consisted, of whom 
 they may, are one and the same, from their first appointment to this day ; 
 and that all their transactions and determinations ought to be considered the 
 acts and proceedings of an adjourned court ; consequently, all matters and 
 things that have not been finally determined, still have day with them ; and, 
 if there be any matters and things before them that are not yet determined 
 upon, they, the committee as it now stands, have as full power and author- 
 ity to act upon them as ever they had ; and if any person upon trial ap- 
 peared inimical to his country, or hereafter upon trial shall appear so, they 
 are hereby empowered, so far as our united influence can support them, to tax 
 such persons for their time therein expended on trial, and all other necessary 
 charges, and, on refusal, to be committed to the common jail, or be other- 
 wise confined, till the same be paid ; and, in all other respects, to deal with 
 them, as to punishment, according to the direction of the Continental Con- 
 gress, Provincial Congress, or General Assembly. 
 
 Second. Voted, That if said committee shall apprehend and convene 
 before them any person or persons whom they suspect to be inimical to their 
 country, or to be guilty of any other misdemeanor, and upon trial are found 
 innocent, in that case the said committee have no pay for their time or cost. 
 
 Third. Voted, That if any complaint shall be brought before said com- 
 mittee by any person or persons, and supported, then the offender shall 
 pay all costs, and, refusing, shall be confined in the common jail, or else- 
 where, until he comply and pay the cost, together with the confinement, with 
 the costs thereof ; and, in case any complainant shall not support his com- 
 plaint, said complainant shall be holden to pay all costs, and, on his refusal, 
 shall be holden and committed as aforesaid." 
 
 These rules, perhaps, made as fair a provision for impartial jus- 
 tice as could be then attained ; but it still left an inducement for 
 
 1780. Lieut. Stephen Crofoot, Col. John Brown, Col. James Easton, Capt. 
 Eli Root, Capt. William Francis. 
 
 The State Constitution being adopted in 1780, no more committees of this 
 character were chosen.
 
 246 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 the committee, sitting as judges, to sustain their own suspicions as 
 prosecutors, and thus obtain their costs. The confusion of func- 
 tions rendered this difficulty inevitable. 
 
 The period from the spring of 1776 until the victories at Saratoga 
 in Oct. 1, 1777, was one of those in which the spirit of Tory- 
 ism was most rampant in Berkshire and the neighboring districts. 
 The miserable failure of the Canada expedition, from which so 
 much had reasonably been expected, spread dissension and 
 mutual distrust in the Whig ranks, disheartening the patriots, and 
 giving courage to those " inimical to their country." The Declara- 
 tion of Independence, while it gave firmness and consistency to 
 the Whig party, and inspirited its clear-sighted and determined 
 members, disaffected not a few half-hearted men, who could not 
 even yet admit the impossibility of reconciliation with the mother 
 country upon honorable terms, or who, weary of the conflict, were 
 willing to seize upon any pretext for abandoning it. The disasters 
 to the army of Washington near New York, which looked more 
 like utter ruin and disintegration than simple defeat, spread a 
 gloom over the country, so discouraging that many were seduced 
 by the liberal offers of pardon and favor which the royal com- 
 manders extended ; and the danger that the defection would 
 become infectious was so great that the sternest measures for its 
 repression were justified. Of those measures, the favorite was to 
 place the offender under the ban of the community, by proclaiming 
 him in the public prints to be an enemy of his country, and raising 
 the hue and cry upon him. 1 The effect of this proceeding was to 
 deprive the culprit of the protection which law and public senti- 
 ment ordinarily accord against petty depredations and annoy- 
 ances, and, holding him up to the contempt and hatred of his 
 
 1 The hue and cry was not literally a pursuit with shout and halloo, although 
 that sometimes came of it ; but an advertisement, like the following from " The 
 Hartford Courant : " 
 
 " Whereas, Major Israel Btoddard and Woodbridge Little, Esq., both of Pittsfield, in the 
 county of Berkshire, have fled from their respective homes, and are justly esteemed the 
 common pests of society, and incurable enemies of their country, and are supposed to be 
 somewhere in New-York government, moving sedition and rebellion against their country, 
 it is hereby recommended to all friends of American liberty, and to all who do not delight in 
 the innocent blood of their countrymen, to exert themselves, that they may be taken into 
 custody, and committed to some of his Majesty's jails, till the civil war, which has broken 
 out in this Province shall be ended. 
 
 " By order of the Committees of Inspection in the towns of Pittsfleld, Richmond, and 
 Lenox. JOHN BROWN. 
 
 " PITTSFIELD, April 27, 1775."
 
 HISTORY OP PITTSFIELD. 247 
 
 neighbors, to invoke upon him those petty and irritating persecu- 
 tions which the baser sort of villagers are at all times sufficiently 
 prone to visit upon the objects of their dislike. It further ex- 
 cluded Tories from intercourse with each other, and from business 
 communication with all ; and placed them under the strict surveil- 
 lance of the committee's police, and the jealous watchfulness of a 
 suspicious public. Fines and costs of court were the inevitable 
 concomitants of this state of ban ; and the sufferer might think 
 himself lucky if he escaped imprisonment. On the frequent occa- 
 sions when public feeling was roused by the approach of invasion, 
 when rumors of treasonable plots were rife, or when news of such 
 Tory atrocities as the massacre of Wyoming were received, then 
 it behooved the loyalist, however circumspect his conduct had 
 been, and however little implicated in political intrigues, to beware. 
 
 Many of those in Pittsfield, in anticipation of unwelcome visits 
 at times like these, prepared themselves hiding-places. That of 
 "Woodbridge Little was in the open space left, according to cus- 
 tom, around the chimney of old-fashioned houses. The cottage 
 occupied by Mr. Little is still standing in good preservation, being 
 the pretty residence of Mr. F. C. Peck, where the Tory's hiding- 
 place may still be seen. One of the brothers Ashley the only 
 Tories in The West Part had his refuge in a crevice among the 
 rocks, at the base of the Taconics, known as the Diamond Cave. 
 Another was accustomed to fly to a cavern in the rocky banks of 
 Roaring Brook, in New Lenox. 
 
 An instance of the minor troubles to which "inimical persons" 
 were liable is related of Ashley. West Street, on which he re- 
 sided, is legally seven rods wide ; but less than one-half that width 
 suffices for the purposes of travel, and, from time immemorial, it 
 has been the privilege of the farmers on each side to mow and some- 
 times to cultivate the superfluous space. In early times, it was per- 
 mitted them to enclose their crops until harvest. This Ashley, 
 in 1776, had done with the portion which lay along his farm ; and it 
 was covered with a fine growth of corn, when, for some reason 
 he went into hiding. But unluckily for him, while thus absent, 
 a party of young ploughmen took their nooning near by; and one 
 of them, of mischievous wit, suggested that it would never do 
 to permit such encroachments upon the highway, especially by 
 a Tory, and that it was no more than their duty to maintain 
 the rights of the town. No second suggestion was needed. "In
 
 248 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 the twinkling of a goad-stick," says the rustic tradition, "the fence 
 was on the original limits ; " and the cattle of the neighborhood 
 feasted that afternoon at the expense of George's friend. But 
 the end was not yet. That night the volunteer conservators of 
 the integrity of the highway carelessly left their plough standing 
 in the field; and, on the next morning, the tongue was found to have 
 been chopped completely off. It had been hacked and mangled in 
 a manner which showed it to have been the work of weak hands ; 
 and, as it was known that only Ashley's wife and daughters were at 
 the house, there was no difficulty in fixing upon the authors of the 
 mutilation. A "council of war" was at once called ; and the party 
 proceeded to the house, where, undeterred by the screams of the 
 girls, they searched until the mother was dragged from the 
 closet in which she had ensconced herself, when they escorted 
 the frightened dame to one of the horse-blocks, which, for the 
 convenience of mounting pillions, then stood before every door. 
 On this they compelled her to stand while the plough was brought, 
 and its wounds bound up in bandages, as if it were a mangled 
 human limb. 
 
 When overt acts of treason against the liberties of America 
 were proved, the punishment was more severe. In May, 1776, 
 John Graves, son of Moses, 1 aided in the escape of Capt. McKay, 
 an officer of the royal artillery, and his servant, one McFarlane, 
 from the Hartford jail ; which must have been effected in some 
 mysterious way, the doors and windows being afterwards found 
 secured as usual. Graves piloted the fugitives through the 
 country, lodging at the house of fellow Tories, until he reached 
 Pittsfield. Here they recruited at the house of Graves and his 
 brother, who furnished them with horses, with which they set out 
 in the hope of reaching Canada. But at Lanesborough they 
 were suspected, knocked down, and, according to their own story, 
 "beaten and abused in the grossest manner after being tied." 2 
 That was not the manner of " the country fellows " of that 
 section ; and the probability is, that Capt. McKay, who was a 
 brave and spirited man, resisted his captors strenuously, and got 
 soundly mauled for his pains. 
 
 Be that as it may, the recapture created a sensation in the neigh- 
 
 1 Brother of the Moses Graves known to the last Pittsfield generation. 
 
 2 Major French's Journal, Coll. Conn. Hist. Soc., vol. i. p. 207.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 249 
 
 borhood, and Graves was sent back with his friends. An ex- 
 amination showed that he was not only concerned in McKay's 
 escape, but had made two similar trips between Pittsfield and 
 Hartford. The Connecticut committee, however, thought that, 
 although he had committed an offence in that colony, it was better 
 that he should be tried at home, and wrote to the Massachusetts 
 Board of War a letter in which they described him as " appearing 
 to be a low-spirited, insidious fellow, and to entertain strong prej- 
 udices against the liberties of America." * The board ordered 
 the sheriff of Berkshire to receive and commit him for trial. 2 He 
 was finally banished. An anecdote connected with this affair 
 illustrates the feeling of the people towards the Tories. McKay 
 was entertained at Stockbridge by Gideon Smith, a notorious 
 loyalist ; and, the fact coming to the knowledge of the committee, 
 it was deemed necessary to "handle " him. The hue and cry was 
 raised ; and a party, of which Sharpshooter Linus Parker was one, 
 repaired to the delinquent's house. His family reported him not 
 at home ; but the seekers, confident that he was secreted in the 
 barn, summoned him, with a promise of quarter, to surrender. 
 Upon this he appeared at a half-open door, peered curiously around, 
 and, after some parley, came out and gave himself up. Smith and 
 Parker were, nevertheless, on very friendly terms ; and after the 
 war, the former being, with his wife, on a visit to the latter's 
 house, Smith reverted to the incident described, and said that 
 when he opened the door of the' barn, being an extraordinary 
 runner, he felt certain of effecting his escape ; but, seeing Parker 
 with his famous rifle in hand, he was afraid to make the attempt. 
 " And now, Parker," said he, " I want to know if you would really 
 have shot me." " As quick as I ever shot a deer ! " was the reply. 
 "Then it would have been all over with me," said his friend, 
 trembling with emotion at the memory of the danger he had 
 escaped. 
 
 Confiscation and banishment were inflicted in several instances ; 
 but generally those who receive 1 these punishments had already 
 joined the king's forces. In 1778, the General Court passed "an 
 act to prevent the return to the State of certain persons who had 
 left it, or either of the United States, and joined the enemies 
 thereof." The list of those thus proscribed contained, in all, three 
 
 1 Mass. Ar., vol. clxv. 2 Mass. Ar., vol. ccs. p. 270.
 
 250 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 hundred and eight names, of which the following were from 
 Pittsfield: Jonathan Prindle, Benjamin Noble, Francis Noble, 
 Elisha Jones, John Graves, and Daniel Brewer. Francis Noble 
 settled at St. John, New Brunswick, and was one of the refugees 
 to whom the lands upon which that city is built were granted, in 
 compensation for their sufferings for the Crown. His twin brother, 
 Benjamin, was banished at the same time, and repaired to New 
 York, where he was killed before the return of peace. 1 
 
 The commencement of Jones's troubles has been related. 2 In 
 May, 1776, the Pittsfield committee, "in observance of an order 
 from the Great and General Court, dated April 23, directing 
 them to take possession of all the estates of absconding Tories," 
 made return, as regarded Jones, that " they had the greatest reason 
 to think he had fled to the ministerial army, and joined the same 
 against the Colonies," and that they had accordingly " taken pos- 
 session of his real and personal estate." The former embraced 
 three hundred acres of land and four lots, upon one of which was 
 the homestead, a very superior farm-house, on Wendell Square ; 
 and, on another, saw and grist mills. These they had leased, ac- 
 cording to the legislative order, for one year from April, " with 
 some small reserve for the proper support of Mrs. Mehitable Jones, 
 wife of said Elisha, and their six children." An inventory of the 
 personal property "found in the hands and possession of the said 
 Mehitable " was also returned ; and in the list are enumerated 
 " one negro man named Prince, about twenty-four years old, who 
 left his master Jones about a year ago, and enlisted in Col. Sar- 
 gent's regiment, 8 and Titus, negro boy, aged eleven." 
 
 Woodbridge Little and Israel Stoddard, after their experience in 
 the spring of 1775, had maintained a circumspect course, and, as 
 they claimed, complied outwardly with all the requirements of the 
 national and State legislatures. But they had been watched with 
 suspicious jealousy by the local committees : and a post-bag, which 
 passed secretly back and forth between the Tories of* Berkshire 
 and their friends in New-York City, was captured by High Sheriff 
 Israel Dickinson ; 4 and the contents showed that all the loyalists 
 
 1 Sabine's American Loyalists. 
 
 2 See chap. xiii. 
 
 8 Enlisted as Prince Hall. In 1772, Jones advertised two runaway mulatto 
 slaves in the " Courant." 
 
 4 This post-bag is still in possession of the sheriff's grandson, Israel Dickinson, 
 Esq., of Lafayette, Ind.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 251 
 
 of the county, for some purposes at least, were closely banded in a 
 secret organization, the high with the low ; those who outwardly 
 maintained a show of respect for the Revolutionary authorities, 
 as well as those who malignantly opposed them. Probably on ac- 
 count of the evidence thus obtained, Messrs. Little and Stoddard 
 were " handled " with a severity from which they appealed to the 
 powers at Boston. But, in the spring of 1777, the increasing de- 
 pression of American affairs, and the dangers which threatened 
 the patriotic cause, still more emboldened the Tories, who had, 
 through the disasters of the previous year, been gaining confidence, 
 and showing themselves in their true colors ; so that it became 
 necessary to deal with them in earnest. And, in June, William 
 Williams, John Brown, and Stephen Crofoot, selectmen of Pitts- 
 field, being, as they declared, " obliged thereto by an act of the 
 General Court," called a town meeting for the express " purpose 
 of discovering who are the internal enemies of this and the other 
 United States of America," and also "to hear what Jonathan 
 Hobby and Jonathan Weston have to offer." 
 
 This action brought matters to a crisis ; and, at the meeting, 
 "Woodbridge Little, Israel Stoddard, Moses Graves, J. Hobby, J. 
 Weston, and Joseph Clark made their appearance before the town, 
 and upon their confession, declaration, and taking the oath of al- 
 legiance to the United Independent States of America, were re- 
 ceived as the friends of these States." The allegiance thus sworn 
 appears to have been faithfully maintained ; and Mr. Little, at least, 
 received the favor and confidence of his fellow-citizens, being 
 elected selectman, and delegate to the county conventions in 1781 
 and subsequent years, and representative in 1788, 1789, and 1790. 
 
 But this happy reconciliation was preceded by an incident of 
 not so pleasant or creditable a character. Under the orders of the 
 legislature, fifteen Tories were arrested, and placed under guard at 
 the tavern of Col. Easton ; and it is related that a soldier, whose 
 temper had been soured by ill-treatment when a prisoner in the 
 hands of the enemy, 1 begged the privilege of standing sentinel 
 over them. His request being granted, he imposed perfect silence 
 upon those under his charge, and prohibited intercourse among 
 them on penalty of instant death. On the slightest pretence of in- 
 fraction of his orders, he presented his loaded musket at the head 
 
 1 In the diary of Mr. Allen, the return of several soldiers, broken down by the 
 cruelties practised in the British prison-ships, is noted.
 
 252 HISTOBY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 of one or another of the frightened party. It was evident that the 
 man was seeking a pretext for killing one of them ; and the greatest 
 terror prevailed, especially, it is said, on the part of Mr. Little. It 
 is to be hoped that so ill qualified a guardsman was relieved as 
 soon as the facts came to the knowledge of his officers. 
 
 During the military operations in Westchester County, after the 
 retreat from Long Island in the fall of 1776, Col. Simonds of Wil- 
 liamstown led a corps of levies from the three Berkshire regiments 
 to re-enforce the army of Washington. Of this regiment, which 
 served from the 30th of September until the 17th of August, 
 Rev. Thomas Allen was chaplain ; and Pittsfield also contributed 
 Lieut. William Barber and fifteen men to its ranks. We know 
 nothing of its service there except what is contained in the follow- 
 ing extract from Mr. Allen's diary, regarding the battle of White 
 Plains, and the few days immediately preceding it : 
 
 " WEDNESDAY, Oct. 23. This day I went with Rev. Mr. May and Dr. 
 Guitteau, to Frog's Neck, and brought off a colt. On our return, I saw our 
 men bringing in a Hessian on a sort of bier, who was wounded in the leg. 
 There had been an action just before between a party of our men and the 
 enemy, of whom we killed ten or twenty, and took two prisoners. The 
 wounded Hessian's leg was broken ; and, as our men brought him in, the sur- 
 rounding multitude behaved in the most rude, inhuman, and unmanly man- 
 ner ; some calling out, " Dash out his brains," others damning him, and 
 still others upbraiding and insulting him in an indecent manner. But the 
 poor Hessian behaved like a man, and pulled off his hat to the multitude. 
 He was a rifleman, dressed in green, faced with white, and wore a green 
 cockade upon his hat. He was of dark complexion, caused, I suppose, by 
 the long passage which he had of twenty weeks, he having arrived but three 
 weeks before. 
 
 " THURSDAY, Oct. 24. At night, struck our tents, and moved up four 
 miles towards White Plains. This night, encamped without a tent upon the 
 ground. 
 
 " FRIDAY, Oct. 25. All day under arms, in expectation of an attack from 
 the enemy, who now appeared, paraded in sight, marching and counter- 
 marching. A great battle appeared to be at the door. This night, also, lay 
 on the ground, under a brush shelter. 
 
 " SATURDAY, Oct. 26. The sun rose clear. The enemy near ; a great bat- 
 tle drawing on. Our soldiers this morning brought in a regular, James Marrow, 
 of the Thirty-fifth Regiment. Gen. Leslie commands the brigade ; Col. Kerr 
 commands the Thirty-fifth Regiment, one of the four which make up the 
 brigade. This soldier affirms that the regulars' muskets were all charged ; 
 and it was his opinion they would attack us before to-morrow mornin^. He
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 253 
 
 further deposed that there were ten brigades of regulars in this neighbor- 
 hood. Yesterday forgot to dine ; to-day made an excellent dinner on bread 
 and butter only, being in continual expectation of a cannonade from the 
 enemy, who lay in plain sight, at the distance of a little more than half a 
 mile. Kindled up the fires at dark ; and, soon after, began our retreat, with 
 Gen. Bell's brigade, in most excellent order, keeping out on flank guard. 
 
 "LORD'S DAY, Oct. 27. Arrived at break of day at White Plains, hav- 
 ing performed a march of above twelve miles in the night. Lay down after 
 daylight for sleep on the ground. This day, thirteen Hessian prisoners 
 were taken, and two were killed. Yesterday, Dr. Danielson, surgeon's mate 
 to Dr. Mather, was killed within our encampment on Valentine's Hill. He 
 refusing to stop, they fired upon him, and he fell dead. Dr. Wright of 
 New Marlboro' was buried this day at White Plains. Such a confused Sab- 
 bath I never before saw. This day encamped on White Plains, in our tent 
 again, having been marvellously preserved in our retreat. 
 
 " MONDAY, Oct. 28. About nine o'clock, A.M., the enemy and our out- 
 parties were engaged. About ten, they appeared in plain sight, filing off in 
 columns to the left and towards our right wing, but no additional force of 
 ours was as yet directed that way. At length, the enemy came up with our 
 right wing, and a most furious engagement ensued, by cannonade and small 
 arms, which lasted towards two hours. Our wing was situated on a hill, and 
 consisted of, perhaps, something more than one brigade of Maryland forces. 
 The cannonade and small arms played most furiously, without cessation ; 
 I judged more than twenty cannon a minute. At length, a re-enforcement 
 of Gen. Bell's brigade was ordered from an adjacent hill, where I was. I 
 had an inclination to go with them to the hill where the conflict was raging, 
 that I might more distinctly see the battle, and perhaps contribute my mite 
 to our success. Just as we begun to ascend the hill, we found our men had 
 given away, and were coming off the hill in some confusion, at which 
 moment elevated shot from the enemy's camp came into the valley, where 
 we were, very thickly, one of which took off the fore part of a man's foot, 
 about three rods from me, of which I had a distinct view, as would be sup- 
 posed. I saw the ball strike and the man fall ; and, as none appeared for 
 bis help, I desired five or six of those who had been in battle to carry him 
 off. Others I saw carrying off wounded in different parts ; and, with the rest, 
 I retreated again to the main body on the hill, which was fortified, from 
 which I had just before descended. Our men fought with great bravery : 
 they generally, one with another, shot seven cartridges before they were 
 ordered to retreat. They were sore galled by the enemy's field-pieces. Our 
 loss in killed, wounded, and missing, from the best information 1 can obtain, 
 is about two hundred. The enemy's loss "... 
 
 The fragment of Mr. Allen's diary closes here. 
 
 In November, at about the time when Col. Simonds's regiment
 
 254 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 returned to Berkshire, that of Col. Patterson, leaving its fatal en- 
 campment at Mount Independence, repaired to Albany, where it 
 took shipping for Esopus, on the Hudson. Marching thence across 
 the country, it joined Washington at Newtown, Pa., just in season 
 to take part in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. 
 
 But such had been the sufferings of the corps, that leaving 
 Washington at New York, on the 21st of April, a well-appointed 
 regiment more than six hundred strong, it returned to him in No- 
 vember with barely two -hundred and twenty men, many of whom 
 were greatly enfeebled ; and yet it had seen less than two months' 
 service in the field. Of the brave men who were missed from its 
 ranks, some were invalided at home; but the greater portion, 
 victims of disease, battle, or the tomahawk of the lurking savage, 
 were in their graves, if graves were accorded them.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 PITTSFIELD IN THE SECOND CANADA CAMPAIGN. ARNOLD'S PERSE- 
 CUTION OF BROWN AND EASTON. 
 
 [SEPTEMBER, 1775-1778.] 
 
 Arnold arrives at Quebec. Montgomery arrives. Projected Assault on the 
 City. Brown charged with creating Dissensions. The Charge considered. 
 Assault on Quebec. Death of Montgomery. Arnold continues the 
 Siege. Brown's the most advanced Post. Expects to be a Uriah there. 
 Small-Pox in the Army. Attempt to set up Inoculation in Pittsfield. Pat- 
 terson's Regiment marches to Canada. In the Affair of the Cedars. Evac- 
 uation of Canada. Miserable Condition of the Army at Crown Point. 
 Schuyler and the Berkshire Committees. Arnold's Charges against Brown 
 and Easton. They demand a Court of Inquiry. Singular Difficulty in 
 obtaining it. Brown impeaches Arnold of Treason and other Crimes. 
 Appeals to the Public. Publishes a Hand-Bill against Arnold. Remarkable 
 Interview between Brown and Arnold. An ex-parte Trial. Gross Injustice 
 to Brown. His spirited Remonstrance and Resignation. 
 
 ~T7\ ARLY in August, 1775, Washington found that he could very 
 iU -well spare from the army at Cambridge a detachment of a 
 thousand or twelve hundred men, 1 for a movement against Quebec 
 by the way of the Kennebec River. This expedition had been 
 sufwested by Col. Brewer of Massachusetts ; but the commander- 
 
 * 
 
 in-chief placed at its head Arnold, who was at Cambridge, filling 
 the camp with his loud-mouthed complaints of the treatment 
 which he had received at Ticonderoga. 
 
 The little army which was intrusted to him consisted of two 
 regiments of infantry and three companies of rifles, about eleven 
 hundred men in all. 2 Leaving Cambridge on the 15th of Septem- 
 
 1 Am. Ar., 4th ser. vol. iii. p. 214. 
 
 2 Jabez Chandler (?), John Gardner, and Jonathan Bill enlisted out of Capt. 
 Noble's minute-men into Arnold's expedition. 
 
 255
 
 256 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 her, it arrived at Point Levi, opposite Quebec, on the 9th of 
 November, with less than nine hundred effective men, who, in 
 their march through the wilderness, had endured the severest 
 suffering, and encountered innumerable dangers. 
 
 Eager to obtain distinction for himself, Arnold made some bold 
 demonstrations against the city ; but, learning that Carleton was 
 approaching from Montreal, he retreated to Point Aux-Trembles, 
 on the St. Lawrence, twenty miles above Quebec, where, on the 
 1st of December, Montgomery, with a beggai-ly remnant of the 
 army of St. Johns, arrived, and took command of the combined 
 forces, numbering not so many effective men in . all as Arnold had 
 brought with him to Point Levi : so rapidly were their battalions 
 reduced by the expiration of enlistments and by disease. 
 
 Montgomery soon discovered that an attempt to enter Quebec 
 by storm was a necessity ; and a plan was arranged of which the 
 essential points were simultaneous night-assaults upon the upper 
 and lower towns, by divisions led respectively by Montgomery 
 and Arnold in person, with feints in two other quarters. But the 
 general was greatly chagrined, when the corps selected for the 
 attack were ordered to report for that duty, to find three compa- 
 nies of Arnold's detachment refusing to serve under him, although 
 eager for service in either of the other parties. Montgomery had 
 been greatly struck with the superior discipline and subordination 
 which Arnold's troops exhibited in contrast to his own, and was 
 loath to encourage a proceeding which might lead to deterioration 
 in qualities the lack of which he had deeply felt in his own com- 
 mand; and he was, moreover, convinced that the dissatisfied com- 
 panies had no just cause of complaint against their commander. He 
 therefore refused to make the change which they demanded ; but 
 their dissatisfaction was so great, that the proposed plan of assault 
 was abandoned. 
 
 Montgomery attributed the disaffection of the three compa- 
 nies to a certain " Capt. , who had incurred Arnold's dis- 
 pleasure," and to a field-officer, who, as he thought, desired sep- 
 arate command of the recusant corps; and he added, "I am much 
 
 afraid my friend is deeply concerned in this business. I 
 
 will have an eclaircissement with him on the subject." The names 
 given in blank are carefully erased in the original letter ; 1 but it has 
 
 1 Am. Ar., 4th ser. vol: iv. p. 754.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 257 
 
 been assumed that the friend alluded to was Col. Brown, and that 
 lie was actually the originator of the trouble. There are many 
 circumstances to favor the supposition that his name should 
 actually fill the blank, although there is no evidence of it. But it 
 will be observed, that the general expresses only a suspicion, which 
 the eclaircissement which he intended might have entirely re- 
 moved. If it had been well grounded, it could not have escaped 
 the knowledge of the vigilant Arnold, who, if he had been able to 
 prove so serious a military offence, would not have failed to make 
 it prominent among the charges which he brought against his 
 enemy in the acrimonious controversy which they carried on for 
 the ensuing two years. So reckless was he in his accusations, 
 that one cannot believe he would have waited even fora semblance 
 of proof, had the rumor come to his ears, that Major Brown had 
 been guilty of a crime so odious to every commander, and espe- 
 cially to Washington and Schuyler, as incitement to mutiny. 
 
 Brown had had opportunity, in private life, before the war, to 
 obtain an insight into the vileness of Arnold's character, 1 and had 
 learned him thoroughly. After-intercourse had revealed to him in 
 the officer the same selfish wickedness which had characterized the 
 jockey and tradesman. He was informed of his petty embezzle- 
 ment of the wages he had "humbly engaged to see paid" to 
 Capt. Noble's poor Pittsfield soldiers; he was familiar with the 
 arrogance, slanderous malignity, and even worse, which he had 
 manifested at Ticonderoga ; and he fully believed that the in- 
 cipient traitor, after learning that the Massachusetts committee 
 would refuse him the place he claimed there, would, had he 
 not been prevented by Col. Easton with a strong hand, have 
 betrayed the little flotilla to the British commandant at St. Johns. 
 
 With this opinion of Arnold, Major Brown dreaded the conse- 
 quences of the favor which so dangerous a man was winning with 
 his superior officers. His deep feeling upon this point had been 
 freely communicated to his friend and general, and hence prob- 
 ably, if Brown was the person alluded to in Montgomery's last 
 letter, arose his fear that one whom he loved and esteemed had 
 been so imprudent as to tamper with Arnold's soldiers. Col. 
 Brown's subsequent heroic and patriotic subordination of his just 
 
 1 His brothei>in-law and legal preceptor, Oliver Arnold, was first cousin to 
 the traitor. 
 
 17
 
 258 EflSTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 sense of his own personal rights to the interest of his country 
 renders it impossible to believe that he was guilty of the conduct 
 of which he was hastily suspected. 
 
 ' As the time approached when the term for which Col. Easton's 
 men had enlisted would expire, Gen. Montgomery urged Mnjor 
 Brown to remain in the service, and attempt to raise a regiment 
 from those about to be disbanded from his own and other corps. 
 Brown consented ; and, considering the difficulties which lay in his 
 way, mustered a respectable number of men, among whom Capt. 
 Eli Root, Lieut. Joel Dickinson, and Lieut. Joseph Allen, with six 
 privates, enrolled themselves, on the 1st of January, as from 
 Pittsfield, which sent four additional men on the 23d of the same 
 month. 
 
 Col. Easton's regiment was discharged on the 31st of December. 
 On the day previous, the disastrous assault on Quebec, which 
 cost the American armies the noble Montgomery, was made. The 
 troops were ordered to parade at two o'clock in the morning. 
 The first division, commanded by Montgomery in person, com- 
 prised the New-York regiments and part of Col. Easton's; the 
 second, under Arnold, embraced the detachment he had brought 
 from Cambridge, and Lamb's artillery. Besides these were Liv- 
 ingston's small corps, and a detachment of ninety-four men from 
 Major Brown's newly-organized battalion, under command of 
 Capt. Jacob Brown. 1 
 
 The four divisions paraded separately; and the two latter 
 amused the enemy, while Montgomery and Arnold led the real 
 assaults at divers points. We need not enter into the sad details. 
 Montgomery fell mortally wounded, while gallantly fighting at 
 the head of his men. Arnold, while no less gallantly leading his, 
 was wounded in the leg, and carried off the field. The attack was 
 abandoned. By the death of Montgomery, Gen. Wooster suc- 
 ceeded to the chief command in Canada ; but kept his quarters 
 quietly during the winter at Montreal, while Arnold doggedly 
 maintained the siege of Quebec, chiefly by keeping up a blockade 
 which excluded supplies. Carleton, confident of his ability to hold 
 out until the breaking-up of the ice in the spring should permit 
 re-enforcements from England to reach him, as doggedly defended 
 his position within the walls. 
 
 1 Capt. Jacob Brown was brother of the major, and father-in-law of David 
 Bush of Pittsfield.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 259 
 
 During this winter's siege, Col. Brown was posted with his regi- 
 ment at the advance post, within cannon-shot of the city forti- 
 fications. " A plenty of thirty-six-pound balls," said he, in a letter 
 of Feb. 7 to his father, "come to our door without hands: 
 two of them we use for hand-irons." In a letter of March 15 to 
 his wife, he expressed great pleasure in a rumor that Gen. Lee 
 was near at hand. " Gen. Arnold and I," said he, " do not agree 
 very well. I expect another storm soon, and that I must be a 
 Uriah. We had [manuscript illegible] yesterday. The enemy 
 made a sally on our working-party, it was said with five hundred 
 men. Gen. Arnold immediately ordered me, being on the 
 advance post, to attack them with my detachment, which consists 
 of about two hundred men, more than half of whom were sick 
 in hospital. I accordingly marched against the enemy, who re- 
 tired into their fort too soon for me to attack them. I expect to 
 be punished for disobedience of orders next. ... I suppose all 
 letters are broken open before they reach the Colonies ; but as this 
 goes by a friend, Capt. Pixley, it will come safe." 
 
 New England having responded to an earnest appeal for re- 
 enforcements, Gen. Wooster's force was, by the 1st of April, in- 
 creased to three thousand men, of whom, however, about eight 
 hundred lay sick with small-pox. No preventive was then known 
 for this malady, then the most dreaded of pestilences, except 
 inoculation of the patient with its own virus, after his system had 
 undergone a severe regimen and a peculiar medical treatment. 
 Those who submitted to this process generally survived the ordeal ; 
 but a 'considerable percentage died, and all were subjected to 
 more or less suffering. There was, besides, great danger, that, from 
 the inoculating pest-houses, the disease might extend to the sur- 
 rounding community. 
 
 There was, therefore, the most intense prejudice against the 
 practice in the minds of the people ; and the special vote of the 
 town, which was required before it was permitted, was always 
 obtained with the utmost difficulty, and accompanied by the most 
 stringent restrictions, which the physicians were required to give 
 bond to respect, while a committee of the most prudent citizens 
 was appointed to supervise their conduct. Even this, indeed, was 
 a revolutionary assumption of authority on the part of the towns, 
 for there was a law of the Province prohibiting inoculation, except 
 in the town of Boston; and the Council in July, 1776, expressed
 
 260 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 their unwillingness to credit the report that Gen. Ward had granted 
 liberty to some of the Continental troops to receive it at Winter 
 Hill, to the great dread of the good people of Medford. 1 
 
 In the spring of 1774, Dr. Childs, foreseeing the war, and antici- 
 pating the infection to which the army would be exposed, asked 
 permission " to set up inoculation " in Pittsfield ; but it was refused. 
 He renewed his application with increased earnestness before the 
 town-meeting of April, 1775, which again denied him. It was not 
 until after sad experience, that in September, 1776, the requisite 
 license was accorded, and then only with hesitancy, and accom- 
 panied by the most embarrassing conditions. Only those who had 
 the thoughtfulness, as well as the means, to visit other places for 
 the purpose, went to the war protected against the fearful con- 
 tagion. Rev. Mr. Allen, on entering the service, visited Sheffield, 
 and there submitted to inoculation. 
 
 Patterson's regiment, in the latter part of April, proceeded to 
 Canada via New York and the Hudson; and a detachment of 
 sixty-seven, taken from several of its companies, were included in 
 the cowardly capitulation at the Cedars, where, on the 19th of 
 May, three hundred and ninety-six Americans were surrendered by 
 Major Butterfield to Capt. Foster, who led a force of forty British 
 regulars, one hundred Canadians, and five hundred Indians, the 
 latter commanded by Brant in person. Major Sherburn, arriving 
 near the scene soon after the surrender, having been sent to the 
 relief of Butterfield, fell into an ambuscade, and, after making a 
 splendid fight, was also obliged to capitulate. But Foster, in vio- 
 lation of the terms he had granted, permitted his savages to plun- 
 der both detachments of the American prisoners, and to murder 
 many of Sherburn's corps, which lost in the battle and the massacre 
 fifty-eight men. In Butterfield's detachment were two of Capt. 
 Noble's company, Elisha Kingsley and Tristram Story. 
 
 Burgoyne arriving early in May, with succor for Quebec, the 
 Americans were compelled to retreat, and soon entirely to evacuate 
 Canada. All that dash and enthusiasm, inspired by a reasonable 
 hope of great results, in spite of imperfect discipline, meagre 
 numbers, and the scantiest appointments, had enabled the army 
 of 1775 to win, was lost in a few brief weeks of 1776. 
 
 The remnant of the retreating forces reached Crown Point in 
 
 1 Am. Ar., 5th ser. vol. i. p. 146.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELI}. 261 
 
 June, in a state of demoralization which is thus vividly and truth- 
 fully depicted in a letter of John Adams, dated July 7 : 
 
 " Our army at Crown Point is an object of wretchedness, enough to fill a 
 humane mind with horror: disgraced, defeated, discontented, dispirited, 
 diseased, naked, undisciplined, eaten up with vermin, no clothes, beds, blan- 
 kets, no medicine, no victuals but salt pork and flour. ... I hope that 
 measures will be taken to cleanse the army at Crown Point from the small- 
 pox ; and that other measures will be taken in New England, by tolerating 
 and encouraging inoculation, to render the disease less terrible. 
 
 Capt. Noble, of the minute-men of 1775, died at Crown Point 
 from the secondary effects of small-pox, having previously written 
 home the following letter, which finds its illustration in the above 
 extract from Mr. Adams's : 
 
 CROWN POINT, July 1, 1776. 
 
 DEAR WIFE, I would inform you, that, through Divine Providence, I 
 am alive, but not over-well ; for by reason of hard fatigue before I had the 
 small-pox, by marching and unsuitable diet, the distemper has left me in a 
 poor state of health, though I had it very light. Ten days ago I was sent, 
 with the sick, from Isle Aux-Noix to this place, and have grown worse rather 
 than better since I came here. Our army is very distressed by reason of the 
 small-pox. We have had four thousand sick at once. I have not lost one of 
 my company, though some of us had it very severe. Sergeant Colefix is 
 now very bad, and it is doubtful if he ever recovers. I had two men taken 
 by the Indians in Major Sherburn's party, which are redeemed; and one 
 Samuel Merry, of my company, is either killed or taken by the regulars, 
 going down on a raft from Montreal to Sorel. The distress of our sick is so 
 unaccountable that I cannot paint it out by pen and ink. (All of my com- 
 pany have had it.) If it was not for the danger of the small-pox, I should 
 like to have brother James or David come up and see me, and bring my 
 horse ; for I intend to try to come home if I remain so poorly. I believe one 
 of them may come safe by taking good care when he gets here. I suppose 
 there are about four thousand of the well of our army at Isle Aux-Noix ; and 
 whether they will remain there or come here I do not know. Tell Crowner's 
 wife that he has had the small-pox, and has got well over the distemper, but 
 has had the misfortune to have it fall into one of his eyes ; so that I am afraid 
 he will lose the sight of one eye. He remembers his kind love to her and 
 child. He intends to try to come home when I come : he cannot write for 
 want of paper. It is very hard living here. Wine one dollar per quart, 
 spirits one dollar per quart, loaf-sugar three shillings per pound, butter one 
 shilling and sixpence, none to be had for that : no milk. All of the above 
 articles hardly to be had. Vinegar three shillings per quart. I shall write 
 no more at present, but remain your loving husband, 
 
 DAVID NOBLE, Captain.
 
 262 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 The calamitous termination of the invasion of Canada brought 
 to its culmination the opposition to Schuyler, which in the county 
 of Berkshire, in Bang's Distiict, and on the New-Hampshire Grants, 
 had been growing ever since his appointment to the northern com- 
 mand. 
 
 An unblemished patriot, a gallant soldier, and no mean states- 
 man, Schuyler was yet distinguished by qualities, both positive and 
 negative, which rendered him, if qualified for any departmental 
 command, remarkably ill-adapted to that which was assigned him, 
 between a majoiity of whose people and himself there existed an 
 incompatibility which resulted in antagonism fatal to the public 
 interests. An aristocrat of the aristocrats, he hated the nonchalant 
 and robustuous democracy of Massachusetts, and the still ruder 
 independence of the settlers upon The Grants. A New-Yorker of 
 the New-Yorkers, jealous of the rights of his Province, he partici- 
 pated to the full in the feeling excited by the alleged encroach- 
 ment of the New-Englanders upon her eastern border, and was 
 prepared to resist, at any cost, the new invasion of her territory 
 under pretence of patents from New Hampshire. Intimate, socially 
 and personally, with many of the higher class of loyalists in 
 King's District, he could not be made to believe them guilty of the 
 secret plots against their country, and the violation of their solemn 
 pledges, of which they were popularly accused. Annoyed and 
 embarrassed by the machinations of the malignant Tories, he was 
 'willing to proceed strenuously against them ; but he was indig- 
 nant at the harshness with which his friends, the Van Schaacks, 
 and others of like stamp, had been " handled " by the committees. 
 The ill blood which arose in the district on this account between 
 him and a " certain class of Whigs " was perhaps more bitter than 
 his differences with the same class in Berkshire, or even upon the 
 Grants. 
 
 Coming to his command with a nervous horror of partisan war- 
 fare, he attributed that character to the proud-spirited and am- 
 bitious militia of the hills, who, prone to hardy and independent 
 enterprise, were not easily controlled, but kept him in perpetual 
 terror of some rash adventure ; while they failed him in executing 
 his best-laid schemes of falling back for an indefinitely postponed 
 advance. And he refused to renounce his prejudices against them, 
 even when he found that they alone won victories in his depart- 
 ment, and, having won them, showed a regard for the amenities
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 263 
 
 of honorable warfare, and observed its laws with a scrupulous 
 nicety, which put to shame the regulars whom they encountered. 1 
 He failed to perceive a courtesy which was not expressed in courtly 
 phrase, or to recognize chivalry except in those of gentle blood, 
 as gentility went in Provincial America. As a soldier, his courage 
 was proved ; as a general, few in the American armies could better 
 set a squadron in the field, or were more familiar with the rules 
 of their art. As a commander of department, none labored more 
 arduously, or gave themselves with more untiring zeal and indus- 
 try to the unthankful task of providing material of war; none 
 did so more unselfishly, as was grandly shown in his ceaseless 
 exertions to supply the northern army when forbidden to hope for 
 any large share in the glory of its anticipated achievements. But 
 he was destitute of that great element in generalship, which, given 
 a certain soldiery with whom to accomplish a specific end, takes 
 them as it finds them, with all their faults and with all their excel- 
 lences, wins their confidence, and makes the most of what is in 
 them. Schuyler, on the contrary, fretfully magnified the imperfec- 
 tions of the men committed to him, and was perversely blind to 
 their good qualities as soldiers. Assigned to a position surrounded 
 by innumerable difficulties, he possessed nothing of the spirit 
 which delights to encounter obstacles, the energy which turns 
 them to its own account, and, least of all, that calm strength 
 which endures without complaint what cannot be avoided or 
 changed. 
 
 Much of that which was to be regretted in him was the result 
 of the depressing influence of ill health ; and, reviewing his career, 
 we cannot fail to recognize the true patriot and statesman, and 
 the general whose abilities would have given him perhaps brilliant 
 success in almost any other field than that in which he was placed. 
 
 The radical Whigs, who controlled the politics of his depart- 
 ment, were hardly to be expected so clearly to perceive his merits. 
 Between the Revolutionary committees of that region and such 
 a man as we have described, conflict was inevitable. Of political 
 and social sentiments the very reverse of those which characterized 
 Schuyler, the committees were also extremely unlike him in 
 temperament and habits of thought. Impetuous, sometimes even 
 to rashness, in their zeal, they and their followers were ever ready 
 
 1 See, in illustration, the story of Ethan Allen and Gen. Prescott.
 
 264 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 to rally in sudden emergency, or for the execution of dashing 
 enterprises ; but, if the opportunity to meet the enemy was not 
 speedily accorded them, they grew impatient of the necessary 
 restraint of military discipline. In their theory of the art of war, 
 retreat was omitted from the list of contingencies. As a general, 
 Fabius was by no means a model in their esteem. Judging the 
 readiness of all men to make sacrifices for their country by their 
 own, they underrated the impediments which Schuyler found in 
 raising armies and accumulating stores. Intolerant of the luke- 
 warmness of moderate Whigs as well as of the misdeeds of the 
 loyalists, they denounced the former in no measured terms, while 
 they advocated and practised the most rigid discipline of the 
 latter. Many of them of narrow experience in affairs, and wanting 
 that liberality towards opponents which contact with the great 
 world brings, they could not explain the perhaps over-generous 
 sentiments of Schuyler towards some of those whom they classed 
 indiscriminately as the enemies of American liberty, except upon 
 the hypothesis of his sympathy with their Toryism. 
 
 When, therefore, information came to Berkshire and King's 
 District of the sad aspect which affairs wore in Canada, and finally 
 that all which had been gained there, at such great cost, was 
 wrested from the Americans, smarting under the disappointment 
 of hopes which with them had been more sanguine than else- 
 where, the people of those districts were ready to charge the 
 commander who, although not long personally in the field, had 
 from the first been nominally at the head of operations, with the 
 responsibility for their miserable failure. Among its prime causes, 
 they ranked the brief delay before St. Johns, to which he had 
 been persuaded by the report of a treacherous informer to the 
 neglect of the truthful representations of John Brown and James 
 Livingston. Other missteps of the expedition were attributed to 
 him, oftenest unjustly, through the malignancy of his enemies, 
 who played upon the popular feeling through unscrupulous emis- 
 saries, who found powerful auxiliaries in Schuyler's unfortunate 
 peculiarities. In the frame of mind thus produced, the community 
 was ready to credit the most absurd statements which jumped 
 with its humor of the hour. Even before the defeated and pest- 
 stricken army reached Crown Point, the excited feeling among the 
 people at home had risen to a height which invited, what men 
 thus frenzied will always find, witnesses of the Titus Oakes stamp,
 
 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 265 
 
 ready, for the sake of a sorry notoriety and a petty reward, to play 
 upon their fears and fancies. The chief among these was an in- 
 former, whose name, like that of the other witnesses, was withheld, 
 on the pretence, that, if it was known, his life would be in danger, 
 and who related what one George Hindsdale had told him that he 
 had heard from one McDonald, an agent who had been sent to 
 view the lead-mines at Canaan. Most or all of the evidence was 
 of this hearsay character, having often passed through three or 
 four mouths before it was deposed before the committees ; eleven 
 of which listened to the informer just mentioned at Richmond, 
 Valentine Rathbun presiding. 
 
 The informers were credulously favored by the most violent and 
 radical of the committee-men, whose prominence and popularity 
 were augmented by whatever deepened the general hatred of the 
 Tories, and brought odium upon the moderate Whigs. Out of 
 the evidence elicited, this class formed the outlines of a " hellish 
 plot," of whose reality they succeeded in convincing both them- 
 selves and a majority of the community. This plot, they imagined, 
 had been concocted between Gen. Schuyler, the British Govern- 
 ment, and the New- York Tories, among whom, it was alleged, 
 were included the whole Provincial Congress, with two exceptions 
 only. The gist of the plan was, that Schuyler's New- York forces, 
 or as many of them as would not excite suspicion, were to be 
 stationed in a line of forts along the Hudson River, from Canada to 
 New- York City ; who, on an appointed day, wei - e to raise the 
 British flag, and permit the king's troops to ascend the river, and 
 cut off communication between the Southern and Eastern Colo- 
 nies. 
 
 So earnest was the faith of the people in this fiction, that there 
 was the most unbounded terror throughout Berkshire, the north- 
 ern part of which was patrolled by the militia night and day. 
 Letters were also sent to Gen. Washington, some of them 
 charging Schuyler with downright treason ; some, like one of 
 Matthew Algate, chairman of the King's-District committee, only 
 " discovering " to the commander-in-chief " a glimmering of such 
 a plot as had seldom appeared in the world since the fall of Adam 
 by the grand deceiver and supplanter of truth." * Others left it 
 an open question, whether Schuyler was traitorous, or simply 
 
 1 Am. Ar., 4th ser. vol. vi 
 
 t
 
 206 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 incompetent. But all alike were handed over by Washington to 
 Schuyler, with the warmest expressions of his continued confidence, 
 both in his integrity and ability. Nothing, probably, could have 
 been better adapted, than the course of the committees, to strength- 
 en his affection for the accused, who, whatever other faults he may 
 have possessed, he knew could not be untrue to the country which 
 trusted him. 
 
 The New- York Congress, to whom Capt. Douglas went person- 
 ally to prefer charges against the commander of the department, 
 dismissed them as scornfully as did Washington. Schuyler 
 demanded a court of inquiry ; but it was refused as unnecessary. 
 
 Such, briefly, was the famous affair of Schuyler and the Berk- 
 shire committees. 
 
 We resume the account of the events which caused the loss of 
 Col. Easton and John Brown to the Continental Army ; one of the 
 most remarkable records of wrong, and the refusal of justice, in 
 the history of that time, or perhaps of any other. 
 
 Soon after the death of Montgomery, Major Brown, claiming the 
 rank of colonel, which had been given him by that commander, 
 was refused it by Arnold. He demanded the reason of the denial, 
 and then first learned that their great enemy charged Col. Easton 
 and himself with certain military crimes, of which the chief was 
 plundering the baggage of British officers at Sorel. Conscious 
 of his entire innocence, being joined by Col. Easton, he immediately 
 demanded a court of inquiry, and challenged Arnold to prove 
 aught against him inconsistent with the character of an officer or 
 a gentleman. Arnold refused to order the court, but said that 
 the commander-in-chief at Montreal would doubtless give him the 
 satisfaction of a trial. Brown then applied for permission to send 
 an officer for that purpose to Gen. Wooster. Arnold assented, but 
 delayed the departure of the messenger until he had forestalled 
 Brown's application by a request that it might be denied; 1 and 
 he had sufficient influence at headquarters to pi-event this 
 simple act of justice. At the same time, Arnold had written to 
 the President of Congress, making the same charges against Brown 
 and Easton ; alleging that Gen. Montgomery had himself refused 
 the promised rank of the former on the ground that he was pub- 
 
 1 A copy of the letter in which this request was made, afterwards fell into 
 Brown's hands.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 267 
 
 licly impeached of the plundering at Sorel, and urging Congress 
 to refuse the application which he anticipated that the two officers 
 would make for promotion. 1 Gen. Wooster had put off Col. 
 Brown's application with the promise to attend to the matter on 
 his arrival at Quebec; and there, on the 1st of April, Brown 
 renewed his petition, strongly urging immediate action, as an act 
 of justice, and deprecating further delay, on the ground of the 
 uncertain future of war. 2 But Wooster still neglected the inves- 
 tigation. Brown then applied to the commissioners sent by 
 Congress to Canada ; and they, too, refused their intervention. 
 
 On the 1st of May, Gen. Thomas took command of the army, 
 and readily promised to grant the court of inquiry as desired by 
 Brown. But the sad death of that commander by small-pox, on 
 the 2d of June, defeated this, like many other good results which 
 had been hoped from his presence. 
 
 Col. Brown now appealed for the justice which he could not 
 obtain from the sources below, to the commander-in-chief of the 
 department ; but Schuyler, an admirer of Arnold, and bitterly 
 prejudiced against every Berkshire man, "deemed it inexpedient 
 to call a court." 
 
 July came ; and, the term for which Col. Brown's little corps had 
 re-enlisted having expired, he visited Philadelphia, and, in a firm and 
 respectful petition, demanded the inquiry which he had not been 
 able otherwise to procure; and, on the 30th, Congress "resolved 
 that so much of the petition of Col. Easton and Major Brown, as 
 prays that the charges against them, of having been concerned in 
 plundering the officers' baggage taken at Sorel, be submitted to a 
 court of inquiry, is reasonable ; and that Gen. Schuyler is desired 
 to order courts of inquiry on them as soon as possible." 8 
 
 On the 1st of August, on the recommendation of the Board of 
 War, to whom Brown's petition had been referred, Congress 
 determined that he should be allowed the rank and pay of lieu- 
 tenant-colonel from the 20th of the previous November ; and that 
 "James Easton was entitled to the rank of a colonel from the first 
 day of July, 1775, and to the pay of a colonel from that date 
 until he should be discharged, which ought to be done as soon as a 
 court of inquiry should report in his favor, or a court-martial should 
 
 1 Am. AT., 4th ser. vol. iv. p. 907. 2 H. C. Van Schaack. 
 
 8 Jour. Cont. Cong., 1776.
 
 268 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 determine upon his conduct, and their sentence be carried into 
 execution there being no vacancy to which he could be appointed; 
 but, should he be honorably acquitted, his past services would 
 recommend him to the confidence of Congress for future employ- 
 ment." l 
 
 In the previous February, after his regiment was disbanded, 
 Col. Easton wrote to Gen. Washington, requesting to be again, 
 appointed to the command of a regiment iu the northern army ; 
 alleging that the application was made "in faithfulness to the dear 
 deceased Gen. Montgomery and his commands, and obliged by a 
 love of liberty and his country." " You will see, sir," said he, " by 
 the letters and orders enclosed, the minds of the generals who 
 wrote them." Washington replied, through his aid, that, not 
 knowing how matters stood with regard to Easton's command, he 
 thought it necessary to refer the case to Congress, if Col. Easton 
 wished to raise a new regiment, and advised him to repair to Phil- 
 adelphia, and produce there the honorable testimonials of his merit 
 which he had sent for his own examination. " The services you 
 have done your country in the last campaign," said the writer, 
 " mentioned in the letters to you from the late gallant Gen. Mont- 
 gomery, merit the acknowledgment of the public." 
 
 Col. Easton accordingly repaired to Philadelphia in April, and 
 there laid before Congress, not only the request which he had 
 made to Washington, but also petitions regarding other matters, 
 which will appear from the action of that body upon them. 
 
 Col. Easton's claims for his services in the surprise of Ticonder- 
 oga were referred to the committee of Albany, the claims of all 
 other persons engaged in that affair having been disposed of in 
 the same manner. It was resolved, that "as, from the testimonials 
 produced by the petitioner, it appeared that he and his battalion 
 behaved with great diligence, activity, and spirit, in the successful 
 enterprise against Gen. Prescott, and the vessels and troops under 
 his command," after the surrender of Montreal, and that, "to 
 encourage the parties employed in that important service, Gen. 
 Montgomery promised them all the public stores, except ammuni- 
 tion and provisions, which should be taken in the vessels; and as 
 the petitioner alleged that no part of those stores was delivered, 
 nor any composition made to the troops concerned in the acquisi- 
 
 1 Am. Ar., 5th ser. vol. i. p. 1597.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 269 
 
 tion," therefore it was recommended to the general commanding 
 in Canada to appoint commissioners to estimate the stores, and pay 
 the value thereof to the officers and men employed in that service, 
 in such proportions as the commissioners should determine. As 
 the petitioner's account of regimental receipts and disbursements 
 on which he claimed a balance due could only be adjusted in Can- 
 ada, the settlement was referred to the Congressional commissioners 
 in that Province. But, as Col. Easton was in want of money, two 
 hundred dollars were ordered to be advanced him. 
 
 With regard to Col. Easton's request respecting a court of in- 
 quiry concerning his own conduct and that of Major Brown in the 
 Sorel affair, " as Gen. Arnold had, on the first of February, alleged 
 to Congress that both officers were accused of acts which would 
 bring great scandal upon the American arms, and produce great 
 disgust in the army in general, if either of them were promoted 
 until these matters were cleared up ; and as Easton asserted his 
 innocence, declaring that he neither plundered, nor directed, nor 
 was privy to the plundering of any prisoner, or other person whatso- 
 ever; considering, therefore, on one hand, the aggravated nature 
 of this charge, which was an impediment to the petitioner's promo- 
 tion, and, on the other, the great confidence reposed in him by 
 Gen. Montgomery, and the essential service which he had ren- 
 dered his country," Congress instructed its commissioners in 
 Canada to institute an inquiry, by court-martial or otherwise, into 
 the charges against him, giving him an opportunity of making his 
 defence, and to transmit their proceedings thereon to Congress, in 
 order that justice might be done the petitioner if he had been 
 accused without sufficient reason. 1 But a new difficulty here beset 
 the unfortunate colonel, whether by the instigation of Arnold 
 does not appear. He was arrested, and thrown into prison, for a 
 debt of fifteen hundred pounds, " York currency," and had no 
 remedy but to apply to Congress, which he did in the following 
 terms, after acknowledging his indebtedness for the sum for which 
 he was sued, and nine hundred pounds in addition : 
 
 " I have due two thousand pounds lawful money. My creditors have a 
 landed security of what I value at three thousand pounds lawful money. 
 In several letters they have received from me since I came to this place, 
 I have offered my land and my outstanding debts at an honest appraisal ; 
 
 1 Am. Ar., 4th ser., vol. v. p. 1690.
 
 270 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 in short, I have done every thing in my power to get a settlement, but have 
 heard nothing from them. There is no such thing as obliging people to pay 
 their debts in the Massachusetts by the resolves of the honorable Congress. 
 I ought to be on my way to Canada. This settlement with the commission- 
 ers appointed by Congress requires it ; a settlement of my regimental 
 accounts of five captains still in the service at Canada, the getting the 
 stores and vessels taken by the regiment appraised, the court of inquiry to 
 be holden there in regard to Major Brown and myself, and many other 
 important matters, all urge it ; in short, I am in pain to see the event of 
 Quebec." l 
 
 Congress granted the enlargement requested by Col. Easton, 
 and he returned to Canada ; but, before he reached that Province, 
 it had been evacuated by the American forces, and he appears to 
 have profited nothing by the Congressional orders in his favor. 
 From that time he seems to have abandoned in despair the 
 attempt to obtain justice, at least against Arnold, and remained 
 inactive, save when volunteering in the militia, winch he did as 
 often as opportunity presented. 
 
 Col. Brown was more persistent; and having armed himself 
 with the order of Congress passed in July, for a court of inquiry 
 in his case, and its confirmation of his rank as lieutenant-colonel 
 in August, and being assigned to Col. Elmore's Connecticut regi- 
 ment, he returned to the army in the latter month, and forwarded 
 his papers to Gen. Gates, who had, for a time, supplanted Schuy- 
 ler in the northern command. From him, he asked a compliance 
 with the directions of Congress : but Arnold, who had acquired 
 even greater influence over the new and less manly commander 
 than he had possessed with Schuyler, was able to ward off the 
 investigation, which, with good reason, he dreaded ; and, on his 
 instigation, Gates had the assurance to refer the matter to the 
 Board of War. 
 
 Wearied with vain efforts to obtain a vindication of his charac- 
 ter by a court of inquiry upon his own conduct, and hopeless of 
 effecting it in that manner, Col. Brown now adopted a new line 
 of procedure, and preferred to Gen. Gates the following serious 
 charges against Arnold, whom he insisted should be arrested, and 
 tried upon the several specifications: 
 
 1 Am. Ar., 4th ser., vol. v. p. 1234.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 271 
 
 To the Honorable HORATIO GATES, ESQ., Major-General in the Army of the United 
 States of America, commanding at Albany. 
 
 Humbly sheweth, that, in the month of February last, Brig.-Gen. Arnold 
 transmitted to the honorable Continental Congress, an unjustifiable, false, 
 wicked, and malicious accusation against me, and my character as an officer 
 in their service, at the time when I was under his immediate command ; 
 that, had there been the least ground for such an accusation, the author 
 thereof had it in his power indeed, it was his duty to have me brought 
 to a fair trial by a general court-martial in the country where the pretended 
 crime is said to have originated ; that I was left to the necessity of applying 
 to Congress, not only for the charge against me, but for an order for a court 
 of inquiry on my own conduct in respect thereto ; that, in consequence 
 of my application, I obtained a positive order of Congress to the then 
 general * commanding the Northern Department for a court of inquiry, 
 before whom I might justify my injured character ; that the said order was 
 transmitted to your Honor at Ticonderoga, in the month of August last; 
 and, notwithstanding the most ardent solicitations on my part, the order of 
 Congress has not yet been complied with; that, upon my renewing my 
 application to your Honor for a court of inquiry, you were pleased to re- 
 fer me to the Board of War. 
 
 Thus I have been led an expensive dance, from generals to Congress, and 
 from Congress to generals ; and I am now referred to a Board of War, who, 
 I venture to say, have never yet taken cognizance of any such matter ; nor 
 do I think it, with great submission to your Honor, any part of their duty. 
 I must therefore conclude, that this information, from the mode of its origin, 
 as well as from the repeated evasions of a fair hearing, is now rested upon 
 the author's own shoulders. , : * 
 
 I therefore beg that your Honor will please to order Brig.-Gen. Arnold in 
 arrest for the following crimes, which I am ready to verify, viz. : 
 
 1st. For endeavoring to asperse your petitioner's personal character in 
 the most infamous manner. 
 
 2d. For unwarrantably degrading and reducing the rank conferred on 
 your petitioner by his (Gen. Arnold's) superior officer, and subjecting your 
 petitioner to serve in an inferior rank to that to which he had been appointed. 
 
 3d. For ungentlemanlike conduct in his letter to Gen. Wooster, of the 
 25th of January last, charging your petitioner with a falsehood, and in a 
 private manner, which is justly chargeable on himself. 
 
 4th. For suffering the small-pox to spread in the camp before Quebec, and 
 promoting inoculation there in the Continental army. 
 
 5th. For depriving a part of the army under his command of their usual 
 allowance of provisions ordered by Congress. 
 
 6th. For interfering with and countermanding the order of his superior 
 officer. 
 
 7th. For plundering the inhabitants of Montreal, in direct violation of a
 
 272 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 solemn capitulation, or agreement, entered into with them by our late brave 
 and worthy Gen. Montgomery, to the eternal disgrace of the Continental 
 arms. 
 
 8th. For giving unjustifiable, unwarrantable, cruel, and bloody orders, 
 directing whole villages to be destroyed, and the inhabitants thereof put to 
 death by fire and sword, without any distinction to friend or foe, age or sex. 
 
 9th. For entering into an unwarran table, unjustifiable, and partial agree- 
 ment with Capt. Foster for the exchange of prisoners taken at the Cedars, 
 without the knowledge, advice, or consent of any officer then there present 
 with him on the spot. 
 
 10th. For ordering inoculation of the Continental Army at Sorel, without 
 the knowledge of, and contrary to the intentions of, the general commanding 
 that Northern Department ; by which fatal consequences ensued. 
 
 llth. For great misconduct in his command of the Continental fleet on 
 Lake Champlain, which occasioned the loss thereof. 
 
 12th. For great misconduct during his command from the camp at Cam- 
 bridge, in the year 1775, until he was superseded by Gen. Montgomery, 
 at Point Aux-Tremble, near Quebec. 
 
 13th. For disobedience of the orders of his superior officers, while acting 
 by a commission from the Provincial Congress of the Province of Massa- 
 chusetts Bay ; and for a disobedience of the orders of a committee of the 
 same Congress, sent from that State to inspect his conduct, and also for 
 insulting, abusing, and imprisoning the said committee ; as also for a treason- 
 able attempt to make his escape with the navigation men, at or near Ticon- 
 deroga, to the enemy at St. Johns, which obliged the then commanding 
 officer at Ticonderoga and its dependencies to issue a positive order to the 
 officers commanding our batteries at Crown Point, to stop or sink the vessels 
 attempting to pass that post, and by force of arms to make a prisoner of the 
 said Gen. Arnold (then a colonel), which was accordingly done. 
 
 JOHX BROWN, Lieutenant-Colonel. 
 ALBANY, 1st. Dec., 1776. 1 
 
 Col. Brown transmitted this impeachment to Congress as well 
 as to Gates ; but such was the reputation and favor which Arnold's 
 dash and gallantry, shrewdly turned to account by his meanly 
 intriguing spirit, had won for him, that nothing came of either 
 presentment. 
 
 Congress allowed its admiration for one bold and active 
 officer to lead it into gross injustice towards another. Nothing, 
 therefore, was left to Brown but to appeal to still another tribunal, 
 the people of the country. This he did in a paper which was 
 
 1 H. C. V. S. Col.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 273 
 
 published at Pittsfield, April 12, 1777. 1 The substance of its 
 contents is contained in the foregoing pages, and we quote but 
 one paragraph : 
 
 " I appeal to every person of common understanding, whether in a mili- 
 tary character or not, that, if Gen. Arnold did not know himself guilty of 
 the charges laid against him, he would not have endeavored to bring himself 
 to a trial, to clear up his character, which, had he been able to do, he cer- 
 tainly might have called his impeachers to account for false and malicious 
 charges, and put the saddle upon the other horse ; but, very far from this, he 
 has used every possible art to prevent a trial, as if his character was not 
 worth a sixpence." 
 
 In the winter of 1777 occurred an incident which is thus related 
 in Col. Stone's Life of Brant : 
 
 "During the winter of 1776-7, while Arnold and many of the officers 
 were quartered at Albany, . . . Arnold was at the head of a mess of six- 
 teen or eighteen officers, among whom was Col. Morgan Lewis. Col. Brown 
 having weak eyes, and being obliged to live abstemiously, occupied quar- 
 ters affording greater retirement. . . . Col. Brown published a hand- 
 bill, attacking Arnold with great severity, rehearsing the suspicious circum- 
 stances that had occurred at Sorel ; and upbraiding him for sacking the city 
 of Montreal while he was in the occupancy of that place. The handbill 
 concluded with these remarkable words: 'Money is this man's God; and, to 
 get enough of it, he would sacrifice his country.' 
 
 " Such a publication could not but produce a great sensation among the 
 officers. It was received at Arnold's quarters while the mess were at dinner, 
 and read aloud at the table ; the accused himself sitting at the head. Arnold, 
 of course, was greatly excited, and applied a variety of epithets, coarse and 
 harsh, to Col. Brown, pronouncing him a scoundrel, and declaring that he 
 would kick him whenever and wherever he should meet him. One of the 
 officers present remarked that Col. Brown was his friend, and that, as the 
 remarks just applied to him had been so publicly made, he presumed there 
 could be no objection to his repeating them to that officer. Arnold replied, 
 ' Certainly not ; ' adding, that he should feel himself obliged to any officer 
 who would inform Col. Brown of what he had said. The officer replied, that 
 he should do so before he slept. Under these circumstances, no time was 
 lost in making the communication to Col. Brown. Col. Lewis himself called 
 upon Brown in the course of the evening, and the matter was the principal 
 topic of conversation. 
 
 " The colonel was a mild and amiable man, and he made no remark of par- 
 ticular harshness or bitterness in respect to Arnold ; but, towards the close of 
 
 * H. C. V. S. Col. 
 18
 
 274 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD 
 
 the interview, he observed, ' Well, Lewis, I wish you would invite me to dine 
 with your mess to-morrow.' 
 
 " ' With all my heart,' was the reply. ' Will you come ? ' 
 
 " Brown said he would, and they parted. 
 
 " The next day, near the time of serving dinner, Col. Brown arrived, 
 and was ushered in. 
 
 " The table was spread in a long room, at one end of which the door opened 
 directly opposite to the fireplace at the other. Arnold was standing at the 
 moment with his back to the fire ; so that, as Brown opened the door, they 
 at once encountered each other face to face. It was a moment of breathless 
 interest for the result. Brown walked calmly in, and, turning to avoid the 
 table, passed around with a deliberate step, and, advancing up close to 
 Arnold, stopped, and looked directly in his eye. After the pause of a mo- 
 ment, he observed, ' / understand, sir, that you have said you would kick me. 
 I now present myself to give you an opportunity to put your threat into execu- 
 tion." Another brief pause ensued. Arnold opened not his lips. Brown 
 then said to him, ' Sir, you are a dirty scoundrel.' Arnold was still silent 
 as the Sphinx : whereupon Brown turned upon his heel with dignity, apolo- 
 gized to the gentlemen present for his intrusion, and left the room. 
 
 " This was certainly an extraordinary scene ; and more extraoi-dinary still 
 is the fact that the particulars have never been communicated in any way to 
 the public. Arnold certainly did not lack personal bravery ; and the un- 
 broken silence preserved by him on this occasion can only be accounted for 
 upon the supposition that he feared to provoke inquiry upon the subject, 
 while at the same tune he could throw himself upon his well-attested courage 
 and rank as excuses for not stooping to a controversy with a subordinate 
 officer. But it still must be regarded as one of the most remarkable personal 
 interviews to be found among the memorabilia of military men. l " 
 
 Arnold in May, 1777, forwarded to Congress a copy of Brown's 
 Pittsfield appeal, which was referred to the Board of War, 
 " together with such complaints as had been lodged against Gen. 
 Arnold." But the Board, acting entirely exparte, giving no notice 
 to Brown, or any other complainant, that they might appear and 
 substantiate, if they were able, the truth of their charges, acquitted 
 Arnold on the strength of his own assertions, corroborated by the 
 statements of Carroll of Carrolton, who had been one of the com- 
 mittee to visit Canada, but had had no opportunity personally to 
 know the facts. And the Board not only acquitted Arnold in this 
 strange way, but convicted Brown without a hearing notwith- 
 standing his long seeking for open trial and even-handed justice 
 
 1 The particulars of this story were derived by Col. Stone from the lips of Col. 
 Lewis himself.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 275 
 
 of having "cruelly and unjustly aspersed the character" of the 
 man who had as sedulously avoided scrutiny as his accusers had 
 courted it. 
 
 Col. Brown knew nothing of these proceedings until the follow- 
 ing November. On the 22d of the previous February, he had 
 resigned his commission in the Continental army, being "deter- 
 mined that no power on earth should force him to serve with an 
 officer who was impeached of treason and every thing else, unless 
 he was brought to justice." He now forwarded to Congress the 
 following spirited remonstrance l in which he exposed 'pointedly 
 and forcibly the absurdity and illegality of their conduct in the case, 
 and the gross injustice which had been perpetrated against himself. 
 
 To THE HONORABLE THE CONGRESS. 
 
 The Memorial and Remonstrance of John Brown of the State of the 
 Massachusetts Bay humbly sheweth, That in the month of March, 1777, 
 your petitioner was passing through Yorktown to the southward, when he 
 waited on the Honorable Charles Thompson, Esq., Secretary to Congress, 
 who favored your petitioner with a copy of the very extraordinary trial of 
 Gen. Arnold, from which the following is an extract : 
 
 " In Congress, May 20, 1777. A letter of this date from Gen. Arnold, 
 with a printed paper enclosed, ' signed John Brown,' was read. Ordered, 
 That the same be referred to the Board of War, together with such com- 
 plaints as have been lodged against Gen. Arnold." 
 
 By this your petitioner would suppose, that the Board of War were 
 directed, not only to take into consideration his complaint, but all others that 
 had been lodged against Gen. Arnold, particularly those lodged by a gene- 
 ral court-martial, composed of thirteen of the principal officers at Ticonde- 
 roga, in the year 1776, as well as those lodged by Col. Hazen and others, 
 although it does not appear that any other matter of complaint was deter- 
 mined upon but that contained in ^ie handbill, signed John Brown, on 
 which the Board of War reported, 
 
 " That the general laid before them a variety of original letters, orders, 
 and other papers, which, together with the general's account of his conduct, 
 confirmed by Mr. Carroll, one of the late commissioners in Canada, and now 
 a member of this Board, have given entire satisfaction to this Board con- 
 cerning the general's character, so cruelly and groundlessly aspersed in the 
 publication." 
 
 Your petitioner begs leave to affirm, that Mr. Carroll, whatever he might 
 wish, knew nothing, more or less, as a witness concerning the charge laid 
 against Gen. Arnold, owing to an unlucky alibi which happened with respect 
 to him, in regard to all the charges laid in the complaint. Still, how far his 
 
 1 Collection of H. C. Van Schaack, Esq.
 
 276 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 evidence might go in assisting General Arnold in proving his negatives, I do 
 not pretend to say, as this is to me an entirely new mode of trial. First, 
 because one of the parties was not notified, or present at the same, conse- 
 quently ex parte. unconstitutional, and illegal on every principle. Secondly, 
 because there was not one witness present at the trial who ever had it in his 
 power to know any thing of his own knowledge respecting one of the charges 
 laid in the complaint. Thirdly, with great submission to the honorable Con- 
 gress, they had not the least right to take cognizance of the crimes mentioned 
 in my complaint. For the truth of this assertion, I beg leave to refer them 
 to the military laws by them composed and instituted for the regulation of 
 the army, which are the only security and protection of the officers and 
 soldiers belonging to the same ; consequently no other court or tribunal can 
 have any right to take cognizance of the crimes mentioned in my complaint, 
 but that of a court-martial, and therefore the trial of the general, above 
 recited, was a nullity, to all intents and purposes. 
 
 However, should your Congress be of a different opinion respecting this 
 matter, and that the trial of Gen. Arnold was legal and constitutional, he 
 then expects that Congress will give him the same indulgences and latitude, 
 and that he may be heard by Congress on the subject of his impeachment 
 of the general, in which case the general's presence and witnesses will not 
 be necessary. 
 
 Your petitioner therefore esteems it a great grievance, that Congress, by 
 the trial aforesaid, have resolved and published, and authorized Gen. Arnold 
 to publish to the world, that he, your petitioner, has been guilty of publish- 
 ing false and groundless assertions and complaints against a general officer, 
 when, at the same time, every article in the impeachment was sacredly true, 
 and could have been proved so could a proper trial have been obtained, 
 of which Gen. Arnold was well apprised, or he would have been as fond of 
 his trial in the army as his impeachers were. It is possible that Gen. Arnold 
 might have suggested to Congress that your petitioner was not an officer at 
 the time he solicited his trial. As to this matter, your petitioner has not as 
 yet been informed whether his resignation has been accepted or not. Indeed, 
 he cannot suppose it compatible with* the wisdom and dignity of Congress 
 to discharge any of their officers for the reasons set forth in your petitioner's 
 letter accompanying his resignation, as he then stood impeached by the 
 same Gen. Arnold of high crimes, which, if true, affected the reputation 
 of the United States ; and Gen. Arnold's sacred character stood impeached 
 by your petitioner of thirteen capital charges, which, in the opinion of those 
 most knowing, might have effected the loss of that honest man in conse- 
 quence of a proper trial' before a generous court-martial. Your petitioner 
 presumes his resignation was not accepted by Congress. Let this matter 
 be as it may, Congress is sensible that he was not out of service from the 
 commencement of the war until the reduction of the British army under 
 Gen. Burgoyne, in which he arrogates to himself some share of credit (since 
 no one else is willing to give it to him.) Your petitioner is sensible, that
 
 HISTORY OP PITTSFIELD. 277 
 
 Congress, at the time of Arnold's application for a trial, were embarrassed 
 on all questions, and no doubt labored under high prejudice with respect to 
 your petitioner's character, owing, perhaps, to representation made there by 
 Gen. Gates, who, it is possible, has been mistaken in his friend Arnold ; 
 which prejudices your petitioner hopes time and events have eradicated. 
 He can assure Congress that he hopes and wishes for nothing but common 
 justice, although the history of the war, and his present infirmities incurred 
 therein, might entitle him to something more. But to stand convicted, by a 
 decree of Congress, of publishing cruel and groundless libels, without a 
 hearing, while actually fighting for liberty, is intolerable in a free country, 
 and has a direct tendency to check the ambition, and even disaffect those men 
 by whose wisdom, valor, and perseverance America is to be made free, not to 
 mention the dangerous precedent such trials may afford. Your petitioner, 
 therefore, implores your House to reconsider their determination on his im- 
 peachment of Gen. Arnold, as there cannot, at this date, exist a possibility 
 of doubt that the same was presented, and furnished Gen. Arnold with a 
 foundation to establish a character on the ruins of a man, who, to speak 
 moderately, has rendered his country as essential service as that dangerous 
 general, whose reasons for evading a trial at a proper tribunal are very 
 obvious, and fully suggested in my impeachment on, which the general had 
 his trial, by which it appears that Gen. Arnold was rescued out of the hands 
 of justice by mere dint of authority exercised by Gen. Gates. Your 
 petitioner, relying on the wisdom and justice of Congress, begs leave to 
 subscribe himself most respectfully 
 
 Their very obedient, humble servant, 
 
 JOHN BROWN. 
 
 Having now rid himself of connection with a service in which 
 its most corrupt, treacherous, and dangerous officer was able to 
 wield so potent and mysterious an influence, Col. Brown returned 
 to Pittsfield, was appointed colonel of the middle regiment of 
 Berkshire militia-, and in that capacity sought, and, as we shall 
 see, not in vain, to serve his country faithfully, and win honor for 
 himself. 
 
 Three years afterwards, John Brown lay dead on the battle- 
 field, where he fell fighting for the country which had refused him 
 the simplest justice. Benedict Arnold was a fugitive in the army 
 of her enemies ; and all men believed what had been vainly charged 
 upon him in 1777.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE INVASION OF BURGOYNE, AND BATTLE OF BENNINGTON. 
 
 [I777-] 
 
 Pittsfield Soldiers for the Continental Army. Apprehensions of Invasion from 
 Canada. A Petition of 1775. Pittsfield responds to Calls for Men. Sends 
 Companies to Ticonderoga in December and April. Burgoyne approaches. 
 
 Extracts from Mr. Allen's Diary at Ticonderoga. He addresses the Soldiers 
 of the Garrison. Evacuation of Ticonderoga. Feeling at Pittsfield regarding 
 it. Correspondence of Gen. Schuyler. Schuyler and the Berkshire Militia. 
 
 Baum's Expedition marches on Bennington. Met by Stark. Rally of 
 the Berkshire Militia. Pittsfield Volunteers. Anecdote of an Indian Scout. 
 
 Anecdotes of Rev. Mr. Allen. He fires the First Gun at the Bennington 
 Fight. Anecdote of Linus Parker. Route of the British Forces. Effect 
 of the Victory on the Country. Col. Brown's Lake George Expedition. His 
 Brilliant Success. Surrender of Burgoyne. His March through Pittsfield. 
 Quaint Patriotic Verses. 
 
 THE year 1777 was distinguished in the Revolutionary annals 
 of Pittsfield for the extraordinary sacrifices and exertions 
 required of her people, as well as for the brilliancy of the exploits 
 in which they conspicuously shared. At midsummer, after months 
 of incessant anxiety, hostile troops approached nearer to her bor- 
 ders than at any other time since the close of the French and Indian 
 Wars; bringing her within the purposed scope of an invasion 
 characterized in an unusual degree by elements designed and well 
 fitted to spread terror among the non-combatant population. 
 From April to November was a period of continued excitement 
 and alarm; of frequent calls upon her militia, promptly met, 
 although at the most inopportune moment for the farmer; of 
 disasters which only inspired new vigor and patriotic devotion ; of 
 successes which flashed hope and light over the nation at the 
 moment of its deepest despondency and gloom. 
 
 The feeble remnant of the splendid company, which, under David 
 Noble, had joined Patterson's regiment in 1775, after participating, 
 278
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 279 
 
 during the last days of its service, in the glories and dangers of 
 Princeton and Trenton, had been dismissed on the last day of 1776. 
 Only six Pittsfield soldiers remained in the Continental service 
 during the succeeding winter; but these formed part of that noble 
 though crippled army with which Washington baffled the superb 
 legions of Howe in New Jersey, and finally drove them from that 
 State. 
 
 In the spring, Pittsfield responded to the call made upon her in 
 common with the other towns of Massachusetts, by furnishing 
 to the depleted armies of Washington twenty-four men, more 
 than one-seventh of the entire number enrolled in her militia, It 
 was also voted by the town to purchase for each a shirt, a pair 
 of shoes and stockings, and " that the assessors take the town's 
 money in the hands of Col. Williams, and purchase the same 
 immediately." Capts. Goodrich and Rufus Allen were also direct- 
 ed to forward the money and clothing collected for the soldiers by 
 Rev. Mr. Allen, who appears to have managed what answered 
 for a Christian and Sanitary Commission. 
 
 At the moment when the town was thus so liberally performing 
 its duties as regarded the national armies, it was justly apprehend- 
 ing the approach of an invader which it would tax all the re- 
 sources of the section to which it belonged to resist, and whose 
 success would be fraught with misery, even beyond that which or- 
 dinarily awaits a conquered people. 
 
 In the earliest stages of the Revolutionary contest, among the 
 threats with which the Tories had exasperated, while vainly 
 attempting to intimidate, the patriots, the most odious was, that 
 the savages would be brought upon their rear, while the regulars 
 assailed them in front ; and the committees obtained evidence that 
 it was really the purpose of the king's commanders to effect an 
 alliance with the Indians, which they suspected to be for the pur- 
 pose of an incursion as well as for the defence of Canada, to 
 which the honorable scruples of Carleton confined it. 
 
 John Brown, while a representative from Pittsfield and Par- 
 tridgefield, in February, 1775, presented to the Provincial Congress 
 a petition of which he was one of the signers, and probably the 
 author from the committees of the several towns in Hampshire 
 and Berkshire, asking for a better supply of arms to their militia, 
 and stating their reasons in the following paragraph :
 
 280 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 " The enemies of these Colonies frequently throw out that administration 
 have concluded a bloody plan for mustering great numbers of French Cana- 
 dians and remote tribes of savages, and to bring them against this Province, in 
 order to effect their system of tyranny and despotism of these Colonies ; and 
 the inhabitants of these counties apprehend that the first attacks of said 
 Canadians and Indians will be made upon them." 
 
 The war carried into Canada postponed the realization of these 
 fears ; but the operations with which the British commander fol- 
 lowed the expulsion of the American forces from that Province 
 left no room to doubt that the following spring would be signalized 
 by the long-dreaded irruption. The unfortunate relations between 
 the department commander and the militia within his precinct con- 
 tributed, however, with other causes, to obstruct the measures 
 which ought to have been taken in anticipation of it. 
 
 John Adams wrote on the 29th of April from Philadelphia, 
 doubtless relying upon Schuyler's reports, "Every man in the 
 Massachusetts quota ought to have been ready last December ; and 
 not one man has yet arrived in the field, and not three hundred at 
 Saratoga. I have been abominably deceived about the troops. 
 If Ticonderoga is not. lost, it will be because it is not attacked; 
 and, if it should be, New England will bear all the shame and all 
 the blame of it." Of the neglect thus charged, Pittsfiekl was not 
 guilty ; nor probably was Berkshire generally, notwithstanding 
 the distrust in which Schuyler was held in the county. Lieut. 
 James Hubbard, with nineteen men from Pittsfield, was kept at 
 Ticonderoga from December to the latter part of March ; and, on 
 the 25th of April, the town sent Lieut. Stephen Crofoot with four- 
 teen men, Richmond and Lenox probably making up the full 
 company. 
 
 An average of about one-sixth of the enrolled militia of the 
 town were in the military service of the country from the 1st of De- 
 cember to the 1st of May after which the proportion began to 
 increase, until, in July, it actually exceeded the whole number on 
 the rolls, which was only one hundred and forty, while at one time 
 one hundred and forty-five were returned as in service, including 
 the clergyman, and others exempt by law. 
 
 None of the Pittsfield militia appear to have remained at Ticon- 
 deroga after the 22d of May ; but Rev. Mr. Allen was there, as 
 chaplain to a Continental regiment, from the 13th of June until 
 the evacuation ; and has left a diary of what transpired in connec-
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 281 
 
 tion with that event, which throws light upon the feeling mani- 
 fested in Berkshire regarding it. 1 
 
 The invasion which that summer threatened the portions of 
 New York and Massachusetts which were protected by Ticonde- 
 roga was such as might well have kept alive the most anxious 
 solicitude for the safety of that fortress, and the most lively appre- 
 hension whenever it was endangered. The king and his cabinet, 
 determined no longer to be balked in their purposes by the old- 
 fashioned chivalry of such soldiers as Carleton and Howe, had sent 
 over, in the person of Burgoyne, an officer, who, if he had any nat- 
 ural repugnance to bringing the horrors of savage warfare upon the 
 homes of the rebellious colonists, was willing to yield all weak 
 scruples to the instructions of the royal closet. 
 
 Arriving in Canada, and entering upon his schemes of invasion, 
 his deliberate purpose was to inspire the people through whose 
 country he intended to march with the terror of his red allies as 
 well as of his military police. 
 
 On the evening of July 1, Burgoyne's army debarked before 
 Ticonderoga, mustering, rank and file, 3,724 British soldiers, 3,016 
 Germans, and 250 Provincials, besides which there were 473 
 picked cannoneers, with the finest park of artillery which had then 
 ever accompanied any army. In addition to these were the sav- 
 ages, on which the king so strongly relied. 
 
 The character of the warfare carried on by these auxiliaries 
 may be learned from the following paragraphs in Rev. Mr. Allen's 
 diary of June 26: 
 
 " This day, as John Whiting and John Batty were returning from Lake- 
 George Landing, they were fired upon by a number of Indians ; the former 
 of whom was shot through the head, and then stabbed in his throat, breast, 
 and belly, and, in addition to all, he was scalped. He was a likely lad of 
 about eighteen years of age, and belonged to Lanesborough. 
 
 " The other, John Batty, had two' balls pass through his thigh, one through 
 the small of his back, and one obliquely through his breast, and his scalp 
 taken off during all which he was quite sensible, and was obliged to feign 
 himself dead during the stripping him of his armor, and taking off his scalp, 
 which caused great pain. After the Indians retired, he got up, and ran and 
 called for help, and was soon carried in. He was living the day before the 
 retreat, and, it was said, was left behind." 
 
 1 Published in The Hartford Courant, Sept. 1, 1777.
 
 282 HISTOBY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 The whole civilized portion of Burgoyne's army was perfect in 
 soldiership and appointments, and was commanded by able and 
 ambitious officers. 
 
 The garrison of Ticonderoga, under Gen. St. Clair, consisted of 
 barely 3,300 men, one-third of them not efficient, and only one 
 man in every ten of the rest furnished with a bayonet. Notwith- 
 standing this great disparity, the American soldiers were able to 
 remember, that, twenty years before, an army of twice the num- 
 ber of that of Gen. Burgoyue, and with a reputation nearly as 
 splendid, had been repulsed from before those very walls by a gar- 
 rison not comparatively larger than their own. 
 
 Gens. Schuyler and St. Clair expressed the utmost confidence 
 of defending the post ; and the former continued to accumulate 
 stores imtil the last, while the latter, by the orders of his superior, 
 retained his men there until the favorable moment for retreat was 
 passed. Yet Schuyler, at least, was well aware of a not im- 
 probable contingency, which, if it should occur, would render it 
 utterly impossible to hold the works for a single day. 
 
 The original selection of Ticonderoga as a military post was 
 made with reference to the exigencies of the old forest-warfare, 
 and its retention had been a matter of tradition, without any skilful 
 re-examination of its position. On the retreat of the Canada 
 expedition in 1776, it had, however, been observed that Mount 
 Independence commanded the old lines ; and that elevation had 
 been fortified, in great part by the Berkshire soldiers. 
 
 But across the outlet of Lake George from Mount Independence, 
 and across a narrow portion of Lake Champlain from Ticonderoga, 
 the chain of hills which separates the two lakes terminates in an 
 abrupt eminence, six hundred feet high, which in 1776 bore the 
 name of Sugar Mountain. 
 
 Its distance from Mount Independence was but fifteen hundred 
 yards; from Ticonderoga, fourteen hundred: but it had been neg- 
 lected by French, English, and American engineers, as too distant 
 to be dangerous, or too precipitous to be occupied. But Col. John 
 Trumbull, when at Ticonderoga, on Gen. Gates's staff, in 1776, 
 had demonstrated that it was quite practicable for an enemy 
 to occupy it with a battery, and that, if he should do so, Ticon- 
 deroga would become utterly untenable. He had further shown, 
 that a small but strong fort, mounting twenty-five heavy guns, 
 would effectually command the lake passage, then the only one
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 283 
 
 by which an invading army could enter New York or Massachu- 
 setts from the north. Col. Trumbull furnished Schuyler and Gates 
 with drawings and specifications explanatory of these facts ; and 
 surveys were made for the erection of works in accordance with 
 them upon Sugar Mountain, but nothing came of it. The hope 
 indulged seems to have been, that, as the weak point in the defence 
 had so long escaped observation, it' would continue to do so. 
 
 It quickly, however, attracted the notice of a lieutenant of 
 Burgoyne's engineers'; and, on the night of the fourth day of the 
 siege, a party of infantry ascended Sugar Mountain, and were so 
 delighted with its commanding position that they at once hailed 
 it Mount Defiance, a name which it still retains. 
 
 When the day broke, the Americans were startled to see a crowd 
 of red-coats busily engaged in levelling the summit for a battery 
 whose guns were already half-way up the steep acclivity. In a 
 few hours, they would command every nook and corner of the 
 works spread out below. 
 
 Gen. St. Clair hastily summoned a council of war; which, of 
 course, had no alternative but to resolve upon an immediate evac- 
 uation, and it was ordered for the same night. 
 
 What preparations could be made during the day, without at- 
 tracting the attention of the enemy, were effected, and the retreat 
 was begun under cover of the night. The true object of these 
 preparations does not seem to have been at first communicated to 
 the body of the army. Mr. Allen having, in obedience to orders, 
 removed his baggage to Mount Independence, was returning with 
 the intention of taking part in the defence of Ticonderoga, when, 
 meeting his regiment in full retreat, he was astonished and in- 
 dignant to learn the true condition of affairs. Ignorant of the 
 examination made the previous year by Col. Trumbull, he, like 
 the great majority of the array, held to the traditional belief that 
 Ticonderoga was, for all practical purposes, out of artillery range 
 from Sugar Mountain. " All the king's artillery," said he in his 
 diary, "-on the high mountain behind us could never have obliged 
 us to evacuate the place ; for what they could make reach us 
 would have been falling shot, and never risen after they struck 
 the ground. The distance was judged to be about three miles 
 from Independence, and two from Ticonderoga. Did not our 
 people lie nearer the army at Boston than that, without receiving 
 damage either from bombs or cannon-shot ? Even had they have
 
 284 HISTOEY OP PITTSFIELD. 
 
 lifted up their eighteen-pounders to the summit of that craggy 
 mountain, we might have sat under our own vines and fig-trees, 
 and not been afraid." 
 
 Had Mr. Allen been informed of Col. Trumbull's thorough in- 
 vestigation of the matter, his opinion would have been changed ; 
 but the council of war explained their action to their subordinates, 
 only by the pleas of a scarcity of ammunition, and the danger of 
 re-enforcement to the enemy. The true reason which justified 
 their decision appears only to have been thrown out casually and 
 without authority. 
 
 Of the general feeling in the army, Mr. Allen says, " This event 
 was surprising to the whole garrison, and unexpected by us all. 
 Neither officers nor soldiers indulged the most distant apprehension 
 of such a. measure. The garrison in general seemed to be filled 
 with astonishment, grief, and indignation. Some vented their 
 grief in tears and lamentation ; others, by execrations and bitter 
 reproaches of this sad catastrophe." 
 
 Mr. Allen has left an abstract of an address made to the regi- 
 ment to which he was chaplain, a few hours before the determina- 
 tion to abandon the fortress was made public ; and from it we may 
 learn how astonished he must have been by such a proceeding. The 
 enemy's fleet in full sight, he said in substance as follows : 
 
 "VALIANT SOLDIERS, Yonder are the enemies of your country, who 
 have come to lay waste and destroy, and spread havoc and devastation 
 through this pleasant land. They are mercenaries, hired to do the work of 
 death, and have no motives to animate them in their undertaking. You 
 have every consideration to induce you to play the men, and act the part of 
 valiant soldiers. Your country looks up to you for its defence ; you are con- 
 tending for your wives, whether you or they shall enjoy them; you are 
 contending for your children, whether they shall be yours or theirs ; for your 
 houses and lands, for your flocks and herds, for your freedom, for future 
 generations, for every thing that is great and noble, and, on account of 
 which only, life is of any worth. You must, you will, abide the day of trial. 
 You cannot give back whilst animated by these considerations. 
 
 " Suffer me, therefore, on this occasion, to recommend to you, without delay 
 to break off your sins by righteousness, and your iniquities by turning to the 
 Lord. Turn ye, turn ye, ungodly sinners ; for why will ye die ? Repent, 
 lest the Lord come and smite with a curse. Our camp is filled with blas- 
 phemy, and resounds with the language of the infernal regions. Oh that 
 officers and soldiers might fear to take the holy and tremendous name of 
 God in vain ! Oh that you would now return to the Lord, lest destruction
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 285 
 
 come upon you, lest vengeance overtake you ! Oh that you were wise, that 
 you understood this, that you would consider your latter end ! 
 
 " I must recommend to you the strictest attention to your duty, and the 
 most punctual obedience to your officers. Discipline, order, and regularity 
 are the strength of an army. 
 
 " Valiant soldiers, should our enemies attack us, I exhort and conjure you 
 to play the men. Let no dangers appear too great, let no suffering appear 
 too severe, for you to encounter for your bleeding country. Of God's grace 
 assisting me, I am determined to fight and die by your side, rather than flee 
 before our enemies, or resign myself up to them. Prefer death to captivity ; 
 ever remember your unhappy brethren made prisoners at Fort Washington, 
 whose blood now cries to Heaven for vengeance, and shakes the pillars of 
 the world, saying, ' How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not avenge 
 our blood on them that dwell upon the earth ? ' Rather than quit this ground 
 with infamy and disgrace, I should prefer leaving this body of mine a corpse 
 on this spot. 
 
 " I must finally recommend to you, and urge it upon you again and again, 
 in time of action to keep silence ; let all be hush and calm, serene and tran- 
 quil, that the word of command may be distinctly heard and resolutely 
 obeyed. And may the God of Heaven take us all under his protection, and 
 cover our heads in the day of battle, and grant unto us his salvation ! " 1 
 
 The retreat was planned to be made in two divisions. A flo- 
 tilla, commanded by Col. Long, was to pass up the narrow lake to 
 Skenesborough, conveying the wounded, the sick, and the non-com- 
 batants, together with such artillery and stores as could be saved. 
 The main body of the army, under Gen. St. Clair, was to cross to 
 Mount Independence, and thence proceed south by land. A prema- 
 ture discovery of the evacuation transformed the retreat into some- 
 thing very like a flight. Both divisions were compelled to set off 
 in haste. Col. Long was overtaken at Skenesborough, lost his artil- 
 lery and stores, and pushed on southward ; but, turning upon his 
 pursuers, he made a gallant and almost successful stand near Fort 
 Aim. Finally compelled to retreat, he reached Fort Edward, 
 where Schuyler had fixed his headquarters. 
 
 St. Cl air's army, after severe fighting and heavy losses by its 
 
 1 In a note to Mr. Allen's abstract of this address, written shortly after his re- 
 turn home, he says, " In about five hours afterwards, the garrison was evacuated, 
 and our vast army fleeing before their enemies with the utmost precipitation and 
 irregularity, leaving behind, for the use of the enemy, an immense quantity of 
 baggage, artillery, ammunition, provisions, and every warlike necessary. How are 
 the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished ! "
 
 286 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 rearguard at Hubbardston, plunged into the woods, and, by a 
 circuitous route, reached a point about fifty miles east of Fort 
 Edward on the 10th. From the 7th, when they had disappeared 
 in the woods, no tidings had been received of them. Reaching 
 Fort Edward, although as way-worn, haggard, and reduced a 
 corps as is often seen, they were received with joy by Gen. Schuy- 
 ler, who had fully shared the apprehension, which everywhere pre- 
 vailed, that they had all been made prisoners. 
 
 This suspense had added to the consternation that had fallen 
 upon the whole region which the loss of Ticonderoga laid open to 
 the inroads of the enemy, a consternation which Burgoyne sedu- 
 lously sought to enhance through his proclamations and the Tory 
 emissaries, open or concealed, who ingeniously magnified the num- 
 bers of his army, and enlarged upon the fei*ocity of the savages, who 
 committed their atrocities under the shelter of his commission. 
 
 In the minds of the neighboring people, the mysterious evacu- 
 tion of the traditional stronghold to which they and their fathers 
 had looked for protection could not but create, in addition to the 
 other terrors of invasion, doubts of the ability or integrity of the 
 officers upon whom its defence devolved. St. Clair and his brig- 
 adiers were bitterly charged with cowardice; and the graver 
 allegations against Gen. Schuyler, which bis enemies had hardly 
 suffered to slumber, were revived in all their unjust malignancy. 
 
 If, however, the people of Pittsfield gave any thought to the 
 suspicions against the department commander, they did not suffer 
 them to impede, in the least, their co-operation in repairing the 
 breach made in their defences. A letter proffering aid was, on 
 the 9th, sent to Gen. Schuyler, who, the next day, gratefully ac- 
 knowledged it, and specified the modes in which the town could 
 best render him assistance. This communication was forwarded 
 to the General Court, with an explanatory note from the select- 
 men. Both letters are characteristic; and the latter is illustrative 
 of the spirit and feeling of the town at that exciting crisis. We 
 therefore reproduce them here. 
 
 [From the Selectmen and Committee of Pittsfield to the General Court.'} 
 To THE HONORABLE THE COUNCIL AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN GENERAL 
 
 COUET ASSEMBLED. 
 
 As the unparalleled, infamous, ignominious, and cowardly evacuating of 
 Ticonderoga and Mount Independence, and hasty retreat therefrom, must 
 give astonishment to all humanity, so must it also give the utmost perplexity 
 and remorse to the United Independent States of America, and greatly
 
 HISTORY OP PITTSFIELD. 287 
 
 reproach their general officers. To think that out of four there was not one 
 of so much firmness and resolution as to confine the others there, when all 
 the field-officers and others, with the men, would have stood by him for the 
 support and maintenance of the key of North America ; supplied with am- 
 munitions and provisions sufficient for thirty or forty days' siege, and within 
 reach of twenty thousand men, who might, in all probability, have been with 
 them in twenty days I But so it is, truly a lamentation, and will be for a 
 lamentation ; and they that have the watch must look out ; and we shall still 
 hope and trust that the All-wise Governor of the world will give that wisdom 
 to the Congress and to the several assemblies of the States to lead us into 
 such measures as that we may surmount all the difficulties that attend us, 
 and, in some measure, rectify the mistakes which have been made. It gives 
 us no small pleasure to see no countenance changed, unless it be with a spirit 
 of resentment and indignation. And as we have just received a letter from 
 Gen. Schuyler, in which he mentions the want of a very necessary article, 
 we thought it our duty to enclose it, fearing that, in his hurry and broken 
 situation, he may have omitted sending to you. 
 
 You will pardon us, if we unburden ourselves by letting you know what 
 is heavy on our minds, as the keeping of officers of whom even the common 
 soldiery have a jealousy, especially such as have showed the greatest cow- 
 ardice. They never will follow with that cordiality, fearing that they will 
 leave them to themselves, or, to regain their credit, charge them on with 
 impetuosity to needless ruin and destruction. And we are apprehensive, 
 that if those officers who made the late inglorious flight are not brought to 
 trial, and then, not justifying themselves, are not brought to condign punish- 
 ment, officers will run at a very low ebb ; and it will not be worth while to 
 attempt any great things for the future. 
 
 And, if it is true that we have lost three hundred cannon at Ticonderoga, 
 it cannot be supposed that there are many near or at headquarters. Suffer 
 us to suggest that some of the brigades marching to Fort Edward take along 
 with them some of the field-pieces paraded at Springfield. 
 
 We shall be glad if our ebullition of resentment against the late northern 
 conduct has not run us into indecency or impertinence. But we trust that 
 you will forgive us, as it comes from hearty well-wishers to the common 
 cause of America. 
 
 We are your most obedient and very humble servants, 
 
 WM. WILLIAMS, in behalf of the Selectmen. 
 JOSIAH WRIGHT, in behalf of the Committee. 
 PITTSFIELD, July, 13, 1777. 
 
 [Gen. Schuyler to Col. Williams and Josiah Wright, Esq.] 
 
 HEADQUARTERS, FORT EDWARD, July 10, 1777. 
 
 GENTLEMEN, Your favor of yesterday's date I have this moment received. 
 The evacuation of Ticonderoga and Mount Independence is, unhappily, too 
 true. I am informed that it was done in consequence of a resolution of the
 
 28S HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 general officers in council. I have not yet been so happy as to see any of 
 them, and cannot therefore inform you on what principle the resolution was 
 founded. I am sorry to learn from Col. Williams of White Creek, and other 
 gentlemen, that it is imputed to me as having given an order for that purpose. 
 If such order was ever given, I should not dare to deny it, as the means of 
 detection must be very easy, even if principle were no restraint to asserting 
 a falsehood. Gen. Learned has seen the originals of all my letters to Gen. 
 St. Clair ; for they were returned unsealed by Col. Long, having never 
 reached Ticonderoga. They hold up ideas widely, nay directly, repugnant 
 to the orders I am so unjustly charged with giving. You will please, 
 therefore, give my own words in contradiction to such report, should it have 
 taken place with you. The enemy have appeared at Fort Ann, but at 
 present none of them are there, except a few lurking Indians, or white men 
 disguised like Indians, of which we are assured the enemy have many, in 
 order to intimidate. I am in hopes, that when Gen. St. Clair and Gen. 
 Nixon, with the troops respectively with them, arrive, that I shall be able to 
 stop their progress in the vicinity of this place, provided we are properly 
 supported by the militia. I am accordingly thankful for your offers of as- 
 sistance, and will accept of any you can give. Carriages are greatly needed ; 
 and any number you can expedite to me, however small, will be of service. 
 I need not inform you that the more men there are sent to me, the better. 
 If, perchance, there should be any lead attainable by you, I wish to have it 
 sent to me with all despatch, as we are greatly straitened in that neces- 
 sary article. 
 
 I am, gentlemen, with much respect, 
 
 Your obedient, humble servant, 
 
 PH. SCHUYLER. 
 Col. WM. WILLIAMS, JOSIAH WEIGHT, Esq. 1 
 
 The assistance proffered by Pittsfield to Gen. Schuyler, in its 
 most essential particular, went before its offer. When news first 
 came that Burgoyne was advancing up the lake from Canada, 
 Capt. John Strong and Lieut. Caleb Goodrich led fifty-four men, 
 on the 30th of June, to Fort Ann; and, if tradition is correct, they 
 took part in Col. Long's sanguinary and almost successful fight. 
 And it must have been immediately upon learning the disaster at 
 Ticonderoga, that, on the 8th July, Capt. William Francis and 
 Lieut. Stephen Crowfoot marched with forty men to re-enforce 
 the army at Fort Edward. Ten days after, Lieut. James Hubbard 
 led # detachment often men to Manchester. On the 18th of June, 
 these corps were all in the field, making, with the thirty-two men 
 
 1 Mass. Ar.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 289 
 
 and several officers in the Continental service, more than one hun- 
 dred and forty soldiers in the armies of the country. 
 
 Gen. Schnyler, on the 26th of July, dismissed one-half of the 
 militia of New England, and of Albany County in New York ; 
 and the greater portion of the rest a month later. The company of 
 Capt. Strong returned home under the first order; the two others, 
 on the 26th of August, under the second. Schuyler's pretence for 
 this course, while there was the severest need of men, was, that the 
 militia of Berkshire and Albany were so impatient to return to their 
 fields, that he released a part lest he might lose the whole ; and 
 then, having dismissed the one-half, he sent home the other. The 
 explanation he gave in private was, that he considered every one 
 of the Southern soldiers, whom he was importuning Washington to 
 send him from his own too meagre force, to be worth two of the 
 men of New England. 1 Possibly the fundamental reason lay in 
 the distrust in which he knew himself to be held by the militia of 
 Berkshire and Albany Counties, and in hardly a less degree by 
 those of all the Eastern States. The contemned soldiery shortly 
 had a noble revenge, in proving upon the fields of Bennington and 
 Saratoga, and on the shores of Lake Champlain, that, under 
 officers in whose ability they could trust, they had few superiors in 
 arms. Had Schuyler possessed, like Stark and Brown, the mag- 
 nanimity to overlook their faults, that sympathy with their rude 
 virtues which taught those leaders how to win the confidence of 
 their men, and the genius which enabled them to render even their 
 failings useful to their country, he might, with the soldiery whom 
 he so grossly undei'rated, have forestalled the successes which soon 
 shed lustre on the northern army, and have escaped the bitterness 
 of removal from a command in which he believed victory almost 
 within his grasp. 
 
 With the triumphs attending his pursuit of the flying garrison 
 of Ticonderoga, the fortunes of the British commander culmi- 
 nated ; and even these were achieved at an expense in men which he 
 could ill afford, and which could by no means be made good from 
 the loyalists who flocked to him at Skenesborough. Here his 
 blunders became more palpable, and his perplexities began to 
 accumulate. Following the most impracticable routes, it was not 
 until the 30th of July that he found himself at Fort Edward with 
 
 1 Brancroft, Hist. U. S., vol. ix. p. 373. 
 19
 
 290 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 a wearied array, and surrounded by ever-increasing difficulties. 
 Before leaving Canada, he had directed a co-operating column to 
 proceed by the way of Oswego and the Mohawk. This body, he 
 now learned, was already before Fort Stanwix. The defeat which 
 it there met" was not within his purview of possibilities; and 
 it behooved him to make all haste down the Hudson, in order to 
 form the proposed junction before the occupation of Albany, which 
 was confidently assigned for the 22d or 23d of August. But his 
 transportation was utterly inadequate to such a movement. Carle- 
 ton, still governing in Canada, confined his assistance strictly to 
 the letter of his instructions, and acted, even within that limit, 
 with the reverse of zeal. The wagons contracted for in that Prov- 
 ince, unfaithfully made, were so rickety as to be of little service ; 
 the horses, insufficient in number, arrived in wretched condition. 
 The subsistence which could be ordinarily obtained from all 
 sources barely sufficed for the daily consumption : it was rare good 
 fortune when a magazine of four days' supply was accumulated. 
 
 In this strait, Burgoyne was prepared to welcome any suggestion 
 which promised relief. Our old friend Skene of Skenesborough 
 was in his camp ; and Burgoyne, trusting to the intimate acquaint- 
 ance with the country which he was supposed to possess, had 
 latterly relied much upon his counsels, raised him to the rank of 
 colonel, and made him titular governor of the regions thereabout. 
 
 This man represented, to say the least with great exaggeration, 
 that the Americans had established large depots of supplies, 
 and especially of horses at Bennington in Vermont, which he 
 asserted might easily be captured by surprise. 
 
 The veteran generals, Phillips and Reidesel, protested warmly 
 against the scheme, as attended with too great risks. The affairs 
 in which they had recently engaged the retreating Americans had 
 probably persuaded them, that, whatever might be the condition 
 of the opposing army as a whole, there were in it corps sufficiently 
 intact, and commanded by officers of sufficient dash and ability, to 
 render them extremely dangerous to a detached column. 
 
 Burgoyne's necessities were, however, imperious; and he not 
 only eagerly embraced the proposed plan, but enlarged its scope. 
 The final written instructions to Lieut.-Col. Baum, the German 
 officer who was assigned to the command, defined the purposes of 
 the expedition to be, to scour the country, with Peters's corps 
 (Tories) and the Indians, fi-om Rockingham to Otter Creek ; to
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 291 
 
 get cattle and horses, and mount Reldesel's Dragoons ; to go down 
 the river as far as Brattleborough, and return by the great road, 
 which passed through the extreme north-west corner of Berkshire 
 to Albany, there to rejoin the army of Burgoyne ; to endeavor to 
 make the country believe that it was the advance guard of the 
 general's army, who were to cross the Connecticut, and proceed via 
 Springfield to Boston ; to make prisoners of all civil, as well as 
 military officers, holding under Congress ; to tax the towns where 
 they halted for whatever they needed, taking hostages for their 
 performances ; to bring all horses fit either to mount the dragoons 
 or for battalion service, with all the saddles and bridles which 
 could be found. The number of horses, besides those for the 
 dragoons, ought, it was the British general's modest opinion, to be 
 thirteen hundred ; but, if more were to be obtained, so much the 
 better. 
 
 Verbal orders were given to send back the spoils of Bennington 
 at once to Burgoyne's camp, which, in order to be nearer to Baum 
 in case of necessity, had been advanced down the river to a point 
 opposite Saratoga, and near the mouth of the Batten Kill. It is 
 clear that Burgoyne's march down the Hudson could only be facil- 
 itated by such transportation as could be obtained at Bennington ; 
 for the fruits of the marauding beyond that point would only reach 
 him at Albany. It will be perceived how large a share of the 
 labors and dangers of the expedition were submitted to for another 
 purpose. The raid beyond the first point named was an out- 
 growth of that system of terror which Burgoyne, in council 
 with his royal master and the most infamous of his ministers, 
 had devised as the fittest expedient to restore the rebellious peo- 
 ple of the Colonies to their allegiance. 
 
 Nothing, surely, could be a more efficient adjunct to such a 
 system, than a raid of mercenaries, ignorant of the language of 
 the people, instructed to live upon the country, and with unlimited 
 power to make prisoners, supplemented by a "scouring" of In- 
 dians and exasperated Tories. And nothing could be more condu- 
 cive to the permanence of submission supposing terror compe- 
 tent to induce it than a military police, well mounted upon 
 horses stripped from the conquered territory. But, whatever may 
 have been the object prominent in the mind of the British com- 
 mander when sending out this ill-starred expedition, the belief 
 that it could safely march through the route indicated, much less
 
 292 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 carry out the programme laid down for it, betrays that pitiable 
 misconception of the people with whom he had to deal which 
 characterized his leadership from first to last. 
 
 But, in fact, he looked upon that whole region as virtually sub- 
 dued, and only needing to be made sensible of the fact by a vigor- 
 ous application of the rod. In the absence of all active opposition 
 from the American forces, the natural obstacles he was obliged to 
 encounter did not suffice to disabuse him of the fatal fallacy. As 
 the British camp advanced from post to post, until it was estab- 
 lished on the banks of the Hudson, less than forty miles above 
 Albany, Schuyler, although pure in purpose and eager to meet 
 every personal danger, yet dispirited, irresolute, fretted by unjust 
 imputations, and doubtless conscious of grave errors with which 
 he was not yet charged, fell back from Fort Edward to Fort 
 Miller, thence to Saratoga, and finally to Stillwater and the Mo- 
 hawk River. 
 
 Washington, alarmed at the hopeless tone of his letters and his 
 perpetual complaints of the New-England militia, robbed his own 
 already depleted army to furnish him re-enforcement, which an 
 officer like Stark would have rapidly drawn and organized from 
 the surrounding country ; and sent to his aid Arnold, whom he 
 regarded as the ablest of the major-generals, and who certainly 
 did not lack in dash, as well as Lincoln, who had the confidence 
 of the militia, upon whom the sagacious commander-in-chief well 
 .knew all must finally, in a great measure, depend. 1 
 
 But it was left to an independent commander to carry out, 
 although ignorant that it had been made, the suggestion which 
 Washington in vain wrote to Schuyler, that, " if the enemy con- 
 tinued to act in detachments, one vigorous fall upon one of those 
 detachments might prove fatal to the whole expedition." After a 
 brilliant record from the very inception of the present war, as well 
 as in that of 1754, Col. John Stark of New Hampshire had 
 retired from the Continental service in the March of 1777, disgusted 
 with the omission of his name from the list of newly-appointed 
 brigadiers, in which those of far inferior men figured. This cir- 
 cumstance, untoward as it then appeared, in good time proved to 
 be of inestimable advantage to the country, which profited by the 
 blundering injustice of its representatives. 
 
 1 Bancroft.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 293 
 
 Upon the irruption of Burgoync, New Hampshire being one of 
 the frontiers threatened, the patriotic legislature of that State, 
 roused by the imminence of the danger, determined to raise two 
 brigades of militia for its defence. Stark was tendered the com- 
 mand of one of these, and of the whole, when in combined service, 
 by virtue of seniority ; and with this force was directed to " pro- 
 ceed to the new State," l and " check the advance of Burgoyne." 
 
 The task was one from which commanders of more abundant 
 resources were shrinking; but Stark was willing to undertake it, 
 although only upon the indispensable condition that his command 
 should be an entirely independent one, responsible to the legisla- 
 ture of New Hampshire solely, and in no way subject to the Con- 
 tinental generals. Such was the estimation in which his ability, 
 as well as his patriotism and sound sense, was held by the legis- 
 lature, that, unprecedented and dangerous in principle as was his 
 demand, it was complied with without hesitation. That demand 
 and that compliance fought and won the battle of Bennington. 
 
 Stark had hardly reached Manchester, when Gen. Lincoln 
 arrived at the same place, charged by Gen. Schuyler with orders 
 to bring the militia in that quarter to the west bank of the Hudson, 
 where he was concentrating his army to oppose the progress of 
 Burgoyne ; or fall back before him. Stark, in whose judgment, as 
 in that of Washington, the better policy seemed to be to hang 
 heavily on the enemy's flank and rear, flatly refused to comply, 
 and, on the 9th of August, established his headquarters at 
 Bennington. 
 
 Baum set out from Batten Kill early on the morning of the 
 13th, the general showing his interest in the expedition by riding 
 with him across the stream. The force consisted of four hundred 
 Brunswick dismounted dragoons, a detachment of Hanau artiller- 
 ists with two field-pieces, Capt. Frazer's English marksmen, all 
 the French Canadians, a considerable body of the Queen's Royal 
 Rangers (Peters's corps), and bands of savages to the number of 
 perhaps one hundred and fifty. Those who have examined the 
 huge long sword, the ponderous musket, and brazen helmet, now 
 in the Massachusetts Senate Chamber, which were worn by the 
 German troops in Baum's expedition, will comprehend how utterly 
 unfit such a body were for a rapid movement. Surprise is an effect 
 
 J Vermont, which had then just assumed its independent rank and its beautiful 
 name.
 
 294 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 which they seem to have only been capable of producing in the 
 minds of those who witnessed their selection for such a movement 
 as the present. Their tactics, also, were as cumbrous as their 
 armor ; and the British officers affirmed, that, in forest-roads which 
 incessant rains had rendered beds of unfathomable mire, the Ger- 
 man officers halted their men ten times an hour to dress their ranks. 
 
 The distance from the mouth of the Batten Kill to Bennington, 
 by the route pursued, was probably little more than thirty miles. 
 The presence of the Indians at Cambridge, twelve miles from 
 Bennington, where they were committing their usual outrages, was 
 reported to Stark late in the afternoon of the 13th; and Lieut.-Col. 
 Gregg, with two hundred men, was sent out to check and chastise 
 them. During the following night, word was received that the 
 savages were merely the advanced scouts of a large body of troops 
 pushing directly for Bennington. Stark immediately put the 
 whole force at headquarters under arms, sent express to Gen. 
 Lincoln in command of the forces collected at Manchester, and 
 dispersed messengers in all directions to summon the local militia 
 to the rescue. 
 
 The tradition has long been current, that the alarm reached 
 Pittsfield on the Sabbath ; that the messenger coming to the door 
 of the meeting-house, where the people were still engaged in divine 
 worship, announced the approach of the British ; that thereupon 
 the pastor descended from the pulpit, and, standing on the little 
 platform beneath it, called upon his people to go forth with him to 
 do battle with the enemies of his country. 
 
 The tradition is not one of those current among Mr. Allen's 
 descendants ; and it is disproved by the fact that the battle was 
 fought on Saturday. The origin of the story probably was, that, 
 when the alarm reached town, the citizens, as was their custom, 
 assembled in the meeting-house to take measures for an effectual 
 response ; and that there the minister, with his heart full of the 
 emotions excited by his late experience at Ticonderoga, made an 
 address whose eloquence and power were remembered long after 
 the attendant circumstances became obscured. 
 
 This explanation is rendered the more plausible by that portion 
 of the legend which affirms that Mr. Allen spoke musket-in-hand ; 
 while, since the days of Indian surprises, the most belligerent 
 clergymen had given over the practice of making an armory of 
 their pulpits.
 
 HISTORY OF P1TTSFIELD. 295 
 
 A large portion of the able-bodied men of the town were already 
 in the field; others had just returned, and were scattered upon 
 their farms, deeply engrossed in their too long-delayed agricultural 
 labors. But the exigency was felt to be of the most pressing and 
 alarming nature ; and the best citizens of the town pressed forward 
 to meet it, irrespective of legal exemption from military service, or 
 any other personal consideration. 
 
 Twenty-two men enrolled themselves in all, under the command 
 of Li'eut. William Ford, an officer who saw much service in those 
 days. With him served the veteran Col. Easton, Rev. Mr. Allen, 
 Capts.- Charles Goodrich, James Noble, and William Francis, 
 Lieuts. Joseph Allen (second in command), Josiah Wright, and 
 Rufus Allen. 
 
 On the 16th, and of course before news of the battle was 
 received, a second detachment of seventeen men, under Lieut. 
 James Hubbard, set out for Bennington; and this, too, was peculi- 
 arly constituted, for in its ranks were Capts. Isaac Dickinson and 
 John Strong and Lieut. Oliver Root. Major Israel Stoddard and 
 Woodbridge Little, Esq., also signalized their newly-sworn alle- 
 giance to the "Independent United States of America" by volun- 
 teering in Lieut. Hubbard's detachment ; and we find in its rolls, 
 as well, the name of Ezekiel Root. 
 
 The first detachment hurried to the threatened point in hot 
 haste. Possibly every man got there as best he could. Certainly 
 there was no superfluous weight of armor, and no dressing the ranks 
 on the march. Mr. Allen set out in the old sulky, the wonted 
 companion of his pastoral visits ; going to war in his chariot, like 
 the heroes of classic and scriptural story. 
 
 Of the Berkshire militia districts, Col. Symonds, of that nearest 
 the scene of action, marched his full regiment. Col. Brown, the 
 commander of the middle district, in which Pittsfield lay, was 
 absent; and the detachment of his corps was led, and command- 
 ed with great spirit and military skill, by Lieut.-Col. David 
 Rossiter of Richmond. From southern Berkshire, several towns 
 sent volunteers. Meanwhile, as the people of the surrounding 
 district were rallying to his support, Stark, on the 14th, had 
 checked Ba urn's forces at a point in Hoosac, N.Y., five miles 
 from Bennington Church, and near the Wallamsac, a little wind- 
 ing branch of the Hoosac River. On a small elevation near this 
 stream, Baum occupied a strong position, which, during the heavy
 
 296 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 rain of the 15th, he was able to fortify with two lines of breast- 
 works, although suffering severely from Stark's skirmishers. On 
 the 14th, these sharp-shooters succeeded in killing or wounding 
 thirty of the enemy, with no loss to themselves; and, on the 15th, 
 the woods where the Indians had camped were so thoroughly 
 scouted, that the savages, declaring the forest full of Yankees, be- 
 gan to desert in large numbers. 
 
 Among the volunteers of Southern Berkshire was a company of 
 Stockbridge Indians, who, although civilized, retained, for the con- 
 venience of the service, their national costume, and were among 
 the most valued of Stark's scouts. An incident of the battle was 
 related by Linus Parker, which illustrates the double danger to 
 which these faithful allies of the colonists were subjected. On 
 the night previous to the fight, which was dark and dreary, Parker 
 was on picket, and was induced to take double duty, and remain 
 unrelieved at his post until morning. When the light broke, he 
 found himself near a heavy belt of pines and hemlocks, which at 
 once struck him as an admirable covert for lurking savages. He 
 accordingly betook himself to watch behind a large tree; and, sure 
 enough, a huge Indian with war-paint, musket, tomahawk, and 
 scalper, soon showed himself, and, after taking a wary observation, 
 walked straight towards Parker's hiding-place. The latter drew 
 his musket to his shoulder; but, bethinking liimself that a party of 
 Mohegans were out on scout, determined to challenge, and shouted, 
 " Who comes there ? " "A friend," was the reply. " A friend 
 to whom ? " After a painful hesitation, " To the Congress ! " 
 "Advance, and give the countersign ! " "I can't," exclaimed the 
 stranger, advancing and trembling with emotion: "O Parker! 
 thank God, it is you ! If it had been anybody else, they'd never 
 stopped to talk to poor Indian. I'd been a dead man, sure." 
 
 The stranger proved to be Capt. Solomon, a Stockbridge chief, 
 who had been out three days with a scouting-party, who had 
 exhausted their provisions. " Now, Solomon," said Parker, "give 
 me your gun, tomahawk, and scalper, and sit down yonder. Play 
 my prisoner, and we'll get a drink." The guard soon came along ; 
 and, to the inquiry of the sergeant, "Who have you there?" 
 Parker's reply was, "You can see, can't you? ask him." But 
 Solomon, having been duly instructed, could talk nothing but 
 Indian ; and was taken, with his " captor, " to the colonel, who at 
 once recognized the scout. The drams were produced; and
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 297 
 
 Solomon was soon on his way back with supplies for his famishing 
 tribesmen. 
 
 Stark continually gained strength by the arrival of the militia, 
 by inuring his raw troops to danger, and by organizing the frag- 
 mentary squads in which some of the most ardent of his recruits 
 had come. 
 
 The Berkshire militia arrived during the night, thoroughly 
 drenched, of course, with the rain, and clogged with the mire 
 through which they had trudged thirty miles, but having kept 
 their powder dry, and full of heart for immediate action. The 
 frequent tedious marches, which, in the midst of harvest-time, 
 they hud recently made, only to be sent home again without the 
 opportunity to face the enemy, had left the militiamen in no very 
 good humor ; and the alarm of Bennington had been regarded 
 by many as the old cry of " Wolf." Only the splendid reputation 
 of Stark as a fighting commander obtained the effectual rally 
 which was made to his standard. And even his name could not 
 altogether dispel the distrust which had become chronic in the 
 militia. This was the origin of the following scene, which is re- 
 lated by Edward Everett in his Life of Stark, and is probably as 
 truthfully told as such traditions ever are : 
 
 " Among the re-enforcements from Berkshire county came a clergyman 
 [Rev. Mr. Allen] with a portion of his flock, resolved to make bare the arm 
 of flesh against the enemies of his country. Before daylight on the morning 
 of the 16th, he addressed the commander as follows: 'We, the people of 
 Berkshire, have been frequently called upon to fight, but have never been 
 led against the enemy. We have now resolved, if you will not let us fight, 
 never to turn out again.' Gen. Stark asked him ' if he wished to march 
 then, when it was dark and rainy.' ' No," was the answer, ' not just this 
 minute." " Then," continued Stark, " if the Lord should once more give us 
 sunshine, and I do not give you fighting enough, I will never ask you to 
 come again.' " 
 
 The morning of the 16th of August dawned bright and clear; 
 and Stark prepared to make good his promise of action. A close 
 reconnoisance, together with the report of scouts, showed that the 
 enemy were carefully, if not at all points skilfully, posted. The 
 artillery, protected by Baum's dragoons and Frazer's sharp- 
 shooters, occupied the hill which rose from the Wallamsac, just 
 within the borders of New York. The Loyal Rangers and French 
 Canadians were stationed behind the first line of breastworks,
 
 298 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 in front of the hill, and on the same side of the river with the 
 Americans. The little stream was, however, iirdable at all points, 
 and exercised but small influence upon the j^rtunes of the day 
 which made it famous. The hill was quite abrupt upon its south- 
 eastern face, but fell off more gently to the north and west ; a fact 
 of which Stark promptly availed himself, sending Col. Nichols 
 with two hundred men, and Col. Herrick with three hundred, to 
 simultaneously assail the right and left rear of the dragoons and 
 sharp-shooters. The manoeuvre was successfully executed, not- 
 withstanding the outlying of the Indian scouts, who, finding 
 themselves between the two detachments, and terrified by the 
 experience of the two past days, broke through the lines and fled, 
 although not without leaving a considerable number of dead and 
 wounded on the field. Bancroft affirms that Baum mistook the 
 militia, stealing behind him in their shirt-sleeves and with fowling- 
 pieces, for loyalists of the country seeking the protection of his 
 lines. 
 
 In the mean time, as Nichols and Herrick were marching to the 
 real point of attack, small detachments made diversions in other 
 quarters. 
 
 The Berkshire militia were with the reserve of some three 
 hundred, who, under Stark in person, were slowly approaching 
 the Tory breastworks by inarches and countermarches, and getting 
 familiar with the noisy terrors of the Hanau artillery ; while the 
 commander impatiently awaited the rattle of Nichols's musketry, 
 which was to be the signal for his advance. 
 
 In the morning, the Berkshire men would not leave their en- 
 campment until Mr. Allen had prayed to the God of armies that 
 he would " teach their hands to war, and their" fingers to fight." 
 The prayer was offered with that fervent earnestness for which 
 its author was remarkable ; and it inspirited the men like the 
 harangue of a trusted commander. There were many who at- 
 tributed the glorious success of the following day to the efficiency 
 of the Berkshire parson's morning prayer. And who that, even 
 in these days of less faith, trusts in the effectual fervent prayer 
 of the righteous man, shall rebuke them for superstition in so 
 believing ? 
 
 As the regiment to which he was attached approached the 
 Tory outworks in its countermarching, Mr. Allen, who knew that 
 some of his old neighbors must be there, was moved by a sense
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 299 
 
 of duty which he could not resist, although conscious of the 
 extreme danger, to go still nearer, and, standing in full view upon 
 a fallen tree, to conjure them to come out from the enemies of 
 their country, and save the effusion of blood, while he warned 
 them of the consequences of persisting in their hostility. 
 
 The answer was what might have been expected. " There's 
 Parson Allen : let's pop him ! " exclaimed some one who perhaps 
 still smarted from the lash of the minister's plain preaching ; and, 
 although a few were of a more merciful mood, a shower of bullets 
 whistled around him, riddling the tree on which he stood, but 
 sparing his person a piece of good luck which he owed more to 
 the nervous markmanship of the musketeers than to their merciful 
 compunctions. The undaunted parson, having satisfied his con- 
 science, and no doubt feeling that the blood of the traitors would 
 now be upon their own heads, turned coolly to his brother, 
 Lieut. Joseph Allen, who had followed him under cover of the 
 tree, and said, "Now give me a musket : you load, and I'll fire !" 
 And fire he did, the first gun in that glorious fray, it must be 
 confessed a little in advance of orders. 
 
 In a few moments, however, Stark heard the welcome sound of 
 Nichols's attacking musketry , the word was given, and his men 
 rushed eagerly to the attack, pouring in, as they advanced, a con- 
 tinuous fire, which soon rendered the first line of entrenchments 
 too hot for its defenders. Panic-stricken, the unhappy Tories, 
 expecting little mercy at the hands of their incensed countrymen, 
 attempted to gain the protection of the works above by scaling the 
 steep face of the hill, which had been rendered extremely slippery 
 in digging for the earthworks during the heavy rains of the pre- 
 ceding days. Hardly able to maintain a precarious foothold at 
 the best, constantly exposed to the relentless and unerring aim of 
 the forest-trained militia, the wretched fugitives were indeed in 
 pitiable plight. Linus Parker, afterwards the famous Pittsfield 
 hunter, then a volunteer from Lenox, describes the scene as horribly 
 ludicrous when a glimpse was caught, through the veil of smoke, 
 of the black figures scrambling desperately up the smooth acclivi- 
 ty, and, one after another, killed or wounfled, tumbling helplessly 
 back to its base. " I could not," he said, " have kept from shaking 
 with laughter if I had known that I was to be shot dead the next 
 minute." The horror of the scene did not strike him at the 
 moment as it did when he reviewed it in memory. The conflict
 
 300 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 soon became general, and " lasted,'' says Stark in his official report, 
 "two hours, and was the hottest that he" he who could remem- 
 ber, not only Bunker Hill and Trenton, but the fierce fights before 
 Ticonderoga in the old French and Indian Wars " had ever 
 seen : it was like one continued clap of thunder." 
 
 The German dragoons and the English sharp-shooters defended 
 their position gallantly, but the impetuous daring of their assail- 
 ants was irresistible. The American musketeers rushed madly up 
 the steep ascent to within a few paces of the cannon's mouth, the 
 more surely to pick off the cannoneers. Attacked in front and 
 rear, and his ammunition nearly expended, Baum ordered his 
 dragoons and infantry to cut their way through the militia, who 
 were almost destitute of bayonets. The charge was bravely made, 
 but was as bravely met. The British commander fell, mortally 
 wounded ; and those of his men who survived were mostly made 
 prisoners. 
 
 The soldiers of Stark now dispersed in various directions. Some 
 were detailed to guard the numerous prisoners ; others were em- 
 ployed in tending the wounded, and in seeking and caring for the 
 dead ; many, exhausted with the fatigues of the day, went in 
 search of refreshment ; and not a few betrayed the instincts of 
 irregular troops, and devoted themselves to the -plunder of the 
 British camp. Even those who cared nothing for the spoils as 
 booty desired to have some trophy of the great militia battle-field. 
 It was while the victors were thus variously occupied that Col. 
 Breyman approached with a body of troops which had been 
 despatched by Burgoyne in response to Baum's demand for 
 re-enforcements, but had been delayed by the inability of heavy 
 German troops to act efficiently as light infantry in a pitched 
 fight with American forest-mire. 
 
 It was impossible readily to recall a large portion of the scat- 
 tered militia, and there was great danger that the fortunes of the 
 day would be reversed. 
 
 Col. Rossiter distinguished himself by coolness, zeal, and cour- 
 age in his exertions to collect the men and restore order; but all 
 would have been in vain, had not Col. Seth Warner's regiment, 
 which had not previously been engaged, arrived at the critical 
 moment. 
 
 They had been stationed with the militia which Gen. Lincoln 
 was collecting at Manchester; but, on Stark's application, had
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 301 
 
 promptly been despatched to his aid, and had arrived, on the 
 15th, near Bennington, where they had been delayed by the con- 
 dition of their arms and the scantiness of their ammunition. They 
 now came fresh from repose ; and, although they had been 
 reduced to less than one hundred and fifty men by the Battle of 
 Hubbardston, proved adequate, with the aid of what militia Stark 
 could bring into action, and the captured cannon, to rout the 
 force of Breyman, although that, too, was accompanied by two* 
 field-pieces. 1 
 
 The rout was complete and precipitate. The enemy abandoned 
 his artillery and many of his wounded ; and, during the pursuit, 
 the Americans took a considerable number of prisoners and a 
 large quantity of small arms. Darkness preserved the broken 
 remnant, who were received, with what feelings may be imagined, 
 by Burgoyne, who was advancing to their relief with the Forty- 
 seventh British Regiment. 
 
 The victory was perfect. In all the engagements, the Ameri- \ 
 cans had lost only about thirty killed and forty wounded ; while the 
 loss of the enemy, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, was more than 
 a thousand. The prisoners alone were at least six hundred and 
 ninety-two, of whom four hundred were Germans, and one hun- 
 dred and seventy-five were Tories. They exceeded in number 
 the whole force which Burgoyne acknowledged to have been sent 
 out in Baum's party. 
 
 The material fruits of the victory were four brass cannon, nine 
 hundred dragoon swords, one thousand stand of excellent arms, 
 and four ammunition-wagons, besides what the militia secured 
 individually. 
 
 After the battle, Rev. Mr. Allen found a German surgeon's 
 horse, loaded with panniers full of bottled wine. The wine was at 
 once administered to the wounded and exhausted soldiers ; but 
 Mr. Allen retained two of the large square bottles as trophies of 
 his three days' " tour ; " and they were long kept as heirlooms in 
 his family, some branch of which probably still have them in their 
 possession. 
 
 The prisoners were sent, under charge of Gen. Fellows, to Bos- 
 ton ; but a portion were left on the way, in Berkshire and Hamp- 
 shire Counties; and these, except one servant to every officer who 
 
 1 For an account of the Battle of Bennington, by Rev. Mr. Allen, see Appendix.
 
 302 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 chose to have one at his own expense, were ordered by the Gen- 
 eral Court to be consigned to the care of the committees of some 
 of the towns in those counties, and to be permitted to hire out to 
 labor on such terms as the committee might think equitable. 
 Quite a number did so, to the relief of the great scarcity of labor- 
 ers; and some became permanent settlers of the country. 
 
 No battle in the Revolution took a more powerful and perma- 
 "nent hold upon the hearts of the people than that of Bennington. 
 To this end a variety of circumstances combined. The dark back- 
 ground which it relieved contributed much to the effect. At the 
 moment when the news of its glorious success flashed over the 
 country, the aspect of affairs, to the popular eye, was one of almost 
 unbroken gloom. The serene mind of Washington, indeed, con- 
 templated the star behind the cloud ; but he was, with a far infe- 
 rior force, vainly combating the passage to Philadelphia of the 
 superb army of Sir William Howe, by a system of tactics which, 
 although it commands the admiration of posterity, had no splendor 
 for the multitude in that day, and was even denounced as too 
 " Fabian " by eminent statesmen. 
 
 Burgoyne, almost utterly unopposed, was advancing upon 
 Albany with an army whose power and terrors were studiously 
 magnified by every art in the reach of its general. Marauding 
 parties upon the Hudson indicated that the fleet and forces below 
 only waited the arrival of Burgoyne at Albany, to advance to the 
 same point, and complete the armed barrier which was to divide 
 the East from the South and West. 
 
 On this night of gloom, the eye of Washington, eagerly watch- 
 ing for the morning star which his trusting spirit prophesied, did 
 indeed recognize it in the noble exploit of Herkimer's New-York 
 militia, and that most mirth-provoking termination to the siege of 
 Fort Stanwix. But the connection of St. Leger's column with 
 Burgoyne's scheme was too remote to be comprehended by the 
 masses; and, in fact, his success was not essential to that of his 
 principal. Herkimer's gallant exploit, therefore, both for this 
 reason and because of its incompleteness, although to Washington's 
 eye "it first relieved the gloomy scene of the northern campaign," 
 had not the effect on the country which he desired and confidently 
 expected from the cutting-off of some detached body of Bur- 
 goyne's army, the restoration of lost spirit and courage. That 
 remained to be effected by the Battle of Bennington.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 303 
 
 This had in it all the elements which seize upon the popular 
 mind. Standing out from the dark background we have rudely 
 sketched, it glowed with the perfect halo of victory. It impressed 
 itself upon the imagination also in other ways. It occurred in a 
 region which, romantic in itself, had just become associated with 
 the thrilling tragedy of Miss McCrea. The wounded and the 
 slain of the enemy were the abettors of her savage murderers ; 
 perhaps among them were the miscreants themselves. The victors 
 were her avengers. The defeated, also, were a portion of the 
 most boastful and arrogant army which the king had sent over. 
 The victors were militia, the most popular branch of the military 
 service, 1 and of a portion of the militia, which to those at a dis- 
 tance especially, was invested with a sort of quaint fame. A large 
 portion were the Green-Mountain boys who had once been led 
 by Ethan Allen. All were men of the mountains, and were led by 
 Stark, the story of whose exploits in the old wars now passed 
 nothing lost in the telling from mouth to mouth. Hardly a less 
 prominent figure in the well-wrought scene, as it was pictured by 
 a thousand firesides, was that of the bold parson who went with 
 his flock to share the dangers of the battle-field ; satisfied that the 
 war which was holy enough for him to advocate from the pulpit 
 was righteous enough for him to take part in with his musket. 
 
 Such were some of the elements which enabled the Battle of 
 Bennington to obtain and keep so large a place in the national 
 heart. 
 
 But the first great thrill of joy and hope, that went all over the 
 land, was inspired by the fact that a large detachment of that 
 proudest of armies had been utterly routed by a hastily collected 
 body of husbandmen, half armed, and imperfectly organized ; that 
 no small quantity of munitions of war had been acquired ; and 
 that the march of Burgoyne had been seriously interrupted. 
 
 In effects like these the Battle of Bennington may justly be 
 classed, and not in any particular as inferior, with those of Lex- 
 ington and Bunker Hill, Princeton and Trenton ; and no prouder 
 rank could be accorded it among the battle-fields of the Revo- 
 lution. 
 
 In addition to the moral effect, the material loss inflicted upon 
 
 1 Although in form and organization militia, the Pittsfield volunteers were, 
 it ought to be stated, individually almost all veterans ; some of them having 
 served in two wars. But few, if any, of them had never been under fire.
 
 304' HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Burgoyne was serious. Out of his small force, more than a thou- 
 sand men a majority of them among his best troops were 
 gone, besides those he had lost in the skirmishes of July. His 
 scanty transportation was still more diminished ; and, although the 
 captured arms and ammunition would not be much missed from his 
 plentiful supply, it was a serious consideration that they went to 
 replenish the depleted armories of the Americans, who, consequent 
 upon the evacuation of Ticonderoga, had lost no less than 128 
 pieces of cannon, and an immense quantity of warlike stores. 
 
 Three days after the Battle of Bennington, Schuyler was suc- 
 ceeded, or rather supplanted, in the command of the northern 
 army, by Gates, a man with few of his noble qualities, but with 
 many of his weaknesses. The new commander was, however, 
 governed by a selfish ambition, which sometimes, at a pinch, stood 
 him in the stead of personal courage and the spirit of a resolute 
 commander. 
 
 Emboldened now by the recent disasters to the enemy, and by 
 the augmenting strength of his own forces, Gates, upon the 9th of 
 September, turned the faces of his men again towards the invaders, 
 and moved his camp northward to a strong position which com- 
 manded the passage of the Hudson at Still water. 
 
 In the meantime, Burgoyne, by the most arduous exertions, had 
 succeeded at length in bringing from Lakes George and Cham- 
 plain one hundred and eighty boats, which, laden with one month's 
 supplies, to that extent made every thing ready for the long- 
 delayed advance upon Albany. 
 
 But now the occupation of Stillwater by the Americans had 
 made that movement impracticable, unless they were first dislodged 
 from that commanding position. To accomplish this, Burgoyne 
 could at the best muster less than six thousand men, rank, and file ; 
 and, in order to swell his numbers to the utmost of his capacity, 
 he resolved to draw in the garrisons stationed at Skenesborough, 
 Fort Edward, and Fort Miller, and abandon his communication 
 with the lakes. 
 
 The necessity of such a measure on the part of the British 
 general had been foreseen ; and a plan to take advantage of it had 
 been arranged between Gates and Gen. Lincoln, Avho still com- 
 manded the depot for militia at Manchester. 
 
 The execution of this scheme, so congenial to his tastes, was 
 committed to Col. Brown, who, with a detachment from his militia
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 305 
 
 regiment, had left Pittsfield on the 6th of September, and was 
 stationed at Pawlet, to which place Lincoln also removed his head- 
 quarters. It is probable, that, when setting out for this rendez- 
 vous, he contemplated something of an adventurous nature ; for 
 the Pittsfield company which attended him, under the command 
 of Capt. John Strong and Lieut. James Easton, is recorded to 
 have gone " every man with a horse and a bag of meal." 
 
 From Pawlet, Gen. Lincoln sent out three detachments of five 
 hundred picked light troops each. To one of these Col. Brown 
 was assigned, with directions to proceed to Fort George, to destroy 
 the British stores collected there, and release the American pris- 
 oners for whom that post had been made a depot. While this 
 attempt was making, Col. Johnson was ordered to create a diver- 
 sion at the northern end of the lake, and, if opportunity offered, 
 to attack Mount Independence. 
 
 With so much discretion and spirit was Col. Brown's expedition 
 conducted, that, leaving Pawlet on the 13th of October, by the 
 morning of the 18th, he had not only accomplished the objects 
 designated in the general's orders, but, passing up Lake George, 
 he had surprised all the outworks between its northern landing- 
 place and the main fort of Ticonderoga, including Mount Hope, 
 Mount Defiance, an isolated block-house, and the old French lines. 
 Besides these, an armed brig, several gunboats, and two hundred 
 bateaux, had fallen into his hands. He had made two hundred and 
 ninety-three prisoners ; embracing four companies of regular in- 
 fantry, and nearly as many Canadians, besides the officers and 
 crews of the flotilla. Five cannon, and small arms in proportion 
 to the number of captured soldiers, were among the spoils ; and, 
 to complete the gratifying character of the achievement, one hun- 
 dred American soldiers were released from captivity, and the 
 Continental standard, which had been left behind in the unseemly 
 haste of the late evacuation, was recovered. 
 
 Having accomplished this, Col. Brown summoned the com- 
 mandant of Ticonderoga to surrender; but he had neither siege- 
 artillery nor men to enforce a compliance ; and, after making 
 demonstrations against the works for a few days, he withdrew his 
 forces, and, destroying the captured vessels, returned safely with 
 his trophies to headquarters, having lost in killed and wounded only 
 nine men. 
 
 Meantime the conflict went on between the armies of Gates 
 20
 
 306 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 and Burgoyne at Saratoga and Stillwater; and, in compliance with 
 the order of the General Court requiring one-half of the Berkshire 
 militia to take the field, Capt. William Francis with thirty men 
 marched on the 30th of September to Stillwater, where they 
 remained until the 10th of October. What part they took in the 
 battles which ccurred in that interval is not stated. Dr. Timothy 
 Childs, who accompanied the detachment as surgeon, remained with 
 the army until the capitulation of Burgoyne ; which was signed on 
 the 17th, when five thousand seven hundred and ninety-one men, 
 including officers, laid down their arms. Eighteen hundred and 
 fifty-six, previously made prisoners of war, were not included in the 
 articles of capitulation. 
 
 The army of Burgoyne marched through Berkshire to Boston, 
 twenty-five hundred of them by way of Pittsfield. 1 The march 
 of these long-dreaded and now but half-humbled enemies through 
 the country impressed itself strongly on the memories of the 
 people, and still mingles largely in their vague traditions. It is 
 indicative of the almost total absence of specie in those days, that 
 the possession of gold and silver, in what seemed profusion, by 
 the passing prisoners, and their readiness to spend it for such 
 luxuries as the impoverished country afforded, was what took 
 the most powerful hold of the imagination of the Berkshire folk; 
 and this to such a degree as 4o tinge some of the legends, which 
 they handed down, with superstitions akin to those which attach 
 to the piratical hoards of Capt. Kidd. Men, at a not very remote 
 date, have been known to engage in the search for hidden treasure 
 along the route of Burgoyne's men. 
 
 Upon the surrender of the British army, the garrison of Ticon- 
 deroga withdrew into Canada : the excitements and alarms which 
 had so long pervaded the territory of which Berkshire formed a 
 part ceased, and comparative quiet reigned. The exultation of the 
 people over the successes of 1777 are quaintly expressed by some 
 ingenious writer of that day in the following verses, which were 
 found among the papers of Gen! Stark after his death : 
 
 1 Rev. Mr. Allen's diary.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 307 
 
 GEN. BURGOYNE'S OVERTHROW AT SARATOGA, 
 OCTOBER, 1777. 
 
 Here followeth the direful fate 
 
 Of Burgoyne and his army great, 
 
 Who so proudly did display 
 
 The terrors of despotic sway. 
 
 His power and pride, and many threats, 
 
 Have been brought low by fort'nate Gates, 
 
 To bend to the United States. 
 
 British prisoners by convention 
 
 Foreigners by contravention 
 
 Tories sent across the lake . , . 
 
 Burgoyne and suit, in state 
 
 Sick and wounded, bruised and pounded ) 
 
 Ne'er so much before confounded ) 
 
 Prisoners of war before convention 
 
 Deserters come with kind intention 
 
 They lost at Bennington's great battle, ) 
 
 Where glorious Stark his arms did rattle J 
 
 Killed in September and October . 
 
 Taken by brave Brown, some drunk, some sober, 413 
 
 Slain by high-famed Herkiman 
 
 On both flank, on rear and van 
 
 Indians, sutlers, and drovers, 
 
 Enough to crowd large plains over, 
 
 And those whom grim death did prevent, 
 
 From fighting against our continent ; 
 
 And also those who stole away, 
 
 Lest down their arms they should lay, 
 
 Abhorring that obnoxious day. 
 
 The whole make fourteen thousand men, } 
 Who may not with us fight again 
 
 This is a pretty just account 
 
 Of Burgoyne's legions' whole amount, 
 
 Who came across the northern lakes 
 
 To desolate our happy States. 
 
 Their brass cannons we have got all, 
 
 Fifty-six, both great and small ; 
 
 And ten thousand stand of arms, 
 
 2,442 
 
 2,198 
 
 1,100 
 
 12 
 
 528 
 
 400 
 300 
 
 1,220 
 600 
 
 300 
 
 4,413 
 
 . nnn
 
 308 
 
 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 To prevent all future ha.rms ; 
 Stores and implements complete, 
 Of workmanship exceeding neat; 
 Covered wagons in great plenty, 
 And proper harness no way scanty, 
 Amongst our prisoners there are 
 Six generals of fame most rare ; 
 Six members of their Parliament, 
 Reluctantly they seem content ; 
 The British lords, and Lord Balcarras, 
 Who came our country free to harass. 
 Two baronets of high extraction 
 Were sorely wounded in the action.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 LAST YEARS OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 II777-I783.] 
 
 Battle of Stone Arabia. Death of Col. Brown. Major Oliver Root defends 
 Fort Paris. Pittsfield Militia. Pittsfield Soldiers in the Continental Army. 
 Action of the Town in filling Quotas. Hosea Merrill. Interesting Inci- 
 dents. Material Contributions of Pittsfield to the War of the Revolution. 
 Collection of Taxes. Curious Papers relating thereto. 
 
 IpROM the year 1777 to the close of the war, the military 
 JL' record of Pittsfield is meagre, as compared with that of the 
 earlier years of the Revolution. While the patriotism of its people 
 continued as ardent, and they were as prompt as before to respond 
 to the calls of their country, the war was in a great measure 
 turned from the neighboring frontier; the demand for extraordinary 
 service ceased ; the contributions of men were mostly to the regu- 
 lar Continental army, and we can rarely follow them in their 
 scattered and distant service. Even could we trace them from 
 field to field, we should find, in the story of their conflicts, that 
 the exploits of the few were merged in the achievements of the 
 many ; and that not only was the individual lost in his company, 
 and the company in its regiment, but that, in most instances, the 
 corps hid the regiment. 
 
 A few incidents of special local interest are, however, saved 
 from this generally unmarked period ; and it was distinguished by 
 the sad but not inglorious fight in which many of the sons of 
 Pittsfield participated, and the most illustrious soldier which she 
 furnished to the armies of the Revolution fell. 
 
 But, even concerning an event so conspicuous as the Battle of 
 Stone Arabia, one is compelled to rely very much upon tradition, 
 both for the events'of the day and their immediate causes. Fortu- 
 nately, however, the story comes to us through so many trust- 
 worthy sources which corroborate each other, and was so minutely 
 
 809
 
 310 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 related many times by the chief actor who survived the slaughter, 
 to gentlemen from whom we have received it directly. 1 
 
 In the autumn of 1779, Gen. Sullivan, by the orders of Gen. 
 Washington, had inflicted a terrible chastisement upon the Mo- 
 hawks, and other hostile tribes of the Six Nations ; burning their 
 villages, destroying their orchards, and laying waste their fields, 
 a devastation whose record shows that these tribes had sufficiently 
 advanced in civilization to feel keenly the severity of their punish- 
 ment. 
 
 During the ensuing winter, this visitation was bitterly retaliated 
 upon the friendly Oneidas, whose homes were desolated, and their 
 families driven in upon the Americans for protection and support. 
 Not content with this, the Indians and the Tories, impelled by a 
 common resentment, banded together under Sir John Johnson and 
 the chiefs Brant and Corn-Planter, prepared to pursue their 
 schemes of vengeance in the valley of the Mohawk, a luxuriant 
 farming-country, in whose population there was a convenient infu- 
 sion of Tories, although the great majority of its inhabitants were 
 ardently patriotic. 
 
 The hostile league was formidable ; and the alarm was general, 
 although, until fall, apprehension of its nature and designs was 
 vague. The horrors of Indian warfare, under British instigation, 
 had exceeded the atrocities incited by the French foe. The mas- 
 sacre at Wyoming in 1778 was still fresh in the memory of the 
 people; and, in the summer of 1780, the danger became apparent, 
 that similar scenes, and even more dreadful, might be witnessed in 
 the valley of the Mohawk, the fair home from which Sir John 
 Johnson and many Tories had been driven, and where, moreover, 
 a harvest of unusual abundance was ripening, upon which Wash- 
 ington's commissariat was known to place much dependence. 
 Policy and exasperated feeling alike devoted this lovely region. 
 
 Prominent among the troops which rallied to its defence was a 
 Berkshire regiment, commanded by Col. John Brown ; in which 
 there was a company of seventy-nine Pittsfield and Richmond 
 men under Capt. William Ford, the same who, as lieutenant, had 
 led the Pittsfield detachment at Bennington. 
 
 1 Dr. 0. S. Root and Franklin Root, Esq., grandsons of Major Oliver Root. We 
 have also consulted the accounts of Lossing and Stone, and valuahle papers in Mr. 
 Henry C. Van Schaack's collection ; but tradition is the foundation of all these 
 reports.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 311 
 
 The regiment was composed of levies from the three, into which 
 the militia of Berkshire was divided. John Ashley, who com- 
 manded in the southern part of the county, was the senior officer. 
 John Brown had commanded the middle regiment until 1778, 
 when he resigned, and was succeeded by Lieut.-Col. Rossiter. In 
 1780, the new State Constitution went into operation; and, in 
 accordance with it, the choice of regimental officers was intrusted 
 to the captains and subalterns, who, in their turn, were elected by 
 the privates of their respective companies. At the first election 
 under this law, Col. Brown was restored to his old position. 
 
 About the same time, the levy for the Mohawk was made, and 
 Ashley was assigned to the command, and proceeded to Albany. 
 There he was seized with an illness which afterwards proved fatal ; 
 and Col. Brown, being in the city upon private business, consented 
 to relieve him, being assured by his senior and friend, that the 
 Berkshire troops, especially since his recent success at Lake George, 
 would follow him more readily than any other man. 1 
 
 Col. Brown accepted the position probably with the more readi- 
 ness, because his old home, Caughnawaga, where he commenced 
 the practice of the law, was in the district he was called to defend. 
 The other regimental officers were Major Oliver Root, Adjutant 
 James Easton, son of the colonel of the same name, Quartermaster 
 Elias Willard, and Surgeon Oliver Brewster. All were from 
 Pittsfield, except Dr. Brewster, who was from Partridgefield, now 
 Peru, but was the ancestor of two prominent Pittsfield physicians. 2 
 
 Col. Brown assumed the command on the 14th of July. We 
 learn nothing more of the regiment, until, on the 18th of October, 
 we find it posted at Fort Paris, a small blockhouse about three 
 miles north of the Mohawk River, and in that part of the district 
 of Stone Arabia which -now forms the town of Palatine. Four 
 days previous, Sir John Johnson's hordes had set out upon a grand 
 mission of destruction through the fine valleys of the Schoharie and 
 
 1 It is related in connection with this change of commanders, that Col. Brown, 
 being without his pistols, borrowed, and gave his receipt for, those of Ashley ; 
 which, when he fell, became the booty of some plundering savage. Ashley dying 
 soon after, the receipt was found among his papers, and his administrators collected 
 payment from the estate of the man who was killed in his place. 
 
 2 Surgeon Brewster was born in Lebanon, Conn., in 1760. He was reputed an 
 excellent physician, and a man of marked piety. He was grandfather of the late 
 Dr. Oliver E. Brewster, of Pittsfield, surgeon of the Fortieth Massachusetts Regi- 
 ment, in the civil war of 1861-5.
 
 312 
 
 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Mohawk ; and, wherever they had passed, the devastation was 
 complete. The destroyers left unburned not one house, barn, or 
 stack of grain, which was known to belong to a Whig ; and hun- 
 dreds of the patriotic inhabitants men, women, and children 
 were pitilessly murdered while flying, or begging for mercy. 
 
 DR. OUTER BREWSTEH. 
 
 On the 18th, Gen, Robert Van Rensselaer, an exceedingly slug- 
 gish and incompetent commander, coming tardily, with a consider- 
 able body of militia, to the relief of the distressed region, reached 
 Caughnawaga, which flourishing village he found still in flames. 
 Learning here that Fort Paris, which is about twelve miles distant, 
 was to be attacked the next day, he sent orders to Col. Brown to 
 march out in the morning, and form a junction with his own force 
 at an appointed rendezvous, in order to anticipate the enemy's 
 plans by a joint attack. 1 
 
 Many of the garrison seem to have considered the movement a 
 dangerous one; and some of the officers even counselled disobe- 
 dience of the order. The same feelings of distrust extended to the 
 
 1 The reason assigned for Van Rensselaer's order is not so clear as one could 
 wish ; and it is not bettered by adopting the other version, that it directed Brown 
 to attack the rear while Van Rensselaer assailed the front of the enemy, which is 
 inconsistent with the story of the ambuscade. The whole account leaves the 
 impression that neither officer supposed that any body of the Indians lay between 
 them.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSF1ELD. 313 
 
 men. One of them, Giles Parker of South Adams, whose 
 courage had often been tried by the severest tests, came to the 
 colonel in the morning, and warned him to forego his march ; 
 relating, at the same time, an ominous dream of the pre- 
 vious night, which depressed his spirits. " What ! " exclaimed his 
 commander, " are you afraid to march with me ? Then stay 
 behind." The soldier indignantly protested "that he had fought 
 by his side many a time ; that it was not for himself he feared, but 
 his colonel." Finding him fully impressed with the belief that evil 
 would attend the march, Col. Brown seriously advised him to 
 remain in the fort ; but the noble fellow claimed his right to share 
 the danger of his comrades, and was among the first to fall under 
 the murderous fire of the savages. 
 
 The one thing that Col. Brown feared was, that a battle in 
 which he had a right to take part would be fought without him. 
 
 Early on the morning of the 19th of October, his thirty-fifth 
 birthday, he therefore left Fort Paris, with about three hundred 
 men, to form a junction, in obedience to his orders, with Gen. 
 Van Rcnsselaer. The detachment had marched perhaps two miles, 
 when a house was discovered, at a distance of perhaps a quarter of 
 a mile upon the right, before which was a family group, surround- 
 ing a man just mounting his horse. This person rode directly to 
 Major Root, who was in advance, and inquired if he commanded 
 the party ; Col. Brown, who was in the rear, was pointed out ; and, 
 riding up to him, the stranger stated that he was directed by Gen. 
 Van Rensselaer, to inform him, that by proceeding down a road 
 which turned to the left, instead of that he was then pursuing, he 
 would reach the general's army. 
 
 The proposed route seemed to be a convenient detour around 
 the region where the presence of the enemy began to be indicated 
 by the smoke of burning buildings ; and, the well-arranged 
 family scene doubtless helping to ward off suspicion, unfortunate 
 credence was given to the stranger, without demanding further 
 guaranties, and without detaining him as a surety for his good 
 faith. 
 
 The route was changed in accordance with his directions, and 
 soon led into a long and narrow clearing, extending to the river, 
 near a ruined work called Fort Keyzer, and surrounded by heavy 
 woods. The detachment had well advanced into this treacherous 
 cul-de-sac, the colonel and major both being at the head of the
 
 314 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 column, when a sergeant near them exclaimed, "See that 
 damned Indian ! " and immediately discharged his musket. At 
 once the woods resounded with savage yells; and a thousand 
 muskets, gleaming from behind sheltering trees, poured in a rapid 
 and murderous cross-fire upon the entrapped and bewildered 
 troops. Col. Brown, who was conspicuous by his fine person and 
 his official sash, was shot through the heart at the first fire, and 
 fell upon his face without a word or a struggle. 1 
 
 Any attempt to restore order among the panic-stricken troops 
 would have been worse than futile ; and officers, as well as men, 
 fled precipitately towards ihe fort. There was no lack of vigor in 
 the pursuit ; but the irresistible impulse to tomahawk and scalp the 
 wounded delayed the savages, and enabled a large portion of the 
 fugitives to escape. Major Root saw one man crawl into the woods 
 and conceal himself, while his over-eager pursuers passed on with- 
 out heeding him ; but he thought almost every man of the seriously 
 injured was killed and scalped. Forty were reported slain. 
 
 The fort was filled with women and children, who, upon the 
 approach of the savages, had fled to it from the neighboring coun- 
 try ; and their shrieks and moanings added to the confusion, as the 
 flying soldiers crowded in disorder into the gates. Fortunately, 
 Major Root had been trained in a school which rendered him 
 familiar with such scenes, as well as with the character of the 
 enemy with whom he had to deal. The fort, he knew, was not at 
 all competent to sustain an assault from the forces which now 
 thronged into the edges of the clearing around it, and were 
 evidently eager for an attack. But he was well aware of the ter- 
 ror with which " big guns " inspired the savages, and was convinced, 
 by the temerity with which they exposed themselves, that they 
 believed him unsupplied with artillery. The wretched little for- 
 tress, however, was, by chance, supplied with one poor dwarf of a 
 four-pounder ; although its ammunition was limited to a solitary 
 ball and three charges of powder. 
 
 With this the major determined to make a demonstration ; and, 
 
 1 Lossing relates the following anecdote : " On his way to the Mohawk country, 
 Col. Brown called upon Ann Lee, the founder of the sect of Shaking Quakers. 
 He assured her, byway of pleasantry, that, on his return, he should join her society. 
 A fortnight after his death, two members of the society waited upon his widow, 
 told her that her husband, in spirit, had joined ' Mother Ann,' and that he had 
 given express orders for her to become a member. She was not to be duped, and 
 bade them begone."
 
 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 315 
 
 wheeling his gun to the gateway, he sent the lonely missile bowl- 
 ing among, or at least towards, the astonished groups. A charge 
 of horse-chains next went singing through the air. But in the 
 mean while, by order of the major, a huge old cast-iron dinner-pot 
 had been broken up ; and, when its fragments came shrieking and 
 screaming among the besiegers, it completed their dismay, and 
 they withdrew rapidly within the shelter of the woods. Even the 
 Tory officer who commanded them does not seem to have noticed 
 the scarcity of ammunition which the strangeness of the missiles 
 would have indicated to one of more shrewdness or experience ; for 
 he gave over his purposed attack, remarking, that " he had a mind 
 to take that fort by storm ; but it would cost too many lives." 
 
 The militia rallied to the support of Gen. Van Rensselaer in 
 such numbers, that, there being no longer need of the services 
 of the Berkshire regiment, it returned home at the expiration of 
 its term of three months, on the 21st of October. 
 
 The affair of Stone Arabia was the only occasion, subsequent 
 to 1777, when the Pittsfield militia met the enemy in actual con- 
 flict. It responded promptly, however, when called upon in 
 various alarms. 
 
 While Johnson was invading the Mohawk Valley, Lieut. Joel 
 Stevens led a small detachment to Fort Edward, where signs of 
 danger appeared ; and, at the same time, Capt. Rufus Allen, with 
 twenty-six men, "marched forty miles," probably to the same 
 point. 
 
 When Connecticut was invaded by Gov. Tryon in the summer 
 of 1779, Lieut. Stevens went with fourteen men to New Haven. 
 In October, 1781, the same officer, having been promoted to a 
 captaincy, repaired, with Lieuts. Lebbeus Backus and Nathan 
 Warner, to Saratoga upon an alarm in that quarter. 
 
 There may have been other occasions when the militia of the 
 town were called out in the closing years of the war ; but, if so, 
 they were unrecorded, and probably bloodless, campaigns, and 
 with no remembered adventure. 
 
 The reader who has followed us thus far will not attribute it 
 solely to local pride, that we claim for the Pittsfield militia a record 
 of peculiar brilliancy and usefulness. From the spring morning 
 when Capt. Noble's minute-men, with rattling drum and scream 
 of fife, took up their march for Cambridge, until Capt. Stevens's 
 volleying musketry welcomed the return of peace, its able-bodied
 
 316 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 men with those of all Berkshire as well had been, and the 
 General Court practically recognized them to be, virtually a 
 frontier garrison posted behind the ramparts of their hills, but 
 ever ready to sally out to any point where danger gathered. Their 
 fame is indissolubly connected with the names of Ticonderoga, 
 Bennington, Lake George, and the fields of Canada, which they 
 helped to make historic ; and more sadly, but hardly less gloriously, 
 are they associated with the ambuscade of Fort Keyser. 
 
 The Continental soldiers furnished by the town, so far as we can 
 learn, served with credit ; but little has been preserved of their 
 individual record. The story of the demand and supply of men 
 for that service is, however, of curious interest ; and we have a 
 general statement of the several calls, of the bounties paid, and 
 of the other means used to raise the men. 
 
 In the spring of 1778, Pittsfield had in the Continental service 
 thirty-two men, all enrolled within the two years immediately 
 preceding, for terms either of three years or during the war. A 
 call for six additional having been made, the town, on the 20th 
 of May, authorized the commissioned officers " to promise to the 
 Continental soldiers now to be raised, the sum of 180 ; it having 
 been granted to the town by the General Court, provided it 
 procure six able-bodied men to serve in the Continental arm y for 
 the term of nine months." 
 
 The next call was for seven men for nine months' service ; and 
 on the 30th of June, 1779, a committee of seven was appointed 
 to hire them, with power " to plight the credit of the town " for 
 whatever sums they might promise as bounty. 
 
 On the 2d of July, the committee reported that they had made 
 the following enlistments upon the terms specified : 
 
 John Wright and Ozem Strong, 200 Continental money each, and 9 
 each in neat cattle at the rate at which they were selling in the year 1 7 75. 
 
 David Johnson and Samuel Smith, 300 Continental money each, on their 
 passing muster. 
 
 Jeffrey Hazzard (colored), 200 Continental money, and nine pounds' 
 worth of merchantable wheat at 4s. Gd. per bushel, to be paid to Nathan 
 Bobbins by Dec. 1, 1779, provided Hazzard passes muster. 
 
 Isaac Morse, 200 Continental money, and 10 worth of wheat, or corn 
 at the rate of wheat, by Feb. 1, 1779, at 4s. per bushel, provided he passes 
 muster. Morse entitles the town to his State bounty. 
 
 Daniel Bates, 115 Continental, and 13. 10s. worth of wheat at 4s. 6d per 
 bushel, by Dec. 1, 1779, provided he passes muster.
 
 HISTOBY OF PITTSFIELD. 317 
 
 The town proceeded to tax itself 2,700 to meet these bounties, 
 and directed the tax to be assessed and collected as soon as pos- 
 sible. It was also provided, " that, if any person is disposed to pay 
 either of the soldiers so raised what said person's rate shall be, 
 on his producing said soldier's receipt to the collector he shall 
 cross the same." 
 
 The matter was, however, not yet disposed of; for, in the war- 
 rant for town-meeting on the 2d of the following August, an 
 article was inserted, " To see what measures the town will come 
 into, to recover three of the nine-months' men that have been 
 enlisted, mustered in, and received their bounty, but have since 
 absconded : if not recoverable, to see by what means their places 
 shall be supplied." The town authorized the selectmen to send 
 some person after the runaways, and passed over the article look- 
 ing to the possibility of their absolute loss ; but voted, that if Capt. 
 John Strong should deliver Joshua Chapell to the superintendent 
 of this county, and procure a certificate that the said Chapell is 
 received as a nine-months' man, the treasurer of this town shall 
 pay to Lieut. Rufus Allen eight hard dollars." Which of the 
 seven were the deserters is not stated. All finally served in that 
 contingent, except Ozem Strong and Jeffrey Hazzard, whose 
 places were filled by Joshua Chapell and Jonathan Morey. 
 Hnzzard's name appears afterwards on the Continental rolls as 
 having been mustered on the 14th of November, 1779, into service 
 "during the war." 
 
 In December, 1780, came a more formidable requisition. No 
 less than sixteen men were wanted to serve for three years or 
 during the war ; and, at a meeting on the 14th, a committee of 
 nine men, chosen from different parts of the town, was appointed 
 to devise the most eligible mode of procuring them. It consisted 
 of Joshua Robbins, Eli Root, Esq., Joseph Fairfield, Lieut. Wm. 
 Barber, Woodbridge Little, Esq., Capt. Rufus Allen, Capt. David 
 Bush, and Daniel Hubbard, who, on the 20th, reported the follow- 
 ing elaborate plan : 
 
 That the town choose two good and faithful men to hire the said six- 
 teen men, and to obligate themselves, on the credit of the town, to pay each 
 man whom they shall so hire and procure the sum of thirty pounds in hard 
 money, over and above all State and Continental pay and rewards, within 
 three weeks, or otherwise to such person's acceptance and satisfaction. 
 
 2d. The officers of the three militia companies into which the town was
 
 318 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 divided, were requested to assemble their companies at the meeting-house 
 at nine o'clock, the next Monday morning, and to use their utmost exertions 
 to obtain a fall attendance of their men. 
 
 3d. That the aforesaid committee of two attend the above meeting, and 
 use their utmost endeavors to procure the required number of men for the 
 aforementioned sum ; at the same time giving information of the State and 
 Continental pay and rewards. 
 
 4th. That a committee of five be chosen from the several parts of the 
 town, for the purpose of dividing the ratable polls and estate into as many 
 classes as there shall be men wanting after the committee of two have made 
 their trial aforesaid. 
 
 5th. That the committee of two, immediately after their trial aforesaid, 
 make report to the committee of five, who, thereupon, shall immediately 
 proceed to class the town. 1 
 
 6th. That, in forming said classes, the committee shall be governed by the 
 last valuation or list, which was taken by the assessors, having no regard to 
 the dormant lands. 2 
 
 7th. That the committee shall consult the convenience of the inhabitants 
 by classing together persons who live in the same neighborhood, so far as is 
 practicable ; and shall transmit to some principal member of each class a 
 list of the persons contained in their respective classes, together with the 
 amount of each person's estate. 
 
 8th. That it shall be the duty of each class, so made and formed, to pro- 
 cure an able-bodied, effective man, to the acceptance of the muster master, 
 to serve in the Continental Army for three years or during war. 
 
 9th. That each class, unless they otherwise agree among themselves, shall 
 tax its members to such an amount as shall be found necessary in order to 
 procure such men, one third thereof to be assessed on polls, and the other 
 two-thirds upon estates. 
 
 10th. That reference be had to the resolve of the General Court of the 
 2d of December, 1780, for the compelling the respective classes, or individuals 
 of classes, to comply with their respective duties on the premises. 
 
 The report was made by David Bush, and was adopted, with the 
 exception of the clause excluding the dormant lands from a share 
 in the taxation. 
 
 It was also resolved that the classes should " exhibit to the 
 town what each soldier cost its respective class, which sums shall 
 be made a town debt." 
 
 1 The towns were authorized by the General Court to divide their inhabitants 
 and estates into as many classes as there were men in their quota, and to compel 
 each class to produce its man. 
 
 2 Lands of non-resident proprietors, unimproved, and by the old law not sub- 
 ject to town taxation.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 319 
 
 The town 'selected Capt. James Noble and Mr. Joseph Fairfield 
 for its " committee of two good and faithful men," and the follow- 
 ing five to class the town : Woodbridge Little, Eli Root, Rufus 
 Allen, James D. Colt, and Oliver Root. 
 
 The " utmost endeavors " of the first committee did not suffice 
 to persuade any of the militia that thirty pounds, even in hard 
 money, was an adequate bounty ; and the town was divided into 
 sixteen classes, fifteen of which procured their men previous to the 
 first of January. The bounty paid in six cases was 50 ; in five 
 cases, 55 ; in one* 55. 7s. ; in three, 60, all of course in specie 
 or its equivalent. 
 
 The class nominally delinquent, according to a certificate of the 
 selectmen April 20, 1781, paid to its head their respective assess- 
 ments, sufficient to procure a man, to his full satisfaction ; and he 
 undertook to hire a soldier and idemnify the class, but, for some 
 reason unexplained, failed to do so. 
 
 The last call upon the town during the Revolution was in July, 
 1781, when thirteen men were required for the service of the Com- 
 monwealth, not the Continent, for three months. The town was 
 classed by a committee consisting of Woodbridge Little, Eli Root, 
 Lebbeus Backus, and Capts. William Barber, Joel Stevens, and 
 James D. Colt ; and the men were promptly raised. 
 
 HOSEA MEHKH-L. 
 
 The name of Hosea Merrill is borne on the Revolutionary rolls 
 as having served for Pittsfield in 1780. Mr. Merrill was born at He-
 
 320 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 bron, Conn., in 1761, and removed to Pittsfield at the age of twelve. 
 The family tradition is, that, at the age of nineteen, he and several 
 other boys, providing themselves with old guns, powder-horns, and 
 bullets made by melting down pewter spoons, proceeded to Wash- 
 ington's headquarters on the Hudson, and offered their services ; 
 and, when asked by the commander-in-chief what they came for, 
 young Merrill replied for them, " To fight the British ; " and to the 
 question, what position they desired, his answer was, "The post of 
 danger." Boys of nineteen were worth too many pounds of " hard 
 money, " in filling quotas, to permit us to accept fhis story literally ; 
 but it indicates the opinion which prevailed of Mr. Merrill's gal- 
 lantry. It is better authenticated, that he was on patrol on the 
 night when Major Andre was brought in a prisoner; that he was 
 selected as one of his guards, and was afterwards posted in the 
 room with him during his last night on earth, and witnessed the 
 sad spectacle of his execution. 1 
 
 The contributions of material, as well as those of* men, made 
 by Pittsfield to the war of the Revolution, were large. Rev. Mr. 
 Allen speaks of the demands made upon the county of Berkshire 
 as being extraordinary, in proportion to those upon the rest of the 
 State ; which is explained by her proximity to the theatre of war. 
 In several exigencies, portions of the county were stripped of 
 almost all means of transportation. In others, as in the alarm of 
 1777, every article of lead or pewter which could be laid hands upon 
 was seized : cattle and grain were demanded in large but not in so 
 exhaustive quantities. There were resolutions of advice from the 
 Provincial Congress, and orders from the General Court, of equal 
 authority in Berkshire, that the town should furnish certain 
 articles of clothing, and equipments for its soldiers, and they were 
 always forthcoming ; there were special voluntary contributions 
 for the comfort of the sons of the town in the army, and they were 
 liberally made. 
 
 The taxes, as in most towns, were sometimes in arrears. The 
 political disorders of the times created the utmost financial confu- 
 sion ; 2 and, when the imposts came to be enormously increased, some 
 
 1 Mr. Merrill was in after-life a fine specimen of the Revolutionary soldier 
 returned to private life, a calm, even-tempered, collected, and thoughtful man; 
 kind and affectionate ; speaking ill of none ; quiet, industrious, and economical ; 
 spending a long life without reproach, and fearing no man. 
 
 2 Some idea of the depreciation of the currency, even in the earlier years of the
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 321 
 
 irregularity in their collection was to be expected, especially among 
 a people largely dependent upon their daily labor, while a majority 
 of its able-bodied middle-aged and young men were in the mili- 
 tary service. Still the efforts of the town to collect the dues of the 
 State were unremitting and fairly successful. There were, how- 
 ever, some difficulties in the matter which called for the aid of 
 legislation. The exemption from local taxation of the unim- 
 proved or " dormant " lands of non-resident proprietors in the 
 town had long been a source of complaint, and, the State tax 
 upon them being now refused payment, produced troubles which 
 are explained in the following preamble and resolutions, intro- 
 duced, and probably passed, in the General Court of 1781 : 
 
 " Whereas it appears that Joel Dickinson and Joseph Wright, constables 
 and collectors in the town of Pittsfield, labor under difficulty, and are likely 
 to suffer damage in their estates, on account of the dormant lands of the 
 non-resident proprietors, as the law now stands, as no purchasers appear to 
 bid off said lands when they are offered for sale ; therefore 
 
 "Resolved, That the sheriff of the county of Berkshire is authorized 
 and directed to levy the execution or executions which he may have against 
 said collectors upon said proprietors' lands in the several rate-bills, in the 
 hands of said collectors and constables, and cause so much of the lands so 
 taken to be apprized, by three indifferent men, under oath, as will pay the 
 sum or sums set upon their lands, and the costs, and the lands so apprized 
 to become the property of this Commonwealth ; which shall discharge such 
 part of the aforesaid executions as shall be levied upon such dormant lands." 
 
 Another difficulty, which it must have puzzled the legislative 
 wisdom to resolve, will appear from the following draft of a peti- 
 tion to which we can find no other allusion nor any response : x 
 
 STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAT. 
 
 To THE HONORABLE THE COUNCIL AND THE HONORABLE HOUSE OF REPRESENTA- 
 TIVES IN GENERAL COURT ASSEMBLED. 
 
 The petition of the assessors of the town of Pittsfield humbly sheweth, 
 That your petitioners have received an act from your Honors requiring 
 them to inquire into the ratable property of the State, and that they have 
 possessed themselves of the same as to the town of Pittsfield ; but that they 
 are so unhappy as not to agree what is the real value thereof, varying 
 equal to their numbers. 
 
 war, may be found by consulting the comparative table of prices left by Rev. Mr. 
 Allen, and given in the Appendix to this volume. 
 1 T. C. C., p. 250. 
 21
 
 322 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Such being our situation, we most humbly entreat your Honors would be 
 pleased to give us the value of our currency ; or else we must be subjected to 
 the fine you have enjoined, or lie at your mercy to be doomed. 
 We are, with all deference, 
 
 Your Honors' most obedient servants. 
 PITTSFIELD, Sept. 1, 1778. 
 
 Peace and acknowledged independence came to the Colonies in 
 1783, and the event was celebrated in Pittsfield with great rejoi- 
 cings. The militia paraded, and fired volleys of musketry. There 
 is a dim tradition of a salute said to have been fired from a cannon 
 cast at Lenox furnace ; but that is doubtful. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Allen preached a Thanksgiving discourse, glowing with 
 fervent gratitude to the God of nations, and not failing to incul- 
 cate the great principles by which he believed the republic ought 
 to be governed. The glorious future which he predicted for his 
 country long dwelt in the minds of those who heard him. A rare 
 opportunity was afforded for the unchecked display of his hopeful 
 and enthusiastic nature. 
 
 The quaint old gambrel-roofed house, afterwards known as the 
 Chandler-Williams place, and now standing a little east of its 
 original location, had been commenced, a few years previous to 
 that date, by Col. Easton, who intended it for the residence of his 
 son. It was not quite finished : but in it a great feast, known to 
 tradition as the Peace Party, was held ; among the viands for 
 which, half a roasted ox figured conspicuously between platoons 
 of geese and turkeys. Punch stood in huge tubs ; wine and cider 
 flowed in sparkling abundance. 
 
 Young and old flocked from every direction to the gathering. 
 The joyous merriment of the occasion, the gayety of the dance, 
 and the rustic splendors of the preparations, impressed themselves 
 upon the memory of children who witnessed the scene with a 
 vividness which did not fade until their dying day. 1 
 
 Among the incidents told in connection with the occasion was 
 one which very strikingly illustrates the customs of that period. 
 The ladies came from far and near, mounted on their pillions, 
 and dressed in fabrics suitable for the ride. But they brought 
 with them the more costly robes in which they were to be arrayed 
 
 1 The late venerable Madam James D. Colt, who related the story to the 
 writer in 1863 with an enviable vigor of description, was a child of ten years 
 when she looked on with admiring eyes at the great Peace Party of 1783.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 323 
 
 for the party ; trusting to the house of some hospitable villager, or 
 the neighboring tavern of Capt. Strong, to furnish room for making 
 their toilet. Now, few in those days totally abstained from 
 intoxicating beverages ; and one good lady was so profuse in her 
 patriotic libations, that, before the close of the festivities, her sense 
 of the proper use of things was so confused, that she unconsciously 
 wrapped a huge piece of roast beef, reeking with gravy, in her rich 
 brocade, with what consequence to its lustre need not be told.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE BERKSHIRE CONSTITUTIONALISTS. 
 
 [1775-1780.] 
 
 
 
 Political Status of the County. Its Origin in the Organization of the Provisional 
 Provincial Government. The Provincial Congress. Plan devised by the 
 Continental Congress for the Government of Massachusetts. The Western 
 Counties oppose it, but yield. Reasons for reviving their Opposition. Feel- 
 ing against the Provincial Charter accounted for. Rev. Mr. Allen's Position. 
 The Judicial System of the Province oppressive. The Civil Administration 
 excluded from Berkshire. The Memorial of Pittsfield. Delay of other 
 Counties in re-organizing their Courts. 
 
 ~V~TT~E must now retrace our steps, in order to review the polit- 
 V V ical history of the town, and in some sort that of the 
 county, during the vexed years which transformed the people of 
 Massachusetts from colonial subjects of a distant prince to citizens 
 of an independent, constitutional State, a review which, owing to 
 the peculiar relations borne for the greater part of this period by 
 the county to the Commonwealth, requires a very exact statement 
 of facts and the nicest discrimination of motives. 
 
 From the summer of 1775 until the adoption of the State Con- 
 stitution in 1780, a party composed of the vast majority of the 
 people of Berkshire, under the acknowledged leadership of the 
 first minister of Pittsfield, ruled the county in open resistance, so 
 far as civil government was concerned, to the authority set up at 
 Boston. 
 
 The political status of Berkshire during all that time was 
 entirely anomalous. The nearest parallel which history affords is 
 found in the position of those feudal barons who acknowledged 
 an obligation to support their sovereign in his foreign wars, while 
 maintaining against him their own assumed rights of internal gov- 
 ernment. In like manner, the people of Berkshire, while for more 
 
 324
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 325 
 
 than five years refusing to admit the civil administration of the 
 State within their limits, granted it military aid by a more prompt 
 and liberal contribution of men than any other county, paid their 
 taxes as readily as the circumstances of a community upon an im- 
 poverished and disturbed frontier permitted, and sent their repre- 
 sentatives to the General Court, in which, however, they recognized 
 powers much more limited and temporary than that body claimed. 
 Unsurpassed in their devotion to the cause of national independ- 
 ence, they responded with ardor to every call made upon them in 
 that behalf ; but, not less earnest in their desire for constitutional 
 liberty at home, they believed it insecure if any State government 
 capable of perpetuating itself should be erected, except upon the 
 basis of a constitution and bill of rights established by the express 
 consent of a majority of the people. 
 
 So thorough were their convictions on this point; so essential 
 did they deem these guaranties of civil and personal liberty, 
 that, in order to obtain them, they resorted to measures justifiable 
 only in the last resort, and " utterly refused the admission of the 
 course of law among them" until their demands were complied 
 with. 
 
 This course subjected them to the disapprobation of the greater 
 portion of their brethren at the east, and to the displeasure of the 
 General Court. It will be for the reader to judge whether the 
 course of the county was too hasty or too violent ; but candid 
 criticism will concede to the men who adopted it the meed of pure 
 motives, a sincere love of popular liberty, and a riper trust in the 
 people than had then been generally attained. 
 
 That we may better comprehend their motives, as well as their 
 measures, let us endeavor to place ourselves where they stood, and 
 attempt to realize as they did the evils which experience had 
 revealed in that form of government whose re-establishment they 
 resisted. 
 
 The part taken by the town and the county in the suppression 
 of the king's courts in 1774 has already been related. That exam- 
 ple, followed throughout the Colony, was approved by its results. 
 Coupled with the enforced resignation of the councillors created 
 by royal mandamus, it had effectually thwarted the parliamentary 
 scheme for establishing in Massachusetts a government in contra- 
 vention of her charter. 
 
 On the other hand, the refusal of Gov. Gage to exercise his
 
 326 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 functions in conformity to the charter, or to perform those duties 
 incumbent upon him in order to give the General Court a legal 
 organization, as effectually prevented the operation of government 
 under the ancient forms. 
 
 In this lapse of all authority recognized by either party, Gov. 
 Gage, on his part, resorted to absolute military rule. The natural 
 recourse of the people was to those powers assumed by the repre- 
 sentatives elect, under the name of " The Provincial Congress ; " 
 and, in the first fervor of the Revolution, the ready assent yielded 
 to Congressional recommendations gave them practically, while 
 that assent continued, the validity of law. It was not, however, 
 even then forgotten by considerate men, that authority of this 
 kind was liable to be interrupted at any moment it might be 
 the most critical by one of those sudden and often unaccounta- 
 ble impulses to which masses of men are subject. 
 
 In addition to the defects of the improvised government, inci- 
 dent to its unstable foundation, even for the purposes of war, in 
 which alone it exercised its functions, much difficulty was encoun- 
 tered, especially in the commercial and maritime districts, on 
 account of the suspension of the courts of law ; for, while less 
 trouble than was to have been expected was found in restraining 
 crime and maintaining public order, a task which had been taken 
 in hand by the town authorities and Revolutionary committees, 
 the sacredness of property and the obligations of contracts were 
 seriously impaired in the absence of the courts designed for their 
 protection. The attention of the statesmen in the Provincial Con- 
 gress was, however, first drawn to the insufficiency of the existing 
 government, by the danger arising from the presence of a large 
 army in the Province, with no civil power to provide for and con- 
 trol it. 
 
 With reference to this solely, the Provincial Congress, 1 on the 
 16th of May, 1775, applied to the Continental Congress for direc- 
 tions. The terms in which the application was made are to be 
 noted for our present purpose : 
 
 " We are happy in having an opportunity of laying our distressed state 
 before the representative body of the Continent, and humbly hope you will 
 
 1 In the remainder of this chapter, to avoid confusion with the Continental Con- 
 gress, we shall denominate this body the Massachusetts Convention, as it was fre- 
 quently called in 1775.
 
 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 327 
 
 favor us with your most explicit advice respecting the taking up and exer- 
 cising the powers of civil government, which we think absolutely necessary 
 for the salvation of our country : and we shall readily submit to such a general 
 plan as you may direct for all the Colonies; or make it our great study to estab- 
 lish such a form of government here as shall not only promote our advantage, 
 but the union and interest of all America." 
 
 John Adams was in Congress when this petition was presented ; 
 and the subject which it brought to the attention of that body 
 had, before he left home, lain with great weight upon his mind as 
 the most difficult and dangerous business which there was to do. 
 
 When it was introduced on the floor of Congress, however, he 
 approached it in no coward spirit, but seized the occasion for one 
 of those bold but logical harangues by which he was paving the 
 way to independence. He entreated the serious attention of all 
 the members, and of all the Continent, to the measures which the 
 times demanded. He declared that there was great wisdom in the 
 adage, " When the sword is drawn, throw away the scabbard;" 
 " but," he added, with startling emphasis, " whether thrown away 
 or not, it is useless now, and will be useless forever." 
 
 He earnestly advocated, therefore, the prompt formation of 
 State governments in every Colony ; since the case of Massachu- 
 setts, although now the most urgent, must soon become that of all. 
 This, he considered, could only be accomplished through conven- 
 tions of delegates chosen by the people for this express purpose ; 
 and he urged Congress at once to recommend to the several Pro- 
 vincial assemblies the immediate calling of such conventions, so 
 that each Colony might set up government under its own au- 
 thority. 
 
 But these were new, strange, and terrible words to most of the 
 members; and rejecting this sound and statesmanlike counsel, 
 whose adoption would have saved infinite trouble in the future, 
 Congress, inharmonious in its views of the relations in which the 
 revolt of the Colonies had placed them to the mother country, 
 postponed the subject to the 3d of June, when it was referred to a 
 committee, whose report was adopted on the 9th. The committee 
 had frequent interviews with the Massachusetts members of Con* 
 gress, and doubtless received promptings from other citizens of the 
 Province : but, from whatever source it received its inspiration, 
 the result was unfortunate ; for, instead of the general plan for all 
 the Colonies which the convention had prayed for, as the alterna-
 
 328 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 tive of being themselves allowed to form a constitution, Congress 
 recommended to Massachusetts an awkward device, based upon a 
 legal fiction, which found its sole precedent among the proceedings 
 of the Long Parliament. This advice, which was frequently re- 
 ferred to by both parties in the troubles which ensued in Berkshire, 
 was as follows : 
 
 IN CONGRESS, Friday, June 9, 1775. 
 
 "Resolved, That no obedience being due to the act of parliament for 
 altering the charter of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, nor to a governor 
 and lieutenant-governor who will not observe the directions of, but endeavor 
 to subvert, the charter, the governor and lieutenant-governor are to be con- 
 sidered as absent, and their offices vacant. 
 
 " And as there is no Council there, and the inconveniences arising from 
 the suspension of the powers of government are intolerable, especially at a 
 time when Gen. Gage hath actually levied war, and is carrying on hostilities 
 against his Majesty's peaceful and loyal subjects in that Colony ; that in 
 older to conform, as near es may be, to the spirit and substance of the char- 
 ter, it is recommended to the Provincial Congress to write letters to the 
 inhabitants of the several places which are entitled to representation in 
 Assembly, requesting them to choose such representatives; and that the 
 Assembly, when chosen, should elect councillors ; which Assembly and Coun- 
 cil should exercise the powers of government until a governor of his Ma- 
 jesty's appointment will consent to govern the Colony according to its 
 charter." 
 
 It will be seen, that, so far from being explicit, this advice limited 
 the duration of the temporary government to be set up under it 
 by an event destined never to happen ; and showed so little appre- 
 ciation of the real condition of the country, that it did not contem- 
 plate the possibility of independence, which was declared within 
 little more than a year. 
 
 Two days after the passage of this resolution, the Massachusetts 
 Convention, not having yet received information of it, adopted a 
 second address to Congress ; meeting on Sunday for that purpose, 
 and feeling the difficulties of their situation to be so grievous, that 
 they sent a special messenger to Philadelphia, with an earnest en- 
 treaty that he should be despatched on his return as soon as pos- 
 sible with the advice which "the pressing nature of their 
 distresses" rendered it necessary should be "immediate." 
 
 There is a marked difference between the tone of this address 
 and that of its predecessor in May ; the first being based upon the 
 presence of a single great public danger, the second dwelling
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 329 
 
 chiefly upon the insecurity of internal order, and the disturbance 
 of business relations. 
 
 The Convention now forcibly represented, that, in many parts of 
 the Province, alarming symptoms had appeared of a diminishing 
 regard for the sacred rights of property ; and that, although fewer 
 enormities and breaches of the peace had occurred than it was 
 natural to anticipate, yet there was extreme difficulty found in 
 maintaining public order. 
 
 " The situation of no people or colony," it goes on to assert, 
 " ever rendered it more necessary that the full powers of civil 
 government should be exercised, than does the present state and 
 situation of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay." Bitter complaint 
 is made, that, "chiefly from the want of a settled civil polity, every 
 undertaking necessary for the preservation of life, and still more 
 of property, is subject to innumerable delays, embarrassments, 
 disappointments, and obstructions ; while whatever is accomplished 
 in this direction is effected in the most expensive manner : so that, 
 in times which require the most rigid economy, it is impossible to 
 exercise it." 
 
 This piteous appeal was perhaps colored by the hypochondria 
 with which Major Hawley, the chairman of the conftnittee report- 
 ing it, was afflicted, and which soon after increased to such a 
 degree as to compel the retirement of that ablest of the patriotic 
 leaders from the public councils. The melancholy of so influential 
 a member could hardly have failed to infect the whole convention. 
 Nevertheless, something very like the condition of affairs depicted 
 did exist. 
 
 Little, therefore, as the scheme of government proposed by Con- 
 gress comported with the desire of Massachusetts as expressed in 
 her first application, the temper of the Convention, when the re- 
 sponse arrived, was in its favor. 
 
 Accordingly, on the 19th of June, circular letters were addressed 
 to the several towns, requesting them to elect representatives to a 
 Great and General Court, or assembly, to be held at Watertown on 
 the 19th of July. With regard to the two measures, the adop- 
 tion of a new form of government, as proposed by the convention in 
 May, and the travesty of the charter recommended by Congress in 
 June, the people of the eastern and western counties, says Sam 
 Adams, who himself favored the charter, appeared to differ ; * 
 
 1 Frothingham's Warren, p. 377.
 
 330 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 meaning, of course, that the predominant sentiment of those sec- 
 tions differed, for there was a considerable majority in each section 
 which agreed upon this point with the minority in the other. 
 There was much reluctance, almost everywhere, to accept the Con- 
 gressional scheme ; but the people of Berkshire and Hampshire 
 had become reconciled in a far less degree than their eastern fellow- 
 citizens to the losses which Massachusetts liberties sustained in 
 the passage from a colonial to a provincial charter. That William 
 of " glorious memory " had taken advantage of the wrong done 
 by his predecessor of infamous story to rob the most devoted of 
 Whig Colonies of her ancient privileges, was bitterly remembered 
 and brooded over by men like the Rev. Mr. Allen, until it lacked 
 little to render them eager to forswear all kings forever. They 
 fretted under the evils which they justly ascribed to the innovations 
 of the Provincial charter; hated cordially the aristocratic system 
 which had sprung up under it ; and, while they clung to what 
 privileges it left them, they considered these always endangered 
 until the choice of their own governor should be restored to the 
 people, and a way thus prepared for further reforms. From the 
 first uprising against the Regulating Acts, the most thoughtful of 
 the Berkshire patriots looked to the restoration of the old and not 
 of the new charter, as the ultimatum to be demanded of Great 
 Britain; and that feeling strengthened and accommodated itself to. 
 
 7 O O 
 
 the changing shapes of political affairs as the struggle went on, 
 and day by day the deformities of King William's charter were 
 demonstrated and denounced. 
 
 But, in June, Mr. Adams, writing from Philadelphia, represented 
 to Dr. Warren that there was jealousy in the minds of some mem- 
 bers of Congress, that Massachusetts aimed at total independency, 
 not only of the mother country, but of the other Colonies also ; and 
 that, as her people were hardy and brave, they would in time over- 
 run them all. These representatives privately assured Mr. Adams, 
 that "their constituents would openly support Massachusetts, if 
 her people were driven by necessity to defend their lives or 
 liberties ; but doubted whether they would ever be persuaded to 
 think it necessary for them to set up another form of government." 
 Mr. Adams, therefore, advised the adoption of the scheme devised 
 in Congress, in order to avoid as much as possible the appearance of 
 innovation, and thus preserve the unity among the Colonies which 
 was so essential. 1 
 
 1 Frothingham's "Warren, p. 378.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 331 
 
 The people of Western Massachusetts were neither self-willed 
 nor opinionated ; and this reasoning, which commended itself to 
 their good sense, prevailed while the condition of affairs which 
 gave it cogency continued. If, as is probable, acceptance of the 
 proposed plan was urged with the weight of Mr. Adams's personal 
 influence, its effect was greatly increased ; for, of all the Boston 
 patriots, Sam Adams, in spite of differing opinions on the pres- 
 ent point, was the leader most nearly after the heart of the 
 mountain-men. 
 
 There was little, therefore, if any, opposition to the choice of 
 representatives to the General Court, in response to the circular 
 letter of June. Pittsfield elected two, Capts. Charles Goodrich 
 and Israel Dickinson, one of whom only was to serve at a time. 
 
 The conditions which induced this submission were but of brief 
 duration. During the summer of 1775, the minority, larger, and 
 growing with more rapidity than it dared believe, longing for 
 independence, advanced towards it by gradual and concealed ap- 
 proaches. 
 
 The theory of the day was, that an accommodation with Great 
 Britain would be obtained at so early a date, that it was worth no 
 man's while to concern himself greatly about the abstract princi- 
 ples of the government which should prevail in the interim. 
 Even those who knew this theory false were often forced to accept 
 it as the base from which, by the aid of favoring circumstances, to 
 raise themselves to a higher plane. 
 
 But something very different from what appeared upon the 
 surface was lurking beneath ; and, as events crowded upon each 
 other, opinions and sentiments engendered in the apt soil of New 
 England ripened fast under the fervid sun of Revolution. 
 
 Their influence was not unfelt in Congress ; so that when, early 
 in November, advice was to be given to New Hampshire and 
 South Carolina with regard to assuming the powers of civil 
 government, it was couched in the following terms, the language 
 used to the two Colonies being of the same import : 
 
 " Resolved, That it be recommended to the Provincial Congress of New 
 Hampshire to call a full and free representation of the people, and that the 
 representatives establish such a. form of government as, in their judgment, 
 will best produce the happiness of the people, and most effectually secure 
 peace and good order in the Province during the continuance of the present 
 dispute between Great Britain and the Colonies."
 
 332 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 This was a great advance since June. John Adams, who looked 
 upon it as the progress of the index upon the broad dial of national 
 affairs, congratulated himself upon a triumph ; although of the 
 three phrases, "Colonies," "Province," and "Mother Country," 
 which " by this time he had come mortally to hate," he had suc- 
 ceeded in eliminating only the last from the report. 
 
 In Massachusetts, the plan recommended to her sister Colonies, 
 so nearly identical with that which she had asked for herself, but 
 so widely variant from that which she had received, did not fail 
 to conspire, with defects brought to light in the practical working 
 of the government set up there, to provoke feeling against the new 
 order of things; while, imbittering and giving direction to the 
 opposition, memories of the old charter history, which the turmoil 
 of recent events had obscured, were revived. 
 
 Among the reasons which suggested the peculiar Congressional 
 device recommended to Massachusetts was the fact that she was 
 one of the only three Colonies which possessed royal charters, con- 
 ferring and limiting their powers of self-government, and prescrib- 
 ing the mode of their exercise ; while the privileges of the other 
 Provinces, obtained by prescription, or at best based upon what 
 they claimed to be the indefeasible rights of Englishmen, were, in 
 theory at least, more obscure and of less authority. 
 
 The constitutions of these latter had, however, taken form 
 under successive legislatures, and been confirmed in the habits 
 of thought of their peoples, until practically Massachusetts differed 
 less from Virginia than she did from Connecticut. 
 
 The charters which Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode 
 Island received from Charles the First, under the broad seal of 
 England, invested all alike, as to their internal affairs, with almost 
 all the rights of independent States. These rights had been 
 retained intact by Rhode Island and Connecticut ; so that, when 
 the Revolution came, it found their governments harmonious in 
 all their departments, and prepared to throw off what little re- 
 mained of foreign authority, without producing that confusion 
 which ensued in Massachusetts. 
 
 The charter of the latter Colony, annulled in the reign of the 
 second Charles by the decree of a servile tribunal, had, after an 
 interval of seven years, been replaced in 1692 by a substitute 
 obtained from William and Mary, not under the great but the 
 privy seal. Earnest entreaty made to a Whig prince for the res-
 
 HISTOKY OP PITTSFIELD. 333 
 
 titution of ancient privileges violently wrested from the Colony 
 for her adherence to Whig principles availed little ; and the new 
 instrument fell so far short of the old, that the style of Mas- 
 sachusetts was, with just significance, changed from that of a 
 colony to that of a province. Most essential of the losses sus- 
 tained by the people in these transactions was the transfer from 
 them to the king of the appointment of governor, lieutenant- 
 governor, and secretary ; of whom the first was invested with great 
 powers, including the right to prorogue or dissolve the General 
 Court, and to interpose a negative, not only to their ordinary legis- 
 lative acts, but to the choice by the representatives of councillors, 
 and even of their own speaker. All officers of the militia and 
 the judiciary were also to be appointed by him with the advice 
 and consent of the Council. 
 
 Thus the king, through his deputy, became the chief fountain 
 of official honors and emoluments ; and the places in his gift were 
 sedulously used to attach the more substantial citizens to the party 
 of the government. 
 
 When the decisive test came, the success of these seductive in- 
 fluences, although not inconsiderable, proved to be far short of 
 what the royalist leaders had persuaded themselves to expect. 
 An incidental result had, however, grown out of their system 
 of politics which contributed largely to incite "the Berkshire 
 troubles." In place of the old colonial " magistracy," the foun- 
 dations had been very broadly laid for a new provincial aristocracy 
 which was already burdensome to the people. Whether it was 
 intrinsically more so than its Puritan predecessor, may be safely 
 doubted ; but, as a new evil, and one incident to the subver- 
 sion of their cherished charter, it was hated as the grim old 
 " magistracy " never had been. To most of the gentry of this 
 class, from his honor the lieutenant-governor down to the village 
 justice not of the quorum, the Revolutionary disturbances were 
 extremely unwelcome and vexatious : the choice between king 
 and country was hard to make, especially so long as the patriots 
 professed to contend only for the preservation of the defeptive 
 charter of William ; a contest in which, however victory might 
 nominally declare itself, the fruits of victory were sure to remain 
 in the hands of the king's governor, and be the spoil of the king's 
 supporters. 
 
 To ambitious country gentlemen of wealth and standing,
 
 334 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 the dignities in the royal governor's keeping were tempting 
 morsels in comparison with the poor seat in the trammelled legis- 
 lature, or at the town council-board, which was the best the people 
 had to offer. 
 
 Still, when the hour came in which all men were compelled to 
 take sides, the greater portion of the tempted class, resisting the 
 allurements which had been spread for them, adhered more or less 
 promptly, and with differing degrees of zeal, to the cause of their 
 country ; and their familiarity with public business, as well as 
 other reasons, led to the election of many of their number to the 
 Provincial Congresses and to the General Court of 1775. 
 
 The selection of men of this class was undoubtedly 'wise : but it 
 was not strange, that, upon the first occasion, suspicion should 
 arise, among their less favored compatriots, of a design on their 
 part to revive and perpetuate, under the new form of govern- 
 ment, a system to which they owed so much under the old ; nor 
 was it unnatural, that whatever, short of popular election, was 
 made the fountain of office should be the object of bitter jealousy. 
 
 The rule established under the advice of Congress owed its 
 first opposition to the belief, that, in making selections for office, 
 the General Court grossly favored its members and their friends, 
 to the neglect of men at least equally meritorious. A Berkshire 
 Convention, reciting the history of the county troubles, declared 
 that it was the practice for the members to be called upon by 
 counties " to make nominations in the civil and military line, who 
 were then chosen by the House, and commissioned by the Council, 
 in which effectual care was taken that those present should be in 
 the nomination ; " l " which procedure," continues the address, 
 " roused our attention, that such persons should nominate and vote 
 for themselves, or be elected in a form that the charter knew 
 nothing of. " 
 
 To the Berkshire fathers this greediness of office seemed the 
 result of a deliberate design to foist one of the worst features of 
 the old government upon the new ; or, at the best, to be the 
 inevitable fruit of a political system fatally defective, and which, 
 it now began to be feared, there was no intention to limit in 
 duration. 
 
 !.0f the two representatives from Pittsfield, Capt. Goodrich secured the place 
 of a justice of the sessions; Capt. Israel Dickinson was made high sheriff of the 
 county. Every member of the House from Berkshire obtained civil office.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 335 
 
 But, although opposition to the new rule was first aroused by a 
 single grievance, it soon assumed a broader and more radical char- 
 acter ; rising first to insist that a constitution and bill of rights 
 were indispensable prerequisites to any government, and then to 
 advise, as with authoiity, what principles should be incorporated 
 in the fundamental law. As the anticipations of independence 
 strengthened, what ideas should lie at the foundations of the new 
 States when the Colonies should assume that rank became 
 the subject of earnest and often of profound consideration, not only 
 in legislative halls, but in country villages ; and not less so were 
 the constitutional provisions by which vitality could best be given 
 to those ideas. We may be sure that rarely anywhere were these 
 subjects earlier or. more intelligently discussed than in the little 
 meetiug-house under the Pittsfield elm. 
 
 Certain great maxims, of undisputed authority, had been trans- 
 mitted by the fathers of English freedom; a few safeguards of 
 personal liberty had acquired traditional sanctity ; the idea of a 
 republic was dear to all hearts, even in colonies planted by 
 cavaliers ; but the statesmen of America could look nowhere for 
 an example of republican government exactly adapted to their 
 need. 
 
 Studies for the work before them were abundant : in the history 
 of the ancient republics, and those of the middle ages; in the 
 example of England under king and Commonwealth ; and, best of 
 all, in their own colonial experience. But model there was none. 
 Years of experiment and devoted study, by the ablest and purest 
 statesmen the world ever saw, elapsed before, from the lessons of 
 history and the teachings of experience, an approach to perfection 
 was obtained in the Federal Constitution, years even before 
 that scarcely less noble work, the Constitution of Massachusetts, 
 was wrought out, chiefly from the broad learning of John Adams. 
 
 In the mean time, the country was flooded with tracts upon the 
 structure of government. 1 The works of political essayists be- 
 
 1 Of these the most popular was the essay of Thomas Paine, issued in 1775, 
 in which that able although afterwards infamous author presented in a concise 
 form, and clear, terse, and vigorous language, the arguments in favor of independ- 
 ence which had been used in the secret sessions of Congress and the private con- 
 sultations of the Continental leaders. The work was admirably fitted to reach 
 and influence the public mind, and its effect was widely felt. In the same tract 
 had been included, with the advocacy of independence, certain loose but plausible 
 theories of government, inculcated in the same winning style.
 
 336 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 came popular reading; and some of them, the disquisitions of 
 James Burgh and Mrs. McCauley in particular, of a higher tone 
 than that of Paine, had many readers; while a host of native 
 writers, sometimes of great ability, communicated their views 
 through the periodical press. 
 
 Thus, while one class of minds was patiently and laboriously 
 seeking material for the new structure in the treasured experience 
 of the past, another was seizing eagerly upon whatever in the more 
 recent and popular essayists seemed sustained by facts and adapted 
 to the desired end. It was the age of free thinking in political 
 creeds, and of a chaos out of which something very nearly perfect 
 at last crystallized. The agitation and new thought developed by 
 the writers of the day were not less indispensable to the grand 
 result than were the researches of more scholarly statesmen. 
 Between the two classes indicated, Rev. Mr. Allen occupied an 
 intermediate position ; although his natural impulsiveness, as well 
 as other influences, led him generally to adopt the most advanced 
 theory of human rights. A republican by birth and education, he 
 was an ardent one by temperament. Inheriting a love for the 
 political as well as the religious doctrines of the Puritans, he had 
 been confirmed in them by the study of the best writers of that 
 school, and, in the history of his theological denomination, had 
 found the principles of his party so intimately interwoven with the 
 articles of his creed, that they seemed almost equally a part of his 
 religion. A disposition of mind naturally earnest had thus been 
 trained in the direction of indignant protest against political 
 wrong and oppi'ession ; and the desire for. the purest possible form 
 of government, which characterized the general mind of that era, 
 became with him a passion. 
 
 The abrogation of the ancient charter by "that popish tyrant, 
 Charles II.," had long been a subject of bitter and almost morbid 
 contemplation with him ; and while he admitted the instrument 
 obtained from " King William of glorious memory " to be " of great 
 value for the preservation of tolerable order," it was only " till we 
 had grown to our present strength to seek that by force of arms 
 which was then unjustly denied us." 
 
 When the few chartered privileges which the Colony retained 
 were attacked by Parliament, we found him among the first to 
 counsel resistance ; and now, when it was proposed to restore the 
 civil government suspended in 1774 upon the basis of "the
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 337 
 
 defective and discordant charter " of King William, he became, to 
 use the phrase employed both by himself and his enemies, "restless 
 in his endeavors " to prevent it. 
 
 His mind thus busy with the political events of the day, Mr. 
 Allen read diligently the current writers who treated upon them, 
 and adopted the opinions of that school which enunciated the 
 doctrines afterwards, in a more perfect form, championed by 
 Thomas Jefferson. In these he conceived that he found the legiti- 
 
 O 
 
 mate democratic development of republican principles. 
 
 Such were the characteristics and views which made the Pitts- 
 field minister the founder and leader of that party in Berkshire 
 which, to the end, successfully resisted the restoration in that 
 county of civil government under the strange device which the 
 Continental Congress had evolved from the Provincial charter. 
 
 The fundamental dogma of this party was, that political power 
 can only rightfully be derived from the express consent of the peo- 
 ple; that the charter government itself but a mitigated usurpa- 
 tion having been abrogated, the Province relapsed into a state 
 of nature, from which it could rightly emerge only through the 
 establishment of a constitution and bill of rights by the free vote 
 of a majority of the people ; that, antecedent to this, the only 
 authority which ought to be submitted to should be, from its 
 purely advisory character, incapable of making itself permanent. 
 
 Against those who favored the postponement of a new constitu- 
 tion until the return of peace, they urged that such a government 
 as was proposed, ad interim, " if once allowed to take place, would 
 be found very difficult to shake off ever after." Against the argiv 
 ment that the Continental Congress had proposed the obnoxious 
 system, they maintained that Congress could not have intended to 
 deprive Massachusetts of the right of framing a constitution for her- 
 self; and that, if it had such a design, it was entitled to no respect. 
 Indeed, admitting that Congress in May intended to restrain the 
 Colony from taking a step which too plainly betrayed the purpose 
 of ultimate independence, that restraint was withdrawn in Novem- 
 ber ; and the advice from which it was implied became every day 
 more inapplicable to the altered circumstances of the Province. 
 
 In no view of the case could the Berkshire constitutionalists 
 regard the new order of things as rightful. But a total renunci- 
 ation of all connection with the powers instituted at Boston would 
 have only been fraught with evil to both parties, and to the good 
 
 22
 
 338 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 cause which both had at heart. The device hit upon in this 
 dilemma was to refuse obedience to a portion of the acts of the 
 General Court, thus conceding to it only that advisory authority 
 which had been accorded to the Provincial Congress. 
 
 It might reasonably have been argued, indeed, that neither the 
 General nor Provincial Congress, having other than advisory 
 authority, could invest another assembly with higher legislative 
 powers than those with which they were themselves clothed ; and 
 that the people, in choosing representatives on their advice, 
 did not ipso facto adopt that advice as the Constitution of the 
 Province, much less as the fundamental law of the Commonwealth 
 when it became an independent State. It was as competent, 
 surely, for the Berkshire committees to assume that the Congresses 
 could not have intended to exercise powers which had not been 
 delegated to them, as for those assemblies to assume from the 
 recusant position of Gage a vacancy in the gubernatorial office. 
 
 In selecting that department of government whose obstruction 
 would sufficiently arrest attention at Boston, while it would least 
 embarrass the State in its operations against the enemy, and the peo- 
 ple in their efforts to obtain a constitution, the judiciary and civil 
 magistracy suggested itself. Policy and feeling alike prompted a 
 zealous response to every demand made by the Military Board ; and 
 the towns could not well refuse to send representatives to the 
 General Court, which, however defective in its constitution, they 
 were compelled to acknowledge as the only power which could 
 carry on the war, or take the initiative in establishing government 
 upon a rightful basis. The judiciary and the magistracy seemed 
 thus the only department of the State which could at all be dis- 
 pensed with ; as it was also that whose place, for its most urgent 
 purposes, could most readily be supplied by the municipal organi- 
 zations. In fact, on the 26th of December, 1775, a Pittsfield town- 
 meeting represented to the General Court, that, for the preceding 
 eighteen months, counting from the May term at Great Barring- 
 ton in 1774, which was the last court actually held, " The people 
 of the county, under the lenient and efficient rule of their several 
 committees, and in the most vigorous and unintermitted exertions 
 in the country's cause, had lived together in the greatest love, peace, 
 safety, liberty, happiness, and good order, except the disorders and 
 dissensions occasioned by the Tories." 
 
 The suppression of the courts had thus attained its object in one
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 339 
 
 instance, not only with no intolerable evils, but, as was claimed, 
 with -positive advantage to the happiness of the people. The town 
 took care to disclaim any expectation that such a paradoxical para- 
 dise could long continue, and we may well question the perfect 
 fairness of the picture ; but there is no reason to doubt that a ma- 
 jority of the people felt themselves rather better off without such 
 a judicial system as had existed under the Provincial rule than 
 they would be with it. 
 
 Precedent sustained a resort to measures which had been so well 
 tested and approved ; and they were the more readily adopted as 
 the chief grievance of which the people complained, under the old 
 administration of the charter, had been the excessive cost of exe- 
 cuting the laws ; heavy fee-tables being established, as was alleged, 
 in order to enrich swarms of magistrates and lawyers. 
 
 In truth, a more cumbrous judicial system could hardly have 
 been devised than was inflicted upon this poor and scantily-peopled 
 county, in common with the other shires of the Province ; and 
 resistance to its re-imposition, as a burden too grievous to be 
 borne, had been resolved before the abstract principles which 
 justified that resistance had been much considered by the masses. 
 
 There were held annually four terms each of the General Ses- 
 sions of the Peace and of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas. 
 The Sessions had jurisdiction in all matters pertaining to the 
 conservation of the peace, and in all criminal cases where the 
 punishment did not extend to deprivation of life or limb or to 
 banishment ; and also exercised the powers now held by the 
 board of county commissioners. 
 
 The Court of Common Pleas had cognizance of all civil causes 
 triable at the common law, when the matters in dispute exceeded 
 the value of forty shillings. 
 
 From both the Common Pleas and the Sessions an appeal lay to 
 the Superior Court of Judicature. This latter court had original 
 jurisdiction in all cases which extended to deprivation of life or 
 limb or to banishment ; which removed from the county courts 
 a large class of cases now tried by them. Each county had its 
 own Common Pleas bench, which consisted in Berkshire of a chief 
 Justice and three associates. And these, with the other justices 
 of the peace in the county, numbering when the Revolution 
 commenced about a dozen, formed the Court of General Ses- 
 sions. Each court had its clerk and other officials. This clumsy
 
 340 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 organization performed the duties, which, in the present vastly 
 more populous and wealthy county, devolve upon the commissioners 
 and a single judge of the Superior Court. 
 
 Cases where a less sum than forty shillings was involved, and 
 which did not affect the title of real estate, were cognizable by a 
 single justice, as also were trivial misdemeanors. In civil cases, 
 an appeal lay to the Common Pleas ; in criminal, to the General 
 Sessions : and the power of the magistrate in inflicting punishment 
 was limited to confinement in the cage or the stocks for three hours, 
 imprisonment for twenty-four, whipping not to exceed ten stripes, 
 or a fine of twenty shillings, for which sum either of the other 
 punishments might be commuted, at the option of the offender. 
 The salaries of the judges individually were not large, but in the 
 aggregate they were considerable ; and the pay of the justices of 
 the peace and of the Sessions, depending upon fees, was a more 
 odious burden still. Another peculiarity, not impertinent to 
 this discussion, may be enumerated: the judges were rarely men 
 educated to the law. Before the Revolution, only four lawyers sat 
 even upon the supreme bench of Massachusetts. The judgeships 
 were held as rewards for political favorites in all walks of life. 
 
 A judicial system constituted like this was of necessity costly, 
 and the fees proportionately large. It was believed to be intention- 
 ally thus framed, in order that as many as possible of the favored 
 class might fatten upon the spoils of the poor and the unfortunate. 
 The privilege of confessing judgment to avoid suit before a single 
 magistrate, which had been earnestly sought, was thought to be 
 denied for the same reason ; and the presence of two magistrates 
 and the clerk of a court of record was required for this very simple 
 act. "Whatever injustice there may have been in these jealousies, 
 we may be sure that the judicial system of the Province was 
 looked upon much more complacently by the lawyers and the mob 
 of gentlemen who filled the bench than by the heavily-taxed par- 
 ties to suits. 
 
 All this, together with the injudicious harshness almost univer- 
 sally exercised towards poor debtors, and in the punishment of the 
 trivial misdemeanors of the lower classes, contributed to diminish, 
 in no small degree, that filial reverence which should surround 
 the tribunals of justice. It will serve also to explain what Mr. 
 Allen meant in saying that "our fellow-citizens in this county 
 have been ruled with a rod of iron."
 
 HISTORY OP PITTSFIELD. 341 
 
 Evils like these in a system of law could not fail to deprave 
 even the vicious and impoverish the poor. To thoughtful observ- 
 ers, and especially to those ministers of the gospel who felt them- 
 selves commissioned to watch over the lowly and the miserable, 
 these results were painfully apparent ; and it was the hope of men 
 with no desire, by shielding the wrong-doer, to impair the security 
 of person or property, that the not intolerable consequences of a 
 total suspension of the courts might be endured until, under a 
 more equitable constitution, a system better adapted to attain the 
 ends of justice should be organized. 
 
 But, while divers reasons thus directed the minds of the people 
 of Berkshire to a single branch of government as that which ought 
 to be suppressed, it must be remembered that the right to suppress 
 any was based upon the absence of what was held essential to all 
 legitimate rule, establishment by an unmistakable expression of 
 the popular consent. Nor must it be forgotten, that individual 
 abuses were not attacked, primarily, to secure their own removal, 
 but for the purpose of overthrowing a faulty whole, of which they 
 were the most vulnerable parts. The town-meetings and county- 
 conventions, while their action was at first directed to the redress 
 of special grievances by specific means, at the very outset indicated 
 the great principle from which their proceedings took rise, and con- 
 tinued to enunciate it with ever fuller emphasis and clearer utter- 
 ance. In their minds, the ideas of national independence and of 
 constitutional liberty advanced with equal step. 
 
 Among the Berkshire patriots, the belief became very early fixed 
 that the British dominion over the Colony would never be re- 
 stored ; and it alarmed them that no disposition was shown by the 
 General Court to ascertain the will of its constituents with regard 
 to a new constitution. They deemed it evidence of a design to 
 usurp power, that after the circumstances which might have been 
 held by some to justify the advice given by Congress had ceased 
 to exist, and even after that advice had been practically revoked, 
 a determination was manifest at Boston to still build upon this 
 undermined foundation, and with the most rotten material of the 
 Provincial ruins. 
 
 Against this wrong, which appeared a very gross one from the 
 Berkshire stand-point of 1775, Mr. Allen, in the fall of that year, 
 took the field with even more than his accustomed ardor, resolved 
 to agitate for a change until it should be effected ; and, from that
 
 342 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 time forward, he was " restless in his endeavors " to that end, until, 
 in 1780, Massachusetts obtained a Bill of Rights the most nearly 
 perfect which had ever been constructed, and a Constitution which, 
 although some of its provisions conflicted with his ultra-demo- 
 cratic notions, as a whole commanded his approbation, and which, 
 having the sanction of that authority to which he always bowed, 
 the will of the people freely expressed, he held to be entitled to 
 the full allegiance of every good citizen. 
 
 During the four years of that contest, the Pittsfield minister 
 was the apostle in Berkshire of constitutional government and 
 democratic ideas ; visiting every town, and urging his views every- 
 where by speeches, sermons, resolutions, conversations, and letters. 
 His success was remarkable. A large majority of the people 
 acceded to his doctrines. The towns and county conventions 
 adopted resolutions, addresses, and memorials in accordance with 
 them, and often drafted by him ; while most of the committees of 
 inspection were remodelled in order to secure vigor in prosecuting 
 the measures adopted by his advice. 
 
 It is a conspicuous proof of the power of Mr. Allen's earnest- 
 ness, eloquence, and personal consideration, that a single address 
 by him was sometimes sufficient to revolutionize the- entire senti- 
 ment of a town against the wishes of its own most prominent citi- 
 zens, and that his teachings impressed upon the people of Berk- 
 shire political characteristics which remain strongly marked to 
 this day ; for it was in this fiery campaign, rather than in his sub- 
 sequent political career, that he had the opportunity to inculcate 
 those enduring principles whose deep root among these hills, and 
 wide-spread influence wherever the sons of Berkshire have found 
 a home, are ascribed to him by those most familiar with the intel- 
 lectual history of the county. In argument, he was logical, and 
 not unskilled in the subtler arts of oratory. In appeal, he was 
 vehement and earnest; impassioned often to a degree that car- 
 ried him to extremes in his expressions concerning opponents, and 
 to something like exaggeration in his denunciation of measures. 
 Righteous indignation was not greatly tempered by any thing in 
 the composition of his mind. Exaggerated denunciation was, 
 however, a fault of the day ; and it is to Mr. Allen's credit, that in 
 his papers we find none of that coarseness of epithet, or vulgarity 
 of invective, which disgraced the pages of many of his contempo- 
 raries. His blade, if trenchant, was at least polished.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 343 
 
 The first town action in the agitation for a constitution, of 
 which we find a record, although some must have taken place 
 earlier, was on the 26th of December, 1775, when the following 
 memorial was adopted : 1 
 
 The Petition, Remonstrance, and Address of the Town of Pittsfield to the Honorable Board 
 of Councillors and House of Representatives of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, 
 in General Assembly, now sitting at Watertown. 
 
 MAY IT PLEASE YOUR HONORS, 
 
 The inhabitants of the town of Pittsfield, unalterably attached to the liber- 
 ties of their country and in the fullest approbation of Congressional measures, 
 with all humility, deference, and candor, beg leave to manifest the painful 
 anxieties and distresses of our minds in this definitive crisis, not only in be- 
 half of ourselves, but of this great and powerful Province, and declare our 
 abhorrence of that constitution now adopting in this Province. Nothing 
 but an invincible love of civil and religious liberty for ourselves and future 
 posterity has induced us to add to your accumulated burdens at this great 
 period. 
 
 Our forefathers left the delightful abodes of their native country, and 
 passed a raging sea, that in these solitary climes they might enjoy civil and 
 religious liberty, and never more feel the hand of tyranny and persecution ; 
 but that despotic, persecuting power which they fled reached them on these 
 far-distant shores, the weight of which has been felt from their first emigra- 
 tion to the present day. After the loss of the charter of this Province in 
 the reign of Charles the Second, a popish tyrant, a new one was obtained, 
 after the Revolution, of King William of glorious memory, which was lame 
 and essentially defective, and yet was of great value for the support of tol- 
 erable order till we had grown up to our present strength to seek that by 
 force of arms which was then unjustly denied us. 
 
 The nomination and appointment of our governors by the king has been 
 the source of all the evils and calamities that have befallen this Province 
 and the united Colonies. By this means, a secret poison has been spread 
 throughout all our towns, and great multitudes have been secured for the 
 corrupt designs of an abandoned administration. Many of these men, who 
 had drank of this baneful poison, could not be confided in to aid and assist 
 their country in the present contest ; which was one reason for the necessity 
 of a suppression of government. 
 
 At this door all manner of disorders have been introduced into our consti- 
 tution, till it has become an instrument of oppression and deep corruption, 
 and would probably, had it been continued, have brought upon us an eternal 
 destruction. 
 
 The want of that one privilege of confessing judgment in cases of debt 
 
 1 This memorial, in the handwriting of Mr. Allen, is preserved in the State 
 archives.
 
 344 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 has overwhelmed great multitudes in destruction, and afforded encouragement 
 to our mercenary lawyers to riot upon the spoils of the people. 
 
 We have been ruled in this county for many years past with a rod of iron. 
 
 The tyranny, despotism, and oppression of our fellow-subjects in this 
 county have been beyond belief. Since the suppression of government, we 
 have lived in peace, love, safety, liberty, and happiness, except the disorders 
 and dissensions occasioned by the Tories. We find ourselves in danger of 
 returning to our former state, and of undergoing a yoke of oppression which 
 we are no longer able to bear. 
 
 We have calmly viewed the nature of our ancient mode of government, 
 its various sluices of corruption, the danger and effects of nominating to 
 office by those in power, and must pronounce it the most defective, discord- 
 ant, and ruinous system of government of any that has come under our 
 observation. We can discern no present necessity of adopting that mode 
 of government so generally reprobated by the good people of this Province, 
 or which will inevitably be so as soon as the great rational majority of the 
 people have had tune for proper reflection. 
 
 The adopting this mode of government to the length we have gone has, 
 in our view, been hasty and precipitate. It was surprising to this town, and 
 directly contrary to the instructions given to their representative. By this 
 means, a considerable number of incurable enemies to a better constitution 
 have been made ; and, if ever adopted by the people, we shall never, perhaps, 
 be able to rid ourselves of it again. 
 
 We have seen nothing done by the Continental Congress which leads us 
 to conclude- that they would limit us to this mode of government. We do 
 not know of their having given us any advice that must necessarily be con- 
 strued in opposition to what they gave the governments of New Hampshire 
 and South Carolina, who, if they think it necessary, are to choose such a 
 form of government as they in their judgment shall think will best promote 
 the happiness of the pepple, and preserve peace and good order, during the 
 present dispute with Great Britain. 
 
 Certainly the Continental Congress could have no intention of forcing 
 upon us a constitution so detested by the people, and so abhorrent to common 
 sense, and thus to reward us for our unparalleled sufferings. We have been 
 led to hope for new privileges, which we still hope to obtain, or remain, so far 
 as we have done for some time past, in a state of nature. 
 
 We have with decency and moderation attended to the various argu- 
 ments of those gentlemen lately created our rulers ; particularly we have 
 heard it urged as the advice of the venerable Continental Congress. We 
 have sufficiently attended to that and the various other arguments in favor 
 of re-assuming our ancient constitution, and are of opinion there is no such 
 advice, the qualifying expressions leaving ample room to new-model our con- 
 stitution ; but, if there is, we are of opinion that unlimited passive obedience 
 and non-resistance to any human power whatever is what we are now con- 
 tending with Great Britain, and to transfer that power to any other body of 
 men is equally dangerous to our security and happiness.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 345 
 
 "We choose to be known to future posterity as being of the number of 
 those who have timely protested against the re-assumption of this discordant 
 constitution, and shall be restless in our endeavor that we may obtain the 
 privilege of electing our civil and military officers. We assure your Honors 
 that some of those who have been appointed to rule us are greatly obnox- 
 ious to people in general, especially those who have protested against the 
 just proceedings of a Congress lately held in Stockbridge. We beg leave 
 further to assure your Honors that a court has been held in this town hi a 
 clandestine manner, and great dishonor hereby done to the dignity of ma- 
 gistracy. 
 
 We therefore pray your Honors to issue out your orders to the good people 
 of this Province, that then- votes may be collected in the election of a gov- 
 ernor and lieutenant-governor to act in concert with the Honorable Board 
 and House of Representatives ; after which we pray that every town may 
 retain the privilege of electing their justices of *he peace, and every county 
 their judges, as well as the soldiers of every company of militia their officers. 
 If the right of nominating to office is not vested in the people, we are 
 indifferent who assumes it, whether any particular persons on this or the 
 other side of the water. 
 
 When such a constitution is formed, you'll find us the most meek and in- 
 offensive subjects of any in this Province ; although we would hope, in such 
 a case, that the wisdom of our rulers would not admit of collecting private 
 debts for the present, as we imagine that measure would be of great detri- 
 ment to our common cause, as it would put much money into the hands of 
 our enemies, and create divisions among ourselves. 
 
 But, if this just and reasonable request is denied us, we pray that, as we 
 have lived in great love, peace, and good order in this county for more than 
 sixteen months past, in the most vigorous unintermitted exertions in our 
 country's cause, that you would dispense with a longer suspension of this 
 ancient mode of government among us that we so much detest and abhor. 
 The government of our respective committees is lenient and efficacious ; but 
 if it is necessary, for carrying into more effectual exertion the means of com- 
 mon safety, that some mode of government should be adopted, we pray that 
 it may be de novo, agreeable to that fore-mentioned advice of the Continen- 
 tal Congress, and no more of our ancient form be retained than what is just 
 and reasonable. We hope, in the establishment of such new constitution, 
 that regard will be had for such a broad basis of civil and religious liberty, 
 as no length of time will corrupt as long as the sun and moon shall endure. 
 
 And as in duty bound will we pray. 
 
 Per order of the town, ISRAEL DICKINSON, Town Clerk. 
 
 N. B. Upon the foregoing premises, and on account of obnoxious per- 
 sons being appointed to rule us, the court of this county of Quarter Sessions 
 is ordered to desist from any future sessions. 
 
 Our resolves may be seen at Mr. Thomas's, which we entered into at the 
 same time this petition was accepted by the town.
 
 346 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 No record of the Congress at Stockbridge remains, and the 
 Pittsfield resolutions are also lost: so that it is not known what 
 measures they directed in order to exclude the new civil adminis- 
 tration from the county; but their spirit may be inferred from 
 the quaintly audacious postscript to the Pittsfield memorial, and 
 from the subsequent action of the people. It was certainly rec- 
 ommended by one, and resolved by the other, effectually to resist 
 the holding of the county courts, and the exercise of the magis- 
 tracy by those who had lately received commissions signed by 
 " a majority of the council," and running in the name of the king 
 against whose authority their soldiers were fighting. 
 
 The justices of the Sessions, before the plans of the people were 
 ripe, had made haste to hold a secret meeting, at which they had 
 transacted business, so far at least as to license certain innholders, 
 who paid six shillings each to the pockets of the justices for 
 papers which proved worse than useless ; for the towns, which had 
 assumed the powers of this court, not only refused to recognize 
 the validity of its licenses, but in many cases would not be per- 
 suaded to replace them with their own, rigidly excluding from 
 the honorable fraternity of Bonifaces the favorers of the new 
 government as well as the friends of the king. 
 
 The next court appointed to be held was the term of the quarter 
 sessions at Pittsfield on the last Tuesday of February, 1776; and, 
 until the near approach of that day, it seems that public sen- 
 timent was not, in all the towns, ripe for obstructing the sitting ; 
 for Col. Ashley and others, in a petition to the next April session 
 of the Legislature, asserted that the people of Richmond, having, 
 only a short time previous, voted to sustain the government, Mr. 
 Allen, on Sunday evening, Feb. 18, delivered them an address, 
 " which, together with his private exhortations, had the desired 
 effect, and the people were influenced to the degree the preacher 
 designed." 
 
 It "may perhaps be well to note, that, although an odor of 
 sanctity, derived from its proximity to the " sabbath," pertained 
 to Sunday evening with the New-England fathers, it was not 
 "holy time" in the sense which the evening of Saturday was; 
 but, if it had been otherwise, it is by no means certain that Mr. 
 Allen would have considered it profanation to devote it to the 
 defence of a cause which he held to be holy. 
 
 On the day previous to that "fixed for the court, the several
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 347 
 
 committees of inspection, &c., met at Pittsfield, summoned, as Col. 
 Ashley ^charged, by Mr. Allen and his associates, to hinder the 
 session from taking place. " Mr. Allen," continues Ashley, " al- 
 though not a member of the convention, appeared as the chief 
 agitator and spokesman, and, having read a pamphlet entitled 
 'Common Sense,' as his text, made great reflections upon the 
 General Court as his doctrine and improvement, after which he 
 produced a large number of resolves, by himself previously com- 
 piled, which were put and voted by a majority of those present." 
 
 Paine's " Common Sense " had been issued from the press in 
 Philadelphia three months previous to this convention ; and it had 
 evidently powerfully impressed Mr. Aliefi, confirming and advan- 
 cing his opinions of republican polity. 
 
 Adapted as it was, by the clearness and vigor of its style, to 
 ready popular comprehension, it was a shrewd device in those 
 days, when the circulation even of political tracts was limited, to 
 read and enlarge upon it in an assembly of leading politicians 
 from all parts of the county. The old meeting-house under the 
 elin that day sent out one of those influences of which it was 
 prolific, and which are felt to this day in every nook and corner 
 of Berkshire. It is likely enough, too, that, in addition to laying 
 down and applying general principles, Mr. Allen may have said 
 severe things of the Great and General Court, being more than 
 ever convinced, that, having assumed power without sufficient 
 warrant, it intended to perpetuate it. 
 
 The influence of these harangues seems to have been as 
 powerful with the people as with the convention ; for Col. Ashley 
 goes on to inform us that they " were so much influenced that no 
 court was suffered to sit, and all commissions of civil officers 
 upon which hands could be laid were taken away." The gentle- 
 men of the Sessions went home unincumbered by the spoils of 
 office, and holding that the county was reduced to a state 
 of anarchy and confusion. The convention called it " a state of 
 nature." It was, in fact, the somewhat arbitrary rule of town- 
 meetings and revolutionary committees ; something very different, 
 to be sure, from the beneficent operation of established laws, but 
 far removed also from anarchy, and that confusion which a relapse 
 to unrestrained nature would entail. 
 
 The story of the Courts of Common Pleas throughout the 
 Commonwealth does not show so much haste in re-establishing
 
 348 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 the tribunals specially designed for the protection of property as, 
 according to the Provincial Congress, the direful circumstances of 
 the Province demanded. In all the eleven counties of the State, 
 except Worcester, impediments of one kind or another seem to 
 have prevented the machinery of those courts from going into 
 immediate operation ; although in all, except Berkshire and 
 Hampshire, commissions to the new judges were issued in Octo- 
 ber, 1775. 
 
 In Worcester, the court sat promptly on the 5th of the ensuing 
 December ; in Suffolk, in April ; and in Middlesex, in May, 1776. In 
 Plymouth, there is no record of any terms held by the judges first 
 appointed ; and those appointed April 10, 1777, did not take their 
 seats until December of that year. Dukes was without a Court 
 of Common Pleas until March, 1777 ; and Nantucket until 1783. 
 The records of Essex, Barnstable, and Bristol are imperfect, but 
 indicate more or less delay. 
 
 New judges for Hampshire were commissioned about the first 
 of January, 1778, and probably took their seats in the course of 
 4he. same year. No new commissions were issued for Berkshire 
 until Feb. 26, 1779, when Col. John Ashley of Sheffield, John 
 Bacon of Stockbridge, Col. William Whiting of Great Barrington, 
 and Col. John Brown of Pittsfield, were appointed, but never 
 attempted to hold courts. 1 The impediments to the courts in 
 Hampshire were identical with those existing in Berkshire: 
 although in the former county they yielded to the promise of 
 a constitution ; in the latter, only to its actual establishment. 
 How far delay in the other counties, or in any of them, indicated 
 a public sentiment similar to that which prevailed in Western 
 Massachusetts, we have not at hand the means of ascertaining ; but 
 it would have been very strange if in no other part of the State 
 the opponents of the Congressional scheme had been ready to 
 adopt the measures of those in the west, with whom they sym- 
 pathized in feeling. 
 
 In Berkshire, the ordinary channels of justice, obstructed, as we 
 have seen, when the king's judges were crowded from their seats 
 at Great Barrington in 1774, were not re-opened until the re-organ- 
 ization of the judiciary under the constitution of 1780; so that for. 
 six years no courts were held in the county. During the inter- 
 
 1 Washburn's History of the Judiciary of Massachusetts.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 349 
 
 regnum, the local authorities preserved public order, and restrained 
 crimes against person and property, far from perfectly, it is ' true, 
 but less imperfectly than was to have been expected; and the 
 want of the civil courts was not so severely felt in business re- 
 lations as it would have been in communities with larger and 
 more complicated mercantile interests.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE BERKSHIRE CONSTITUTIONALISTS (CONTINUED). 
 [1775-1780.] 
 
 Pittsfield challenges legislative Attention to its Recusance. Second Memorial. 
 Congress practically revokes its Advice. Berkshire demands a Constitution, 
 which the General Court neglects to provide. Projected Constitution of 1777. 
 
 Pittsfield accepts it in Part, but the State rejects. The Non-constitutionalists 
 memorialize. Their Statement. The Legislature appeals to the People of 
 Berkshire. Consequent Action. Vote of the Towns still excluding the 
 Courts. The County petitions for a Constitutional Convention. Strong 
 Language of the Petition. The Legislature passes an act of Pardon and 
 Oblivion. Pittsfield denounces it as uncalled for and libellous. The Legis- 
 lature informs Berkshire of Measures towards complying with its Demands. 
 The County nevertheless excludes the Courts until the Constitution shall be 
 actually adopted. Final Memorial to the Legislature. Instructions of 
 Pittsfield to its Delegate in the Constitutional Convention. Newspaper Libels. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 "YTTHATEVER may have rendered tolerable the lack of civil 
 V V government in Berkshire, the General Court could not 
 have passed over in silence the flagrant rebellion existing there 
 against its own authority, which had not only been brought 
 formally to its notice by the memorial of Col. Ashley, and by the 
 complaint of Justice Goodrich, who had been roughly handled by 
 the Pittsfield committees for attempting to act under its commis- 
 sion, but had been boldly announced by the town for the very 
 purpose of challenging the attention of the legislature. 
 
 A joint committee was therefore appointed to visit Pittsfield, 
 and inquire into the causes of complaint, but did not do so ; the 
 desired information having come from other sources, among 
 which the following paper from a Pittsfield town-meeting was 
 prominent : 
 
 350
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 351 
 
 To THE HONORABLE COUNCIL AND THE HONORABLE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
 OF THE COLONY OF MASSACHUSETTS BAT IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY MET AT 
 WATERTOWN, MAY 29, 1776. 
 
 The petition and memorial of the town of Pittsfield in said Colony humbly 
 showeth, 
 
 That they have the highest sense of the importance of civil and religious 
 liberty, the destructive nature of tyranny and lawless power, and the 
 absolute necessity of legal government to prevent anarchy and confusion. 
 
 That they, with their brethren in the other towns in this county, were 
 early and vigorous in opposing the destructive measures of British adminis- 
 tration against these Colonies ; that they early signed the non-importation 
 league and covenant, raised minute-men, agreed to pay them, ordered their 
 public moneys to be paid to Henry Gardner, Esq., receiver-general, cast in 
 their mite for the relief of Boston, and conformed in all things to the doings 
 of the Honorable Continental and Provincial Congresses. 
 
 That they met with the utmost opposition from an unfriendly party in this 
 town in every step, in every measure they pursued agreeable to the common 
 councils of this Continent, which nothing but the most obstinate persever- 
 ance has enabled them to overcome and surmount, which, together with the 
 inconveniences we have labored under, afford the true reason why we have 
 been so behind in the payment of our public taxes. 
 
 That they, with the other towns in this county, have come behind none in 
 their duty and attachment to their country's cause, and have exerted them- 
 selves much beyond their strength on all occasions. 
 
 A fresh instance of their zeal was conspicuous in our late defeat at 
 Quebec, when a considerable number of men were raised and sent off in the 
 dead of winter, and lay dying of sickness before the walls of Quebec, before 
 any one man from this Colony had so much as left his own habitation for 
 the relief of our distressed friends in Canada. 
 
 That from the purest and most disinterested principle and ardent love for 
 their country, without selfish consideration, and in conformity with the advice 
 of the wisest men in the Colony, they ordered and assisted in suspending 
 the executive courts in this county in August, 1774. 
 
 That on no occasion have they spared either cost or trouble, without hope 
 of pecuniary reward, vigorously and unweariedly exerting themselves for 
 the support and defence of their country's cause, notwithstanding the most 
 violent discouragements we have met with from open or secret enemies in 
 this town and county, and in the neighboring Provinces. 
 
 That, till last fall, your memorialists had little or no expectation of obtain- 
 ing any new privileges beyond what our defective charter secured to us. 
 
 That when they came more maturely to reflect on the nature of the 
 present contest and the spirit and obstinacy of administration, what an 
 amazing expense the United Colonies had incurred, and how many of our 
 towns had been burnt or otherwise damaged, what multitudes had been 
 turned out to beg, and how many of our valiant heroes had been slain in
 
 352 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 the defence of their country, and the impossibility of our being ever again 
 dependent on Great Britain, or in any measure subject to her authority ; 
 when they further considered that the revolution hi England afforded the 
 nation but a very imperfect redress of grievances, the nation, being trans- 
 ported with extravagant joy in getting rid of one tyrant, forgot to provide 
 against another, and how every man by nature has the seeds of tyranny 
 deeply implanted within him, so. that nothing short of Omnipotence can 
 eradicate them ; when they attended to the advice given this Colony by the 
 Continental Congress respecting the assumption of our ancient Constitution, 
 how early that advice was given, the reason of it, and the principles upon 
 which it was given, which no longer exist ; what a great change of circum- 
 stances there has been in the views and designs of this whole Continent 
 since the giving said advice ; that when they considered that now is the 
 only time we have reason ever to expect for securing our liberties and the 
 liberties of future posterity upon a permanent foundation that no length 
 of time can undermine, though they were filled with pain and anxiety 
 at so much as seeming to oppose public councils, yet, with all these con- 
 siderations in our view, love of virtue, freedom, and posterity prevailed upon 
 us a second time to suspend the courts of justice in this county, after the 
 judges of the Quarter Sessions had, in a precipitate and clandestine manner, 
 held one court, and granted out a number of licenses to innholders at the 
 rate of six shillings or more each, and divided the money amongst themselves 
 with this boast, that " now it was going to be like former times," and had 
 discovered a spirit of independence of the people, and a disposition tri- 
 umphantly to ride over their heads, and worse than renew all our former 
 oppressions. 
 
 We further beg leave to represent that we are deeply affected at the 
 misrepresentations that have been made of us and the county in the General 
 Court as men deeply in debt, dishonest, ungovernable, heady, intractable, 
 without principle and good conduct, and ever ready to oppose lawful au- 
 thority, as mobbers, disturbers of peace, order, and union, unwilling to submit 
 to any government, or even to pay our debts ; so that, we have been told, a 
 former House of Representatives had it actually in contemplation to send 
 an armed force, to effect that by violence which reason only ought to effect 
 at the present day. We beg leave, therefore, to lay before your Honors our 
 principles, real views, and designs in what we have hitherto done, and what 
 object we are reaching after ; with this assurance, that, if we have erred, it 
 is through ignorance, and not bad intention. 
 
 We beg leave, therefore, to represent that we have always been persuaded 
 that the people are the fountain of power ; that, since the dissolution of the 
 power of Great Britain over these Colonies, they have fallen into a state of 
 nature. 
 
 That the first step to be taken by a people in such a state for the enjoy- 
 ment or restoration of civil government among them is the formation of 
 a fundamental constitution as the basis and ground- work of legislation ;
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 353 
 
 that the approbation, by the majority of the people, of this fundamental 
 constitution is absolutely necessary to give life and being to it ; that then, 
 and not till then, is the foundation laid for legislation. 
 
 We often hear of the fundamental constitution of Great Britain, which 
 all political writers (except ministerial ones) set above the king, Lords, and 
 Commons, which they cannot change ; nothing short of the great rational ' 
 majority of the people being sufficient for this. 
 
 A representative body may form, but cannot impose said fundamental 
 constitution upon a people,.as they, being but servants of the people, cannot 
 be greater than their masters, and must be responsible to them ; that, if this 
 fundamental constitution is above the whole legislature, the legislature cer- 
 tainly cannot make it ; it must be the approbation of the majority which 
 gives life and being to it ; that said fundamental constitution has not been 
 formed for this Province ; the corner-stone is not yet laid, and whatever 
 building is reared without a foundation must fall to ruins ; 
 
 That this can be instantly effected with the approbation of the Conti- 
 nental Congress ; and law, subordination, and good government flow in better 
 than their ancient channels in a few months' time; that, till this is done, we 
 are but beating the air, and doing what will and must be undone afterwards,, 
 and all our labor is lost, and on divers reasons worse than lost ; 
 
 That a doctrine newly broached in this county by several of the jus- 
 tices newly created without the voice of the people, that the representatives, 
 of the people may form just what fundamental constitution they please, and 
 impose it upon the people, and, however obnoxious to them, they can obtain. 
 no relief from it but by a new election ; and, if our representatives should 
 never see fit to give the people one that pleases them, there is no help for 
 it, appears to us to be the rankest kind of Toryism, the self-same monster 
 we are now fighting against. 
 
 These are some of the truths we firmly believe, and are countenanced, 
 in believing them by the most respectable political writers of the last and 
 present century, especially by Mr. Burgh in his political disquisitions, for 
 the publication of which one-half of the Continental Congress were sub- 
 scribers. 
 
 We beg leave further to represent, that we by no means object to the 
 most speedy institution of legal government through this Province, and that 
 we are as earnestly desirous as any others of this great blessing. 
 
 That, knowing the strong bias of human nature to tyranny and despot- 
 ism, TJC have nothing else in view but to provide for posterity against the 
 wanton exercise of power, which cannot otherwise be done than by the 
 formation of a fundamental constitution. 
 
 What is the fundamental constitution of this Province ? What are the 
 inalienable rights of the people ? the power of the rulers ? how often to be 
 elected by the people, &c. ? Have any of these things been as yet ascer- 
 tained ? Let it not be said by future posterity, that, in this great, this noble, 
 
 this glorious contest, we made no provision against tyranny among ourselves. 
 23
 
 354 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 We beg leave to assure your Honors, that the purest and most disinter- 
 ested love of posterity, and the fervent desire of transmitting to them a fun- 
 damental constitution, securing to them social rights and immunities against 
 all tyrants that may spring up after us, has moved us in what we have done. 
 We have not been influenced by hope of gain, or expectation of preferment 
 and honor ; we are no discontented faction ; we have no fellowship with 
 Tories ; we are the stanch friends of the union of these Colonies, and will 
 support arid maintain your Honors in opposing Great Britain with our lives 
 and treasure. But even if commissions be recalled, and the king's name 
 struck off them ; if the fee-table be reduced never so low, and multitudes of 
 other things be done to still the people, all is to us nothing while the foun- 
 dation is unfixed, the corner-stone of government unlaid. We have heard 
 much of government being founded in compact : what compact has been 
 formed as the foundation of government in this Province ? We beg leave 
 further to represent, that we have undergone many grievous oppressions in 
 this county, and that now we wish a barrier might be set up against such 
 oppressions, against which we can have no security long till the foundation 
 of government be well established. 
 
 We beg leave further to represent these as the sentiments of by far the 
 majority of the people of this county, as far as we can judge ; and being so 
 agreeable to reason, scripture, and common sense, as soon as the attention 
 of the people of this Province is awakened we doubt not the majority will 
 be with us. 
 
 We beg leave further to observe, that, if this honorable body shall find 
 that we have embraced errors dangerous to the safety of these Colonies, it is 
 our petition that our errors may be detected, and you shall be put to no 
 further trouble from us ; but, without an alteration in our judgment, the ter- 
 rors of this world will not daunt us. We are determined to resist Great 
 Britain to the last extremity, and all others who may claim a similar power 
 over us. Yet we hold not to an imperium imperio ; we will be determined 
 by the majority. 
 
 Your petitioners, therefore, beg leave to request that this honorable body 
 would form a fundamental constitution for this Province, after leave is asked 
 and obtained from the Honorable Continental Congress, and that said con- 
 stitution be sent abroad for the approbation of the majority of the people of 
 'this Colony ; that, in this way, we may emerge from a state of nature, and 
 enjoy again the blessings of civil government. In this way the rights and 
 blessings of civil government will be secured, the glory of the present Devo- 
 lution remain untarnished, and future posterity rise up and call the Honora- 
 ble Council and House of Representatives blessed ; and, as in duty bound, 
 will ever pray. 
 
 Attest : ISRAEL DICKINSON, Town Clerk. 
 
 This paper, like the first memorial of the town, was from the pen 
 of Mr. Allen ; and the growth in his mind, and that of his fellow-
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 355 
 
 citizens, of democratic ideas, and a desire for constitutional guar- 
 anties of free government, will be observed without a specific 
 recapitulation of the points of the address. A nobler defence of 
 the course pursued by the constitutionalists could hardly have 
 been framed, or one based upon sounder political maxims. 
 
 It proved sufficiently explicit to forestall the proposed inquiry 
 into the causes of complaint in Berkshire ; and the General Court 
 seems to have been so far satisfied, that no further action with 
 regard to affairs in that county was had that year. The necessity 
 of a -more satisfactory basis of government, indeed, forced itself 
 upon attention, and would not be put aside, even in that era of 
 military disaster and extraordinary calls for exertion in the field ; 
 so that, for a time, the extreme measures adopting in the western 
 counties attracted less notice. 
 
 Those who favored the retention of the baseless fabric of gov- 
 ernment, under which Massachusetts was neither Province, Colony, 
 nor State, maid, wife, nor widow, were indeed puzzled to find 
 a pretext for its longer continuance. The corner-stone of Congres- 
 sional advice had, aS we have seen, been sadly impaired by the ad- 
 verse recommendations given to other Colonies ; and the last frag- 
 ment of support in that quarter had crumbled under the passage 
 of the famous resolutions of May, 1776, declaring that " the exer- 
 cise of every kind of authority under the king ought to be sup- 
 pressed." At home, the legislature had previously entered upon 
 measures to eradicate the king's name from all legal and official 
 processes, and to replace all commissions under the regal authority 
 with others under that of the Colony. But the use of the royal 
 name and style, irritating to the masses, who had been taught by 
 George III. heartily to detest them, was abhorrent to the constitu- 
 tionalist thinkers chiefly as the symbol and the evidence of a de- 
 termination by those in power at Boston to cling to a form of 
 government which ought long before to have passed away. And,, 
 now that the symbol of royal authority would no longer be en- 
 dured, the disposition to stop at mere superficial and palliatory 
 reforms was so manifest as to excite the alarm of the advocates of 
 a constitution, and to call for those paragraphs in the Pittsfield 
 address which asserted the utter insufficiency of any thing short 
 of a frame of government submitted to, and established by, a vote 
 of the people. Statesmen of the highest ability and purest char- 
 acter, throughout the State, sympathized with the zeal of the men
 
 356 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 of Berkshire, although, perhaps, not generally with the measures 
 by which they re-enforced their not excessively humble petitions. 
 
 Pretexts were, however, found to delay action until September, 
 when the General Court appointed a committee "to prepare a new 
 frame of government." But the body which had made no hesita- 
 tion in taking up civil government upon the hint given by Con- 
 gress was now struck with a sudden qualm, which forbade them to 
 proceed further towards laying it down without the express con- 
 sent of their constituents. Even the preparation of the ground- 
 work of a constitution was therefore suspended; and a circular 
 asking authority for that purpose was sent to the towns, who 
 promptly returned a favorable response. Pittsfield voted, " That 
 this town highly approves the handbill sent out on the 17th of 
 September, relative to the present General Assembly forming 
 a constitution, and to be sent to the several towns for their 
 approbation." : 
 
 The decision of the people was ascertained at the May session 
 of the legislature ; and the ensuing summer and fall were spent in 
 preparing a draft which was submitted to the people in March, 
 1778, with a proviso requiring the assent of two-thirds of the 
 voters to give it validity. It is strange, that, upon a matter of such 
 fundamental importance as this, only twelve thousand voters 
 registered themselves, and one hundred and twenty towns made 
 no return at all. Of those who took the trouble to vote, five- 
 sixths, " under the lead of an almost unanimous public sentiment 
 in Boston," declared against the instrument submitted to them. 
 
 What the special objections to it were is matter of conjecture. 
 Hon. Charles Francis Adams, in a carefully-prepared sketch of the 
 reconstruction of government in Massachusetts, speaks of it as " a 
 very imperfect instrument, largely partaking of the haste and con- 
 fusion of the time in which it was made, but yet very much better 
 than none at all, or than the temporary system which necessity 
 had created ; " and expresses surprise that " interests had already 
 grown up in the period of interregnum adverse to the establish- 
 ment of any more permanent government." 
 
 1 The town showed its deep interest in the task imposed upon the legislature 
 of 1777, by sending to it an unprecedented number of representatives, choosing 
 tor that purpose three of its most trusted citizens, Valentine Rathbun, Josiah 
 Wright, and Eli Root. The committee of instruction was also of unusual ability, 
 consisting of Cols. Williams and Easton, Capts. Isarel Dickinson, William 
 Francis, and James Noble, Lieuts. William Barber and Amos Root.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 357 
 
 The truth is, that those interests were as old as the Colonial 
 magistracy; had sought shelter, in Province times, under the 
 gubernatorial wing ; had dictated the government of the interreg- 
 num, and now desired to retain it with only such modifications as 
 should not make it less subservient to small ambitions. It may be 
 shrewdly suspected that there were those engaged in framing the 
 abortive ship of state who had no earnest desire that it should 
 survive the launching. To frail construction, by ill-designing 
 workmen, may be probably ascribed, in part at least, the ill-starred 
 fate of the Constitution of 1778. 
 
 The people of Pittsfield, however, held the same opinion which 
 Mr. Adams expresses of the proposed instrument ; and although 
 it denied their darling desire, a bill of rights, and in other 
 respects fell far short of the standard which they had set up, their 
 vote was unanimous for accepting it, save the 19th, 24th, and 26th 
 articles. 
 
 The 19th article provided that all civil officers annually chosen, 
 with salaries annually granted, should be elected by the General 
 Court ; all others appointed by the Governor and Senale. Articles 
 24th and 26th provided that the judges, justices of the peace, 
 attorney-general, treasurer, &c., should hold office during good 
 behavior. 
 
 The voters of Pittsfield were strenuous in their desire that all 
 officers, civil, judicial, and military, should be elected by the people 
 for a term of years. 
 
 By voting to accept a constitution which, in many respects, 
 differed widely from its own notions, Pittsfield now gave evidence 
 that it desired neither anarchy nor the rule of local committees; 
 but only insisted upon a foundation of government created in such 
 a way as to recognize the right of the people to model their own 
 institutions, and remodel them whenever they should see cause. 
 
 A consistent earnestness in the same direction continued to be 
 manifest in all the town action. It having been demonstrated that 
 an ordinary legislative body was ill adapted to the work, Pitts- 
 field united with the other towns in the county in a petition that 
 a convention of delegates might be called, for the express purpose 
 of framing a constitution and bill of rights ; and, on the 17th of 
 December, Col. John Brown, having in the previous May been 
 chosen representative, was instructed to press it upon the House 
 that the convention should be called as soon as possible.
 
 358 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 In the mean time, the town, both by its separate action and by 
 several votes in conjunction with the rest of the county, inflex- 
 ibly maintained its determination " not to permit the holding of 
 the Courts of Common Pleas or General Sessions." 
 
 On the 3d of June, 1776, shortly after the presentation of the 
 second Pittsfield address, the House of Representatives received 
 from Joseph Woodbridge of Stockbridge, Joseph Fan-field, Dan 
 Cadwell fc Jacob Ensign, Erastus Sackett, and Jacob Ward, of 
 Pittsfield, and Ebenezer Doane, probably of Richmond, " a state- 
 ment of the unhappy circumstances of this distracted county," in 
 which they say, 1 
 
 " Numbers of these enthusiastic people 2 having got themselves into the 
 office of committees of inspection and correspondence, inoculate the minds 
 of their votaries, both by their example and doctrines, that they ought to 
 pay no more obedience to the acts and doings of the General Court than 
 they themselves think proper ; and notwithstanding the General Court, by 
 authority from the Grand American Congress, have adopted a free and salu- 
 tary form of government, and have appointed suitable officers in this county 
 to preserve peace and good order, by punishing the guilty and thereby pro- 
 tecting the innocent, yet the committees above mentioned, disregarding the 
 authority of tbe whole continent, whilst they themselves are despising, 
 defaming, assaulting, and abusing the civil officers your Honors have ap- 
 pointed in this county, they assume to themselves judicial authority, and in 
 a most arbitrary manner execute the same, both in civil as well as criminal 
 matters ; and this presumption of the committees, your petitioners humbly 
 conceive, will be attended with very pernicious consequences, if a very 
 speedy stop should not be put to their illegal proceedings, as they will inev- 
 itably lay the foundation for a multiplicity of law-suits whenever order and 
 legal government shall be restored in this county." 
 
 This statement affords a fair view of the aspect which affairs 
 in the county bore in the eyes of the minority which advocated 
 submission to the State government. The reader is already pos- 
 sessed of the different light in which it presented itself to those 
 who regarded the necessity of a fundamental law as paramount 
 to all considerations of immediate evils incident to a struggle for 
 its attainment. 
 
 The legislature, whatever may have been its reasons, dismissed 
 
 i 
 
 It is to be observed that Cadwell, Fairfield, and Sackett were afterwards prom- 
 inent " Shay's rebels ; " a fact which will be taken into consideration in estimat- 
 ing their present devotion to law and order. 
 2 The constitutionalists.
 
 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 359 
 
 the Woodbridge memorial, and, so far as appears from tfoe record, 
 paid no further attention to the Berkshire troubles until the 1st 
 of February, 1777. 
 
 On that day, the question of a new constitution having in the 
 previous September been referred to the people, the following 
 preamble and order passed both houses : 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Feb. 1, 1777. 
 
 Whereas our ancestors, the venerable and virtuous settlers of this country, 
 who were no less remarkable for their attachments to the rights of mankind than 
 their zeal for religion, did, in the early ages of this State, enact sundry laws 
 for the encouragement of piety and virtue, and the preventing profane swear- 
 ing, breaking of the sabbath, and other immoralities, for which the Supreme 
 Being has usually punished a people ; 
 
 And many laws having lately been passed by this and the last General 
 Court to detect and punish those persons who are trying to subvert the liberty 
 of these free States, which laws cannot be carried into execution without 
 holding executive courts within the several counties of this State ; 
 
 And whereas it is represented that the justices of the peace, in the coun- 
 ties of Berkshire and Hampshire, have neglected to hold courts of General 
 Sessions of the Peace as the law directs; and grand jurors, who have al- 
 ways been deemed an order of men upon whom the well-being of society 
 much depended, have not, in those counties, been chosen as usual, and the 
 justices there have been prevented from punishing small offences within 
 their cognizance, by reason of there being no Court of General Sessions of 
 the Peace to appeal to, by which delay of distributive justice there is great 
 danger of immoralities increasing ; and as the power invested in civil magis- 
 trates is absolutely necessary to the preservation of the people, more especially 
 while an army is on foot in the country : 
 
 It is therefore 
 
 Ordered, That the justices of the said counties be, and they hereby are, 
 directed to hold their courts of General Sessions of the Peace at the times 
 and in the places by law prefixed therefor ; and it is also recommended 
 to the good people of these counties to consider how much the happiness 
 and weal of society depends upon the orderly and regular execution of the 
 laws, and to do all in their power to aid and support the civil magistrates in 
 the execution of their office. 
 
 The General Court seems to have expected much from this 
 paper; for in December, finding that it had not been properly dis- 
 tributed, it directed Daniel Hopkins, Esq., to send a copy to each 
 town in Hampshire and Berkshire. 
 
 By this time, the Constitution, destined to be stillborn, had been
 
 360 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 framed ; and, probably in anticipation of its early adoption rather 
 than influenced by the document disseminated by Mr. Hopkins, 
 the people of Hampshire permitted courts to be held at Spring- 
 field. 
 
 The Berkshire constitutionalists too shrewdly appreciated the 
 tactics by which the proposed Constitution was manipulated, to 
 trust to its establishment before it became an accomplished fact. 
 A respectful consideration was, however, given to the appeal of 
 the General Court ; and a convention was held at Pittsfield on the 
 12th of August, Col. William Williams presiding, William 
 Walker of Lenox clerk, to determine whether the county 
 would admit the courts of law. The convention desired the sev- 
 eral towns to take a vote, by yeas and nays, whether they wished 
 the Court of Common Pleas and the Court of General Sessions, or 
 either of them, to be holden in the county before a bill of rights 
 and a constitution were framed and accepted by the people." 
 The Pittsfield Committee of Correspondence was also requested 
 to write to the committees of the different towns in Hampshire and 
 Worcester for advice. 
 
 An adjournment was then had to the 26th of August, when the 
 towns were expected to make their returns. 1 
 
 At the adjourned meeting, the following result appeared ; the 
 yeas representing those who favored the opening of the courts : 
 
 TOWNS. Courts of Sessions. Courts of Com. Pleas. 
 
 Yeas. Nays. Yeas. Nays. 
 
 Richmond, 30 31 30 21 
 
 Alford, 18 18 
 
 Lenox, 1 69 63 
 
 Washington, 3 16 20 
 
 Hancock, 35 2 33 
 
 Lee, 9 12 9 12 
 
 Williamstown, 10 .60 10 60 
 
 Carried forward, 106 188 51 227 
 
 1 Only one response to the request for advice is preserved. It was frcna the town 
 of Worcester ; and was not written until December, long after Berkshire had 
 made its decision. It was a well-stated and temperately-worded argument against 
 the position assumed in Berkshire, but was far from conclusive against the fixed 
 idea of the western county, that government based on any thing but the express 
 consent of the people was a dangerous usurpation. It was signed by Daniel Bige- 
 low, Nathaniel Heywood, William Dana, Joseph Barbour, and Jonathan Price.
 
 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 361 
 
 TOWNS. * Courts of Sessions. Courts of Com. Pleas. 
 
 Yeas. Nays. Yeas. Nays. 
 
 Brought forward, 106 188 51 227 
 
 Gageborough (now Windsor), 2 61 2 61 
 
 Partridgefield (now Peru and Hinsdale), 1 61 1 61 
 
 Equivalent (now Dalton), 31 1 31 
 
 Sheffield, 41 41 
 
 Lanesborough, . 3 60 3 60 
 
 New Ashford, 25 25 
 
 Great Barrington, 59 16 11 
 
 Stockbridge, 26 36 26 36 
 
 New Marlborough, 48 12 48 12 
 
 Sandisfield, 18 20 38 
 
 Loudon (Otis), 13 1 1 7 
 
 Pittsfield, 12 50 12 50 
 
 329 545 161 660 
 
 The county having again, by this decisive majority, refused to 
 admit the courts, the following gentlemen were appointed to 
 draft still another petition for a constitutional convention : 
 James Harris of Lanesborough, William Whiting of Great Bar- 
 rington, William Williams of Pittsfield, Benjamin Pierson of 
 Richmond, and William Walker of Lenox. The petition reported 
 by them, like those which preceded it, recited the great military 
 services of the county, its devoted faithfulness to the patriotic 
 cause, the readiness of the people to fly to the assistance of their 
 brethren on every alarm, and their abhorrence of Toryism. It then 
 proceeds thus : 
 
 " Notwithstanding this our fidelity to the State and our exertions for the 
 common cause, we have, by designing and disaffected men, been represented 
 as a mobbish, ungovernable, refractory, licentious, and dissolute people ; by 
 means whereof we have been threatened with dismemberment, more especially, 
 as we conceive, on account of our not admiting the course of common law. 
 
 " It is true we were the first county that put a stop to courts, and were 
 soon followed by many others, nay, in effect, by the whole State ; and we 
 are not certain but that it might have been as well, if not better, had they 
 continued so, rather than to have law dealt out by piecemeal, as it is this 
 day, without any foundation to support it ; for we doubt not we should, before 
 this time, have had a bill of rights and a constitution, which are the only 
 things we at this time are empowered to pray for. 
 
 " And we do now, with the greatest deference, petition your Honors, that 
 you would issue your precepts to all the towns and places within this State
 
 362 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 called upon to pay public taxes, requiring them to* choose delegates, to sit 
 as soon as may be in some suitable place, to form a bill of rights and a con- 
 stitution for this State ; without which we shall retain the aforesaid charac- 
 ter, if grounded upon the non-admission of law, as abundantly appears to us 
 this day by the yeas and nays from the respective towns we represent, taken 
 in town-meeting officially called for that purpose, there being four-fifths of 
 the inhabitants of said county against supporting the courts of law until a 
 constitution be formed, and accepted by the people. 
 
 " If this our request is rejected, we shall endeavor, by addressing the first 
 Committee of Safety, &c., in this State and others, that there be a State con- 
 vention formed for the purpose aforesaid. And, if this Honorable Court are 
 for dismemberment, there are other States, which have constitutions, who 
 will, we doubt not, as bad as we are, gladly receive us ; and we shall, to the 
 utmost of our ability, support and defend authority and law, as we should, 
 with greater cheerfulness, in the State to which we belong, were there any 
 proper foundation for it. 
 
 " We are, with all submission, your Honors' youngest child, and are deter- 
 mined, to the utmost of our power, to protect and secure our just inheritance, 
 and hope our parent, will graciously concur and assist, by granting this our 
 request. 
 
 " And, as in duty bound, will ever pray. 
 
 This appeal tells its own story, and shows a very serious com- 
 plication of affairs between the State and the county. The General 
 Court gave it earnest attention ; in September, appointed a com- 
 mittee to consider " what was necessary to be done towards a new 
 constitution," and immediately afterwards sent a deputation to 
 meet the delegates of the Berkshire towns, at Pittsfield, " inquire 
 into their grievances, and endeavor to remove them ; " announcing 
 to them, at the same time, the measures which had just been taken 
 in regard to granting their demand for a constitution, and assuring 
 them that the committee to whom that matter was referred would 
 report upon it as soon as might be, and that it would be taken up 
 at the next session. 
 
 The convocation was held Nov. 17 ; Valentine Rathbun, James 
 Noble, and Josiah Wright representing Pittsfield. The result, in 
 connection with a subsequent consultation with the Berkshire 
 representatives in the legislature, was the passage of a very abso- 
 lute act of pardon and oblivion, with the following provisions : 
 
 " Whereas the situation of the county of Berkshire during the present 
 troubles has been such as induced committees and other persons to do many 
 acts which, in strict law, may be deemed criminal ; therefore 
 
 "First. All riots, unlawful assemblies, rescues, breaches of the peace,
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSF1ELD. 363 
 
 assaults, batteries, and imprisonments which had occurred in the county 
 between the 10th of April, 1774, and the 1st of February, 1779, were par- 
 doned, and put into utter oblivion. 
 
 " Second. It was enacted, that, without leave first had of the General Court, 
 no action for damage should be brought against any person on account of 
 any act done under the authority of any town, town-officer, or committee of 
 correspondence and inspection, within the county. 
 
 " Third. It was ordered, that a term of the Superior Court of Judicature 
 should be holden annually for the county of Berkshire, at Great Barrington, 
 on the first Tuesday of May." 
 
 The act seems worded with a very tender consideration for the 
 sensitiveness of those to whom it applied, and manifested genuine 
 delicacy in classing among the acts which " in strict law MIGHT be 
 deemed criminal," as well those done in suppressing the king's 
 courts as those which obstructed the sessions of the State tribu- 
 nals ; for since all patriots acknowledged the first to have been 
 praiseworthy in fact, whatever they might have been "deemed in 
 strict law," no very severe condemnation could have been intended 
 by the General Court of acts which it classed with them without 
 discrimination. 
 
 It is not apparent how the legislature could have accomplished 
 an object essential to the restoration of "the full course of law" 
 in any other way, unless it had succumbed to the Berkshire theory, 
 that its own authority was usurped, and thus thrown all the affairs 
 of the State into confusion ; a course which it could hardly have 
 been expected to pursue, with whichever party the abstract right 
 may have been. 
 
 But a clear comprehension of these considerations was not then 
 to have been expected ; and it is not strange, that, instead of giving 
 satisfaction to those for whose benefit it was intended, the act 
 excited their ire. Holding themselves to be the champions of 
 legitimate government against the encroachments of its enemies, 
 they claimed praise, and not pardon, as their due, and spurned 
 indignantly the most remote intimation of the contrary. 
 
 The nature and strength of this feeling may be gathered from 
 the instructions of Pittsfield to its representatives, Col. William, 
 Williams and Capt. James Noble, in which these paragraphs 
 appear : 
 
 " We give you the following instructions, viz. : 
 
 " 1st. That you do use your utmost endeavors that a constitution be formed 
 at this time."
 
 364 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 " 3d. That a late act of the General Court, called and considered to be an 
 act of oblivion respecting the county of Berkshire, be an object of your 
 attention, and that your exert yourselves that the same may be repealed, as 
 it was undesired by the county, and is fraught with reproach, discrimination, 
 and such severe reflections upon the county as they utterly disdain, and are 
 not chargeable with ; not to mention the manifest injustice contained in it. 
 
 " 4th. That the appointment of a Superior Court to be holden in this 
 county on the first Tuesday of May current was unnecessary and premature, 
 and that the gentlemen who proposed such a measure were not so instructed 
 and directed." 
 
 " 8th. And, as you are chosen to represent the town of Pittsfield, we expect 
 that you will represent it as a town of a county which has acted as firmly 
 and consistently as any county in this State ; and, as you know the senti- 
 ments of the county, that you act conformably thereunto ; and, if you are 
 not treated with the same respect with representatives of other counties, 
 that you return home, and give us the pleasure of your company." 
 
 These instructions are signed by Eli Root, John Strong, and 
 James Easton ; but the original draft is in the handwriting of Rev. 
 Mr. Allen. 1 
 
 The expectation announced to the people of Berkshire by the 
 legislative committee was realized ; and at its next session, that 
 to which Messrs. Williams and Noble were accredited, the Gen- 
 eral Court submitted to the people of the State the question 
 whether they desired to have a new constitution, and, if so, 
 whether they would have it framed by a convention chosen 
 expressly for that duty. 
 
 So sluggish was public sentiment outside of Berkshire and 
 Hampshire on this great matter, that nearly one-third of the towns 
 failed to make any return of their vote ; and it was not until May 
 that it was known that a majority had declared for a convention. 
 
 While uncertainty on this point continued to prevail, the day 
 fixed for the new term of the Superior Court at Great Barrington 
 approached ; and a county convention met and adopted an address 
 to the judges, written by Mr. Allen, and giving a brief resume of 
 the previous opposition to the courts, with the reasons which had 
 induced it, showing that those reasons still existed, and closing as 
 
 follows : 
 
 
 
 " We are fearful of the consequences, should the operation of the law 
 take place upon the present foundation, especially if it should be attempted 
 
 1 The section of the act of oblivion which instituted the new term of tho 
 Superior Court was repealed. The rest continued in force.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 365 
 
 to be enforced by violence, as some have insinuated ; which insinuations we 
 hope will appear to be groundless, as they have very much exasperated the 
 people. We must, therefore, in duty to ourselves, our country, and our con- 
 stituents, earnestly desire that your Honors would desist from attempting to 
 sit in this county, until the explicit voice of the great majority of the free- 
 men of this State may be taken, by yeas and nays, respecting the validity 
 of the present form of government, by whose determination, when explicitly 
 and regularly known, we are determined cheerfully and religiously to abide." 
 
 Thus, again and finally, did the men of Berkshire rest the defence 
 of their course where they had first placed, and ever consistently 
 maintained it upon the absolute invalidity of government based 
 on no explicit consent of the governed ; and thus did they reiterate 
 their purpose to endure even the odious debris of the charter, if 
 the majority should pronounce that to be their will. 
 
 Soon after these proceedings, it was ascertained that the voters 
 of the State had decided for a convention ; and it was called to 
 meet on the 1st of the following September at Cambridge. 
 
 Pittsfield had voted unanimously that it wished, not only a 
 constitution, but a bill of rights, " and that as soon as might be." 
 It now chose Col. William Williams delegate to the conven- 
 tion, with the following committee of instruction : Valentine 
 Rathbun, Thomas Allen, Eli Root, James Noble, and Lebbeus 
 Backus. 
 
 Their report, prepared by Mr. Allen, was one of the most 
 remarkable political papers which came from his pen, and offers a 
 fitting culmination to the series whose introduction here has been 
 deemed essential. 
 
 It must be remembered, in reading it, that the maxims laid 
 down were not, in 1779, the accepted truths which most of them 
 have become to later generations ; for although some of them had 
 already been incorporated into the new frames of government in 
 Vermont, Virginia, and New York, and most of them had been 
 more or less distinctly proclaimed by political writers, the sanctity 
 which time has conferred upon them as well-defined propositions, 
 integral parts of the Constitutions of Massachusetts and of the 
 American Union, was yet to be attained. So that, while of course 
 no claim to origination can be raised for this declaration of what 
 Pittsfield desired to secure in the instrument which had so long 
 been the star of her hope, no little political sagacity and right- 
 mindedness must be inferred from the selection, out of the abound-
 
 366 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 ing dross, of so much which the test of experience has proved 
 pure gold. 
 
 Report of the Committee appointed by the Town to draw up Instructions for their Repre- 
 sentatives in Stale Convention is as follows : 
 
 To COL. WILLIAMS. 
 
 Sir, As you have been duly elected by the town of Pittsfield their 
 representative to meet in a convention of this State at Cambridge, the 1st of 
 September next, for the purpose of forming a new Constitution for the people 
 of this State, which we view as a matter of the greatest consequence to the 
 present and future generations, it will doubtless be agreeable to you to 
 understand their sentiments for the government of your deportment. You 
 are therefore hereby instructed to unite with said convention in drawing up 
 a Bill of Rights and in forming a new Constitution for the people of this 
 State. We wish you to oppose all unnecessary delay in this great work, 
 and to proceed in it with the utmost wisdom and caution. 
 
 In the Bill of Rights, you will endeavor that all those unalienable and 
 important rights which are essential to true liberty, and form the basis 
 of government in a free State, shall be inserted : particularly, that this 
 people have a right to adopt that form of government which appears to us 
 most eligible, and best calculated to promote the happiness of ourselves and 
 posterity ; that as all men by nature are free, and have no dominion one 
 over another, and all power originates in the people, so, in a state of civil 
 society, all power is founded in compact ; that every man has an unalien- 
 able right to enjoy his own opinion in matters of religion, and to worship 
 God in that manner that is agreeable to his own sentiments without any con- 
 trol whatsoever, and that no particular mode or sect of religion ought to be 
 established, but that every one be protected hi the peaceable enjoyment of his 
 religious persuasion and way of worship ; that no man can be deprived of 
 liberty, and subjected to perpetual bondage and servitude, unless he has for- 
 feited his liberty as a malefactor ; that the people have a right peaceably to 
 assemble, consider of their grievances, and petition for redress ; that, as 
 civil rulers derive their authority from the people, so they are accountable to 
 them for the use of it ; that elections ought to be free, equal, and annual ; 
 that, as all men are equal by nature, so, when they enter into a state of civil 
 government, they are entitled precisely to the same rights and privileges, or 
 to an equal degree of political happiness ; that the right of trial by jury 
 ought to be perpetual ; that no man's property of right can be taken from 
 him without his consent, given either in person or by his representative ; 
 that no laws are obligatory on the people but those that have obtained a 
 like consent, nor are such laws of any force, if, proceeding from a corrupt 
 majority of the legislature, they are incompatible with the fundamental prin- 
 ciples of government, and tend to subvert it ; that the freedom of speech 
 and debates and proceedings in the House of Representatives ought not to
 
 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 367 
 
 be questioned or impeached in any court, or place out of the General Court ; 
 that excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor 
 cruel and unjust punishments inflicted; that jurors ought to be duly im- 
 panelled and returned, and all jurors ought to be freeholders. These, and 
 all other liberties which you find essential to true liberty, you will claim, 
 demand, and insist upon, as the birthrights of this people. 
 
 In respect to the Constitution, you will use your best endeavors that the 
 following things may be inserted in it amongst others : That the election of 
 the representative body be annual ; that no representative on any occasion 
 shall absent himself from said House without leave first had from said body, 
 but shall constantly attend on the business during the sessions. Ah 1 taxes 
 shall be levied with the utmost equality on polls, faculty, and property. 
 You may consent to government by a Governor, Council, and House of 
 Representatives. The Governor and Council shall have no negative voice 
 upon the House of Representatives ; but all disputed points shall be settled 
 by the majority of the whole legislative body. The supreme judges of the 
 executive courts shall be elected by the suffrages of the people at large, and 
 be commissioned by the Governor. That all grants of money shall 
 originate in the House of Representatives. The judges of the maritime 
 courts, the attorney-general, and high sheriffs of each county, are to be 
 appointed by the suffrages of people at large, and commissioned by the 
 Governor. The justices of the Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions of the 
 Peace in each county be elected by the suffrages of the people of said counties. 
 That no person, unless of the Protestant religion, shall be Governor, Lieu- 
 tenant-governor, or member of the Council or the House of Representatives. 
 
 The said Bill of Rights and Constitution you will move may be printed, 
 and sent abroad for the approbation of the people of this State at large, and 
 that each town be requested by said convention to show their approbation 
 or disapprobation of every paragraph in said Bill of Rights and Constitution, 
 and that it be not sent abroad for their approbation or disapprobation in 
 the lump ; and that the objectionable parts, if any such shall be, shall be 
 pointed out by each town. 
 
 You are not to dissolve the convention, but to adjourn from time to time, 
 as you shall find necessary, till said form of government is approved by the 
 majority of the people. 
 
 On the whole, we empower you to act agreeable to the dictates of your 
 own judgment after you have heard all the reasonings upon the various 
 subjects of disquisition, having an invariable respect to the true liberty and 
 real happiness of this State throughout all generations, any instructions 
 herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding. 
 
 THOMAS ALLEN, 
 
 ELI ROOT, 
 
 JAMES NOBLE, * Comnuttee. 
 
 Accepted. Attest: LEBBEUS BACKUS.. 
 
 ELI ROOT, Moderator.
 
 368 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 In the instructions as originally drawn, the delegate was au- 
 thorized to "consent that the supreme judges of the executive 
 courts should be nominated and chosen by the Governor, Council, 
 and House of Representatives" In the copy attested by the 
 moderator of the town-meeting, the italicized words are erased, 
 and with a "different ink, in a different handwriting, the follow- 
 ing are substituted : " Shall be elected by the suffrages of the 
 people at larger A similar change occurs in the clause regard- 
 ing the judges of the maritime courts, attorney-general, and the 
 high sheriffs. 
 
 These alterations were evidently made as amendments in town- 
 meeting, and indicate that even Mr. Allen was not so radical in 
 his democracy as the dominant sentiment of the town. Mr. 
 Rathbun, it will be observed, did not sign the report ; and it may 
 have been that the changes were made on his motion. * 
 
 It has been a mooted question whether slavery was abolished in 
 Massachusetts by the deliberate intention of the people when 
 voting for the Bill of Rights, or by a forced construction of that 
 instrument in the courts. Those who have followed the record of 
 Pittsfield will concede that one town at least meant the Bill of 
 Rights to be no empty declaration of abstract principles, but a living 
 law, requiring no legislative enactment to give it efficiency. Nor 
 is it less apparent that the people of that town not only under- 
 stood what they were doing when they cast their votes to ratify 
 the Bill of Rights, but that they well knew, and clearly said 
 what they intended to say, when they instructed their delegate 
 to endeavor that it should be inserted among its prohibitions of 
 wrong "that no man can be deprived of liberty, and subjected 
 to perpetual bondage and servitude, unless he has forfeited his 
 liberty as a malefactor? Side by side with the God-given rights 
 which they claimed for themselves, they placed their demand 
 for universal freedom as equally the birthright of every human 
 being. 2 
 
 1 A comparison of this paper with the Constitution of 1780, and the papers 
 regarding it in the works of John Adams, will senre to give a correct idea of its 
 character. 
 
 2 The homogeneous sentiment, which the reader will have observed in the pre- 
 vious story as characterizing Berkshire, leaves no room to doubt, that, as regards 
 the exclusion of slavery, the desire of all its towns was similar to that of Pittsfield. 
 In the case of Stockbridge, we believe, there is direct evidence that it was so.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 369 
 
 The clause in relation to religious liberty was far in advance 
 of the article upon that subject which was actually inserted in the 
 Bill of Rights, and of that proposed by Mr. Adams as well. It 
 may reasonably be held to cover even that complete separation 
 of church and state which was not attained until the abolition 
 of taxation for the support of religious worship in 1834 ; for we 
 may reasonably interpret the abstract declaration of 1779 in the 
 light of the following extract from a letter which Mr. Allen wrote 
 to the town in 1783, upon learning that a minority were dissatis- 
 fied with an increase, which, on account of the depreciation of the 
 currency, had been voted to his salary : 
 
 " Having been made acquainted by several persons that the above-men- 
 tioned grant has occasioned uneasiness and dissatisfaction in the minds of 
 some persons, I db hereby release the town from their vote ; it never having 
 been my intention to be supported in my office by compulsion. I wish for 
 no other support than is freely granted, nor do I mean to continue any longer 
 in office than I can obtain such support." 
 
 We have few means of ascertaining what influence the town, 
 by its action, had in securing the provisions which it desired, and 
 which were finally placed in the Constitution. 
 
 The convention met on the 1st of September; and, on the 6th, 
 Col. Williams wrote to his wife that between two and three hun- 
 dred delegates had arrived, " making a much more respectable 
 body than he was apprehensive could be collected in the State." 
 Before he closed his letter, the convention, "having chosen a grand 
 committee to form a bill of rights and a constitution," adjourned 
 to await their report. He was uncertain whether he should him- 
 self visit home in the interval, but directed his wife to inform Mr. 
 Allen and Capt. Root of the contents of his letter, and request 
 them to write him. 
 
 Mr. Allen was thus cognizant of the position of affairs in the 
 convention as well as of the names of the committee, which Col. 
 Williams had enclosed ; and it is hardly conceivable that neither 
 he nor Col. Williams, nervously anxious as both were upon the 
 subject, placed at least the substance of the town's instructions in 
 the hands of the committee, or of John Adams, who was commis- 
 sioned by his associates to prepare the first draft of their work. 
 
 The Bill of Rights and Constitution prepared by the conven- 
 tion were established by the people in May, 1780. 
 
 24
 
 370 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 The vote of Pittsfield in its favor was apparently unopposed 
 and unabimous ; although some of the provisions which it con- 
 tained were at variance with the preconceived notions of its 
 people. 
 
 The desire which they had expressed that the proposed form 
 of government should be submitted to them " article by article, 
 and not in the lump," was prompted by the fear of some such in- 
 congruous creation as that of 1777 ; and they must have seen, that, 
 e.ven if practicable, it would have been out of place to subject to 
 such a process of revision as was requested the well-balanced 
 production of 1780, which was prepared with all the skill of a 
 profound and learned student of government, and from which one 
 of the parts ignorantly torn away would have been very likely 
 to impair the soundness of all. 
 
 This was so self-evident as not to be questioned ; and, the State 
 government being thus fixed upon the sure foundation which they 
 had so assiduously sought, the majority of the citizens of Pittsfield, 
 ever after even when the Shays Rebellion agitated the western 
 counties were content to seek the reforms which remained to 
 be effected in the laws through the channels provided by the 
 Constitution. 
 
 In addition to the controversy which has been sketched between 
 the General Court and the dominant party in Berkshire, regarding 
 the measures which the latter adopted as a protest against the base- 
 less government set up in the State, and as the means of securing a 
 constituent law, a bitter and wordy dispute was carried on in the 
 newspapers ; poor Mr. Watson, of " The Hartford Courant," being 
 specially afflicted with the communications on both sides. And, 
 as usually happens in acrimonious political conflicts, each party 
 grossly misrepresented and maligned the other. On the one hand, 
 although among those who favored a recognition of the obnoxious 
 government, and the admission of the courts, there were some of 
 the truest patriots in Berkshire, on whom not the shadow of sus- 
 picion of treachery to the American cause could justly have rested, 
 yet they were indiscriminately posted in the public prints, and 
 charged by the public action of the towns, as " enemies of their 
 country," in precisely the same phraseology that was used concerning 
 the Tories. One not acquainted with the facts would infer 'from 
 the record, that Capt. Charles Goodrich, for example, was, in the 
 opinion of his townsmen, false to the Revolutionary cause ; while, 
 in fact, it had no more sincere supporter.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 371 
 
 There was, however, something to give color of reason to this 
 misconception, in the fact that the Tories of Pittsfield, almost with- 
 out exception, favored the restoration of the courts under the old 
 system, and the recognition of the State government as legitimate, 
 reserving the rights of the king. The polemical skill, the 
 talent, and the style of Woodbridge Little are unmistakable in the 
 ablest papers on the side of the non-constitutionalists. It was 
 truly said, too, that Goodrich " consorted with the most ancient 
 and implacable Tories of the town;" and, although it was only 
 one of the strange combinations which are often effected in poli- 
 tics, its influence against him at the time was irresistible. And so, 
 on the other hand, phases in the conduct and measures of the con- 
 stitutionalists favored the assertion of their enemies, that they 
 were a set of violent, turbulent, and dishonest fellows, who only 
 desired to suppress the courts, lest they might be brought to 
 account for their misdeeds, and be compelled to pay their honest 
 debts. 
 
 So effectually, indeed, did the newspaper libellers affix this 
 stigma to the rejection of civil administration in Berkshire, that it 
 has not even yet been removed. 
 
 And yet, surely, love of license, and the hope of avoiding just 
 responsibilities, never inspired such consistent devotion to consti- 
 tutional law as the Berkshire fathers constantly manifested ; never 
 surely, before or since, were a people educated by the harangues 
 of demagogues, and appeals to passion or selfish interests, up to 
 the comprehension of, and desire for, the establishment of such 
 principles of government as Pittsfield instructed Col. Williams to 
 advocate in the convention of 1779. Tried by the decisive test 
 of its effect upon the intellectual character of the people, the 
 agitation of 1775-80 stands fully justified. 
 
 In argument and action, the Berkshire constitutionalists were 
 better able to cope with their antagonists than in the arts of 
 detraction. In the beginning, we saw them yielding to the 
 apprehensions of their representatives in Congress their own 
 convictions that a new form of government ought at once to be 
 established ; thus proving their subordination of local feeling to 
 the general good. Roused by the selfish appropriation of official 
 patronage in the General Court of 1775 to a new perception of 
 the evils inseparable from unrestricted power, as well in the hands 
 of elected representatives as of anointed kings, and the
 
 372 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 jealousy which forbade free action to Massachusetts being allayed, 
 they renewed their demand for a fundamental law. To the 
 suggestion that the opportunity annually to change their represent- 
 atives ought to satisfy them, they replied, in substance, " What we 
 crave is not the privilege of changing masters. Some of the 
 powers inherent in the people we do not choose to delegate ; some 
 we would intrust, with carefully-guarded restrictions, to our repre- 
 sentatives-; all we would have exercised by ourselves as well as 
 our deputies, in certain well-defined modes of operation, and in 
 accordance with a fundamental law solemnly agreed upon. That 
 is, we ask a constitution for the Commonwealth." Upon this simple 
 demand they rang the changes through six years of angry political 
 controversy. 
 
 Sorely pressed to forego this boon till a more convenient season, 
 they at last pledged themselves to yield for the time even to the 
 existing government, upon the single condition that it should first 
 be submitted to a vote of the people, so that their will might thus 
 be recognized as the proper source of all rightful authority. A 
 Constitution once established, it received their fullest allegiance. 
 
 * o 
 
 From first to last there was nothing factious in their conduct. 
 
 For many things they expressed desire as component parts of 
 the frame of government; but upon one only they insisted, and 
 that was a distinct recognition of the people's right to model and 
 remodel their institutions as they saw cause. 
 
 It was urged upon them, that their uncompromising demand 
 for this disturbed the harmony which, while the war lasted, ought 
 to be preserved in the patriotic ranks. Their reply was, that, if 
 they were to be the subjects of arbitrary power, it mattered little 
 whether its seat were in London or Boston, and that, if the gov- 
 ernment now set up were once quietly "permitted to take place," 
 it would be very difficult ever after to shake it off. The example of 
 Connecticut, and still more emphatically that of Rhode Island, 
 both which States retained charters far more liberal than that 
 of Massachusetts as the bases of their independent govern- 
 ments, show how just was that apprehension. Nor was there 
 really much in the turmoil of the times to defer the task of fram- 
 ing and adopting a new form of government. The most perfect 
 charters of freedom so cunningly devised that tyranny cannot 
 reach its victims without entirely setting them aside were the 
 work of disturbed eras. Magna Charta was not the child of
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 373 
 
 Peace, nor was the Habeas Corpus act. Trial by jury dates back 
 to an age of perpetual war. The Declaration of American Inde- 
 pendence was born of conflict ; and the Constitution of Massa- 
 chusetts, providing for the most complex relations of people and 
 government, was none the less wisely constructed, that it was finally 
 framed while war gave strength and tone to men's minds. Is it 
 too much to claim that the Berkshire constitutionalists were wiser 
 than their generation in their strenuous opposition to " the inter- 
 ests which had grown up in the State adverse to any more per- 
 manent form of government" than consorted with the small 
 ambitions of the magisterial class ?
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE BERKSHIRE CONSTITUTIONALISTS. COMMITTEE GOVERNMENT 
 OF THE INTERREGNUM. 
 
 [1774-1780.] 
 
 Committees of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety. Their Character and 
 Origin. Subordinated in 1776 to the Courts of Law. The Berkshire Com- 
 mittees refuse Submission. Their Administration of Justice. Curious Sur- 
 veillance of Morals and Manners. Town Court established. Its Rules of 
 Practice and Fee-Table. Discipline of Capt. Goodrich by the Committee. 
 He appeals to the Legislature. Details of the Case. 
 
 ONLY brief allusion has been made in the foregoing chapters 
 to the substitutes adopted in Pittsfield for the suppressed 
 courts of law ; but the reader will curiously inquire how, when 
 the ordinary machinery of government was obstructed, " tolerable 
 order was maintained." 
 
 It so happened that Massachusetts had retained, through all 
 changes in her condition, what to her was of more worth than 
 royal charters, her system of town governments, each so com- 
 plete within itself, that, in the lapse of exterior authority, it lacked 
 little to become a perfect State ; and each with citizens so accus- 
 tomed to the conduct of public affairs, that they were capable of 
 meeting whatever responsibilities were thrown upon them. 
 
 When, therefore, in 1774, the judicial system of the Province 
 was broken up, the towns found little difficulty in assuming so 
 much of its authority as the public necessity required should not 
 utterly fail ; resorting, in the absence of precedent, to divers plans 
 for the proper execution of the duties newly devolved upon them. 
 Occasionally the people, in town-meeting assembled, adjudicated 
 directly upon matters brought before them. Sometimes they 
 erected special tribunals ; as in Attleborough, where the old Provin- 
 
 374
 
 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 375 
 
 cial fabric was imitated in miniature, with a superior court of four 
 judges, and an inferior court of seven. But generally and in 
 Berkshire County universally the improvised machinery of jus- 
 tice was much less complex ; its entire powers being vested in the 
 committees of inspection, with the occasional aid of a board of arbi- 
 trators, such as, immediately after the first suppression of the 
 courts, was appointed in Pittsfield, and of which an account was 
 given in the proper connection. 
 
 It must not, however, be supposed that the committee rule was 
 formally devised, adopted, and organized as a substitute for the 
 courts and magistracy. It was an outgrowth, developed little by 
 little by the necessities of the times, from the New-England prac- 
 tice of placing every public business in the hands of a commis- 
 sion. 
 
 Under the different organizations known as committees of cor- 
 respondence, inspection, and safety, it had played an important 
 part in securing unity and vigor in the initiatory stages of the 
 Revolution; and the powers recognized in those bodies by the State 
 and Continental governments were formidable and extensive. Pre- 
 cisely what they were, we are informed by a report to the General 
 Court in October, 1776. According to this paper, 1 the committees, 
 originally existing by sufferance, acted upon their own discretion 
 until the resolves of Congress, directed to them, 2 confirmed and in 
 some measure defined their powers; but they continued to " act dis- 
 cretionally " when the resolves were not to be procured, or did not 
 meet the case in hand. Originally the province of the committees of 
 correspondence was, by the interchange of letters and the speedy 
 communication of information, to apprise the community of dan- 
 gers, and to concert measures for the public good, expose the 
 designs of the enemies of liberty to public execration, and incite 
 opposition to them. The committees of inspection took cognizance 
 of unpatriotic importations of British goods, exerted themselves 
 to suppress the sale of tea, and generally exposed and reprehended 
 violations of the non-importation association, and denounced all 
 acts detrimental to the common interests. The committees of 
 safety were instituted to concert measures for the public safety of 
 their respective towns, and the general safety of the community ; 
 " taking cognizance of measures afterwards taken up by Congress 
 
 1 Mass. Ar., vol. cxxxvii. p. 118. 
 
 2 The Resolves of Association, directed to the committees of inspection.
 
 376 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 as well of lesser matters relative to internal police at a time when 
 prostrate law gave no remedy against disorder and confusion." 
 
 " These," says the report, " were the powers these several com- 
 mittees had at their institution, although they afterwards received 
 the sanction of the highest authority." 
 
 It will be perceived, that, in many particulars, the powers and 
 duties of the three classes of committee were identical ; and on 
 the 13th of October, 1775, they were consolidated in one, by an 
 act of the General Court, directing each town, at its annual election, 
 to choose " a committee of correspondence, inspection, and safety 
 for the especial purpose of attending to the general and political 
 interests of the Colonies; to transmit intelligence to committees of 
 the same denomination in other towns and counties, to the Gen- 
 eral Court and the Council, as they might deem expedient ; to in- 
 spect the conduct of any inhabitants or residents in their respective 
 towns or districts violating the Continental association, the resolves, 
 directions, or recommendations of Congress, the acts or resolves of 
 the General Court, or the proceedings of former Congresses of this 
 Colony, respecting the struggle with Great Britain ; to proceed 
 according to the direction of Congress, and the laws and resolves 
 of this Colony in such cases made and provided ; to inform the Gen- 
 eral Court or the Council of all breaches of trust in the officers of 
 state and other servants of the Colony ; to use their influence in 
 promoting peace and harmony ; and, finally, to execute any order 
 and resolves of this Court to them directed." 
 
 On the 6th of October, the Continental Congress, addressing the 
 committees of inspection, empowered them to arrest and secure 
 every person in their opinion endangering their Colony or the lib- 
 erties of America. 
 
 On the 19th of August, 1776, the committees were directed by 
 the General Court, 
 
 " To take possession of the personal and real estate of persons who had, 
 in their opinion, fled to Boston when in the possession of Gen. Gage in 
 the late times of trouble, to secure themselves, or have joined our enemies, 
 or have withdrawn themselves out of the country with a view to aid their 
 despotic measures ; to take and let out such estates for one year, making an 
 inventory of the personal property, and returning it with the rent of the real 
 estate to the General Court; and to return a list of addressers, associates, and 
 other unfriendly persons ; and also the names and crimes of those who have 
 fled to the British fleet or army, together with the evidence of facts against 
 such persons, unless they have given proof of contrition, and made satisfac- 
 tion to the public."
 
 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 377 
 
 Afterwards, the Court empowered the committees to " send for, 
 examine," and at their discretion cite, any person before a court of 
 inquiry, and to prosecute their complaints to final judgment and 
 execution. 
 
 By several resolves they were empowered " to call together regi- 
 mental and alarm lists, and the train-bands of their respective 
 towns, and, as some think, to execute law martial, while others 
 think these resolves give no power to draft men, and refuse service 
 under them." 
 
 The General Court also directed the committees to enforce the 
 Test Act, the embargo on provisions, and similar laws ; empowered 
 them to remove stock, grain, and meal from exposed places, to 
 return the names of persons skilled in making "flynts," and to 
 regulate the price of salt. 
 
 In August, 1776, they were authorized by the Council to 
 see that prisoners of war were kept within the limits assigned 
 them, to supervise their conduct in general, and if they were 
 found strolling, were refractory, or refused to work, to confine them 
 in jail. In the same month, the Council exhorted them to exert 
 themselves in executing the laws and orders concerning the Tories; 
 and, about the same time, Congress enacted that none might disci- 
 pline Tories or persons unfriendly to liberty, except by order of 
 Congress, the General Assembly, Convention, Council of Safety of 
 the Colony, or the committee of inspection of the district where 
 they resided. 
 
 The authors of the report, apparently somewhat startled by the 
 magnitude of the powers which had accumulated in the committees, 
 personal liberty, property, and perhaps even life itself, having 
 been placed in their hands, naturally urged that the most discreet 
 prudent, and firm persons should be preferred to an office so liable 
 to abuse, and of such vast importance if rightly administered. 
 And as the General Court, being practically the only tribunal of 
 appeal from the action of the committees, l was flooded with peti- 
 tions for redress, an enactment was recommended, authorizing an 
 appeal with proper provisions for the immediate safety of 
 public interests to the Court of General Sessions, as well to 
 relieve the General Court from business more properly belonging 
 
 1 The action of the committees rarely differed from what the public sentiment 
 of their respective towns approved ; and an appeal from one to the other was not 
 likely to secure any very valuable result to the appellant.
 
 378 HISTOBY OP PITTSFIELD. 
 
 elsewhere as to provide a more easy and summary method of 
 attaining the ends of justice. 
 
 In those counties where the authority of the General Court was 
 fully admitted, the committees were thus brought into subordina- 
 tion to the ordinary courts of law, and, although an extraordinary, 
 were not an inharmonious portion of the judicial system. 
 
 In Berkshire, also, the committees zealously executed the rules 
 and orders which have been quoted, kept faithful watch and ward 
 against both the internal and external enemies of their country, and 
 rendered the best aid they could give in the collection of the taxes 
 levied by the State. But, while they accepted and faithfully per- 
 formed the duties assigned them by Congress and the General 
 Court, they held that their powers were derived from a higher 
 source, and exercised them as well in resisting the authority of the 
 General Court when it conflicted with their paramount allegiance 
 to the little town democracies, or to the county congresses when 
 the towns consented to delegate their sovereignty to those assem- 
 blies. Under the commission of the town meetings, the com- 
 mittees continued until 1780 to exercise the jurisdiction which 
 had been instituted to meet the necessities of 1774, in maintaining 
 public order and restraining crimes and misdemeanors, as well as 
 in guarding against and punishing the political offences of the par- 
 tisans either of the king or of the non-constitutional civil adminis- 
 tration of the State. 
 
 All the functions of the Court of General Sessions fell to the 
 committees, except the control of such matters the granting of 
 licenses, laying-out of highways, and the like as are now intrust- 
 ed to the county commissioners ; these latter the towns managed 
 like ordinary municipal affairs. 
 
 It appears, also, that the committees " interfered " in civil cases 
 which in ordinary times would have gone to the Common Pleas; 
 for in 1776 the town, offended with Capt. Charles Goodrich for his 
 adhesion to the obnoxious State government, instructed them not 
 only not to take into consideration the action brought by him 
 against certain young men for taking " waterrnillions " in 1774, but 
 also "not to intermeddle in the affair between him and Ezra 
 Strong relative to their water-mill." 1 
 
 1 The suit of Charles Goodrich against Ezra Strong, John Strong, and War- 
 ham Strong, in a plea wherein the said Goodrich demands one-quarter of a corn- 
 mill standing on a stream of water which runs from the farm of said Ezra, was the
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 379 
 
 "We have also the evidence, to the same effect, of Hon. Timothy 
 Woodbriclge, who, in his memorial of 1776, pointedly, and no 
 doubt with truth, alleged that " the committees assumed to them- 
 selves jurisdiction in civil as well as criminal cases." 
 
 The committee alluded to in the Goodrich case was probably the 
 board of arbitrators before mentioned. How long that board con- 
 tinued in existence we are not informed. 
 
 There is nothing, however, to show by what process civil cases 
 were brought before the Pittsfield committees, nor by what rules 
 of practice, or formalities of any kind, it guarded the exercise of 
 its functions as a court of civil jurisdiction. And there is little to 
 idicate of what classes of suits it consented to take cognizance, or 
 whether it refused its intervention in any, save when the parties 
 had outlawed themselves by adherence to the king, or by siding 
 with the State against the committees. The Goodrich case, before 
 cited, shows that refusal of protection in person or property was 
 considered a legitimate mode of punishing political maleficence. 1 
 Protection to the rights of property, and the enforcement of the 
 obligations of contracts, must have forced themselves upon the 
 attention of the Revolutionary committees, as duties inevitably 
 devolving upon those who seized the reins of government, and 
 only to be postponed while the suspension of the courts was 
 expected to be of brief duration. They did not, nevertheless, so 
 far as we have information, take it upon themselves, like the Courts 
 of Common Pleas, to compel the performance of obligations 
 between man and man as such ; but punished their violations as 
 misdemeanors detrimental to the public interests, with whose care 
 they were charged. 
 
 Obloquy would have surely fallen, both upon the obstruction of 
 the courts and upon the party by which they were obstructed, 
 if any had been permitted to pervert that measure to ends 
 obviously selfish and unjust; and he who attempted to do so ren- 
 dered himself amenable to the inspection of the committees. 
 
 With this view of their duties, these tribunals would aim at sub- 
 second on the docket at the re-opening of the Court of Common Pleas ; the plain- 
 tiff being one of the judges, although, of course, not sitting when he was a party 
 in the case. The jury found for Goodrich, and the Strongs appealed ; but, appar- 
 ently, the appeal was not sustained, as the case does not again appear on the Com- 
 mon Pleas docket. 
 
 1 Outlawry, it must be remembered, was then, and is still, a part of the pun- 
 ishment of treason under British law.
 
 380 HISTOKY OP PITTSFIELD. 
 
 stantial justice, or what would seem such to the popular judgment, 
 rather than at ,a strict application of the law to the evidence. 
 Thus they would aid in the collection of debts which they con- 
 sidered honestly due, when the debtor was able to makCpayment, 
 and the creditor had not outlawed himself as a public enemy. 
 
 It is very easy to see that a substitute for courts of law so loose 
 as this was, even in the hands of well-meaning men, liable to be 
 made the instrument of gross injustice, and sure to create uncer- 
 tainty and confusion in business relations. That it was so in Berk- 
 shire was confessed in the address to the superior judges, written 
 by Mr. Allen, and adopted by the county convention of 1779, in 
 which it is said, " We always had a sense of the necessity of law, 
 especially in times of war: we feel the want of a due exercise of 
 it, and in many instances the sad effects of not enjoying it." The 
 fathers of Berkshire were by no means insensible to nor unregret- 
 ful of the evils which they consented to endure rather than sub- 
 mit to the permanent establishment of a government without basis 
 or limitation. 
 
 In its oversight of misdemeanors and mi nor morals, the Pittsfield 
 Committee rule does not seem to have fallen at all short of the 
 General Sessions and magistracy of earlier times. The town, 
 indeed, through this and other agencies, kept rather a more strin- 
 gent watch and ward than ever, both over its own citizens and the 
 stranger that dwelt within its gates. In March, 1777, it ordered 
 that " persons sixteen years old and over, who profaned the sab- 
 bath day by behaving indecently in the house of God in time of 
 public worship, or otherwhere out of doors, should be by the tith- 
 ing-man, or any other informing officer finding them so doing, 
 consented before proper authority for trial, and punishment if 
 found guilty." Children under sixteen, offending in the same way, 
 were to be brought into the " broad alley," and there kept until 
 the close of divine service. In addition to this, Rev. Mr. Allen 
 was " desired by the town to speak aloud to such persons as should 
 be found disorderly or asleep in the time of divine service on the 
 sabbath day, and reprimand them for the same." 
 
 On the 12th of August, in the same year, it was voted, " that the 
 practice of horse-racing is attended with many evil consequences, 
 is productive of much mischief, and is totally contrary to the sense 
 and approbation of this town ; and that all persons who shall 
 hereafter encourage, abet, or promote such evil practices shall not
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 381 
 
 only be held in contempt in this town, but have their names pub- 
 lished as persons counteracting and opposing the advice of the 
 Honorable Continental Congress." 1 
 
 The soldiers of Burgoyne's army, who, when taken prisoners, 
 were hired as laborers by the citizens, were also objects of the town's 
 solicitude ; and, in August of 1778, it was " ordered, that if any of 
 the foreign soldiers that are among us shall, after sunset, be seen 
 sixty rods from the houses in which they respectively dwell, they 
 shall be whipped at the discretion of the committee, and, upon a 
 repetition of the offence, be committed to the common jail ; " and 
 " all innkeepers were forbidden to permit the said people to tipple 
 in their houses, upon pain of the displeasure of the town." And 
 the displeasure of the town, as then visited upon the offender, was 
 not lightly to be challenged. 
 
 The judicial affairs of Pittsfield were thus administered until 
 October, 1778, when the county having, with unusual deliberation 
 and emphasis, again rejected the civil administration of the State, 
 a more formal establishment for the administration of justice, with 
 better-defined rules of practice, was deemed advisable ; and a tri- 
 bunal was established with all the powers of the old General Ses- 
 sions, Chief-Justice Williams of the suspended Court of Common 
 Pleas being placed at its head. The action of the town erecting 
 the new tribunal was so characteristic, that it is well to here insert 
 the record in full : 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 
 BERKSHIRE, ss. 
 
 Whereas the county of Berkshire, by a great majority of votes, have 
 refused the admission of the course of law in its usual form ; and whereas 
 disorders of various kinds increase and abound amongst us, and there being 
 no effectual way provided for the prevention thereof unless by the interven- 
 tion and exertions of particular towns ; and it being of the utmost impor- 
 tance that peace and good order be maintained and supported, it is by this 
 town resolved, 
 
 1st. That the Selectmen and Constables, tithingmen, and all town-officers 
 annually chosen by towns in the month of March, shall be upheld, supported, 
 and protected by this town in the due execution of their respective trusts as 
 by law prescribed and enjoined them. 
 
 1 At the time of the Revolution, some of the people of Pittsfield were addicted 
 to horse-racinj:, and had a course near the present Berkshire Pleasure Park. It 
 was suppressed in accordance with the Continental Articles of Association, but was 
 revived and flourished after peace was restored.
 
 382 HISTORY OP PITTSFIELD. 
 
 2d. That Col. William Williams, Dea. Josiah Wright, Capt. Eli Root, 
 Capt. William Francis, and William Barber, be a committee, under oath to be 
 administered by the town clerk, to hear and determine all breaches of peace 
 and misdemeanors which, by the laws of this State now enacted and made 
 cognizable by a justice of the peace or two justices {quorum wnws), or by the 
 the Court of General Sessions in all those cases where an appeal was by 
 said laws the right of the defendant hi the manner hereafter mentioned, to 
 wit : in all cases where a justice of the peace by the law had the sole and 
 final determination of the cause, the said committee to have the same power ; 
 and, in all cases where an appeal by law was grantable, the- second and final 
 trial to be by a jury of six men, if requested by the defendant. The determi- 
 nation of said jury shall be final and conclusive ; which jury shall be formed 
 and impanelled in this manner : 
 
 The committee to nominate twelve men, being freeholders in this town, 
 and the defendant twelve more ; out of which number, six are to be drawn by 
 the constable if present, or, in his absence, by such person as the committee 
 shall appoint for the purpose. And, in case any person so nominated and 
 drawn shall neglect or not be able to serve, the constable, or such person as 
 shall be appointed by the committee, shall return a sufficient number of the 
 bystanders to make up such deficiency. 
 
 3d. That any one of the committee be empowered to administer <^aths to 
 all witnesses who shall be called before them, in the usual form, and also to 
 administer the following oath to the jurors who may attend upon any trial as 
 afore mentioned, to wit : 
 
 " You shall well and truly try, and true deliverance make between the 
 people and prisoner now upon trial. So help you God." 
 
 4th. Whereas, the case of bastardy may be considered by the committee 
 as cognizable by them by virtue of the second resolve, and as this case is ex- 
 empt and distinct from all the cases which may come before them, it is voted, 
 that the committee use their best discretion in all matters of this sort as the 
 circumstances of the case may require. 
 
 5th. That, in all cases where by law fines and mulcts are to be inflicted for 
 any offence, the said committee impose and order such fines to be paid, mak- 
 ing the common and usual discount betwixt money as it now passes, and as 
 it formerly passed, or as it may be at the time of trial ; and that, in all cases 
 where imprisonment is by law the punishment to be inflicted for any offence, 
 the committee be empowered to inflict corporeal punishment according to the 
 nature -of the offence, not exceeding thirty-nine stripes for any offence. 
 
 6th. That the constable or constables for the time being shall serve 
 and execute all warrants and processes of said committee or of either of them, 
 and make due return thereof, and observe and obey all such orders as from 
 tune to time they shall receive from the said 'committee. 
 
 7th. That the said committee have power to appoint a clerk to attend 
 them, and keep fair records of all their proceedings.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 383 
 
 8th. That all retailers of spirituous liquors and all innholders be appro- 
 bated by the selectmen of the town and licensed by the committee, and that 
 no persons be authorized or qualified to be retailers or innholders unless so 
 approbated and licensed. 
 
 9th. That all fines arising in consequence of the foregoing resolves shall 
 be paid into the treasury of the town for the use of the town. 
 
 10th. That this town will support and uphold the committee above named 
 in the due execution of the trust committed to them by the foregoing articles 
 and resolves. 
 
 llth. That when any person shall be found guilty of any offence, and shall 
 not forthwith, after the conviction and sentence, pay the charges and costs aris- 
 ing upon his trial such as shall be taxed by the committee agreeable to the 
 rule hereafter given, the constable, by virtue of a warrant from the committee 
 for that purpose, shall take and sell at a public vendue so much of his personal 
 effects as shall be sufficient to defray said costs, and costs of sale, returning 
 the overplus, if any there be, to the defendant ; and, in case the defendant 
 hath not estate wherewith to pay and defray such costs, he shall be disposed 
 of in service for the payment of the same. 
 
 1 2th. That when it shall appear to the committee that any person com- 
 mences a vexatious and malicious prosecution against another, and shall fail 
 in supporting the same, he shall be liable to pay costs as aforesaid, and to be 
 recovered in the manner above prescribed. 
 
 13th. That the committee above named exercise the power and authority 
 wherewith they are hereby invested until the next March meeting, or until 
 others shall be chosen in their room. 
 
 14th. That three of the foregoing committee shall be a quorum, and 
 that no defendant shall in his bill of charge be feed for the attendance of 
 any greater number. 
 
 A table of costs to be taxed by the committee in such cases as may come 
 before them : 
 
 The committee each per day 11. 4s. Qd. 
 
 Warrant 060 
 
 Summons for witnesses . . . . . . 030 
 
 Summons for jurors 040 
 
 Clerk's attendance per day . . . . . 040 
 
 Writ or warrant of execution . . . . 060 
 
 Constable fees, 
 
 Service of a warrant 030 
 
 Summons 020 
 
 Travel from defendant's place of abode to the place 
 
 of trial, per mile 010 
 
 Attendance on a trial per day . . . . 18 
 
 Constable's necessary assistants per day . . . 0180
 
 384 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Jurors each per day OZ. 18s. Qd. 
 
 Witnesses' travel per mile 1 
 
 Attendance per day 0180 
 
 Accepted, 
 
 WILLIAM WILLIAMS, Per Order. 
 
 At a legal adjourned meeting of the freeholders and other inhabitants of 
 the town of Pittsfield, qualified to vote in town affairs, at the meeting-house 
 in said town, on the nineteenth day of October, 1778, the foregoing resolves 
 
 were read and accepted. 
 
 Attest : JOSIAH WRIGHT, Moderator. 
 
 CALEB STANLEY, Town Clerk. 
 
 We have no information of any cases tried in the town court 
 established by the foregoing action ; but of the previous doings of 
 the committee several instances are more or less fully recorded, 
 some of which, in regard to the Tories, are related in connection 
 with their story. 
 
 But the most remarkable case was the attempt of the town to 
 discipline Capt. Charles Goodrich for opposition to its policy in the 
 matter of the State government. The election of this gentleman 
 in 1775 to the General Court, where he was one of those careful 
 to secure their own appointment to civil office, has already been 
 mentioned. Capt. Israel Dickinson, elected high sheriff at the 
 same time, declined to serve in opposition to the will of the people, 
 and received their favor ; but Goodrich, who was elevated to the 
 populous bench of the General Sessions, clung to his commission, 
 although the court was not permitted to sit. The consequence 
 was, that in June, 1776, the town forbade him longer to represent 
 them ; to which he, paid no attention. In February, they made 
 against him the mild decree of outlawry, in connection with his 
 lawsuits already alluded to ; and, in May, they expressed by resolu- 
 tion their opposition to his " sustaining a civil commission," and 
 instructed their committee to petition the General Court that the 
 people might have the right of nomination, i.e., the right to 
 choose their own magistrates. 
 
 Thus far the town record : but, at the September session of the 
 Court, Capt. Goodrich presented a memorial, in which he related 
 the story of his wrongs so piteously that they might have moved 
 hearts less disposed to sympathy than those to which he appealed ; 
 declaring, that, on the 25th of March, the town committee 
 assumed the power to hear, judge, and assess both private and
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 385 
 
 public damages against him, for defending himself with blows 
 when previously assaulted by one James Morey, who was proba- 
 bly engaged in executing some process of the committee, and 
 that, in the course of the affair, he 'was forcibly dragged out of his 
 house, and carried, late at night, before the committees, by a num- 
 ber of men claiming to act under their authority, and there 
 detained until he gave a written agreement to pay the adjudged 
 damages and costs ; that, upon a late raising of every twenty-fifth 
 man, he was informed, by report only, that he was ordered by the 
 commissioned officers of Pittsfield either to serve as a drafted man 
 or furnish a substitute ; and that afterwards, being cited to appear 
 before the committee to answer to a complaint not specified, he 
 neglected to do so, supposing himself not bound thereto either in 
 law, equity, or common prudence ; whereupon he found his name 
 included in a list given to John Graves, a notorious Tory, as 
 one of those persons inimical to his country, with whom he was 
 forbidden to hold intercourse ; and also published, with a similar 
 charge, in " The Hartford Courant" of Sept. 2,.1776. 
 
 Capt. Goodrich did not directly ask for redress in the matter of 
 the costs and damages, but stated, that, in the publications named, 
 his character had been " maliciously stabbed," and would suffer, 
 until an impartial hearing could be had; and, the civil affairs 
 of the county being so nearly in a state of nature that he could 
 not then have such protection as society was instituted to give, he 
 prayed the interposition of the legislature. 
 
 The committee having made answer to this complaint, the Coun- 
 cil found that the principal reasons which they alleged for their 
 proceedings against the memorialist were, that " he had procured 
 himself a commission, in the king's name, to exercise authority 
 over the people as a justice of the peace," which they seem to have 
 considered as " submitting to the British authority ; " his not pay- 
 ing proper attention when he was drafted in the alarm-list to serve 
 in the expedition against Canada ; and his having "joined himself 
 with the most ancient Tories and implacable enemies among us." 
 
 This may have been a candid synopsis of the response from 
 Pittsfield ; but we cannot help regretting that the paper had not 
 been preserved in full, so that we might have seen precisely how 
 the committee put its defence, since it probably relied upon argu- 
 ments which the Council were fain to consider foreign to the pur- 
 pose. Their Honors, however, who may almost be regarded as 
 25
 
 386 HISTOBY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 judging their own case in that of their appointee, found that 
 "Capt. Goodrich received his commission as justice from the 
 major part of the Council, of such a tenor and form as they judged 
 it proper to adopt, and such, as far as they could learn, as was agree- 
 able to the practice of the other colonies, and agreeable to the sen- 
 timents of Congress ; and that the committee, therefore, in exhibit- 
 ing this charge, discovered an entire ignorance of their line of duty, 
 and great indecency towards the constituted authorities of the 
 State." 
 
 With regard to the second charge, the Council excused Capt. 
 Goodrich on the ground that he " did not consider himself liable 
 to draft under the law ; " and- they declared the allegation that he 
 consorted with Tories too general and unsupported by evidence to 
 merit attention. And finally they resolved, with the concurrence 
 of the House, " that Charles Goodrich, Esq., ought not to be stig- 
 matized as an enemy to his country ; but that, on the other hand, 
 we consider him a friend to the rights of mankind, and the grand 
 cause in which thege United States are at present engaged." 
 
 This result was a natural one, as the judges were the very 
 power for sustaining whose rightfulness Capt. Goodrich suffered ; 
 and the justice of their conclusion, regarded from their stand-point, 
 was indisputable. Nor will any one at this day be inclined to 
 doubt the sincere patriotism of the accused. We need not again 
 recapitulate the reasons which inclined the Berkshire constitution- 
 alists to place a different estimate upon his character. Political 
 rancor, and perhaps personal dislike as well, gave them a weight 
 which the calmness of after years denies. 
 
 If the action of the General Court had any effect in Pittsfield, it 
 certainly was not in the direction of favor to their client : for on the 
 15th of October, in defiance of the legislative decision in the pre- 
 vious month, Capt. Goodrich was again summoned to attend the 
 town meeting ; and, not responding, six men were sent to " desire 
 him to come, and, should he still refuse, to bring him forth." 
 What the success of this expedition was, is not related. Very 
 likely the stout-hearted old pioneer, who in the French war had 
 transformed his house into a castle, now made his defence so for- 
 midable as to suggest delay in " bringing him forth." The meet- 
 ing ordered a guard at his residence that night, and, after thanking 
 the gentlemen from Lenox the committee of that town for 
 their attendance, adjourned to the 19th. No mention is made of
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 387 
 
 the presence of the defendant on 'that day; but the witnesses were 
 examined, and it was resolved, " that it appeared from their evi- 
 dence, that Capt. Goodrich, in his late conduct, had acted inimical 
 to the cause of these States." 
 
 An " advertisement " was offered by the committee, and approved 
 by the town. And thus the quarrel continued to be waged in " The 
 Hartford Courant ; " for the assailed was not one to suffer in 
 silence what he considered a wrong. 
 
 But at Christmas, 1778, the lucky thought inspired, perhaps, 
 by the season consecrated to peace on earth and good will among 
 men occurred to some sensible fellow to get the controversy ter- 
 minated by arbitration. On the 1st of January, 1779, the plan 
 was adopted, and the following gentlemen, all eminent for integrity 
 and good sense, were selected as referees : Col. Job S afford of 
 Cheshire, Col. William Whiting of Great Barrington, and Gen. 
 John Fellows of Sheffield ; with James Harris, Esq., of Lanes- 
 borough, to fill the place of either of those first named who might 
 fail to serve. 
 
 One of the conditions of the reference was, that the party which 
 was found to have wronged the other should pay the costs of 
 arbitration. 
 
 The arbitrators met at Col. Easton's tavern on the 8th of January ; 
 all the gentlemen named, including Mr. Harris, being present. 
 Valentine Rathbun, Capt. James Noble, and Deacon Josiah 
 Wright managed the case for the town. "After due investiga- 
 tion," says the award, it was decided that the parties had mutu- 
 ally wronged each other ; but that as, on the whole, Capt. Goodrich 
 had been the worst aggressor, he should be adjudged to pay the 
 entire costs, which were taxed at 35. 9s. 6<#." This decision practi- 
 cally recognized the rightfulness of the Berkshire opposition to the 
 existing State government ; for otherwise Capt. Goodrich would 
 have been entirely justified, the town entirely in the wrong. 
 While admitting the right of the county to oppose the non-con- 
 stitutional civil administration, the coincident right to enforce that 
 opposition followed of necessity ; and the only ground of com- , 
 plaint which remained to Capt. Goodrich was the unjust imputation j 
 upon his character as a patriot. The publications on behalf of 
 the town in " The Hartford Courant," so far as they related to his 
 case, were not only unjust, but disingenuous, weak, and quibbling; 
 placing the defence of the committee's action upon the lack of
 
 388 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 unessential formalities on the parl of the legislature, and denying 
 statements which the writers well knew to be substantially correct, 
 because their allegations were made without technical precision. 
 The style of composition, the logic, and the spirit of the committee's 
 articles, all show that minds were engaged in the management of 
 the case of a very different cast from those whose arguments, 
 clearly stated, and founded upon great principles, have been quoted 
 in our discussion of the Berkshire troubles. 
 
 The result of the arbitration was acquiesced in by both parties, 
 apparently without objection; and the reconciliation which fol- 
 lowed was cordial. Capt. Goodrich received honorable trusts from 
 the next and following town meetings, and lived long, a respected 
 citizen of the town. From 1781 to 1788, he was a judge of the 
 county Court of Common Pleas. Thirty-three years after the 
 termination, in 1778, of his political vexations, he held the plough 
 at the first cattle-show of the Berkshire Agricultural Society. In 
 1815, he died at the age of ninety-six, and lies buried in the Pitts- 
 field cemetery.
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE SHAYS REBELLION. 
 1781-1786. 
 
 Its Causes.' Taxes. Private Debts. Harsh Laws and Customs. County 
 Conventions. Popular Outbreaks. Organized Rebellion. The Peculiar 
 Course of Berkshire County. Convention at Lenox. Courts obstructed at 
 Great Barrington. Gen. Lincoln establishes Headquarters at Pittsfield. 
 The Rebellion suppressed. 
 
 THE Constitution of 1780 was not permitted to have a fair trial 
 before it was assailed by an opposition which, in 1786, culmi- 
 nated in the Shays Rebellion, a popular convulsion which, 
 although some of its features gave it a vraisemblance to the Berk- 
 shire troubles of 1775-80, essentially differed from them in princi- 
 ple and character ; the earlier agitation having, in behalf of 
 constitutional liberty, resisted the imposition of a government 
 without basis or limitation, while the latter sought, by force of 
 arms, to reform real or supposed grievances, for which the Con- 
 stitution just established by the people provided a sufficient 
 remedy through ordinary legislation. 
 
 The one movement was an attempted imitation of the other by 
 men who entirely mistook its spirit and justification, or by dema- 
 gogues who took advantage of the ignorance of others. But the 
 resemblance of the two in some non-essentials, together with their 
 proximity in time, will only serve to throw into stronger relief 
 their intrinsic dissimilarity of character. 
 
 The popular ferment which prompted the Shays Rebellion had 
 its origin chiefly in the circumstances of the Commonwealth at the 
 close of the Revolution with regard to public and private indebted- 
 ness ; aggravated by the harshness with which, by law and custom, 
 debts and taxes were at that time collected. The acts in which 
 
 389
 
 390 HISIORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 that Deling manifested itself were the result of a false interpreta- 
 tion of precedent, and of the crude political knowledge of men 
 who perceived clearly what the experience of every day taught 
 them that they and their fellows were harshly dealt with, but 
 who had not learned to trace effects to their causes with states- 
 manlike sagacity, and who did not comprehend that the same 
 means which, in default of better, are legitimate for the overthrow 
 of an oppressive government, become heinous offences when ap- 
 plied to the reform of even oppressive laws under the plastic insti- 
 tutions of a republic. 
 
 The financial situation of the Commonwealth was indeed most 
 distressing, and such as, even in the most hopeful view, could 
 find no perfect relief, except in long years of toil, endured by its 
 people under the depressing influences of debt and enormous taxa- 
 tion. It seemed inevitable that the greater portion of the genera- 
 tion then living must go down to their graves in poverty, leaving 
 the same bitter heritage to their children. 
 
 The debt of the State, contracted in its own name, was $4,333,- 
 000, exclusive of $833,000 due to the officers of the Massachusetts 
 contingent in the army, which was as just a liability, to say the 
 least, as any other. The Commonwealth's proportion of the na- 
 tional debt, for which, under the Confederation, it was specifically 
 responsible, was not less than $5,000,000 ; making an aggregate of 
 considerably over $10,000,000. 
 
 Besides this, every town was heavily indebted for money ex- 
 pended in local exigencies, such as filling quotas of men, demands 
 for military supplies, &c. The payment of the interest alone upon 
 this crushing accumulation of liabilities was an undertaking which 
 might well have daunted the financiers of the impoverished State, 
 even at a time of happier promise for the future ; but the unwise 
 impatience of the people, dissatisfied with paying interest, which 
 was compared with a canker which consumed their substance 
 without lessening their burdens, led to the imposition in 1784 of 
 a tax of $466,000, and in 1786 of $333,000 additional, for the pur- 
 pose of sinking that amount of the army debt. 
 
 As might have been expected, all the taxes were soon found to 
 be largely and hopelessly in arrears, notwithstanding the deprecia- 
 tion of the certificates of indebtedness issued by the State treasury, 
 which were made receivable for them. 
 
 But the tax-gatherer was not the only unwelcome visitor that
 
 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 391 
 
 was wont to haunt the doors of the citizens of Massachusetts in 
 those unhappy days: the tap of the sheriff or the constable was no 
 less familiar. Private debts which had, for various reasons, been 
 postponed during the war, had accumulated fearfully, and a mania 
 for bringing suits upon them seemed to possess creditors ; so that 
 the courts were fairly clogged with business. 
 
 No condition of things could have been imagined more unfavor- 
 able to the imposition of heavy taxes, and the collection of long- 
 standing debts, than that which then existed in Massachusetts. A 
 paralysis seemed to have struck the young vigor of the Common- 
 wealth, for whose cure time, and a process quite other than deple- 
 tion, were required. The febrile symptoms which manifested 
 themselves everywhere were the pure results of exhaustion. 
 
 The sanctity of property and the obligations of contracts had 
 become impaired, not from the license of the people, nor because 
 courts were obstructed in Berkshire or elsewhere, but from the 
 unsettling of values through the excessive, however unavoidable, 
 emission of paper money, and from the legislation which vainly 
 attempted to sustain its credit. Gold and silver had, long before 
 the -war closed, disappeared as a circulating medium; and the 
 faith of the nation, which has since been found to furnish a not 
 entirely inadequate substitute, was without the basis to do so 
 then. The Continental currency, despite the exhausting efforts 
 of Massachusetts to redeem her proportion of it, was fast sinking 
 to an unappreciable value, and encumbered rather than facilitated 
 the course of trade, until the only practicable relief was found in 
 the formal recognition of its entire worthlessness. 
 
 Under circumstances of such overwhelming depression, manu- 
 factures, which, under the stimulus of the war, had attained a 
 somewhat vigorous growth, now languished ; the fisheries, fearfully 
 narrowed in their markets, ceased to be that source of wealth 
 which had enriched the Province ; agriculture afforded but a 
 scanty subsistence to farmers without the means of improving or 
 stocking their lands, which were, indeed, in many cases, hopelessly 
 mortgaged ; while commerce had come to be little more than the 
 means of draining what little of hoarded treasure yet remained in 
 the State in payment for goods imported from markets which re- 
 quired few of the productions of Massachusetts in return. 
 
 We should fail to complete the picture of desolation without 
 adding, that thriftless habits acquired in camp-life found little in
 
 392 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 the condition of things at home to stimulate or encourage reforma- 
 tion, and that intemperance prevailed to an extent which had 
 never before been known, nor has been since. 
 
 Other results incident to a long and costly war conspired to 
 inflame the discontent of the masses. Those who had served the 
 great cause most faithfully had generally become impoverished, 
 while men who deserved little had grown wealthy, and, for the 
 most part, had invested what they had gained from the necessities 
 of their country in something more substantial than the worthless 
 paper which clogged the knapsack of the returning soldier and 
 the hoard of the rural patriot. 
 
 In Boston, Salem, Newburyport, and other large towns, the osten- 
 tatious display of wealth and luxury by men of this class by suc- 
 cessful naval adventures, and by others whom chance had favored 
 in the general wreck, contrasted harshly with the struggling pov- 
 erty of those whose long years of exposure and suffering had been 
 cheered by the hope of a recompense very different from that which 
 they received. 
 
 It may perhaps be pardoned to these latter, that some of them 
 did not trace the causes of their disappointment with the nicety, 
 or seek a remedy for it with the calm sagacity, of philosophers. 
 They had left men at home charged with the care of these things ; 
 and their wisdom seemed almost as much confounded by the mis- 
 erable entanglement of affairs as was their own ; although it soon 
 began to manifest itself in legislation which gradually brought, 
 not only safety, but prosperity and harmony, to the Commonwealth. 
 
 Few are fully aware of the vast miseries which have been alle- 
 viated, and fewer still comprehend the measure of strength and 
 stability which has been added to the State during the past 
 seventy-five years, by the tender regard shown for the poor and 
 unfortunate, even more in the amelioration of laws and customs 
 than in the institutions provided for the direct relief of suffering. 
 
 When the Constitution of 1780 went into effect, the legal hard- 
 ships of the poor were sxich as required years of liberal legislation 
 for their relief; and how difficult it was to procure that legislation, 
 the Pittsfield reader may learn by examination of the files of " The 
 Sun," which for years was filled with pleadings for the abolition 
 or mitigation of imprisonment for debt, by arguments which, 
 although they seem simple enough now, were persistently resisted 
 then.
 
 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 393 
 
 The Laws in force, and the customs universally in vogue, for the 
 collection of debts and taxes, were cruel and irrational to a degree 
 which almost passes belief; and they were carried out with less 
 compunction than is now often wasted upon the fate of the most 
 worthless criminal. Imprisonment for debt had no alleviation ; 
 and the sole remedy devised for inability to pay was enforced 
 idleness. The prison-doors closed more remorselessly upon the 
 poor debtor than upon the thief or the incendiary ; for while bail 
 or pardon might obtain the enlargement of the former, whose con- 
 finement at the worst had a fixed duration, no laws for his relief 
 opened the prison-door of the latter, or fixed a period to his incar- 
 ceration within walls where too little regard was had to health, 
 comfort, or decency. His only hope and a long-deferred one it 
 often proved was that his creditor might at last despair of ex- 
 torting payment from the pity of his friends, or that his resent- 
 ment might finally exhaust itself. 
 
 There are many yet living who remember how their young eyes 
 were shocked by the gaunt forms, long, unkempt hair, grizzly beard, 
 and claw- like hands, of men who, with sunken eyes, peered from 
 behind grated windows, where they had lain for years, guilty of 
 no worse crime than the incurring of a trifling debt, which, per- 
 haps, some unforeseen political or commercial convulsion had 
 rendered them unable to pay; and, in 1786, not a few of these 
 poor creatures, blue with prison mould, were those who had fought 
 long for freedom, and were still largely the creditors of the country 
 whose laws made them the tenants of a debtor's jail. 
 
 But if, by chance, the poor man escaped a prison, and, despairing 
 of a livelihood in his native place, sought it elsewhere, he was 
 pretty sure to be met at the threshold of his land of promise by 
 some such welcome as the following warrant, which we copy from 
 the Pittsfield town-records, where the like are thickly scat- 
 tered : 
 
 BERKSHIRE, ss. 
 
 To the Constables of the Town of Pittsfield in the County of Berkshire, or either of them, 
 
 greeting. 
 
 Whereas it has been represented to us that Elisha Eggleston, his wife and 
 family ; John French, his wife and family ; Calvin Dunham, his wife and 
 family, are likely to become burdensome and chargeable to the town if they 
 continue their residence in it, these are therefore to authorize and require 
 you forthwith to warn and notify the above-named persons that they, with
 
 394 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 their families, immediately depart and remove out of the town, and not to 
 return again, without giving security to the town. 
 
 Given under our hands this 22d day of May, Anno Domini 1782. 
 
 WOODBRIDGE LlTTLE, 
 
 DAVID BUSH, 
 STEPHEN CROFOOT, 
 JAMES DN. COLT, 
 
 Selectmen of Pittsfield. 
 
 Constable Stephen Fowler returned service of this warning 
 upon John and Calvin on the 7th of June; and doubtless they, 
 their wives and little ones, thereupon resumed their weary pilgrim- 
 age; for, in default of obedience to the warning, the hard law 
 required that the delinquents should be passed from constable to 
 constable through the intervening towns, until they reached that 
 of their proper settlement. 
 
 Eggleston appears to have obtained a respite : but in the more 
 dreary month of February, 1784, he received a similar warning 
 out, together with Isaac Churchill, his wife and nine children; 
 Daniel Wheeler, his wife and seven children ; Deborah Bun-age, 
 alias Deborah Lee, widow ; Moses Lee, and several other unfortu- 
 nates, who were suspected of circumstances which rendered them 
 liable to become chargeable to the town. One can well compre- 
 hend that new-comers, with no other means of support than their 
 daily labor, would be less welcome in those days of stagnant in- 
 dustries than they had been in the labor-dearth of war-times. 
 
 But while the poor were thus driven from pillar to post, and 
 from post to pillar, in their struggles to better their condition, or 
 at least " to keep the wolf from the door," taxation rested upon 
 them with a weight which would now be considered grossly dis- 
 proportionate ; and the rates were exacted with a rigor which we 
 should regard impolitic, as well as unmerciful. 
 
 Of all the taxes which the circumstances of the State demanded, 
 as well as those large additions which were made without absolute 
 necessity, one third part was assessed upon the ratable polls, 
 which did not then number more than ninety thousand ; and town 
 charges were defrayed in a similar manner. 
 
 The severity with which these fates were collected, and the 
 readiness of the courts to enforce the payment of debts due from 
 towns, are illustrated in a case which, although it was in some 
 respects extraordinary, was far from an extreme one.
 
 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 395 
 
 Rev. Mr. Leavitt of Charlemont, a suspected Tory in politics and 
 Arminian in religion, in 1777, on account of the depreciation of 
 the currency, refused to receive his salary at the rate originally 
 agreed upon ; and, after various unsuccessful attempts at a com- 
 promise, the town voted to shut up the meeting-house, which was 
 done, the constable guarding it. Upon this, Mr. Leavitt betook 
 himself to a schoolhouse, where he preached to a few friendly fam- 
 ilies until more peaceful times, when he sued the town for his 
 whole arrears of salary. He was nonsuited at the Common Pleas, 
 but, on appeal to the Supreme Court, recovered 500 ; which sum 
 was levied on the property of the inhabitants, from many of 
 whom the last cow was taken to satisfy the claim of a minister 
 whom they believed both a heretic and traitor, for preaching ser- 
 mons of which they never heard a syllable. 
 
 Add to the picture we have Attempted in the preceding pages, 
 that which was given in a previous chapter of the onerous judicial 
 system which the Commonwealth had inherited almost unchanged 
 from the Province, and we shall be able to form some conception 
 of the inflammatory condition of Massachusetts which developed 
 itself in the Shays Rebellion. 
 
 The aspect of the general government offered still less of cheer. 
 The shadowy powers of the Confederation had now reached that 
 extreme of tenuity which compelled a resort to the forlorn hope 
 ^ glorious as it proved of the convention which framed the Fed- 
 eral Constitution. The confusion had grown to be utter. National 
 credit, respect, power, and influence were rapidly approaching 
 the vanishing point. Congress could do little to rescue either, and, 
 with very inadequate powers to resist invasion, confessed itself 
 destitute of any to suppress internal insurrection. 
 
 Imposts upon foreign trade, a prolific source of wealth to national 
 treasuries, proved of little worth, when, the perquisites of rival sea- 
 port States, they were imposed by conflicting legislation, whose in- 
 finitely unwise attempts each to monopolize commerce and manu- 
 factures mutually ruined the interests it was their object to advance. 
 
 The citizen of Massachusetts who found gloom and confusion 
 in the affairs of the Commonwealth, if he looked to the national 
 government for relief was met by absolute darkness and chaos. 
 The boundless hope which, in the Colony times, had been the 
 dower of every American citizen, now awaited a more splendid 
 resurrection under the Union, but no signs yet betokened the com- 
 ing of the dawn.
 
 396 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Public affairs, which in their healthy condition exercise their 
 benign powers imperceptibly, become, in their deranged state, even 
 more apparently than really, the cause of individual misfortune j 
 and governments are charged with malign influences for which they 
 are not justly responsible. It so happened in Massachusetts at the 
 epoch of which we write. There was lurking in the minds of 
 the great mass of those who had returned poor from service in the 
 Revolution, the not unnatural thought, " To what purpose have our 
 blood and suffering secured the liberties of our country if our own 
 are to be at the mercy of the tax-gatherer, the sheriff, and the jailer, 
 or if, escaping from them, we are to be the serfs of toil which barely 
 procures us a scanty subsistence, with a poorhouse for the hope of 
 our age ? " 
 
 In this prevailing discontent, there were not wanting men willing 
 to make themselves leaders. Of these, the most prominent seem 
 to have been sincerely convinced of the justice of their cause, 
 but the victims of an overweening conceit of their ability to cope 
 with the most knotty problems of state, or of that fanaticism which 
 finds the root of every evil in the subject of its morbid contempla- 
 tion. Grievances were abundant enough and real enough ; but 
 the peculiarity of the malecontent leaders was, that they rarely 
 fastened odium upon any thing which deserved it, never traced an 
 evil to its true source, and that, even before they resorted to arms, 
 the remedies which they proposed for the undeniable sufferings of 
 the people were the veriest nostrums of political quackery. Not one 
 of those beneficent measures by which legislation, beginning soon 
 after, has since removed all the hardships which we have enume- 
 rated, was so much as hinted at by the malecontent conventions ; 
 hardly one of these hardships was specified by them in their long 
 list of "grievances." Their wrongs were as notional as their rem- 
 edies were pernicious. 
 
 The leaders built their hopes upon a foundation which could 
 sustain no such superstructure. They had seen the assumption of 
 power by county conventions, supplemented by the obstruction of 
 the courts, twice crowned with success ; and, not comprehending 
 the change which had been wrought by the adoption of the Con- 
 stitution in the nature of the allegiance due from the citizen, they 
 undertook to pursue the course which had in other cases led to the* 
 desired ends. The Constitution had, indeed, never been permitted 
 to long have quiet sway. As early as 1781, it was represented to
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 397 
 
 the General Court, "that sundry persons in the counties of Worces- 
 ter, Hampshire, and Berkshire, enemies to their country, were 
 endeavoring to subvert the Constitution of the Commonwealth, and 
 poison the minds of the good people of the State." Commission- 
 ers were sent into the counties named to obtain evidence of the 
 treasons concocting there. 
 
 Samuel Ely, the leader, was, in the spring of the next year, in- 
 dicted for attempting, under the authority of a convention, to pre- 
 vent the' session of the Superior Court at Northampton, confessed, 
 and was placed in jail at Springfield, from which he was released 
 by a mob. The ringleaders in this affair were arrested ; and, a mob 
 collecting to rescue them, the militia were called out, and rallied 
 with spirit to the nufcber of twelve or fifteen hundred. The rioters 
 were overawed when the parties met on the field, and the disturbance 
 was quieted without bloodshed. But the Tender Act, under which 
 judgment in private suits was satisfied by neat cattle or other speci- 
 fied articles at a fair valuation, followed so close upon the uprising, 
 that, not without plausibility, it was claimed as its result ; and the 
 malecontents were encouraged to look upon insurrection as a legiti- 
 mate as well as very effectual means of obtaining desired legislation. 
 It was not, however, again resorted to for four years. 
 
 The conventions continued to be held, and, after 1784, with in- 
 creasing frequency and violence of agitation. But, for the most 
 part, they confined themselves to peaceable and lawful action ; and, 
 however unwise their utterances, they were, in manner and form, 
 such as are now found to be perfectly consistent with the stability 
 of government. We cannot participate at this day in the horror 
 of the conservative historian of that, when he affirms that the 
 conventions " undertook to censure and condemn the conduct of 
 the public rulers; that they voted the Senate and judicial courts 
 to be grievances, and called for a revision of the Constitution." .The 
 conservatives of Berkshire took a wiser view, met the malecontents 
 on their own ground, outreasoned them, a not very difficult feat, 
 and outvoted them. 
 
 A portion of the acts of the Hampshire and Worcester conven- 
 tions was, according to Minot, of a less defensible character, in that 
 they " attempted to collect a body of men as a general convention 
 [for the revision of the Constitution] which might rival the legis- 
 lature itself." 
 
 The Constitution of 1780, whether wisely or unwisely, made
 
 398 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 no provision for its own amendment or revision previoiis to 
 the year 1795, when the sense of the people was to be taken 
 whether any were required. In the modern view, the absence of 
 any express authority in that instrument would not be construed 
 to impair the right of the legislature to submit the question of re- 
 vision to the people at any time ; but such was not the conservative 
 opinion of 1784, while, as Minot alleges, the malecontent conven- 
 tion was called with the intention of subverting the existing Con- 
 stitution, without awaiting legislative action. The Berkshire view, 
 as in other cases, coincided with the modern. 
 
 Experience has shown, that, the difficulty inevitably arising 
 from the distracted condition of national affairs being obviated by 
 the Federal Union, the evils under which thePpeople of Massachu- 
 setts were suffering were all removable through the medium of 
 ordinary legislation, which would have been hindered rather than 
 aided by any change in the fundamental law. 
 
 But, in 1786, a large portion of the people, groaning under bur- 
 dens of which they imperfectly comprehended the nature, and 
 still more imperfectly the remedy, impatient of the slow process 
 and long results of legislative reforms, and suspecting the State 
 government of indifference to their sufferings, were eager for a 
 change in those provisions in the Constitution which, as they im- 
 agined, created an aristocratic element in the government, by re- 
 moving its officers from the direct control of their constituents. 
 Inspired by this idea, a clamor was raised for measures no less 
 radical than the abolition of the Senate, a change in the basis of 
 representation, and the dependence of all officers upon salaries 
 annually granted. 
 
 Such were the amendments in the Constitution demanded by 
 a convention in Hampshire County, Aug. 22, 1786; and the 
 reforms upon which they insisted, as within the province of ordi- 
 nary legislation, were no less radical, and most of them no less 
 unwise, than those enumerated. It was asked that the courts of 
 Common Pleas and General Sessions should be abolished ; that 
 the General Court should not sit at Boston ; " to have a bank emitted 
 of paper money subject to depreciation," l making it a tender in all 
 
 1 A more exact idea of this hopeful financial scheme will be found from the 
 action of Conway, which, on the 24th of October, " instructed its representative 
 in the General Court to use his influence to have a bank of paper currency emitted 
 that sho'uld sink one penny a pound per month." Rev. C. B. Rice, in Conway 
 Centennial Address.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 399 
 
 payments equal to gold and silver ; that the system of imposing 
 and collecting taxes should be remodelled, the fee-table reduced, 
 and a general reform instituted in managing the finances of the 
 Commonwealth. 
 
 They deprecated mob violence, and recommended a resort to 
 only constitutional methods of redress, but denounced the govern- 
 ment in terms, which, as their opponents alleged, led to the violent 
 outbreaks which commenced on the last Tuesday of the same 
 month, when nearly fifteen hundred men collected at Northampton, 
 and prevented the session of the court at that place. 
 
 Be that as it may, the passions of a large part of the people 
 were so much exasperated by real sufferings and supposed grievances, 
 that the slightest spark was sufficient to set the interior counties 
 aflame. The example of the Hampshire malecontents was followed, 
 with similar success, by their brethren in Worcester and Middlesex ; 
 while in Bristol they made a formidable demonstration, which 
 was only checked by the spirited course of the friends of order in 
 the militia. 
 
 The course of the Berkshire people was peculiar. The insur- 
 gent leaders had evidently modelled their proceedings upon those 
 of this county previous to the adoption of the Constitution, and 
 from this circumstance, as well as from its defensible location, had 
 counted upon this as their stronghold. But the six years', discus- 
 sion of political and constitutional questions previous to 1780 had 
 rendered the people here more familiar with the great principles 
 of government, and less liable to be misled by false or ignorant 
 teachers, than were those of most portions of the State. The in- 
 consistency of seeking so soon to overthrow the edifice which 
 they had erected at such infinite pains was instinctively felt by 
 those who had been prominent in the struggles for a Constitution ; 
 and doubtless they were too familiar with the evils attendant 
 upon an obstruction of the laws to .favor a light resort to it. Few 
 of them, therefore, were involved in the Shays insurrection. Rev. 
 Mr. Allen, indeed, was so active in his opposition as to be the 
 special mark of the rebel ire, and found it necessary to keep arms 
 in his bedroom as a precaution when it was most rampart. His 
 earnest preaching against the sin of rebellion at this time won him 
 many bitter and lifelong enemies. 
 
 But the leading citizens of Berkshire had learned confidence in 
 the people and in the flexibility of the laws, as well as respect for
 
 400 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 constitutional authority ; and, instead of leaving the convention 
 called in the county to be controlled by those who sought a 
 violent remedy for sufferings perceptible alike to all, they tried 
 their strength before the people, and elected a majority of moderate 
 men. This was more important, as, in the imperfect organization 
 of party politics which then existed, delegates were elected- by 
 the towns, and not, as now, by sections of the people, whose 
 opinions alone they are entitled to represent. The County con- 
 vention then carried with it something of the authority of the 
 municipalities by which its members were chosen, and often 
 instructed ; and by many its authority, as being nearer the people, 
 was held paramount to that of the legislature, a heresy which, 
 although it deserved no respect from the constitutionalists, was an 
 element in the political situation which it was necessary for them 
 to take into account. 
 
 The delegates elected from Pittsfield were Daniel Hubbard, 
 Thomas Gold, and Major Oliver Root. 
 
 Gold was a demagogue, whose character afterwards came to be 
 understood by the people. His present escapade is described in 
 " The Berkshire Chronicle," printed in Pittsfield in 1789, as an 
 attempt to overthrow the present system of law and lawyers, and 
 render the practitioners as bad as possible." The other delegates 
 were old soldiers, and men of high character for probity and 
 patriotism. They were themselves in good circumstances for those 
 times, but were deeply imbued with the insurgent spirit through sym- 
 pathy with the undeserved suffei-ings of less fortunate comrades. 
 
 The delegates were left uninstructed, and were also chosen a 
 Committee of Correspondence for the town. The small number 
 of citizens who at the close of the rebellion were found to have 
 been implicated in it, and the known loyalty of most of the lead- 
 ing men of the town, indicate that the untoward result of this 
 meeting was brought about by* the activity of a minority, aided, 
 no doubt, by the apathy or indecision of others. 
 
 The convention met at Lenox during the last week of August, 
 while insurrection was raging in the lower counties, and pursued 
 a course peculiar to itself, differing even from that of the people 
 of Boston, who, although showing an admirable spirit and a chari- 
 table view of the errors of the insurgents, while entreating them 
 to seek redress for grievances only in a constitutional method, 
 could not truthfully express the same earnest desire for reform 
 which was conspicuous in the Berkshire assembly.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 401 
 
 The latter, says Minot, " explicitly approved the appropriation 
 of the revenue arising from the impost and excise duties, and the 
 grant of the supplementary funds to the United States ; and they 
 manifested a decent and respectful regard towards the adminis- 
 tration of government in general. They disapproved of the plans 
 for establishing paper money and of the Tender Act. They 
 solemnly engaged to use their influence to support the courts of 
 justice in the exercise of their legal powers, and to endeavor to 
 quiet the agitated spirits of the people." 
 
 The wisdom of the Berkshire conservatives, in taking part in 
 tha county convention, was apparent in its effects ; for, had that 
 body given the warrant of its authority, even by implication, 
 to the uprising, hundreds would have joined the ranks of the in- 
 surgents, who were now rendered the friends of law and order, 
 or at least restrained from active participation in the disturbances 
 of the day. 
 
 It does not appear, from the meagre report of its proceedings, 
 whether the convention gave countenance to any of the preposter- 
 ous political notions of the malecontents : but the contrary may 
 well be inferred from their opposition to the Tender act ; for this, 
 of all the measures with which it was classed, was that least 
 liable to modern censure, and most completely justified by the 
 exigencies of the day. At a time when the circulating medium 
 had been reduced to a point which rendered the possession of any 
 considerable quantity of it impossible to men in ordinary circum- 
 stances, this much-maligned act simply provided that executions 
 should be satisfied by property of a marketable kind, taken at a 
 fair valuation, instead of being sacrificed under the hammer, with 
 a moral certainty that it would be sold for a tithe of its value, 
 perhaps being " bid in " by the creditor for a nominal sum, through 
 the sheer inability of the impecunious neighborhood to compete 
 with him. At the worst, a small harm was done to the creditor 
 by the Tender Act in order to shield the debtor from a very 
 grievous one ; and it is difficult to see how bankrupt-laws can be 
 justified by those who condemn this old measure of relief to those 
 who would otherwise have suffered from the failure of the Com- 
 momwealth to provide a sufficient circulating medium. Its repu- 
 diation in the Berkshire convention affords a fair presumption that 
 the follies which were enunciated by the similar assembly in 
 Hampshire were not approved. 
 
 26
 
 402 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 The influence of the convention did not, however, avail to save 
 the county from participation in the insurrection ; for it had 
 hardly adjourned before a mob collected at Great Barrington, and 
 not only prevented the session of the Court of Common Pleas, but 
 broke open the jail, and released the prisoners. After which ex- 
 ploit they by threats induced three of the judges among whom 
 was our old friend, Capt. Charles Goodrich, who seems to have lost 
 somewhat of his inflexibility to sign an agreement that they 
 would not act under their commissions, until the grievances com- 
 plained of had been redressed. To the credit of the fourth judge, 
 Hon. Elijah Dwight of Great Barrington, as well as that of the 
 rioters, it is related, that, upon his making a manful resistance, he 
 was not compelled to sign the papers. 
 
 The mob was estimated at eight hundred men. 
 
 Traditions of incidents which occurred in Pittsfield and Lenox 
 enable us to understand how the insurgent forces were recruited, 
 and from what material. The village orators, previous to court 
 day, gave out, either plainly or by innuendo, that the session must 
 be prevented ; and the word passed from mouth to mouth. On the 
 evening preceding the appointed day, the disaffected fanners in 
 the towns within a convenient distance, or perhaps throughout 
 the county, as their men quitted work, said to them, "Well, 
 boys, they say there's to be goings-on at Barrington to-morrow ; 
 and, if you like, you can have the day, and take the team and go 
 down." One leader in Pittsfield sent his two sons in this way ; 
 and one in Lenox, his son and an apprentice. These were the bet- 
 ter class of the insurgents ; but in every town there were then an 
 unusual number of unemployed men, ready for whatever excite- 
 ment offered, and generally hostile to the government, which 
 they regarded as the cause of their evil condition ; so that, be- 
 tween those ready for any mischievous frolic and those earnestly 
 hostile to the courts, a boisterous and excited ci'owd was easily 
 collected, which soon received the additional inflammation of strong 
 drink ; and thus fitting instruments were ready to the hands of 
 the designing leaders, who seized the opportunity to commit their 
 followers so deeply to the rebellion that retreat was difficult. 
 
 Soon after the affair at Great Barrington, the insurgents, who 
 had hitherto confined their opposition to the inferior courts, now 
 dreading indictment by the Superior Court at Springfield, collected 
 in such numbers at that place, that, although the court was pro-
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 403 
 
 tected by six hundred militia, the confusion was such that it was 
 deemed advisable to adjourn without attempting to transact busi- 
 ness, after passing resolutions that it was inexpedient to proceed 
 to Berkshire. 
 
 When the day fixed by law for opening the court in this county 
 came, the malecontents, nevertheless, assembled in considerable 
 numbers at Great Barrington, believing, or pretending to believe, 
 that the judges really intended to sit.- Of course no court ap- 
 peared : but the crowd became extremely riotous, and obliged 
 several persons obnoxious to them to take flight ; while armed 
 men pursued one gentleman who held a very honorable office, 
 searched private houses, and fired upon several of the inhabitants. 1 
 
 About Christmas, 1786, the insurrectionary disturbances in the 
 lower counties assumed the form of a pronounced rebellion. 
 Daniel Shays, the renowned leader who clouded his fame as a 
 faithful captain in the Revolution for the equivocal honor of giv- 
 ing his name to an unnecessary and unsuccessful rebellion, ap- 
 peared first at Springfield, then at Worcester and elsewhere, with 
 bands of armed men, of disorderly carriage and fluctuating mate- 
 rial, but with some sort of a military organization. 
 
 Gov. Bowdoin intrusted the restoration of order to Major- 
 Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, of Revolutionary fame, with a body of 
 over four thousand militia. 
 
 Four hundred Berkshire men, under the leadership of Eli Par- 
 sons, were in Shays's army ; but we know nothing of the recruits 
 from Pittsfield who may have been among them, and we do not 
 purpose to chronicle in detail the operations of the three months' 
 campaign by which the insurrection was suppressed. 
 
 The spirit of the rebellion was broken on the 25th of January, 
 when Shays, marching upon the post of Gen. Sheppard at the 
 Springfield Arsenal, was met by a discharge of artillery, which sent 
 his men flying in confusion, crying "Murder," and leaving three of 
 their comrades dead upon the field. 2 
 
 1 History of Berkshire. 
 
 2 An incident occurred in connection with this affair in which a boy, afterwards 
 a prominent citizen of Pittsfield, was the hero. 
 
 Major Solomon Allen of Northampton, upon whom the command of the 
 Hampshire militia, or a portion of it, devolved, dealt largely with Philadelphia 
 drovers ; and, when the outbreak occurred, he was in that city, having with him 
 his little son of eight years, afterwards Hon. Phinehas Allen, the founder of " The
 
 404 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 So weak at heart was this seemingly formidable uprising, that, 
 upon a check so slight as this, the insurgents fell back from point 
 to point, until they reached Petersham. Here Gen. Lincoln, by a 
 forced march of thirty miles in the midst of a driving snow-storm, 
 surprised them ; and those who escaped capture were scattered. 
 
 Meanwhile small bodies of the disaffected appeared in Berkshire, 
 with the intention of creating a diversion in favor of their brethren, 
 and, as was feared, of forming a rendezvous upon the heights of 
 the Hoosacs. As a countercheck to this movement, the friends 
 of government formed a voluntary association, numbering perhaps 
 five hundred men, and in slight encounters met with significant 
 success. Still the malecontents, dispersed near Stockbridge, rallied 
 again at South Adams, and, on the approach of the volunteers, 
 scattered at that place to collect again, and again be dispersed, at 
 Williamstown. However unfortunate in their essays, their dispo- 
 sition to embody was apparent ; and it was understood that a con- 
 siderable number were on their way to Washington to join the 
 standard of one Major Wiley. 
 
 Gen. Patterson, commander of the Berkshire militia, apprehen- 
 sive of the results of these movements, earnestly entreated 
 assistance from Lincoln, who responded by promptly repairing to 
 Pittsfield with two divisions of his army. 
 
 From this point he sent out parties in sleighs, one, under the 
 adjutant-general, to Dal ton, where they captured Wiley's son and 
 six others, Wiley having fled ; one, under Capt. William Francis, 
 to Williamstown, where, after a skirmish, they captured fourteen 
 prisoners. The activity of the troops drove into banishment or 
 concealment all those who had been in arms against the govern- 
 ment in Northern Berkshire. But the truculent Eli Parsons, 
 from his hiding-place, sent out an appeal to his " friends and fellow- 
 sufferers" in the lower counties, a paper of whose sanguinary 
 vein the closing paragraph may convey an idea : 
 
 " The first step I would recommend is to destroy Sheppard's army ; then 
 proceed to the county of Berkshire, as we are now collecting in New Leba- 
 
 Pittsfield Sun." Summoned home by his military duties, Major Allen reached 
 Springfield in time to take part in the defence of the arsenal. 
 
 Here his little son, clad in red broadcloth, the gift of his father's customers, 
 
 with whom he was a pet, was seated on horseback in the rear of the troops ; and 
 
 ' when, on the advance of the rebels, fire was opened, the little fellow, carried away 
 
 with excitement, stretched himself up in the saddle, and gave a ringing huzza, to 
 
 the great delight of the soldiers, who took up and prolonged the tiny cheer.
 
 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 405 
 
 non in York State, and Pownal in Vermont State, with a determination to 
 carry our point if fire, blood, and carnage will effect it : therefore we beg 
 that every friend will immediately proceed to the county of Berkshire, and 
 help us to Burgoyne Lincoln and his army." 
 
 There was more than mere bravado in this. Berkshire, with 
 inaccessible hills on the east, and States north, south, and west 
 upon whose soil the Massachusetts militia might not trespass, 
 was surrounded by convenient lurking-places, of which the rebels 
 did not neglect to avail themselves, to the great annoyance of the 
 Commonwealth, until the friendly action of the sister States 
 relieved her. 
 
 An occasion soon presented itself when an incursion might have 
 been made with almost assured success by a small body of deter- 
 mined men ; for the new contingent to supply the place of the 
 militia, whose term of service expired on the 21st of February, 
 not arriving promptly, Gen. Lincoln was left at Pittsfield with only 
 thirty soldiers. The rebels were, happily, not informed correctly of 
 the moment so opportune for them ; and the danger passed. But, 
 on the 27th, a body of between eighty and ninety men, under 
 Capt. Perez Hamlin, entered the State from New York, pillaged 
 Stockbridge, made prisoners of some of its most respectable 
 citizens, and proceeded with their prisoners and booty to Great 
 Barrington. Thence they went towards Sheffield in sleighs by a 
 back road. In the mean time, Col. Ashley of Sheffield had col- 
 lected the loyal militia of that town, and, uniting with a small 
 body t who had retreated from Great Barrington, had a force of 
 eighty men. 
 
 With these he met the insurgents near the western boundary of 
 Sheffield ; and the most severe encounter of the rebellion ensued. 
 The insurgents were defeated, with a loss of two killed and thirty 
 wounded, one mortally; and Capt. William Walker of Lenox 
 coming up opportunely with re-enforcements, one hundred and 
 fifty prisoners were taken. Of the militia, two were killed and one 
 wounded. 
 
 The borders of Berkshire, Hampshire, and Worcester remained 
 in a disturbed condition for some months ; but the energetic 
 co-operation of the neighboring States, although that of Ver- 
 mont was somewhat hesitating and tardy, finally removed all 
 sources of apprehension from abroad. On the 13th of August, it 
 was considered safe to reduce the number of troops to two hun-
 
 406 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 dred ; and, on the 13th of September, the complete suppression of 
 the rebellion was announced by the discharge of all the forces. 
 
 The wisdom, moderation, and firmness of Gov. Bowdoin and 
 Gen. Lincoln, and the good conduct of the forces under their 
 command, had saved, not only the Commonwealth, but the country, 
 from dangers which threatened disastrous consequences whose 
 extent it was impossible to foresee, and had relieved a widespread! 
 consternation of which it is difficult now to form an idea. 
 
 In the suppression of the rebellion, the legislature had co-oper- 
 ated with the executive, on the whole, with zeal and promptitude ; 
 although manifesting a natural repugnance to extreme measures 
 against their misguided fellow-citizens. There now remained the 
 
 O O 
 
 more difficult task of re-establishing order, and composing the 
 agitated minds of the people. Justice was to be tempered with 
 mercy in such measure as would not give heart to new outbreaks. 
 The majesty of the law was to be maintained, but in such manner 
 that there should be not even the semblance of a vindictive spirit, 
 either in the legislature or in the courts. Above all, the legislators 
 of the Commonwealth were to enter earnestly upon the work of 
 alleviating the burdens and sufferings which had maddened so 
 
 O O 
 
 many of its most patriotic and well-intentioned citizens. And, in 
 all this, it was to be made apparent that nothing was conceded to 
 intimidation, but that all was done through a sincere desire for the 
 best interests of the people, and a pure regard for substantial 
 justice. It is not our province to discuss in detail the measures by 
 which these ends were sought ; but the wisdom and moderation of 
 Massachusetts legislation were never more conspicuous than in 
 their adoption. Sufficient guaranties were exacted for future alle- 
 giance to law and order ; but what was deemed the minimum of 
 punishment was meted out for past offences. Six of the insurgent 
 prisoners were condemned to death in Berkshire, six in Hampshire, 
 and one each in Worcester and Middlesex ; but none suffered that 
 penalty. Of the Berkshire prisoners, three were pardoned, one 
 of them Samuel Rust, a Pittsfield veteran of the Continental Army, 
 two escaped, and the sentence of the sixth was commuted to 
 imprisonment for seven years. 
 
 Large numbers were, however, convicted of seditious words and 
 practices, many of them persons of consequence in their several 
 localities. Among them was a member of the legislature, who was 
 sentenced to pay a fine of fifty pounds, give security for five
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 407 
 
 years' good behavior, and sit on a gallows with a rope around his 
 neck; all of which sentence was carried out. 1 
 
 Those who had participated in the insurrection were for a time 
 disfranchised, and excluded from the jury-box; but these disabili- 
 ties were soon removed, the offender being merely required to take 
 the oath of allegiance. Measures of reform in the administration 
 of the laws and of the finances were immediately entered upon, 
 at first with somewhat of the crudity of thought which had pre- 
 vailed before the insurrection. But the light soon began to break, 
 and gleams of those beneficent reforms which have since prevailed 
 began to streak the horizon. It is not the least among the com- 
 pensations of the rebellion of 1786, that it directed the more 
 earnest thought of cultivated statesmen to the imperfection of the 
 laws, and to popular content as an element in the strength of 
 government. 
 
 1 The unfortunate legislator was Hon. Moses Harvey, senator from Hampshire 
 Countv.
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 PITTSFIELD IN THE SHAYS REBELLION. PAROCHIAL DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 [1786-1789.] 
 
 Public Sentiment of the Town. Its Comparative Prosperity. Prominent Citi- 
 zens labor for Law and Order. Henry Van Schaack eulogizes the Town. 
 The Malecontent Movement modified in Pittsfield. Instructions to Repre- 
 sentative Childs. A Stormy Town Meeting. A Conservative Re- Action. 
 Military Occupation of the Town. Anecdote. Parochial Dissensions. 
 Reconciliation effected. Joshua Danforth. Henry Van Schaack. 
 
 IN considering the public sentiment which prevailed in Pittsfield 
 during the memorable commotions just related, nice discrimi- 
 nation is required. Tradition affirms that the great majority of 
 the inhabitants were averse to the insurrection ; and, while it is 
 certain that the malecontents more than once controlled the town 
 meetings, it is equally clear that only a small fraction of the voters 
 were, at the close of the rebellion, found to have been seriously 
 implicated in it. 
 
 The population of the town was about eleven hundred, which 
 would represent at least two hundred voters ; but those who are 
 recorded to have taken the oath of allegiance prescribed by the 
 legislature as a condition of re-enfranchisement counted only 
 thirty-one, of whom only eight are minuted as having " turned in 
 their arms." Of these, some denied any guilty connection with the 
 rebellion ; and so slight was the evidence against them, that many 
 were found to credit their plea. On the other hand, the names of 
 Thomas Gold, and of two or three others known to have been active 
 rebels, do not appear in the list. But the whole number of whom 
 the oath could justly have been required could hardly have 
 exceeded forty. It should be remarked, however, that some who 
 had been led by a misinterpretation of precedents to consider the 
 
 408
 
 HISTORY OP PITTSFIELD. 409 
 
 obstruction of courts as a very venial offence, if not an altogether 
 justifiable mode of seeking reforms, shrank from the extreme 
 measure of appearing in arms against the government, and espe- 
 cially after a "county congress" had expressly refused its sanction 
 to any but constitutional measures of redress. 
 
 The list of thirty-one contains few names familiar to us, except 
 those of the delegates to the county convention ; and it is to be 
 observed, that, with the exception of Col. Root and Deacon Hub- 
 bard, not one of the men who had been prominent as patriots in 
 the Revolution, or who, as constitutionalists, had resisted the 
 government of the interregnum, is known to have favored the 
 insurrection of 1786 ; nor. did any one of those implicated in 
 the Rebellion ever afterwards rise to much political consequence 
 in the town. 
 
 There were substantial reasons why this should be so. Pitts- 
 field, although sharing in a degree in the general depression of 
 aflhirs, was a thriving and prosperous village, with interests to be 
 dangerously affected by popular tumults and indiscreet innovations. 
 Manufactures were springing up ; public improvements were antici- 
 pated ; and possibly it may have been suggested that the course 
 of the town in this emergency might influence the contest then 
 pending with regard to new seats for the county courts. Col. 
 Joshua Danforth, John Chandler Williams, Henry Van Schaack, 
 and other gentlemen of influence, had recently removed to the 
 town, 1 and with Rev. Mr. Allen, Oliver Wendell on his summer 
 visits, Dr. Childs, and other eminent citizens of longer residence, 
 united with Hon. Theodore Sedgwick and Judge Bacon of Stock- 
 bridge, Gen. Patterson of Lenox, and men of like stamp through- 
 out the county, who at great sacrifice of personal comfort, and 
 much exposure to personal danger and indignity, travelled from 
 town to town, bringing their influence to bear in every possible 
 way in favor of law and order. 
 
 Just before the outbreak, Major Van Schaack wrote a letter to 
 his brother, from which we may be able to extract a fair idea of 
 the double aspect of the times : * 
 
 " Here I have made an advantageous purchase, and live in the midst of 
 those who owe. I have made some other purchases about me, and I have a 
 
 1 See note at end of this chapter. 
 
 2 Life of Peter Van Schaack, LL.D., by his son Henry C. Van Schaack. 
 New York : Appleton & Co.
 
 410 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 number of mortgages in the neighborhood ; so that I shall, in all probability, 
 be a considerable landholder in a little tune. 
 
 " The farm I live on I bought for four hundred and seventy-four pounds 
 York money. It contains eighty-six acres good land, with a tolerably good 
 house, barn, and a young orchard, and a pleasant lake 1 in sight of me. 
 In my lifetime, I never lived among a more civil, obliging people. During 
 my residence in Richmond, 2 I never was a witness to swearing, drunkenness, 
 nor a breach of the sabbath, or, in short, any flagrant trespass upon mo- 
 rality. A purse of gold hung up in the public streets would be as safe from 
 our inhabitants as it used to be hi the great Alfred's time. Beggars and va- 
 grants we are strangers to, as well as overbearing, purse-proud scoundrels. 
 Provisions we abound in : beef, veal, mutton, and lamb, hi the spring, sum- 
 mer, and fall, we buy at two pence lawful 3 per pound ; in winter, beef and 
 mutton at two and a half and three pence ; every thing else in proportion, 
 and very plenty. ... I have just returned from Vermont. I took your son 
 Harry and F. Silvester with me in the sleigh, who, as well as myself, were 
 much pleased with the jaunt. ... In travelling sixty-four miles and back 
 again, four days out, lived extraordinary well all the time, and, among other 
 things, dined upon boiled turkey and oyster-sauce at Manchester. The 
 whole expense of our bill, while we were out, horse-keeping in the bargain, 
 was twenty-six shillings eight pence York money apiece.* Add to the ad- 
 vantages of travelling, that your persons and property on the road and in the 
 inns are perfectly safe. Murders, robberies, and burglaries, or petty larce- 
 nies, are scarce heard of in this country. So perfectly am I satisfied with 
 the manners, customs, and laws of this Commonwealth, that I would not ex- 
 change them for any other I know of hi the world. 
 
 " It will be difficult for you to believe, at so great a distance, that, imme- 
 diately after the horrors of a civil war, the new government should have 
 force and energy, the morals and religion of the inhabitants apparently as 
 pure and uncorrupt as they were at the best a number of years before the 
 late distractions. ... It is true that the public calamities have brought 
 heavy burthens ; but these become lighter, and will be more and more so 
 every year. 
 
 " The epitome of human misery I mean the civil war in this country 
 has been accompanied by a failure of crops. ... If any of your friends wish 
 to migrate, by way of encouragement you may assure them that lands are 
 cheap and good in Berkshire. Building materials of every sort hi great 
 plenty. All that I want in my delightful retreat is a few people of your 
 sort about me." 
 
 This picture is a good deal rose-tinted by Major Van Schaack, a 
 prosperous gentleman of steady income, who had just saved from 
 
 1 Melville. 2 Where Major Van Schaack settled on his first removal to 
 
 Berkshire. 8 Lawful money. * $3.25 Federal money.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 411 
 
 the dangers of civil war more than he had expected of his own 
 and his paternal fortune, who was likely to be enriched by the 
 financial difficulties that impoverished his neighbors, who had 
 secured a delightful estate, and was eulogizing the community 
 where even his Whig opponents had received him with cordiality 
 and confidence when he was exiled by those of his own section. 
 
 lie had, however, but recently become a resident of the town, 
 and there was much in it w r ith which he had not yet come in 
 contact. The Arcadian innocence which he paints so glowingly 
 must be accepted, as a portrait, only with many grains of allow- 
 ance. And the rich colors in which he depicts the physical com- 
 forts of his home were sadly obscured to those of his neighbors 
 who " owed ; " to the mortgagers, who saw little in the times to 
 encourage the hope of their becoming or remaining " considerable 
 landholders;" to the farmers, who found that it took a great deal 
 of mutton at two pence a pound to pay such taxes as were levied 
 upon them in order to " lighten the burthens " imposed by " the 
 late public calamities." However it might be with some indi- 
 viduals, the masses of community could hardly felicitate themselves 
 upon low prices, the result of insufficient markets and of a cir- 
 culating medium utterly incapable of meeting the ordinary require- 
 ments of traffic. 
 
 Pittsfield, with a strong conservative element in its population, 
 and with flourishing material interests which forbade it to favor 
 rebellion, had thus also a large class, especially among its farmers, 
 of men embarrassed, not only by the financial difficulties of the 
 time, but by a succession of bad crops. 
 
 But there were also many, who, with no desire to overthrow the 
 government, were painfully sensitive to the sufferings of the people, 
 and sincerely believed that the legislature was criminally remiss 
 iu postponing the radical remedies which they deemed indispen- 
 sable, who reiterated the complaints which had become chronic, 
 if not morbid, in Berkshire, of the cumbrous and costly system 
 of judiciary, and who perhaps joined in the charge that the counties 
 of Plampshire and Berkshire had been unfairly assessed in the 
 State valuation; and they were not unwilling that the apathy 
 of the conservatives should be disturbed by popular tumults rising 
 to the very verge of rebellion. It was a dangerous tampering 
 with fearful elements ; but if there were many among the influen- 
 tial classes, who, while rapt in admiration of the Commonwealth,
 
 412 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 thought it delightful " to live among those who owed," there was 
 much to palliate their rashness. 
 
 It was by the votes, or the absence from town-meeting, of this 
 class, which, although disaffected to the government, shrank from 
 overt rebellion, that the open insurrectionists owed their triumphs. 
 The malecontents, however, did not secure, and probably did not 
 desire, town action in unison with that of their brethren in the 
 lower counties. A fair indication of the extent to which the 
 majority could be induced to yield its approval to measures for 
 the reconstruction of government is found in the votes of Sep- 
 tember, 1785, concerning the instructions to be given Dr. 
 Timothy Childs, who had some months before been chosen repre- 
 sentative, and who was opposed to the insurrectionary movement, 
 although doubtless, like most of the friends of law and order in 
 Berkshire, earnestly desirous of thorough reforms by unintimidated 
 legislation. 
 
 The committee to draft the instructions were Woodbridge 
 Little, Joseph Fairfield, Daniel Hubbard, Major Simon Lamed, 
 and Eli Root, two malecontents, and three who are supposed to 
 have been of opposite views. 
 
 They reported seven paragraphs, of -which four were adopted, 
 expressing all to which a majority of the meeting would assent. 
 The following is the report, as drafted, with the minutes of the 
 town's action upon it : 
 
 Sir, In the present critical and disturbed situation of affairs in this 
 Commonwealth, it is the wish of your constituents that you give the most 
 early attendance possible at the General Court in their present session, and 
 that you there use your influence that something may be done which may 
 serve to quiet the minds, remove the uneasiness, and silence the complaints, 
 of a great number of the good people of this State. And, for the purpose 
 of effecting and obtaining this desirable object, your constituents recommend 
 the following matters and articles to your consideration, which they imagine 
 will be conducive to this end, and to which they expect you will give your 
 particular attention in the General Court : 
 
 1st, That you endeavor to obtain a suspension of the collecting of the 
 last State tax, so far as it respects the redemption or payment of the public 
 securities of every description or denomination, or the interest due on said 
 securities, until some more easy and equal method of paying the same can 
 be found and adopted. And it is the sense of your constituents, that some 
 medium at which public securities of every kind have been sold and trans- 
 ferred from time to time shall be considered as the true value of the same,
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 413 
 
 and that they be paid both principal and interest accordingly; and that 
 the present appropriation of the impost and excise revenue be suspended in 
 the mean time, if not forever. (Voted.) 
 
 2d, That the courts of Common Pleas and General Sessions of the Peace 
 be abolished, and some other system instituted, calculated (if possible) to 
 lessen the present expense of suits in law, and bring them to a more speedy 
 decision. (Voted.} 
 
 3d. That particular attention be paid to the fee-table, and that the fees 
 of justices of the peace, attorneys-at-law, sheriffs, and all other civil officers, 
 be so far reduced as that they shall receive merely an honest and equitable 
 recompense for their services, and not have it in their power to evade the 
 true meaning and intention of the legislature hi their establishment of fees ; 
 and that it be an object whether a reduction of salaries in many instances 
 is not as proper as an augmentation in any. (Voted.) 
 
 4th, That you use your influence to obtain a law that no debt shall be 
 collected by law which shall be contracted after a certain period to be 
 fixed by the court, and that a tender act be made to ease all debtors as much 
 as possible without doing manifest injustice to creditors. (Voted.) 
 
 5th, That a proper method be adopted to obtain the sentiments of the 
 deople in this State respecting a present revision of our Contitution. 
 (Voted.) 
 
 6th. [Your constituents being convinced that the town of Boston is an 
 improper place for the General Assembly to hold their sessions in, they 
 therefore request that you use your influence to have some other place fixed 
 upon for that purpose.] 
 
 7th. [That the town clerk, or some other person, be appointed in each 
 town to record the deeds of the town.] 
 
 Many other matters of importance will doubtless suggest themselves, or be 
 brought into view in the course of the session, concerning which your con- 
 stituents are not able at present to give you their opinion. Such matters 
 they therefore cheerfully leave to your good sense and ability, to conduct 
 therein according to your best skill and judgment; nothing 'doubting that 
 you will use your utmost exertions to have such laws enacted, and such meas- 
 ures adopted, as will tend to the restoration and establishment of peace and 
 good government through the Commonwealth. 
 
 A pleasant journey is wished you, and a safe return with happy tidings. 
 DR. TIMOTHY CHILDS. 
 
 The first paragraph was the fruit of the intolerable load of pub- 
 lic indebtedness, from which had sprung, on the one hand, an una- 
 vailing attempt to reduce the principal by over-rapid instalments, 
 and, on the other, projects derogatory to the faith of the Com- 
 monwealth; among which a favorite proposition was, that the 
 public securities might justly be cancelled by paying the depre-
 
 414 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 ciated rates at which they had come into the hands of the last 
 holders. 
 
 The legislature, struggling to maintain the public credit, had 
 adopted an excise and impost tax for the purpose of paying the 
 interest and reducing the principal of the State debt, and had, 
 moreover, at the request of Congress, granted to the United States, 
 in aid of paying the foreign debt, a further impost of five per cent. 
 These acts the town instructed Representative Childs to oppose, 
 as well as the collection of the State tax, in which it was alleged 
 that the western counties were unfairly assessed. 
 
 The other paragraphs adopted merely favored the much-needed 
 reform of the courts, and asked that the question of revising the Con- 
 stitution should be submitted to the people. There was nothing, 
 surely, very revolutionary in these votes. Nor would there have 
 been even in the adoption of the others; which simply proposed to 
 abolish the collection by law of debts incurred after a certain 
 date, to substitute the registry of deeds by town instead of county 
 officers, and favored that nine-lived folly, of which Gov. Hutchinson 
 was the father, a removal of the seat of government from Boston. 
 
 Another meeting was held Oct. 23, when the insurrection was 
 approaching its armed outbreak ; but, while again electing male- 
 content delegates a to the county convention to be held at Pitts- 
 field, Nov. 5, it manifested the same repugnance to unnecessary 
 innovation which its predecessor had exhibited. Its action was 
 indeed even more conservative: for it declared emphatically 
 against an emission of paper money; opposed a tender act; and, 
 the former meeting having directed the collectors to retain the 
 rate-bills in their hands, this promised the support of the town in 
 their collection. 
 
 In the latter part of January, when the rebels at arms in the 
 county were conducting with unbridled insolence, there was a 
 stormy time at a town-meeting convened to consider the action 
 of a recent county convention. Matters were carried with so high 
 a hand by the insurrectionists, that the clerk, John Chandler Wil- 
 liams, withdrew ; the moderator, Eli Root, refused to declare the 
 votes ; and Capt. John Strong, who was appointed clerk pro tern., 
 neglected to record the dissolution of the meeting. 
 
 The folly of tampering with the passions of the mob was now 
 
 1 Joseph Fairfield, Daniel Hubbard, Samuel Rust, Dan Cadwell, and Capt. 
 Daniel Sackett.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 415 
 
 apparent; and tbe joy of the people was sincere, when, in the next 
 month, the occupation of the town by Gen. Lincoln relieved them 
 from the restraint which their indecision in the early part of the 
 contest had invited. 
 
 Thenceforward the town meetings consistently favored, not 
 only good order, but a sound policy. The best evidence of their 
 real sentiment is found in their vote at the State election, April, 
 1787, when Gov. Bowdoin, whose energetic and fearless course 
 had suppressed the rebellion, was a candidate for re-election, and 
 opposed by John Hancock, who was supposed to be more favora- 
 bly inclined to the insurgents. Such was the sympathy with the 
 rebels in many parts of the Commonwealth, even among those 
 who did not join in their extreme measures, that Hancock was 
 elected mainly on that issue, with a legislature of the same com- 
 plexion. But, in Pittsfield, the vote stood, for Bowdoin, forty- 
 seven ; for Hancock, thirteen : while the popularity won by Lin- 
 coln in his local military administration was attested by a unani- 
 mous vote (eighty -two) for lieutenant-governor. A still more 
 marked proof of the conservative re-action was the election of 
 Henry Van Schaack as representative, in spite of the prejudice 
 against him as a loyalist of the Revolution. 1 
 
 During the military occupation of Pittsfield, the troops were 
 quartered among the inhabitants in such manner as would cause 
 the least inconvenience which the nature of the case admitted. 
 The officers were assigned to the better class of houses, and were 
 almost universally received with a cordial welcome, from which 
 many enduring friendships arose; and doubtless, although unre- 
 corded, the same was true of intimacies formed in humbler quar- 
 ters. 
 
 Commendable discipline was maintained among the military ; 
 and the unavoidable wordy disputes between soldiers and citizens 
 never resulted in serious disturbances. 
 
 With a large number of young men congregated in a place 
 which afforded few legitimate channels for the relief of exuberant 
 animal spirits, or means for dissipating the tedium of garrison life, 
 the license of the camp sometimes assumed forms vexatious to the 
 staid housekeeper. But the incidents related in illustration of 
 these little annoyances betoken the roguish pranks of boyish men, 
 and not the insolence of military hectoring. No doubt the pur- 
 
 1 See note at end of this chapter.
 
 416 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 suit of lurking rebels was varied by raids such as college-boys 
 make upon orchards, cornfields, and poultry-yards ; but, if the 
 offenders were detected, punishment was sure and prompt. 
 
 Indeed, in the best-remembered instance, the injured party was 
 prompt to right herself. It happened that a considerable squad 
 was quartered in the tavern then kept by Capt. Jared Ingersoll, on 
 the south corner of the present North and Depot Streets. Now, 
 Capt. Ingersoll was a prisoner at Northampton, charged with par- 
 ticipating in the rebellion, leaving his affairs in charge of his wife, 
 the widow of Col. John Brown. The soldiers were perhaps 
 encouraged by the unfortunate position of the landlord to make 
 more free with the premises than they would otherwise have done ; 
 and a few of them, with a genuine Yankee appreciation of the 
 ftm of making money, placed in the bar-room a barrel of cider, 
 from which they proceeded to retail by the glass. But the rogues 
 had reckoned without their hostess ; for the spirited and resolute 
 landlady, appearing on the scene, unceremoniously pitched the 
 intrusive commodity into the street, remarking, with quiet empha- 
 sis, that " She kept tavern there." It is safe to guess that order 
 was preserved among the military guests of that household with- 
 out reference to the provost-marshal. 
 
 But, well as the soldiery remembered that they were among the 
 homes of their fellow-citizens, an extraordinary military bustle and 
 disquiet pervaded the streets of Pittsfield during the spring and 
 summer of 1787. The roll of the drum and the challenge of the 
 sentinel were frequent ; detachments were constantly marching and 
 counter-marching, as alarms came from one quarter or another ; 
 and prisoners were continually brought in, to be sent forward to 
 Great Barrington or Northampton jails : so that Pittsfield bore 
 not a little of the sad aspect which always attaches to the head- 
 quarters of the victors after a suppressed rebellion. For the 
 clemency which afterwards marked the course of the government 
 was not then assured or even probable ; and the prisoners set out 
 from Pittsfield with a well-grounded apprehension that the termi- 
 nation of their journey would be either a gallows or a felon's cell. 
 Shadowy as the perils which the government and its opponents 
 passed through in that day may now appear, we may be sure that 
 they were realities fearfully vivid and palpable to those who were 
 compelled to face them. And the consternation which the rebel, 
 in his uprising, excited among the friends of the government, was
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 417 
 
 fully brought home to his own breast, when, defeated, he found 
 himself a prisoner in the hands of the law which he had undertaken 
 to overthrow. Happily, the tremors of one party having been re- 
 moved by the success of its arms, those of the other were quieted 
 by the politic mercy of the /victors. The general commanding the 
 successful militia was earnest for the most liberal clemency, and 
 the majority of the people shared his generous sentiments; while 
 the most severe measures proposed by the minority were mild, as 
 compared with the standard of that era in cases of treason. 
 
 But, long after the rebel spirit had been conciliated towards the 
 government of the State, the effects of the divisions which it had 
 created in counties, towns, and neighborhoods continued to mani- 
 fest themselves in the relations of the people to each other. " Too 
 much had been said and done," says Dr. Field, "to permit the 
 people to become at once altogether friendly. Unhappy jealousies 
 remained in neighborhoods and towns; the clergy who had 
 favored the Revolutionary war opposed the rebellion, and thereby, 
 in some instances, offended many of their parishioners ; and this is 
 understood to have caused the dismission of the ministers in 
 Alford and Egremont, and created much disaffection in Sandis- 
 field." 
 
 In Pittsfield, the dissensions were aggravated by other than poli- 
 tical causes, and rose to such violence, that, in order to render life 
 in the town at all tolerable, it became necessary to reconcile them. 
 The mode in which this was attempted was so characteristic of the 
 times and of the people that it merits a minute narration. The 
 difficulties, although their exciting cause was chiefly political, 
 developed themselves most conspicuously in connection with 
 the affairs of the town as a religious parish, and were, in great 
 part, the fruit of the unnatural connection between church and 
 state. 
 
 In Pittsfield, the existence of other religious denominations than 
 the Congregational was practically ignored. The town was sim- 
 ply a Congregational parish, which could not be divided, except 
 by special act of the legislature. All its affairs were conducted in 
 town -meeting, as of old ; and the town retained all its rights and 
 privileges as the secular organization which provided for religious 
 worship. Cribbed so closely, the most pacific people would have 
 fretted themselves into a passion in the most peaceful times. A 
 great deal of good temper is preserved in our day by the large 
 27
 
 418 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 liberty we enjoy of dividing upon every difference. The good 
 people of Pittsfield were more trammelled when, in 1788, they 
 looked to peaceful separation as the alternative of the better if 
 possible thing, unity, to remedy their troubles ; and the warrant 
 for the April meeting proposed to hear any suggestions which 
 might be made "for uniting or dividing the town." 
 
 The meeting, it seems, did not despair of healing the existing 
 dissensions, but appointed a committee " to attend to all matters 
 which have been the cause or occasion of the late disunion in the 
 town, and to such matters as may tend to a union and reconcilia- 
 tion, and make report as soon as may be of such measures as to 
 them shall appear most likely to effect that desirable purpose." 
 
 The committee was made up with great care from men of 
 influence and sound discretion in all parties, as well as some who 
 had probably maintained a wise neutrality. Its members were 
 Woodbridge Little, Deacon Daniel Hubbard, Joseph Farr, Capt. 
 James Dn. Colt, Major Oliver Root, Deacon Joseph Clark, Capts. 
 David Bush, Joel Stevens, and William Francis, Enoch Haskins 
 and Stephen FoVler. A public hearing was given on the 3d of 
 June to all interested; and "having fully considered all the matters 
 of difficulty which were then or at any other time mentioned or 
 suggested to them as causes of uneasiness," and after much con- 
 sultation and investigation, the committee agreed upon a report, 
 which was submitted to the town on the 26th. 
 
 They found that the causes of the dissensions were all reducible 
 to the following heads : 
 
 " First. The state of the pews in the meeting-house, including the manner 
 in which they were obtained, and are now holden by their proprietors. 
 
 " Second. The Rev. Mr. Allen's having received an allowance from the 
 town for the depreciation of money, notwithstanding the various public 
 declarations which he has made. 
 
 Third. The Rev. Mr. Allen's having in times past, in his official character, 
 repeatedly interested himself in the political affairs of the country, and pub- 
 licly interposed therein in an undue and improper manner." 
 
 With regard to these allegations, the committee resolved, 
 
 " First. That it should be recommended to proprietors of pews to relinquish 
 their rights in them ; and that the town take such measures to accommodate 
 the inhabitants with seats as may be thought proper. 
 
 " Second. With respect to the second article, we do not find the Rev. Mr.
 
 HISTOBY OP PITTSFIELD. 419 
 
 Allen to have been guilty of any immoral conduct therein ; and we recom- 
 mend it to every person who is aggrieved thereby to apply to Mr. Allen, who 
 will doubtless give every reasonable satisfaction in his power ; and, if any 
 such person shall desire satisfaction of a pecuniary kind, we wish Mr. Allen, 
 for the sake of peace, to grant it. 
 
 " Third. And, as to matters contained in the third article, we consider Mr. 
 Allen to be liable to human frailties and error ; and we are of opinion that 
 much of the uneasiness and disunion subsisting in this town might have been 
 prevented had he ever been silent with respect to political matters in his 
 public performances ; but we by no means charge him with any sinister or 
 criminal intention therein. 
 
 " Resolved, further, That, whenever the town shall think proper to erect a 
 meeting-house, the place for the standing of the same shall be submitted to 
 the determination of three or more disinterested persons, not inhabitants of 
 the town." 
 
 The reader will recall that proprietorship was originally acquired 
 in the pews by some of the more wealthy early settlers, who were 
 allowed to purchase for lack of funds otherwise to finish the house. 
 The square pews were still held under these titles, and occupied 
 an undue space in the little meeting-house. There arose a more 
 serious difficulty, that while the people were " sorted " by the 
 committee, according to their notions of social position, upon the 
 " long seats " and in the gallery, the pew-holders with their 
 families, from year to year, marched to their prescriptive places 
 with an odious dignity, free of official censorship. 
 
 Some further explanation than was at that time necessary is 
 now requisite for a proper understanding of the pecuniary relations 
 of Mr. Allen to the town. 
 
 His settlement in 1764, with an annual stipend of 80 and forty 
 cords of wood, will be remembered. Twenty-four years had 
 passed, and left him with a wife and eight surviving children, but 
 no increase of salary, or, rather, with a fearful decrease by the 
 depreciation of the currency. He had, however, during the war 
 of the Revolution, been led by a noble zeal and faith in his coun- 
 try to " loan the Continent " the sum of $2,500, to obtain the means 
 for which and for other local purposes of a similar character, as 
 well as to support his family, he had alienated more than half of 
 the valuable home-lot which had fallen to him as first minister of 
 the town. At one time of his country's need, he had even sold 
 his watch in order to turn the proceeds into a Continental " cer- 
 tificate of indebtedness." One can well pardon some untimely
 
 420 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 expression of a zeal which thus manifested itself. In 1788, these 
 Continental certificates had depreciated in value to $606 Connecti- 
 cut money ; and the Confederation and the State then owed him, 
 at these depreciated rates, $1,129, principal and interest. 
 
 It thus happened that in the year 1783, with his funds unavail- 
 able, he found himself considerably in debt, and, by the advice of 
 friends, applied to his parish for relief. The request was promptly 
 met by a grant of 300 ; but, learning that a few tax-payers felt 
 aggrieved by this act of justice as well as generosity, he at once 
 declined it. 
 
 He, however, accepted a loan of 200, for which he gave his 
 bond, although he was led by the intimations of some of his 
 parishioners to expect that repayment would never be required. 
 We may anticipate our story by remarking that this not unnatural 
 expectation was defeated by the contentions which continued to 
 prevail. In 1792, Mr. Allen paid 150 of the principal ; and, in 
 1809, he took up his note, devoting the whole of his salary for the 
 preceding year to the payment of what remained due. He had 
 paid more than 800, principal and interest, upon the loan of 200. 
 
 The report submitted on the 26th resulted in the following 
 action. The owners of pews having released their rights " so that 
 every person might have an equal right to seats therein until the 
 town should be divided into two or more parishes," their action 
 was voted perfectly satisfactory, although the idea of separation 
 was still prominently held out. 
 
 With regard to the subjects of the second and third resolutions 
 of the committee's report, it seems that Mr. Allen had made some 
 personal communication to the meeting, in part, probably, em- 
 bodying some of the statements which we have given above. 
 " These declarations," the town voted unanimously, " removed all 
 uneasiness which had subsisted in the minds of the people now 
 present, and they are determined to be satisfied therewith ; " and 
 they recommended " the inhabitants of the town not now present, 
 who remain unsatisfied, to apply to the town for such pecuniary 
 satisfaction as they may think they ought to receive for what they 
 may have paid on the depreciation tax." 
 
 Notwithstanding this harmonious action of the meeting, 
 " uneasiness continued to prevail to some extent among those who 
 had absented themselves ; " and a number of the discontented, the 
 next year, applied for an abatement of their ministry tax, which 
 was refused, except as regarded those legally exempt.
 
 HISTOBY OF PITTSFIELD. 421 
 
 Mi 1 . Allen's bond also continued to be the subject of discussion 
 and negotiation until its final payment, as from time to time por- 
 tions of it were discharged by " discounts on his salary," and by 
 the release of his interest in the lots devoted to the support of the 
 ministry. These transactions appear to have been conducted in 
 good temper, and, at least during the closing years of that century, 
 with due regard to the convenience of the debtor. Although some 
 few were openly disaffected towards the minister, and doubtless 
 the sting of his plain preaching of political duty in time past 
 secretly rankled in the bosoms of others, still an era of compara- 
 tive good feeling had been reached, as regarded the minister ; and, 
 for a few years, the contentious spirits of the town were engrossed 
 by other matters. 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 JOSHUA DANFORTH was born at Weston in 1759 ; his father being Jonathan Danforth, 
 who commanded a battalion with credit at the battle of Bennington. His preparation 
 for college was interrupted by the Revolution, and he entered the army at the age of 
 fifteen as clerk in his father's company. After serving for some months in this office, 
 performing at the same time the duties of surgeon's mate, he was made ensign at 
 sixteen, promoted first lieutenant in 1778, and paymaster, with the rank of captain, hi 
 1781. lie performed a gallant exploit hi rescuing baggage from an exposed position at 
 Roxbury in 1775, was present at the surrender of Burgoyne, and suffered with Washing- 
 ton's army the horrors of the following winter at Valley Forge, which he described as " in- 
 credible." In 1778, he took part in the battle of Monmouth Court-House, and, in 1781, 
 was in command of a post on the Lower Hudson. From that year he served as pay- 
 master until May, 1784, when he removed to Pittsfield, and engaged in mercantile business 
 in company with Col. Simon Lamed. Here he was postmaster and collector of internal 
 revenue, and held other public offices, until his death in 1837. No citizen of the town 
 was ever held in higher respect than Col. Danforth for sound sense, official ability and 
 integrity, moral worth, and consistent piety. 
 
 HENRY VAN SCHAACK was born at Kinderhook in 1733. Having received the limited 
 education which the common school of that town could give, he went to serve a mercantile 
 apprenticeship with Peter Van Brugh Livingston of New York. At the age of twenty, 
 he was lieutenant of the company commanded by Philip, afterwards Gen. Schuyler, in 
 the expedition of 1755 against Crown Point ; and, when Col. Ephraim Williams's re- 
 giment was cut up by the enemy, he was one of the party of two hundred and fifty 
 who first went to their relief. He was afterwards paymaster and commissioner of 
 musters, with the rank of major. 
 
 He carried on his mercantile business successfully ; and, as early as 1757, he had an 
 interest in trading stations at Oswego and Niagara. On the conquest of Canada, he 
 extended his operations to Detroit and Mackinaw, then the ultima thule of British 
 North America. He had by these means acquired, previous to the Revolution, an 
 ample fortune. 
 
 When the Stamp Act passed, he was postmaster of the city of Albany, and a prominent 
 business man. Falling under the suspicion of the " Sons of Liberty " that he intended 
 to apply for the office of stamp-distributor also, the populace destroyed the balcony,
 
 422 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 windows, and furniture of his house, and compelled him to take an oath never to apply 
 for the odious office, nor to accept it if offered him. 
 
 In 1769, he removed to his native town, Kinderhook, where he was immediately ap- 
 pointed justice of the peace, and elected supervisor, which offices he held until the 
 Revolution. 
 
 Mr. Van Schaack was a member of the first Committee of Safety and Correspond- 
 ence for the City and County of Albany, and a candidate for delegate to the Continental 
 Congress. But, early in 1775, he withdrew from the committee, and declared himself a 
 loyalist. He had reached the conclusion, that " the dispute with the mother country 
 was carried on with too much acrimony ; " that the Congress of 1774 " had left no back 
 door open for reconciliation ;" that there was " too much reason to believe that many 
 citizens wished to shake off their dependence upon Great Britain ; " and that " the people 
 had got to that pass that they did not consider the qualifications of a king, for they 
 would have no king." With regard to the two latter propositions, Mr. Van Shaack 
 read the people better than they read themselves ; but he was less fortunate in predict- 
 ing that " Great Britain will lower us, in spite of all we can do : the Fishing-bill will 
 make us knuckle." 
 
 For all this, Mr. Van Schaack appears to have been a sincere lover of his country, and 
 to have dreaded, not rejoiced in, the humiliation which he anticipated. But loyal by in- 
 stinct as well as by principle, and reverencing the oath of allegiance which he had 
 often taken, he craved the privilege of neutrality. This, however, could not reasonably 
 be granted to a man of his prominence, while he remained at home ; and he was re- 
 quired by the Commissioners of Conspiracies to withdraw, while the contest lasted, into 
 Connecticut or Massachusetts, and place himself under the supervision of their Com- 
 mittee of Inspection. He chose Berkshire County ; and, after trying Richmond and 
 Stockbridge for a few months each, he purchased the beautiful estate which includes 
 Melville Lake, and settled in Pittsfield. Here his desire to withdraw from political strife 
 was gratified ; and, although he watched the course of affairs with intense interest, he 
 afforded no cause of complaint to the most jealous Whig. On the contrary, he won the 
 confidence and friendship of many of the leading patriots to a degree which attests the 
 worth of his character as a man and his pleasant qualities as a companion. The act 
 Of banishment against him was revoked, and Gen. Schuyler wrote inviting him to 
 return. Mr. Van Shaack, however, was entirely satisfied with Massachusetts, as will 
 appear from the letter already quoted, as well as from another to his brother Peter, in 
 which he says, " So perfectly am I satisfied with the manners, customs, and laws of 
 this Commonwealth, that I would not exchange them for any other I know of in the 
 world." 
 
 At the close of the war, be became a citizen of the State ; and we shall continue to 
 find him prominent in town affairs and in social life. But he finally returned to Kinder- 
 hook, where he died.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 COUNTY COURTS IN PITTSFIELD. 
 
 [1761-1787.] 
 
 Courts on Unkamet Street. Peculiarities of the Court of General Sessions. 
 
 Court-house Scenes. Dissatisfaction with the Place of holding the 
 Courts. Contributions and Plans for a New Court-House. Various Sites 
 Advocated. Change in the Shire"-Towns proposed. Popular and Legislative 
 Action. A County Convention decides for Lenox. Opposition. Delays. 
 
 The Legislature insists. Court-House and Jail built. 
 
 - 
 
 ~T~ IETJT. GRAVES'S house, on Unkamet Street, was an impor- 
 I J tant spot in the Pittsfield of old times, when the county courts 
 held in its long room their quarterly terms ; events of much greater 
 public moment then than now, on account of the peculiar compo- 
 sition and functions of the General Sessions of the Peace. 
 
 This tribunal, in addition to its jurisdiction in criminal cases, was 
 a sort of county parliament, in which not only were many impor- 
 tant matters, now intrusted to the commissioners, officially decided 
 by the justices ; but the general affairs of the county were debated 
 informally by all the gentlemen in attendance, and sometimes de- 
 terminations reached to which the influence of those who partici- 
 pated in them gave almost the force of law. The personal influence 
 of village magnates, powerful still, was then immeasurably more so; 
 indeed, if united, irresistible : and, when matters of engrossing 
 interest were agitated, a very large proportion of the men of wealth 
 and standing were sure to congregate at "the Sessions." 
 
 Four justices composed this court in 1761, who, six years later, 
 had increased to ten. Probably, when the Revolution broke out, 
 the number of magistrates on its bench exceeded a dozen ; but 
 the records of the intervening period are missing, having, perhaps, 
 been a part of those which, as traditions state, were destroyed with 
 
 423
 
 424 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 the house of Lieut. Graves when it was burned, just previous to 
 the removal of the courts to Lenox. 
 
 After the Revolution, the number of justices was greatly aug- 
 mented ; twenty-six being reported present at a session of 1800. 
 
 Besides the judges of the two courts, many of the principal 
 gentlemen of the county were usually collected, as executive offi- 
 cers, lawyers, suitors, jurors, witnesses, or spectators interested in 
 the civil matters before the Court of Sessions. 
 
 In Lieut. Graves's homestead, the most spacious room had been 
 fitted up with the furniture necessary for the court ; and, the winter 
 terms being held at Pittsfield, a blazing fire roared up the huge old- 
 fashioned chimney, and garrisoned the seat of justice against the 
 besieging cold. 
 
 Among the groups gathered in the recesses of the courts around 
 the cheery blaze, or those which no less ruddily illumined the 
 windows of the neighboring taverns, might generally have been seen 
 most of the men noted in the county annals of those times. 
 
 Some of these were in active correspondence with the leading 
 spirits of the age at the centres of political influence ; all were 
 readers of some of the few journals then published ; and many 
 were diligent students of State lore and of the polemical essays 
 which flooded the country. Here they interchanged information 
 and views, discussed the agitated course of events, and concerted 
 measures in regard to them. 
 
 Nor has tradition forgotten the genial social intercourse of the 
 gentlemen many of them such in the best old use of that word 
 who were bi'ought together in the long winter evenings of court- 
 time. Many are the jokes, quips, quirks, and quiddits, the stories, 
 anecdotes, and repartees, handed down of those whose sterling 
 worth and brilliant talent are overshadowed to posterity by the 
 quaintness with which their wit and humor, as well as their old- 
 fashioned gentility, have invested their memory. They were good 
 livers all, and, in the manner of its enjoyment, could impart an ad- 
 ditional zest to either the haunch of venison, the gloriously-flavored 
 wild turkey of the Berkshire woods, or the homely roast ; to the 
 fine old Madeira of Col. Williams, or the "bottled cider" of their 
 own making, such as Major Van Schaack boasted "equal to the 
 best champagne." 
 
 It must be confessed, that the social glass, unadulterated as it 
 was, wrought its own work upon some of the noblest of the circle ;
 
 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 425 
 
 and it is true that the magnificence of spirit and nice code of honor 
 which prevailed tolerated vices, especially the profanity and licen- 
 tiousness peculiar to that age, which advancing civilization has 
 since taught New England to ban, if not to banish. 
 
 Their vices, like their virtues, were those of the high-spirited 
 gentlemen of the old school ; and, if the groups gathered in that 
 cosey and ruddy nook among the Winter-bergs is not a perfect 
 model for the imitation of modern Berkshire, it is certainly a very 
 picturesque one for the painter, whether he use pen or pencil. Nor is 
 it for the present age, with its manifold creeping and crawling sins, 
 to bestow its indignation in any Pharisaic spirit upon the more 
 robust naughtiness of its predecessor. 
 
 In hours like those we have described, friendships grew up 
 which endured for years, in which old men often manifested the 
 most affecting tenderness for each other. Here, too, in the fierce 
 conflicts of law and politics, were engendered feuds which some- 
 times became deadly and hereditary. But, upon the whole, the 
 habitual attendants upon the courts acquired a friendly intimacy 
 which rendered them almost a band of brothers. 
 
 Upon those pleasant days broke the distant rumblings which 
 heralded the Revolution. In and around the little Pittsfield 
 court-room at Unkamet's Crossing, as elsewhere, while the hour 
 for resistance to tyranny was approaching, the encroachments of 
 Great Britain were descanted upon ; and, as one after another 
 blow aimed at natural or chartered rights was announced, those 
 who had clung to the hope of reconciliation one by one sorrow- 
 fully renounced it, until the few who adhered to the king stood 
 miserably conspicuous, aliens from the household in which some 
 of them had lately been among the most honored members, ex- 
 cluded from social or commercial intercourse, and branded as 
 " the enemies of American liberty." 
 
 But, before this division of those loyal to the king from those 
 loyal to the country was complete, the courts of Berkshire had 
 ceased forever to be held in the royal name ; and the interregnum 
 which ensued, until the new government was established in 1780, 
 resulted incidentally in the removal of the courts from Great Bar- 
 rington and Pittsfield, and their concentration at Lenox. 
 
 The insufficient accommodations for the courts at Pittsfield had, 
 in 1774, long been a source of complaint; and, previous to that 
 date, measures had been entered upon to provide better. The loss
 
 426 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 of the records, however, leaves us in the dark as to what those 
 measures were, except as light is thrown upon them by the follow- 
 ing unsigned draft of agreement, which was found among the 
 papers of Col. Williams : 
 
 BERKSHIRE, ss. 
 
 To the, Honorable His Majesty's Justices of the General Sessions of the Peace and Inferior 
 Court of Common Pleas, to be holden at Pittsfield, within and for the said County, on the 
 fourth Tuesday of Febi-uary next, being the twenty-second Day of said Month, A.D. 1774. 
 
 Whereas, for many years past, there has been great uneasiness in said 
 county, that the courts appointed by law to be held at Pittsfield, within and 
 for said county, should from time to time be holden at the house of Lieut. 
 Graves, in said Pittsfield ; and, from the extraordinary growth and increase 
 of said county, said uneasiness has grown to a great degree of dissatisfaction, 
 of which, if we are not mistaken, your Honors have heretofore been informed, 
 and at a greater meeting than ever was known of his Majesty's justices of 
 the General Sessions of the Peace for said county, whether it might be called 
 a Court of the General Sessions of the Peace or not we are uncertain, they, 
 the said justices, then and there did nominate and appoint a committee to 
 repair to Pittsfield to view and determine the most suitable place for the erect- 
 ing a court-house in said town, the major part of whom reported, as we 
 are informed, that between the corners of Messrs. Jones, Fairfield, Goodrich, 
 and Root was the most suitable place to accommodate the county and 
 public : 
 
 Wherefore we, the subscribers, for the sake of peace and unanimity, and 
 for the accommodation of the public, do make over, dispose of, and assign to 
 such person or persons as your Honors shall appoint, all and singular such 
 lands, moneys, and articles as we have hereunto subscribed, for the ends and 
 purposes following ; viz., to erect a decent and commodious court-house for 
 the use and benefit of said county, provided the house be erected at said 
 place, and hereby bind and oblige ourselves, our heirs, &c., to the perform- 
 ance thereof, as fully and amply as we can or ought to be holden in any 
 contract or bargain, however precisely and lawfully exemplified or expressed. 
 In witness whereof, we have hereunto affixed our names, and the articles 
 which we promise for the purpose aforesaid. 1 
 
 The location named is now Wendell Square, the ambitious early 
 projects of whose abuttors, already narrated, 'were now revived, 
 only to be again dashed almost in the moment of fruition. The 
 interested parties tendered a gift of the land arid building material ; 
 and tradition avers that the latter was actually collected, and long 
 cumbered the ground. But the term of the court to which the 
 tender was made, and by which it was undoubtedly accepted, was 
 
 * C. C. p. 237.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 427 
 
 the last which Berkshire County saw for over six years. There 
 were also efforts to secure the location of the court-house near 
 The Elm and the meeting-house ; but a more strenuous exertion 
 was made by some proprietors of lands between TJnkamet's Cross- 
 ing and Silver Lake, who inherited Col. Stoddard's vision of a 
 central village in that quarter, and wished the new building to be 
 placed at the junction of Beaver and Dickinson Streets, on the 
 lands now a part of the grounds of Hon. Messrs. Benjamin R. 
 Curtis and Thomas Allen, and immediately in front of the house 
 built, and in 1774 occupied, by Woodbridge Little. Here, as 
 upon Wendell Square, land was tendered for the court-house, a 
 public square was actually laid out, and materials for the building 
 collected. 
 
 There was, of course, no occasion to discuss the location of 
 court-houses while the courts were suspended, nor, in the absence 
 of the General Sessions, was there any authority to build upon 
 the spot already designated; and when, almost immediately after 
 the re-establishment of civil government, the subject was again 
 agitated, it was with a view to a change in the places of holding 
 the courts. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Allen states positively * that the courts were removed 
 for political reasons ; and it is likely that the leading part which 
 Pittsfield took in opposition to eastern sentiment regarding civil 
 government during the Revolution may have been artfully used 
 to influence the legislature in favor of the change. But it could 
 hardly been the motive of the originators of the movement in 
 the county. 
 
 What, if any thing other than local interests of the towns which 
 wished to supplant the old county seats, really prompted this 
 movement, it is difficult now to determine. 
 
 The population of the county, which in 1761 lay almost entirely 
 south of the north line of Pittsfield, had now extended itself 
 largely in the north, but not sufficiently to demand the transfer 
 of the county seat in that direction. The preponderance of 
 wealth and numbers was still with the lower towns. 
 
 Lanesborough was flourishing, and rivalling her next southern 
 neighbor in business and population ; but there were few spots 
 among the sterile hills of the north to tempt the agriculturist from 
 the broad and fertile meadows which extended along the Housa- 
 
 1 Pamphlet of 1810.
 
 428 HISTORY OP PITTSFIELD. 
 
 tonic from Sheffield to Lanesborough, or from the superb uplands 
 of Pittsfield and a few other towns in the south. Sheffield, Great 
 Barrington, Stockbridge, and their neighbors, still retained the 
 advantage in point of wealth which they had gained while Pitts- 
 field, and all north of that point, was a wilderness, or was barely 
 held by a military occupation against the savage. Those noble 
 manufactures which have since brought such wealth and increase 
 of people to Northern Berkshire were then but feebly dreamt of, 
 if at all, by such enthusiasts as Parson Allen ; and the railroads 
 which now vein the county in all directions from Pittsfield were 
 as yet .not even prophesied by the poor foreshadowing of a single 
 turnpike. There was nothing to indicate that the northern section 
 of the county would ever equal much less excel its favored 
 southern sister, either in wealth or people. Pittsfield was thus, in 
 1781, a more suitable place for holding the courts than when, 
 almost upon the northern frontier of settlement, it was selected 
 twenty years before ; and there is no apparent reason other than 
 the local ambition of rival towns why change should have been 
 desired. The suggestion of the evils of a divided shire, so apparent 
 as to show the necessity of concentration of all the courts at one 
 place, evidently did not influence the first agitators of the subject. 
 
 The first recorded action in regard to a change was in Novem- 
 ber, 1782, when the legislature, upon the petition of Asa Barnes, 
 a prominent citizen of Lauesborough, acting as agent for that and 
 other towns, appointed a committee " to repair to the county of 
 Berkshire, take a general view of it, and determine where the courts 
 shall in future be held." 
 
 The committee Charles Turner, Esq., Gen. Artemas Ward, and 
 Hon. John Sprague visited the county in June, met the delegates 
 of twenty-two towns at Stockbridge, and made such an examination 
 of the county as they thought necessary, or the delegates desired. 
 The result was a recommendation, which the legislature adopted, 
 that, after the 1st of January, 1784, the courts should be held at 
 Lenox, in some convenient place between the meeting-house and 
 the dwelling of Capt. Charles Dibble. This act passed in February, 
 1783 ; and, in the little parliament which assembled around the 
 General Sessions at the Great Barrington term in May, a petition 
 was set on, foot praying for an indefinite postponement of the 
 proposed change, upon the ostensible ground that the county was 
 too poor to erect the necessary buildings.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 429 
 
 The legislature granted a delay of two years, until January, 
 1786; and the opponents of Lenox made a busy use of the respite. 
 In the fall of 1784, a spirited movement was entered upon for 
 what was doubtless the object of the Barnes petition, alternate 
 courts at Great Barrington and Lanesborough ; but the project 
 met little favor. The people, however, were so ill content, that 
 the legislature submitted the matter again to a county convention, 
 which assembled at Lenox, Sept. 28, sixteen towns being repre- 
 sented. This convention adjourned, after appointing Woodbridge 
 Little of Pittsfield, Timothy Edwards of Stockbridge, and William 
 "Whiting of Great Barrington, a committee to receive the proposals 
 of the several towns which desired to become the county seat. 
 
 On the 12th of October, this committee sent out circulars to all 
 the towns in the county; of which the following paragraphs form 
 the gist : 
 
 " We, the subscribers, a committee of said convention, beg leave to inform 
 you, that it is the wish and desire of said convention, that you, without fail, 
 send one or more delegates to attend in a county convention to be holden 
 by adjournment at Lenox, on the second Tuesday of November next, at the 
 dwelling-house of Capt. Charles Dibble, at ten of the clock in the forenoon. 
 
 " The following proposals are submitted to your consideration ; and it is 
 desired, that, in your deliberations, you will attend to the same, and instruct 
 and direct your delegate or delegates in what place or places it is the choice 
 of your town that the courts in and for said county shall be holden. 
 
 " The proposals are as follows : 
 
 " Great Barrington will repair the court-house in said town, and furnish 
 and provide a sufficient jail in said town for the safe keeping of prisoners, 
 and for this propose to give ample security, provided one-half of the courts 
 be established in said town. 
 
 " Lanesborough will build and complete a good, sufficient, and elegant 
 court-house in that town, and propose to give ample security therefor, 
 provided one-half of the courts be established in that town. 
 
 " Pittsfield will be at the sole expense of erecting a court-house equal in 
 value and elegance to the court-house in Northampton, and propose to give 
 ample security therefor, provided one-half of the courts be established in 
 said town, and the other half in Stockbridge. 
 
 " Stockbridge will give the sum of five hundred and seventy-eight pounds 
 and ten shillings towards the public buildings for said county, provided one- 
 half of the courts be established in said town, and the other half at Pitts- 
 field ; and further propose to give the sum of seven hundred and fifty pounds 
 and ten shillings, if all the courts shall be established in Stockbridge ; and 
 propose to give ample security for the respective sums, as the case may 
 require.
 
 430 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 " Lenox will give the sum of eight hundred pounds towards the public 
 buildings, and propose to give ample security therefor, provided all the 
 courts are finally established in that town. 
 
 " And it is further proposed that the securities above mentioned be laid 
 before said adjourned convention, that they may be able to determine upon 
 them, as they shall judge proper. 1 
 
 The convention met, according to adjournment, at the house of 
 Capt. Charles Dibble, in Lenox, and chose Nathaniel Bishop scribe. 
 Delegates were present from nineteen towns, viz. : 
 
 From Sheffield, Col. Root, Mr. Raymond ; Alford, Capt. Brunson ; New 
 Marlborough, Capt. Taylor ; Sandisfield, Capt. Kellogg ; Tyringham, Mr. 
 Gaffield [Garfield], Mr. Jackson ; Becket, Mr. Brown ; Washington, Capt. 
 Ashley ; Lee, William Ingersoll, Esq., Capt. Bradley ; Stockbridge, John 
 Bacon, Esq., Jahleel Woodbridge, Esq., Timothy Edwards, Esq. ; Richmont,' J 
 Gen. Rossiter, Nathaniel Bishop, Esq. ; Lenox, Gen. Patterson, Col. Hyde, 
 Israel Dewey, Esq., Capt. Gray, William Walker, Esq. ; Pittsfield, Eli Root, 
 Esq., Mr. [Dr.] Childs ; Lanesborough, Gideon Wheeler, Esq. ; Hancock, 
 Samuel Hand, Esq. ; Dalton, Capt. Cleveland ; Partridgeficld, Mr. Kenny ; 
 Great Barrington, William Whiting, Esq., Jonathan Nash, Esq., Mr. Elisba 
 Lee, Major King, Mr. Younglove ; West Stockbridge, Mr. Hooker. 
 
 The propositions from the several towns which had made offers 
 in regard to the county seat were laid before the convention, and 
 pronounced ample in each case. 
 
 The question was then put whether the courts " should in future 
 be holden in two towns, or in one only ; " and the vote stood as 
 follows: 
 
 For one town only, Tyringharn, Becket, Washington, Lee, Stockbridge, 
 Richmout, Williamstown, Partridgefield, West Stockbridge, Lenox, ten. 
 
 For two towns, Sheffield, Alford, New Marlborough, Sandisfield, Pitts- 
 field, Lanesborough, Hancock, Dalton, Great Barrington, nine. 
 
 The convention then selected Lenox for the shire-town by the 
 following vote : 
 
 For Stockbridge, Sheffield, Alford, New Marlborough, Sandisfield, Ty- 
 ringham, Lee, Stockbridge, West Stockbridge, eight. 
 
 For Lenox, Becket, Washington, Richmont, Lenox, Lanesborough, 
 Williamstown, Hancock, Dalton, Partridgefield, Great Barrington, ten? 
 
 1 This circular, which is signed by Woodbridge Little in behalf and by order 
 of the committee, is preserved in the archives of Pittsfield. 
 
 2 The town of Richmond was originally incorporated, owing to a clerical error, 
 as Richmont ; and it was many years before the mistake was corrected by the le- 
 gislature. 
 
 3 The record of the November convention is in the collection of papers relating
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 431 
 
 Pittsfield did not vote; having probably determined to contest 
 in the legislature the decision of the convention in favor of a 
 single shire-town. There was, in fact, throughout the county, 
 much dissatisfaction with the proceedings we have related ; and, 
 in 1785, so general and spirited was the opposition, that it appeared 
 to the General Court that "the inhabitants of several towns in the 
 county are dissatisfied that the courts should be held at Lenox, as 
 by. law established : " and, as it was " important that some place or 
 places should be determined upon for that purpose as soon as 
 might be," Hon. Caleb Strong, Warham Parks, and David Smead, 
 Esqs., were commissioned to view the towns of Great Barrington, 
 Stockbridge, Lenox, Pittsfield, and Lanesborough," the promi- 
 nent candidates for favor, and such other places as might enable 
 them to determine the object of their commission justly ; to ac- 
 quaint themselves with the roads passing through the county, and 
 the communications between the interior and exterior towns ; to 
 pay due attention to situation, and the probability of future settle- 
 ment; to hear such representations as might be made to them 
 upon the subject ; and then to fix upon some proper place or 
 places, and, if they shall find more than one necessary, to deter- 
 mine what terms shall be held at each respectively, and which 
 should be the shire-town." 
 
 The committee met the deputies of the towns at Pittsfield on 
 the llth of May, when all were represented except New Ashford, 
 West Stockbridge, Becket, Sandisfield, and New Marlborough ; 
 " and it was agreed what the predilections of those towns severally 
 were." A very thorough examination of the county, in accordance 
 with the instructions of the legislature, was then made. The result 
 was, that the committee "were clearly and unanimously of opinion 
 that it would not be for the interest or peace of the county to 
 have all the courts fixed at any one place ; but that the inhabitants 
 of the county would be best accommodated *by having the courts 
 held alternately at Stockbridge and Pittsfield, and that Stock- 
 bridge should be the shire-town," and that the terms of the Su- 
 perior Court should be held at that place. 
 
 The legislature, governed by reasons of which we have no 
 knowledge, adhered to its election of Lenox, notwithstanding the 
 emphatically adverse report of its own able commission. 
 
 It would have been strange if the opposition of Pittsfield, dur- 
 
 to the history of Berkshire belonging to Charles J. Taylor, Esq., of Great Bar- 
 rington.
 
 432 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 ing the Revolution, to the courts set up by the legislature, and to 
 the policy pi-evalent at the east, had not left a prejudice against 
 her upon the minds of the public men of that section, of which it 
 would have been easy for shrewd managers in the lobby or on the 
 floor to have taken advantage ; but the same could hardly be said 
 of Great Harrington, which, in 1778, had been the only town in 
 the county to vote, as it did almost unanimously, in favor of 
 admitting the civil administration of the State. Lenox, although 
 
 o * o 
 
 as perversely against the legislative policy as her neighbors, was 
 less conspicuous. But Stockbridge was rather conservative in 
 politics, was the residence of many eminent and influential men, 
 and was already a lovely village, whose praise was in the mouths 
 of people of culture and intelligence in the great centres of 
 opinion. 
 
 It is observable, that when the movement for the change in the 
 courts was begun, for the two years 1782 and 1783, Pittsfield was 
 unrepresented in the General Court, and in the former year was 
 fined 36. 6s. 3d. for neglecting to send a representative. In 1784 
 Dr. Timothy Childs, and in 1785 Capt. Charles Goodrich, were 
 chosen, and probably commanded as much influence at Boston as 
 any who could have been selected. In the same years, there were 
 in the legislature, from Berkshire, such men as Theodore Sedg- 
 wick, Jahleel Woodbridge, and John Bacon, of Stockbridge ; Eli- 
 jah Dwight of Great Barrington ; William Walker of Lenox ; and 
 Jonathan Smith of Lanesborough : and all doubtless exhibited the 
 regard for their respective places of residence which is natural and 
 creditable; and it would be pardonable if their judgments were 
 warped by local predilections. 
 
 Geographically, as between the north and south, the centre of the 
 county is nearly on the south line of Pittsfield, about equidistant 
 from the Pittsfield Park and the Lenox Court-house ; but, in 1785, 
 the centre of wealth and population was considerably to the south 
 of the latter point, probably in the neighborhood of " Old Stock- 
 bridge on the plain." If the courts were all. to be held at one 
 point, the selection of Lenox, therefore, favored the north rather 
 than the south. 
 
 Even if the General Sessions manifested any great alacrity, 
 which is not apparent, in complying with the act of the legislature 
 in establishing the shire-town, the state of the county precluded 
 an immediate provision to carry it out. The year 1786, it will be
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSF1ELD. 433 
 
 remembered, was that of the Shays Rebellion, and was certainly 
 an unhappy one for raising taxes in Berkshire for any purpose, 
 and most of all for the erection of court-houses and juils. 
 
 The court of General Sessions held at Pittsfield in May, 1786, 
 nevertheless directed Eli Root, John C. Williams, and Simon 
 Earned, all of that town, to prepare a plan for the public buildings 
 to be built at Lenox, and report what materials would be required. 
 Eli Root was also appointed to fill a vacancy caused by the resig- 
 nation of Theodore Sedgwick on a commission previously named 
 to select a proper site. 
 
 The succeeding terms of the court being obstructed by the Shays 
 men, the committees had no opportunity to report until May, 1787, 
 even if they desired to do so. But, early in that year, to have 
 the Berkshire courts settled, the legislature, rendered impatient by 
 the exciting events which had just transpired in the county, made 
 a peremptory order that the Court of Common Pleas should be 
 held at Lenox in the ensuing February, and the Supreme Court in 
 May. The first term of the Common Pleas recorded to have been 
 held there opened Sept. 11, 1787. 
 
 In the mean time, the Court of General Sessions, at the May 
 tefm held at Great Barrington, selected Theodore Sedgwick and 
 John Bacon of Stockbridge, and Major Azariah Eggleston of 
 Lenox, to determine upon a site and contract for the erection of 
 the buildings, which David Rossiter, Nathaniel Bishop of Rich- 
 mond, and Benjamin Pierce were directed to superintend, and 
 have finished as soon as possible. The county buildings were 
 actually commenced in the spring of 1788. The jail was finished, 
 and the prisoners were removed to it from Great Barrington, in the 
 latter part of 1790 ; the court-house was completed in 1791 or 
 1792: the cost o'f the two buildings being 3,441. 5s., 3<Z., towards 
 which, according to Dr. Field, " individuals in Lenox advanced, in 
 building materials, 800." The court-house, a wooden building, 
 now the Lenox town-hall, stood a few rods south of that now about 
 to be abandoned by the courts, which was erected in 1815, and has 
 been several times remodelled. The first jail was built upon a 
 hill about half a mile south of the village, on the old Stockbridge 
 Road. 
 
 28
 
 CHAPTER XXIY. 
 
 THE MEETING-HOUSE OF 1790. 
 [1789-1793.] 
 
 Accommodations for Religious Worship in 1 790. Plans for a New Meeting-House. 
 Items from the Assessment of 1791. Sale of Continental Money. Mate- 
 rials for the New Meeting-House. Location of the House. Salvation of the 
 Elm, and Creation of the Park. Building of the House. Disputes about 
 Pews. The First Bell. Destruction of the Old Meeting-House. Ball- 
 Playing forbidden on the Common. Town House and Academy erected. 
 Protection for the Burial-Ground. John Chandler Williams. Madam 
 Williams. 
 
 MESSRS. Oliver Partridge and Moses Graves, in 1762, ex- 
 pressed to the General Court their opinion, thnt the little 
 meeting-house then building, with perplexed and prolonged effort, 
 by the poor proprietors of settling-lots at Poontoosuck, would be 
 insufficient to contain the inhabitants when sixty families should 
 be in town. 
 
 It was, however, made to answer, with no loud complaints 
 of inconvenience, until, after thirty troubled years, Pittsfield, in 
 1790, had attained a population of two thousand, of which about 
 two hundred were Baptists, Episcopalians, and Shakers. 
 
 The Baptists had a meeting-house, unfinished, in the West Part ; 
 the Shakers, another in the south-west ; and the Episcopalians held 
 divine service, with lay reading, oftenest in the spacious parlors of 
 the Van Schaack mansion. But the attendance upon all these 
 places of worship could not have sensibly diminished the congre- 
 gation at the old meeting-house where Mr. Allen ministered to the 
 " standing order." 
 
 Irreligious habits, contracted in years of Avar or popular tumult, 
 contributed more sadly to lessen the number of constant worship- 
 pers ; and the unattractive edifice drew within its narrow walls 
 
 434
 
 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 435 
 
 few whom the spirit of devotion, habit, or public opinion, did not 
 compel thither. 
 
 But it appears from one of the resolutions quoted in the last 
 chapter, that the growing necessity for a larger building was 
 admitted, and that its location was one of the points in dispute 
 among the people. Perhaps the existing dissensions had hindered 
 the earlier undertaking of the work. Certainly the erection of a 
 commodious and creditable house of worship was a task of no 
 small magnitude as the town was then situated, and one for whose 
 successful accomplishment united and amicable effort was so essen- 
 tial that it furnished a powerful inducement to that spirit of 
 mutual forbearance which prevailed in the June meeting of 1788. 
 
 The first town action toward a new meeting-house was on the 
 13th of April, 1789, when the following committee was appointed 
 to report a plan, with the estimated cost : Woodbridge Little, 
 Daniel Hubbard, Timothy Childs, Joel Stevens, Simon Lamed, 
 Ebenezer White, Oswald Williams, David Bush, 1 and John 
 Chandler Williams. 
 
 On the 23d of November, the committee reported, that, in their 
 opinion, it was necessary to build a meeting-house seventy feet 
 long, exclusive of porch and balcony, and fifty-one feet wide ; that 
 it was expedient to raise and cover the frame, paint, and glaze, in 
 one year, of which the cost would be 701. Is. 2d.; and that this 
 would be about two-thirds of the entire expense. The question 
 of finishing the interior they left to future consideration, with the 
 design of postponing as long as possible the differences of opinion 
 which were sure to arise regarding the mode of "seating the 
 house." 
 
 The report was accepted, and the following tommittee was 
 appointed to collect material : David Bush, Joel Stevens, John 
 Chandler Williams, Simon Larned, John Partridge, Oliver Root, 
 Josiah Moseley, Dan Cadwell, and Joel Dickinson. 
 
 This committee were instructed to give every person, as fnr as 
 convenient, a chance to pay his proportion of the cost in material 
 and labor, and to contract with the town debtors for payment 
 in the same manner as far as they thought advantageous. The 
 " Book of Credits " does not distinguish between the receipts on 
 
 1 There were at this time two citizens of the name of David Bush in active life, 
 father and son ; and the records rarely distinguish which is intended.
 
 436 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 account of taxes and those in payment of debt ; but otherwise 
 they are very minute, and show from whose contribution almost 
 every constituent of the building came, from Dr. Timothy Child's 
 eighty-feet stick of timber to the laborer's day's work or few bushels 
 of lime. Thus, Stephen Fowler, who lies buried in the Pilgrim's 
 Rest at the new cemetery, brought the ridgepole ; Capt. Charles 
 Goodrich, two sills; William Partridge, Josiah and Isaac Ward, a 
 large stick ; Col. Oliver Root, fifty feet of oak posts and forty-six 
 feet of oak plates ; Mrs. Stoddard and Mrs. Dickinson, widows of 
 old friends, but leaders in opposing parties during the Revolution, 
 united in contributing a pillar twenty feet long and a pine beam 
 seventy feet ; Zebulon Stiles, one of the earliest settlers, and now 
 a slumberer in the Pilgrim's Rest, brought a sill fifty feet long ; 
 and Capt. Jared Ingersoll contributed, from his timber-land in 
 Lenox, one of the pillars of the belfry : and thus through all the 
 townsmen, or at least the Congregational portion of them. 1 
 
 There is no intimation of any voluntary contributions, and there 
 probably were none, as Joshua Danforth was in 1793 directed by a 
 vote of the town to purchase a pulpit-cushion, the article most 
 likely to have been a gift. The only subscription-paper extant, 
 connected with the building, is one to be paid in grain ; and it 
 expressly provides that the amounts contributed were to be 
 deducted from the giver's next tax. A small portion of the taxes 
 were paid in coin ; and some who did not find it convenient to 
 make payment either in this way or in the supply of material 
 tendered neat cattle or grain, a species of property which long 
 afterwards continued, as it had been long before, the most 
 convenient circulating medium within ordinary reach. 
 
 Some items of interest may be gathered from the assessor's 
 books; and we take at random that of 1791, when 700 were 
 assessed for " finishing the meeting-house." 
 
 The polls that year numbered 411 ; the real and personal estate 
 and " faculty " 2 were valued at 3,626. 4s. Qd. The sum assessed 
 for ordinary town charges was 297, a little more than one-third 
 of the expense of finishing the meeting-house. The poll-tax for 
 town purposes was four shillings, two pence, the amount assessed 
 
 1 It should be understood that the articles specified were only a portion of the 
 contributions of most of the persons named. 
 
 2 The faculty to obtain an income from skill in the learned professions, the 
 arts, in mercantile business, or the like.
 
 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 437 
 
 upon estates and faculty, one shilling, two pence, in the pour.cl. 
 The State tax of the town was 132 ; and that for the support of 
 the minister, part of whose salary came from other sources, 58. 
 
 To raise the sum of 700 voted for finishing the meeting-house, 
 a poll-tax of ten shillings, four pence, was assessed ; which, if all had 
 paid, from Charles Goodrich down to Hazle-Blossom, negro, 
 would have produced '212. 7s. From estates and faculty, 2s. Qd. 
 in the pound was levied ; producing 496. 12s. 2 d. 
 
 The heaviest real-estate tax-payers were as follows : Charles 
 Goodrich, who owned more than a thousand acres in the east part, 
 10. 10s. Id. ; James D. Colt, who owned one thousand acres in the 
 south-west, 9. 15s. Qd. ; Henry Van Schaack, an Episcopalian, 
 who was also assessed about 4. on personal property, 6. 15s. 6d. ; 
 Daniel Hubbard, 5. 7s. lid.; Hannah, widow of Col. William 
 Williams, 5. 6s. 10(7. / Nathaniel Robbins, 5. 5s. Gd. 
 
 The well-to-do farmers paid from one pound to four ; but by far 
 the greater portion of the assessments were reckoned in shillings. 
 Oliver Wendell, Margaret Phillips (grandmother of Mr. Wendell 
 Phillips), Catharine Wendell, and other heirs of the first pur- 
 chaser of the town, paid about 4 upon one thousand two hundred 
 and sixty-eight acres still retained by them ; and the non-resident 
 heirs of Col. Stoddard paid a proportionate tax upon about eight 
 hundred acres. John Chandler Williams was assessed 3. 17s. 8d. 
 on real estate, 18s. personal, and 1. 4s. 9d. on faculty. This was 
 the highest tax on faculty ; the next being paid by Col. Danforth, 
 who was postmaster, held other public offices, and was also in 
 mercantile business. Col. Danforth also was honored with the 
 largest assessment on personal property, 7. On faculty, Daniel 
 Weller, a tanner, paid 1. 2s./ Dr. Timothy Childs, 16s. 6d. ; 
 Thomas Gold, a lawyer, 13s. 6c?./ Joel Dickinson, the master- 
 builder of the meeting-house, 13s. Qd. Ministers of the gospel 
 were exempt from taxation. 
 
 The sum of 600 thus assessed proved to be about one-third the 
 whole cost of building ; and as nearly one-third of that expense was 
 defrayed by the application of the debts due the town, and from 
 the sale of other property, a fair idea of the whole taxation for 
 meeting-house purposes can be gained by doubling the items given. 
 
 The town in March, 1791, ordered the building committee to sell 
 the " old Continental money and paper securities in the treasury 
 for solid coin," and apply the proceeds to the purchase of lead for
 
 438 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 the meeting-house. The paper securities consisted of loan-office 
 certificates, whose " specie value, by the scale," was $93.40, and 
 "Hardy's indents" to the amount of $48. The Continental 
 money amounted to 3,097 ; which had been handed down in sealed 
 packages from treasurer to treasurer, awaiting the revival of the 
 national credit. The whole was now sold for the pittance of 
 40. 10s., as appears from the record ; although owing to the use 
 of that last resort of a lazy pen, an " et cetera " the accounts do 
 not show with absolute certainty whether the certificates were 
 included in the sale. 
 
 The expenditure for lead was 39. 17s. 6e?., and the freight upon 
 it to Kinderhook was \1d. / so that this item seems to have been 
 kept strictly within the appropriation. 
 
 From such various sources, means were obtained to meet the 
 expenditures until they reached the sum of 2,188. 19*. 6d. ; which 
 proved to be the final cost of the structure. 
 
 This increase to double the original estimate was perhaps attribut- 
 able in part to the natural proclivity of architects to under-estimates 
 of cost, but was chiefly due to the increased size of the building 
 over that of the plan accepted by the town, to the purchase of a 
 bell, and probably to the addition, in the enthusiasm elicited by the 
 progress of the work, of some luxuries which were not at first 
 contemplated. The house, without any authority so far as appears 
 from the record, was built ninety feet long, exclusive of the pro- 
 jecting porch, and fifty-five feet wide. 
 
 Although we find no intimation of any voluntary contributions, 
 such as would now be made for a similar purpose, yet the whole 
 assessment was only the equitable distribution of a burden which 
 the community, with the eager consent of almost all its members, 
 had imposed upon itself; and doubtless the great majority were 
 more liberal in responding to the requisitions of the committee 
 than they would have been in private bargaining. Tradition is, 
 indeed, full of the zeal with which the fathers of the town sought 
 out the choicest products of their forests, for Berkshire woods 
 were forests then, and the glee with which they brought them to 
 the appointed spot. 
 
 Certainly the material contributed for the new temple, which 
 was to be the pride and the pet of the town, was not only abun- 
 dant in quantity, but of the best quality which the rich forests of 
 the neighborhood could afford. The spring of 1790 found the open
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 439 
 
 space now occupied by the Park piled high with a still accumu- 
 lating mass of stone, and such lumber as the valley has now not 
 seen for many a long year. 
 
 But, before use could be made of it, a preliminary of no little 
 difficulty remained to be settled. The vote, that the location 
 of the new meeting-house should be determined by disinterested 
 non-residents, seems to have been disregarded ; for on the 5th of 
 April, 1790, David Bush, jun., in behalf of a committee, reported 
 that in their opinion " the meeting-house front door should face the 
 south ; that it should stand on the same ground that the old 
 meeting-house covered ; that the front sill should be on the north 
 line of the highway ; that the west side of the house should be 
 about three feet west of the west side of the old meeting-house ; 
 and that the committee would have been willing to have carried it 
 still farther west could it have been done without incommoding 
 the monument of the late Col. William Williams." 1 
 
 The meeting-house was located within a few feet of his monu- 
 ment, and, if it had not been in the way, would doubtless have 
 been placed with only a small court-yard between it and North 
 Street. The monument now stands south-west of St. John's Lake, 
 in the new cemetery. 
 
 The report was adopted ; but the location thus fixed was dis- 
 tasteful to a portion of the citizens, for a reason which curiously 
 illustrates the delight which was anticipated in gazing upon the 
 new building. Placed upon the proposed site, it would not be 
 visible from the greater portion of West Street, while, if carried 
 southward into the highway, the more ornamental portions would 
 delight the eye of the traveller from the west on his way to 
 church or to market; nay, some of the more favored denizens of 
 that region could daily, in their homes, revel in the contemplation 
 of its graces, perhaps who could tell ? be made better Christians 
 by this constant reminder of sacred things. 
 
 Twenty-three voters principally those personally interested 
 accordingly requested a town-meeting, and were able to carry a 
 vote to place the meeting-house seven feet further south than had 
 been previously determined. 
 
 But for this it was necessary to fell the tall and graceful elm 
 fairer than any work of man's hand which had been spared by 
 the first settlers for its conspicuous beauty. 
 
 tr 
 
 1 Col. Williams died in 1785.
 
 440 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 It must have even then entwined itself in the affections of many 
 of the people ; but its destruction seemed inevitable, and the first 
 strokes of the axe had already wounded its devoted trunk, when it 
 was saved by the spirited opposition of a noble woman. 
 
 It happened, by a fortunate chance, that, at the close of the 
 Revolution, the handsome mansion on the site now between Park 
 
 
 
 JOHN CHANDLER WILLIAMS'S HOUSE. 
 
 Square and Williams Avenue had been purchased by John Chan- 
 dler Williams, a gentleman of culture and refined tastes, who was 
 also blest with an equally gifted wife. 
 
 It may well be imagined with what feelings they watched the 
 impending destruction of the splendid old relic of the forest, which 
 formed so unique an ornament of their neighborhood. So intense 
 was the excitement of Mrs. Williams in view of the intended sac- 
 rilege, that she appeared upon the scene, and, finding the most 
 passionate entreaties vain, threw herself between the tree and the 
 axe, and at last procured a postponement of the work of destruc- 
 tion until the matter could again be considered by the town. The 
 elm treasured the kindly act in its heart; and when it fell, full of 
 years and honors, the tradition of its romantic salvation was found 
 corroborated by the scars of three axe-strokes embedded in its an- 
 nal of 1790. 
 
 The immediate danger past, Mr. Williams completed the good 
 work which his wife had begun, by proposing to give to the town,
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 441 
 
 fora common, so much of his land south of The Elm as they would 
 leave of space between that point and the meeting-house. The 
 generous offer was accepted ; and thus Pittsfield acquired the 
 ground for the beautil'ul little park now so attractive by its grace- 
 ful circlet of elms and its sparkling fountain, and so hallowed by 
 patriotic memories. 
 
 The first entry in the construction account for the meeting- 
 house it was a charge for the inevitable rum was made on the 
 same 10th of May, when the site was finally determined; and 
 thenceforward the work went briskly on under the direction of 
 Col. Joshua Danforth, John Chandler Williams, 1 and Daniel Wel- 
 ler, who in March had been elected a building-committee. 
 
 Col. Bulfinch of Boston, an architect of repute, furnished the 
 designs, in accordance with which the new building became one 
 
 O ' O 
 
 of the finest specimens of those well-proportioned, cheery, wooden 
 structTares, with Grecian ornamentation, which, very similar in 
 their general character, were about that time scattered through 
 the more thrifty villages of New England; the contemporaries of 
 those homes of stately comfort, the square, flat-roofed, and balus- 
 traded mansions, of broad halls and spacious parlors, like those 
 erected in Pittsfield by Henry Van Schaack and Ashbell Strong. 
 
 Capt. Joel Dickinson, a skilful mechanic, was selected as master- 
 builder, and took charge on the 18th of April. 
 
 The site selected was upon a ledge of hard, light-gray limestone, 
 or marble, with a silicious intermixture ingrained ; and the cellar, 
 even under the costly edifice which now occupies the spot, is a 
 very rude affair, excavated by enlarging the crevices of the rocks. 
 So thin was the overlaying soil, that few graves had been made 
 in it. 
 
 May was spent in preparing the foundation ; the principal ex- 
 penditures noted being for rum, powder, wedges, and fixing sheds. 
 Rum, from the laying of the foundation to the dedication, was a 
 large item in the construction accounts. One charge, a fair speci- 
 men of many, was "4. 8s. for three hundred and fifty-two rations 
 of rum in five weeks." The house was raised and covered, and 
 probably painted and glazed, in 1790. Allusion is made to the 
 raising in the record of a meeting in October in that year, which 
 voted three shillings a day extra pay to David Ashley and Butler 
 Goodrich for extraordinary services. 
 
 
 
 1 See note at the end of this chapter.
 
 442 HISTOEY OP PITTSFIELD. 
 
 The frame being extremely large and cumbrous, and the mechan- 
 ical appliances for managing large timbers being very imperfect, 
 it was necessary that workmen should go, at risk of life and limb, 
 upon elevated or exposed portions of the unfixed roof and tower. 
 This essential service was performed by Goodrich and Ashley, then 
 young men of great activity, strength, and courage ; and it was in 
 this that they executed those feats which were rewarded by the 
 town, and have been remembered by tradition. Ashley soon after- 
 wards removed to the West ; but his compeer lived to tell the 
 story to his grandchildren, as the venerable " Deacon Goodrich." 
 
 The meeting of Oct. 4 also appointed a committee John 
 Chandler Williams, Daniel Hubbard, and Joshua Danforth to 
 provide material for finishing the house ; and the following spring 
 found the Common again cumbered with the contributions of tax- 
 payers and town debtors. 
 
 But another of the local differences inevitable at every stftge in 
 the public works of the village arose ; and a committee was ap- 
 pointed to consider in what form the pews should be made. 
 
 The committee was of the unusual number of eleven, attesting 
 as did also the character of the gentlemen composing it the 
 estimate which the town fixed upon the importance of its duties. 
 It consisted of Daniel Hubbard, Oliver Root, David Bush, sen., 
 Joseph Fairfield, Joshua Robbins, Eli Root, James D. Colt, J. C. 
 Williams, Timothy Childs, and Daniel Sackett, all men of weight 
 in community, and most of them of advanced years. 
 
 This committee reported that it would be most convenient to 
 finish the side-galleries with a set of pews on the sides, three feet 
 and a half wide, and eleven feet and eight inches long ; an alley 
 of convenient width ; and then two seats along the " breastworks," 
 and two cross-alleys intersecting the whole at proper intervals. 
 
 Thus far the committee eight being present were unanimous. 
 But, with regard to the arrangement of the lower part of the house, 
 they divided ; a majority recommending that the wall-pews should 
 be made " of the length and width of a pattern which had been 
 prepared," and that the body-pews should be seven and three- 
 inches long, five feet ten inches wide." This report was accepted 
 by a small majority ; but a petition was at once presented " to the 
 gentlemen selectmen," for a new meeting, to see whether the town 
 would reconsider its action, and adopt a more uniform plan for the 
 lower part of the house ; so that all the body-pews might be six
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 443 
 
 feet three inches long, and five feet ten inches wide, and that the 
 side wall-pews might be eleven feet eight inches long, and six feet 
 wide, or that all the pews in the lower part of the meeting-house 
 might be square, or as nearly so as the ground would admit." 
 
 In those days, habits of thought, social customs, and laws were 
 slowly and reluctantly conforming themselves to the spirit of 
 equality which the Revolution had infused into the Commonwealth ; 
 and there was often more in the apparently trivial village con- 
 tentions than would appear from a casual inspection of the 
 records. To use a Yankee illustration for a Yankee fact, the bird 
 of freedom had burst its shell, but was still busily and sometimes 
 testily engaged in pecking its young plumage to get rid of the 
 adhering fragments. The present instance was a skirmish in the 
 struggle to abolish that strange relic of the stiff old Puritan aris- 
 tocracy, the seating a congregation according to the estimate 
 which a parish committee might happen to form of the relative 
 " dignities " of the individuals composing it. 
 
 The signers of the petition for a more uniform style of pews, 
 unlike the majority of the committee of eleven, although persons 
 of respectable property and social position, were, with perhaps two 
 exceptions, not those to whom the highest places in the synagogue 
 would be likely to fall. 
 
 And as they could hardly hope to do away entirely with the 
 unchristian distinctions which had crept into the temple of that 
 worship whose Founder, when on earth, had not where to lay his 
 head, they sought to render them less galling by making them less 
 conspicuous. Although no record is found of the disposition which 
 was made of the matter, it appears, from a plan of the house after 
 its completion, that the first of the arrangements suggested by the 
 petitioners was actually substituted for that recommended by 
 the committee of eleven. 
 
 The meeting-house was completed in 1793, although some of 
 the minor details of the work may have been left until the next 
 spring. 
 
 The marble " step-stones " the same which still serve in their 
 old place before the new church were drawn by a long string 
 of oxen, and with jovial escort, from quarries in Richmond, about 
 the 1st of February, 1793; and horse-blocks were brought about 
 the same time to aid the fairer worshippers in dismounting from 
 their pillions.
 
 444 
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 The first bell was a welcome new-comer in 1793. It was of the 
 weight of seven hundred pounds only, but possessed a peculiarly 
 silvery and musical tone, whose ringing echoes penetrated even to 
 the summits of Washington Mountain in favorable conditions of 
 the atmosphere. But the still-unsatisfied people must needs 
 replace the tongue, which the maker had carefully adjusted to 
 the strength of the sides, with one of heavier metal ; and the 
 experiment met the usual fate of overweening ambition. 
 
 The way being thus paved for a more ponderous successor, Col. 
 Dan forth some extravagant propositions being set aside 
 was instructed to take the broken bell to some founder, and have 
 
 SECOND MEETING-HODSE, AND FIRST TOWN-HALL. 
 
 it cast anew, adding not more than three hundred weight of 
 metal; so that the second bell weighed about one thousand pounds. 
 
 It was further voted, "in order to secure the more speedy 
 execution of the work," that "those gentlemen who may subscribe 
 and pay any sum of money in advance shall have credit therefor on 
 their next tax;" another of the frequent evidences of the scarcity 
 of money in a community in which produce was, nevertheless, so 
 abundant, that it was able, about the same time, to respond liberally 
 to the application of the selectmen of Boston for aid to those left 
 destitute by " the great fire " in that town. 
 
 The fate of the old meeting-house must not be omitted here. 
 The intention of removing it to some convenient spot Avhere 
 it might continue to serve for a town-hall was abandoned ; and a
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 445 
 
 committee was appointed to sell it. But the sale was postponed 
 so long that the old building became a source of danger to the 
 new ; for, the space between them being barely sufficient to admit 
 the mortar-bed which was placed there, the lime caught fire, and 
 it was with difficulty the flames were kept from spreading. The 
 removal being doubtless hastened by the narrow escape, the old 
 building was drawn a little way to the east, when its rotten timbers 
 came crashing to the ground. One account says the destruction 
 was intentional, and that a rope was attached to the top of the 
 building at which the people pulled " with a will." 
 
 Whether the old men who had aided in its framing shed tears 
 over the fallen hall of so many grave deliberations, and the walls 
 which had echoed to so many pious exhortations, as their descend- 
 ants did over the fallen trunk of The Old Elm, is not recorded ; 
 but the village urchins mounted the crushed roof in triumph, and 
 held a gleeful jubilee over the deposed tyrant of their sabbath 
 hours. 1 
 
 In all the action of the town regarding the new meeting-house, 
 it is noticeable that there is not a single allusion to the sacred 
 purposes for which it was designed, in record, report, or petition ; 
 nor is there any indication that either the minister or the church 
 was consulted in any matter connected with its construction. 
 And it is still more remarkable, that there is no intimation, in the 
 records of the church, of any knowledge on their part, that a work 
 was in progress in which they naturally had so deep an interest, 
 and for whose successful completion they doubtless often united 
 in prayer. A similar statement is true with regard to the building 
 of the first meeting-house ; and, indeed, the records and papers 
 of the town were always remarkably free from those pious phrases 
 and professions with which public papers in Massachusetts were 
 wont to be profusely interlarded. 
 
 Some minutes, however, might be looked for of provision for 
 the dedication of the meeting-houses to divine service, either by 
 the church or the town : but none has been found ; and the only 
 tradition of any, that is preserved, is of an account recently in 
 existence which is said to have shown a generous consumption 
 of the ingredients of punch. 
 
 1 Among the urchin crowd was Jared Ingersoll, afterwards one of the most 
 gallant captains in the war of 1812, and now a venerable citizen of eighty-two 
 years, who distinctly remembers the scene.
 
 446 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 There is abundant evidence, however, that their new house of 
 worship was very precious in the eyes of the Pittsfield people 
 of 1794, and that their hearts swelled with local pride as they 
 introduced to its really beautiful interior the frequent strangers 
 who were attracted to the town by the fame of its splendors. 
 
 Their regard for its neatness, if not for its sanctity, excluded 
 town-meetings ; and this resulted in the erection of a neat hall, 
 as well as incidentally in a great improvement of the grammar- 
 school. 
 
 After the destruction of their old haunt, the town-meetings 
 were held in the " middle schoolhouse," which stood on the east 
 of The Old Elm. This was exceedingly incommodious; and a 
 meeting convened in it, and thus having a realizing 'sense of its 
 utter unfitness for human occupation, appointed a committee to 
 consider the most eligible mode of keeping a grammar-school, and 
 to take into consideration the sale of the schoolhouse, and the 
 erection of -a new one, which might serve as a town-house. 
 
 The committee, consisting of J. C. Williams, Woodbridge Little, 
 and Timothy Childs, reported that "a house ought to be built 
 abotit forty-eight or fifty feet long by twenty-four or twenty-five 
 wide, two stories high, with a flat square roof, a chimney at each 
 end ; that on the lower floor there should be two rooms, one for 
 the grammar and one for the district school ; that the chamber 
 should be fixed with convenient seats, rising one above another in 
 the form of a gallery, with a proper arrangement for the seats of 
 the moderator, selectmen, and town-clerk, somewhat as in the 
 chamber allotted to the use of the House of Representatives. 
 This might also be convenient for learning to sing in, and for 
 making exhibitions on quarter-day." 
 
 The committee thought the expense might be 200, or perhaps 
 250 ; and they submitted a plan by which it might be defrayed 
 without any tax on the town. 
 
 In accordance with this report, a building for a town hall and 
 academy was erected on the present site of St. Stephen's Church. 
 The cost slightly exceeded the estimate ; and the old schoolhouse, 
 which probably was considered too luxurious for a hog-pen and 
 not good enough for a barn, did not readily find a purchaser ; but, 
 by the aid of a tax of 75, the new town-house was completed 
 and occupied by the March meeting of 1793. 
 
 The safety of the interior of the meeting-house being secured
 
 HISTOBY OF PITTSFIELD. 447 
 
 by the exclusion of the town-meetings, the exterior was protected 
 by a by-law forbidding "any game of wicket, cricket, base-ball, 
 bat-ball, foot-ball, cats, fives, or any other game played with ball," 
 within eighty yards of the precious structure. As a matter of fact, 
 however, the lovers of muscular sport were not absolutely ex- 
 cluded from the tempting lawn of the " Meeting-house Common," 
 as the letter of the law would have excluded them. 
 
 It was, indeed, their favorite resort ; but Chandler Williams was 
 ever at hand, with his voice of courteous warning, to ward off the 
 threatened bombardment, when the danger to the meeting-house 
 windows became imminent. 
 
 Another incidental result which followed the building of the 
 meeting-house was a more decent respect for the burial-ground; 
 so that a vote was passed that it " shall no longer be improved for 
 a pasture." A neat white fence was built along the Park-place 
 front ; and a curiously generous price was paid for a similar enclos- 
 ure on North Street. In 1792, a committee appointed "to see if 
 Dr. T. Childs might safely be permitted to build a medicine-store " 
 on the west side of the meeting-house, reported that he might do 
 so; and, upon their recommendation, the town granted to that 
 gentleman, " a loan of the land " where P. Allen's bookstore now 
 stands, to run as long as it should be used as a medicine-store, 
 on condition that no family should ever live in it, and that the 
 lessee should build, and keep in repair, a fence from the store to 
 the corner of Park Place, similar to that with which it there 
 connected. 
 
 It will thus be seen that the erection of the meeting-house, andt 
 the other buildings connected with it, in a few years created a 
 marked alteration in the appearance of the centre of the village. 
 
 The meeting-house then built, having been injured by fire in 
 1855, was removed to the grounds of the Maplewood Young 
 Ladies' Institute, and, having been slightly remodelled to adapt it 
 to that purpose, is now the spacious and handsome gymnasium of 
 that institution ; the only material alteration in its exterior being 
 the substitution of an observatory for the belfry. 
 
 The town-house long continued to serve for public meetings, 
 and the multifarious purposes to which such a hall is put in New- 
 England villages. 
 
 In the school-rooms on the lower floor, troops of Pittsfield chil- 
 dren obtained the greater part of their education ; and many now
 
 448 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 living in the town, with many more scattered far and wide* look 
 back with pleasure to the days when their favorite sport of a sum- 
 mer evening was hurling pebbles at the swallows that swept and 
 circled around the cupola and chimneys of the old academy. 
 
 In 1832, this building gave place to the Episcopal Church, and, 
 having been entirely remodelled and renovated, is now a handsome 
 
 residence on East Street. 
 
 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 JOHN CHANDLER WILLIAMS was born at Roxbury in 1755. His father having 
 been reduced in fortune, he repaired to Berkshire, then the land of promise for the 
 ambitious poor, and, at the age of eighteen, held the office of deputy-sheriff, probably 
 through the influence of his distant relative, the Chief Justice of the Common Plea?. 
 When he first entered Pittsfield, a handkerchief held all his worldly possessions. 1 His 
 term of office was brief; for, in 1774, he entered Harvard College, where he was sup- 
 ported by his own exertions, aided by his mother's family, the Chandlers of Worcester, 
 and graduated in 1778. He, with many of his college-mates, was at the Battle of Lex- 
 ington. On the 30th of April, the Provincial Committee of Safety summoned him to 
 attend them, to be employed as an express. On the 23d of May, they furnished him 
 with an order for horses and other necessaries " for his journey, he being in the coun- 
 try's service." On the 27th of June, his account of ,4. 4s. 6cZ., as " a rider in the ser- 
 vice of the Colony," was allowed. The mission thus obscurely alluded to was, in part 
 ai least, the successful search for Gov. Hutchinson's letter-book, and other records of 
 public moment, which were found in his country-seat at Milton Hills.* 
 
 It curiously happened that Chandler afterwards married the daughter of Col. Israel 
 Williams, Hutchinson's Tory friend and correspondent, who was involved in serious 
 trouble by the discoveries at Milton Hills. 
 
 Mr. Williams, after graduating at Harvard, studied law with Hon. John Worthington 
 of Springfield, and commenced practice at Pittsfield in 1782. " As a lawyer," says 
 Rev. Dr. George T. Chapman, " his standing was more than respectable. His mind 
 was richly stored with legal knowledge; and of that knowledge he availed himself with 
 the noble determination to be useful rather than splendid. ... He acquired the esteem 
 of the court, the bar, and the jury: he so ingratiated himself in the confidence of the 
 community around him by the integrity of his conduct as to be proverbially eulogized 
 as ' the honest lawyer.' " 
 
 He did not, however, confine himself to the practice of the law. but opened a store, 
 which he conducted successfully, on the south side of the Park, where, soon after his 
 removal to Pittsfield, he purchased the property which now lies on each side of Williams 
 Avenue, and extends west to South Street, upon which the gambrel-roof mansion, now 
 known as the Newton House, had then been just built. 
 
 His wife, Mrs. Lucretia, the preserver of the elm, was, as has been stated, the daugh- 
 ter of Col. Israel Williams, who commanded the Hampshire militia in the last French 
 and Indian War, and was one of the most noted loyalists of the Revolution. Madam 
 Lucretia inherited the Williams blood in all its pride and vigor. " She was," says the 
 historian of the family, " a woman of uncommon spirit and most uncommon brilliancy 
 of wit and intellect; always the centre of the circle in which she moved, and the point 
 
 i This is stated in the " History of the Williams Family " as being the case on bis 
 final settlement in Berkshire, which is clearly an error. 
 
 * Letter of Hon. E. A. Newton, in " History of Williams Family."
 
 HISTORY OP PITTSFIELD. 449 
 
 of attraction in all companies. She had a keen perception of the ridiculous; and the 
 coxcomb, the frivolous, and the vicious received their due reward at her hands; but 
 she was most kind and tender to the deserving." The most devoted of daughters, in 
 the trouble which her father's political course brought upon him she was his chief 
 solace and sustainer; and, when he was confined in Northampton jail as an enemy of 
 his country, she, although but a girl of seventeen years, carried him his food daily 
 from their home in Hatfield; submitting, for the sake of this sacred duty, to curb even 
 her proud spirit under the annoyances and indignities inflicted by coarse and suspi- 
 cious jailors. Naturally, her affections were not conciliated to the Whig party by this 
 treatment; and, while she lived, she considered herself a subject of the English Crown, 
 and invariably spoke of the war of the Revolution as " the Rebellion." 
 
 Some notable displays of the Williams spirit are related of her in Pittsfield. The 
 house which Mr. Williams purchased on his removal to that town was originally sur- 
 rounded by a fine growth of buttonwoods, then a favorite shade-tree. But the husband 
 and wife agreed in preferring the more stately and graceful elm; and it was agreed, 
 that, at some time, the buttonwoods must give place to their betters; but dread of 
 the naked aspect which the place must for a while bear, postponed the change from 
 year to year. But one spring, Mr. Williams set off for Boston to attend to his duties as 
 a legislator; and, on his return, his wife triumphantly pointed him to a lawn as 
 bare of forestry as his smoothest meadow. There was nothing to do but to introduce 
 the long-desired elms. And to this incident, together with the skill used in selecting 
 from the widely differing varieties of the elm, is due the noble colonnade of trees which 
 now shade the new Court Square. 
 
 The other anecdote is no less characteristic of the times, and of the parties con- 
 nected with it. It seems that a notorious demagogue had incurred the wrath of 
 Thomas Allen, jun., by circulating some slander against his father; whereupon the 
 younger Thomas, in accordance with a custom now passed away, lashed the offender 
 across The Park and down East Street. Now, it happened that the houses of Chandler 
 Williams and the Rev. Mr. Allen stood opposite each other at the head of that street; 
 and, as the whipped and the whipper passed between, Madam Williams appeared at 
 her gate, and, handing out a new whip, cheered on the excoriation with, " That's right, 
 Tom ! Give it to him well ! Lay it on to the rascal I " 
 
 While, across the way, the venerable pastor stretched out his hands, crying, 
 " Thomas, my son, forbear; forbear, Thomas, my son." 
 
 And Thomas, more gallant than dutiful, obeyed the lady. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Williams lie buried in the lot of their son-in-law, the late Hon. E. A. 
 Newton, in the Pittsfield cemetery. 
 
 29
 
 CHAPTER XXY. 
 
 STRUGGLE FOR THE EQUALITY OF RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 
 [1772-1811.] 
 
 State of the Law. Appropriations for the New Meeting-House resisted. Bap- 
 tists, Shakers, Episcopalians, and Methodists. Protest of the Dissenters. 
 List of Dissenters in 1789. Inquisition into Religious Faith. Henry Van 
 Schaack appeals to the Courts. The Decision. State Laws for the Support 
 of Eeligious Worship remodelled. Pittsfield Parishes. 
 
 means of defraying the cost of the new meeting-house 
 _L were not raised without creating the usual village dissen- 
 sions ; and, as usual, these divisions formed a part of the struggle 
 to make practical that equality before the law, which, although 
 theoretically proclaimed by the Declaration of Rights, was still, in 
 practice, denied, especially by the prevalent construction of the 
 article in that instrument concerning the support of the institu- 
 tions of religion. 
 
 In accordance with the new fundamental law, as well as with the 
 ancient colonial statutes, towns in Massachusetts were constituted 
 religious parishes, charged with the maintenance of public worship, 
 and were required to compel the attendance upon it of such of 
 their inhabitants as could conscientiously unite in the established 
 exercises. 
 
 Against the incorporation of this portion of the colonial system 
 into the institutions of the new Common wealth, there had been an 
 earnest but unavailing protest. Two classes of men had, in the 
 Revolution, combined on the patriotic side, those who would 
 resist every encroachment, from whatever quarter, upon civil liberty 
 or the natural rights of the individual, and those who simply desired 
 to protect the ancient status of the Congregational and republi- 
 can Colony against the attacks of Episcopal and imperial Brit- 
 
 450
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 451 
 
 am. It was inevitable, therefore, that, the contest with the 
 mother country being over, a new division of opinions should arise 
 upon matters in which the spirit and practice inherited from colonial 
 times seemed oppugnant to the liberty of the citizen. And thus 
 a new struggle commenced, influenced more or less on both sides 
 by selfish interests and personal prejudices, but nevertheless with 
 a foundation of principle at bottom. 
 
 Two points of difference appeared, even before the colonists had 
 any other assurance of success than the confidence which true men 
 have in a just cause and in themselves, protest being made 
 against African slavery, and the compulsory support of public 
 worship ; the Baptists and Friends leading in the opposition to 
 the latter. 
 
 The members of these denominations carried their efforts to 
 effect a change into the constitutional convention of 1779, and there 
 made a vigorous effort to do away with the whole system of State 
 interference with religious matters, but in vain. Indeed, John 
 Adams, as early as 1774, in an interview concerning this matter at 
 Philadelphia with certain Pennsylvania Quakers, who wished to 
 make it an element of national politics, had said somewhat petu- 
 lantly, that he "knew they might as well turn the heavenly bodies 
 out of their annual and diurnal course, as the people of Massachu- 
 setts from their meeting-house and Sunday laws." 
 
 The substance of the old statutes was therefore retained in 
 the Declaration of Rights, which empowered the towns to tax polls 
 and estates for the support of the public worship, which they were 
 required to maintain, with the proviso that the tax-payers of a dif- 
 ferent religious denomination from that held by a majority of 
 the town might require their assessments to be paid to teachers of 
 their own faith, if there were any such, upon whose ministration 
 they usually attended when in health ; otherwise the payments to 
 be mad to the religious teacher or teachers of the parish in which 
 they were levied. 
 
 The right of control, in religious as in other matters, pertained 
 to the majority of voters, whatever their creed, provided it were- 
 Protestant and Christian. The Baptists, Friends, and Methodists 
 were, however, opposed to the exercise of this right on principle, 
 and the Episcopalians from policy ; so that it was stated, with 
 probable correctness, in the constitutional convention of 1820, that 
 the Congregationalists alone had availed themselves of it, while by
 
 452 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 many even of that denomination it was looked upon with dis- 
 favor. 1 
 
 Thus stood the law and public sentiment when the people of 
 Pittsfield, in November, 1789, undertook to build the new meeting- 
 house. But, in order to fully understand their bearing upon the 
 subject of the new enterprise, some account is necessary of those 
 in Pittsfield who dissented from " the standing order," as the dom- 
 inant sect was called, and formed a considerable body of Baptists, 
 Shakers, Episcopalians, and Methodists, perhaps numbering between 
 two and three hundred souls in all, although represented by only 
 thirty or forty tax-payers. 
 
 The Baptist faith was introduced into Pittsfield by Elder Valen- 
 tine Rathbun. The reader is already familiar with the character of 
 this gentleman as a political leader in Revolutionary times, when 
 he was in excellent accord with Rev. Mr. Allen, except when his 
 zeal incited him to even more radical measures than those which 
 his Congregational brother favored. 
 
 O O 
 
 His active and ardent temperament manifested itself in religion 
 as in politics, rendering him restless and perhaps unquiet in pursuit 
 of divine truth, and subject to quick sympathies, which sometimes 
 led 'him astray, but of a sincere piety, which forbade him to persist 
 in conscious error. He had received neither a classical nor theo- 
 logical education, which might perhaps have preserved him from 
 the delusion into which he fell for a time, hut has left evidence 
 that he was not entirely unfitted for the office of a preacher, either 
 in natural gifts, intellectual culture, or general information. Those 
 who put faith in the indications of character afforded by chirogra- 
 phy would attribute to him a nervous organization of extreme re- 
 finement and delicacy. 
 
 Shortly after his removal to Pittsfield, Mr. Rathbun began to 
 hold meetings in his own house, and soon won to his faith several 
 of his neighbors, who, in 1772, united themselves in a society of 
 Baptists, or Anabaptists, as they were more commonly called, 
 from the prominence which their refusal of infant baptism held in 
 the popular idea of their creed. 
 
 The new sect flourished for a while, but soon met with a sad in- 
 
 1 The proposition to abolish it was introduced into the convention of 1820 by 
 Dr. fi. H. Childs, a Pittsfield Congregationalist, who championed it with ability 
 and most persistent zeal, both in that body, and, when it was lost there, before 
 the people, until it was finally carried in 1833.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 453 
 
 terruption to its prosperity. In 1780, Mother Ann Lee, the 
 Shaker prophetess, set out on her famous proselyting tour from 
 Watervliet, N.Y., to Harvard, Mass. On their way, the apos- 
 tolic party visited New Lebanon and Hancock, in which vicin- 
 ity a most remarkable " revival of religion " had prevailed during 
 the preceding year, having commenced in the fall of 1779 at 
 New Lebanon, then a part of the township of Canaan, under 
 the auspices of four women, exceedingly " gifted in prayer," who 
 sent out their sweet influences from private houses, but most 
 powerfully from "Darrow's barn," which stood where the Shaker 
 Village at New Lebanon now does. These women, and other 
 persons, chiefly Baptists, embraced the Shaker faith ; so that 
 when " Mother Ann, and the elders with her, " in 1780, appeared 
 upon the field so ripe for their reaping, the excitement was un- 
 bounded ; and thousands flocked together from the neighboring 
 towns in New York and Massachusetts to listen to her novel and 
 marvellous doctrines. 
 
 It was not strange that a man like Mr. Rathbun should be car- 
 ried away by the contagious enthusiasm of the hour, or that he 
 should be fascinated by the new doctrines, among which the neces- 
 sity of " personal purity " and " the mortification of the flesh " were 
 prominently taught. It is not unlikely, also, that his sensitive 
 and nervous mental system, which had been for years held at its 
 extreme tension by his active duties in regard to the cruel contest 
 with Great Britain, may have been ready to re-act to the other ex- 
 treme of holding all war to be sinful. But, if the conversion of 
 Mr. Rathbun to the Shaker faith is not unaccountable, it is still 
 less strange that he soon found the practices of his new associates 
 unsatisfactory, and hastened to renounce his connection with them, 
 and publish a book opposing their creed, but more especially in 
 denunciation of their practices. 
 
 Not content with this endeavor to repair the mischief in which 
 he had been led to take part, Mr. Rathbun, in the March meet- 
 ing of 1781, moved and carried a resolution appointing a commit- 
 tee to devise " some measures to take with those people known as 
 Shakers," who, it seems, in his opinion, were exceeding the bounds 
 of even Baptist toleration. 
 
 The committee consisted of Rev. Mr. Allen, Elder Rathbun, 
 Elnathan Phelps, Eli Root, and Woodbridge Little ; and, at the 
 adjourned meeting in April, the following report, signed by Rev.
 
 454 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Mr. Allen "per order of the committee," was submitted and 
 adopted : 
 
 " The committee appointed on Mr. Rathbun's motion, respecting those 
 people in town called and known by the name of Shakers, beg leave to 
 report, 
 
 " That they have attended to the object of their commission, so far as they 
 imagined in duty and prudence they ought, and that they have reason to 
 apprehend that those people called Shakers are, in many instances, irregular 
 and disorderly in their conduct and conversation, if not guilty of some high 
 crimes and misdemeanors. The committee therefore recommend it to the 
 town to direct their selectmen to take such cognizance of all disorderly and 
 idle persons in the town, and of their families, as in prudence and by law 
 they may and ought ; and, further, that the town give particular instructions 
 to their respective grand jurors to be chosen for the next courts to inquire 
 into all the conduct and practices of said, people which are contrary to law, 
 and make due presentment thereof, particularly all blasphemies, adulteries, 
 fornications, breaches of sabbath, and all other breaches of law, which they 
 may have been guilty of; and that all tithing-men and other persons use 
 their best endeavors, according to law, to suppress all disorders and breaches 
 of the peace of every kind ; and also that the town direct their town-clerk 
 to inform the commissioners, or other proper authority in the county of Albany, 
 that great and manifest inconveniences and dangers arise from the corre- 
 spondence and intercourse subsisting between the people of Niskeuna 
 [ Water vliet] called Shakers and some people of this town and county 
 disposed to embrace their erroneous opinions, and that they be requested to 
 co-operate with us in endeavoring to prevent such intercourse and corre- 
 spondence by all possible ways and means. 
 
 " THOMAS ALLEN, 
 "PITTSFIELD, April 2, 1781." " p er order of the Committee. 
 
 Mr. Rathbun did not succeed in leading back to the Baptist 
 fold all who, with him, had wandered from it ; some even of his 
 own kinsmen adhering firmly to the Shaker faith : but he recovered, 
 in a great degree, the confidence of community and of his co-re- 
 ligionists. He resumed his pastorate ; and the church which, after 
 his return to it, continued for seventeen years under the charge 
 of its founder, was not unprosperous for the greater portion of 
 that time, although doubtless weakened by the unfortunate lapse 
 of 1780. In 1781, the Shaftsbury Association, comprising the 
 Baptist churches within a wide circuit around that place, was 
 formed ; and in its ranks Mr. Rathbun's flock held at least a respect- 
 able position, reporting, in 1786, twenty-four members, of whom 
 seven had been admitted during the year.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 455 
 
 In 1790, as has been stated, the committee of the town, who 
 manifestly were not inclined to enlarge the Baptist borders, re- 
 ported twenty-one tax-payers indisputably connected with the 
 society (besides Mr. Rathbun himself, who was exempted from 
 taxation as a public teacher of religion), and several others whose 
 claims to membership were disputed. This would indicate a still 
 more numerous communion than in 1786 ; but in 1798, whether 
 from the revival of old difficulties, or the engendering of new, the 
 church had become so much reduced, that Elder Rathbun, with one 
 of his deacons, appeared before the association, and requested that 
 its name might be dropped from the rolls. 
 
 Mr. Rathbuu immediately left Pittsfield, and settled at Scipio, 
 N.Y. Whether his removal was the cause or effect of the decay 
 of his church does not appear j but he maintained his reputation 
 as a sincere Christian in his new home, and from him are descended 
 some of the most respectable citizens of Western New-York, 
 as well as of Pittsfield and the Valley of the Mississippi. 
 
 The church was re-organized in 1800, under the eldership of 
 Rev. John Francis, who had been one of the early members of Mr. 
 Rathbun's flock. 
 
 The manner in which Shakerism was introduced into this 
 vicinity has been incidentally related above. The Pittsfield 
 converts, or a portion of them, formed the nucleus of a family 
 which established itself near the clothier-works of Mr. Rathbun, 
 on the site still occupied by their successors. In their first days, 
 they were charged with gross immoralities, or, as the more char- 
 itably inclined framed their indictment, indecencies. If there 
 was any ground for these allegations in their conduct under the 
 first excitement of an ill-regulated zeal, it was soon reformed ; 
 and, in 1790, the Shakers were recognized as upon an equal footing 
 with other dissenting religious bodies, so far as regarded the pay- 
 ment of taxes for the support of public worship ; and, by their 
 industry and scrupulous morality, they have since won a high place 
 in the esteem of their neighbors, although the Commonwealth has 
 steadily refused to incorporate them. 
 
 The Methodist-Episcopal Church first obtained adherents in" 
 Pittsfield in 1788, through the preaching of Rev. Messrs. Lemuel 
 Smith and Thomas Everett, who were then travelling the Stock- 
 bridge Circuit, and formed a class in the East Part. 
 
 Another was formed in the West Part by Mr. Smith, who preached
 
 456 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 his first sermon in 1791 at the house of Col. Oliver Root. With 
 true Methodist zeal, these gentlemen held meetings in school- 
 houses, private dwellings, barns, in the groves and the open fields, 
 wherever two or three could be gathered to listen to their fervid 
 words ; and not without fruit. 
 
 Methodism was formally established in Pittsfield in 1792, by 
 Rev. Robert Green, who, on his way to New Lebanon, was 
 detained by a storm at the house of Capt. Joel Stevens, on the 
 eastern base of the Taconic Mountains, and there made excel- 
 lent use of his time in preaching, and organizing the Pittsfield 
 Circuit. 
 
 The first local preacher was the eccentric and eloquent Lorenzo 
 Dow ; and, under a succession of faithful pastors, the denomination 
 flourished throughout that century, as it has continued to do in 
 this. In 1798, the Methodists built a meeting-house forty-two and 
 a half feet long by thirty four and a half feet wide on the main 
 street, west of Lake Onota, the old black meeting-house of later 
 years, dilapidated, but hallowed in many hearts by the memory 
 of fervent prayer, and exhortation to repentance. Deacon Josiah 
 Wright, one of the Revolutionary patriots most trusted for his 
 hearty zeal tempered with sound discretion and practical judgment, 
 was a leading member of the denomination ; and his associates 
 were distinguished for exemplary Christian deportment and warm 
 devotion. 
 
 The Episcopalians were few in number, and had been loyalists 
 of the Revolution; and perhaps sympathy with England insensibly 
 inclined them to her church. But Mr. Van Schaack, educated in 
 the Dutch Reformed creed, early became an Episcopalian, after 
 much study and reflection. Four of the six tax-payers reported 
 among them in 1790 were men of substance ; while Henry Van 
 Schaack, their chief, with the position and character ascribed to 
 him in a former chapter, was well qualified to lead the dis- 
 senters of Pittsfield in their resistance to the assessment made 
 upon them for the erection of the meeting-house of 1790. And 
 upon him, indeed, fell the whole brunt of the battle, although 
 he was supported, so far as their support was of avail, by all 
 the Baptists and Episcopalians. The Methodists were not yet as 
 sufficiently organized to take part in the legal contest ; and the 
 Shakers probably declined to appeal to the tribunals of the world's 
 people.
 
 HISTORY OP PITTSFIELD. 457 
 
 The vote to build the meeting-house, the reader will remember, 
 was passed in November, 1789 ; the first assessment of taxes to 
 defray the expense (500) was voted in March, 1790 ; and 250 
 additional followed in August of the same year. 
 
 The first recorded opposition by the dissenters was made at the 
 last-named meeting, when the following spirited protest was 
 entered, but secured no notice from the meeting, further than 
 a vote that the taxes for the building of the meeting-house 
 should be assessed separately from those for ordinary town-pur- 
 poses : 
 
 " We, the underwritten persons, beg leave to state to the town that the 
 Presbyterians, being the most numerous sect of Christians in the town of 
 Pittsfield, have of late obtained several votes in town-meetings for building a 
 place of religious worship, and have, in some of those meetings, made 
 various appropriations of town-property for erecting the same. And as the 
 subscribers to this paper are freeholders and inhabitants of the town afore- 
 said, differing in religious sentiments with those for whose use the said place 
 of worship is building, they do in this public manner disclaim any right or 
 pretension to the same, under the idea that it cannot, in any construction, be 
 considered as a town-building, but merely for accommodating a particular 
 denomination of Christians ; and that as we, in our several stations, contrib- 
 ute a share of our property voluntarily to the support of the gospel, accord- 
 ing to our religious professions, we do claim it as our right to be exempted 
 from any assessments, or other burthens, that have been, or which may be, 
 imposed by any town vote, or otherwise, for building the place of worship 
 aforesaid, or any other in the same predicament. 
 
 " Furthermore we do, in justice to ourselves and the Christian denominations 
 we belong to, protest against any town-vote that now does, or which hereafter 
 may, operate so as to assess or burthen one religious sect of Christians for 
 building places of religious worship for another, or that any part of the 
 town-property shall be applied for purposes but what are actually for town- 
 uses. Contrary doctrines, it is conceived by the undersigned, tend to subor- 
 dinate one sect or denomination of Christians to another, in direct violation 
 of the Constitution of this Commonwealth, and contrary to the practice of 
 Christians in general, in the United States of America. 
 
 " Dated and signed in Pittsfield, at a town-meeting held the of 
 
 August, 1 790. 
 
 JOHN BRANCH. VALENTIN^; RATHBUN. 
 
 ANDREW LANGWORTHY. JOHN BAKER. 
 JOHN JEFFERDS. ASA BRANCH. 
 
 DYER FITCH. SAXTON RATHBUN. 
 
 H. VAN SCHAACK. STEPHEN JEWETT.
 
 458 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Protests and appeals having proved of no avail, occasion was 
 found by the next town-meeting to promise indemnity to the asses- 
 sors for the costs and damages which Henry Van Schaack might 
 recover in the suit which he had commenced against them. John 
 C. Williams and Dr. Timothy Childs were also appointed to aid 
 the assessors with council and advice. 
 
 In December, 1791, and again in March, 1792, Mr. Van Schaack 
 sent communications to the selectmen, stating, that, in the arrange- 
 ments for "seating" the new meeting-house, a part of a pew had 
 been assigned him, with the evident intention of giving counte- 
 nance to the idea that he was to be considered as belonging to the 
 " Congregational persuasion," and therefore liable to the collec- 
 tion of the oppressive taxes levied to build an expensive house of 
 worship, beneficial only to the Congregational Society, and dedi- 
 cated to God on principles of religion different from those which 
 he professed. He therefore disclaimed in December all right and 
 interest in the building, and reiterated his disclaimer in March, 
 under seal and attested by witnesses. He states, in those papers, 
 that he supports his own mode of worship in a neighboring town, 
 Lenox, 1 and therefore considers that " to compel him to maintain 
 that of another denomination bears an aspect too unfriendly to 
 the sacred rights of conscience secured him by the Constitution, 
 and therefore is an imposition not to be submitted to." He denies 
 that the meeting-house was built in accordance with a town-vote, 
 and asserts that the action regarding it was that of the Congrega- 
 tionlists alone. 
 
 In the December communication, Mr. Van Schaack demanded 
 that it should be made part of the business of the next town- 
 meeting, 
 
 " First, That those who are not of the Congregational persuasion may have 
 an opportunity publicly to give their reasons for disclaiming any right to 
 seats in the new meeting-house ; and that those objections might be lodged 
 in the town-records. 
 
 " Second, That the town would call upon the committee appointed nearly 
 two years ago to sell the school-lands, for a report of how this property has 
 been disposed of, and how the avails have been appropriated." 
 
 1 " The Episcopal Religious Society of Lenox, Pittsfield, Lee, and Stockbridge " 
 was incorporated in 1805, Henry Van Schaack and Tertullas Hubby of Pitts- 
 field being corporate members ; but religious service in the Episcopal form had 
 been previously held in Lenox.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 459 
 
 The effect of Mr. Van Schaack's persistence, and of his appeal 
 to the court, began now to manifest itself; and the town, March, 
 1792, appointed a committee to ascertain the names of those 
 persons who had really been dissenters on the 1st of November, 
 1789, when the building of the meeting-house was undertaken, 
 and still continued to be so. 
 
 The limitation as to time was due to the fact, that the religious 
 opinions of some persons began to be seriously affected by the 
 expectation that dissent from Congregationalism would exempt 
 them from the meeting-house tax. 
 
 The committee selected for this delicate inquisition into the 
 religious faith of the tax-paying community was John C. Williams, 
 "VYoodbridge Little, Daniel Hubbard, Timothy Childs, Thomas 
 Gold, John Baker. They reported in April the following list; 
 which was accepted by the town, with the exception of the 
 name of Stephen Jewett, who, in spite of his professed submis- 
 sion to Episcopal rule, was solemnly adjudged an Independent 
 Congregationalist, orthodox enough, at least, for taxation pur- 
 poses. 
 
 DISSENTERS FROM CONGREGATIONALISM LIABLE TO TAXATION AS RESI- 
 DENTS IN PITTSFIELD, Nov. 1, 1 789 : 
 
 Episcopalians. Jonathan Hubby, James Heard, Henry Van Schaack, 
 Esq., Eleazer Russell, Titus Grant, Stephen Jewett. 
 
 Shakers. John Dem ing, Ephraim Welch, Josiali Talcott, Rufus Coggswell, 
 Dr. Shadrach Hulbert, Joshua Birch, Daniel Goodrich, Hezekiah Osborn, 
 Samuel Phelps. 
 
 Baptists. John Baker, Solomon Deming, Saxton Rathbun, Benjamin 
 Rathbun, Noadiah Denting, Ezekiel Crandall, John Francis, Josiah Francis, 
 James Rathbun, Charles Lamb, John Branch, Asa Branch, David Ash- 
 ley, John Jefferds, Andrew Langworthy, Williard Langworthy, Moses 
 Merwin, Hubbard Goodrich, Jonathan Chadfield, John Remington, John 
 Bryant. 
 
 Other tax-payers claiming that their dissent from Congregation- 
 alism had been unjustly disallowed, it was voted, at a subsequent 
 meeting, to re-open the lists. What the result was is not recorded ; 
 but we may gather the character of the inquisition into the faith 
 of individuals from the following paper filed in the town-archives, 
 as
 
 460 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Names of Persons who wish to be exempted from paying a Minister's Tax. 
 
 Robert Francis, pleads conveniency. 
 
 John Francis, 
 
 Charles Lamb, a Churchman. 
 
 Dyer Fitch, rather a Baptist in sentiment. 
 
 Uriah Betts, r a Baptist in sentiment, but can attend other meetings 
 without injuring his conscience. 
 
 Walter Welch, a Baptist by education, &c. 
 
 Augustus Crandall, a Seventh-day Baptist, but now attends Mr. Rath- 
 bun's ; never attended any other meeting. 
 
 Moses Wood, a Baptist by profession. 
 
 Seth Janes, a Baptist, as much as any thing, and now supports Mr. 
 Rathbun on Sundays. 
 
 John Weed, a Baptist in sentiment ; ditto. 
 
 Daniel Rust, profits most by hearing Mr. Rathbun ; chooses to attend 
 there from principle. 
 
 Abijah Wright, a constant attendant on Mr. Rathbun. 
 
 Timothy Hurlbert, an attendant on Mr. Rathbuu. 
 
 David Ashley, thinks it not right to support Mr. Allen by a tax. 
 
 David Ashley, jun., an attendant on Mr. Rathbuu's meeting from a 
 child, and chooses to attend there still. 
 
 John Phelps, thinks the Baptists to be most right. 
 
 Abiather Millard, brought up a Baptist, and thinks it not right to sup- 
 port a minister by a tax. 
 
 Caleb Wadhams, cannot attend on Mr. Allen, because he thinks it not 
 right to support a minister by a tax. 
 
 Seth Dickinson, can't pay his debts. 
 
 I do truly and absolutely believe in the Baptist persuasion. May this be 
 recorded. Seth Janes. 
 
 Nathan Davis, a Baptist in principle. 
 
 Israel Miner, never heard Mr. Allen, and can teach Mr. Allen, and 
 thinks he ought not to pay his rates to him, and is a Shaker as much as 
 any 'thing. 
 
 The March meeting, besides taking measures to ascertain the 
 names of those " who were of a different denomination of Chris- 
 tians from that which is most prevalent in this town," had appointed 
 a committee to consider whether the taxes of such persons should 
 be abated in whole or in part. 
 
 The committee were Daniel Hubbard, Woodbridge Little, David 
 Bush, John C. Williams, and Timothy Childs. Their report was 
 in marked advance of previous action.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 461 
 
 They acknowledged that it would be unreasonable and absurd 
 for the town to dispute the equitable and constitutional rights and 
 immunities of the dissenters; but that it ought, on the contrary, 
 publicly to disclaim all wish or idea of compelling the payment of 
 the tax assessed upon them towards building the meeting-house or 
 the support of a public teacher in the town, to any use contrary to 
 that which they had a right to request. 
 
 The committee, however, were quite as clearly of opinion, that 
 it would be unsafe for the town, and repugnant to the undoubted 
 intent of the Constitution, to abate the taxes of dissenters, and, 
 indeed, that it had no right to do so ; yet as, on account of some 
 expectation of that kind, there had been delay in the collection of 
 taxes, and as there " appeared to be a happy spirit of conciliation 
 and a general disposition to peace, unity, and friendship prevail- 
 ing," and a manifest unwillingness to take any undue advantage 
 of the neglect or laches which had arisen, the committee advised 
 "that the collection of taxes of dissenters should be suspended 
 for three weeks, in order that they might have an opportunity 
 to lodge with the treasurer a written request for the pay- 
 ment of the sums assessed upon them to the support of their 
 respective teachers or elders ; and if, previous to the collection of 
 said taxes, any of the dissenters should produce to the treasurer 
 an order, receipt, or discharge from such teachers, then the treasurer 
 should give his orders to the collectors in accordance therewith; 
 but, if no requisition for a different disposal of the taxes of any 
 person should be filed within three months, they should be applied, 
 in accordance with the requirements of the Constitution, to the 
 support of the public worship of the standing order. 
 
 The committee did not touch upon the appropriation of the 
 common property of the town, including that dedicated by law to 
 the support of schools, for the benefit of a society composed of a 
 portion of its citizens only. Its object seems to have been to lay 
 the taxes for religious purposes equally upon all persons ; but, while 
 those of the Congregationalists were divided between the building 
 of the meeting-house and the support of the minister, those of the 
 other denominations were all to be paid to their respective minis- 
 ters for their support : so that an inducement might not be held 
 out to any to attach themselves to the denomination which sup- 
 ported its establishment in the cheapest manner; and, on the other 
 hand, that religious societies might not be tempted, by the hope of
 
 462 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 securing this class of converts, to employ cheap and consequently 
 ignorant preachers. It is probable that this was among the motives 
 of the town from the first in its attempt to assess the meeting- 
 house tax upon dissenters. 
 
 The difficulty was one inseparable from the interference of the 
 State in religious matters, which in many respects operated to the 
 injury of the apparently favored sect as well as of others. 
 
 The disposition of the matter recommended by the report to 
 the April meeting was probably as fair as any thing which could 
 have been devised, so far as taxation was concerned. 1 But the 
 committee proposed no removal of one main cause of complaint; 
 and for this, as well as perhaps for other reasons, it was unsatisfac- 
 tory to the dissenters. Mr. Van Schaack therefore continued his 
 legal proceedings, being encouraged to persist by letters from 
 Bishop Seabury of Connecticut; Rev. Dr. Parker, afterwards 
 Bishop of the New-England diocese ; Rev. Dr. Stillman, an eminent 
 Baptist divine of Boston, Gov. Eustis, and others. 2 He was non- 
 suited in the Common Pleas, " laughed out of Court ; " but he 
 at once carried the issue to the Supreme Bench, being sustained in 
 his determination to do so by the opinion of Bishop Parker, that, 
 " in spite of the horse-laugh of Judge Paine," the court of final 
 resort was certain to pronounce in his favor. In the mean time, the 
 town instructed the collectors not to " distress " any of the dissen- 
 ters, recognized as such in the previous year, for their meeting- 
 house tax ; nor for the minister's previous to the second week in 
 October, unless they were about to leave town. 
 
 In the first week of October, the case was decided by the Su- 
 preme Court in Mr. Van Schaack's favor. 
 
 In the warrant for" the town-meeting of November, 1792, an 
 article was inserted, probably at the instance of some dissenter, 
 "to ascertain the sense of the town, whether, in case Mr. Van 
 Schaack should recover damages and costs in his suit against the 
 assessors, they were to be indemnified by a charge upon all ratable 
 polls and estates, or only upon such as were of the Congregational 
 persuasion." 
 
 No action is recorded upon this ; but the meeting of November, 
 
 1 The course recommended was that generally adopted at the east, in conse- 
 quence of a decision of the Supreme Court in favor of the Baptists of Cambridge, 
 in a suit against that town, which had also been sustained in other cases. 
 
 2 Letters in the collection of Henry Van Schaack, Esq., of Manlius.
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 463 
 
 1794, directed the Committee on Accounts to ascertain the expense 
 of the Van Schaack suit, and the amount paid by each dissenter to- 
 wards it, and to give them credit for it in the next town-tax, 
 which was correspondingly increased for the Congregationalists. 
 
 At the same meeting, it was voted to raise 125 for public wor- 
 ship; of which Mr. Allen was to receive 110, he furnishing his 
 own wood : the remainder to go to the dissenters. 
 
 The system of accepting the certificates of their several pastors 
 in discharge of the taxes assessed upon dissenters from Congrega- 
 tionalism for religious purposes continued until 1799, when the 
 laws in regard to the support of public worship had, by a multi- 
 tude of enactments and judicial decisions, became so vague and 
 conflicting, that it was necessary to remodel them. 
 
 The new act required every town, precinct, or parish incorpo- 
 rated for religious purposes, to maintain a public teacher of mo- 
 rality, piety, and religion, the designation then given to ministers 
 of the gospel, and conferred upon each of those corporations the 
 power to tax its members for the support of a minister and the 
 building of a suitable house of worship. By this law, every 
 inhabitant in a town was presumed to belong to the original 
 parish, unless he annually procured a certificate signed by the pas- 
 tor of some other parish, and also by its committee specially 
 elected for that purpose, that he commonly and usually, when in 
 health, worshipped with them. 
 
 Under this system, the people of Pittsfield, in common with 
 those of the rest of the State, lived until the amendment of the 
 Constitution in 1834. Some amendments of the law were, how- 
 ever, made in 1811, which had. a local as well as a general interest. 
 Up to the year 1810, members of unincorporated religious socie- 
 ties were supposed to be entitled to the same privileges in the dis- 
 posal of their taxes, and their pastors to the same exemption from 
 assessment, with those of incorporated parishes. In that year, a 
 judicial decision overthrew the commonly-received opinion, and an 
 intense excitement was caused at the east, where scarce one dis- 
 senting society in ten was incorporated. The legislature of 1811, 
 elected under the influence of this agitation, made the law to con- 
 form to the old practice, and further advanced one or two points in a 
 liberal direction. Where two parishes of the same denomination 
 existed in a town, members of one were permitted to transfer their 
 connection to the other in the same manner as to one of a different
 
 464 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD 
 
 creed ; and non-resident tax-payers dissenting from the faith of the 
 town-parish were granted the same right to direct the disposal of 
 their taxes which residents possessed. The two latter clauses were 
 of interest in Pittsfield, where a second Congregational parish, 
 divided from the first upon political grounds, was springing up, 
 and was favored by wealthy non-resident proprietors, including 
 Oliver Wendell. 
 
 With regard to the rights of unincorporated societies, the inter- 
 est was confined to the Shakers, whom the legislature have to this 
 day steadily refused to incorporate, holding it inconsistent with 
 sound policy to countenance a body hostile to the institution of mar- 
 riage. All the other religious bodies in Pittsfield were specially in- 
 corporated, except the town (now the first Congregational) parish. 
 With regard to this, a proposition was made, after the decision of 
 the Van Schaack case in 1793, " to procure an act to incorporate 
 the inhabitants of this town into a parish by the name of the Con- 
 gregational Society in the Town of Pittsfield." Woodbridge Little, 
 Timothy Childs, Simon Larned, Daniel Hubbard, and John Chan- 
 dler Williams 1 were appointed to report upon the measure, and ac- 
 tually drafted a bill. The matter, however, was suffered to drop ; 
 and the First Congregational Parish of Pittsfield is such only by 
 virtue of the general provisions in the old statutes, and in the con- 
 stitutional amendment of 1834. 2 
 
 The controversy in regard to the rights of dissenters, although 
 sometimes giving occasion for unpleasant incidents, was, upon the 
 whole, carried on with much less acrimony than usually attended 
 the internal discords of the town. Public improvements were in 
 the mean time made harmoniously ; and Mr. Van Schaack was 
 assigned prominent places upon the various committees, side by 
 side with his leading opponents. 
 
 These who, upon principle, refused to pay their assessments for 
 building the new meeting-house, were fain to confess the benefits 
 which it conferred upon the whole town, and could not but show 
 a local pride in its fame. 
 
 1 Mr. Williams, who was so prominen-t in these affairs as a Congregationalist, 
 became afterwards one of the most zealous Episcopalians. 
 
 2 The First Congregational was a territorial parish, circumscribed by the town- 
 boundaries. Those which were formed without regard to such limits, of such 
 members as the corporation saw fit to admit, were known as poW-parishes, and 
 often extended into several towns ; as the Methodist Society of Pittsfield, Hancock, 
 Dalton, and Washington, and the Episcopal parish before mentioned.
 
 HISTORY OF 2ITTSFIELD. 465 
 
 In the erection of the fine schoolhouse connected with the town, 
 hall, and in the establishment of the excellent grammar-school which 
 almost immediately ensued, the amount of money taken from the 
 school-fund was more than restored ; and, from 1793 to 1834, the 
 different religious sects of Pittsfield lived together in as great har- 
 mony as the irritations which the law's interference with their mu- 
 tual relations would admit 
 80
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 A. 
 
 DEPKECIATION OF PROVINCIAL CURRENCY. 
 
 It would be impossible to obtain a correct idea of the prices paid in the 
 purchase of lands, or in other pecuniary transactions mentioned in our story, 
 previous to the year 1752, without taking into consideration the depreciation 
 of the currency of the Province during that period. 
 
 When lawful money is specified in the account, silver is to be understood ; 
 gold not having been made a legal tender until 1761, when a law to that 
 effect was obtained after a long and bitter struggle. 
 
 In 1C 90, in an emergency of the war then raging, the Province began the 
 issue of treasury notes of the value of from five shillings to five pounds each ; 
 40,000 in amount being emitted. Before the end of 1692, these bills de- 
 preciated at least one-third ; but the General Court then made them a legal 
 tender, and further enacted, that, in all public payments, they should be 
 received at an advance of five per cent. By these means, the bills were 
 restored to an equality with specie, and kept at par about twenty years. 
 
 But, in 1703, the government, yielding to a popular clamor for an expan- 
 sion of the currency, began a financial system upon that principle. The 
 effects of this inflation upon the paper currency were, however, not very ap- 
 parent until about 1712, when the government, being compelled to extend the 
 period for the redemption of its notes, the public confidence in them was sha- 
 ken, and they began steadily to depreciate, and continued to do so year by 
 year. Previous to 1712, the bills passed at the value of eight shillings for 
 an ounce of silver. The depreciation from that time is represented in the 
 following table : 
 
 1710 1. ...*. 
 
 1711 C 
 
 1712 l 8s.Qd. 
 
 1713) 
 
 467
 
 468 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 1714 \ 9s. 
 
 1715) 
 
 1716 > ...10s. 
 
 1717) 
 
 1718 ................ Us. 
 
 I7i n ............. i2s. 
 
 1720) 
 
 1721 ............... 13s. 
 
 1722 ---- .- .......... 14s. 
 
 1723 ............... 15s. 
 
 1724 
 
 17s. 
 1726 
 
 1727 
 
 1728 ............... 16s. 6d. 17s. 18s. 
 
 1729 ............... 19s. 19s. 6rf. 20s. 21s. 22s. 
 
 1730 ............... 21s. 20s. 19s. 
 
 1731 ............... 18s. 6d. 19s. 
 
 1732 ...... ......... 19s. 6d. 20s. 20s. 6d. 
 
 1733 ............... 21s. 21s. 6d. 22s. 22s. 6d. 23s. 
 
 1734 ............... 24s. 25s. 26s. 26s. 6d. 27s. 
 
 1735 ............... 27s. 6d. 
 
 1736 ............... 27s. 26s. Qd. 
 
 1737 ............... 26s. 6d. 27s. 
 
 1738) 
 
 1739 ( ............ 28s. 29s. 
 
 1740) 
 1741 
 
 1744 
 
 1745. .............. 35s. 36s. 37s. 
 
 1746) 
 
 1747 ( ............. 37s. 38s. 40s. , 
 
 1748) 
 17491 
 
 175 H ............. 60s. 
 
 1751 I 
 
 1752 j 
 
 In 1737, the General Court, perceiving the impossibility of restoring cred- 
 it to the swollen mass of its notes, resolved to issue others of a new form, or 
 tenor, although not discontinuing the use of the old ; and thus came into 
 use the terms old and new tenor in speaking of the bills of the Province. 
 The different forms of the two bills are given below : _
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 469 
 
 NO.- 
 
 OLD TENOR. 
 
 2CW. 
 
 This Indented Bill of Twenty Shillings due from the Prov- 
 ince of the Massachusetts Bay in New England to the Possessor 
 thereof shall be in value equal to Money, and shall be accord- 
 ingly accepted by the Treastirer and Receivers subordinate to 
 him in all publick payments and for any Stock at any time in 
 the Treasury Boston November the Twenty-first Anno 1702 
 By Order of the Great and General Court or Assembly 
 
 Com 
 
 tee 
 
 NEW TENOR, 
 
 TWENTY SHILLINGS 
 
 TWENTY SHILLINGS 
 
 This bill of Twenty Shillings due from the Province of 
 the Massachusetts Bay in New England, to the possessor there- 
 of, shall be in value equal to three ounces of coined silver, Troy 
 weight, of sterling alloy, or gold coin at the rate of font potinds 
 eighteen shillings per ounce; and shall be accordingly accept- 
 ed by the Treasurer and receivers subordinate to him in all 
 payments (the duties of Import and Tunnage of Shipping and 
 incomes of the Light House only excepted,) and for any Stock 
 at any time in the Treasury. 
 Boston, 
 
 By order of the Great and General Court or Assembly. 
 
 TWENTY SHILLINGS TWENTY SHILLINGS 
 
 / Committee 
 J
 
 470 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 The law made one bill of the new tenor equal to three of the same denom- 
 ination of the old ; but the public passed them at the rate of one for four, 
 and they depreciated together in that proportion. The old tenor continued 
 the standard of value in ordinary usage. 
 
 The ruinous financial policy of the Province was not begun or continued 
 without strenuous opposition at home and still stronger in England; and when, 
 in 1748, the mother country agreed to pay an idemnity of 183,000 towards 
 the expenses incurred by New England in the capture of Louisburg, nearly 
 the whole of it coming to Massachusetts, it was resolved to appropriate her 
 proportion to the redemption of the paper money of the Province, at depre- 
 ciated rates. This now amounted to 2,200,000; but had depreciated, says 
 Hildreth, since the issue, full one-half, the whole depreciation being at the 
 rate of seven or eight for one. 
 
 In 1751, the specie for the Louisburg idemnity arrived, and the currency 
 began to be redeemed at a rate about one-fifth less than its current value. 
 It was enacted that future debts should be paid in silver, at the rate of 6s. 8d. 
 the ounce. And treasury notes were not again issued by Massachusetts un- 
 til the Revolution ; although certificates of indebtedness were given by the 
 treasury, and passed current, with more or less depreciation, among the people. 
 
 But, though the Province paper in 1752 ceased to be a legal tender, an 
 account by an officer of the treasury, in 1753, showed that 131,996, equal 
 in value to 17,599 lawful money, were still in the hands of the people. 
 
 The committee of the legislature had burnt bills, at the town-house in 
 Boston, representing the amount of 1,792,236. 
 
 On the 29th of January, 1 754, Harrison Gray, the Provincial Treasurer, 
 issued a notice that all bills still out must be brought to him for exchange by 
 the first day of the next June, or be forfeited ; and that any person subse- 
 quently passing them would be subject to a fine of 10 for each offence. 
 This appears to have effectually disposed of both the old and new tenor. 
 
 N. B. For the facts above given, we are indebted generally to the " His- 
 torical Account of Massachusetts Currency," by Joseph B. Felt, published in 
 1839, a valuable book, now out of print. 
 
 B. 
 
 REV. THOMAS ALLEN'S DIARY. 
 
 DURING some of the most interesting years of the Revolution, Rev. Mr. 
 Allen kept a pocket diary ; in which from time to time occur minutes and 
 memoranda, sometimes of curious and often of instructive interest. Of the 
 information contained in many of these, we have made use in the text of this 
 volume : others find more appropriate places in the Appendix. The book in 
 which the diary is kept is itself of interest ; being " Aitken's General Ameri- 
 can Register, and the Gentleman's and Tradesman's Complete Annual Ac-
 
 APPENDIX. 471 
 
 count Book, and Calendar, For the Pocket or Desk ; For the Year of our 
 Lord 1 773. Published at Philadelphia ; by Joseph Crukshank, for R. Aitken, 
 Bookseller, opposite the London Coffee-House, Front Street." The Preface 
 states that this was the first book ever published in America. 
 
 REVOLUTIONARY MABKET-PRICES. 
 
 January, 1779. 
 
 Wheat, twelve dollars per bushel. 
 Indian Corn, five dollars per bushel. 
 Tea (Bohea), sixteen dollars per pound. 
 Sugar (Maple), nine shillings per pound. 
 Sugar (Loaf), two shillings per pound. 
 Rum, twenty dollars per gallon. 
 Molasses, twenty dollars per gallon. 
 
 July, 1779. 
 
 New-England Rum, thirty dollars per gallon. 
 Bohea Tea, ten dollars per pound. 
 Brown Sugar, three dollars per pound. 
 Wheat, forty dollars per bushel. 
 Corn (Indian), twenty dollars per bushel. 
 
 1780. 
 
 Wheat, one hundred and ten dollars per bushel, or 9s. silver. 
 Bohea Tea, 12s. silver; 140 dollars Continental currency. 
 
 PRICES OF SOME OF THE ARTICLES AND NECESSARIES OF LIFE. 
 
 July, 1778. 
 
 Labor, four dollars per day. Times as much as formerly .... 8 
 
 Women's shoes, five dollars per pair. " " " 5 
 
 Ploughing, eight dollars per day. " ' " " 8 
 
 Rum, 1 7s. per quart. " " " 11 
 
 Tea, twelve dollars per pound. " " " .... 14 
 
 Clothing in general. " " " .... 7 
 
 Salt. " " " 30 
 
 MR. ALLEN'S LOANS TO THE CONTINENT. 
 
 Value of my Continental certificates as stated by Loan Office treasurer : 
 
 1 1th June, 1 7 77, of three hundred dollars, is 300 
 
 19th Jan., 1778, of two hundred dollars.. .'. 200 
 
 17th March, 1778, of two hundred dollars, is 106.36.0 
 
 Connecticut... ... 606.36
 
 472 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 2d June, 1778 150f 
 
 46th May, 1779 . . . . 045$* 
 
 Ditto 045f 
 
 240 
 606 
 
 846 
 Interest of the end of 1785 277 
 
 $1123 
 [Value of my Continental certificates : 
 
 llth June, 1777, of 300 dollars, is 300 
 
 19th January, 1778, of 200 dollars, is 130 
 
 17th March, 1778, of 200 dollars, is 106 
 
 2d June, 1 778, 400 dollars, is 150 
 
 26th May, 1779, 1200 dollars, is 89 
 
 5th October, 1779, 200 dollars, is 9 
 
 784 
 May, 1785, interest supposed to be 260 dollars. 260 
 
 $1044] 
 
 The statement enclosed in brackets is crossed in the original by erasure 
 lines. 
 
 Dec, 31. 1787. What the Continent owes me at this time, reckoning 
 interest from 1782, Dec. 31, to the above date : ' 
 
 Connecticut certificates as on the opposite page, total 606 dol. 
 
 Massachusetts' total. 150 
 
 90 
 
 846 doL 
 Interest, five years 253 
 
 Dec. 31, 1787, this is 1099 
 
 I have by me a certificate for 30 dol. 
 
 * 
 
 1129 dol. 
 
 RECEIPT TO MAKE INK. 
 
 Take of the bark of soft maple, of witch hazel, and alder, an equal quan- 
 tity of the first with the two last, and boil them well in water, and add a 
 small quantity of gum-arabic, and your ink will be good. Put some of the 
 aforesaid gum into the ink when it is made of ink-powder.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 473 
 
 DEPRECIATION OF CONTINENTAL CURRENCY. 
 
 In another memorandum book of Mr. Allen's, the following tables are 
 found : 
 
 State Scale, 100 Silver. 
 1777. 
 
 January 105 
 
 February 107 
 
 March 109 
 
 April 102 
 
 May 
 
 June 
 
 115 
 
 120 
 
 July 125 
 
 August 150 
 
 September 175 
 
 October 275 
 
 November 300 
 
 December 310 
 
 1778. 
 
 January 325 
 
 February 350 
 
 March 375 
 
 April 400 
 
 May 400 
 
 June 400 
 
 July 425 
 
 August 450 
 
 September 475 
 
 October 500 
 
 November 545 
 
 December 634 
 
 1779. 
 
 January 742 
 
 February : 868 
 
 March 1000 
 
 April 1104 
 
 May 1250 
 
 June 1342 
 
 July ...1477 
 
 August 1630 
 
 September 1800 
 
 November 2300 
 
 December.. 2593 
 
 1780. 
 
 January 2934 
 
 February 3322 
 
 March 3736 
 
 April 4000 
 
 March 1, 
 Sept. 1, 
 March 1, 
 Sept. 1, 
 Mar. 18, 
 
 1778, D(oUar) Silver = If 
 
 1778, 1 = 
 
 1779, 1 = 
 1779, 1 = 
 1779, 1 
 
 4 
 10 
 18 
 40 
 
 Continental Scale. 
 1777. 
 
 September 1000 
 
 October 911 
 
 November 828 
 
 December 754 
 
 1778. 
 
 January 685 
 
 February 623 
 
 March ^.571 
 
 April.. 497 
 
 May 434 
 
 June 378 
 
 July 330 
 
 August .- 287 
 
 September 250 
 
 October 215 
 
 November 183 
 
 December 157 
 
 . 1779. 
 
 January 1 34 
 
 February 115 
 
 March 100 
 
 April 90 
 
 May 82 
 
 June 74 
 
 July 67
 
 474 HISTORY OP PITTSFIELD. 
 
 August 61 
 
 September 55 
 
 October 49 
 
 November 43 
 
 December 38 
 
 1780. 
 
 January 34 
 
 February 30 
 
 March 26 
 
 March 25 
 
 1777. 
 
 February. Died at Peekskill, Col. Seth Pomeroy ; a good friend to his 
 country. Pleurisy. 
 
 March 16. Engaged in the Continental service. 
 
 March 20. Was inoculated for the small-pox at Sheffield. 
 
 May 3. Had twenty-seven .old sheep, seventeen of which were ewes, and 
 fourteen lambs ; which is forty-one. 
 
 May 5. Sowed flaxseed, and planted June potatoes. 
 
 May 29. Finished planting. 
 
 May. Tommy fell into a deep place in the river, and providentially 
 escaped drowning by having timely assistance near. The Lord's name be 
 praised ! 
 
 May 28. Brought a salmon from Northampton behind me without harm 
 to it, though it was warm weather. 
 
 llth day of June. Set out from home to join the army at Ticonderoga ; 
 returned home July 13. 
 
 18th July. Green peas plenty, and, soon after, stringed beans. 
 
 1778. 
 
 March. An uncommon season for a great depth of snow ; drifts being 
 over the fences in many places. It wasted fast March 12, 13, 14, 15. 
 
 March 23. Began to make sugar, being too early. 
 
 May 16. Load of shad from Kinderhook, or rather from Schodack. 
 
 July 9. The first mess of green peas. 
 
 July 12. Ended reading " The Family Expositor " for the first time in 
 my family, and began to read it through again, July 19. 
 
 Oct. 30. Finished getting in my sauce. 
 
 Aug. 2. Lord's Day ; cucumbers for the first time. 
 
 1779. 
 * Little or no snow in February, and the most open winter I ever knew. 
 
 My sheep did not eat two hundred pounds of hay this winter, till March 
 "came in. 
 
 March 22, Monday. Brunswicker came to live with me. 
 Sheared sheep April 30 ; too early. 
 
 Aug. 21. This day received the melancholy tidings of brother Moses 
 Allen's death, who was drowned in making his escape from a prison-ship near 
 Savannah, beginning of January, 1779.
 
 APPENDIX. 475 
 
 In September. Sowed my wheat, being one week too late. 
 
 October, made a journey to Albany with my son. Returning, his horse 
 fell and rolled quite over him, and yet he was preserved unhurt in any great 
 degree, to my astonishment. How wonderful is the preservation of man ! 
 The Lord's name be praised I 
 
 1780. 
 
 As long and severe a winter as almost was ever known. Snow very much 
 drifted and very deep. 
 
 Aug. 14. Mowed my meadow, and finished mowing Tuesday, and 
 got it all home Friday night. It is best to mow it all down the first day, if 
 possible. 
 
 August 31. Sowed my wheat, and finished dragging it the third day 
 after. 
 
 Next year I am to sow some flax, peas, barley, and oats. 
 
 c. 
 
 NAMES OF EAELY SETTLERS. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Field, who made inquiries, when sources of information were 
 more abundant than they now are, into the early settlement of the town, pub- 
 lished the result in 1844. He appears to have relied chiefly upon traditions, 
 and to have been entirely unacquainted with the measures for settlement be- 
 fore 1752, so that some errors naturally appear in his statement. We, how- 
 ever, here reproduce the essential portions, which may be compared with the 
 text of the present work. 
 
 In 1752-3, Solomon Deming moved his family into the east part of the 
 
 town This year Charles Goodrich drove the first team and cart 
 
 into the town, cutting his way for a number of miles through the woods. 
 Nathaniel Fairfield also this year settled on the road running east from the 
 house of the late Deacon Daniel Crofoot and Zebediah Stiles, on a rise of 
 ground west of the dwelling of the late Dr. Childs. 
 
 It is understood that Abner and Isaac Dewey, Jacob Ensign, Heztkiah 
 Jones, Samuel Taylor, Elias Willard, and Dea. Josiah Wright became ?t-t- 
 tlers this year, and that Simeon a*nd Stephen Crofoot, David Bush, and Gol. 
 William Williams became settlers the year following! . . . 
 
 In 1 754, Eli Root, Esq., Ephraim Stiles, William Wright, and perhaps 
 others, became inhabitants. . . . 
 
 On the road running west from the centre were Zebediah and Ephraim 
 Stiles, Ezra Strong, Charles Miller, David Roberts, David Ashley, Amos and 
 Oliver Root, and others by the name of Wright, Robbins, Belden, Hubbard, 
 Francis and Wadhams ; east were Rev. Mr. Allen, John Strong, Dr. Col- 
 ton, the Crofoots. and Jacob Ensign ; and further on to the north-east Josiah
 
 476 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 and Charles Goodrich, Israel Stoddard, Israel Dickinson, and Col. Win. Wil- 
 liams ; south were Col. Easton, Sylvanus Piercey, Ezekiel Root. Daniel Mil- 
 ler, James Lord, and Elisha Jones. Rufus Allen kept a public house on the 
 corner now occupied by William B. Cooley [in 1868, by the Berkshire Life 
 Insurance Company], and farther north, towards Lanesboro', were Joseph Al- 
 len, and the families by the name of Baker and Keeler. On the road east- 
 ward of Daniel Weller's, or near it, were the Fairfields, David Bush, Eli 
 Root, Esq., Hezekiah Jones, Wm. Brattle, and Solomon Deming. Col. Wil- 
 liams early moved on to this road from the spot where Levi Goodrich now 
 lives, and where Lieut. Graves settled after him. Charles Goodrich, Esq., 
 left the farm on which he first lived, and settled near him. 
 
 A large portion of the early settlers were from Westfield, all by the name 
 of Ashley, Bagg, Bush, Cadwell, Dewey, Francis, Hubbard, Noble, Piercey, 
 Sackett, Stiles, Taylor, and Weller. Hezekiah Jones was also from this town. 
 Those of the name of Brattle, Deming, Goodrich, Gunn, Lord, Robbins, and 
 Willard were from Wethersfield, Ct. The Aliens, Bakers, Fail-fields, 
 Phelpses, Stoddards, Strongs, and Wrights were from Northampton ; and the 
 Crofoots from Belchertown. 
 
 1 759. The following persons are understood from circumstances to have 
 moved into the town this year ; viz., Samuel Birchard, Daniel Hubbard, 
 Daniel and Jesse Sackett, and Jonathan Taylor. I say are understood from 
 circumstances to have moved in this year ; for there is no inconsiderable dif- 
 ficulty in finding exactly, at this time, at what period the early settlers plant- 
 ed themselves here. ... In 1 760, David and Oliver Ashley, William Fran- 
 cis, and Gideon Gunn are understood to have become settlers. Joshua Rob- 
 bins and Ezekiel Root became inhabitants before the incorporation of the 
 town. ... In 1761, Gideon Goodrich, James Lord, Charles Miller, Thomas 
 Morgan, Daniel and David Noble, Wm. Phelps, and John Remington are 
 understood to have become inhabitants. 
 
 In 1762-3-4, the following persons are understood to have settled here; 
 namely, Phinehas Belden, Solomon Crosby, Israel Dickinson, Elisha Jones, 
 John Morse, David Roberts, Aaron Stiles, Israel Stoddard, John and Caleb 
 Wadhams, Aaron and Phinehas Baker, Wm. Brattle, Col. James Easton, 
 Benjamin and Josiah Goodrich, Moses Miller, Joseph Phelps, Amos Root, 
 John Williams, Rev. Thomas Allen, Jas. D. Colt, Ezra and King Strong, Dr. 
 Colton, Rufus Allen, John Strong ; and a number of others probably be- 
 came inhabitants during these years. Nol long after, Joseph Allen, David 
 Bagg, Lieut. Moses Graves, Woodbridge Little, Esq., Col. Oliver Root, Eben- 
 ezer White, and many others, settled in town. 
 
 Most of the inhabitants who have been mentioned settled on the house- 
 lots ; some, on the squares. 
 
 Col. Williams and Elisha Jones were from Weston ; Lieut. Graves and 
 Israel Dickinson were from Hatfield ; Thomas Morgan was from Springfield, 
 and John Remington from West Springfield. Ebenezer White was from 
 Hadley. David Roberts was from Hartford, and Jacob Ensign from West
 
 APPENDIX. 477 
 
 Hartford, Ct. Col. Easton was immediately from Litchfield, previously from 
 Hartford. Joseph Keeler was from Ridgefield, and Woodbridge Little, Esq., 
 from Lebanon, and James D. Colt from Lyme, in the same State. 
 
 Valentine Rathbun, from Stonington, Ct., settled in this town about 1770; 
 Dr. Timothy Childs, from Deerfield, in 1771; and Stephen Fowler and Josiah 
 Moseley, from Westfield, about 1772. Col. John Brown, from Sandisfield, 
 settled here in 1773. In 1775, Gad Merrill, from Hebron, Ct, settled to the 
 north of the east branch of the Housatonic, near Dalton line ; and, in the 
 spring of 1 780, William and John Partridge settled a little west of him. 
 
 D. 
 
 EECOEDS OF THE KEVOLTJTIONAKY SERVICE OF PITTS- 
 FIELD. 
 
 From the Military Rolls of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 
 
 In some cases, the companies whose rolls are here given were made up 
 by levies from two or more towns ; and, as it is impossible always to distin- 
 guish to which the soldiers should be credited, this list is printed without at- 
 tempting to discriminate. 
 
 CAPT. NOBLE'S MINUTE MEN. 
 
 List of Capt. Noble's minute-men who marched to Cambridge on the 
 Lexington alarm : 
 
 Term of service, nine days; entered service April 22, 1775. 
 
 Captain, David Noble of Pittsfield. First Lieut., Joseph Welch of Rich- 
 mond. Second Lieut., Josiah Wright of Pittsfield. Sergeants, Jeremiah 
 Miller, Richmond; Joseph More, Pittsfield; Ambrose Hall, Richmond; 
 Nathaniel Porter, Pittsfield. Corporals, Ebenezer Williams, Richmond ; Solo- 
 mon Martin, Pittsfield ; Thomas Scott, Richmond ; Jonathan Stoddard, Pitts- 
 field. Fifer, George Leonard, Lenox. Drummer, Joshua Done, of Pittsfield. 
 
 Privates from Richmond. 
 
 Hill. 
 
 Benjamin Pynchon. 
 Paul Tupping [Tupper ?] 
 Dan Tubs. 
 Amaziah Chapin. 
 
 A. Parmele. 
 Jonathan Hewley. 
 Isaiah . 
 
 B. Currier. 
 
 Joel Osborne. 
 Jose Hubbard. 
 Rufus Parmele. 
 William Lang. 
 Fred. Hill. 
 Wm. Raymont. 
 Reuben Coggwell. 
 David Gaston.
 
 478 
 
 HISTOEY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Phinehas Gilbert. 
 Hugh Mitchell. 
 Benjamin Deming. 
 Timothy Stearns. 
 Hugh Berry. 
 Wm. Cady. 
 Jonathan Blakesley. 
 Abraham Frost. 
 John Corbin. 
 Warham Strong. 
 Zebediah Stiles. 
 Joel Osborn. 
 Wm. Scott. 
 Joel Dickinson. 
 Nathaniel Dickinson. 
 Azariah Egleston. 
 Moses Goodrich. 
 Samuel Cross. 
 Aaron Miller. 
 Moses Noble. 
 
 Privates from Pittsfield. 
 
 Thomas Miller. 
 John King. 
 Jerry Butler. 
 Caleb Goodrich. 
 Ebenezer Wright. 
 Timothy Miller. 
 Joseph Elton. 
 Joseph Cotton. 
 Richard Rossiter. 
 Charles Belding. 
 John Gardner. 
 Jabez Chalmers. 
 Jonathan Bill. 
 Benjamin Austin. 
 David Beckwith. 
 Walter Welch. 
 James Elton. 
 Aaron Stiles. 
 Thomas Taylor. 
 Timothy Childs. 
 
 Jabez Chalmers, John Gardner, Jonathan Bill, volunteered in Arnold's 
 expedition against Canada via the Kennebec. 
 
 Benjamin Austin and David Beckwith enlisted in " the train " early in July. 
 
 ROLL of Capt. David Noble's company of eight months' men in Col. Patter- 
 son's regiment at Cambridge, 1775: 
 
 Officers. 
 
 Captain, David Noble, Pittsfield. First Lieut., Joseph Welch, Richmond. 
 Second Lieut., Josiah Wright, Pittsfield. Surgeon [to the regiment], Timothy 
 Childs, Pittsfield. Surgeon's Mate, Jonathan Lee, Pittsfield. Sergeants, Jere- 
 miah Miller, Richmond; Joseph More, Pittsfield; Ambrose Hull [or Hall], 
 Richmond; Nathaniel Porter, Pittsfield. Corporals, Ebenezer Williams, 
 Richmond ; Solomon Martin, Pittsfield ; Thomas Scott, Richmond ; Jonathan 
 Stoddard, Pittsfield. 
 
 Privates. 
 
 Benjamin Austin. 
 
 George Butler. 
 
 Hugh Berry. 
 
 Jonathan Blakesley. 
 
 Jonathan Bill. 
 
 David Beckwith. 
 
 Samuel Cross. 
 
 John Cady. 
 Jabez Chalmers. 
 WUliam Cady. 
 Benjamin Deming. 
 
 Abraham Frost. 
 John Gardner.
 
 APPENDIX. 479 
 
 Moses Goodrich. 
 
 Phinehas Gilbert. 
 
 John King. 
 
 Joshua Done (Doane), drummer. 
 
 Moses Noble. 
 
 Timothy Stearns. 
 Aaron Miller. 
 Thomas Miller. 
 Seth Macomber. 
 
 OTHER PITTSFIELD SOLDIERS in the eight months' service : 
 Prince Hall, in Col. Wm. Prescott's regiment. 
 Thomas Parks, in "Wm. Goodrich's company, Patterson's regiment. 
 Joseph Colson, drummer in Col. Jonathan Brewer's regiment. 
 Eleazer Keiler, sergeant in Capt. Asa Bower's company, Woodbridge's 
 regiment. 
 
 John Lewis, surgeon's mate Eben Brewer's regiment. 
 
 PITTSFIELD MEX in Capt. Aaron Rowley's company, Col. Symond's regi- 
 ment, called out by Gen. Gates, for Saratoga, from April 26 to May 19, 1 777 : 
 
 Lieutenant, Wm. Ford. Sergeant, Joel Stevens. Corporal, Amos Delano, 
 Samuel Coggswell, Isaac Coggswell, Ebenezer Phelps, Timothy Cadwell. 
 Jehiel Wright, Jason Warren, Samuel Willard, Linus Parker [then of Lenox], 
 Ozias Wright. 
 
 Gideon Gunn and Amos Root served in the same regiment. 
 
 BATTLE OF BEXXIXGTON. 
 
 PAY-ROLL of Lieut. Wm. Ford's Company in Col. David Rossiter's Detach- 
 ment of Militia from the County of Berkshire for the Public Service at Ben- 
 nington from Aug. 13, to Aug. 20, 1777 (Pittsfield) : 
 
 Lieutenants, Wm. Ford, Joseph Allen. Sergeants, James Easton, Charles 
 Goodrich. 
 
 Privates. 
 
 James Noble. 
 Denam Tupper. 
 Rufus Allen. 
 James Brattle. 
 John Corbin. 
 Warham Strong. 
 Nathaniel Hale. 
 Francis Plumer. 
 
 Nathaniel Gorcester (?) 
 Rev. Thomas Allen. 
 Eleazer Goodrich 
 Timothy Cadwell. 
 Jehiel Wright. 
 Jaffry (negro). 
 Gideon Goodrich. 
 
 PAY-ROLL of Lieut. James Hubbard's Company in Lieut. Col. Rossiter's 
 detachment of Militia from the State of Massachusetts Bay in the Service of 
 U. S. A., commencing Aug. 17, 1777, and ending when they were discharged, 
 Aug. 22 : 
 
 Lieutenant, James Hubbard. Sergeants, Aaron Noble, King Strong, Joel 
 Stevens. Corporals, Joshua Narrimore, Amos Delano, Joseph Phelps.
 
 480 
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Privates. 
 
 Oliver Boot. 
 James Colt. 
 Paul Hutchinson. 
 Paul Hubbard. 
 Elnathan Phelps. 
 Zaccheus Hurlbert. 
 Oliver Burt. 
 Peter Wright. 
 Jacob Gleason. 
 Solomon Lothrop. 
 Jona'n Stoddard. 
 David Ashley. 
 
 Wm. Miller. 
 Nathaniel Davis. 
 Caleb Wadhams. 
 John Churchill. 
 Frederic Stanley. 
 Joseph Price. 
 Lemuel Phelps. 
 Calvin Cogswell. 
 Josiah Talcott. 
 Nehemiah Hopkins. 
 Aaron Drake. 
 John Deming. 
 
 AT STONE ARABIA. 
 
 A PAY-ROLL of the Field and Staff Officers of a Regiment of Levies 
 commanded by Col. John Brown, late of Pittsfield, deceased, raised by the 
 Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the term of three months : 
 
 John Brown, Colonel, appointed July 14, 1780; served three months, 
 three days; pay (per month), 22. 10s. 
 
 Oliver Root, Major, appointed July 8 ; served three months, twenty-four 
 days ; pay, 15. 
 
 James Easton, Adjutant, appointed July 1 7 ; served three months, fifteen 
 days ; pay, 12. 
 
 Elias Willard, Quartermaster, appointed July 1 7 ; served three months, 
 fifteen days ; pay, 85. 
 
 Oliver Brewster, Surgeon, appointed July 23 ; served two months, twenty- 
 seven days ; pay, 18. 
 
 A PAY-ROLL of Capt. Wm. Ford's Company in Col. John Brown's Regi- 
 ment in the service of the U. S. A., commencing July 21, 1780, and ending 
 Oct. 21, 1780: 
 
 Captain, Wm. Ford. Lieutenants, Alpheus Spencer, Abel Pearson. Ser- 
 geants, Samuel Wheaton, Daniel Rathbone, Eleazur Slosson, Timothy Can- 
 dee. Corporals, James Baker, Nath'l Tobie, Nathan Ingraham, Barth'w 
 Bond. Drummer, Shubael Austin. Fifer, Thomas McKnight. 
 
 Benoni Gleason. 
 John Cummington. 
 John Phelps. 
 Thos. Burt. 
 Jason Robbins. 
 David Taylor. 
 John More. 
 
 Privates. 
 
 Nath'l Goodrich. 
 Levi Coggswell. 
 John North. 
 Ezekiel Smith. 
 Henry Bell. 
 Ezekiel Case. 
 Joel Ludd.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 481 
 
 Wm. Milliken. 
 
 Win. McKnight. 
 
 Jona'n Bateman. 
 
 Philon Stoddard. 
 
 Gilbert Goodrich. 
 
 David Clark. 
 
 Asahel Harrison. 
 
 Aaron Adams. 
 
 Zadoc Hewett. 
 
 Solomon Bliss. 
 
 John Lewis. 
 
 David Sears. 
 
 Oliver Belding. 
 
 Peleg Carlton. 
 
 Jehiel Stearns. 
 
 Wm. Baker. 
 
 Josiah Stiles. 
 
 Joseph Reed. 
 
 John Noble. 
 
 Calvin Easton. 
 
 Nathan Parks. 
 Thos. [Roll mutilated] R. 
 Three names "forgotten," 
 North, jun., Uriah Welch, 
 
 Wm. Hatch. 
 
 Reuben Carlton. 
 
 Calvin Dunham. 
 
 Warren Mace. 
 ' Elisha Carter. 
 
 Joseph Hardy. 
 
 Colman Andrews. 
 
 Moses Tomblin. 
 
 Joseph Porter. 
 
 Isaac Foot [or Israel]. 
 
 Joseph Porter, jun. 
 
 Amos Woodruff. 
 
 Seth Newel. 
 
 Seth Bond. 
 
 Joel Dean. 
 
 Shubael Wollison. 
 
 James Ellison. 
 
 Warren Hall. 
 
 James Reed. 
 
 Charles Hyde. 
 
 Joseph Tuhel. 
 M-rick, D. Sworn to before Justice Goodrich, 
 and reported in a supplementary roll, John 
 John Slossori. 
 
 PAY-ROLL of Capt. Rufus Allen's Company of Militia of Matross in Col. 
 Rossiter's Regiment in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Pittsfield, com- 
 mencing Oct. 14, 1 780, ending Oct. 1 7, 1 780. Travel, 40 miles : 
 
 Captain, Rufus Allen. Lieutenants, Oswald Williams and Joseph Allen. 
 Sergeants, Elijah Crofoot, Thomas Taylor, Paul Hubbard. Corporals, James 
 Brattle, Eli Root, Benjamin Judd. 
 
 Privates, 
 Thomas Miller. 
 Adoniram Hinman. 
 John Stearns. 
 Daniel Barber. 
 James Netting. 
 Hezekiah Wolcott. 
 
 Daniel Merrill. 
 
 Joseph Hall. 
 John King. 
 John Francis. 
 Thomas Keller. 
 Wm. Miller. 
 Joel Walker. 
 Moses Bartlett. 
 
 PAY-ROLL of Detachment commanded by Lieut. Joel Stevens in CoL 
 David Rossiter's Regiment, Pittsfield, Oct. 18, to Oct. 21, 1780. 40 miles 
 travel allowed : 
 
 Lieutenants, Joel Stevens, Aaron Noble. Clerk, Francis Plumer. Ser- 
 geants, Amos Delano, Martin Bagg. Corporals, Peter Sullard, Ebenezer 
 Wright. 31
 
 482 
 
 HISTOKY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Soldiers. 
 
 Tim'y CadweU. 
 Abel Branch. 
 Nathaniel Davis. 
 Enoch Baker. 
 Caleb Wadhams. 
 Edmund Wright. 
 John Deming. 
 
 Titus Wright. 
 Paul Guilford. 
 Daniel Burt. 
 Amos Root, Jr. 
 Timothy Cook. 
 Nathaniel Welch. 
 
 LIEUT. JOEL STEVENS'S DETACHMENT called out Oct. 15, 1780, to Oct. 
 18, 1780, in alarm at Fort Edward, allowed 40 miles travel : 
 
 Lieutenants, Joel Stevens, Aaron Noble. Clerk, Francis Plumer. Ser- 
 geants, Amos Delano, Martin Bagg, Josh'a Narrimore. Corporals, Paul 
 Sullard, Ebenezer Wright. 
 
 Privates. 
 Paul Guilford. 
 Elijah Ames. 
 Peter Wright. 
 Oliver Burt. 
 Nathaniel Davis. 
 John Jordon. 
 Daniel Brown. 
 
 Abel Branch. 
 George Butler. 
 Abiather Millard. 
 
 Benjamin Phelps. 
 Benjamin Coggswell. 
 Ambrose Booth. 
 Paul Hutchinson. 
 Caleb Wadhams. 
 Amos Root, jun. 
 Amos Welch. 
 William Cady. 
 Enoch Baker. 
 Matthew Wright. 
 
 PAY-ROLL of Capt. Joel Stevens's Company in Col. David Rossiter's 
 Regiment, Pittsfield, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on the alarm at 
 Saratoga. Entered service Oct. 12, 1781. Discharged Oct. 25, 1781. 
 Travel, 160 miles: 
 
 Captain, Joel Stevens. Lieutenant, Lebbeus Backus. Clerk, Francis 
 Plumer. Sergeants, James Brattle, Benja'n Chamberlain. 
 
 Privates. 
 
 Jonathan Lattimer. 
 Shubael Austin. 
 Martin Kingsbury. 
 Joshua Bigelow. 
 Wm. Bond. 
 Asa Silver. 
 Phinehas Cady. 
 Israel Phelps. 
 Phinehas Cole. 
 
 Wm. Williams. 
 Herman Jones. 
 Jonathan Loomis. 
 Simeon Babcock. 
 Levi Snow. 
 Josiah Goodrich. 
 Joshua Bobbins. 
 Warren Cady. 
 Zenas Goodrich.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 483 
 
 Calvin Sprague. 
 Henry Taylor. 
 Phillip Foot. 
 Amos Welch. 
 Abiather Millard. 
 Jonathan Noble. 
 Azariah Root. 
 Lyman Baker 
 Walter Walker. 
 Daniel Jones. 
 Caleb Wadhams. 
 David Ashley. 
 James DeWolf. 
 Thomas Davis. 
 Nath'l Davis. 
 George Concert. 
 Ezra Stearns. 
 John Wheelwright. 
 Calvin Chesman. 
 Benjamin Phelps. 
 
 Wm. Weller 
 Francis Belknap. 
 Jeremiah Blanchafd. 
 Sol. Sackett. 
 Eben'r Wright. 
 Selah Lusk. 
 Stephen West. 
 Daniel Coggswell. 
 Benjamin Gallop. 
 Nicholas Cotterel. 
 Thomas Keiler. 
 Aaron Bigsby. 
 Palmer Sherman. 
 Ebenezer Williams. 
 Nathan Phillips. 
 Benjamin Judd. 
 Rufus Woodward. 
 Timothy Cook. 
 Thomas Lewis. 
 Nathan Taggard. 
 
 A Pay-roll of the six months' men raised by and for the Town of Pittsfield, and em- 
 ployed in the Continental service, in the year 1 780. ( Continental pay. ) 
 
 Men's names. 
 
 Time 
 marched. 
 
 Time 
 discharged. 
 
 No. of 
 miles. 
 
 Time in 
 service. 
 Weeks. Days. 
 
 Wages due. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 8. d. 
 
 Othniel Williamson 
 
 Aug. 2 
 
 Dec. 15 
 
 100 
 
 4 9 
 
 8 12 
 
 Lieut. Williamson ' 
 
 < 
 
 Feb. 12, 1781 
 
 110 
 
 6 5 
 
 12 6 8 
 
 John Ford 
 
 " 10 
 
 Dec. 21, 1780 
 
 110 
 
 4 16 
 
 9 1 4 
 
 Azariah Root 
 
 " 2 
 
 " 16, " 
 
 110 
 
 4 18 
 
 9 4 
 
 Reuben Gunn 
 
 Sept. 3 
 
 Marcb.3,1781 
 
 110 
 
 6 5 
 
 12 6 g 
 
 Isaac Isaacs 
 
 Aug28 
 
 Feb. 28 
 
 110 
 
 6 5 
 
 12 6 8 
 
 George Randow 
 
 " 3 
 
 March 3 
 
 110 
 
 7 5 
 
 14 6 8 
 
 Hosea Merrill 
 
 " 3 
 
 Dec. 19 
 
 110 
 
 4 21 
 
 9 8 
 
 Abner Hathaway 
 
 " 23 
 
 Feb. 23 
 
 110 
 
 6 5 
 
 12 6 8 
 
 Jacob Wright 
 
 " " 
 
 Dec. 9 
 
 100 
 
 3 21 
 
 7 8 
 
 Daniel Bad(b)cock 
 
 July 27 
 
 Jan. 21 
 
 110 
 
 6 5 
 
 12 6 8 
 
 Elijah Root 
 
 Aug. 3 
 
 it 
 
 110 
 
 4 23 
 
 9 10 8 
 
 148 17 4 
 
 Moses Cook, supposed to have deserted. 
 Roger Welch, supposed to have deserted. 
 Samuel Spencer, supposed to have deserted. 
 Ebenezer Poppoonuck, died in the service. 
 Titus (Negro), died in the service.
 
 484 
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 A PAY-ROLL of the detachment of militia under the command of Capt. 
 Wm. Wells, in the Third Regiment, in the County of Berkshire, on the 
 alarm at Saratoga, Oct. 29, 1781 : 
 
 William Wells, Capt. ; William Brattle, Lieut. ; Caleb Culver, Zenas Root, 
 Paul Hubbard, Jonathan Hewett, Sergt.; Phillip Lewis, Robert Francis, 
 Corporals ; Samuel Goodrich, Drummer. 
 
 Privates. 
 
 Cemyour Cutond [Seymour 
 
 ting?]. 
 Amos Smith. 
 Bildad Clark. 
 John Root. 
 Isaac Isaacs. 
 Ebenezer Wheedon. 
 Joel Blinn. 
 John Treet. 
 Daniel Weller. 
 Peter Messenger.. 
 Jason Warren. 
 Thomas Gates. 
 Ichabod Hamblin. 
 Abram Lambden. 
 Abram Northup. 
 Benjamin Stephens. 
 Elines [Linus] Parker. 
 Ashel [Asahel] Landers. 
 William Hostetter. 
 Daniel Keiler. 
 
 Cut- 
 
 Daniel Osborn. 
 
 Truman Dibble. 
 
 Amos Root, jun. 
 
 Jehiel Wright. 
 
 Seth Jones [Janes]. 
 
 Daniel Brown. 
 
 Josiah Ward. 
 
 Nathaniel Davis. 
 
 John Noble. 
 
 John Wright. 
 
 James Rathbun. 
 
 Ebenezer Austin. 
 
 Hoseah Merrells [Hosea Merrill]. 
 
 Simeon Barber. 
 
 Jacob Barber. 
 
 Enos Henman. 
 
 John Fairfield. 
 
 David Martin. 
 
 Jonathan Fuller. 
 
 Joseph Chapin. 
 
 James Barber. 
 
 Time of service, eight days. Miles travelled, forty-five. 
 [This company appears to have been made up in Pittsfield and Lenox.] 
 
 STATEMENT OF MILITARY SERVICE. 
 
 1775 Dec. 1779. 
 To the Hon'ble the Council and House of Representatives in General Court 
 
 assembled. 
 
 The Petition of the Selectmen of the town of Pittsfield in the county of 
 Berkshire Most Humbly showeth : 
 
 That the Town of Pittsfield have, ever since the commencement of the 
 war, distinguished themselves in their readiness to assist in the common cause 
 and, that they might come at some certainty of what proportion of service 
 they have done the State and Continent, have overlooked their papers (which 
 they are ready to produce), and find that their services are equal to one man
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 485 
 
 250 years, not to mention their situation, which has called them from home 
 when their corn and grass were suffering, and deprived of opportunity of fix- 
 ing their ground for seed ; to which might be added the great supply of horses, 
 teams, and carriages that we have been obliged to furnish, and the time ex- 
 pended by the Committees and Selectmen, that amount to hundreds, for 
 which they have received no consideration. 
 
 The aforegoing, your petitioners humbly conceive are sufficient reasons 
 for this Hon'ble Court to consider them in the present demand made for the 
 supply of the Continental Army. 
 
 Which is humbly submitted to your Honors' wise, important, and just de- 
 termination. 
 
 And as in duty bound shall ever pray, 
 
 WM. WILLIAMS. 
 ELI ROOT. 
 
 LEBBEUS BACKUS. 
 PITTSFIEI.D, Dec. 27, 1779. 
 
 The following is an account of the demands for men on the Town of 
 Pittsfield since the commencement of the war with Great Britain : 
 
 April 22, 1775, Capt. David Noble, Lieut. Tim'y Guilds, Lieut. Josiah 
 Wright, who marched to Cambridge, and served six months with the following 
 men under their command, viz. : 
 
 Thomas Miller. 
 Oswald Williams. 
 Aaron Stiles. 
 Ebenezer Wright. 
 David Noble, jun. 
 James Easton, jun. 
 Joel Dickinson. 
 Jabez Chaucer. [?] 
 Charles Belding. 
 Phinehas Gilbert. 
 John King. 
 Warham Strong. 
 Benjamin Deming. 
 Azariah Egleston. 
 Timothy Stearns. 
 Elijah Crane. 
 Jonathan Bill. 
 Hugh Berry. 
 Zebediah Stiles, jun. 
 Richard O shorn. 
 Moses Stiles. 
 
 Thomas Hudson. 
 Aaron Miller, jun. 
 George Butler. 
 Joseph Moore. 
 Samuel Straton. 
 Moses Noble. 
 Joseph Colton. 
 Solomon Lothrop. 
 Nathaniel Porter. 
 Hugh Mitchell. 
 John Gardner. 
 Jonathan Stoddard. 
 Solomon Martin. 
 Jonathan Blakely. 
 Joseph Easton. 
 Abraham Frost. 
 Benjamin Austin. 
 Caleb Goodrich. 
 John Corbin. 
 John Wait. 
 Joshua Done [Doane].
 
 486 
 
 HISTORY OP PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Richard Baxter. David Beckwith. 
 
 "William Cady. John Tupper. 
 
 Moses Goodrich. 
 Fifty-one men, twenty-six weeks; twenty-five and a half years of one man. 
 
 May 10, 1775, Capt. James Noble, Lieut. Joel Dickinson, Lieut. John 
 Hitchcock, who engaged in Col. Easton's Regiment, and marched to Canada 
 with the following men, and served until Dec. 30th 1775 : 
 
 William Killiard. 
 Timo'y Miller. 
 Daniel Jones. 
 John Noble. 
 Mark Noble. 
 Ashbell Hale, 
 Eli Root, jun. 
 Nath'l Hale. 
 Matthew Wright. 
 John Brunt. 
 James Brattle. 
 Josiah Moseley. 
 
 Daniel Oalds. 
 Timothy Baker. 
 Daniel Burt. 
 Jacob Rathbun. 
 Moses Bartlett. 
 Wm. Little. 
 Shubael Dimock. 
 Sam'l Goodree. 
 Elizur Goodrich. 
 Col. James Easton. 
 Maj. John Brown. 
 Q. M. Wm. C. Stanley. 
 
 Twenty-seven men, thirty-three weeks and four days ; seventeen years of 
 one man. 
 
 Aug. 4, 1775, Capt. EH Root, Lieut. Stephen Crofoot, and Lieut. James 
 Easton, who engaged in Col. Easton's Regiment, and marched to Canada, and 
 were dismissed Dec. 30, 1775, with the following men under their command, 
 
 Joseph Allen. 
 Oliver Miller. 
 Aaron Stiles. 
 Stephen Phelps. 
 Uriel Tupper. 
 Darius Tupper. 
 Israel Phelps. 
 John Thorpe. 
 Wm. Jones. 
 David Wiley, 
 Adon'm Hinman. 
 Twenty-four men, twenty-two weeks and two days ; ten and a half years 
 
 of one man. 
 
 
 
 Dec. 31, 1775, Capt. David Noble and Lieut. Solomon Martin, who 
 marched to Boston, from thence to New York and to Canada, and were dis- 
 missed Dec. 31, 1776, with the following men, viz. : 
 
 Gideon Goodrich, jun. 
 Joseph Eldridge. 
 Simeon Tupper. 
 Joseph Easton. 
 Gideon Messenger. 
 Aaron Foot. 
 Richard Osbourn. 
 Enoch Dewey. 
 Levi Miller. 
 Asa Hill. 
 
 Jonathan Stoddard. 
 John King. 
 Moses Noble. 
 
 Joseph Colton. 
 
 iV/M 1*1(111 . .-.- -j 
 
 Timothy Stearns.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 487 
 
 Warham Strong. 
 Thomas Miller. 
 John W. , jun. 
 
 Elisha 
 
 John Stearns. 
 
 [Some names partially and some wholly obliterated in filing. Margin 
 indistinct.] 
 
 Jan. 1 1776, Capt. Eli Hoot, Lieut. Joel Dickinson, and Lieut. Joseph 
 Allen, who engaged in Canada, and were dismissed May 2, 1776, with the 
 following men : 
 
 Moses Bartlett. 
 Ashbell Hale. 
 Joseph Eldridge. 
 [Margin obscure.] 
 
 James Brattle. 
 Gideon Goodrich, jun. 
 Levi Miller. 
 
 July 11, 1876, Capt. Oliver Root, who marched to New York, and 
 was dismissed Dec. 5, 1776, with the following men : 
 
 Caleb Stanley. 
 Robert Francis. 
 William Miller. 
 Peter Wright. 
 Valentine Rathbun. 
 Luther Coggswcll. 
 Joseph Stoddard. 
 Oliver Miller. 
 
 Thomas Taylor. 
 Simeon Tupper. 
 John Thorpe. 
 John Cady. 
 Hugh Mitchell. 
 Jacob Ensign. 
 Jonah Jacobs. 
 Aaron Delano. 
 
 Seventeen men, twenty-one weeks ; six years, forty weeks, of one man. 
 
 Jan. 23, 1776, men who marched to Quebec, and were dismissed Jan. 
 20, 1776: 
 
 William Beard, Josiah Moseley, James Spear, Timothy Stearns. 
 [Margin obscured.] 
 
 Sept. 30, 1776, Lieut. William Barber, who marched to New York, and 
 was dismissed Nov. 17, 1776, with the following men : 
 
 Jacob Gleason. 
 Paul Hutchinson. 
 Aaron Noble. 
 Enoch Baker. 
 Elijah Janes. 
 Abel Branch. 
 Daniel Barber. 
 Benjamin Judd. 
 
 William Hinman. 
 Amos Root, jun. 
 Ezekiel Merrill. 
 David Warner. 
 Daniel Olds. 
 Phinehas Bagg. 
 Aaron 
 
 Rev. Thomas Allen, Chaplain, Col. Simonds's Regiment. 
 Seventeen men, seven weeks ; one man, two years and fifteen weeks.
 
 488 
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Oct. 17, 1776, Capt. William Francis, Lieut. Stephen Crofoot, who 
 marched to Ticonderoga, and were dismissed Nov. 16, 1776, with the fol- 
 lowing men : 
 
 Enoch Marvin. Joseph Allen. 
 
 Timothy Parker. Daniel Merrill. 
 
 Ebenezer Merry. Gideon Goodrich. 
 
 Calvin Coggswell. Joel Stevens. 
 
 William Wright. Paul Hubbard. 
 
 Zebediah Stiles. Francis Plummer. 
 
 Elijah Janes. James Noble. 
 
 Joseph Phelps. Andrew Spofford. 
 Josiah Talcott. 
 
 Nineteen men, four weeks and two days ; one year, twenty-nine weeks, of 
 one man. 
 
 April 1, 1776, Col. John Brown, Capt. Joel Dickinson, and one more, 
 who went to German Flats, and were dismissed May 16, 1777. 
 
 Three men, thirteen mouths, eighteen days ; three years, twenty-one weeks, 
 of one man. 
 
 Jan. 14, 1776, Capt. William Francis, who marched to Albany by order 
 of Gen. Schuyler, and was dismissed Jan. 19, 1776 : 
 
 William Barber. 
 William Ford. 
 Caleb Goodrich. 
 Aaron Noble. 
 Jedidiah Goodrich. 
 Amos Delano. 
 Luke Noble. 
 Ezra Stearns. 
 Timothy Miller. 
 Oliver Burt. 
 Zebediah Stiles. 
 Josiah Wright. 
 Francis Plummer. 
 Benjamin Judd. 
 Zuriel Tupper. 
 Thirty men, five days ; twenty-two weeks of one man. 
 
 Gideon Goodrich. 
 Oswald Williams. 
 John Thorpe. 
 Hugh Berry. 
 David Bagg. 
 Jacob Gleason. 
 Phinehas Bagg. 
 James Colt. 
 Paul Hubbard. 
 James Hubbard. 
 Enoch Haskins. 
 Aaron Miller. 
 Thomas Taylor. 
 William Fenn. 
 
 Sept. 13, 1776, Capt. William Francis, and Lieut William Ford, who 
 went to Williamstown by order of the general, and were dismissed Sept. 21, 
 1 776, with the following men : 
 
 Aaron Noble. I Martin Bagg. 
 
 Josiah Talcott. James Taylor.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 489 
 
 Timothy Cadwell. 
 Daniel Rathbun. 
 Enoch Baker. 
 Joel Stevens. 
 Nathaniel Davis. 
 Daniel Loomis. 
 Elijah Janes. 
 
 James Cahoon. 
 Enoch Marvin. 
 Calvin Coe. 
 Francis Plummer. 
 Paul Hutchinson. 
 Joshua Gates. 
 Jacob Gleason. 
 
 Twenty-one men, eight days ; twenty-four weeks of one man. 
 
 Dec. 16, 1776, Lieut. James Hubbard, who marched to Ticonderoga, 
 and was dismissed March 16, 1777, with the following men : 
 Joseph Fairfield. Ezekiel Root. 
 
 Jonathan Weston. 
 Levi Belding. 
 Daniel Weller. 
 Jonathan Hobby. 
 Gideon Gunn. 
 John Fairfield. 
 
 Wm. Little. 
 Israel Stoddard. 
 
 Dan Cadwell. 
 Charles Goodrich. 
 Elijah Ensign. 
 Benjamin Kieler. 
 John Horsford. 
 Ephraim Stiles. 
 Thomas Kellogg. 
 John Wait. 
 
 Nineteen men, thirteen weeks ; one man, four years, three weeks. 
 
 April 25, 1777, Lieut. Stephen Crofoot, who marched to Ticonderoga, 
 ahd was dismissed May 22, 1777, with the following men : 
 
 William Brattle. Jacob Ward. 
 
 Uriah Judd. Ezra Kieler. 
 
 Roswell Root. Luke Noble. 
 
 Moses Yale. Daniel Jones. 
 
 Nehemiah Tracy. Daniel Bagg. 
 
 Lebbeus Backus. Thomas Keller. 
 Timothy Miller. 
 Fourteen men, four weeks ; one year and four weeks of one man. 
 
 May 4, 1777, Capt. John Strong and Lieut. James Hubbard, who went 
 to Kinderhook after inimical persons, and were dismissed May 11, 1777, 
 with the following men : 
 
 Peter Sullard. Josiah Talcott. 
 
 Reuben Rathbun. 
 Samuel Merry. 
 Aaron Stiles. 
 Asahel Stiles. 
 Benjamin Judd. 
 William Miller. 
 Caleb Goodrich. 
 
 James Noble. 
 Ezra Stearns. 
 Caleb Wadhams. 
 Eli Root. 
 Oliver Root. 
 Ezekiel Root. 
 Dan Cadwell.
 
 490 
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Nathaniel Fairfield. 
 Titus Wright. 
 Abijah Hinman. 
 Enoch Haskins. 
 Timothy Miller. 
 Darius Tupper. 
 Calvin Coggswell. 
 
 Valentine Rathbun. 
 Paul Hubbard. 
 Ebenezer Chapman. 
 Joseph Easton. 
 Daniel Weller. 
 Daniel Hubbard. 
 Gideon Goodrich. 
 
 Thirty-two men, one week ; thirty-two weeks of one man. 
 
 June 30, 1777, Capt. John Strong and Lieut. Caleb Goodrich, who 
 marched to Fort Ann, and were dismissed July 26, 1777, with the following 
 men, viz. : 
 
 Aaron Noble. 
 Joseph Harrison. 
 Nathaniel Fairfield. 
 David Wells. 
 Lemuel Luddington. 
 Benjamin Austin. 
 Elijah Crofoot. 
 Daniel Bates. 
 Thomas Taylor. 
 John Remington. 
 Ezra Stearns 
 Ashbell Hale. 
 Benoni Gleason. 
 John Merry. 
 Peter Hubbard. 
 William Miller. 
 Daniel Merrill. 
 Oliver Miller. 
 Amos Root. 
 Adoniram Hinman. 
 Calvin Easton. 
 Paul Hutchinson. 
 Asahel Stiles. 
 William Cady. 
 Erastus Sackett. 
 Henry Tyler. 
 
 Fifty-four men, three weeks, ten days : 
 forty-eight weeks. 
 
 Willard Vernam. 
 Jonathan Taylor. 
 Nathaniel Davis, 
 William Lamson. 
 Elnathan Phelps. 
 William Beard. 
 Peter Wright. 
 Calvin Coggswell. 
 Lemuel Phelps. 
 Joseph Moore. 
 Reuben Rathbun. 
 Abijah Parks. 
 John Parks. 
 Elijah Lamphier. 
 Gideon Goodrich. 
 Nathaniel Welch. 
 Josiah Wright, jun. 
 John Branch. 
 Jacob Ensign. 
 Joseph Fairfield. 
 Asa Branch. 
 Prince (Negro). 
 Joshua Narramore. 
 Joshua Simonds. 
 Jacob Goff. 
 Joseph Chamberlain. 
 
 one man, three years, ten months, 
 
 July 8, 1777, Capt. William Francis and Lieut. Stephen Crofoot, who 
 marched to Fort Edward, and were dismissed Aug. 26, 1777, with the follow- 
 ing men, viz. :
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 491 
 
 Lebbeus Backus. 
 Joshua Robbins. 
 King Strong. 
 Matthew Willard. 
 Ebenezer Wright. 
 Adoniram Waterman. 
 William Brattle. 
 Caleb Stanley. 
 John Stearns. 
 Uriah Judd. 
 John Babbitt. 
 Ethan Stone. 
 Joseph Phelps. 
 Jacob Gleason. 
 Phinehas Bagg. 
 Solomon Lothrop. 
 Oswald Williams. 
 Joel Dickinson. 
 Thomas Burt. 
 Forty men, nine weeks ; one man, 
 
 Enoch Baker. 
 Joseph Allen. 
 James Noble, jun. 
 Matthew Wright. 
 Daniel Hubbard. 
 Thomas Keiler. 
 Solomon Baker. 
 James Colt. 
 Roswell Root. 
 Oliver Root. 
 Stephen Fowler. 
 Richard Osbourn. 
 Nathaniel Hale. 
 Moses Bartlett. 
 Enoch Haskins. 
 Timothy Stearns. 
 Daniel Barber. 
 Jacob Ward. 
 Joshua Done [Doane]. 
 five years, twenty weeks. 
 
 July 10, 1778, men who were drafted per order General Court, went 
 to Albany, and were dismissed Dec. 1, 1778 : 
 
 John Stearns. 
 Timothy Miller. 
 William Lamson. 
 
 Asa Narramore. 
 Joshua Simonds. 
 Solomon Baker. 
 
 Six men, twenty weeks ; one man, two years, sixteen weeks. 
 
 July 18, 1777, Lieut. James Hubbard, who went to Manchester, and was 
 dismissed July 28, 1777, with the following men : 
 
 John Remington. 
 Matthew Barber. 
 John Doming. 
 William Barber. 
 Titus Wright. 
 
 Ten men, one week, three days ; one man, thirteen weeks. 
 
 David Bagg. 
 Martin Bagg. 
 Timothy Cad well. 
 Jonathan Weston. 
 
 Sept. 20, 1777, Capt. William Francis, who went to Still water, and was 
 dismissed Oct. 10, 1777, with the following men, viz. : 
 
 Martin Bagg. 
 Josiah Wright. 
 John Baker. 
 Caleb Stanley. 
 
 Solomon Lothrop. 
 Thomas Kellogg. 
 Stephen Crofoot. 
 Enoch Marvin.
 
 492 
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Aaron Noble. 
 Gideon Goodrich. 
 James Easton, jun. 
 John Stearns. 
 Joel Dickinson. 
 Timothy Childs. 
 David Wells. 
 Eli Root, jun. 
 Ezra Keiler. 
 James Spears. 
 Thirty men, one week and four days ; 
 
 Aaron Baker. 
 Nathaniel Bobbins. 
 Peter Wright. 
 Josiah Wright, jun. 
 Paul Hubbard. 
 Valentine Eathbun. 
 Ebenezer Keiler. 
 Oswald Williams. 
 Elijah Janes. 
 Samuel Bonney. 
 forty-seven weeks of one man. 
 
 April 25, 1777, Lieut. William Ford, who went to Ticonderoga, and was 
 dismissed May 25, with the following men, viz. : 
 
 Joel Stevens. 
 Amos Delano. 
 Joshua Gates. 
 
 Timothy Cadwell. 
 Samuel Bonny. 
 Jehiel Wright. 
 
 Seven men, four weeks, three days ; thirty-one weeks of one man. 
 
 May 19, 1778, men who were raised to re-enforce the Continental army, 
 and were dismissed Feb. 19, 1779 : 
 
 Ebenezer liutchinson, 
 Davis. 
 
 James Lewis. 
 Patrick Me Gee. 
 Seven men, nine months ; one man, five years, three months. 
 
 Jonathan Lee. 
 Jonathan Stoddard. 
 Samuel Bonney. 
 
 June 1, 1778, men who marched to headquarters by order of General 
 Court and were dismissed Feb. 1, 1779 : 
 
 Daniel Bates. 
 William Beard. 
 Benoni Gleason. 
 
 James Spears. 
 Ozias Wright. 
 Oliver Miller. 
 
 Six men, eight months ; one man, four years. 
 
 Aug. 16, 1777, Lieut. William Ford, who marched to Bennington, and 
 was dismissed Aug. 23, with the following men: 
 
 James Easton. 
 Rufus Allen. 
 James Brattle. 
 Charles Goodrich. 
 Joseph Allen. 
 John Corbin. 
 James Noble. 
 
 Gideon Goodrich. 
 Warham Strong. 
 Nathaniel Hale. 
 Francis Plumer. 
 Nathaniel Porter. 
 Thomas Allen. 
 Elizur Goodrich.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 493 
 
 Timothy Cadwell. 
 Jeffrey Hazard. 
 William Francis. 
 Jehiel Wrieht. 
 
 Abiather Willard. 
 Simeon Crofoot. 
 Josiah Wright. 
 
 Twenty-two men, one week ; twenty-two weeks of one man. 
 
 Aug. 17, 1777, Lieut James Hubbard, who went to Bennington, and was 
 dismissed Aug. 24, with the following men : 
 
 Oliver Root. 
 Woodbridge Little. 
 Martin Bagg. 
 Joshua Narramore. 
 Jacob Gleason. 
 Aaron Noble. 
 Ezekiel Root. 
 Ephraim Stiles. 
 
 Israel Stoddard. 
 Aaron Hickocks. 
 Frederick Stanley. 
 Aaron Stiles. 
 Israel Dickinson. 
 James Taylor. 
 John Strong. 
 Abijah Hinman. 
 
 Seventeen men, five days ; twelve weeks of one man. 
 
 July 8, 1778, men who went to Springfield, and were dismissed Jan. 8, 
 1779: 
 
 Ebenezer Merry. 
 Noadiah Deming. 
 
 Amos Root, jun. 
 Asahel Stiles. 
 
 Four men, six months ; two years of one man. 
 
 July 20, 1779, Lieut. Joel Stevens, who marched to New Haven, and 
 was dismissed Aug. 25, 1779, with the following men : 
 
 Azariah Root. 
 Ambrose Booth. 
 Thomas Keiler. 
 James Noble. 
 Solomon Baker. 
 -Ashbel Hale. 
 Caleb Stanley. 
 
 Fifteen men, five weeks, one day ; one year, twenty-five weeks of one man. 
 
 John Ford. 
 William Drake. 
 Ozem Strong. 
 Silas Stiles. 
 William Phelps. 
 Calvin Easton. 
 Reuben Colton. 
 
 July 16, 1779, men who were raised to re-enforce the Continental army 
 
 for the term of nine months, viz. : 
 
 Isaac Morse. 
 John Wright. 
 Daniel Bates. 
 Samuel Smith. 
 
 David Johnson. 
 Jonathan Morey. 
 Joshua Chapel. 
 
 Seven men, nine months, five years ; three months of one man.
 
 494 
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Oct. 26, 1779, men raised to re-enforce the Continental army, and were 
 
 dismissed Nov. 30, 1779 : 
 Enoch Haskins. 
 Daniel Merrill. 
 John Noble. 
 Nathan Robinson. 
 Abner Hathway. 
 Phinehas Bagg. 
 Jonathan Graves. 
 
 Ezekiel Somers. 
 Joseph Hale. 
 Ambrose Booth. 
 Amos Root, jun. 
 Asa Woodward. 
 John Hosman. 
 
 Thirteen men, five weeks ; one year, three months, of one man. 
 
 Sept. 6, 1777, Capt. John Strong, who went to Skenesborough, and was 
 dismissed Oct. 1, 1777 (every man with a horse and meal-bag), with the 
 following men : 
 
 James Easton. 
 Benoni Gleason. 
 John Brown. 
 Ozem Strong. 
 Samuel Cross. 
 Jehiel Wright. 
 Joel Stevens. 
 William Lam son. 
 Francis Plumer. 
 William Hinman. 
 Thomas Taylor. 
 Samuel Davis. 
 Elijah Janes. 
 William Cook. 
 Ephraim Stiles. 
 
 Lemuel Phelps. 
 John Hosford. 
 Timothy Cadwell. 
 Jonathan Hobby. 
 Nathaniel Fairfield. 
 David Bush. 
 Adoniram Waterman. 
 Aaron Drake, 
 John Wait. 
 Josiah Moseley. 
 John Thorpe. 
 Joseph Easton. 
 Caleb Waddams. 
 James Easton, jun. 
 Amos Root. 
 
 Hezekiah Jones. 
 Three weeks, five days ; two years, thirteen weeks, of one man.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 495 
 
 A List of Continental Soldiers raised by the Town of Pittsfield during the 
 War, or for Tliree Years. 
 
 NAME. 
 
 When 
 
 Engaged. 
 
 Term of 
 time 
 eng'd for. 
 
 In whose 
 company. 
 
 I n whose 
 regiment. 
 
 David Ingersoll 
 
 May, 1777 
 
 3 years 
 
 Capt. Watkins 
 
 Col. Brewer 
 
 Azariah Eggleston 
 
 May, 1777 
 
 D. W. 
 
 " Miller 
 
 ' Vose 
 
 Hugh Berry 
 
 May, 1777 
 
 3 years 
 
 " Ashley 
 
 ' Vose 
 
 William Cady 
 
 Dec. 7, 1776 
 
 3 years 
 
 Lient. Bailey 
 
 ' Livingston 
 
 Ebeuezer Stoddard 
 
 Dec. 7, 1776 
 
 D. W. 
 
 Capt. Burr. 
 
 ' Bailey 
 
 Israel Peck 
 
 Dec. 7, 1776 
 
 3 vears 
 
 " Ward 
 
 ' Weston 
 
 James Peck 
 
 1776 
 
 D" W. 
 
 " Ward 
 
 " Weston 
 
 John Tupper 
 
 1776 
 
 D. W. 
 
 " Burr 
 
 " Bailey 
 
 Joseph Colton 
 
 April, 1777 
 
 D W. 
 
 " Belding 
 
 Sheldon's Lt. 
 Dragoons 
 
 Mark Noble 
 
 Oct. 30, 1776 
 
 3 years 
 
 " Tucker 
 
 Col. Vose 
 
 Jeffrey Hazzard* 
 
 Nov. 4, 1779 
 
 D. W. 
 
 " Howard 
 
 " Bailey 
 
 Joshua Chappel* 
 
 July, 1779 
 
 D W. 
 
 
 
 Ebenezer Hutchinson* 
 
 Feb. 19,1779 
 
 D. W. 
 
 
 " Bailey 
 
 Daniel Beckwith 
 
 April 9, 1777 
 
 3 years 
 
 " Miller 
 
 " Vose 
 
 Isaac Reed 
 
 April 4, 1777 
 
 3 years 
 
 ' Stoddard 
 
 " Vose 
 
 Nathan Dart* 
 
 April 4, 1777 
 
 3 years 
 
 ' Miller 
 
 " Vose 
 
 Josiah Jacobs 
 
 April 4, 1777 
 
 3 years 
 
 ' Miller 
 
 ' Vose 
 
 Solomon Lothrop 
 
 April 4, 1777 
 
 3 years 
 
 ' Miller 
 
 ' Vose 
 
 Joseph Handy 
 
 April 11, 1777 
 
 3 years 
 
 ' Stoddard 
 
 ' Vose 
 
 Hugh Mitchell 
 
 April 4, 1777 
 
 3 years 
 
 ' Miller 
 
 ' Vose 
 
 Samuel Goodree 
 
 April 9, 1777 
 
 3 years 
 
 ' Ashlev 
 
 ' Vose 
 
 Jonathan Wright 
 
 April 11, 1777 
 
 3 years 
 
 ' Stoddard 
 
 ' Vose 
 
 David Goff (Luff) 
 
 April 4, 1777 
 
 3 years 
 
 ' Miller 
 
 ' Vose 
 
 John Cady 
 
 April 9, 1777 
 
 D" W. 
 
 ' Miller 
 
 ' Vose 
 
 James Spear* 
 
 April 9, 1777 
 
 3 years 
 
 ' Burr 
 
 ' Vose 
 
 John North 
 
 April 11, 1777 
 
 D. W. 
 
 ' Ashley 
 
 ' Vose 
 
 John Dennis 
 
 April 10, 1777 
 
 3 years 
 
 " Burr " 
 
 ' Vose 
 
 Daniel Rust* 
 
 April 4, 1777 
 
 D. W. 
 
 " Miller 
 
 ' Vose 
 
 Lemuel Rowley 
 
 April 5, 1777 
 
 3 years 
 
 " Ashley 
 
 ' Vose 
 
 Thomas Jenks 
 
 April 7, 1777 
 
 3 years 
 
 " Ashley 
 
 ' Vose 
 
 Charles Stuart 
 
 April 7,1777 
 
 3 years 
 
 " Ashley 
 
 ' Vose 
 
 Ichabod Pliscock 
 
 May 5, 1777 
 
 3 -years 
 
 " Warren 
 
 ' Weston 
 
 Reuben Milbourn 
 
 April 9, 1777 
 
 D. W. 
 
 ' Ashley 
 
 ' Vose 
 
 Benjamin Dimock 
 
 May 15, 1777 
 
 3 years 
 
 ' Miller 
 
 ' Vose 
 
 Jonathan Briton 
 
 Jan. 10, 1778 
 
 D. W. 
 
 ' Miller 
 
 " Vose 
 
 Moses Stiles 
 
 
 D. W. 
 
 ' McKain 
 
 " Van Schaack 
 
 William Collins 
 
 
 3 years 
 
 ' Stoddard 
 
 " Vose 
 
 Samuel Prindle* 
 
 
 3 years 
 
 " Stoddard 
 
 " Vose 
 
 Simeon Tupper* 
 
 April 4, 1777 
 
 D. W. 
 
 " Burr 
 
 " Bailey 
 
 Attest : 
 
 WM. WILLIAMS, 
 ELI ROOT, 
 STEPHEN CHOFOOT, 
 
 i ELI ROOT, 
 
 \ Selectmen. STEPHEN CROFOOT, 
 
 ) WM. FRANCIS, 
 
 JOHN STRONG, Capt. 
 STEPHEN CROFOOT, Lieut. 
 WM. FORD, Capt. 
 WM. FRANCIS, Capt. 
 
 Committee.
 
 496 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 N. B. Nathan Dart was a Hancock man, enlisted for Pittsfielcl, and so 
 certified. Jeffrey Hazzard, " mulatto fellow," enlisted out of Col. Chapin's 
 regiment of levies ; but he had fought in the Pittsield company at Benning- 
 ton. 
 
 Lemuel Halleck, chairman of the committee at Boston, certified to the 
 enlistment of all the above list, except those whose names are starred, and 
 to the following names not in the Selectmen's list: John Wood, Josiah 
 Reed, Peter Dago, Aaron Hiscocks, George Atkins, Robert Milbourn. 
 
 The following additional names appear in the Continental rolls, in the State 
 Archives, 1779: Isaac Moss (Morse?), John Wright, Jonathan Morey, 
 Anthony Oliver, Thomas Tupper. 
 
 CLASSES AND BOUNTIES. 
 
 PITTSFIELD, April 20, 1781. 
 
 WE, the subscribers, selectmen of the town of Pittsfield, do hereby certify 
 and inform all persons whom it may concern, That, in pursuance of a 
 resolve of the General Court of the 2d of December last, the town of Pitts- 
 field, by their committees appointed for that purpose, divided the ratable 
 polls and estate of said town into as many classes as there were men re- 
 quired to be procured by said town ; to wit, sixteen. And that fifteen of 
 said classes did hire and procure the several men hereinafter named, and 
 gave to them, as a bounty, the several sums annexed to their names, as appears 
 by the receipts herewith trasmitted : 
 
 John White, 50 
 Joseph Sharp, . 50 
 
 Edward Davis, 50 
 
 Anoblos Moore, 50 
 
 Ambrose Booth, 50 
 
 William Cady, 55 
 
 Jabez Albro, 50 
 
 Simeon Tupper, jun., 60 
 
 Henry Smith, 55 
 
 Eliphalet Cobb, 60 
 
 Simeon Tupper, 60 
 
 David Taylor, 55 
 
 Allen Davis, 50 
 
 Jehiel Stearns, 55 
 
 Nathan French, 55 7 
 
 Amounting, in the whole, to the sum of 830. 7s. 
 
 And the said selectmen do further inform, that, although a number of re- 
 ceipts bear a later date, yet, to the best of their belief, the several persons 
 above named (except one) were procured and mustered before the 20th day 
 of January last, as will appear by the certificate of the muster-master ; but 
 some of the classes did not complete the payment and obtain receipts 
 until afterwards. 
 
 And, as to one class in town, the subscribers would further inform, that the 
 several members or individuals of said class did pay to the head of the class, 
 to his full satisfaction, their respective sums and proportions sullicient to 
 procure a man ; and that, in consideration thereof, he did undertake to hire
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 497 
 
 a man, and indemnify said class, but by some means hath neglected and 
 failed to do so. 
 
 LEBBEUS BACKUS, 
 
 JOSHUA BOBBINS, 
 
 WM. BARBER, 
 
 JOHN STRONG, ^ Selectmen. 
 
 OLIVER ROOT, 
 
 RUFUS ALLEN, 
 
 WOODBRIDGE LlTTLE, 
 
 Sworn to before Jonathan Lee, Town Clerk. 
 
 ,\ 
 
 B. 
 
 CENSUS OF PITTSFIELD IN 1772. 
 [Number of families and persons in Pittsfield, Nov. 1, 1772.] 
 
 James Easton, 
 
 15 
 
 Ezra Keiler, 
 
 Thomas Allen, 
 
 8 
 
 Seth Keiler, 
 
 John Strong, 
 
 7 
 
 Benj. Keiler, 
 
 Stephen Crowfoot, 
 
 9 
 
 Phineas Belding, 
 
 Simeon Crowfoot, 
 
 8 
 
 Dan Cadwell, 
 
 Jacob Ensign, 
 
 8 
 
 Stephen Phelps, 
 
 Aaron Miller, 
 
 
 Goodrich, 
 
 Joseph Fairfield, 
 
 
 Jedidiah Goodrich, 
 
 Woodbridge Little, 
 
 4 
 
 David Bagg, 
 
 Israel Dickinson, 
 
 8 
 
 Thomas Morgan, 
 
 Israel Stoddard, 
 
 8 
 
 Timothy Cadwell, 
 
 Moses Graves, 
 
 
 Martin Bagg, 
 
 Birchard, 
 
 
 King Strong, 
 
 
 
 Aaron Noble, 
 
 
 Charles Goodrich, 
 
 
 T 
 
 
 William Williams, 
 
 12 
 
 Joseph Clark, 
 
 "Wm. Brattle, 
 
 9 
 
 Aaron Baker, 
 
 Gideon Gunn, 
 
 7 
 
 Valentine Rathbun, 
 
 Solomon Crosby, 
 
 9 
 
 Branch, 
 
 Solomon Deming, 
 
 5 
 
 Branch, 
 
 Josiah Moseley 
 
 3 
 
 Branch, 
 
 Erastus Sackett, 
 
 8 
 
 Oliver Burt, 
 
 William Barber, 
 
 3 
 
 Morey, 
 
 Matthew Barber, 
 
 7 
 
 Thomas North, 
 
 Keiler, 
 
 
 Zebediah Stiles, 
 
 3 
 3 
 6 
 9 
 9 
 2 
 4 
 2 
 8 
 4 
 7 
 3 
 4 
 5 
 4 
 3 
 
 15 
 8 
 9 
 5 
 6 
 7 
 7 
 7 
 
 11 
 
 32
 
 498 
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 Caleb Goodrich, 
 Ephraim Stiles, 
 Charles Miller, 
 Stephen Fowler, 
 John Corban, 
 Wm. Ford, 
 
 Gleason, 
 
 Amos Root, 
 Josiah Wright, 
 Joshua Robbins, 
 Daniel Hubbard, jun., 
 Ebenezer Hutchinson, 
 Daniel Hubbard, 
 James Hubbard, 
 David Noble, 
 Widow Noble, 
 
 Johnson, . 
 
 William Francis, 
 
 Parker, 
 
 Ebenezer White, 
 Hezekiah Jones, 
 Hezekiah Jones, jun., 
 
 Larribee, 
 
 Benjamin Kilbourn, 
 
 Hobby, 
 
 Lebbeus Backus, 
 Nathaniel Fairfield, 
 Eli Root, 
 
 Nathanael Phelps, 
 David Bush, 
 Ezekiel Root, 
 Daniel Weller, 
 Uriah Judd, 
 Elisha Jones, 
 
 Hale, 
 
 Aaron Stiles, 
 Jonathan Blaxley, 
 
 Hopkins, 
 
 Joseph Allen, 
 Daniel Alexander, 
 
 Talcut, 
 
 Talcut, 
 
 Joseph Wright, 
 Widow Wright, 
 
 9 
 
 James Colt, 
 
 
 5 
 
 Jonathan Kingsley, 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 
 Joshua Narramore, 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 John Narramore, 
 
 
 5 
 
 Elnathan Phelps, 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 Wm. Phelps, 
 
 
 10 
 
 Lemuel Phelps, 
 
 
 8 
 
 Hopkins, 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 Hollister, 
 
 
 10 
 
 Jos. More, 
 
 
 8 
 
 Jacob Ellithorp, 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 Oswald Williams, 
 
 
 3 
 
 James Noble, 
 
 
 6 
 
 Gideon Goodrich, 
 
 
 
 John Baker, 
 
 
 20 
 
 John Remington, 
 
 2 
 
 
 John Remington, jun., 
 
 
 9 
 
 Hopkins, 
 
 
 2 
 
 Ezra Strong, 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 Capt. North, 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 Loomis, 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 Turner, 
 
 
 4 
 
 Oliver Root, 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 Amos Delano, 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 Wm. Wright, 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 Ebenezer Wright, 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 Solomon Lathrop, 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 David Ashley, 
 
 
 8 
 
 John Clark, 
 
 
 11 
 
 O n-n-t- 
 
 4 
 
 Davis, 
 
 7 
 
 Zadock Hubbard, 
 
 2 
 
 
 John Demming, 
 
 
 4 
 
 Cogswell, 
 
 
 7 
 
 Janes. 
 
 
 4 
 
 Paul Guilford, 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 Hicok, 
 
 
 7 
 
 Plummer, 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 Squire, 
 
 2 
 
 
 Joseph Chamberlain, 
 
 
 
 Doane, 
 
 2 
 
 
 Uriah Judd, 
 
 2 
 
 
 Austin, 
 
 3 
 
 
 Number of families, 
 
 138
 
 APPENDIX. 499 
 
 N. B. The census here given is a transcript from the records of the First 
 Church. In some cases, blanks were left in the original, and in others the 
 record is obliterated. 
 
 F. 
 
 ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE OF BENNINGTON. 
 
 BY THE BEV. THOMAS ALLEN. 
 
 [Mr. Allen, writing on the day of the battle, in the following account, gives the story 
 of the Bennington fight according to his own observation, and the information which 
 could be hastily collected at the time.] 
 
 From the Connecticut Courant, Aug. 25, 1777. 
 
 [The following particulars of the action between the militia, &c., and a 
 part of the British army, on the 16th inst., near Bennington, have been 
 transmitted to us by a letter of the 16th from the Rev. Mr. Allen of Pitts- 
 field, who was present at the action.] ED. 
 
 Saturday, 'Aug. 16, was a memorable day on account of a signal victory 
 which the militia, under the command of Gen. Stark, obtained over a body 
 of the king's troops commanded by Gov. Skeene, some account of which is 
 here given by one who was himself in the action. It seems that Gen, Bur- 
 goyne had detached this corps, consisting of about fifteen hundred men, 
 chiefly Waldeckers and Brunswickers, intermixed with some British troops 
 and Tories, a niedly compound, to penetrate as far as Bennington, and 
 farther if it should be found practicable, with a view to increase the number 
 of his friends, to disperse his " protections " in the country, to procure 
 for his army provisions, and to wreak his wrath and vengeance on those who 
 had disregarded his calls of mercy, and slighted with indignity his prof- 
 fered protection. Gov. Skeene had advantageously posted this corps within 
 about five miles of Bennington Meeting-house, where, in different places, they 
 made breastworks for their own security. This digression was of such ill 
 tendency, and savored so much of presumption, that Gen. Stark, who was at 
 that time providentially at Bennington, with his brigade of militia from New- 
 Hampshire State, determined to give him battle. Col. Simonds's regiment 
 of militia in Berkshire County was invited to his assistance ; and a part of 
 Col. Brown's arrived seasonably to attend on the action ; and some volun- 
 teers from different towns ; and Col. Warner, with a part of his own regi- 
 ment, joined him the same day. The general, it seem,", wisely laid his plan
 
 500 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 of operation ; and, Divine Providence blessing us with good weather, be- 
 tween three and four o'clock, P.M., he attacked them in front and flank, in 
 three or four different places at the same instant, with irresistible impetu- 
 osity. 
 
 The action was extremely hot for between one and two hours. The 
 flanking divisions had carried their points with great success, when the front 
 pressed on to their breastworks with an ardor and patience beyond expecta- 
 tion. The blaze of the guns of the contending parties reached each other. 
 The fire was so extremely hot, and our men easily surmounting their 
 breastworks, amid peals of thunder and flashes of lightning from their guns, 
 without regarding the roar of their field-pieces, that the enemy at once 
 deserted their cover, and ran ; and in about five minutes their whole camp 
 was in the utmost confusion and disorder. All their battalions were broken in 
 pieces, and fled most precipitately ; at which instant our whole army pressed 
 after with redoubled ardor, pursued them for a mile, made considerable 
 slaughter among them, and made many prisoners. One field-piece had 
 already fallen into our hands. At this point, our men stopped the pursuit to 
 gain breath, when the enemy, being re-enforced, our front fell back a few 
 rods for convenience of ground, and being directed and collected by Col. 
 Rossiter, and re-enforced by Major Stratton, renewed the fight with re- 
 doubled ardor, and fell in upon them with great impetuosity, put them to 
 confusion and flight, and pursued them about a mile, making many prison- 
 ers. Two or three more brass field-pieces fell into our hands, and are 
 supposed to be the whole of what they brought with them. At this time, dark- 
 ness came upon us, and prevented our swallowing up the whole of this body. 
 The enemy fled precipitately the succeeding night towards the North River ; 
 and, unless they should be met with by a party of our army, may have 
 reached there without further molestation. Gov. Skeene, in surprise and 
 consternation, took horse and fled. This action, which redounds so much to 
 the glory of the great Lord of the heavens and God of armies, affords the 
 Americans a lasting monument of the divine power and goodness, and a 
 most powerful argument of love to and trust in God. 
 
 Our loss is about forty or fifty killed, and more wounded. Their baggage 
 fell into our hands. The number of prisoners taken is said to be about six 
 hundred. Two of their colonels were among the prisoners, and mortally 
 wounded. A number of their inferior officers have also fallen into our hands, 
 and in particular the general's aide-de-camp. A good number deserted, and 
 joined us. This victory is thought by some to equal any that has happened 
 during the present controversy, and, as long as prudence, moderation, so- 
 briety, and valor are of any estimation among these United States, will not 
 fail to endear Gen. Stark to them. It is the opinion of some, that, if a large 
 body of militia was now called to act in conjunction with our northern army, 
 the enemy might be entirely overthrown. May all be concerned to give 
 God the glory, whilst we commend the good conduct of the officers and sol-
 
 APPENDIX. 501 
 
 diers in general on so important an occasion ! The best account of the 
 number of prisoners taken in the above action is as follows : 
 
 2 Colonels, 
 
 1 Lieutenant-colonel, 
 12 Lieutenants, 
 
 4 Ensigns, 
 
 2 Canadian officers, 
 3 7 British 7 ateg 
 
 398 German ; pn 
 
 175 Tories, 
 
 680 besides, wounded, 
 
 1 Major, 
 
 5 Captains, 
 
 1 Judge advocate, 
 
 1 Baron, 
 
 3 Surgeons, 
 
 2 Brass 4-pounders, 
 2 " 3-pounders, 
 
 1 Medicine wagon, and a quantity 
 of baggage. 
 
 From Mr. Allen's Pocket Diary. 
 
 [The allusions to the Battle of Benuingtoa in Rev. Mr. Allen's diary are brief, but 
 suggestive, and read as follows] : 
 
 " Aug. 16. A memorable battle fought by the militia near Bennington. 
 One thousand of the enemy killed, wounded, and taken prisoners. 
 " Expended on my tour to Bennington, seven shillings and sixpence. 
 
 " Expended for ammunition, nine shillings and sixpence. 
 
 "Aug. 21. Received for horse-keeping and victualling [probably of 
 soldiers and prisoners], two pounds, seventeen shillings, and sixpence. 
 
 " Received for use of my cart, and damage by prisoners, one pound, one 
 shilling. 
 
 " Aug. 29. Received for victuals for seventeen men, thirteen shillings 
 and sixpence." 
 
 Rev. Dr. Field relates the following anecdote of Mr. Allen : 
 " Once, when asked whether he actually killed any man at Bennington, 
 he replied that he did not know ; but that, observing a flash often repeated 
 from a certain bush, and that it was generally followed by the fall of one of 
 Stark's men, he fired that way, and put the flash out." 
 
 G. 
 PLAN OF PITTSFIELD IN 1794. 
 
 TRANSCRIBED FROM THE ORIGINAL IN THE MASS. STATE ARCHIVES. 
 
 A Plan of the Town of Pittifield, in the County of Berkshire, taken in Obedience to a 
 Resolve of the General Court, passed June 26, A.D. 1794. 
 
 The south line of this town is 2,111 rods in length ; the east line is 1,897 
 rods long ; the north line in the whole is 2,048 rods ; and the whole of the 
 west line 1,892 rods in length. This town was intended to be, and perhaps
 
 502 
 
 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 is, in a square form. The very steep mountain [Honwee], near the north- 
 west corner, may make a difference in measuring the lines. The original 
 plans gf the town, one of which we had, taken thirty-four years ago, set forth 
 the town as square, and the points from the south-west corner, as running cast 
 19 degrees south; but in running the same line at this period, and setting 
 the compass so as to strike the north-west corner of the town of Lenox, 
 which is in the south-west line of Pittsfield, and 684 rods from our south- 
 
 
 H.E. MEAD DEL 
 
 west corner, the line was found to run east sixteen degrees and fifteen min- 
 utes south. The lines at each corner are at right angles, and the ancient 
 boundaries and marked trees are yet remaining. 
 
 Pittsfield by estimation, on the route through Northampton, is 140 miles 
 from Boston. Its meeting-house is six miles and a half from Lenox Court 
 House. The Ousatonac River, at its entrance on the east side of said town, 
 is six rods wide ; and on the south side of the to w% where it crosses the line, 
 it is eight rods wide. 
 
 There are five ponds which lie wholly in Pittsfield, and two others, part 
 of one of which is in Lanesborough, and the other in Richmond, which 
 we estimate as follows, to wit : 
 
 Goodrich Pond, 50 acres ; Ensign's Pond, 40 acres ; Van Schaack's Pond, 
 40 acres; Rathbun's Pond, 45 acres; West Pond, 520 acres ; North Pond, 
 300 acres ; South Pond, 80 acres. 
 
 We know of no mines, or minerals, in this town. The ore used here is 
 brought from Richmond, &c. This survey was taken in the months of No-
 
 APPENDIX. 503 
 
 vember and December, A.D. 1 794. The dotted lines represent the county 
 roads ; the green lines, the streams and rivers, over which are bridges, where 
 roads cross them. The bridges over the Ousatonac River are five in num- 
 ber. Dalton, S. W. corner. Washington, N. W. corner. 
 
 JOHN C. WILLIAMS, ") 
 
 OLIVER ROOT, 
 
 SIMON LARNED, \- Committee. 
 
 NATHANIEL ROBBINS, 
 
 ELI ROOT, 
 DEC. 8, 1794. 
 
 N. B. The committee do not seem to have been aware of the sixty-eight 
 rods allowed in addition to the original town boundaries. 
 
 H. 
 
 WHILE this work has been passing through the press, a few facts have 
 come to our knowledge, which are worthy of record. 
 
 Dr. Charles S. Goodrich of New York furnishes us with the following 
 traditions regarding his grandfather, Capt. Charles Goodrich. 
 
 East Street was opened under his direction ; and four or five fine elm-trees 
 were left standing where Park Square now is, among them The Great Elm. 
 Dr. Goodrich often heard his grandfather say that one of his axe-men 
 struck two blows into the tree, with the intention of felling it ; but Capt. 
 Goodrich, admiring its beauty, it was then tall, straight, and limbless, to the 
 height of some fifty feet, ordered his axe-men to " spare that tree," which 
 they did, with three or four others near it. The Elm was then about a 
 foot in diameter. 
 
 Dr. Goodrich states that his grandfather owned six thousand acres of land 
 in Pittsfield and the neighboring towns ; among which was the farm upon 
 which the popular mineral springs of New Lebanon, N.Y., were afterwards 
 found. 
 
 Once, when eighty years old, Capt. Goodrich rode a Narragansett pony 
 from Pittsfield, Vermont which was named by him, and where his son 
 lived, to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, a distance of a hundred and four miles ; 
 starting after sunrise, and sleeping at home the same night. 
 
 Capt. Goodrich died at the age of ninety-six, leaving two sons, Rev. 
 Charles Goodrich, who is now living, at the age of ninety ; and James G., 
 who is now eighty-nine years old, and one daughter, Mrs. Lucy G. Pratt, 
 who died three years since, at the age of ninety.
 
 504 HISTORY OF PITTSFIELD. 
 
 The last deer known in Pittsfield were slaughtered in the winter of 1 780, 
 when the snow was so deep that it was possible for the hunters to kill them, 
 without the possibility of their escape, in the yards which they had beaten 
 out for themselves among the snow-drifts. The demand for buckskins for 
 the manufacture of breeches for the military was then urgent, and the hun- 
 ters were diligent to supply it. 
 
 The initials I. M. "W., on the Plan of Pittsfield in 1759, refer to JohnMico 
 Wendell, son of Col. Jacob, who married Catherine Brattle, a descendant of 
 Thomas Brattle, the founder of the Brattle family of Massachusetts, a branch 
 of which was thus introduced into Pittsfield, where some of its members 
 still reside. John Mico Wendell and his wife were both descendants of 
 Governors Bradstreet and Dudley. 
 
 Of Col. Israel Williams's nine children, four settled in Pittsfield and vi- 
 cinity : Deacon William Williams, who was one of the first trustees of 
 Williams College, and who should be distinguished from Col. William 
 Williams of Pittsfield ; Sarah, who married Dr. Marsh of Dalton ; Eunice, 
 who married Major Israel Stoddard of Pittsfield ; and Lucretia, who married 
 John Chandler Williams. Of Dr. Marsh's daughters, Sarah married Israel 
 Peck ; Martha married Thomas Gold ; Eunice, Darius Lamed ; Lucretia, 
 William Millen ; Elizabeth, Jonathan Allen ; and Sophia, Fordyce Merrick, 
 
 all of Pittsfield. 
 

 
 INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 Allen, Rev. Thomas, foretells the manufac- 
 turing prosperity of Pittsfleld, 33; gift of, 
 to schools, 136; 138, 139, 158, 160, 163, 165, 
 166, 167, 163, 177, 183, 190, 193, 209, 215, 
 222, 252, 279, 280, 281; speech at Ticon- 
 deroga, 284: service at Bennington, 297, 
 324 ; views of the Massachusetts Charters, 
 330; political opinions of, 336, 341,364, 365, 
 367, 369, 399, 409, 418, 453; diary of, 470; 
 loans to the Continent, 471. 
 
 Association, Continental, resolutions of, 
 adopted by Pittsfleld, 202. 
 
 Allen, Rev. William, D.D., 19, 160. 
 
 Allen, Joseph, 258, 295, 299. 
 
 Allen, Ethan, 213, 226, 227, 232, 233. See 
 John Brown. 
 
 Allen, Thomas, 90, 427. 
 
 Allen, John, 504. 
 
 Allen, Samuel A., 31. 
 
 Allen, Solomon, 403. 
 
 Allen, Phinelias, 403. 
 
 Allen, William C., 124. 
 
 Allen, Rufus, 244, 279, 295, 315, 317, 319,497. 
 
 Adams, John, 173 ; vividly describes the con- 
 dition of the army at Crown Point in 1776, 
 261 ; on affairs at Ticonderoga in 1777, 280; 
 3-J7, 3S'2. 369. 
 
 Aristocracy, Provincial, 333; its greediness 
 for office. 333, 334. 
 
 Administration, civil and judicial, of the 
 State excluded from Berkshire in 1775, 
 308. 
 
 Adams, Samuel, 211, 215, 216. 
 
 Adams, Charles Francis, 356. 
 
 Army, Continental, recruits for, 279, 315; 
 bounties for, 316; elaborate plan to obtain, 
 317. 
 
 Aitken's " American Register," 468. 
 
 Arnold, Benedict, 214; infamous conductor, 
 in the Ticonderoga affair in 1775, 218 et 
 seq. and 223; letter of, 219; embezzles pay 
 of Pittsfleld soldiers, 225 ; account of, sent 
 .to Gen. Washington, 225. See John 
 Brown. 
 
 Arnold, Oliver, 181. 
 
 Andre, Major, 320. 
 
 Agriculture of Berkshire, 15. 
 
 Aboriginal names, capricious spelling of, 16. 
 
 Agricultural Park, 35. 
 
 Antankamet, 63. 
 
 Albany, 63, 64; patriotic spirit at, 209. 
 
 Attleborough, 374. 
 
 Andrew, Gov. John A., 8. 
 
 Ausotunnoog, 17. 
 
 Aborigines of Berkshire, 43. 
 
 Aupaumut Hendrick, 49, 52. 
 
 Aix-la-Chapelle, peace of, 84, 85, 86, 102. 
 
 Anson, Fort, 107, 108, 111, 113, 114. 
 
 Arbutus Hill and Ope, 30. 
 
 Ashley Lake and Brook, 31. 
 
 Ashley Lake, fountain of the Pittsfield Water 
 Works, 36. 
 
 Ashlar Factory, 34. 
 
 Agricultural Bank, 38. 
 
 Albany, distance of, from Pittsfleld, 38. 
 
 Ashley, David, 86, 441, 459, 460. 
 
 Ashley, Capt., 102, 103. 
 
 Alexander, Moses, 110. 
 
 Ashley, John, 120, 124, 139, 190, 311, 346, 348, 
 405. 
 
 Ammunition, 183. 
 
 Animals, wild, of Berkshire, 75. 
 
 B. 
 
 Berkshire, county of, remarkable for its in- 
 dividuality of character, 3 ; its boundaries, 
 4; a conspicuous feature in New-England 
 605
 
 506 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 geography, 4 ; valley described, 5 ; view of, 
 from Pittsfield, 6; scenery of, 7; physical 
 structure of, epitomized, 9; unity and di- 
 vision of, 9; population of, 11; external 
 communication with, 11, 12; rise of val- 
 ley, 13; a lake county, 14; unity of its 
 geography, 15; interior geography of, 13; 
 boundary disputes between New York and 
 Massachusetts, 21; territory of, as first 
 seen by the English, 43; paucity of abo- 
 riginal population accounted for, 45; sum- 
 mit of valley, 13; population of, in 1754, 
 97; county organization established, 130, 
 132, 133, 134. 
 
 Berlin Mountain, height of, 8. 
 
 Beaver Dam, 25. 
 
 Berry Pond, 29; path to, 30. 
 
 Barton Brook, 28. 
 
 Brattle Brook, 28. 
 
 Buel, James, 31. 
 
 Bass, black, placed in Pittsfield lakes, 32. 
 
 Barker Brothers' factories, 34. 
 
 BarkersviJle, 34. 
 
 Boston, distance from Pittsfield, 38. 
 
 Brooks, Taconic, 28, 30. 
 
 Burial-ground, 159. 
 
 Baker, John, 459. 
 
 Bradford, Gov. William, 168. 
 
 Baker, Aaron, 163, 209, 244. 
 
 Belding, Phinehas, 163. 
 
 Bates, Daniel, 316. 
 
 Bill of Rights, 368. 
 
 Boston Revolutionary committees, 189. 
 
 Boston Port-Bill sufferers, contributions for 
 their relief, 192; proposal to move seat of 
 government from, 414; tea-party, 184. 
 
 Birch, Joshua, 459. 
 
 Burrage, Deborah, 394. 
 
 Bacon, John, 348, 409, 432. 
 
 Batty, John, 281. 
 
 Backus, Lebbeus, 244, 315, 319, 367, 497. 
 
 Brewer, Daniel, 250. 
 
 Bell, Gen., in American army at White 
 Plains, 253. 
 
 Brewster, Dr. Oliver, 311. 
 
 Brewster, Dr. Oliver E., 311. 
 
 Barber, William, 244, 252, 317, 319, 382, 497. 
 
 Barnes, Asa, 428. 
 
 Branch, John, 457, 459. 
 
 Baker, John, 457, 459. 
 
 Branch, Asa, 457, 459. 
 
 Brown, John, 181, 186, 189, 190, 201,203, 204, 
 209, 211, 212, 216, 221, 222; adventurous 
 expeditions of, 212 and 229 ; hastens Schuy- 
 ler's advance on Canada, 231 ; further ad- 
 ventures in Canada, 232 : leads the advance 
 into Canada, 233; unsuccessful attempt on 
 Montreal, 234; capture of Chamblee, 236; 
 
 results of, 238 ; at the capture of Montreal, 
 239; at the siege of Quebec, 256; Arnold's 
 hatred of, 257, 259; malicious charges of 
 Arnold against, 266 ; futile attempts to ob- 
 tain a court-martial, 266; appeals to Con- 
 gress, 270 ; charges Arnold with treason 
 and other crimes, 271 ; impeachment trans- 
 mitted to Congress, 272 ; obtains no re. ' 
 and appeals to the country, 272 ; remarka- 
 ble interview with Arnold, 273; Gross in- 
 justice of Congress, 274; spirited remon- 
 strance against, 275; brilliant exploit at 
 Lake George, 304; 310, 348, 357. 
 
 Baptists, 434, 451. 456, 459. See Dissenters 
 and Church. 
 
 Barber, Matthew, 209. 
 
 Brown, Capt. Jacob, 258. 
 
 Bill, Jonathan, 255. 
 
 Barnard, Lemuel, 191. 
 
 Bunker Hill, Battle of, sound of the can- 
 nonading heard in Berkshire, 241. 
 
 Bennington, British expedition against, 290; 
 battle of, 294 ; alarm attending, 291 ; char- 
 acter and effect of, 302. 
 
 Burgoyne's army march through Pittsfield, 
 306. 
 
 Burgoyne's overthrow, quaint verses con- 
 cerning, 307. 
 
 Bounties of Revolutionary soldiers, 316, 319. 
 
 Bounty jumpers in the Revolution, 317. 
 
 Backus, William G., 45. 
 
 Butler, James H., 76. 
 
 Birds of Berkshire, 76. 
 
 Bush, David, 86, 87, 93, 94, 112, 119, 120, 121, 
 134, 159, 186, 189, 190, 203, 317, 318, 394, 418, 
 435, 439, 442, 460. 
 
 Brattle family, 502. 
 
 Bryant, John, 459. 
 
 Belts, Uriah, 460. 
 
 Bow, Simon, 137. 
 
 Brattle, William, 136, 140. 
 
 Bowen, Samuel, 102. 
 
 Bridal tour in 1752, 88. 
 
 Briggs, Gov., 44. 
 
 Bridges, 95, 135. 
 
 Burnings of the woods, 95. 
 
 Bill, a curious, presented to the General 
 Court, 103. 
 
 Brewer, John, 123, 124. 
 
 Brown, Daniel, 124, 139, 181. 
 
 Bernard, Sir Francis, 130, 131. 
 
 Beer, 140. 
 
 0. 
 
 Constitution Hill, 24. 
 Cochecomeek, 27, 65. 
 Churchill, Capt. John, 29.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 507 
 
 Colt, E. R., 31, 219. 
 
 Churchill Brook, 30. 
 
 Coltsville, 13, 34. 
 
 Claverack, 51. 
 
 Cayugas, 51. 
 
 Charles the Second, grants of, to the Duke 
 
 of York, 56. 
 Golden , Lieut.-Gov., 58. 
 County seats as originally established, 133. 
 Cohquahegameek, 64. 
 Coleraine, 65, 120. 
 Charlemout, 65. 
 Cranesville, 65. 
 Cook, Elisha, 66. 
 Colson, David, 67. 
 Clark, Jonas, 67. 
 Cadwcll, Timothy, 86. 
 Cliffwood, Terraces, 9. 
 Cadwell, Dan, 87, 189, 203, 358, 414, 435. 
 f' Cooks, the, homicide of a Schaghticoke by, 
 
 100. 
 
 / Chamberlain family, massacre of, at Stock- 
 bridge, 103. 
 
 Chadwick, John, 124, 139. 
 Commons lands, 129. 
 Conflagrations of woods, 152. 
 Controversies, theological, 160. 
 Clark, Rev. Mr., 160. 
 Clark, Joseph, 251. 
 Chandler, Jabez, 255. 
 Canoe Meadows, 45, 128. 
 Columbia County, N.Y., 48. 
 Connecticut Valley, Indian ravages in, 53, 55. 
 Currency, Provincial, table of depreciation, 
 
 467. 
 
 Currency, Continental, 321, 391, 437. 
 Charters of Massachusetts, 332, 336, 343. 
 Constitution, State, 324, 354, 356, 359, 361, 362, 
 
 365, 366. 
 
 Constitutionalists of Berkshire reject the 
 State government of 1775, 324; party prin- 
 ciples of, 337. 
 
 Committee, government of 1774, 1780, de- 
 scribed by its opponents, 358, 374; its 
 origin, 375; a town court established, 3S1; 
 rules of practice in, 381. 
 Court-house, new, in Pittsfield, 38 ; first in 
 Pittsfield, 123, 423, 424 ; proposed site for 
 a new, in 1774, 426; built at Lenox, 433. 
 Church, First, organized, 162, 163; names of 
 
 first members, 163; increase of, 165. 
 Colling, Daniel, 198. 
 ' V \v, William, 208. 
 < amberlain, Joseph, 208. 
 Columbia County, N.Y., 207. 
 Canadians, French, in the Revolution, 229. 
 Census of 1772, 182, 497. 
 Charter, attacks on the Provincial, 187. 
 Correspondence, Committees of, 190, 244. 
 See Committees of Inspection. 
 
 Colefix, Sergeant, 261. 
 Curtis, Peter, 190. 
 Chapell, Joshua, 317. 
 Clapp, Jason, 11. 
 
 Connecticut, facilities of communication with 
 Berkshire, 12 ; boundary dispute with Xew 
 York, 56, 59 ; 102, 104 ; charter government 
 of, 332. 
 
 Connecticut River, 56, 57, 58. 
 Courant, Hartford, 370, 585, 387,499. 
 Courts, County, 133 ; obstructed in 1774, 193, 
 196, 325; suspended for six years, 348; 
 proceedings regarding, 359 et seq. 
 Crofoot, Stephen, 86, 93, 94, 112, 119, 120, 
 
 134, 140, 163, 183, 203, 244, 251, 394. 
 Crofoot, Lieut. Stephen, 230, 280, 288. 
 Crofoot, Simeon, 86, 112, 134. 
 Collins, Daniel, 163. 
 
 Childs, Dr. Timothy. 180, 189, 194, 203, 204, 
 206, 260, 306, 409, 412, 432, 435, 439, 442, 
 459, 460. 
 
 Childs, Dr. H. H., 452. 
 Churchill, Isaac, 394. 
 Colt James D., 203, 204, 209, 319, 394, 418, 
 
 437, 442. 
 
 Colt, Madam James D., 322. 
 Cattle, a thousand, offered by Berkshire in 
 " 1775, to transport Ticonderoga cannon, 
 222. 
 
 Chronicle, Berkshire, 400. 
 Chadfield, Jonathan, 459. 
 Coggswell, Rufus, 459. 
 Clark, Joseph, 418. 
 Crandall, Augustus, 460. 
 Congress, Provincial, 201 ; advice of, followed 
 
 by Pittsfield, 202. 
 
 Congress, Continental, respect of Pittsfield 
 for, 202. 
 
 D. 
 
 Dickinson, Lieut. Joel, 227, 258, 321, 435, 
 441. 
 
 Dickinson, Seth, 460. 
 
 Dickinson, Mrs. Israel, 436. 
 
 DnnU'lson, surgeon's mate, killed at White 
 Plains, 253. 
 
 Dow, Lorenzo, 456. 
 
 Davis, Xathan, 460. 
 
 Danforth, Joshua, 409, 421, 436, 437, 441, 442. 
 
 Debtors, poor, 340, 391, 393. 
 
 Debt, public, 390. 
 
 Debt, imprisonment for, 392. 
 
 Dissenters in 1790 from the Congregational 
 denomination, 459 ; taxed for the building 
 of a Congregational meeting-house, 452; 
 enter their protests against the assess- 
 ment, 457; Henry Van Schaack com-
 
 508 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 mences a suit to resist It,- 458 ; Mr. Van 
 Schaack brings the matter before a town 
 meeting, 458 ; action of the town thereon, 
 459 ; curious inquisition into religious faith, 
 459; report of committee upon rights of 
 dissenters, 460; Mr. Van Schaack's suit 
 decided, and the dissenters taxes remitted, 
 462; later State laws, 463. 
 
 Dwight, Gen. Joseph, 81, 84; calls the first 
 Plantation meeting of Poontoosuck, 92; 99, 
 100, 101, 102, lOfi, 11'3, 139. 
 
 Dunham, Calvin, 393. 
 
 Dickinson, Israel, 163, 173, 180, 189, 198, 203, 
 204, 209, 217, 222, 241, 250, 295, 334, 345, 354, 
 356,384. 
 
 Dwight, Capt. Nathaniel, 124. 
 
 Dwight, Elijah, 139, 176, 402, 432. 
 
 Douglas, Capt. Asa, 217, 218. 
 
 Deacon, title of, 95. 
 
 Deer-reeves and deer-laws, 134. 
 
 Deming, Solomon, 86; becomes the first set- 
 tler of Poontoosuck, 86, 93, 112, 134, 459. 
 
 Deming, Noadiah, 459; John, 459. 
 
 Deming, Mrs. Solomon, monument to, 86. 
 
 Dawes, Hon. H. L., 205. 
 
 Dunnels, David, 219. 
 
 Dalton, 14, 23, 43, 65, 361, 404. 
 
 Doane, Ebenezer, 3-38. 
 
 Dwight, President, on the word " Honsa- 
 touic : " 17. 
 
 Dwight, Timothy, 80, 91. 
 
 Dewey, Daniel, 216. 
 
 Doll Mountain, 30. 
 
 Daniels Brook, 30. 
 
 Dutch, the, 20, 57. 
 
 Dewey, Chester, 8. 
 
 Deer-shooting, 25. 
 
 Dewey, Abner, 95, 103, 112, 121. 
 
 Dewey, Abner and Israel, 86, 93, 112. 
 
 Dickinson, Obadiah, 89. 
 
 Day, Benjamin, 89. 
 
 D'Anville, French naval armament against 
 New England, 81 ; commits suicide, 81. 
 
 Dewey, Benedict, 112. 
 
 Everett, Mount, height of, 8. 
 
 Ensign's Pond, 26. 
 
 Ensign, Jacob, 93, 95, 112, 120, 121, 134, 163, 
 
 209,358. 
 
 Edwards, Timothy, 191, 429. 
 Eggleston, Elisha, 393. 
 Eli, Samuel, 397. 
 Emanuel Chapsl, 34. 
 Elkins, Jacob, 20. 
 Eskwatak, the Mohegan form of Schodac, 
 
 48. 
 
 Ewing, John, 68. 
 
 Equinox Mountain, 5. 
 
 Egremont, 133. 
 
 Easton's regiment in first Canadian cam- 
 paign, 230, 238; advances to the Sorel, 
 239; blockades Gen. Carleton's fleet, 239; 
 services described by Gen. Montgomery, 
 240; discharged, 258. 
 
 Elm, The Old, of the Park, 35, 153, 335, 439; 
 saved, 440, 503. 
 
 Episcopacy, 456, 458, 459. See Dissenters. 
 
 Edwards, Jonathan, 7, 100, 101. 
 
 Easton, Col. James, 136, 139, 178, 183, 189, 
 190, 191, 192, 204, 209, 216; advises an in- 
 vasion of Canada, and asks command of a 
 regiment, 227, 295; animosity of Arnold 
 against, 266; appeals to Congress for re- 
 dress, 267; applies to Washington for a 
 command, and referred to Congress, 268 ; 
 action thereupon, 269; retires from ser- 
 vice, 270. 
 
 Easton, Lieut. James, 203, 230, 305, 311. 
 
 Everett, Thomas, 455. 
 
 F. 
 
 Field, Rev. Dr., 19. 
 
 Ford, William, 295, 310. 
 
 Fowler, Stephen, 394, 418, 436. 
 
 Farr, Joseph, 418. 
 
 Framingham Pond, 24. 
 
 Framingham, New, 24, 133. 
 
 Fish, 31. 
 
 Fire district of Pittsfield, 35. 
 
 Flouring mills, 33. 
 
 Forsythe, Alexander, 67. 
 
 Foote, J. A., 68. 
 
 Forts on western frontier of Massachusetts, 
 
 107, 114. 
 
 Fort Massachusetts, 
 Festivities, curious, in 1783, 322. 
 Fulling mills, 33, 141. 
 Forts at Poontoosuck, 107. 
 Fairfield, Nathaniel, 86, 87, 112, 119, 122, 134. 
 French in Canada, their influence with the 
 
 Indians, 105. 
 French, John, 393. 
 
 Fairfield, Joseph, 317, 319, 358, 412, 414, 442. 
 Fairfield, Fort, 112. 
 Francis, William, 134, 179, 189, 194, 203, 209, 
 
 244, 288, 295, 306, 382, 404, 418. 
 
 Francis, Rev. John, 455, 459. 
 Financial troubles of 1780, 391. 
 Francis, Josiah, 459. 
 Fairfield, Mrs. Judith, 140. 
 Fellows, Col. John, 204, 301, 387. 
 Francis, Robert, 460. 
 Financial scheme, a curious, 398. 
 Fitch, Dyer, 457, 460.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 509 
 
 G. 
 
 Greylock, height of, 5, 8; 7, 9; a feature in 
 Berkshire scenery, 6, 24, 26. 
 
 Green Mountains, 5, 7, 15. 
 
 Goodrich, Lake, 27. 
 
 Guyot, Prof., 4. 
 
 Greenbush, 48; Mohegans destroy cattle at, 
 51; 194,195,428. 
 
 Great Barriugton, 43, 93, 133, 134. 
 
 Grist-mills, 141. 
 
 Glass-making, 14. 
 
 Garusey, 1(30. 
 
 Gardening in 1760, 143. 
 
 Green Mountains, the, their structure de- 
 fined, 5; valley of, traced, 5; elevation of, 
 6; transverse valleys of, 8; called Wiuter- 
 berge by the Dutch, 15. 
 
 Girdling of trees, 77. 
 
 Game, wild, 76. 
 
 Grouse, 76. 
 
 Goodrich, Daniel, 459. 
 
 Graves, Moses, 123, 126, 127, 128, 133, 151, 
 173, 208, 248, 251. 
 
 Goodrich, Benjamin, 112. 
 
 Goodrich, Butler, 441. 
 
 Goodrich, Caleb, 288. 
 
 Gardner, John, 255. 
 
 Guitteau, Dr., at White Plains, 252. 
 
 Gunu, Gideon, 86. 
 
 Gunn, Keuben, 134. 
 
 Goodrich, liubbard, 459. 
 
 George Third, 177-, 2i3. 
 
 Graves, John, 248, 250, 385. 
 
 Gold, Thomas, 400, 437, 459, 504. 
 
 Green, liev. Hobert, 456. 
 
 Grant, Titus, 409. 
 
 Gageborough, 361. 
 
 Government, civil, state of, in Massachu- 
 setts hi 1775, 320; formation of a new, 
 326; John Adams's opinion upon, 327; ad- 
 vice of Continental Congress concerning, 
 328; Congressional advice adopted, 329; 
 opposition to, in AVestorn Massachusetts, 
 330; opposition yielded, 330; reasons for 
 renewing, 331, 334; that proposed by Con- 
 gress criticised, 338 ; rejected in Berkshire, 
 33S; Pittslield petitions the legislature 
 against, 343; discussed, 352. 
 
 Goodnch, Charles, 88, 90, 93, 97, 103, 111, 120, 
 121, 124, 126, 135, 163, 179, 186, 194, 203, 209, 
 279,295, 33t, 350, 370, 378; political con- 
 troversy of, with the town, 384 et seq. ; 
 legislative opinion of, 386; summoned be- 
 fore the committee of inspection, 386; 
 posted in "The Hartford Courant," 387; 
 reconciliation with the town, 387; re- 
 ceives honorable trusts, 388; holds the 
 
 plough at the first Berkshire cattle-show, 
 388; death of, 388; 402, 432, 436, 503. 
 Goodrich, Dr. Charles 8., 503. 
 
 H. 
 
 Hoosac Mountains, elevation of, 8, 64. 
 
 Hoosac, Dutch, massacre at, 102. 
 
 Hoosac, West, 114. 
 
 Huckamuck, 63. 
 
 Hartford, a market for Berkshire, 12; boun- 
 dary conference at, 57. 
 
 Hartford, 95. 
 
 Hazzard, Jaffrey, 316, 317. 
 
 Hudson, 12. 
 
 " Hartford Courant," 12, 138. 
 
 Hinsdale, Jonathan, 104. 
 
 Ilolman, Ebenezer, 112. 
 
 Husson, translation of, 20. 
 
 Hatter's Pond, 26. 
 
 Highways, 95, 121, 135. 
 
 Honwee, Mount, 24, 28. 
 
 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 45, 62, 128. 
 
 Hulbert, Dr. Shadrack, 459. 
 
 Hurlbert, Timothy, 460. 
 
 Heard, James, 459. 
 
 Hopkins, Mark, 139, 190. 
 
 Hopkins, Samuel, 163. 
 
 Hopkins, Daniel, 163. 
 
 Hooker, Rev. John, 165. 
 
 Hawley, Major, 174, 199, 211. 
 
 Harris, James, 361, 387. 
 
 Hogsden, Alexander, 192. 
 
 Hitchcock, John, 227. 
 
 Hubby, Tertullas, 458. 
 
 Hobby, Jonathan, 251, 459. 
 
 lluskins, Enoch, 418. 
 
 Harvey, Moses, 407. 
 
 Hopkins, Rev. Samuel, 17. 
 
 Hancock, town of, 23, 89. 
 
 Hubbard, Daniel, 86, 122, 163, 181, 317, 400, 
 412, 414, 418, 459, 460. 
 
 liubbard, James, 280, 288, 295, 435, 437, 442. 
 
 Hubbard, Rev. Jonathan, 146. 
 
 Hubbard, Henry, 146. 
 
 Hubbard, of Ipswich, 17. 
 
 Hitchcock, Ebenezer, 124. 
 
 Horikans, 51. 
 
 Hutchins, Thomas, 58. 
 
 Hardy, Governor of New York, 58. 
 
 Hutchinson, Thomas, 67. 
 
 Hope, definition of, 7. 
 
 Huston, Capt. John, surveys the township, 
 67, 125. 
 
 Hinman, Col., of Connecticut, 224. 
 
 Hinman, Capt., in 1754, 106, 110, 111. 
 
 Iluntington, Rev. Enoch, 161. 
 
 Hazen, Col., 275.
 
 510 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Hue and Cry defined, 246. 
 Hessian, anecdote of a, 252. 
 Hampshire County, 12, 59. 
 Housatonic, valley of, 5; rise of, 13. 
 Housatonic River, branches described, 13, 
 28 ; name of, 17, 64. 
 
 Inspection, Committee of, 203, 244, 245; their 
 
 origin, 375; peculiarities of, in Berkshire, 
 
 378. 
 . Inquisition, religious, curious instance of, 
 
 459. 
 ,/' Indians at Poontoosuck, 114. 
 
 Indian allies of Great Britain, 279; murders 
 
 by, 281, 310. 
 Iron manufacture, 210. 
 Indian names, fate of, 24. 
 . Iroquois, 28. 
 
 Indian villages in Berkshire, 43. 
 Indian relics, 44. 
 Indian Hill, 44. 
 Indian Point, 45. 
 Indian burial-places, 45. 
 Indian nomenclature, interest of, 46. 
 Iroquois league, tribes of, threatened with 
 
 extinction, 49; united, conquer the Mohe- 
 
 gans, 50; after-relations with the Mohe- 
 
 gans, 51. 
 
 Indian population of Western Massachu- 
 setts, mcagreness of, 51. 
 Indians annoy the first settlers, 86, 87; 
 
 doubtful disposition of, in 1752, 86. 
 Indians of the Stockbridge mission, 98,99; 
 
 at the Battle of Bennington, 299; infest 
 
 Upper Hampshire, 81, 106. 
 Indians, St. Francois, 213. 
 Independence, national, early belief of 
 
 Berkshire patriots in, 243, 341. 
 Ingersoll, Capt., of Great Barrington, 102, 
 
 103. 
 
 Ice, power of, illustrated, 26. 
 Ingersoll, David, 139, 196. 
 Ingersoll, Jared, 241, 416, 436. 
 Instructions to representatives, 184. 
 Inoculation for small-pox, proposed by Dr. 
 
 Timothy Childs, 260. See Small-pox. 
 
 J. 
 
 Jewish amulets found among the Indians, 
 
 44. 
 
 Janes, Mrs. Benjamin, 53. 
 Janes, Elisha, 90, 124, 126, 173, 208, 250. 
 Jones, Hezekiah, 86, 93, 94, 110, 112, 119. 
 Jones, Mrs. Seth, anecdote of, 140. 
 Jones, Mrs. Mehitable, 250. 
 Johnson, David, 316. 
 Jeffords, John, 457, 459. 
 
 Jewett, Stephen, 457, 459. 
 Janes, Seth, 460. 
 
 Judiciary, Provincial, 339; an elective, de- 
 sired by Pittsfield, 357. 
 Joe Keller's farm, 25. 
 
 K 
 
 Konkapot, the chief, 18, 63. 
 Kinderhook, 12, 51, 100, 210. 
 Kellington Peak, 5. 
 King's District, N.Y., 207, 209. 
 Keiler, Joseph, 244. 
 Kerr, Col., in the British army, 252. 
 Kingsley, Elisha, 260. 
 
 Keyzer, Fort, ambuscade of Col. Brown at 
 313. 
 
 L. 
 
 Lakes of Pittsfield, 23. 
 
 Lulu Ope and Cascade, 29, 114. 
 
 Lilly Bowl, 27. 
 
 Lilly Brook, and Ope, 30. 
 
 Life Insurance Co., Berkshire, 38. 
 
 Leni Lenape, degrading vassalage of, 50. 
 
 Lanesborough, 14, 22, 89, 98, 114, 129, 132, 
 
 248, 281, 427, 428, 429, 431, 432. 
 Litchfield, Conn., 178, 196. 
 League and covenant, 190, 191. 
 Lots, house, home, or settling, described, 69. 
 Lenox, 23, 280, 400, 402, 427, 428, 429. 
 Lakes of Berkshire, 14. 
 Lee, 14. 
 
 Lenox Furnace, 14. 
 Lanesborough Pond, 24. 
 Laborers, transient, 138. 
 Langworthy, Andrew, 457, 459. 
 Larnard, Simon, 412, 435, 503. 
 Livingston Manor, 18. 
 Livingston, Philip, 68, 85, 123. 
 Lamb, Charles, 459, 460. 
 Little, Woodbridge, 173, 186, 198, 207, 246, 
 
 247, 250, 251, 295, 317, 319, 371, 394, 412, 
 
 418, 427, 429, 435, 453, 459, 460, 497. 
 Larnard, Darius, 504. 
 Lawyers, 339, 340, 344. 
 Loudon (now Otis), 361. 
 Lexington, Battle of, 206. 
 Lee, Dr. Jonathan, 207, 497. 
 Livingston, James, 230, 232, 233, 237, 238, 239, 
 
 258. 
 
 Leslie, Gen., in the British army, 252. 
 Lee, Moses, 394. 
 Lee, Mother Ann, 453. 
 
 M. 
 
 Meeting-house, first action concerning, 94; 
 difficulties arise, 94, 151; plan of, 153; de- 
 scription of, 157; congregation in, 157; 
 scenes in, 158, 335; destruction of, 445.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 511 
 
 Meeting-house of 1790, action preliminary 
 to, 418, 435; no voluntary contributions 
 for, 436 ; town debts appropriated for, 435, 
 437 ; estimate of cost, 435 ; location of, de- 
 termined upon, 439, 441; Joel Dickinson 
 master builder, 441; difference regarding 
 the mode of arranging the seats, 442; first 
 bell, 444; pride of the people In, 446. 
 
 Manufactures of Berkshire, 14. 
 
 Manufactures of Pittsfield, 33, 34. 
 
 Marble, 14. 
 
 Melville Lake, 27. 
 
 Melville, Thomas and Kobert, 27. 
 
 Morewood, J. R., 27. 
 
 Mahtookamin, 27, 64, 65. 
 
 Mahecanak, Lake, 31. 
 
 Maplewood Young Ladies' Institute, 6, 37. 
 
 Mohegans, 43. 
 
 Merrick, Capt. Joseph, 44. 
 
 Meadows, Canoe, 44. 
 
 Mahicanituck, name of the Hudson, 49. 
 
 Montague, Arnold, 50. 
 
 Menanokc, 64. 
 
 Moseley, David, 89. 
 
 Malt, 140. 
 
 Massachusetts, Fort, 80, 82, 84, 114. 
 
 Marsh, Perez, 139. 
 
 Mott, Capt. Edward, 214. 
 
 Morse, Isaac, 316. 
 
 Morey, Jonathan, 317. 
 
 Middletown, Conn., 161. 
 
 Moseley, Josiah, 435. 
 
 Miller.'william, 504. 
 
 Militia, 20.3, 279, 289; of Berkshire at Ben- 
 nington, 297, 303; of Pittsfield, Revolution- 
 ary service of, 315. 
 
 Massachusetts, condition of affairs in, in 1786, 
 % 391. 
 
 Minute-men, 204; uniform of, 205. 
 
 March on Lexington, alarm, 206, 278. 
 
 Massachusetts, counties of, distinguished by 
 physical peculiarities, 3; western boundary 
 of, 56. 
 
 Middlesex County, 24. 
 
 Moose, 52. 
 
 Mansfield Mountain, 5. 
 
 Maples, 37. 
 
 Mount Washington, 98. 
 
 Miller, Moses, 112. 
 
 Morals, early in Berkshire, 138. 
 
 Misdemeanors and crimes, 138, 340; curious 
 facts concerning, 380. 
 
 Mohawks, attempt to introduce, in Stock- 
 bridge- mission, 51, 101. 
 
 Methodism introduced in Pittsfield, 455; 
 formally established, 456, 464. 
 
 Morgan, Thomas, 163. 
 
 M-rrill, II' wa, 241, 319. 
 
 Morcy, James, 385. 
 
 Merwin, Moses, 459. 
 
 Miner, Israel, 460. 
 
 Minister, salary of, 164. 
 
 Magistracy, provincial, 333, 334, 343, 357. 
 
 Montreal, unsuccessful project of Brown and 
 Allen against, 234. 
 
 Marsh, Dr., of Dalton, 504. 
 
 McKay, Capt., of the Royal Artillery, 248. 
 
 Millard, Abiather, 460. 
 
 May, Rev. Mr., in the army at White Plains, 
 252. 
 
 Mather, Dr., at White Plains, 253. 
 
 Merry, Samuel, 261. 
 
 Mohegan nation, its pristine prosperity, 46, ^ 
 49 ; protected by the English, 47 ; increased 
 in numbers by the New-England wars, 47 ; 
 essentially a New- York tribe, 48 ; occupy 
 the territory now Berkshire, Columbia, and 
 Rensselaer Counties, 48 ; original name, 48 ; 
 origin of the race, 49; its migrations, 49 ; 
 settles on the Hudson, 49; victorious 
 career of, 49; reverse of fortune, 50; re- 
 duced to vassalage, 50; attempt to regain 
 its independence, 50 ; defeated, and driven 
 to the Connecticut Valley, 50 ; its history 
 there, 50 ; exodus in 1628, 51 ; subsequent 
 condition, 51; numbers of, in Berkshire, 
 52; customs of, 52; occupation of Poon- 
 toosuck, 52; vassals of the Iroquois in 
 1754, 101; relations of, to the Iroquois, 
 102; position in J754, 105. 
 
 N. 
 
 Nomenclature, changes in Berkshire geo- 
 graphical, 16; of towns, 131. 
 
 New York, patriotic spirit in the Revolution, 
 210. See New Netherlands. 
 
 New Netherlands, Dutch settlers of, maintain 
 intimate relations with the natives, 20 ; be- 
 comes New York, 51; effect of change 
 upon Indian relations, 51. 
 
 Norman's Kill, 20. 
 
 New Lebanon, 23. 
 
 North woods, 35. 
 
 Narragansetts, slaughter of, at Stockbridge, 
 47. 
 
 New Marlborough, 43, 98. 
 
 Negroes, 157; in the Revolutionary army, 
 250, 316. 
 
 Noble, David, 115, 134, 136, 179, 189, 190, 203, 
 205; interesting letter from, 261; death of, 
 261; 278. 
 
 Noble, James, 189, 223, 224, 227,244, 295, 319, 
 362, 363, 367. 
 
 Noble, Benjamin, 250. 
 
 Noble, Francis, 250. 
 
 Northampton, 53, 54, 64, 95. 
 
 Non-residents, taxation of, 318, 321. 
 
 Norton, Zebulon, 208.
 
 512 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 0. 
 
 Ope, definition of, in topography, 7. 
 
 Officers, civil, deprived of commissions in 
 1776, 347. 
 
 Orthography of aboriginal names, 16. 
 
 Otis, James, 130, 174. 
 
 O'Callaghan, Dr. E. B., 16, 19, 54. 
 
 Onota Lake, 25 ; fort at, 113. 
 
 Onota Brook, 28. 
 
 Oceola, manufacturing village, 34. 
 
 Oceola, Mount, 10. 
 
 Owen, killed by Indians at Stockbridge, 103. 
 
 Orondocks, 105. 
 
 Onuhgungoes, 105; exiles from the Connecti- 
 cut Valley, 105. 
 
 P. 
 
 Palfrey, Dr., " History of New England," 
 concerning the physical structure of Berk- 
 shire, 4. 
 
 Perry's Peak, height of, 8. 
 
 Pontoosuck Turnpike, 11. 
 
 Pontoosuc Lake, 23. 
 
 Poph-ne-hon-nuh-woh, 18. 
 
 Promised Land, the, 29. 
 
 Promise, Ope of, 29. 
 
 Pine Mountain and Ope, 30. 
 
 Parker Brook, 30. 
 
 Parker, Linus and John C., 31. 
 
 Pickerel introduced to Pittsfleld waters, 31. 
 
 Pequots, the, 50. 
 
 Pierson, Benjamin, 361. 
 
 Phelps, Elnathan, 163, 453. 
 
 Parker, Mrs. Phinehas, 137. 
 
 Pratt, Sarah, 138. 
 
 Pittsfield Bank, 38. 
 
 Pell, John, 138. 
 
 Pound, first appropriation for, 140. 
 
 Paper-mills, 14. 
 
 Phelps, "William, 163. 
 
 Patterson, Col. John, 204, 404, 409. 
 
 Phelps, Noah, 214. 
 
 Phelps, Samuel, 459. 
 
 Phelps, John, 460. 
 
 Patriotic generosity, splendid instance of, 
 205. 
 
 Prices in 1760, 143. 
 
 Prices in 1786, 410. 
 
 Prices, Revolutionary market, 471. 
 
 Pontoosuc Manufacturing Company, 24, 34. 
 
 Pomeroy's Sons' factories, 34. 
 
 Pittsfield woollen mills, 34. 
 
 Pleasure Park, 35. 
 
 Peck, J. L., manufactories, 34. 
 
 Prout, Timothy, 66. 
 
 Partridge, Oliver, 82, 85, 90, 108, 123, 137, 151, 
 174, 176. 
 
 Pontoosuck Turnpike, 11. 
 
 Partridge Meadow, 13. 
 
 Parsons, Stephen, 110. 
 
 Pepperell, Sir William, 111, 115, 118. 
 
 Phelps, Ezekiel, 112. 
 
 Phelps, Lemuel, 163. 
 
 Porter, Col., 82. 
 
 Plantations under the Province laws, 92. 
 
 Piercey, Sylvanus, daughter of. saved from 
 the Indians, 104. 
 
 Piercey, Mrs., 110. 
 
 Piercey, Sylvanus, 110, 122. 
 
 Pendar, 137. 
 
 Poontoosuck, translation of name, 16; a fa- 
 vorite Indian hunting-ground, 46; Indian 
 occupation of, 52; aspect of, before settle- 
 ment, 77; first partition of township made, 
 87; partition annulled, 90; incorporated 
 as a plantation, 91; first plantation meet- 
 Ing, 93; state of plantation in 1754, 97; 
 evacuated in Indian alarm in 1754, 103, 104 ; 
 subsequent condition of, 107; life at, in 
 1754, 109. 
 
 Prices, Revolutionary, 469. 
 
 Pittsfield, central position of, 10 ; boundaries 
 of, 22; t9wns adjoining, 22; general de- 
 scription of, 22; park, description of, 35; 
 subdivisions of the town, 35 ; streets, 37 ; 
 shade-trees, 37; churches of, 38; shire- 
 town of Berkshire, 38 ; distance from Bos- 
 ton, Albany, and New York, 38; popula- 
 tion, 39; valuation in 1868, 39; number ot 
 polls and dwellings, 39; Indian villages 
 in, 44. 
 
 Pine forests, 75, 77. 
 
 Pequots, 100. 
 
 Putnam, Israel, 116. 
 
 Pitt, William, 132. 
 
 Pauperism and poverty, 137. 
 
 Partition of township of Poontoosuck, 124. 
 
 Proprietors, non-resident, 148. 
 
 Puritanism, 150. 
 
 Pews, 153. 
 
 Peace of 1783, celebration of, 322. 
 
 Parliament, obnoxious acts of, 187. 
 
 Paine, Thomas, 335 ; publication of " Com- 
 mon Sense," 347. 
 
 Phillips, Wendell, 437. 
 
 Phillips, Margaret, 437. 
 
 Pomeroy, Ebenezer, 16. 
 
 Partridge, William, 436. 
 
 Partridge, John, 435. 
 
 Patterson's regiment, 207; at siege of Bos. 
 ton, 241; at the battles of the Delaware, 
 254; in Canada, 260, 278. 
 
 Parsons, Col. Samuel H., 214. 
 
 Prindle, Jonathan, 250. 
 
 Pixley, Capt., 259. 
 
 Powder, scarcity of, in siege of St. John's, 
 236. 
 
 Prisoners of war, 381.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 513 
 
 Poor, the, of Massachusetts in 1786, 392; 
 beneficent legislation in favor of, resisted, 
 392; finally successful, 392; harsh treat- 
 ment of, under the old law, 393. 
 
 Park, Pittslirkl, altitude of, 8; origin of, 440. 
 
 Pomeroy, Col. Seth, 199, 211, 474. 
 
 Peck, Israel, 514. 
 
 Parker, Linus, anecdote of, 249; adventure 
 at Bennington fight, 299. 
 
 Parker, Giles, 313. 
 
 Prince (Hall) ; a negro slave, and Revolu- 
 tionary soldier, 250. 
 
 Parker, Bishop of Eastern Diocese, 462. 
 
 Paine, Judge, 462. 
 
 Petition of Pittsfield, that the courts may 
 not be held after the perversion of the 
 charter in 1774, 194; and remonstrance 
 against the State government of 1775, 343, 
 351. 
 
 Premonition, instance of, 313. 
 
 Q. 
 
 Queensborough, 131. 
 Quit-rents, 58. 
 
 Rathbun, Valentine, builds clothiers' works, 
 
 26 ; 178, 356, 362 ; organizes Baptist church, 
 
 452; 457. 
 
 Rathbun, Benjamin, 459. 
 Russell, Eleazer, 459. 
 Rathbun, Saxton, 457, 459. 
 Rust, Samuel, 406, 414. 
 Root, Franklin, 310. 
 Root, Dr. O.S., 242, 310. 
 Root, Ezekiel, 189, 190, 295. 
 Romans, Bernard, 214. 
 Robbins, Joshua, 244, 317, 442, 497. 
 Rossiter, Col. David, distinguished service 
 
 at Bennington, 295, 500. 
 Robbins, Nathaniel, 503. 
 Root, Eli, 121, 134, 181, 186, 203, 204, 230, 244, 
 
 258, 317, 319, 356, 367, 382, 412, 414, 442, 
 
 453, 503. 
 
 Rust, Daniel, 460. 
 Remington, John, 134, 459. 
 Reservoirs, 14. 
 
 Richmond, town of, 23, 280, 310, 346, 410. 
 Rhode Island, charter government of, 332, 
 
 372. 
 
 Rangers, Rogers, 116. 
 Rattlesnakes, none in Pittsfield, 76. 
 Reptiles, 76. 
 Richmond Lake, 26, 28. 
 Rathbun's Pond, 26. 
 Russell, S. N. & C., woollen mills, 34. 
 Rhinebeck, Indian battle at, 50. 
 33 
 
 Rittenhouse, David, 58. 
 
 Root, Joseph, 72. 
 
 Root, Samuel, 74, 115. 
 
 Root, Amos, 87. 
 
 Rogers, Major Robert, 116. 
 
 Roads, 95, 121,135. 
 
 Regiment, Mass. Eighth, in 1745, 80. 
 
 Religious institutions, 150. 
 
 Religious liberty and equality, 369, 395. 
 
 Rum, 441. 
 
 Root, Oliver, 115, 178, 189, 295, 310, 311, 313; 
 
 defends Fort Paris, 314; 319, 418, 435, 436, 
 
 442, 497, 503. 
 
 S. 
 
 Stoddard, John, 16, 63, 64, 65, 82, 83, 87; 
 
 death of, 87 ; heirs of, 124. 
 Stoddard, Madam Prudence, widow of Col. 
 
 John, and guardian of his children, 85, 91, 
 
 124. 
 
 Stoddard, Solomon, 151. 
 Stratton, Major, 500. 
 Skene, Major, of Skenesborough, 218, 290, 
 
 499, 500. 
 
 Soldiers, supplies for, 279. 
 Soldiers, Revolutionary, after the war, 392, 
 
 393. 
 
 Sabbath, the, 346. 
 Shakers, anecdote of, 314; introduction to 
 
 Berkshire, 453, 455; names of, in Pitts- 
 field, 459. 
 
 Sargent, Rev. John, 17. 
 Stratford, Housatonic River so called, 19. 
 Salmon Creek, 21. 
 Shoon-keek-moon-keek, 24. 
 Sandisfield, 98. 
 St. Luke's Hill, 24. 
 Sylvan Lake, 27. 
 Silver Lake, 26. 
 Shaker Brook, 28, 32 
 Shaker Mountain, 30. 
 Sackett and Seeley Brooks, 31. 
 Stockbridgc Bowl, 31. 
 Stockbridge, 43, 53, 98, 100, 120. 
 Stratton Mountain, 5. 
 South Mountain, 9, 10. 
 Saw and grist mills, 94. 
 Springfield, 53, 55. 
 Springside, 6, 37. 
 Stoddard, Mrs. Israel, 436. 
 Shays, Daniel, 403. 
 
 Settlers, early, Dr. Field's account of, 47"). 
 Sheffield, 43, 55, 58, 98, 133, 428. 
 Schuyler, Gen. Philip, his opinion of the 
 
 Berkshire troops, 228, 280; correspondence 
 
 with Pittsfield committee, 286; conduct. 
 
 towards the Berkshire militia, 289. 
 Services, Revolutionary, recited in Pittsfleld 
 
 petition, 351.
 
 514 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Scenery of Pittsfield, 6. 
 
 Stearnsville woollen mills, 34. 
 
 Stearnsville Village, 34. 
 
 Schofield, Arthur, makes in Pittsfield the 
 
 first broad looms in America, 33. 
 ^ Schaghticoke Indians, 43 ; village of, in Berk- 
 shire, 47; one of the tribe killed, 100; hos- 
 tile in 1754, 105. 
 
 ' Stearns killed by the Indians in 1754, 104. 
 Savings Institution, Berkshire, 38. 
 Small-pox in the army, 259, 261; prejudice 
 
 against inoculation for, 259. 
 Schodac, the capital of the Mohegans, 48. 
 Stockbridge, 53, 133, 368, 428. 
 Smith, Cotton Mather, 94. 
 Stiles, Zebediah, 88, 140, 436. 
 Stiles, Ephraim, 112, 119, 163. 
 Stark, Gen. John, 116, 292. 
 Suffrage, right of, 135. 
 Schools, 135, 136 ; grammar, 464. 
 Schoolhouses, 130 ; grammar, 446. 
 School districts, 136. 
 Stiles, Aaron, 159. 
 Sergeant, Erastus, 191. 
 Solomon, Capt., Stockbridge chief, 296. 
 Sackett, Daniel, 414, 442. 
 Sackett, Jesse, 86, 112, 120, 152. 
 Slavery, 137; desire of Pittsfield to exclude, 
 
 from the State, 366, 368. 
 Sound, remarkable transmission of, 242. 
 Stone Arabia, battle of, 309. 
 Shays Rebellion, 389 et seq. ; its causes, 389; 
 false notions of public grievances among 
 them, 336 ; character of the rebel leaders, 
 396; action of the Berkshire conservatives 
 397. 
 Strong, John, 137, 189, 190, 194, 244, 288 295 
 
 305, 323, 378, 414. 
 
 Sedgwick, Theodore, 190, 409, 432. 
 Stanley, William C., 227. 
 Stanley, Caleb, 244, 384. 
 Smith, Gideon, 249. 
 Simonds, Col., 252, 499. 
 Story, Tristram, 260. 
 Stevens, Joel, 315, 319, 418, 435. 
 Strong, Ozem, 316, 317. 
 Sufferings of the army at Crown Point in 
 
 1776, 231. 
 
 Smith, Samuel, 316. 
 Sackett, Erastus, 358. 
 Stamp Act, the, 176. 
 Smith, Jonathan, 432. 
 Smith, Rev. Lemuel, 455. 
 Stocks, punishment of the, 139. 
 Sessions, Court of General, 139; judges of, 
 
 Strong, Ezra, 378. 
 
 Strong, Warham, 378. 
 
 Safford, Col. Job, 387. 
 
 Seabury, Bishop of Connecticut, 462. 
 
 Stillman, Rev. Dr., 462. 
 Stoddard, Israel, 124, 139, 172, 173, 196 198 
 207, 246, 250, 251, 295, 504. 
 
 T. 
 
 Topographical pursuits, their connection 
 with civilization, prosperity, and patriot- 
 ism, 2. 
 
 Taconic Mountains, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 96 ; deriva- 
 tion of names, 16. 
 Taghkanak. See Taconic. 
 Taconic Brooks, 28. 
 Taconic Factory, 34. 
 Tillotson and Collins (Occola) mills; 34. 
 Town-meetings, customs regarding, 135. 
 Tories, 183, 207, 245 ; animosity against illus- 
 trated, 230; 247, 249, 250; punished with 
 confiscation and banishment, 249, 279; at 
 Bennington Battle, 299, 301, 310, 338. 
 Ticonderoga, capture of, recommended by 
 John Brown, 213; various plans for, 214 
 et seq. ; in 1777, 280; exposed position of, 
 282; evacuation of, 283; speech of Rev. 
 Mr. Allen at, 284; flight from, 285; excite- 
 ment at Pittsfield regarding, 287 ; aid prof- 
 fered in the emergency, 288. 
 Tenor, old and new, in Provincial currency, 
 
 468; specimens of, 489; disused, 470. 
 Trumbull, J. Ilammond, 19. 
 Thatcher, Oxenbridge, 66. 
 Tawasentha, 20; treaty of, 50. 
 Talcott, Josiah, 459. 
 Tryon, Gov., 19. 
 Tomson, Rev. Amos, 162. 
 Trumbull, Col., 283. 
 Taylor, Charles J., opinions concerning the 
 
 name Housatonic, 18. 
 Taylor, Samuel, 86, 93. 
 Tyler, Nathaniel, 110. 
 Town hall, first, 446. 
 Tom Ball, mountain, 9. 
 Trout, 32. 
 Tortoise, the, 32. 
 Talcott, Major, 47. 
 Trees of Berkshire, 75. 
 Tekoa, Mount, 11. 
 Tower Hill, 30. 
 Traditions, aboriginal, 46. 
 Tyringham, 98, 100. 
 Tax-payers, heaviest, in 1791, 437. 
 Taxes, 320, 436. 
 Traets, political, 335. 
 Tender Act, the, 397; described, 401. 
 
 Unkamet Brook, 13. 
 Unkamet, 63.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 515 
 
 Unkamct Street, 91, 423. 
 Unkamet's Road, 95. 
 Unkamet's Crossing, 9, 109. 
 Uncas, ambition of, 50. 
 
 V. 
 
 Van Schaack, Henry, 27, 409, 415 ; sketch of, 
 421, 437, 456, 459. See Dissenters. 
 
 Vermont, 5, 310. 
 
 Village Central, 35. 
 
 Van Sickler's Cotton Factory, 34. 
 
 Wendell Square, 94, 426. 
 
 Wendell's Town, Poontoosuck so called, 92. 
 
 Williams, Col. Israel, 99, 106, 107, 113, 123, 
 124, 19?, 448, 504. 
 
 Williams, Thomas, 190. 
 
 White, Ebenezer, 435. 
 
 Worcester, 190, 193. 
 
 Williams, Oswald, 435. 
 
 White Plains, account of battle at, by Rev. 
 Mr. Allen, 252. 
 
 Whittlesey, E. B., woollen manufactory, 34. 
 
 Wampaumeorse, 100, 101. 
 
 Wanaubaugas, 101. 
 
 Weller, Daniel, 437, 441. 
 
 Wiley, Major, 404. 
 
 Ward, Josiah and Isaac, 436. 
 
 Ward, Jacob, 358. 
 
 Wethersfield, 86, 87, 89. 
 
 Wolves, 140. 
 
 Williams, Col. Ephraim, 108, 124; com- 
 mander of Fort Massachusetts, 82, 83. 
 
 Williams, Dea. William, of Dalton, 504. 
 
 Williams, John Chandler, 409, 414, 435, 437, 
 440, 441,442; sketch of life, 448, 459, 460, 
 464, 501, 503. 
 
 Williams, Mrs. Lucretia, 448. 
 
 Williams, John, 138, 435. 
 
 Williams, Capt. Ephraim, of Connecticut, 83. 
 
 Williams, Sarah, 110. 
 
 Williams, Ephraim, of Stockbridge, 123, 124. 
 
 Williams, Rev. William, of Weston, 123. 
 
 Williams, Solomon, 123, 124. 
 
 Williams, William, Col., 78, 81, 91, 106, 107, 
 115, 122, 130, 134, 139, 153, 163, 174, 176, 
 183, 186, 196, 198, 209, 251, 279, 287, 360, 
 363; delegate to constitutional convention 
 of 1779, 365, 369, 381; death of, and monu- 
 ment, 439. 
 
 Williams, Widow Hannah, 437. 
 
 Williamscs, the, 16. 
 
 Williams, William, jun., 118. 
 
 Williams, Elijah, 131. 
 
 Walker, William, 360, 301, 405, 432. 
 
 Whiting, John, 281. 
 
 Whiting, William, 191, 348, 361, 387, 429. 
 
 Western Railroad, elevation of track at 
 summit 9; grades, 11; Capt. Marryatt on 
 its conception, 11. 
 
 Wealth, sources of, in Berkshire, 15. 
 
 Wadhams, Caleb, 136, 460. 
 
 Wadhams, John, 163. 
 
 Winterberge, 15, 16. 
 
 Williamstown, 98, 102. 
 
 Watson, Elkanah, 27. 
 
 Western land-fever, 60. 
 
 Wawarnpequeenont, 110. 
 
 Wanonpe, 110. 
 
 Wendell, Jacob, 16, 61; purchases Poontoo- 
 suck, 66 ; deeds to Philip Livingston, 68 ; 
 objects to partition of 1752, 90; partition 
 made in 1759, 124; 126, 149. 
 
 Wendell, Oliver, 62; sketch of, 199; 409, 437. 
 
 Wendell, Catharine, 437. 
 
 Wendell, John Mico, 504. 
 
 Westenhook or Wcstenhok, 19, 20, 21, 58. 
 
 Washington, town of, 23. 
 
 Willard, Ellas, 86, 93, 311. 
 
 Wampenum, 65. 
 
 Wampenum Brook and Pond, 30. 
 
 Water-power of Pittsflcld, 32, 33. 
 
 Water-works of Pittsflcld, 36. 
 
 Wahconah manufacturing village, 34; Wah- 
 conah Reservoir, 14. 
 
 Wappingers, the, 50. 
 
 West Stockbridge, 60, 131. 
 
 Williams College, 29, 124. 
 
 Whigs of the Revolution, 169, 172, 175, 183, 
 187, 199, 246. 
 
 Warren, Dr. Joseph, 175. 
 
 Wright, Abijah, 460. 
 
 Wright, Dr., of New Marlborough, 253. 
 
 Wright, Joseph, 321. 
 
 Woodbridge, Joseph, 358. 
 
 Woodbridge, Timothy, 65, 100, 101, 105, 131, 
 139. 
 
 Worthington, Col. John, 102, 103, 106, 124. 
 
 Woodbridge, Abigail, 65. 
 
 White, Jonathan, 65. 
 
 Wells, Samuel, 66. 
 
 Wright, Josiah, 86, 93, 95, 120, 121, 134, 139, 
 162, 179, 183, 189, 190, 194, 203, 204, 206, 
 209, 244, 287, 295, 356, 362, 382, 384, 456. 
 
 Weller, Daniel, 189. 
 
 Women, active patriotism of, 206. 
 
 Welch, Walter, 460. 
 
 Welph, Joseph, 206. 
 
 Warner, Col. Seth, 218. 
 
 Warner, Nathan, 315. 
 
 Wright, John, 316. 
 
 Wheeler, Daniel, 394. 
 
 Wright, William, 119. 
 
 Ward, Capt. Edward, 116. 
 
 Whitehall, 218. 
 
 Wood, Moses, 468. 
 
 Womanly spirit, anecdote of, 418. 
 
 Weed, John, 460. 
 
 z. 
 
 Zion, Mount, 30.
 
 ALPHABETICAL LIST 
 
 SOLDIERS NAMED IN THE RECORD OF PITTSFIELD REVOLU- 
 TIONARY SERVICE (APPENDIX D). 
 
 A. 
 
 Bagg, David 
 
 Chesman, Calvin 
 
 Au^in, Benjamin 
 Allen, Rufus 
 Ames, Elijah 
 Ashley, David 
 Austin, Ebenezer 
 Adams, Aaron 
 Andrews, Colman 
 
 Belding, Levi 
 Bagg, Daniel 
 Brattle, William 
 Bates, Daniel 
 Barber, James 
 Babbit, John 
 Burt, Thomas 
 Baker, Solomon 
 
 Cady, Warren 
 Cady, Phinehas 
 Cole, Phinehas 
 Coggswell, Daniel 
 Cotterel, Nicholas 
 Cook, Timothy 
 Concert, George 
 Clark, Bildad 
 
 Austin, Shuhael 
 Allen, Joseph 
 Allen, Rev. Thomas 
 
 Barber, Matthew 
 Bonney, Samuel 
 Bush, David 
 
 Chapin, Joseph 
 Crofoot, Stephen 
 Colton, Reuben 
 
 Albro, Jabez 
 
 Briton, Jonathan 
 
 Chapel, Joshua 
 
 
 Baker, James 
 
 Cotterel, Nicholas 
 
 B. 
 
 Bond, Bartholomew 
 
 Colton, Joseph 
 
 Berry, Hugh 
 Butler, Jerry 
 
 Belding, Oliver 
 Baker, William 
 Bond, William 
 
 Coggswell, Luther 
 Candce, Timothy 
 Collins, William 
 
 Bill, Jonathan 
 Beckwith, David 
 Belding, Charles 
 
 Badcock, Daniel 
 Baker, Lyman 
 Blinn, Joel 
 
 Chappel, Joshua 
 Carter, Elisha 
 Crofoot, Elijah 
 
 Butler, George 
 Blakesley, Jonathan 
 
 Brunt [Burt?], John 
 Branch, John 
 
 Cadwell, Timothy 
 Chamberlain, Benjamin 
 
 Brattle, James 
 Burt, Oliver 
 Bateman, Jonathan 
 
 c. 
 
 Cutond, Cemyour [Seymour 
 
 Cutting or Cotton ?] 
 Chaucer, Jabez ? 
 
 Bliss, Solomon 
 
 Collins, William 
 
 Crane, Elijah 
 
 Barber, William 
 
 Chapin, Amaziah 
 
 Chapman, Ebenezer 
 
 Barber, Daniel 
 
 Coggswell, Reuben 
 
 Cook, \Villiam * 
 
 Bagg, Martin 
 Branch, Abel 
 
 Currier, B. 
 Cady, William 
 
 Cobh, Eliphalet 
 
 Baker, Enoch 
 
 Corbin, John 
 
 D. 
 
 Burt, Daniel 
 
 Cross, Samuel 
 
 
 Brown, Daniel 
 
 Cotton, Joseph 
 
 Dago, Peter 
 
 Booth, Ambrose 
 
 Chalmers, Jabez 
 
 Dickinson, Nathaniel 
 
 Backus, Lebbeus 
 
 Childs, Timothy 
 
 Doming, Benjamin 
 
 Bigelow, Joshua 
 
 Cady, John 
 
 Dickinson, Joel 
 
 Branch, Asa 
 
 Colson, Joseph [Colton ?] 
 
 Davis, Nathaniel 
 
 Bond, William 
 
 Coggswell, Samuel 
 
 Drake, Aaron 
 
 Babcock, Simeon 
 
 Coggswell, Isaac 
 
 Demint', John 
 
 Belknap, Francis 
 
 Cadwell, Timothy 
 
 DeWoif, James 
 
 Blauchard, Jeremiah 
 
 Colt, James D. 
 
 Davis, Thomas 
 
 Bigsbee, Aaron 
 
 Coggswell, Calvin 
 
 Dibble, Truman 
 
 Barber, Simeon 
 
 Churchill, John 
 
 Dunham, Calvin 
 
 Barber, Jacob 
 
 Coggswell, Levi 
 
 Delano, Aaron 
 
 Burt, Thomas 
 
 Cummington, John 
 
 Delano, Amos 
 
 Brown, John 
 
 Case, Ezekiel 
 
 Dickinson, Israel 
 
 Breweter, Oliver 
 
 Clark, David 
 
 Demiug, Noadiah 
 
 Bell, Henry 
 
 Carlton, Peleg 
 
 Drake, William 
 
 Bond, Beth 
 
 Carlton, Reuben 
 
 Davis, Samuel 
 
 Bartlett, Moses 
 
 Cady, John 
 
 Dimock, Shubael 
 
 Baxter, Richard 
 
 Gaboon, James 
 
 Done, Joshua [Doane] 
 
 Baker, Timothy 
 
 Coe, Calvin 
 
 Dart, Nathan 
 
 Beard, William 
 
 Cadwell, Dan 
 
 Dennis, John 
 
 Barber, Phinehas 
 
 Chamberlain, Joseph 
 
 Dimock, Benjamin 
 
 Bagg, Phinehas 
 
 Coggswell, Benjamin 
 
 Dean, Joel 
 
 516
 
 INDEX. 
 
 517 
 
 E. 
 
 Harrison, Joseph 
 
 Loomis, Daniel 
 
 Egleston, Azariah 
 
 Hopkins, Nehemiah 
 Hubbard, Paul 
 
 Luddington, Lemuel 
 
 Elton, James 
 
 Hubbard, Peter 
 
 M. 
 
 Eaeton, Joseph 
 Easton, Calvin 
 Ellison, James 
 Ensign, Jacob 
 Eldridge, Joseph 
 Easton, Col. James 
 Ensign, Elijah 
 Easton, James, jun. 
 Elton, Joseph 
 
 Hutchinson, Paul 
 Hurlbert, Zaccheus 
 Hewett, Zadoc 
 Hatch, William 
 Hardy, Joseph 
 Hyde, Charles 
 Hall, Warren 
 Harrison, Asahel 
 Hinman, Adoniram 
 
 Mitchell, Hugh 
 Miller, Aaron 
 Miller, Thomas 
 Miller, Timothy 
 Merrill, Daniel 
 Moseley, Josiah 
 Milbourn, Reuben 
 Millard, Abiather 
 Merrill, Hosea 
 
 
 Hall, Joseph 
 
 Messenger, Peter 
 
 
 
 Hill, 
 
 
 Francis, John 
 
 Hewley, Jonathan 
 
 Marvin, Enoch 
 
 Foot, Isaac, or Israel 
 
 Hubbard, Jose 
 
 Miller, Oliver 
 
 Francis, William 
 
 Hubbard, Daniel 
 
 Morse, I>aac 
 
 Ford, John 
 Foot, Philip 
 Fairfleld, John 
 Fuller, Jonathan 
 
 Hale, Nathaniel 
 Haskins, Enoch 
 Hazzard, Jeffrey 
 Hinman, Abijah 
 
 Morey, Jonathan 
 Merry, Ebenezer 
 Macomber, Seth 
 Miller, William 
 
 Francis, Robert 
 Fairfield, Joseph 
 
 Hale, Ashbel 
 Hamblin, Ichabod 
 
 Mace, Warren 
 Merry, John 
 
 Fairfield, Nathaniel 
 
 
 Moore, Joseph 
 
 Frost, Abraham 
 
 I. 
 
 Martin, Solomon 
 
 Foot, Aaron 
 
 
 Miller, Lev! 
 
 Fowler, Stephen 
 Ford, William 
 
 Isaacs, Isaac 
 Ingersoll, David 
 Ingraham, Nathan 
 
 Messenger, Gideon 
 Merrill, Ezekiel 
 Milliken, William 
 
 G. 
 
 
 Miller, Jeremiah 
 
 Gilbert, Phinehas 
 Gardner, John 
 Goodrich, Caleb 
 Goodrich, Moses 
 Goodree, Samuel 
 Goodrich, Elizur, or Eleazur 
 Goodrich, Gideon, jun. 
 
 . 
 
 Janes, William 
 Jones, Daniel 
 Jones, Herman 
 Johnson, David 
 Jenks, Thomas 
 Jones, 
 
 McKnight. Thomas 
 Moore. John 
 McKnight, William 
 Merrill, Ezekiel 
 Merry, Samuel 
 McGee, Patrick 
 Moore, Anoblos 
 
 Gleason, Jacob 
 
 Janes, Elijah 
 
 
 Gates? Joshua 
 
 Jacobs, Jonah 
 
 N. 
 
 Goodrich, Charles 
 
 Judd, Benjamin 
 
 Noble, James 
 
 Gunn, Gideon 
 
 Judd, Uriah 
 
 Narramore, Joshua 
 
 Gunn, Reuben 
 Goff, Jacob 
 
 Jacobs, Josiah 
 Jordon, John 
 
 Noble. Aaron 
 Noble, Moses 
 
 Guilford, Paul 
 
 
 Noble, John 
 
 Goodrich, Josiah 
 
 K. 
 
 Noble, Mark 
 
 Goodrich, Jedidiah 
 
 
 Newel, Seth 
 
 Goodrich, Zcnas 
 Gallop, Benjamin 
 Gates, Thomas 
 Gaston, David 
 
 Keller, Thomas 
 Kipsr, John 
 Killiard, William 
 Kellosrs. Thomas 
 
 Netting, James 
 Noble, Jonathan 
 Northrup, Abram 
 Noble, Luke 
 
 Gorcester, Xathaniel 
 
 Kcilcr, Ezra 
 
 North, John 
 
 Goodrich, Xathaniel 
 Gleason, Benoni 
 (i raves. Jonathan 
 
 Keller, Ebenezer 
 Keiler, Benjamin 
 Keiler, Eleazer 
 
 Noble, David 
 Narramore, Asa 
 
 Goodrich, Gilbert 
 
 Klngsbnry, Martin 
 
 0. 
 
 Gofl', David [Luff] 
 
 KeJlcr, Daniel 
 
 
 
 
 Oshorn, Joel 
 
 H. 
 
 L- 
 
 Osborne. Daniel 
 
 
 
 Osborn, Richard 
 
 nostettcr. William 
 
 Little. Willi.im 
 
 Oalds, Daniel 
 
 Heiiman, Enos 
 
 Lampliier, Elijah 
 
 Oliver, Anthony 
 
 Hobby. Jonathan 
 
 Lamson. William 
 
 
 Hereford, John 
 
 Lothrop, Solomon 
 
 p. 
 
 Hudson. Thomas 
 
 Ludd, Joel 
 
 
 Hill, AM 
 
 Lewis, John 
 
 Pynchon, Benjamin 
 
 Hiiiman, William 
 
 Little. Woodbridge 
 
 Parmele. Rufus 
 
 llubbard, James 
 
 Lee, Jonathan 
 
 Plumer, Francis 
 
 Harrison, Joseph 
 
 Lewis, James 
 
 Phelps, Lemuel 
 
 Hutchinson, Ebenezer 
 
 Lattimcr. Jonathan 
 
 Price, Joseph 
 
 Ilickocks, Aaron 
 
 Loomis, Jonathan 
 
 Phelps, John 
 
 Hill, Fred 
 
 Lusk. Si lah 
 
 Poppoomick, Ebenezer 
 
 Hiscock, Ichabod 
 
 LamliTs. Asahel 
 
 Phillips. Nathan 
 
 Hall, Ambrose [Hull] 
 
 Lanir. William 
 
 Phelps, Stephen 
 
 Hall. Prince 
 
 Lambden. Abram 
 
 Phelps, Israel 
 
 Hathaway, Abner 
 liewett, Jonathan 
 
 Lewis, Thomas 
 Lewis, Philip 
 
 Phelps, Joseph 
 Phelps, Elnathan
 
 518 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Phelps, William 
 Peck, Israel 
 Peck, James 
 Pitrker, Timothy 
 Prindle, Samuel 
 Parker, Linus 
 Porter, Nathaniel 
 Parks, Thomas 
 Parks, Abijah 
 Phelps, Ebenezer 
 Pearson [Pierson], Abel 
 Parks, Nathan 
 Porter, Joseph 
 Phelps, Benjamin 
 
 B. 
 
 Root, Oliver 
 Root, Eli 
 Robbins, Jason 
 Robbins, Joshua 
 Root, Ezekiel 
 Rathbun, Valentine 
 Rathbun, Reuben 
 Remington, John 
 Rathbun, James 
 Root, Amos, jun. 
 Root, Roswald 
 Root, John 
 Root, Azariah 
 Rust, Daniel 
 Rowley, Lemuel 
 Reed, Isaac 
 Robbins, Nathaniel 
 Rathbun, Jacob 
 Rathbun, Daniel 
 Root, Amos 
 Raymont, William 
 Rossiter, Richard 
 Reed, Joseph 
 Reed, Isaac 
 Reed, James 
 Root, Elijah 
 Root, Zenas 
 
 S. 
 
 Sprague, Calvin 
 Sharp, Joseph 
 Stearns, Ezra 
 Sackett, Solomon 
 Smith, Henry 
 Sherman, Palmer 
 Smith, Amos 
 Stephens, Benjamin 
 Stuart, Charles 
 Stiles, Moses 
 Spear, James 
 Stoddard, Ebenezer 
 Stevens, Joel 
 Stoddard, Israel 
 Stiles, Ephraim 
 Stiles, Aaron 
 
 Stiles, Asahel 
 
 Tuhel, Joseph 
 
 Sullard, Peter 
 
 Taggard, Nathan 
 
 Sackett, Erastus 
 
 Titus, Negro 
 
 Strong, King 
 
 
 Stanley, Caleb 
 
 
 Stearns, John 
 
 
 
 Stearns, Timothy 
 
 Vernam, Willard 
 
 Stone, Ethan 
 
 
 S. 
 
 W. 
 
 Spear, James 
 
 Wright, Titus 
 
 Spencer, Samuel 
 
 Welch, Amos 
 
 Stoddard, Jonathan 
 
 Walker, Walter 
 
 Strong, Warham 
 
 Wheelwright, John 
 
 Stanley, Frederic 
 
 Weller, William 
 
 Smith Ezekiel 
 
 West, Stephen 
 
 Strong, Ozem 
 
 Woodward, Rufus 
 
 Stiles, Silas 
 
 Williams, Ebenezer 
 
 Stanley, Wm. C. 
 
 Wheedon, Ebenezer 
 
 Smith, Samuel 
 
 Wright, Jehiel 
 
 Somers, Ezekiel 
 
 Wheaton, Samuel 
 
 Stanley, Caleb 
 
 Wright, John 
 
 Strong, John 
 
 Wright, Jacob 
 
 Stiles, Zebediah 
 
 Ward, Josiah 
 
 Stiles, Asahel 
 
 Warren, Jason 
 
 Stoddard, Joseph 
 
 Willard, Matthew 
 
 Scott, William 
 
 Willard, Elias 
 
 Scott, Thomas 
 
 Waterman, Adoniram 
 
 Sears, David 
 
 Wright, Ozias 
 
 Spofford, Andrew 
 
 Wait, John 
 
 Stiles, Josiah 
 
 Williamson. Othniel 
 
 Silver, Asa 
 
 Wiley, David 
 
 Simonds, Joshua 
 
 Willard, Abiathcr 
 
 Snow, Levi 
 
 Willard, Samuel 
 
 Stearns, Jehiel 
 
 Woodward, Asa 
 
 Straton, Samuel 
 
 Wright, Jonathan 
 
 Stiles, Moses 
 
 Warreu, Jason 
 
 Somers, Ezekiel 
 
 Woodruff, Arnos 
 
 Stoddard, Philon 
 
 Wollison, Shubael 
 
 
 Wolcott, Hezekiah 
 
 T. 
 
 Walker, Joel 
 
 
 Wadhams, Caleb 
 
 Tupping, Paul [Tupper] 
 
 Wright, Edmund 
 
 Tubs, Dan 
 
 Welch, Joseph 
 
 Tracy, Nehemiah 
 
 Wright, Matthew 
 
 Tupper, Denam 
 Talcott, Josiah 
 
 Williams, William 
 Warner, David 
 
 Taylor, David 
 
 Wright, Josiah 
 
 Tomblin, Moses 
 
 Wright, Peter 
 
 Taylor, Henry 
 
 Wood, John 
 
 Treet, John 
 
 Williams, Oswald 
 
 Taylor, James 
 
 Wright, Ebenezer 
 
 Taylor, Thomas 
 
 Welch, Walter 
 
 Thorpe, John 
 
 Welch, Uriah 
 
 Tupper, John 
 
 Ward, Jacob 
 
 Tupper, Uriel 
 
 White, John 
 
 Tupper, Thomas 
 
 Weller, Daniel 
 
 Tupper Darius 
 
 Weston, Jonathan 
 
 Tupper, Simeon 
 
 Wells, David 
 
 Tyler, Henry 
 
 Welch, Nathaniel 
 
 Taylor, Jonathan 
 Tobie, Nathaniel 
 
 Welch, Roger 
 Wright, Josiah, jun. 
 
 Must not be Loaned 
 
 <m
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 
 INT. DEC 11 1988 
 
 FOUR V 
 NON-RE 
 
 P 
 
 to 
 
 URL 
 
 Form L9 
 
 
 
 I71 
 
 972 
 
 RC 
 
 
 ' 
 
 ^ 
 
 y$> 
 
 
 GEij 

 
 F 
 
 7^ 
 
 P6S6 
 v.l 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 AA 001 177447 8