r^ 
 
 ? S'c 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 AND 
 
 PROCEEDINGS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PocuMTUCK Valley 
 Memorial Association. 
 
 1890-1898. 
 
 VOL. III. 
 DEERFIELD, MASS., U. S. A. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 1901. 
 
HISTORY 
 
 AND 
 
 PROCEEDINGS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PocuMTucK Valley 
 
 •1 
 
 Memorial Association. 
 
 1890-1898. 
 
 VOL. III. 
 
 DEERFIELD, MASS., U. S. A. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 1901. 
 
r 
 
 REPORT. 
 
 Vol. III. of our History and Proceedings is now laid before you. It 
 covers a period of nine years — 1890-1898. Compelled by circum- 
 stances, this volume contains about forty pages more than either 
 Vols. I. or II. It has been edited by the Chairman of the Committee 
 of Publication, and he is responsible for all its shortcomings. The edi- 
 tion is limited to 300 copies. 
 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 
 Deerfield, February, 1901. 
 
 ELEOTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY 
 T. MOREY & SON, QREENFIELD, MASS. 
 
 / 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. Annual Meeting, 1890, i_i2 
 
 Autobiography and Journal, Goodhue — Notes on Canada, 
 
 Baker — Address, Buckingham. 
 
 II. Field Meeting, 1890, Shelburne, 13-42 
 
 Address of Welcome, Mansfield — Response, Sheldon — • 
 
 Reminiscences, Bardwell — List of Revolutionary Soldiers 
 
 — Severance Family, Severance — Martin Severance, 
 
 Sheldon — Poem, Tupper — History of Franklin Academy, 
 
 Pratt. 
 
 III. Annual Meeting, 1891, 43-88 
 Memoir of Hon. Joseph White, Crawford — Gen. James S. 
 
 Whitney, Lamb — Poem, Bartlett — Thankful Stebbins, 
 Baker — Bibliographical Notes of Deerfield, Eels. 
 
 IV. Field Meeting, 1891, Bernardston, 89-115 
 Address of Welcome, Barber — Response, Lamb — Ode, 
 
 Lincoln — Settlement of Bernardston, Kellogg — Poem, 
 Canning — Addresses, Pierce, Parsons. 
 V. Annual Meeting, 1892, 1 16-129 
 
 Old Time Traffic and Travel on the Connecticut, Sheldon. 
 VL Field Meeting, 1892, Charlemont, 130-154 
 
 Address of Welcome, Whiting — Response, Lamb — Poem, 
 Hayden — Historic Oak, Whiting — Some Reminiscences 
 of Charlemont History, Hawks — Address, Warner. 
 VII. Annual Meeting, 1893, 155-174 
 
 Publication of History of Deerfield — The Source of the 
 Free School, Parsons — Sweet Vale of Pocumtuck, Smith. 
 VIII. Field Meeting, 1893, Gill, 175-213 
 
 Address of Welcome, Pratt — Response, Thompson — His- 
 torical Address, Walker — Addresses, Finch, Sheldon — 
 Historical Paper, Baker — Addresses, Lyman, Wolcott, 
 Atkins, Stoughton, Chapin, Goodrich. 
 IX. Annual Meeting, 1894, 214-248 
 
 The Hearthstone, Yale — Old Deerfield Cannon, Sheldon — 
 Biographical Sketch of Epaphras Hoyt, Eels. 
 
 (iii) 
 
iv Contents. 
 
 X. Field Meeting, 1894, Greenfield, 249-272 
 
 Granite Watering Trough — Dedicatory Address, Sheldon 
 — Old Meetinghouse, Corss — Historical Address, Thomp- 
 son. 
 XI. Annual Meeting, 1895, 273-295 
 
 Poem, Hawks — Connecticut River, Miller — Poem, Bartlett 
 — Some Phases of our New England Institutions, Fes- 
 senden. 
 XII. Field Meeting, 1895, Montague, 296-332 
 
 Address of Welcome, Richardson — Response, Sheldon — 
 Historical Address, Clapp — Poem, Rockwell — Williams 
 Bible, Baker. 
 XIII. Annual Meeting, 1896, 333-362 
 
 A York Family, Baker — Poem, Eels — Public Spirit, Atkins 
 — A New England Village, Whiting. 
 XIV. Field Meeting, 1896, Fort Dummer, 363-396 
 
 Plan of Fort Dummer — Address of Welcome, Holton — 
 Response, Sheldon — Historical Address, Walker — Poem, 
 Smith — Fort Sartwell, Reed — Addresses, Lord, Fuller. 
 XV. Annual Meeting, 1897, 397-433 
 
 Poem, Canning — Dr. Slade and the Old Indian House 
 Door, Finch — Sanguinaria, Allen — Biographical Sketch 
 of John Russell, Russell — The New England Confed- 
 eracy of 1643, Smith — Maj. John Burke, Kellogg. 
 XVI. Field Meeting, 1897, Northfield, 434-467 
 
 Address of Welcome, Scofield — Response, Sheldon — The 
 Old Oak, Callender — Report on Memorial Stones, Wood 
 — Poem, Eels — Historical Address, Piper — Addresses, 
 Mead, Parsons, Wheeler. 
 
 XVII. Annual Meeting, 1898, 468-501 
 Presentation Addresses, Thompson — Ode, Saxton — 'Tis 
 
 Sixty Years Since, Sheldon — First Parish of Sunderland, 
 Smith. 
 
 XVIII. Field Meeting, 1898, Colrain, 502-547 
 Report of Committee on Monuments, Howard — Address of 
 
 Welcome, Griswold — Response, Sheldon, Thompson — 
 
 Colrain's Early Days, McClellan — The American Citizen 
 
 Soldier Old and New, Parsons — Address, Lawrence. 
 
 XIX. List of Officers and Members. 549 
 
 XX. Index, 553 
 
52 Annual Meeting — 1891. 
 
 GEN. JAMES S. WHITNEY. 
 
 BY SAMUEL O. LAMB, ESQ. 
 
 James S. Whitney was, for many years, one of the most active, 
 enterprising, energetic and successful business men, and one of the 
 most prominent, influential and highly respected citizens of Frank- 
 lin county. He was also called, from time to time, to high posi- 
 tions in his party, and in the State and National governments, 
 which widely extended knowledge of his name and reputation 
 through his own State and the country. It is therefore eminently 
 proper that there should be some memorial of him in the proceed- 
 ings of this Association in which he ever felt a warm interest, and 
 of which he was a life member. 
 
 I do not propose, on this occasion, to'attempt to give a full and 
 complete history of the life and services of Gen. Whitney. The 
 time allotted to me in the exercises of this evening will permit only 
 a brief sketch and a few reminiscences of his active, varied, inter- 
 esting and honorable private and public career. 
 
 My acquaintance with Gen. Whitney began in 1 844, when I was 
 a student in the law office of the late Hon. Whiting Griswold in 
 Greenfield. It became more intimate after I assumed, in 1845, 
 the editorial charge of the Democratic county paper, of which he 
 was a generous supporter, and soon grew into a friendship whose 
 ties remained unbroken till the day of his death. Our respective 
 views of duty led us on different lines in the presidential election 
 of i860, but that temporary divergence of opinion on a political 
 question never interfered with our friendly personal relations. 
 We met for the last time on this side of the grave only a few days 
 before his sudden departure, and the impression of his hearty grasp, 
 his cordial greeting and kind words is still clear and bright on the 
 page of memory. 
 
 James S. Whitney was born in that part of Deerfield then called 
 "Bloody Brook," now South Deerfield, May 19, 181 1. He was a 
 son of Stephen Whitney, Esq., formerly of Nelson, N. H., a promi- 
 nent merchant at Bloody Brook, and a man highly respected and 
 esteemed in the community in which he lived. He was the repre- 
 sentative from Deerfield in the General Court in the years 1834 
 and 1835. In 1834, he was Monitor of the first division of the 
 House and a member of the Committee on Accounts. He was 
 
The Source of the Free School. 163 
 
 Four years after the landing Governor Bradford speaks of the 
 school as about to supersede the family teaching. And from this 
 time forward education became a charge of the government, first 
 the local as we find it in the town records, then general, as it ap- 
 pears in the early statutes. 
 
 The year 1636 found 3,000 or 4,000 emigrants from the mild 
 southern counties of old England dwelling in sixteen towns and 
 hamlets on the sandy shores of Massachusetts Bay. The year has 
 double interest to us because it was that in which the western ex- 
 tending line reached the Connecticut valley and because it opens 
 the volume of the legislative enactment. These people had en- 
 dured untold hardships, had known as yet nothing but scarcity, 
 reaching at times almost to famine, and while the most religious 
 people under heaven they had only been able to provide for wor- 
 ship in the town of Boston by a house built with mud walls and a 
 roof thatched with straw.* Yet these people grasped the educa- 
 tional problem on the highest side. Not beginning with the pri- 
 mary instruction their poverty would permit, they, in their General 
 Court, on the 28th day of the eighth month, agreed to give 
 " ;^400 towards a school or college, ;£200 to be paid the next year, 
 ;;^200 when the work is finished." The 2d of the ninth month 
 the college is ordered to be at Newton, that part of which soon, 
 because of the college, became Cambridge. Harvard College had 
 come into being, and out of the little means of the struggling 
 towns it was grandly supported. Dr. Dwight has said, " It is a 
 question whether a more honorable specimen of public spirit can 
 be found in the history of mankind," The towns throughout the 
 colony gave according to — rather, far beyond — their means, and 
 persons aided it with a wonderful munificence. To give to Har- 
 vard became then the ruling impulse of the Massachusetts will- 
 maker and has remained the Bostonian ideal of public bequest. 
 The dollar of their giving was not the dollar of our day. It was 
 equivalent to several now, and the grant of the colony to the col- 
 lege, equal to fifty cents on each person was a serious tax. The 
 generosity of John Harvard placed the capstone on the monument 
 to the lofty impulse of these people holding an uncertain lodgment 
 on the edge of a continent amid dangers fully realized and with no 
 abundance of means, but determined to face greater privation, if 
 need be, to keep alive inducements to the common culture. There 
 was no concession to easy scholarship in the rules with which the 
 
 * Education in Massachusetts. Address by George B. Emerson, February i6, 1869. 
 
Historical Paper ly C. Alice Baker. 203 
 
 As we ploughed through these great drifts up and down, there 
 was no sound but that of the sand sifting through our wheels, and 
 the sad murmur of the pines. At the foot of a tall black cross, 
 planted in the yellow expanse of the plateau — an oasis in the 
 desert — knelt a group of pilgrims on their way to the mountain 
 chapel of Calvary. 
 
 As we struck into the primeval forest Jean Baptiste began to 
 chatter with the volubility of a Frenchman. " Void la ptopri^td 
 die paiivre Ignace ! " " This is the estate of poor Ignace ! " he 
 cried. " This road the captive made with his own hands." When 
 we came in sight of the house, his excitement was intense. " Marche, 
 done vite ! " " Go on quick ! " he shouted to his horse, and to me, 
 *♦ Voi/d la vieille maison, la maison d' Ignace ! oh, que je V aitne !'^ 
 " There is the old house, Ignace's house ! oh, how I love it ! " And 
 it was " voild " this, and " voild " that, and finally " Voild le bdbd ! " 
 as the little toddling thing met us at the kitchen door — and here 
 we were, under the very roof-tree of the two captives. I shall not 
 attempt to describe my feelings. I was dazed and overwhelmed 
 with memories of the far-off past. Mr. Raizenne's pretty wife and 
 old mother received us without embarrassment, and urged us to 
 prolong our visit. We drank to the memory of the captives, and 
 to the health and prosperity of their descendants, in wine made 
 from vines originally planted by Ignace. We tasted water from 
 his well ; we ate apples from the sole survivor of his orchard. The 
 climax of the afternoon's enjoyment for Jean Baptiste was reached 
 when he presented to us his only son, a chubby boy of nine, named 
 Riseing Raizenne. After taking a photograph of the place, and 
 leaving little Guilhelmine in tears at our departure, we drove back 
 to the village. 
 
 The peace and quiet of the convent were grateful after the ex- 
 citing emotions of the afternoon. We begged Mother des Anges 
 not to condemn us to another solitary meal, and, after some hesi- 
 tation, she kindly allowed us to take our tea with the nuns. 
 Loyalty to our hostess forbids me to dwell on the spiritual and 
 material delights of that repast. 
 
 In New England, the sunset hour is usually marked by an out- 
 burst of noise from the youth of the village — not so at Oka. The 
 whole place shows the sobering, orderly influence of the little 
 Christian community in its midst. We sat on the doorsteps of the 
 convent, talking low with the Sisters. The soft air was redolent 
 "with the odors of heliotrope and mignonette from the garden below 
 
The Hearthstone. 227 
 
 buoyant youths of his own age, and a few books. He had never seen 
 a picture or sculpture of any kind when the suggestions from the 
 head of a blind man to whom he read Swedenborg filled him with 
 dim longings and dreams. It was a long road from this first effort, 
 with a piece of sheet for a canvas and paints from a house painter, 
 to his final fame. An enumeration of his works will tell his story : 
 The equestrian statue of Washington in Union Square, New York 
 city ; statue of Gen. Greene in the capitol in Washington ; Abra- 
 ham Lincoln in New York ; Abraham Lincoln in Brooklyn ; 
 equestrian statue of Gen. Scott in Washington ; statue of Gen. 
 Greene, Washington ; statue of Gen. Carney, New Jersey ; statue 
 of Gen. Stockton, New Jersey ; statue of De Witt Clinton, capitol, 
 Washington. These national and state commissions were many 
 of them given during the late war, or soon after. But before this 
 heroic period Mr. Brown held a foremost place as an artist of 
 peculiarly vigorous American quality, matured by long study in 
 Italy and association in our own country with the scholars, phi- 
 losophers and statesmen of his period. But above all other con- 
 siderations in art Mr. Brown insisted on fidelity to our own type 
 of character, our own time and country, and he did great service 
 in an art commission formed in Washington to promote those ideas. 
 People in Deerfield need not to be reminded of the fame of their 
 townsman, George Fuller, the memorial of whose life by Howells 
 adds peculiar interest to the many honorable records in the annals 
 of this association. He was the son of a farmer environed with 
 these romantic levels in our Deerfield meadows called The Bars. 
 He had the eye and temperament to see in the successive seasons 
 of morning and evening mists figures so transmuted, softened, 
 blended and harmonized by this local enchantment of haze, forever 
 after it became a part of his beauty and fidelity of expression. 
 This was his art in its utmost truth of perception and ideal sensi- 
 tiveness. He knew all schools, romanticism, realism, impression- 
 ism, and whatever new whim creates a "school," and doubtless 
 tried many of them, but always to turn back to Nature's own 
 secret which she revealed to him in his youth in his own environ- 
 ment, on the sacred meadows his feet trod, his heart loved, and 
 his eye knew, with a much finer nerve than can be characterized 
 by a name. But we must add the hearthstone as a factor in his 
 education. It is still to be seen in the old dining-room at The 
 Bars. It was a witty family that gathered around the blaze of that 
 hearth. They were readers and loved music, and George Fuller, 
 
Address ly Francis M. ThoTrvpson. 265 
 
 Time will not permit me to tell you of the growth of the new 
 town, its struggle for existence during the second French and 
 Indian War, and its part in the war for indepehdence. 
 
 At its incorporation Greenfield had only 192 inhabitants, and 
 included what is now Gill. In 1763 the population had increased 
 to 368, and at the commencement of the Revolution there were 
 probably about 500 people within her bounds. 
 
 Greenfield, like other New England towns, considered it to be 
 her first duty to settle a minister, and promptly made choice of 
 Rev. Edward Billings. Meetings were for a season held at his 
 house, — Old Fort Stocking, — and in 1754 the town "voted 
 that the committee for passing men's bills agree with Joseph Sev- 
 erance for drumming the year past on the Sabbath." The com- 
 mittee allowed him ^4 10^., and probably thought this too 
 expensive, for they made an arrangement with James Corss to 
 pay him £2 " for his house to meet in on the Sabbath, and other 
 necessary meetings, he giving the signal to meet." His house 
 stood where the Hovey mansion now is, and his signal was a blast 
 upon a conch shell. In December, 1759, the town "voted to 
 build a meetinghouse this year, 45 feet long and 35 feet wide, upon 
 the spot where the General Court hath prefixt it, and to shingle, 
 rough board and glaze it, and lay the under floor, and make the 
 doors." In 1760, another vote was passed to build, the size hav- 
 ing increased to 40 by 50 feet. The house was erected and 
 closed in between 1760 and 1764, but it had no pews or slips 
 
 until 1773- , , , 
 
 The seating of the meetinghouse in those days was a problem 
 that required the utmost tact and careful management. The 
 jealousies and heart-burnings among neighbors because of the seat 
 they occupied in the synagogue was something to be dreaded. 
 December 4, 1775, the town "voted to seat the meetinghouse by 
 age and estate, each man to model his estate as he sees fit in his 
 own family. The first three in the list shall have their first choice 
 in the pews ; they that choose the Great Pew, or either of the 
 north corner pews, shall have the next on the list put in with 
 them, and so till we get through the house." " Voted that one 
 year's age shall be equal to three pounds in estate." " Voted that 
 those people that do not come to choose their seat at the time 
 appointed, the committee shall seat them." " Voted that males 
 be seated from sixteen years and upwards, and females from four- 
 teen years and upwards." 
 
Some Phases of Our New England Institutions. 285 
 
 The kindly preacher, staunch and true, and steadfast as the rock, 
 Whose certain faith no wavering doubt had any power to shock ; 
 The gentle, sweet and gifted soul who bore the Martha's part 
 By constant toil for those she loved, with all her tender heart, 
 Who was so great in mind and soul that she could only see 
 Greatness in all things but herself, in meek humility. 
 Full many a sturdy yeoman, too, and many a gentle dame, 
 Have to this old society bequeathed a worthy fame, 
 Who live in all our memories and merit all our praise. 
 But cast a shade of sadness on these anniversaiy days. 
 Then let us count our treasures flown, our loss is but their gain, 
 And prize with loving tenderness the dear ones who remain, 
 Trusting that each, as time goes on, as we grow old and gray, 
 Will prize with growing joy and pride the great P. V. M. A. 
 
 SOME PHASES OF OUR NEW ENGLAND 
 INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 BY FRANKLIN G. FESSENDEN. 
 
 To-day as we enjoy ownership of lands in our towns, and carry 
 on our self-government of such great importance, rarely do we 
 think of the difficulties encountered by our ancestors in securing 
 these blessings. We say without fear of contradiction, that we 
 own our lands absolutely and in fee. We come together in town 
 meetings, and, without question as to our right, pass votes con- 
 cerning the welfare and property of each other. It is well for us 
 who inherit the privileges, to call to mind how our forefathers ob- 
 tained them. 
 
 What is the story of our titles to lands .? How did this right of 
 local self-government come into existence } 
 
 First, as to titles of lands. 
 
 It should be borne in mind, that our ancestors looked to the un- 
 written law of England — the common law — for their guidance. 
 A well-settled rule of law was, that the title to all land was held 
 from the crown. 
 
 " The King is the universal lord and original proprietor of all 
 the lands in his kingdom, and no man doth or can possess any part 
 of it, but what has, mediately or immediately, been derived from 
 him. . . ." 
 
 As in England, all the land is held from the crown, so, in the 
 colonies, the title of land was from the crown, either by actual or 
 constructive grant. 
 
406 Annual Meeting — 1897. 
 
 monument stands which was erected to the memory of our fallen heroes, who fell in 
 the late rebellion. 
 
 2. That it shall be kept in a situation where it will be accessible to all who take 
 an interest in the many trials and sufferings of the founders of Pocumptuck, alias 
 Deerfield. 
 
 3. This bill of sale shall be recorded on the book of records of Deerfield, and the 
 bill kept with the deeds to the town of Deerfield. 
 
 4. Whenever a vacancy occurs in this board of trustees, either by resignation or 
 death, the same shall be filled by the remaining trustees, within thirty days after the 
 vacancy occurs ; and the name of said trustee, so chosen, shall be reported to the 
 town clerk, to be entered on the town books. 
 
 At the same meeting of Deerfield citizens already referred to, 
 held February 6, 1868, to take measures for welcoming back to 
 Deerfield the Old Indian House door, the following committee of 
 arrangements was chosen for the purpose, to wit : Rev. Dr. Craw- 
 ford, Rev. G. H. Hosmer, George Sheldon, J. H. Stebbins, Mrs. C. 
 W. Hoyt and Mrs. William Sheldon. 
 
 Under their direction and management a festival was held at the 
 town hall, on the evening of Friday, February 28, 1868, the eve 
 of the anniversary of the sacking of the town, which was a success 
 both socially and financially. The hall was filled with people. The 
 entertainment, both in a material and literary point of view, was 
 rich and abundant. A full account of the event can be found in 
 the Greenfield Gazette and Courier of March 2, 1868, of which the 
 following is a condensed statement : 
 
 Behind the speaker's stand was the venerable old door, exhibiting its honorable 
 scars before the people, as did the Roman heroes of old, with its rude iron knocker 
 and stout iron latch and hinges. It looked as though vvith proper care it could out- 
 live generation upon generations yet to come. Over it was appropriately draped the 
 American flag, and here, too, was the old horse-shoe found over the door when the 
 house was taken down, put there as a preventive against witchcraft. In a small room 
 •was a collection of relics, and a lady and gentleman dressed in full Indian costumes, 
 which had been actually worn by the savages. The fatal bullet which killed Mrs. 
 Sheldon at the attack on the Indian house, was exhibited, and also the three original 
 deeds, which were given when the town of Deerfield was purchased. After refresh- 
 ments had been served, Dr. Crawford made a few remarks, welcoming back the old 
 door to Deerfield, where it would ever henceforth be kept. He then read the bill of 
 sale from Dr. Slade to the board of trustees who were to take charge of the door, 
 and the conditions on which it was purchased. He told why the door went away, 
 and how by its absence, the people found out how much they prized it, and again he 
 welcomed it back, and the people assembled on the occasion. He then introduced 
 the Rev. J. F. Moors of Greenfield, who delivered the historical address. Mr. J. D. 
 Canning of Gill, the peasant Bard, read a poem. 
 
 Dr. Slade the late owner of the door, was then called upon, and commenced his 
 remarks by an amusing parody on the "House that Jack Built," applying it to the old 
 door He had felt that the door had belonged to Deerfield, but if he had not carried 
 it away there would have been no occasion for the happy event of that evening. He 
 told how he had treasured the old relic — the Unk uniting the present with the past 
 
408 Annual Meeting— 1S97. 
 
 SANGUINARIA. 
 
 BY FRANCES S. ALLEN. 
 
 The tender grass of April is pricking through the brown, 
 
 On all the windy meadows that gird the gray old town, 
 
 Where, long ago, the fathers wrought stoutly in the field 
 
 With the plowshare and the pruning-hook, but kept the spear and shield. 
 
 Then, Death lay in the thicket and waited on the crown 
 Of hills to which they looked — to see the wily foe sweep down, 
 But where the savage whirlwind passed, to-day, a little maid 
 Goes wandering down the deep-ridged path, singing and unafraid. 
 
 And all the spreading field which the silent brook creeps round, 
 Deep shrinking in its alders, she fills with happy sound. 
 For, pushing from its folding leaf, the bloodroot lifts its head, 
 In starry companies it crowds the turf beneath her tread. 
 
 It lights the budding coppice, it troops beside the brook. 
 From grassy mound and hollow, she meets its upward look. 
 Low bending, now, to gather one, she pauses in dismay ; 
 Within her hand it seems to bleed its fragile life away. 
 
 And while she holds it, pitying, there comes a piercing cry — 
 Some bird from out the marshes — but she draws a troubled sigh, 
 And her quickened thought goes searching, till it flashes to her mind 
 How the stumbling class in Virgil read a marvel of this kind — 
 
 She listening dreamily to how the cornel thicket bled. 
 And so the good /Eneas knew where Priam's son lay dead, 
 "For I am Polydorus," the voice came from the ground, 
 "Far from the land that bore me, slain by a treacherous wound " — 
 
 "O that was all a story and very long ago, 
 I wonder, X) I wonder why ;;/y flower is bleeding so ! " 
 And swifdy comes the answer : from out its mossy bed. 
 She draws, to meet the light once more — an Indian arrowhead. 
 
 O, white and brave and hardy the flov/er within whose veins 
 The vigorous blood springs upward when the winds awake the plains ! 
 The moss may veil the headstone on the ancient burial-hill — 
 The bloodroot tells its story to children's children still. 
 
Address hj John E. Russell. 411 
 
 The children of John and Phillip remembered their Connecticut 
 relations ; they thought of the land of their mothers, as the Israel- 
 ites in the wilderness thought of the leeks and onions of Egypt 
 and went where they could see them grow ; hence another John 
 Russell, born in Wethersfield in 1731, came back to the rich val- 
 leys of the Connecticut and the Deerfield in 1756, and in 1758 
 married Hannah Sheldon, great-aunt of the historian of this 
 region. 
 
 Hence all their descendants are as much Sheldon as Russell, 
 and proud of a stock which goes back to the beginnings of Deer- 
 field. This John Russell's short and busy life is a matter of record 
 in his account books now in the Memorial Hall and in Sheldon's 
 History. He died leaving his young widow and five children just 
 at the opening of the War of Independence. Hannah Sheldon 
 reared her children successfully. Her son John, a thoughtful, re- 
 ligious youth all his life, respected as a citizen and beloved as a 
 peacemaker, had a singular opportunity to learn a valuable trade 
 at home. 
 
 The storm of war about Boston drove Isaac Parker, a skill- 
 ful gold and silversmith, who was also an engraver, to the distant 
 safety of Deerfield to pursue his trade and secure his stock. He 
 taught John Russell to work in precious metals and John went to 
 Northampton to settle in his trade. 
 
 There in 1794 he married Electa, daughter of Nathaniel Ed- 
 wards and Ruth Strong, and came back to the new and thriving 
 town of Greenfield. This part of Hampshire County was rapidly 
 growing. Cheapside was the head of navigation on the Deerfield 
 River ; all heavy goods like iron, salt, molasses, sugar, rum and 
 imported goods generally, came up the Connecticut in flat 
 bottom boats which took back cargoes of shingles, stoves, hops, 
 brooms, pine lumber and some farm produce. The region was al- 
 ready petitioned to be set off as a new county, with Greenfield as 
 the shire town. 
 
 About the time that John Russell moved to Greenfield, there 
 came many enterprising men ; among them were Col. William 
 Moore, Beriah and Reuel Willard, Jerome Ripley, Jonathan Leav- 
 itt, Richard E. Newcomb, Thomas Chapman, Samuel Pierce, Am- 
 brose Ames and other notable citizens ; and a society was forming 
 which made Greenfield a good place for business and a pleasant 
 place of residence. 
 
 John RusseU here began a successful life ; in addition to the us- 
 
Address hy George Sheldon. 441 
 
 instrumental in the erection of the first, and possibly not of the 
 second ; but our record in that direction can certainly be estab- 
 lished from the date of the field meeting here in 1872. The 
 marble column erected by a venerable citizen of Hinsdale, in mem- 
 ory of a tragic event in the old French War, was the direct result 
 of words heard from the platform on that day, and an officer of 
 our Association was consulted as to its erection, its site, its char- 
 acter and inscription. Another result of that meeting was the 
 rediscovery, so to speak, and the restoration of the inscription on 
 Belden's Rock, now happily preserved forever. It is also certain 
 that the study of the " History of Northfield " and its pubhcation 
 grew out of that same meeting. So much we may modestly claim 
 for our two-year-old in the new line of labor to which it had been 
 called. I will not dwell upon our subsequent career which he who 
 runs may read. How far the erection of the monuments we now 
 meet to dedicate may be due to the influence of that meeting 
 or that history, none can say but that public-spirited woman 
 who has made this day's work possible, a woman to whom 
 the citizens of Northfield and our Association will always owe a 
 debt of gratitude. Long may she live to enjoy the work of her 
 hands. Should her pious and patriotic example have its proper 
 effect, and the ratio of increase continue, Northfield, before the 
 next quarter-centennial meeting, will earn the name of the " Mon- 
 umental town." After to-day it will, perhaps, have no rival in this 
 field except Lexington and Concord. 
 
 Your children and your children's children will read the brief 
 inscriptions cut upon the stones you now erect and they cannot 
 fail to be incited thereby to a study of your local history — and 
 local history is the true foundation of all history. The local events 
 revealed in the recent explorations of buried Greece, Egypt and 
 Babylon are to-day the center of historical interest throughout the 
 whole civilized world. Men watch to see whether the newly dis- 
 covered records confirm the ancient written accounts, or whether 
 they compel their rewriting. When your descendants read that 
 " on this plain Capt. Richard Beers and his men were surprised by 
 the Indians, Sept. 4, 1675," they see the whole story of that 
 bloody event epitomized. They get glimpses of the march, the 
 ambush, the consternation, the slaughter, and the barbarous work 
 of the red devils after the victory. To them it will be a slide 
 which they will naturally seek to enlarge by the historical stere- 
 opticon. 
 
Colrain^s Early Days. 521 
 
 duced the most strenuous endeavor to embrace every opportunity 
 looking to the advancement of the lot of their children beyond that 
 enjoyed by themselves ; and this has been true in all the succeeding 
 generations. The signers of this immortal document were " mother- 
 taught," by the light of the stars perhaps, or when the day's cares 
 were ended, by the evening firelight at the ingle-side. 
 
 On August 4, 1 71 8, five small ships anchored at the foot of 
 State Street, Boston, then a city containing perhaps twelve thou- 
 sand inhabitants, having on board one hundred and twenty families 
 of Scotch-Irish people, or as has been estimated seven hundred 
 and fifty persons, though I am prepared to believe that to be an 
 under estimate. This company mainly settled in Londonderry, 
 N. H., and the adjacent towns of Antrim, Chester and Windham, 
 becoming the largest and most important Scotch-Irish settlement 
 in New England, and with them the people of this town were in- 
 timately associated during all the subsequent years, others of them 
 settling for a time at least in Worcester. 
 
 They had emigrated largely from Colrain, Ballymoney and the 
 adjacent towns of the Bann water valley, and were descendants of 
 the Covenanters ; though others came from Antrim and descended 
 from those who came there at the first colonization of Ulster in 
 1610. 
 
 Of the names on this memorial, five have especial local interest. 
 There may perhaps have been others, but these five are recognized 
 as having been later settlers here and many of their descendants 
 still reside here. The names are John Anderson, James Wilson, 
 John Clark, James Stewart and Wm. Caldwell, 
 
 In the autumn following their arrival some fifty families moved 
 up to Worcester with a view to settling there. The third attempt 
 to effect a permanent settlement there was at this time about five 
 years old, and the Indians who in the two previous attempts had 
 proved a serious hindrance were again becoming troublesome, so 
 that the brave and stalwart emigrants who had " kept the pass " 
 in Ulster, were made welcome, though not long after they are re- 
 ferred to even by a formal act of the General Court of Massachu- 
 setts as "poor Irish people," and subsequent deeds of intolerance 
 toward them have left a deep stain upon the boasted charity of 
 this venerable Commonwealth. It was Puritan versus Covenanter, 
 a case of religious intolerance exercised against a people religiously 
 their equal in all essential respects, though presumably lacking ia 
 social status and worldly possessions. 
 
554 
 
 Index. 
 
 Avery Amos, 144, 50. 
 
 Clark, 503, 4. 
 
 Jonathan, 144. 
 
 Samuel, 150. 
 
 Walter T., 117. 
 
 "William, 151. 
 Ayers, Samuel, 534. 
 
 Babbitt, Isaac, 142. 
 J. H., 363, 4. 
 Bacon, Francis, 76. 
 
 R., 143- 
 Badlam, Ezra, 108. 
 Bailey, Urania S., 212. 
 Baker, C. Alice, 2-4, 43, 45, 
 65,84, 116,56,75.95. 
 7, 230, 97, 99, 326, 7, 
 35. 51, 67, 407, 68, 71, 
 539- 
 
 Daniel, 312. 
 Baker, Edward, 383. 
 
 Edwin, 539. 
 Baldwin, Loami, 18. 
 Ball, Arthur W., 472. 
 
 Arthur W., Jr., 472. 
 
 Emery, 304. 
 
 Frances W., 472. 
 Ballard, Eliza, 133. 
 
 James, 48, 133. 
 
 Jonathan, 494. 
 
 Josiah, 132. 
 
 Philip, 311. 
 
 Samuel, 144. 
 
 William, 133. 
 Bancroft, George, 336, 536. 
 Bannister, D. K., 143. 
 Barber, Moses, 132. 
 
 Stillman, 89, 96. 
 Bardwell, Apollos, 15. 
 
 Ebenezer, 14. 
 
 Eldad, 243. 
 
 Enoch, 306. 
 
 E. S., 449. 
 
 Gideon, 306. 
 
 Jarvis B., 13, 14,18,43. 
 Bardwell, Oscar, 255. 
 
 Robert, 305, 6. 
 
 Samuel D., 14, 18, 299, 
 
 317, 19- 
 
 Samuel, 305, 6, 12, 
 
 Warren, 299, 305, 17. 
 Barker, Elizabeth, 299, 332, 
 
 Eunice, 332. 
 
 James M., 495. 
 
 Joseph, 331. 
 
 Stephen W., 299, 301, 2. 
 Barnard, A. L., 137. 
 
 Allen, 133, 51. 
 
 John, 87. 
 
 Joseph, 87, 243. 
 
 Joseph, 243. 
 
 Joseph, 87. 
 
 Samuel, 118. 
 
 Sarah J., 87, 8. 
 
 Barnes, Maria B., 85. 
 Barnet, The, 126, 7, 279. 
 Bartlett, Abigail, 6. 
 
 Edgar, 318. 
 
 E. L., 296. 
 
 George B., 45, 64, 275, 
 
 84, 98, 397- 
 
 J. F., 296, 8, 9, 320. 
 
 Sidney, 55. 
 Barrett, George P., 398. 
 Barthrick, Jil, 312. 
 Barton, Leonard, 176, 212. 
 Bascom, Moses, 186. 
 Basket, John, 331. 
 Bassett, H., Jr., 141. 
 Bates, Dr., 141. 
 Beal, Capt., 11. 
 Beals, Frank A., 251. 
 Beaman, Hannah, 162. 
 
 Ira, 497. 
 
 John, 394. 
 
 N. S., 49. 
 Beaulac, Hertel de, 73. 
 Beckwith, A. S., 413. 
 
 Ebenezer, 132. 
 
 Edward, 132. 
 Becraft, Thomas, 4. 
 Beecher, Henry W., 194. 
 Beers Plain, 450. 
 
 Richard, 44 1 , 9, 50, 5, 547 . 
 Belcher, Jonathan, 374, 84, 
 
 92. 
 Belding, Aaron, 465. 
 
 Daniel, 263, 371. 
 
 Elijah, 440. 
 
 Samuel, 263. 
 Belleview, Mr., 151. 
 Bemis, Robert R., 116. 
 Benjamin, Caleb, 312. 
 Bennet, Thomas, 10. 
 Berkeley, Wilham, 170. 
 Bernard, Francis, 97. 
 Bernardston, 89, 94, 7, 103, 
 
 428, 99. 
 Bickford, William, 386. 
 Billings, Ebenezer, 265. 
 
 Edward, 265. 
 
 Elijah, 492. 
 
 Fanny, 472. 
 
 Henry W., 155, 6, 214. 
 
 William, 493. 
 Birney, James G., 319. 
 Bishop, Robert R., i, 43, 
 
 2i;i, 398. 
 Bissell, Gustavus, 317. 
 Bixley, Rev. Mr., 137. 
 Blanchard, William, 386. 
 Bloody Brook, 260, 378, 
 
 456- 
 
 Boating on the Connecti- 
 cut, 117. 
 
 Boats, Fall, 122-24. 
 
 Bodertha, Thomas, 383. 
 
 Bolton, Hugh, 530. 
 
 Bond, G. H., 367. 
 Booth, Alfred, 274. 
 
 H. C, 134. 
 
 W. H., 130, 4. 
 Bosworth, O. C, 143. 
 Boundary Line, 464. 
 Bourgeois, Marguerite, 346, 
 
 7- 
 Bouticon, J. C, 143. 
 Bowker, Dr., 93. 
 Bradford, Lewis, 151. 
 
 William, 163. 
 Bradley, Gen., 8. 
 
 Richard, 388. 
 Bradstreet, Simon, 458. 
 Brattle, WiUiam, 381. 
 Breckenridge, John C, 62. 
 Bridges, 122, 269, 79. 
 Bridgman, Orlando, 394. 
 Briggs, Owen, 107. 
 Brigham, Cephas, 318. 
 
 NelUe J. T., 502, 4, 38. 
 Bromfield, Henry, 402. 
 Brook, John, 311. 
 Brooks, Amos, 147, 9. 
 
 Eliakim, 147. 
 
 John, 93. 
 
 Moses, 311. 
 
 Nathaniel, 72. 
 
 Silas N., 468. 
 Broughton Family killed, 
 
 263. 
 Brown, Benoni, 107. 
 
 Henry K., 226, 7. 
 
 John, 40. 
 
 Lorenzo, 440. 
 Bryant, Chauncey, 137, 254, 
 
 367- 
 Buchanan, James, 60-2. 
 Buckingham, Edgar, i, 5, 
 43, 83, 116, 55, 273. 
 Bull, John P., 75. 
 
 Ole, 16. 
 
 William, 75. 
 Bunker Hill, 108, 44, 5,90. 
 Burdick, John, 118. 
 Burg, Catherine, 412. 
 Burges, Benjamin, 53. 
 
 Mary, 53. 
 Burgoyne, John, 243, 7. 
 Burke, John, 100-4, 6,7,9; 
 life of, 428; 534. 
 
 John, 429. 
 
 Mehitable, 432, 3. 
 
 Richard, 429. 
 Burnham, Daniel, 312. 
 
 EHsha, 106, 7, 9, 10. 
 
 Josiah, 312. 
 Burrington, Horace, 151. 
 Burrows, F. B., 89. 
 
 Nelson, 176. 
 Burt, Asahel, 450, 65. 
 
 Ithamar, 119. 
 Buswell, Tessie, 472. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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